Métamorphes

Chapitre 11

"You...know him?" Duan Lin looked at Chen Jiaming, but Chen Jiaming just stared intently at the boy on the bed called Xi Yuan, remaining silent for a long time. Xi Yuan...that name sounds familiar.

Suddenly, a thought popped into Duan Lin's mind, and he asked in surprise, "Could it be... your roommate..."

Upon hearing this, everyone stared in disbelief, except for Mu Zi, whose expression remained unchanged, and Chen Jiaming, whose face grew even paler.

Chen Jiaming's pale face said it all. Xi Yuan was his roommate, the roommate who had been suspected of being missing yesterday. Why would someone who had already disappeared reappear?

"So...so Senior Xi Yuan wasn't missing after all, hehe...that's great, it seems the ghost stories...were just rumors after all..." Monkey scratched his head, muttering after a long while. But the strangeness surrounding Xi Yuan made it impossible to completely let go of the unease. The room fell silent again.

Suddenly! A sharp pain shot through his hand! Duan Lin hurriedly looked down and realized that the hand tightly gripping his was that of the boy who had been lying unconscious on his bed!

The child's eyes were wide open, but his gaze seemed unfocused. After a long while, he suddenly shouted when he saw Duan Lin. Then, in front of everyone, he shrank into the corner and began to tremble uncontrollably!

The boy, already in a pitiful state, bit his finger so hard that it bled without him realizing it. He just stared at Duan Lin in terror. "Ghost...don't come near me!"

The people in the room fell silent again.

Back on the opposite bed, just like the terrified Xi Yuan, Chen Jiaming hugged his knees and shrank to the corner of the bed, his gloomy gaze fixed on Xi Yuan, who looked like a frightened bird.

For the next half hour, Xi Yuan remained in that state, as if he had encountered the most terrifying thing.

“This is really serious…” the monkey said slowly.

"Senior Xi Yuan is very famous. In this school, he is the kind of person who is particularly bold. When Qi Lan was missing and everyone was scared, he was the only one who laughed at the thing."

"He's Qi Lan's boss, usually very imposing. Even someone like him is afraid of him like this..." The monkey's muttering to himself made the atmosphere in the room even more tense.

“We’re roommates,” Chen Jiaming suddenly said, drawing everyone’s attention.

"We were also in the same dormitory two years ago."

Remembering what Chen Jiaming had once told him, Duan Lin seemed to understand something instantly, and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Of the people who lived in that dorm room, only the two of us are left. And now..."

And now, everyone is in this dormitory room!

Suddenly realizing something, everyone present widened their eyes!

After fumbling around on the bedside table, Chen Jiaming touched something. When he took it out and showed it to everyone, they realized it was a small alarm clock, a very ordinary alarm clock, but…

Suddenly realizing something, Duan Lin felt a chill rise from the soles of his feet.

“Could it be…” Duan Lin pointed at the alarm clock, his mind going blank.

Chen Jiaming's face was pale, and he held an alarm clock in his hand. The clock ticked away, its sound particularly clear in the quiet, secluded room.

"Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock..."

However, the second hand of the alarm clock didn't move forward; instead, it kept moving back and forth, forward...backward...forward...backward...

"Tick-tock, tick-tock..."

Duan Lin saw the time that had been frozen: 3:15!

"Could it be..." Duan Lin's expression changed drastically as he looked at Xi Yuan, who was trembling behind him, and then at the alarm clock in front of him, which was forever stuck at 3:15!

"If I'm not mistaken...it wasn't everyone who disappeared, but..."

"Us." The last sentence was spoken by Mu Zi.

Upon hearing him speak, the monkey jumped up and grabbed his collar.

"What?! We're the ones who disappeared?! God! Are you kidding me?! Little White! What nonsense are those two spouting? How could we disappear? We're clearly alive and well!" The monkey was agitated, turning his head to seek validation from his friend, but...

“Maybe…it really is us who are disappearing…” The boy, who was always silent and reserved and was called Xiaobai, suddenly raised his head, revealing a handsome but unremarkable face.

"I've been thinking about this for a while... The sky... hasn't gotten light yet... has it?"

Suddenly, the monkey released its grip on Mu Zi's collar and looked out the small window of the dormitory with its big eyes. The light inside made the darkness outside the window seem even more pronounced. What was originally a normal darkness now felt incredibly eerie!

Indeed, it remained dark all along.

