As my eyes slowly opened, they revealed a dilapidated classroom.
I rose from the worn-out desk and chair. The surroundings were eerily silent, not a single sound, nor a soul in sight.
I felt my pocket, confirming my contact lenses and phone were still there. A quick glance at the time showed less than ten minutes had passed since I lost consciousness. It seemed Bingying had brought me in, then followed my instructions to search for clues. I quickly reached this conclusion.
Once I put my contact lenses back in, a significant lightness settled in my mind. It appeared my ability wouldn’t activate unless I stared directly or exerted force; a detail worth remembering. While it was an incredibly useful power, one that had saved me from certain death last night, the burden it placed on my body was immense. If I failed to control it properly, I feared I might one day truly explode, just as that nun-loli had warned.
I had to use it with extreme caution.
So, the classroom I was in was… Class 1-5? I peered through the window, confirming the class number from the sign hanging by the door.
I dialed Bingying’s number. After two rings, the call was immediately answered. “–Hello, is that Tianchen? Thank goodness, you’re awake!–”
“–Yes, that’s right. Where are you now?–”
“–Hmm? Let me see… I’m in the teachers’ office on the fifth floor. It’s… well, just come and see for yourself.–”
That meant the second classroom to the left of the right staircase on the fifth floor. It seemed memorizing the school’s architectural blueprints before arriving had proven somewhat useful. From her tone, she sounded as if she’d discovered something significant. I needed to meet her quickly.
…Hmm? My peripheral vision seemed to catch something unusual.
This must be the spot.
I walked to the fifth seat from the left in a row and crouched down, spotting a shattered lens.
Was this a myopia lens? A thick layer of dust covered it, likely accumulated since the school’s abandonment, or perhaps even earlier. Given its thickness, the prescription should be around two hundred degrees. Could it have been left behind by a student here?
No, I quickly dismissed my own conjecture. Judging by the lens’s size, its corresponding frame would certainly not be small, at least not something a first-year student could wear. Had a teacher here dropped it? And why hadn’t it been cleaned away?
In any case, I decided to pick it up for now.
Obtained: Shattered Lens x1! If this were an RPG, such a prompt would surely pop up now.
Taking this as a cue, I fell into the illusion of playing a game, meticulously searching every corner. Yet, I found nothing else. Aside from the naturally accumulated dust, the entire classroom was so clean that not a single scrap of paper remained, making me further question the lens’s presence here.
Ah, another ten minutes had unknowingly slipped by. Bingying must be getting impatient. This wasn’t good; I needed to head up quickly.
****
“–Tap, tap, tap, tap…–” I ascended the stairs, one step at a time, unhurriedly. Bingying hadn’t called to rush me yet, so a little slowness wouldn’t hurt.
It was a truly peculiar sensation. Though ‘I’ was visiting this place for the first time, my body felt an innate familiarity, as if returning home. Fragmented memories, only occasionally glimpsed in dreams, began to arrange themselves, slowly presenting snippets of the past before my eyes—profoundly familiar, yet utterly alien.
“–Tap, tap, tap, tap…–” Listening to my own footsteps, time seemed to rewind to the past. A young man, his face expressionless, walked with a shy girl trailing behind him. Their serene figures stood out amidst the noisy stream of students leaving school, as if they transcended the world, or perhaps were simply lost within it.
“–Seriously, slow down, Luo Tianling,–” the young woman complained.
“–You’re so loud! I told you not to call me that name. Besides, you’re the one walking too slowly,–” Luo Tianling retorted impatiently. Although they sounded like squabbling children, anyone with a discerning eye could see the radiant, happy smiles on their faces. That time they spent together must have been incredibly joyful for both the young woman and Luo Tianling.
Unconsciously, I reached out, only to touch the lingering afterimage of time. I turned around, watching them fade into the distance, and offered my sincerest blessings in my heart.
Yet, I knew their ending was far from happy. Luo Tianling suffered severe injuries, traveling far to America, only to return having forgotten everything. The young woman, on the other hand, vanished without a trace, her fate unknown, and even the place where they once met had been reduced to ruins.
‘No, I cannot be swayed. Those are the remnants of Luo Tianling. I am merely an ordinary person named Luo Tianchen.’
For some reason, the deeper I ventured into the school, the more uncontrollable my Void Eye became. Even as I forcibly tried to halt its operation, it continued to independently read and analyze residual information, projecting it as images in my mind. Countless young men and women from different points in time overlapped, as if I were walking through a world of holographic projections, both real and illusory.
No, my head was starting to ache again. I decided to close my right eye, navigating solely with my left. The projected images gradually faded, allowing me to slightly ease my tension. I then climbed all the way to the fifth floor in one go.
