Escape From the Library - CH 1

Yue Xingwen was a third year student of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Hu’an University. There was a course final assessment that required everyone to write a thesis to be submitted to the professor for scoring in this semester. He was working on his thesis these days, and needed a lot of materials as references.

There was an electronic reading room on the first floor of the campus library, where the students could check out a huge amount of digital documents as well as the latest domestic and international academic journals. However, it was almost the time for the final exam, and the students were like the tide flock to the library to study, so the library was packed from morning till night, it was difficult to get a seat if you were a little late. Yue Xingwen woke up at 7 o’clock in the morning and rushed to get a seat before the library opened at 8 o’clock every day.

This morning, he woke up to find it was snowing heavily outside, the whole scene was covered in silver, and the sportsground next to the dormitory building was covered with a thick layer of snow, it was so clean like a white fleece blanket.

Yue Xingwen was a southerner and had never seen snow in his childhood, and only after coming to campus in the north did he discover the spectacular snow scene in the winter. He excitedly stood on the balcony and took many photos with his mobile phone before washing his face and putting on his thick down jacket to get ready to go to the library.

The dormitory head Gu Ming had just woken up as well. When he saw Yue Xingwen getting ready to go out, he yawned and asked, “Xingwen, it’s still snow heavily outside, are you still going to the library?”

“I’m just about to finish the last part of my thesis. I want to hurry up to finish it today,” said Yue Xingwen while changing his shoes.

Gu Ming replied, “The thesis you write must be professional. I’ll just write it casually, and it’s already good if I get the passing score.”

Yue Xingwen was a well-known top student in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, who received a scholarship every year. His thesis was praised by many professors, and the attitude of a top student towards his thesis was different from that of an underachiever. Gu Ming lamented a few words in his heart and urged repeatedly, “It’s snowing, be careful on your way.”

Yue Xingwen put on his shoes and turned to look at Gu Ming. “I know Brother Ming. I won’t be back at noon, and I’ll come back in the evening when the library is closed.”

There was bone chilling wind outside, and there was thick snow on the road, so Yue Xingwen walked very carefully.

As he passed through the corner of the male dormitory, Yue Xingwen saw a student wearing a black down jacket wobbling at the steps. Before Yue Xingwen could reach out to help him, the other party fell in the snow with a ‘pop’, and the other person’s whole body was turned into ‘大’ shape on the ground.

It looked painful.

Yue Xingwen quickly stepped forward, helping the student pick up the scattered books on the ground with one hand, while holding out his other hand on the other party’s arm to pull the person up and asked softly, “Classmate, are you okay?”

The boy struggled to get up with the strength of his arm, and quickly wiped the snow from his face, revealing a pair of clear eyes.

Both of their eyes met, and a smile quickly surfaced in the boy’s eyes, “Senior, what a coincidence ah!”

Yue Xingwen recognized him as well. “Xiao Nian?”

Zhang Xiaonian, a first-year student in the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Architecture of Hua’an University. He was at the same high school as Yue Xingwen before, and they met at their university hometown association. Since Zhang Xiaonian was his own junior brother of the same high school, Yue Xingwen took great care of him. However, this junior brother of his was a bit muddle-headed, and had a poor sense of direction. When he first started school, he often confused how to get from building area A to area F, and made a lot of jokes.

Yue Xingwen always felt that his junior brother was lacking in his head. Seeing that he had fallen and was covered in snow, Yue Xingwen asked with concern, “Did it hurt?”

Zhang Xiaonian brushed off the snow on his body, showing two small tiger teeth when he smiled, “It’s fine, I’m wearing very thick clothes!”

Yue Xingwen handed the book he had picked up to the other party. “Your books.”

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Yue Xingwen asked in concern casually. “How is your study for the final exam?”

Zhang Xiaonian replied bitterly. “I’m desperately trying to memorize from the books these days. I didn’t listen to the class properly in the first half of the semester, and I always feel that I’ll fail.”

