In these twenty minutes, there were no abnormal situations inside or outside the classroom; the only problem was that it was already 7 o'clock in the evening and no teacher had arrived yet.

But no one felt that anything was wrong.

After all, it was considered voluntary work to stay behind after school to take care of the students. If the duty teacher had time, they would come and sit for a while. If they didn't have time or wanted to go home early, it was common for only the members of the study group to be studying in the classroom until the end.

At this moment, everyone else was studying seriously at their seats, only Sunny Xu couldn't concentrate completely.

He roughly described the study plan he planned to give to Starry Lin when he went back, then stood up and once again came to Seigetsu Zhu's side, whispering:

"Sorry to disturb you, Seigetsu, what do you think?"

Seigetsu Zhu, who was writing at her desk, straightened up, tucked her fallen hair behind her ear, and took a deep breath. She roughly glanced at the plan in her hand, then looked up at Sunny Xu, deep in thought.

Sunny Xu blinked at her.

Seigetsu Zhu nodded imperceptibly and responded in a low voice, saying:

"I understand. There are no major issues, but I do have a few suggestions... Let's go outside and talk, so as not to disturb their studying."

As they spoke, the two of them left the classroom.

Some members of the study group looked up, curious about the backs of the two people, while others seemed to be studying attentively but had already perked up their ears.

...

The two of them stood by the railing in the corridor once again.

"Do you have something to say?"

Seigetsu Zhu asked in a low voice.

"The teacher didn't come."

Sunny Xu's answer was straightforward.

"I know..." She glanced at the classmates sitting on the side of the window, "Do you still feel uneasy?"

"Yes."

"Xu, don't you think you're being too sensitive?" Seigetsu Zhu's expression showed some hesitation, "It seems like no one else cares."

"Because they haven't personally experienced it." Sunny Xu asked in return, "What about you, Seigetsu? How do you view what happened just now?"

He didn't find it strange that the girl doubted him.

Unless something beyond common sense was presented directly in front of people, ordinary people who had been educated with common knowledge for years would instinctively not consider that direction.

Even the protagonists in horror movies could convince themselves that they were just having "hallucinations" even when they really encountered ghosts. Not to mention a phenomenon that could be completely explained by pranks...

But Sunny Xu had to think a little more, a little more than ordinary people. Even if he was considered oversensitive or annoying, it was still better than experiencing an accident later on.

There was no medicine for regret in this world. If you think of something good, act on it early to make it happen. If you realize something bad is about to happen, immediately try to stop it, otherwise you may leave yourself with a lifelong regret.

"If it only happened once, it could be considered an accident. But we have encountered two strange incidents tonight. Didn't the class monitor feel that something was wrong?"

"Um..."

Fortunately, Seigetsu Zhu didn't show any signs of annoyance. Instead, she thought seriously following Sunny Xu's words.

"In that case, let's analyze them one by one. First, it was what we saw at the entrance of the office. Because it was a bit far away and disappeared quickly into the night, I didn't see clearly what it was, but I felt like there was a vague black shadow flying by. Based on its speed of disappearance, I judged that it should be a large bird..."

She glanced at Sunny Xu again.

"Sunny Xu, you also thought you saw it wrong at the time, right?"

"Yes."

"The second time was when we encountered someone running outside the classroom, and then they knocked on the door and window with force. But when we went out to look, there was no one there. In addition, based on the remarks of the others who came up from downstairs shortly after, the prankster did not escape downstairs."

She pointed to the corridor behind Sunny Xu.

"It's also impossible to escape from that direction, otherwise you should have seen it when you rushed out."

Class 5 was the class on the second floor closest to the school gate. If they wanted to escape in the opposite direction, they would have to pass through four other classes, so Seigetsu Zhu made such a judgment.

"In other words, the other party either went up the stairs or..."

"They hid in the classroom of the neighboring class." Sunny Xu shook his head, "Unfortunately, I didn't have time to react at that time, otherwise I should have walked over and took a look."

"It's better not to do such dangerous things." Seigetsu Zhu smiled, "So, Sunny Xu, do you have any other thoughts on these two incidents? And looking at it this way, don't you think there is no connection between these two incidents, just two coincidental events that happened tonight?"

A big bird flew out of the teaching building; a bored person played a prank on them in the classroom and disappeared without a trace.

Both incidents indeed seemed unrelated, just two unpredictable events with a low probability.

But...

Sunny Xu remained silent.

His gaze fell on the half-height outer wall.

There was a possibility that could cleverly connect these two incidents, just like two unrelated cases that would never appear in a complete detective story.

However, this speculation was a bit too terrifying, and it would sound like a fantasy in the ears of others, even making them wonder if he had a problem with his brain.

Sunny Xu's gaze slowly moved, from the rusty iron railing to the darkness outside the building, and finally to the opposite building.

- What if "something" really jumped out of the corridor at that time?