It seemed I would have to ask Xia Luohua for advice on how to control this right eye. I made a mental note of it.
However, if her words were true, my right eye had been unusual since birth, hadn’t it? How had my past self controlled it then? Or had it always remained in an unawakened state?
‘…Well, perhaps it’s best not to overthink it for now.’
The fifth-floor teachers’ office… this should be it, right? I casually turned the doorknob; it wasn’t locked. I simply walked inside.
The room was empty.
Where was Bingying? Had she left? I paused, then dialed her again. “–I’m here. Where are you?–”
“–Huh? I’ve been in the fifth-floor teachers’ office this whole time. Where are you? You didn’t go to the wrong place, did you?–”
“–Hardly,–” I replied, though I stepped out of the office just in case. I quickly glanced at the wooden plaque on the door. “–Fifth-floor teachers’ office. It’s definitely correct.–”
“–You’re kidding, right? But this is also the fifth-floor teachers’ office!–”
A chilling silence enveloped us both.
“–Um, Tianchen…–” Bingying’s voice was clearly trembling. “–Could we… have seen a ghost?–”
“–Don’t scare yourself,–” I said, annoyed. “–Let’s just confirm the items in the office first. I’ll go first. Starting with the large desk to the left upon entering.–”
“–There’s a stack of unfinished, yellowed test papers on the desk,–” Bingying said.
“–They’re Chinese language test papers.–”
“–The graded score is 79 points.–”
“–And a teacup. The water has completely evaporated, leaving only moldy leaves.–”
“–To the right is a bookshelf, filled with many old textbooks.–”
“–The windows are tightly shut.–”
“–But the door isn’t locked.–”
“–Hmm…–” I pondered for a moment. “–It certainly seems we might be in the same classroom.–”
“–Then, then, then, then are we really seeing a ghost?–”
“–No, it’s still unclear. The first thing we need to do now is figure out how to meet up,–” I said.
“–B-b-but we’re clearly in the same room, yet we can’t see each other! I-isn’t that seeing a ghost?–”
“–Calm down. You really need to fix that stuttering habit when you get agitated. There are no ghosts in this world, and even if there were, they couldn’t do anything to us living people.–”
“–But if witches and wizards exist, then ghosts aren’t impossible, are they?–”
“–…You talk too much!–”
Where exactly did things go wrong? I recalled that Maohua Primary School wasn’t large; the entire school should only have one U-shaped teaching building. We shouldn’t have ended up in a different structure, especially one with an identical layout… U-shaped?
A thought began to form.
“–Don’t panic, Bingying. For now, just leave your room, walk into the corridor, and wave from the railing at the corner junction.–”
“–Huh? Why?–”
“–Just do as I say and don’t ask so many questions,–” I told her.
“–Oh,–” she dutifully replied.
Good. In that case, I would also temporarily leave this room.
Then, just as I expected, I spotted Bingying waving from directly opposite me.
“–Seriously, you scared me half to death! So there are two offices, and they even have the same layout? How lazy are the people here?!–” Upon seeing me, Bingying sprinted over and practically tackled me, the force almost knocking me off my feet. She was clearly terrified. It took her a good while to compose herself, then she sheepishly released me.
“–No, it’s possible this school truly has some unusual aspects,–” I said, my expression grave, a stark contrast to her relaxed demeanor.
“–Huh? You’re kidding, right?–” Hearing my words, Bingying immediately tensed up again.
“–According to the school’s architectural blueprint I found, while there are indeed two offices, they should correctly be located diagonally opposite each other. The extent of their similarity is simply too unnatural, no matter how you look at it.–”
“–You mean…–” Bingying swallowed hard, her voice trailing off.
I didn’t answer her directly. “–If I recall correctly, this floor should have twelve classrooms. Our side currently shows Class 1-6. Could you please run over and check the situation on the opposite side?–”
“–Oh, oh.–” She immediately ran off. Simultaneously, I opened my right eye, watching her retreating figure intently.
!
The moment she crossed the central path, a surge of information disrupted the flow.
‘What… what was happening?’
Bingying quickly ran back, her face pale. “–Over there… it’s also Class 1-6! And when I went inside, I found that everything, from the seating arrangement to the writing on the blackboard, was identical to this side!–”
I remained silent. Things were starting to get rather interesting.
“–Hey, Tianchen, have you figured something out? Do you think this is some kind of prank? Don’t just stay silent!–” Bingying tugged at my sleeve, clearly frightened.
“–If my guess is correct,–” my lips curved into an unnatural smile, “–this should be a puzzle game.–”
“–A puzzle game?–” Bingying didn’t understand.
“–Exactly. A game called ‘Spot the Difference.’–”