Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Even though it was broad daylight and the cafeteria was full of people, Zhang Ming broke out in a cold sweat from that one sentence.

He suppressed his scattered thoughts, gritted his teeth, and asked, "So people can't walk on this kind of staircase?"

"It's not that people can't use it." Teacher Li glanced at him. "It's just best to avoid it. It's a staircase used by both the living and the dead. If you actually end up seeing a ghost, who do you think would be more scared—you or the ghost?"

"But it's not a big deal, really." Teacher Li changed the subject. "These kinds of staircases were everywhere back in the day. If you believe it and it freaks you out, then don't live there. If you don't believe it, then there's nothing to be afraid of."

"I think I've heard of this before." Teacher Chen scratched her head. "People also say staircases should have an odd number of steps—you should step out with your right foot and land on your right foot at the top."

"I know that too." Teacher Wang jumped in right away. "When I was a kid, I heard ghost stories about people counting stairs while walking up at night. They'd find that the stairs, which were usually an odd number, had turned even—there was an extra step."

"Shh." Noticing that several students were looking their way, Teacher Li made a shushing gesture. "Let's keep it normal. Don't bring up ghost stories—it's not good if the students hear."

They all nodded quickly.

After that conversation, Zhang Ming absolutely did not want to stay in the dorm.

He had nowhere to go. After eating, he pulled out his phone and asked his friends in the group chat if he could crash with any of them, saying he'd move out once he found a place next month.

No one in the group replied.

Zhang Ming sighed, disappointed, and explained why.

Maybe they were curious, because the three people in the group started replying one by one.

"I only have one bed where I'm staying. Sorry, man."

"I could put you up, but I'm way too far from your area."

"Yin-Yang Stairs? Never heard of that. Interesting. But why are you so scared? If you haven't done anything wrong, you've got nothing to fear."

Zhang Ming tagged the friend who sent that last message: "Can you come stay with me? I won't charge you rent."

"Nah, I've got my own place—why would I go stay there?"

Zhang Ming was really disappointed. Just as he was about to leave the chat, a friend said he could lend him money to rent a place first, and he could pay it back later when he had more cash.

Zhang Ming thanked him. Without hesitating, the friend transferred five thousand yuan straight to him.

The first day went by fast. At six, the bell rang. After the students were picked up one by one, he headed to the dorm.

When he got to the stairs, Zhang Ming remembered what Teacher Wang said. He stopped himself from stepping out with his left foot and switched to his right.

He only let out a breath each time his right foot hit the ground.

Good thing it was an odd number.

He didn't have much—it only took ten minutes to pack.

But weirdly, when he looked out the window from inside the dorm, the sky was still bright. But when he stepped out into the hallway, it was pitch black.

From the window at the end of the hall, it was completely dark outside.

Zhang Ming panicked. He dragged his suitcase, sprinted downstairs, turned on his phone flashlight, and basically ran to the school gate.

Just as he was about to step out, he glanced over at the security booth.

The security booth, which had been dusty during the day, was now glowing with a dim yellow light. The guard he'd seen last night was sitting in a freshly cleaned chair, playing on his phone.

His face was still blank, no change in expression. As if he noticed Zhang Ming staring, the guard looked up.

They locked eyes. The guard's face was pale, but his eyes didn't look like a ghost's.

Zhang Ming froze mid-step. By the time he snapped out of it and tried to leave, the guard was leaning halfway out of the booth, holding a flashlight.

"It's this late—where are you going?"

"I'm moving somewhere else to stay," Zhang Ming said.

"Alright." The guard sat back down without asking anything else, not caring whether Zhang Ming stayed or left.

But Zhang Ming was curious about him.

If he was a ghost, why would he be working as a security guard at a school?

Zhang Ming looked outside the school. The little convenience store he'd seen during the day had turned back into an abandoned storefront.

He asked the guard, "Are you alive or are you a ghost?"

"Why do you ask?" the guard shot back.

Zhang Ming figured he was leaving anyway, so he got bolder: "Earlier today, I was talking to the other teachers, and they said this school doesn't have a security guard."

The guard looked at him calmly, no reaction at all—not even a flicker. It seemed he'd heard this so many times he was used to it.

Zhang Ming suddenly had a bad feeling. But before he could even process it, the feeling became reality.

The guard said, "What teachers?"

"Teacher Wang, Teacher Li, and Teacher Chen."

The guard smiled strangely. "I know those three teachers."

Zhang Ming waited for him to go on.

After a few seconds, the guard said slowly, "But those three teachers quit a long time ago. So who exactly did you see?"

Zhang Ming's head buzzed. His fingers tightened around the suitcase handle.

"That's impossible." He couldn't help raising his voice. "I saw them clearly in broad daylight."

"You saw wrong," the guard said. "There are three teachers at the school now, and one of them is surnamed Li, but there's no Chen or Wang."

"Then who did I see during the day?" Zhang Ming felt a chill run down his spine.

"I'm wondering the same thing. There were no classes today—how could you have seen any teachers?"

"It's Monday—aren't there supposed to be classes?" Zhang Ming froze.

"Take another look," the guard said.

His mind went blank. Zhang Ming pulled out his phone. It was 10:30 PM on Sunday.

It wasn't Monday at all.

His whole body went cold. Wave after wave of chill spread through him, making his very soul scream.

What the hell? It's actually Sunday now, but he clearly remembered it being Monday!

The students and teachers he'd seen during the day were so vivid and real—there was no way they were fake.