It could have climbed up to the third floor along the floors, it could have fallen directly to the ground, or it could have crossed a distance of more than ten meters to reach the connection between the two buildings.This was why the class monitor at the time could only catch a fleeting glimpse of a dark shadow passing behind her, which seemed like a bird, but was unnaturally large.

As for who could do such a thing... Sunny Xu didn't know what to call it. Perhaps it was a "human", or perhaps a "monster" — disappearing under their noses after that bizarre prank was not a difficult task.

Ordinary humans couldn't do such a thing, but he had witnessed anomalies that surpassed imagination. The abnormal behavior of Shi Hui after being possessed was proof that it was not entirely impossible.

"Are you...?"

Seigetsu Zhu stared at Sunny Xu, who seemed to be in a daze, and asked cautiously:

"Do you know something?"

"...What?"

Sunny Xu suddenly raised his head, staring at her face.

What did she mean by that?

"Ah, I mean... your sister seems to be a police officer, would she have disclosed any case details... or something like that."

Seigetsu Zhu, who was a bit embarrassed by Sunny Xu's intense gaze, quickly explained.

"Don't misunderstand, I'm not intentionally prying into your family affairs. I saw it when I was helping the teacher organize the parent-teacher meeting files last time. Among our grade, only your parent is a police officer, so I remembered it."

...So that's what she meant.

Sunny Xu felt a bit overly sensitive. He coughed and responded.

"That would violate regulations, my sister definitely wouldn't do that."

Of course, he wouldn't lie about such a matter just to strengthen his argument, but what he understood more clearly was that continuing to argue verbally would lead to no results.

Even Seigetsu Zhu had doubts, the rest of the class would definitely not listen to him.

"Anyway, I have a suggestion." Sunny Xu quickly came up with a compromise, "Just to be safe, let's go ask the security guard and report the situation. That way, everyone can feel at ease."

Seigetsu Zhu hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded.

*

A tall girl with braided hair stood up, holding a Chinese textbook and pacing back and forth in the aisle between the two rows of desks. She seemed to be reciting a text, but her eyes were constantly glancing out the window at the two people standing in the corridor.

She leisurely walked to the back row where a skinny boy with glasses and a plaid shirt was sitting.

"That boy from Class One seems to be having a great chat with our class monitor."

The girl with the braids sat down in front of him and whispered in a voice that others couldn't hear.

The boy with glasses raised his head and just stared at her, not saying a word.

"Don't look at me like that." The girl said, "As the saying goes, 'don't let the water of your own mill flow into others' fields.' Even if our class monitor really has a crush and wants to date a boy, I hope it's a boy from Class Five. If she gets together with someone from another class... how should I put it, it's 'not conducive to class unity'?"

At this point, she started laughing to herself.

A quick look at "pawread.com" will leave you more fulfilled.

The boy with glasses still didn't respond. The girl with the braids felt a bit bored, so she stood up and casually threw out a sentence:

"I'll give you a hand, at least don't let them have the chance to be alone and develop feelings."

Then, the girl with the braids raised her voice to a level that everyone in the classroom could hear.

"—I want to go to the bathroom, is anyone coming with me?"

……

"Seigetsu, we're going out to get some water, are you coming?"

While they were talking, a group of girls came out of the back door, and one of them called out to her with a smile.

"Eh, this..."

Seigetsu Zhu frowned slightly, hesitating. Then she heard Sunny Xu say:

"It's okay, I can go alone."

"...Are you sure?"

"Class Monitor Zhu, I think I'm starting to understand what you said before." He shrugged, sighing, "Having too many friends isn't necessarily a good thing."

"Huh?"

The girl was still a bit confused.

"Take you for example, every time you go to the bathroom, you're accompanied by a group of people like a queen in a harem; when others want to go, if you don't have anything important to do, you have to return the favor. It's like a palace drama," he exaggeratedly sighed and spread his hands, "It's such a meaningless thing, but everyone enjoys it. It's really hard to understand."

Seigetsu Zhu couldn't help but laugh, nodding in agreement.

"That's true... but, I don't hate it."

"Really?"

"At this point, it's quite nice to have someone accompany me to the bathroom." She replied with a smile, "After listening to your analysis just now, the more I think about it, the more I feel that something is really wrong with tonight. I'm starting to get scared."

"Seigetsu, are you coming or not?"

This time it was the girl with the braids who called out.

"Okay~ I'm coming."

Seigetsu Zhu turned her head and replied loudly, then waved at him with a smile.

"Well, the safety of everyone is up to you, Sunny Xu~"

*

Sunny Xu leisurely walked downstairs. When he left, the classroom was brightly lit.

The school gate was diagonally across from the first floor of the teaching building, and the security room was actually quite close to them.

As he passed the lawn facing the school gate and the small path with two rows of flower pots on both sides, just as he was about to reach the security room, he subconsciously looked back at the teaching building behind him.

In that brief glance, Sunny Xu stopped in his tracks, his pupils slightly contracted in surprise, and a chill rose up his spine.

"Huh?"

...For some reason, he couldn't see his class, Class Five, behind him.

The lights were out. The entire corridor was pitch black.