Chapter 1: When a man is about to die, he speaks

The shaking from the desk woke up Lin Yu, who was catching up on sleep.

He half-opened his eyes, lifting his head slightly from his pillowed arm.

Several red marks of varying shades were imprinted on his face, looking somewhat comical.

“Ah, sorry about that, did I wake you?”

The apology came from a male classmate above his head.

Lin Yu had just woken up, his mind still not working too quickly.

Hearing this, he gave a perfunctory “mm” and said nothing else.

‘Is class over?’

‘How long did I sleep this time, ten minutes, twenty minutes?’

Listening to the noisy chatter around him, Lin Yu raised his gaze towards the lecture podium, planning to glance at the clock hanging beside the slogan banner.

The classroom was clearly noisy during the break, yet the area around the podium was empty.

Only a single girl in an intricate black and red dress stood before the multimedia machine.

Her head was slightly raised, her back to Lin Yu.

The sunlight from the window slanted across her shoulders, making her long, pale-gold hair seem somewhat transparent.

‘Hm?’

‘Where’s her school uniform, and she dyed her hair?’

‘Is there even someone like that in our class?’

A sense of dissonance washed over his heart—indescribable and inexplicable.

Lin Yu furrowed his brows, then a moment later, relaxed as if a weight had been lifted.
He had found the source of that strange feeling.

Whether it was the neatly arranged desks and chairs or the curtain half-lifted by the wind, everything cast a faint shadow on the floor.

But the girl standing before the podium had nothing beneath her.

“Where’s her shadow?”

He murmured to himself, a hint of confusion in his voice.

The moment the words left his mouth, the previously noisy classroom fell silent.

It was like a video that had been paused.
The sound of the wind, of people, of chirping insects—in an instant, all of it vanished from this world, leaving only a single, frozen frame.

No, left behind, there was also Lin Yu.

‘Why is it suddenly so quiet?’

Lin Yu swallowed subconsciously.

That strange sense of dissonance filled every inch of the air, making one’s hair stand on end.

He turned his head, intending to strike up a conversation with the boy who had woken him up earlier.

The moment he turned, what greeted his eyes was a face with its eyes stretched wide and its expression frozen stiff.

And this face was less than ten centimeters away from him!

Lin Yu stood up instinctively, trying to put some distance between them.

His movement caused the desk to slam against the back of the chair in front, making a loud clattering sound.

The male classmate neither approached nor retreated because of Lin Yu’s action.

He continued to glare at Lin Yu, his eyes wide as saucers, staring fixedly.

‘What the f*ck is going on?!’

Lin Yu cursed inwardly, his gaze moving past the boy to scan the rest of the room.

The entire classroom, with its twenty-some students, some sitting, some standing, boys and girls alike, were all holding the exact same pose.

Their necks were stretched to the limit, their eyes wide open, their faces wooden as they stared in his direction.

A chill ran down Lin Yu’s spine, his body stiffening with discomfort.

But his mind was clearer than ever before, thoughts racing as he tried to find a rational explanation for this bizarre scene.

‘A prank? A dream?’

‘Judging by the situation, it’s neither.’

‘Then what is this?’

‘No matter what, first I need to see if I can get away from these “people”.’

Lin Yu slowly lowered his breathing rate.

He didn’t act rashly.

He reached one hand behind his back to grip the wooden frame of a chair, while carefully observing the boy’s every move.

The boy’s face was rigid, like a soulless puppet, without any extraneous movement.

‘Okay, three, two, one…’

Lin Yu counted down silently in his mind.

Then, he cautiously turned sideways and took a step forward.

The hand behind his back was clutching the chair tightly.

If the other party made the slightest move, he would not hesitate to grab the chair and swing it at them.

Fortunately, the boy showed no reaction, save for his eyes, which shifted to follow Lin Yu’s movement.

It wasn’t just the boy.

Everyone in the classroom, as if sharing a single mind’s command, had their eyeballs twitch for a moment.

‘F*ck!’

The gentle and refined Classmate Lin couldn’t help but curse inwardly again.

He sidled past the boy in front of him and stood in the aisle.

As he moved, the students remaining in the classroom became even more grotesque.

They didn’t move their legs or lift their arms.

They just stretched their necks longer, and longer, and even longer…

“Crack.”

In Lin Yu’s line of sight, a girl who had her back to him twisted her neck a bizarre 180 degrees.

It now hung limply over her shoulder.
Her floppy head, like a rotten tomato, dangled precariously from her protruding cervical spine.

Only her pair of wide, saucer-like eyes, shot with blood, were still fixed squarely on him.

This scene brought Lin Yu intense discomfort.

His stomach churned, and waves of nausea washed over him.

He fought hard not to throw up, gritting his teeth.

Maintaining his posture facing the crowd, he retreated backward.

Whatever was happening, after witnessing that scene, Lin Yu found it incredibly difficult to associate these classmates—people he saw day in and day out—with being human anymore.

And there was no way he would turn his back on them.

One step, two steps, three steps…

Lin Yu gradually distanced himself from his “classmates”.

They, just as before, made no other moves.

‘First, get out of the classroom, then go find someone outside for help.’

‘But what if this strangeness isn’t just in the classroom, but the entire school, or even worse…’

His spirits plummeted with the speculation.
Before Lin Yu could console himself and rally his courage, his steps came to a sudden halt.

“Tap, tap, tap.”

Footsteps sounded from behind him!

It was the girl who had been standing at the podium—the origin of all this strangeness!

Lin Yu finally understood what it truly meant to be caught between a wolf and a tiger.

He glanced at the crowd of wooden-faced classmates with their craned necks before him.

Listening to the footsteps drawing nearer from behind, he gritted his teeth.

He knew it was time to make a decision.

Adrenaline surged, and Lin Yu moved with incredible speed.

He snatched up the nearest chair, switching from one hand to two to grip the wooden frame of its back.

He spun around and viciously smashed it behind him.

“CRACK!”

Before the chair could even touch the woman, it was sliced into pieces of wood of all sizes in mid-air.

Along with it, mixed in a mist of blood, were shattered bits of human tissue and bone fragments.

There was no pain.

Lin Yu only felt his point of view constantly shifting, moving from high to low.

His gaze landed on the woman’s face.

She was beautiful, unrealistically so.

Her soft, pale-gold hair cascaded over her shoulders.

Her skin was taut and as fair as moonlight.
Below a high-bridged nose were a pair of pale lips, slightly pursed, looking both distant and sensual.

The only flaw in her beauty was her eyes.
Beneath her curled lashes were two pitch-black voids.

They were bottomless, hiding a profound darkness within.

The combination of terror and breathtaking beauty gave rise to a strange aesthetic.

Like a doll.

Like a portrait.

But not at all like a living person.

Lin Yu stared fixedly at the woman who had killed him, at her face.

Using the last of his strength, his lips quivered as he slowly mouthed a few words.

“…F*ck… your… m…”