Yue Xingwen looked back at his junior brother. “You only have one chance to make up the exam after failing the course, and if you don’t pass the make-up exam you have to retake the failed course. It’s a hassle to retake, and you have to take the course with the next courses together. Having a failing record will prevent you from getting a recommendation to postgraduate studies in the future. You have to try to study well, it’s okay to pass the course with a narrow score of 60.”

Zhang Xiaonian nodded seriously. “En, I know. Recently, I have been hanging out in the library every day to organize my notes. I hope this exam isn’t too hard…”

Both of them walked while chatting, arriving at the library at exactly 8 o’clock.

The library opened on time and students who had arrived early filled in the room.

Yue Xingwen said goodbye to him at the door. “I’ll go to the electronic reading room on the first floor to check some information.”

Zhang Xiaonian waved to him with a smile. “Then I’m going to study on the fourth floor, goodbye senior!”

The two of them separated at the library’s entrance.

Yue Xingwen found an empty seat in the electronic reading room on the first floor, sat down, put his mobile phone aside, and opened the laptop to search for the materials in the reference sources.

At lunch and dinner time, the students used to leave their textbooks in the library to occupy their seats, and Yue Xingwen also left his school bag on his seat and rushed back to continue to search for materials after eating —— He had to finish his thesis as soon as possible so that he could concentrate on study the remaining courses.

It was getting dark, and Yue Xingwen finally sorted out his thesis after spending a whole day. He closed the laptop and stretched out comfortably, thinking of reading it through again tomorrow, fixing the typos, and sending it to the professor’s email.

For half a month, Yue Xingwen had been tossing and turning to finally finish writing his thesis, and he was relieved.

It was almost 10 o’clock in the evening before he packed up his things and got up to go back to his dormitory.

After pushing open the door of the dormitory, the warm air came to his face, Yue Xingwen rubbed his hands that were about to freeze, and was just about to change his shoes when he saw the dormitory head Gu Ming walking over and said. “Xingwen, why didn’t you answer the phone when I called you ah? I just wanted to ask if you wanted to go for supper.”

“I’ve been in the library the whole day, probably my mobile phone was on silent so I didn’t hear it.” Yue Xingwen wanted to pull out his mobile phone in his pocket, and his hand actually felt nothing when he reached into his pocket. He hurriedly unzipped his school bag and rummaged through it, his face gradually turned pale after rummaging his bag for a long time.

Gu Ming asked doubtfully, “What’s wrong?”

Yue Xingwen frowned slightly. “I left my mobile phone in the library.”

Gu Ming asked. “Is it the new mobile phone you just bought last week?”

Yue Xingwen nodded, and rubbed his temple helplessly. “*sigh*, my mind is muddled after searching for materials, I hope the mobile phone isn’t lost.”

Gu Ming hurriedly urged. “Then you must hurry and go back to find it! The library is closed at 10:30 in the evening, you’ve only got half an hour before it is too late.”

Yue Xingwen put the down jacket back on. “En, I’ll go back quickly.” He wasn’t usually this sloppy, probably it was because he had been looking up for materials the whole time today and was so dizzy. He actually forgot the mobile phone that he placed on the seat  when he packed up his things before.

After Yue Xingwen went out, the other two roommates returned to the dormitory one after another, sitting at their desks and chatting with their computers on.

A roommate swiped through the campus forum, excitedly pointed to his computer while saying. “Fuck! Guys, look at this! The top 10 most popular posts on the campus forum. Last night, there was a first year junior sister who walked by the library in the middle of the night and found the door opens and so many dark shadows hanging around inside, it was as scary as a horror movie!”

Gu Ming walked over with a cup of tea and glanced at the post, saying. “This is obviously a hallucination from being too tired from studying for the final exam. Which library is still open in the middle of the night? Fortunately, it was just shadows hanging around, why didn’t she say that a female ghost in red came out of it?”

