Chapter 35 Office
When they opened the bright yellow classroom door again, they found that the area outside was no longer the stairwell they had come in from. Instead, it was a very deep and long corridor. On one side were classrooms, and on the other side was a guardrail more than one meter high. Outside the guardrail was a well-equipped playground. Students in blue and white sports uniforms were running in circles, playing ball, and skipping rope. From time to time, they could hear the cheerful laughter of girls and the cheers of boys dribbling the ball.
Qing Bai stood by the guardrail, looking down at the scene outside. If it weren't for his good memory, he would have forgotten that they were supposed to be on the seventeenth floor...
When he came to his senses, Jiu Nian was standing quietly by the side, waiting calmly and without arrogance or impatience. Qing Bai was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and sighed. His eyes were deep and complicated where Jiu Nian couldn't see: "Places like school really are full of memories... You went to school, right?"
Fortunately, Jiunian is not a human being, and his personality is not that sensitive or overthinking, otherwise his words would sound like an insult.
The good-natured Jiunian simply thought about it carefully, then nodded and said, "I guess I have."
Qing Bai left the guardrail and walked towards the end of the corridor. The classrooms he passed by were not decorations. Through the narrow glass on the door, he could see a group of black heads, but he couldn't make them out clearly. They were vague and looked like human figures. In a flash, they looked like thick ink dropped into dirty water, twisting and swaying.
Perhaps because he was looking too intently, he was noticed by the thing inside. The black ball closest to the door suddenly turned his head, revealing a nondescript face.
It really has no characteristics at all, and its facial features seem like a perfunctory stick figure drawing... Apart from the fact that it turned its head 180 degrees, its body was still facing the blackboard in front, and it was even taking notes in its hands, there was no other characteristics.
The stick-drawn face mouthed to Qing Bai word by word: "I see you, teacher."
Qing Bai stared at it intently. At this moment, his eyes were like the gaze of a teacher at the back door, full of intimidation: I saw you.
The stick figure froze visibly, then slowly turned back 180 degrees.
Qing Bai looked away indifferently: "...If you've been there, you've been there. If you haven't been there, you haven't been there. What do you mean by 'having been there'?"
Jiu Nian also felt that what he said was not good. It was as if he wanted to make his words more accurate and rigorous, but because he was too cautious, he ended up showing his weakness.
But this is not an issue that needs to be taken seriously.
Jiu Nian couldn't understand why he was so reserved. Since he didn't understand, he naturally had no way to explain it for the time being. He could only force himself to relax, following Qing Bai with his eyes and nose, his nose and his heart. After walking for a long time, he couldn't help but explain softly: "...I didn't have school when I was young. When I did, I learned most of what I needed to learn."
Qing Bai paused and said in a calm tone, "He's self-taught, quite impressive."
There was nothing wrong with what he said, and the tone was fine, but it just sounded weird. Jiu Nian turned this short sentence over and over in his mind several times, but he couldn't figure out where the weirdness came from, so he just let it go. "But when I was young, I attended a private school, and later-"
"Hush." Qing Bai, who was walking in front, suddenly turned around and stretched out his index finger to hold it between the two of them. Jiu Nian was a head taller than Qing Bai. It was not very obvious at other times, but once they were close, the gap of nearly twenty centimeters felt quite oppressive... Qing Bai raised his finger uncomfortably and made a gesture of silence.
Then he gestured to the metal plaque on the wall and said, "We're here."
Jiu Nian looked at the words "Grade 9 Office" on the metal nameplate, then looked at Qing Bai, who didn't lower his voice at all. For a moment, he was not sure whether it was because he had to be careful in the place or because he simply didn't want to listen to him.
Before Jiunian could figure it out, Qing Bai had already turned around and started knocking on the door with his fingers bent.
After knocking three times, Qing Bai, for some reason, knocked again. He glanced at Jiu Nian next to him and thought that this time it could barely be considered a ghost knocking on the door... After all, it was not a human being.
There was no movement from inside the door. Qing Bai patiently knocked again, but it was still four knocks.
This time there was movement—a voice came from behind the door, as if it would die at any moment, "Come in."
The sound was very close to them and very low, as if there was only a thin door panel between them. Someone was lying on the ground, with his mouth against the crack of the door, breathing slowly, but there was only exhalation but no inhalation.
Qing Bai lowered his eyes and looked at the crack in the door below, then slowly took half a step back on his tiptoes... A bloodshot eye was stuck in the crack of the door, looking at them.
Seeing that Qing Bai had discovered it, the eye slowly blinked, and then the voice that was close at hand sounded intermittently again: "I see you... Please come in, please come in... I'm looking for something, I'm looking for something... Where are my eyes? I can't find my eyes..."
The tone was really weak, and the voice was vague and erratic. Qing Bai couldn't hear clearly whether it was talking about eyes or glasses. According to common sense, it should be glasses, but this is indeed not a place where common sense can be used to infer.
Qing Bai took a light breath and slowly exhaled. When he spoke again, his voice was still cold and indifferent: "This door opens inwards. If you don't make way for us, we'll push the door open and come in. Whether it's glasses or eyes, they'll be knocked off... or crushed."
The breath behind the door completely stopped, and then there was a sound of dragging footsteps, coming from near and then far away.
When I had walked far enough, I heard another voice saying, "Come in."
