Experimental Middle School of Yin City was established in the 1930s. Its predecessor was Jingyang Middle School, founded through donations from local gentry. After several changes, it became one of Yin City's top high schools, renowned for its excellent academic performance, substantial teaching faculty, and high overall student quality.
「Monday, 7:50 AM.」
The morning reading session at the Experimental Middle School gradually came to a halt with the ringing of the bell.
The first class was about to start, and the students on duty, dressed in blue and white uniforms and standing at the school gate, hurried towards the teaching buildings.
The electric retractable gate closed completely under a set program. Outside the gate, Li Ang, backpack on his shoulder, walked leisurely toward the school, neither hurried nor slow.
He didn't take the main entrance. Instead, he approached an iron fence hidden from electronic surveillance by protective trees. He broke into a short sprint, pushed off hard with one foot, and using the force from the ground, he leaped into the air.
Like a gymnast vaulting over a pommel horse, he elegantly flipped over the fence—which was about a person's height—dusted the leaves off himself, and casually walked into the teaching building as if nothing had happened.
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.
He knocked on the door and entered the classroom. All his classmates, as well as their homeroom teacher Shi Qingsong, who was teaching a history lesson on the podium, simultaneously turned to look at Li Ang.
"Late again."
The scholarly middle-aged man, Shi Qingsong, pushed up his glasses and tapped the lectern with his knuckles. "What's the excuse this time? Last time, you said you were chased eighteen blocks by the woman who ran the stall and her husband after eating their Mapo Tofu at a street-side restaurant. The time before last, you claimed you saw a homeless man sleeping on the street and, fearing he'd catch a cold, covered him with three shared bicycles. And the time before that," he continued, "you said that while getting a scrub at the bathhouse, you tried to prevent an awkward silence by striking up a conversation with the scrub Master. You asked him, 'Haven't had dinner yet?' This offended the Master, who felt his professional dignity was challenged, and he scrubbed off two layers of your skin, leaving you in so much pain that you were late for school the next day."
Heh, he remembers every single one.
Li Ang modestly said, "Reporting, Teacher. Last night, I engaged in a fierce battle with a Monster and killed it on the spot, successfully containing the news that demons and evil spirits truly exist."
Shi Qingsong was exasperated but amused. "The Master taught not to speak of strange phenomena, feats of strength, disorder, or spirits. Where in the world would there be monsters?"
Li Ang nodded. "See? The information containment was very successful."
Shi Qingsong's eye twitched. "...Go back to your seat. Come to the office after class."
Li Ang, as if granted a pardon, returned to his seat.
His deskmate was a girl, Wang Congshan, who served as the class president and was also somewhat of a childhood friend to Li Ang.
Back in elementary school, when Wang Congshan was afraid of mosquito bites, the considerate Li Ang caught a toad from a drainage ditch and put it on her head to eat any mosquitoes that dared come near.
When they were raising silkworms together, Wang Congshan's silkworms died. The thoughtful Li Ang, wanting to comfort his friend, brought her a pile of large, white maggots, encouraging her to continue raising them. Unsurprisingly, this resulted in a swarm of green-headed flies wreaking havoc in the classroom.
When they played hide-and-seek, Wang Congshan hid in a large wooden cabinet. The kind-hearted Li Ang, not wanting to hurt her pride by finding her too easily, lit ten coils of mosquito incense and placed them in front of the cabinet, smoking her out until her eyes were red and swollen, and she tumbled out of the cabinet on her own.
Hmm... Thinking about it, their childhood memories together really were quite "sweet"...
Of course, Wang Congshan, having put up with Li Ang for so many years, was no pushover and often turned the tables on him.
Li Ang settled into his seat and, while searching for his textbook in his backpack, said softly to Wang Congshan, "Good morning, Bo."
The class president, long accustomed to her deskmate's style, glared. "Who the hell is 'Bo'? Stop giving people such ridiculous nicknames, you moron."
"Okay Bo, got it, Bo."
"..." Wang Congshan took a deep breath and automatically tuned out the harassment.
When class ended, Shi Qingsong stepped outside the classroom to take a phone call. He had to go to the newly built teachers' office building to pick up some documents, so he told Li Ang to come see him at noon to discuss student behavior guidelines.
Once the homeroom teacher had left, the students finally felt free to unwind, gathering in small groups to chat.
"Hey, did you guys hear? There was another death on Qianhua Road, just this morning. Over a dozen police cars showed up, and they cordoned off four streets."
"Ah, what happened? Didn't an accident just occur there a few days ago? A tourist—I don't know what got into him—suddenly stuck his head out of the tour bus window. Just then, a public bus happened to pass by... His body was still in the tour bus, but his head, severed cleanly like a sugarcane stalk, flew off and landed right in the bowl of a guy eating noodles on the street..."
"HISS..." The classmates listening all sucked in a sharp breath.
"This time it wasn't just a traffic accident. They say a sanitation worker, early this morning, saw a man's body embedded in a utility pole at the Qianhua Road intersection..."
"Embedded? How?"
"Ever tried to pierce a steamed bun with a chopstick? Well, the man was lying flat on the ground, and a twelve-meter-long utility pole was sticking straight out of his chest..."
"How is that possible? You're kidding, right?"
"TSK. Word is he jumped from a tall building, intending to end his life, and just happened to be impaled by the cement pole. But the tallest building near that intersection is only three or four stories high; the fall wouldn't have been nearly enough. Moreover, the wires at the top of the utility pole were completely undamaged, and there wasn't a single trace of blood on the entire cement pole. That corpse... it looked as though it had 'grown' right out of the pole, perfectly formed..."
The faces of the students gathered around chatting showed a hint of unease. The classmate telling the story sneakily took out his phone to search online, then chuckled. "Heh, hundreds of people at the intersection saw it. My uncle was there too and even uploaded photos to our family chat group and Weibo. But now, you can't find any related information on Weibo or the forums. The words 'Qianhua Road' have been blocked..."
With that, he passed his phone around for the others to see. Li Ang also stole a glance.
The photo was likely taken from a distance and was somewhat blurry. It vaguely showed a man in a suit lying at the base of a concrete utility pole, surrounded by a circle of officials. There were also some firefighters wielding concrete saws.
Evidently, the police couldn't figure out how to remove the body intact without damaging the pole, so they had to call in the fire department to cut the utility pole in half.
On the phone screen, the bizarre, eerie, and somewhat horrifying image made the surrounding girls turn pale. The boys, on the other hand, tried to maintain their composure, forcing strained smiles.
As the saying goes, some may profess to love dragons but fear them in reality. In recent months, these kinds of unnatural death cases, fitting the urban legend type, had been emerging one after another. People discussed the strange tales with a mix of fascination and deep-seated fear.
Seeing the apprehensive expressions on her classmates' faces, Wang Congshan, as class president, quickly interjected, "Alright, alright, it's best not to discuss or spread this kind of content at school. Class is about to start. Everyone, please return to your seats."
The students dispersed in a somber, subdued atmosphere. Li Ang, however, narrowed his eyes, replaying the image from the photo in his mind.
That couldn't be the work of some serial killer, nor an accident. The only explanation was an elusive, ethereal Monster. This was the real world that Players faced.
Li Ang remained silent, jotting down the words "Qianhua Road" in his notebook.