On June 4, 2024, the Third Middle School of Yaoyang Old Town held its final pre-exam holiday for senior students.
As one of the two examination centers in the Old Town, the Third Middle School required its students to stay on campus starting June 7 until the conclusion of the exams the next day. This arrangement aimed to save time and avoid any unnecessary trouble. The school provided all essential supplies like food and living necessities, which could be collected with the school ID.
[Sister Tong, tomorrow’s June 7th. Do you have any leads yet?]
[Ahhh, I’m more nervous about this than I was for my own college entrance exam!]
[I’ve searched through tons of news, but there are no specifics about the terror attack. Some forums say it involved supernatural forces, which is why the government has completely sealed off the details.]
[Sister Tong, stay safe… I’ll be on standby, constantly refreshing the news.]
[Good luck, Sister Tong!]
After finishing her nightly routine, Tong Yang lay in bed, scrolling through the messages in the [Melon Eating Netizen 007] chat group.
Over the past two days, she had asked the group members to look into details about the attack, but aside from the list of victims, there was no useful information. She could only take things one step at a time now.
At 7 AM the next morning, Tong Yang packed all her exam materials and arrived early at school. After locating the dorm room assigned by the school, she headed to the examination hall.
As she had expected, police officers stood at two-meter intervals around the school, ensuring that no unauthorized personnel could enter. Parents had to drop their children off at the gate, where officers and teachers verified identities and checked that no dangerous items were being brought inside.
Inside the school, many officers patrolled the grounds, and at each examination room door, teachers inspected students for any contraband. Electronic devices, including watches and pencil cases, were prohibited, and bags and other items had to be placed on a rack outside the exam room, only to be retrieved when the students left.
Tong Yang’s exam room was 1209, located on the third floor of the south building. As she approached, the teacher on duty began the usual inspection for forbidden items.
“Teacher Liu,” Tong Yang greeted with a polite smile, recognizing her former middle school teacher. She had always maintained good relationships with her teachers due to her consistently excellent grades.
Teacher Liu seemed pale and tired, likely from a sleepless night. He glanced at her with dull, lifeless eyes, his face expressionless. “Go in,” he said flatly.
Tong Yang paused, noticing the slight greenish tint under his eyes and his paper-white skin, as though he had recently recovered from a serious illness. But she didn’t think much of it, entering the classroom and finding her seat.
Since this was her home school, she encountered several familiar faces—about three or four classmates from before.
“Tong Yang?” a voice called out from the front. It was Chu Shiyu, seated two rows ahead, separated by two desks.
Tong Yang gave her a brief glance but didn’t reply. Chu Shiyu wasn’t her “cash cow” just yet.
“Sister Tong!”
Sun Ye, who had just walked into the classroom, lit up upon seeing her and waved.
Chu Shiyu’s face instantly soured, as if she had swallowed a fly, and she turned away without saying another word.
Tong Yang ignored both of them, her expression becoming more serious as she glanced around the classroom. A growing sense of foreboding filled her chest.
The classroom had four rows of desks from left to right, with the first three rows containing eight desks each, and the last row by the door containing nine desks. In total, there were 33 desks for 33 students.
Before Sun Ye’s near-death experience, the death toll from the terror attack had been 32. But after Tong Yang had intervened in the time loop, Sun Ye was added to the death list, raising the total to 33. The number of desks and students in room 1209 perfectly matched the number on the death list!
Tong Yang had studied that list repeatedly and could recall most of the faces. Looking around the room at the unaware students, preparing for their exams with their young and familiar faces, she felt a chilling sensation creep up her spine.
Was the terror attack going to happen in this classroom? Among these 33 students?
Sun Ye approached her and, upon noticing her grave expression, seemed to realize something. His face turned deathly pale. “No way…”
“Go back to your seat,” Tong Yang interrupted before he could finish his sentence.
Sun Ye, his face as white as a sheet behind his thick glasses, found his seat near the window in the ninth row—the extra seat in the classroom.
At 8:40 AM, the bell rang. The school required all students to be seated at least 20 minutes before the exam began.
By the time the bell rang, all 33 students in room 1209 had arrived. Seven of them were from the local school, while the rest came from surrounding areas.
Perhaps due to nerves or the unfamiliar environment, the room was eerily quiet. Each student sat in their seat, quietly awaiting the next step in what was supposed to be the turning point of their lives—the gaokao.
Time ticked by, and the once noisy hallway outside had fallen silent, not even the faintest sound of footsteps could be heard. The teachers who were supposed to be inspecting the students had disappeared at some point. Outside, the iron rack for bags and miscellaneous items creaked eerily in the morning breeze, the rusted spots on it resembling bloodstains splattered across its surface.