"Rumor has it that those who disappeared all vanished after answering a call at the door. So..." Xiaobai suddenly looked at Duan Lin, "Teacher, you called out 'Monkey' back then... which is Tian Miao's name, right?"

Upon being called out, Duan Lin hurriedly turned around, but after hearing the boy's analysis, he felt even more uneasy.

“You called Tian Miao, and he and I responded and opened the door for you, right? In a way, that’s what we heard as a call.”

"At 3:15, my teacher and I heard a sound outside the door, so my teacher went out to investigate. This can be seen as the call that my teacher and I heard." Chen Jiaming's voice trembled slightly as it came from ahead.

As Duan Lin listened to the students' analysis, his expression grew increasingly grim.

It's impossible to verify Xi Yuan's current state, but if the students' guesses are true, then...

Duan Lin turned to Mu Zi, "What about you? Why are you outside?"

"I just wanted to use the restroom." Mu Zi smiled, a smile that was completely unbelievable.

Suddenly, a dark cloud loomed overhead, and everyone in the room wore a strange expression.

Who was it back then? Who was the person who called my name? The person in front of me... was they really a "person"?

Everyone is thinking the same thing.

Without realizing it, everyone had started to distance themselves from the people next to them. Just then, there was a knock at the door…

"Duan Lin! Teacher Duan, are you in there?" Everyone's eyes immediately fell on the door. No one in the room moved, even Duan Lin hesitated whether to open the door. Just then, the door opened.

Chapter Eight: Dawn Breaks

The elderly man with perpetually smiling, small eyes, wearing a school janitor's uniform, is none other than the principal.

Upon opening the door and seeing so many people, the principal was clearly taken aback. "What... is everyone here getting tutoring from Teacher Duan? There are so many children here..."

Not knowing what expression to make, Duan Lin simply frowned, "Principal, you... how did you end up at the school..."

"I live here! There's a small house behind the school, that's where I live, haha. As you get older, you sleep less. That's why I couldn't sleep this morning. I came to check on my flowers, and then I saw that only Teacher Duan's room had the light on..."

The principal was still smiling, completely oblivious to the fact that the school seemed no different than usual. As he spoke, the old man glanced at his watch. "Huh? Am I going by that fast? How come so little time has passed? Wait, is my watch broken?"

Instantly realizing that the principal had also become a missing person like themselves, everyone lowered their heads. Suddenly, as if seeing something, the principal strode to Duan Lin's bedside. "You brat! You're finally back! You've made us old folks worry about you, you really have a conscience!"

The old man walked straight towards Xi Yuan, his next move being to grab Xi Yuan's ear... Xi Yuan buried his head in the blanket in terror. Now, it was the principal's turn to be stunned. "Hey? What's wrong with this child today? He's usually so energetic, always defying this old man! Even when I caught him skipping class to play a few days ago, there's no need to be so scared. When has this old man ever seriously disciplined you..."

The principal muttered to himself, unaware that the expressions of everyone present changed again after hearing his words! "What did you say, Principal? You caught Senior Xi Yuan when he went out the day before yesterday?!" The monkey jumped in front of the old man.

"Yes! But I only saw it. I yelled at a few of them, hoping they would hear me and come back to admit their mistakes. But they were all like grasshoppers, jumping out of the water..." After the old man finished speaking, he began his habitual rambling again.

"You mean... you called his name at the time?"

"Yeah, sigh, these kids always skip school on weekends, and they always climb over the wall over my yard. I always have insomnia because I've caught them so many times, I even remember their names! Ugh... and some juniors call him 'senior,' he really doesn't act like a senior at all..."

"Principal, do you remember what time it was?" Duan Lin asked calmly, his expression unchanged.

"It's probably around this time today. I'm getting old and my sleep isn't good. I always wake up before dawn. Sigh... I don't have many days left to live. I can't just sleep through it all, can I? You're in the prime of your lives now. You should study hard so you won't regret it when you're old..."

The old man's subsequent mutterings no longer reached the ears of the others. They looked at each other, and their earlier guesses had all been confirmed!

The time is 3:15 every time!

Duan Lin and Chen Jiaming both heard the noise outside the door. Duan Lin went out after hearing the commotion and called for Monkey and Little White. Mu Zi happened to be outside at that time as well. According to the principal's words, he called for Xi Yuan around three o'clock, so this was a call for Xi Yuan, but...