The roommates nodded in agreement. “That’s right, it’s definitely her unclear vision. It’s a hoax without a photo.” After he refreshed the page, he found ‘this post has been deleted’ notice, and the roommate looked indignant. “It’s indeed a nonsense click-bait post, the moderator deleted it very quickly!”

At this moment, Yue Xingwen was walking forward against the cold wind.

The snow fell even harder, the whole scene was white, only a distance of about ten meters in front of him could be seen, the cold wind of winter mixed with snowflakes hit Yue Xingwen’s face. The students returned from the library one after another, they walked from east to west, he was the only one who walked from west to east so the people around him casted a puzzle look, as if asking: Why is this student going to the library in the middle of the night?

Yue Xingwen wrapped the down jacket tightly. He didn’t want to go to the library in the middle of the night in this snow either, but his mobile phone was his 20th birthday present he had bought for himself on a scholarship and had only been in use for less than a week, he would be heartbroken if he lost it.

Yue Xingwen pulled the brim of his hat and continued to move forward.

It was already 10:25 p.m. when he got to the library, and it was about to close in five minutes.

Yue Xingwen rushed quickly to the door.

In the winter, it was so cold that the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the building was so great. The library usually closed the outermost glass door and drew a thick curtain to keep out the wind, but strangely enough, at this time, the door of the library was open.

No one came out, and no one walked in.

It was strangely quiet.

The vast white snow floated down, and the library building blended into the dense night scene, as if it was towering into the clouds and the top couldn’t be seen at all. Although the lights were lit inside the library, the snow blurred the view and all the windows were covered in a heavy mist, making it impossible to see how many other students were inside.

This time period should be the rush hour for students to return to the dormitory, why did no one come out of the library?

Yue Xingwen hesitated for a moment and walked up the flight of steps.

He felt that the flight of steps in front of the library today seemed to be a few more steps than usual, but he had never counted the specific number of steps, so he couldn’t confirm it. The door was opened, or it was to make it easier for students to pass in and out because it was almost closing time?

Thinking of the mobile phone he had left behind, Yue Xingwen didn’t hesitate any longer, swiped his campus card at the door, and quickly walked into the library.

The light overhead him was dim, and there was not a single figure around.

Yue Xingwen walked straight towards the electronic reading room on the first floor. He remembered that his seat was to the far right in the third row. When he put his mobile phone on the inside of the seat, the location was actually very hidden, maybe the mobile phone was still in its original position, or maybe it was picked up by a kind student and handed over to the lost and found.

Yue Xingwen passed the corridor with quick steps, and then, his whole body stiffened abruptly——

What appeared in front of him was not the familiar electronic reading room and the neat rows of computers, but an empty hall the size of a basketball court.

The four-meter-high walls around the hall were made of solid wood bookshelves that lead to the top, which were densely packed with various books, and the bright lights emitted by the crystal chandelier on the ceiling was like broken diamonds spilling down gently, and the white marble floor was intertwined with light and shadow, like a magnificent dreamland.

Yue Xingwen rubbed his eyes hard and thought he was hallucinating.

But after rubbing his eyes, the scene before him still did not change.

In front of him was still an empty hall surrounded with bookshelves, not a single computer in the electronic reading room in sight.

He was still sitting here in the afternoon searching for materials. How come now, the reading room has completely disappeared? What was going on with this strange hall?

Sensing something wrong, Yue Xingwen immediately turned around and ran away at the speed of a hundred meter sprint!

But the moment he reached the door, the library’s door suddenly closed in front of him with a ‘squeak’, and in this silent night, the sound made people’s teeth ache. Yue Xingwen stretched his hand to push the door and finding that he couldn’t push it at all, he turned back and said in a stern tone. “What kind of person is disguising yourself as a ghost?!”

His voice echoed twice in the spacious and empty hall.

Then, a cold mechanical female voice suddenly sounded in his ears. “Student Yue Xingwen, a third-year student of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Hu’an University, student ID number 18384016. The information has been archived.”

“—— Welcome to <Escape from the Library> real-life survival game.”