And the security guard... who was real, who was fake? At this rate, he'd lose his mind.

Zhang Ming took a deep breath, deciding to get the hell out first and sort things out later. Staying here would only make things messier.

The security guard didn't stop him, but just as he stepped off school grounds, he said flatly, "You'll be back."

Zhang Ming turned around, and the light in the guard booth flickered out. The guard was gone.

The whole school was swallowed by darkness, like a beast lying in wait, ready to lunge out and tear him apart at any second.

Zhang Ming's heart was pounding, and he bolted from the spot.

The narrow road had no streetlights, no noise—just him, all alone.

Zhang Ming dragged his suitcase and ran nonstop for ten minutes before finally hitting a wide, well-lit road.

He flagged down a cab and headed to a nearby hotel, planning to crash for the night and find a place in the morning.

Once he got to his room, Zhang Ming finally settled down and carefully went over what had happened that day.

After leaving the security guard, he couldn't find the dorm, and then he blacked out.

When he woke up, he saw the teachers and students, but after a full day, he was right back to Sunday night.

If everything that happened on Monday was fake, then all that really happened was him blacking out, waking up, and walking out of school with his suitcase.

Zhang Ming couldn't make sense of it, and his heart was racing—especially the guard's last words, which scared him out of his mind.

The school had way too many problems. Why not just skip it altogether?

Zhang Ming splashed some water on his face and started to feel like backing out.

That night, Zhang Ming couldn't sleep, staring at the ceiling until two in the morning before finally dozing off. He had nightmares, endlessly wandering the dorm hallway.

The security guard brushed past him, telling him to run.

Zhang Ming opened his eyes and found himself still standing on the dorm stairs, scared stiff.

He stood there frozen, his brain completely shutting down. He jolted awake again, and only when he realized he was in the hotel did he let out a sigh of relief.

Outside the window, it was bright and sunny. His phone rang—an unknown number.

The caller asked when he was coming in, saying it was already time for work.

Figuring it was someone from the school, Zhang Ming took the chance to ask if there was a Teacher Wang and a Teacher Chen.

"No," the person said. "Our school only has me, Teacher Zhou, and Teacher Li."

So they really didn't exist.

Zhang Ming held the phone, not saying a word for a long time.

The person on the other end: "Hello?"

Zhang Ming swallowed hard and asked hesitantly, "Uh, is our school haunted?"

The person on the other end went silent all of a sudden.

Zhang Ming asked again, "Do we have a security guard at our school?"

"Yeah," the person answered quickly this time. "The security guard only shows up at night, not during the day."

So the guard he saw was real, and the teachers and students he saw in the daytime were all fake?

Hallucinations, or something he'd gone through in a dream...

"Our school did have some ghost rumors," the person explained. "But that's already been dealt with. The school isn't haunted now."

Zhang Ming said, "The security guard said it was haunted too."

The person on the other end didn't say anything, and all that was left was the sound of their breathing.

The person sighed helplessly. "Alright, fine, I admit this school has some issues. But if you don't mess with them, they won't mess with you. And they only show up at night. We're out by six here, so you won't run into them. It's totally safe. The security guard said that—maybe he's just gutsy and saw something during his night rounds."

Zhang Ming stayed quiet, and the person asked, "So are you still coming to work?"

Zhang Ming couldn't answer that. He racked his brain for a long time before hesitantly saying, "Let me give it a shot first?"

The person didn't push any further, and Zhang Ming hung up.

The next day, he found a place nearby, paid the rent, and moved in with his stuff.

After grabbing some toiletries, Zhang Ming took a cab to the school.

The rental was a fifteen-minute drive from school. On the way back, there were no cabs around, so he had to walk ten minutes to a main road to flag one down.

Zhang Ming had planned to quit on the spot if anything seemed off at school, but to his surprise, everything was normal.

Working from eight in the morning to six at night, a week went by, and Zhang Ming settled in just fine.

Aside from the sting of paying for cabs every day, there were no other problems.

He took the job, writing off what happened a few days ago as a hallucination.

Friday after work, Zhang Ming glanced into the guard booth as he walked past.

He'd been keeping an eye on the booth all week.

Since the security guard worked from eight at night to six in the morning, Zhang Ming couldn't tell if it was the same guard he'd seen before.

He also didn't dare stick around until the guard's shift started.

The students trickled out one by one, and the school quickly emptied. The last bit of light on the horizon faded away.

Zhang Ming wrapped his coat tighter and hurried out of the school, taking a taxi back to his rental.

The place was a single room, small and not very clean, but it was cheap and had an elevator, which was convenient.

But to Zhang Ming's surprise, the elevator was broken today, so he had to take the stairs.

He turned on his flashlight and shone it into the stairwell. His body was stiff from the cold, and he just wanted to get home quickly for a hot shower and crawl into bed, so he didn't notice anything else.

It wasn't until he reached the second floor that Zhang Ming realized the stairs in this building were identical to those in the school dormitory.

Yin-Yang Stairs.

He broke out in a cold sweat instantly, his feet stopping in their tracks, unable to move forward.

It was fine when he hadn't noticed, but now that he had, he couldn't muster the courage to keep going. Zhang Ming turned to look behind him, debating whether to head back down to the first floor and wait until the elevator was available before heading home.

But who knew how long that'd take... Besides, everyone used these stairs, so what could go wrong?

It took him three minutes to talk himself into it, and Zhang Ming lifted his foot and continued up the stairs.

Author's note:

None