“You said he ‘they’? Could it be…” Suddenly realizing something, Duan Lin quickly pulled himself back to the principal.

"Yes, those are the three little guys who are always together. Besides Xi Yuan, who's a big guy, there's a chubby boy and a short guy. They're inseparable, they have a very good relationship, hehe..." When talking about these three mischievous students, the principal seemed to be talking about his grandson, and he looked a little amused.

However, Duan Lin did not smile, nor did anyone else present.

Xi Yuan is here, but what about the other two? What about the other two people who were supposed to have "disappeared" like him?

"Senior, where are Cao Fuqiang and Zhang Yande? Didn't you go out together? Where are they..." Monkey was the kind of person who would say whatever came to mind, and this time was no exception. However, before he could finish his question to Xi Yuan, suddenly...

Everyone was stunned when they saw Xi Yuan on the bed.

The tall boy on the bed, upon hearing the monkey's words, actually had tears welling up in his terrified eyes! The big boy, who hadn't said a word and was huddled in the corner of the bed, was crying!

A bad feeling settled over everyone.

Finally realizing something was wrong, the principal looked at Xi Yuan, then turned to Duan Lin in surprise. "This is..."

Forcing himself to speak, Duan Lin said, "That's how it is, Principal. It may seem unbelievable, but our current situation is indeed strange..."

He explained the current analysis of the group to the principal, and what he said was something even Duan Lin himself couldn't believe.

"Is it a ghost?" The principal was silent for a long time. "So... this child has seen a ghost?"

Looking at Xi Yuan, the principal seemed like a different person, his smiling face turning into a thoughtful one.

"Actually, this legend has always existed at this school. It is said that you can see a tall man wearing a white robe. I saw him, also at night. A man in white stood under a tree in the distance, looking at me from afar. He was also wearing glasses... um, like this."

As he spoke, the principal took out a pair of reading glasses from his pocket, put them on his nose, and made a terrifying expression.

The principal's face when he wasn't smiling was actually quite terrifying, and everyone felt a chill. Fortunately, the principal quickly took off his glasses and resumed his smiling expression.

The principal's untimely humor did nothing to comfort the group; instead, it made them even more nervous.

The rumors that the principal has some dementia seem to be true. At a time like this, he's still joking...

"I... actually believe in ghosts." The old man's smile suddenly softened, and his gaze drifted into the distance.

"It's not so much that I believe, but rather that I want to believe. I wish there were ghosts in the world. There are people I want to see, but they are all gone. I want to see them, even if they appear as ghosts." As he spoke, the principal smiled kindly, as if he had remembered something.

Duan Lin suddenly realized that the principal's words were exactly what he had thought.

I used to think the same way. I wanted to see people, even if they were ghosts. Because I believed in the bond between us, and that even if we met, they wouldn't hurt me, I wasn't afraid of them no matter what they looked like.

Duan Lin believed that the spirits of the dead would bless their living relatives.

Where there is resentment, there will also be love; everything is complementary, and there is nothing to be afraid of.

So… “There’s nothing to be afraid of. Since we didn’t die, there’s still a way back!” With a calmer mood, Duan Lin said firmly to the panicked students in front of him.

“We haven’t done anything wrong, we have no reason to be hated by ghosts, and our deceased relatives will protect us, right?” Duan Lin, clumsy with words, tried to encourage his students, initially worried it wouldn’t be very effective, but then…

"Yeah, I haven't done anything bad, so that Buddhist karma won't come back to haunt me. Besides... even if I'm killed by a ghost, I'll become a ghost and keep chasing after that ghost until I get my revenge! Who's afraid of who!"

The monkey's renewed energy encouraged everyone, and even Chen Jiaming, who had been huddled in the corner of the bed, sat up.

Looking at the teachers and students who had reunited, the principal smiled.

Duan Lin drove stiffly, following behind the principal's car.

Originally, learning to drive was just a school course requirement. However, due to the long period of learning and the fact that he didn't own a car and didn't drive often, Duan Lin's driving skills were really not very good.

The principal led everyone away from the back of the school, supposedly so they could see the path down the mountain soon.

Time has completely vanished here. Although it appears to be an ordinary campus on the outside, it is actually a completely unknown place, where every area has its boundaries. Someone mentioned this, and so, about ten minutes ago, everyone decided that they had to leave no matter what, thinking it was much better than sitting and waiting to die.