The World Below Surface

'An Xing Yu...' Lu Yan's heart leapt with excitement, his mind going momentarily blank. He forced himself to calm down and took another look at the student file. 'It's him, no doubt.'

Lu Yan had always known that people from the other world if they died during their mission, would survive in this world in another strange form. He had also wondered whether people in this world could reach the other world, but unfortunately, he couldn't verify it himself. Now, he finally had a living example right in front of him.

Could this be real? After searching for so long, had he finally made progress?

Quickly scanning the student file, Lu Yan's gaze froze as he realized who An Xing Yu's father was. Under the father's name column, the font was reversed, but it was clear that the name was An Ru - the previous person in charge whom Zhao, the police officer, had told him about. An Ru had gone to investigate the Yin—Yang Road incident and disappeared, but he turned out to be An Xing Yu's father.

Lu Yan found him familiar and realized why - he and An Xing Yu looked somewhat alike.

Chu Xiu noticed Lu Yan's discomfort and asked, "What's wrong?"

Although Lu Yan was accustomed to disguising his emotions, he quickly regained his composure and changed the subject. "I'm thinking about why the school sent students to Yin—Yang Road? What's there?"

They had all been to Yin—Yang Road, which was indeed strange to the extreme, but if they were asked to describe what was there, they wouldn't be able to explain it.

Was it ghosts, or was it "gods"?

Chu Xiu's expression was equally solemn as he shook his head. "By the way, look at the time on these student files," he pointed out.

Even the latest document was three years old. Was it possible that the world they were in was actually the past?

Most of their past missions had involved illusions. They couldn't change the past but could gather information from these illusions. However, their recent experience in a horror game was a different story.

"We should leave now." They exchanged glances, and without a second thought, they pulled out their phones to record everything before quickly flipping through the thick stack of files and leaving the scene.

They found an empty classroom and carefully examined each photo, trying to find any clues.

"Although the school history of No.4 Middle School isn't very long, it's quite famous in the area. Firstly, it has a high admission rate, and secondly, the tuition fees are cheap, and the rewards are rich. Many students from poor families come here to study. There are also a lot of students who have graduated from orphanages and advanced to this school."

It didn't take long for them to realize that incidents involving poor students wouldn't cause too much concern.

"The current principal has a good reputation because he often waives the tuition fees for students. So, even though students go missing frequently, his support among other students is still very high..."

As Lu Yan browsed through the photos, he thought, 'The missing students here...An Xing Yu went missing, but An Xing Yu came from another world... The people in that world died but were resurrected in this world...?'

The idea was bizarre, but it was the only explanation that made sense to Lu Yan. Could Chu Xiu be trusted? Should he tell him? No, not yet. He needed to wait a bit longer. According to the pattern, it wouldn't take more than half a year for An Xing Yu to come back here. Then he could find a way to locate him.

Lu Yan took a deep breath, attempting to steady their thoughts.

"Is it possible that the students were sacrificed to that... entity?" Chu Xiu questioned, avoiding mentioning the name of the deity. From his perspective, the missing students were undoubtedly offerings for the god.

Lu Yan interjected, "But how do you explain the survival of some students?" Even though most of the returned students were mentally unstable, they still managed to return. Was it possible that the god had not desired those particular sacrifices?

Chu Xiu was no longer speculating. Ghosts' motives were beyond the comprehension of ordinary people, let alone a "god" that operated on a higher plane.

"Incidentally, Zhao, the police officer who dealt with the Yin—Yang Road incident, informed me that her predecessor, An Ru, disappeared while investigating Yin—Yang Road and has yet to be found," Lu Yan reported, enlarging the photograph and sliding it over to Chu Xiu. "I don't think this is a coincidence."

Chu Xiu studied the photograph, his expression turning solemn. "When we meet An Ru, we should inquire if he knows anything."

"Agreed."

The class lasted forty-five minutes, leaving them with three minutes remaining. Checking the schedule beforehand, they chose to wait until the next class commenced before departing to avoid being seen. Despite this, the school was so extensive that they were unsure where to begin their search for An Ru. They completed one lap before being caught by a disciplinary teacher.

"Run!" Lu Yan lagged behind intentionally, prompting the disciplinary teacher to chase after him. After Chu Xiu barely managed to flee, Lu Yan vanished.

