So...
For those few years, or perhaps more than a decade, the library was open at night until ten o'clock, also serving as a self-study room.
The reason that senior student could become the administrator was naturally because she also lived in the student dormitory, making it convenient for her to lock the door every day.
One night, close to midnight, she found it difficult to sleep due to the summer heat and cicada chirping. She went to the balcony to cool off and unexpectedly discovered that the light in the library of the teaching building in the distance was still on.
In the pitch black, the light from the library was so conspicuous that she couldn't help but see it.
She was startled because she clearly remembered being the last person to leave the library at ten o'clock, having turned off the lights and locked the door. Why was the light still on at this moment?
She speculated that perhaps someone was sitting behind the bookshelves when she left and didn't hear her announcement about closing, thus getting locked inside.
Thinking of this, she hurried out of the student dormitory, grabbed her keys and flashlight, and walked towards the teaching building.
However, as she got closer...
She found it was pitch black.
The light in the library was not on.
Had she seen it wrong?
As she swept her flashlight across the window, she was astonished to see a black shadow flash past the window. Even with the flashlight's illumination, she could only make out that what had darted past was roughly a humanoid figure with a dark face.
She was greatly alarmed and for a moment didn't dare to open the door, fearing that it wasn't a fellow student inside but a thief.
So she ran to the security office, planning to ask the security guard for help to go and check.
The security office was empty, but she saw the work schedule and knew it was patrol time, so she waited anxiously on the spot.
After about ten minutes, she finally waited for the middle-aged security guard, who returned slowly with a large flashlight.
After listening to her, the security guard shook his head, expressing disbelief, because he had just passed the library during his patrol and hadn't seen any suspicious characters.
But to reassure the student, he finally picked up his equipment and went to the library with the female student.
On the way, the security guard asked for more detailed information. After hearing the female student's careful description, he fell into an eerie silence.
After a while, he asked with a trembling voice, "Could it be Jiaotan Teacher?"
The female student immediately said it was impossible, that was just a legend.
But the security guard shook his head and stopped at the library door: "It's not... I've seen it with my own eyes. Actually, the predecessor of this teaching building had two major fires. One was the original school building during the war, and the other was a newly built wooden school building shortly after the war."
"The first one didn't cause any casualties, but in the second one, I heard that after the big fire, a Teacher and a student mysteriously disappeared and their bodies were never found."
"Many people say that the missing student was captured by a perverted Teacher who wanted to assault him, but accidentally ignited the classroom, starting an unstoppable fire. Both of them perished in the fire, completely burned into charcoal..."
"The legend of Jiaotan Teacher appeared from that time. At first, I also thought it was an urban legend, but my senior colleague warned me not to treat it as ordinary gossip... Later... I saw it with my own eyes."
"That day, in the dark hallway, I saw the Teacher's office which should have been closed. A light was on late at night, and I could faintly hear the sound of grading homework inside. But when I approached, suddenly,"
"The light went out..."
"The sound completely disappeared, and a strong smell of burnt charcoal seeped out from the slightly ajar, dark door crack."
The security guard recounted the terrifying scene he claimed to have witnessed with a look of lingering fear. Around them, it seemed even the temperature had dropped significantly. The cicadas were also too scared to chirp, falling silent.
The female student was somewhat scared by what he said, but in the end, her sense of responsibility overcame everything, and she insisted on checking the situation inside.
Seeing that he couldn't persuade her, the security guard sighed, prepared himself, and followed behind her.
"Hello... Is anyone there? We won't hurt you. If you just accidentally entered, we hope you can leave after we open the door. We won't stop you."
The female student opened the door and shouted this.
The library was dead silent, with no response.
She carefully opened the door with the key, extended half her body into the dark library, and reached out to grope for the pull cord switch nearby, but found that no matter how much she pulled it down, the light didn't turn on.
Even the light from the flashlight, which had been providing illumination behind her, suddenly disappeared.
She turned around in surprise, only to find no trace of the security guard. She didn't even know when she herself had walked entirely into the library. The only source of light was the moonlight stubbornly shining through the window.
She frantically and eagerly tried to turn on her flashlight, but at this moment, a hand suddenly pressed down on her shoulder.
Her movements froze. With ragged, almost collapsing breaths, her eyes filled with tears of fright, she trembled and turned back—only to see a figure completely charred, with unrecognizable features, wearing a Teacher's ID. He split open his black skin towards her, revealing a red smile, and said in a hoarse voice:
"I warned you."
"...And now, we are in the library built behind it, in the exact same location. Legend says that later, people also saw that Jiaotan Teacher, and even summarized a rule: never open the door at night, and never turn your back to him..."
Snap, Sato's hand suddenly landed on Matsuo's shoulder.
"Waaah—hmph ah..."
Matsuo almost spontaneously broke into street dance, but the sharp edge of a desk shattered his street dance dream, cutting fiercely across his arm, causing him to let out a muffled groan.
"Hahaha!" Sato, whose prank was successful, clutched his stomach and burst into laughter. Now he wasn't the most timid one!
Matsuo clutched his arm, frowning, and bared his teeth fiercely at Sato.
"Uh, why are you bleeding?" Sato only noticed at this point that a large area of Matsuo's uniform had turned red.
"It's all your fault! Hiss... It hurts so much, I need to go to the clinic. Ah hiss... Help me tell the boss that everything here is up to you, you bastard."
Matsuo clutched his wound, grimacing, and left in a hurry.
"Hey, hey! It's not that seri... ous, is it...?"
As Matsuo left, the blood he left behind in the library seeped quickly, drop by drop, flowing along the path, and then eerily and slowly disappeared.
But no one noticed.
Sato slapped himself. This time, he had truly harmed himself.
He shrunk his neck, rubbed his hands to ward off some chill, and with a bitter face quickly finished setting up the items, finally sprinkling the fake blood.
【Go】
A chill ran down Sato's spine. He turned back abruptly, looking left and right.
Who is speaking?
【Hurry up... go... otherwise...】
Sato's eyes widened. Just as he was about to collapse to the ground, he suddenly saw the small voice recorder Matsuo had set up on the desk, and immediately felt alive again, letting out a huge sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness, I was almost scared by the little gadget I set up myself."
However, the things he had on hand were indeed set up now. He just felt that this place was full of eerie drafts and he shouldn't stay long, so he quickly ran to the meeting point.
But he didn't notice.
That small voice recorder... was not even turned on.
Dusk slanted westward.
A black figure quietly appeared in the dilapidated hallway, leaning against the window, looking at the three delinquents gathered downstairs. A red smile appeared on his dark face.
Inoue looked up, as if sensing something. The Old Teaching Building was still in its dilapidated state, nothing was there.
"Boss, is there anything up there?" Hosokawa also glanced around.
"Nothing, just my imagination." Inoue shook his head. "Let's go, my treat. We'll eat dinner and then come back to wait for the new guy."
"Oh! Long live the boss!"
"Let's have rice bowls. I really want to eat curry pork cutlet rice bowl..."
As the few delinquents left shoulder to shoulder, the setting sun slowly sank below the horizon.