Tong Yang couldn’t remember if the rack had always been this rusty.
The wall of the corridor was peeling, and there was a dirty puddle on the ground that reflected the yellowed ceiling.
Turning back to the classroom, Tong Yang noticed a few hastily scrawled words on the blackboard. She wasn’t sure if she had seen them before, as they seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. The words, written in white chalk, were stark and crude, and it took her a moment to decipher them: “Violators will die.”
“Where’s the teacher?”
A faint voice broke the silence.
After the 8:40 bell, the invigilator was supposed to enter the classroom, but five minutes had passed, and not only was there no teacher, but there wasn’t a single person in sight around the classroom.
The clock above the blackboard ticked steadily, and the 33 students exchanged puzzled and uneasy glances.
“Does anyone else think… the classroom seems older?” a girl sitting by the wall timidly asked. The others followed her gaze to the ceiling, where large, dark mold spots dotted the surface, as if they had been there for decades.
“Why is it so quiet?”
“I remember it being sunny earlier. Why is there no sunlight now?”
Murmurs spread across the room. Tong Yang glanced down at the worn-out desk in front of her and pursed her lips.
“Quiet!”
Suddenly, the broadcast system crackled to life with an icy, authoritative voice.
“Room 1209 of the Third Middle School will now participate in a two-day independent gaokao. During this period, all candidates must strictly adhere to school rules. Any violation will be met with severe punishment, and serious violators will be permanently disqualified from the exam.”
The security cameras at the front and back of the classroom flickered with eerie red lights, as if someone was intently watching them.
“The first Chinese exam will begin in 10 minutes. Please remain seated. The invigilators will soon explain the rules of this independent gaokao.”
With a final beep, the broadcast went silent.
The classroom was dead quiet for a moment before panic set in.
“What’s going on? What’s an independent gaokao?”
“This is so weird. The school didn’t say anything about this in advance!”
“What is this nonsense? Are they crazy?”
“I’m going to find a teacher. Who’s with me?”
“I’ll… wait…”
“Don’t leave your seats.”
Amidst the rising commotion, Tong Yang turned and addressed the two students near the back of the room. “Unless you want to die.”
“Hey! Do you know something? What’s your school playing at?”
“This is the gaokao. If you screw this up for us, can you bear the consequences?”
“This place is ridiculous. The classroom’s falling apart, and now this crap? How is this school even a test center? It’s embarrassing.”
Rubbing her fingers across the worn desk, Tong Yang gazed out the window. “Have you noticed? The maple tree outside suddenly lost all its leaves.”
The room fell into stunned silence as everyone turned to look.
The tree that had once been full of life was now completely bare, its branches exposed to the sky.
Students from the Third Middle School paled instantly.
Some of the other students, however, remained unimpressed, seemingly unaware of the severity of the situation.
“So what?”
“I didn’t pay attention. Does it matter? It’s just a tree shedding its leaves.”
A girl seated by the window whispered, “It’s June. The leaves should still be green. They only start falling in November, during winter.”
One of the local students, face pale as a sheet, began to tear up. “When I ate breakfast this morning, the tree still had its leaves…”
“What the hell?!”
“No way. This is too bizarre.”
“Screw this! Stop trying to scare us.”
“Look at the blackboard. I think it says: ‘Violators will die.’”
The classroom erupted into chaos, and the atmosphere dropped to an icy chill.
Tong Yang clenched her jaw, cursing softly under her breath. She had expected the method of attack to be unusual, but she hadn’t anticipated being pulled into a parallel world.
Unlike the others, she knew something.
If those people could enter their world, they could also bring others into a parallel one. Considering the way the attackers’ bodies disappeared, Tong Yang now understood why there were no clues or evidence in the terror attack. The victims had been killed here, in this parallel world, and only their bodies had returned to the original one.
Damn it, this complicates things. Even if they had called the police, it would have been useless.
She just hoped the outside world wasn’t in complete chaos.
Tong Yang glanced toward Sun Ye, seated in the back row by the door. She signaled him to peek outside and check the hallway.
Sun Ye sat frozen in his seat, his face deathly pale. When their eyes met, tears streamed down his cheeks. He mouthed two words: “Help me.”
Tong Yang paused, following his gaze up to the ceiling in the hallway.
A man hung upside down from the ceiling, his body swaying back and forth in the wind. His form flickered, his bloodshot eyes wide open, staring intently into the classroom.
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