This time he had enough breath, and although his voice was still faint, at least his pronunciation was clear.
Qing Bai placed his hand on the cold metal door handle, and the moment he pressed it down, a strange thought suddenly came to his mind. His twenty-plus years of human life had not been in vain, as he had been successfully domesticated by civilized society... If he thought like an animal, wouldn't he just slap the door open with his claws first, no matter what was behind it?
As the door handle pushed down, the door core made a smooth "click" sound. Qing Bai felt that his unreasonable thoughts were full of human shortsightedness and arrogance. Although he had not seen many "beasts", at least the one next to him was always polite and courteous in every move.
"Hulu——" Suddenly, a huge force came, and Qing Bai let go of the door panel at the right time, and the door panel smashed against the wall with a "bang" sound. The wind whistled in his ears, and papers flew all over the sky in front of his eyes.
…At some point, Nine Years stood in front of him.
So the twenty-centimeter gap changed from a sense of oppression to an insurmountable sense of security.
There didn't seem to be any danger in the office, it was just a bit empty. It was an office converted from a classroom. There were about ten desks against the wall. It was estimated that all the teachers in the entire grade worked here. At this moment, the two large windows were open, and the dark blue curtains beside the windows were blown by the wind like billowing sails. The test papers piled on the desks were also blown all over the sky and slowly fell to the ground like a thick layer of snow.
Qing Bai's gaze passed over the still flying snowflakes and looked towards the corner of the office opposite the door. A thin shadow was huddled there. Qing Bai couldn't see her face clearly, but he remembered the bloodshot eye.
"Sorry to bother you." Jiu Nian said, then walked inside.
Qing Bai noticed that even when stepping on those snow-white test papers, Jiu Nian's feet did not make any sound... nor did they leave any footprints.
"...It really is a cat." Qing Bai whispered softly.
In the previous nine years, the footsteps paused slightly, without looking back.
Qing Bai just said that casually, and then looked around the office environment.
Before he came in, he had a feeling that today's 'takeout' would be difficult to pick up, but he didn't expect to have to find a notice in such a vast sea of paper. This was only slightly easier than finding a needle in a haystack.
At least I know the approximate range, so I can focus on Class 2, Grade 9... Qing Bai comforted himself like this, and then looked at the class schedules posted on the desks one by one.
Jiu Nian also knew Qing Bai's idea and helped to remove the desk.
For a moment, both of them ignored the dark shadow huddled in the corner.
This search revealed five desks related to Class 2, Grade 9. Qing Bai didn't hesitate to rummage through the drawers and cabinets, even turning over and shaking the comic magazines of students that were obviously confiscated and piled on the desks.
"What are you... doing?" The dark shadow finally couldn't help it and asked in a drawling tone.
Qing Bai continued to work and asked, "Are you the head teacher of Class 2, Grade 9?"
The black shadow shuddered and remained silent for a long time before he uttered a light "hmm".
Qing Bai raised his eyelids and glanced at it, then said meaningfully, "Can you control those naughty kids like this?"
There was another long silence, and then it said faintly, "My classmates are all...all doing well."
Qing Bai stopped rummaging through the drawers and cabinets, his eyes fixed on the dark shadow in the corner, his expression probably somewhere between being very interested and having found a weak target.
...It's a bit like a little cub that has discovered a new toy and is eager to try it out, Jiu Nian thought.
Qing Bai decided to go along with it and said, "Yeah, I think they're pretty good too, especially that... Number One? He looks obedient and easy to worry about, and he's also a good student."
He is the only one among the four who has managed to survive until now with his weak body after surgery, and he is not shrunk. It is true that there are people protecting him, but it also depends on the things in the cracks being willing to turn a blind eye.
Qing Bai felt that their counselor might be able to serve as a breakthrough point... or bait.
You might catch something unexpected.
"Number One... Okay... Yes, it's a good, good classmate..." The old-fashioned radio on the Black Image Station is no longer suitable for the times. It always responds a lot late and even speaks in pauses.
Qing Bai was quite patient. He sat at his desk, flipping through folders with one hand and supporting his chin with the other, his eyes fixed on the shadow. He didn't rush it, waiting until it finished before slowly speaking: "Tonight is the fourth night. According to the order, it seems that our good classmate will come to see you... Would you mind going easy on me and asking a simple question?"
The question was risky, and the shadow teacher's reaction was unexpected. It seemed to have heard something terrible, panicked and at a loss, and its reaction became faster: "No... Don't let him... Don't let him come! Don't let him come! You save—"
With a bang, the office door was slammed back into its frame. The strong wind that had just stopped started up again, and the books and test papers that Qing Bai and Jiu Nian had flipped through were swept into the air, shattered easily like paper butterflies, and then fluttered over everything... When the wind died down, the inappropriate radio had completely died, lying on the ground covered with paper scraps, not knowing whether it was waiting to be restarted or recycled.
Qing Bai brushed off the scraps of paper on his shoulder, feeling a little disappointed: "...You reacted quite quickly."
Nine years: "Don't you already know what you want to know?"
"Hmm..." Qing Bai nodded and sighed, his slender fingers gently tapping the timetable on his desk. His pale fingertips landed on the 'two' in 'junior high school, class two'. "Transplanting flowers and trees, subtly replacing beams and pillars... The 'class teacher' has been by our side the whole time."
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