The school was vast, with a layout that differed somewhat from what he had seen outside. Lu Yan ran two laps before seeking refuge in an empty classroom, intending to depart after school.

Class ended, and it was time to go home. He wished to test whether he could leave the school in the Mirror World.

Chu Xiu received a message from Lu Yan about his plan. Soon after, Chu Xiu arrived, his leg oozing blood, wounded even more severely than before. "After you left, the headmaster came after me," Chu Xiu waved his hand, recounting his escape. He had knocked the headmaster unconscious, but it was a close call. Upon hearing Lu Yan's proposal, Chu Xiu hesitated. Lu Yan's suggestion was tempting, but Chu Xiu had his own plan to complete the game after midnight in the Mirror World so that he could return to the normal world.

"Why do you plan to leave school?" Chu Xiu asked, curious about Lu Yan's decision.

Tapping his fingertips on the table, Lu Yan replied, "I want to see the Yin—Yang Road."

Lu Yan wondered what exactly was on the Yin—Yang Road and if he would end up like An Xing Yu, travelling to another world.

Though he also wanted to go, Chu Xiu valued his life. He realized that he had almost exhausted the cost of his wish to the gods, and if he did not cherish it anymore, he might end up like Nie Yun Zhen and the others.

After a long time, he said, "Since that's the case, we'll split up."

Chu Xiu would stay in school and play the game, while Lu Yan would venture to the Yin—Yang Road alone.

As the two agreed, Lu Yan left the school gate immediately after class. Surprisingly, he did not feel hungry, even though he had not eaten for nearly a day.

During dinner time, Chu Xiu wandered around again without his mirror. He randomly took a girl's mirror from the class, put it in his pocket and left. He thought everything was going smoothly, but what caught him off guard was that the entire school suddenly became tense. The school had brought in a group of security guards from somewhere, searching one building after another.

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Chu Xiu had no idea what they were looking for. After narrowly avoiding them, he messaged Lu Yan about the situation.

On the other end, Lu Yan left the school smoothly and got on the bus to Yin—Yang Road.

Alone in the bus, the darkness crept in with each turn, the surroundings gradually became sparsely populated, and the trees withered into gnarled shadows. As he stepped off the bus, the frigid air stung his face, and he huddled his coat tighter around his frame.

Lu Yan scanned the desolate landscape, ensuring no one lurked in the shadows before taking a deep breath and forging ahead down the bleak road.

The gloom was impenetrable, and the dampness clung to his skin. Although the sun still hung in the sky, the road was enveloped in a deep shade, and the trees appeared as if they had been dead for ages, lined neatly in two rows along the pale pathway. One couldn't see where it led to as if the road extended to eternity.

Lu Yan did not act on a whim. He suspected the illusion was the work of the insidious deity lurking behind the scenes. He was also taking a gamble, betting on whether An Ru would come to the gloomy road today or not.

He strolled along the path, and in the distance, he spotted an abandoned factory.

Chu Xiu had recounted his experience playing Four Corners at this spot, so Lu Yan's intuition warned him something was amiss. Would there be other Chu Xius from different dimensions inside?

He halted outside the factory, scrutinizing his surroundings. Abruptly, he heard a car horn blaring in the distance. Lu Yan hastened to open the factory's first-floor door and peered through the crack.

A fleet of small cars drew to a stop outside the factory. Lu Yan was taken aback and quickly moved, darting up the stairs in the murky gloom to the second floor.

The second floor was filled with debris and dust, identical to the first. Taking a few breaths felt like breathing in asthma-inducing fumes. Lu Yan shielded his mouth and nose, hushed his footsteps, and listened attentively.

The noise of something heavy being dragged on the ground reverberated through the stillness, followed by a thud and a body hitting the floor. It seemed as though the thing that was pulled was a human.

He was a mare human, stumbling over his own words. But his anguished screams were soon drowned out by fists slamming into flesh.

Lu Yan could almost picture the scene below: a group of people catching hold of someone, dragging them into the factory, throwing them to the ground, and then mercilessly kicking and punching them.

"You fucking bastard, I told you to keep away; why didn't you listen!" spat one of the attackers.

"You think you're so capable? Then why didn't you find out when you would die?" growled another.

The man being beaten gasped for breath, coughing violently before managing to make a faint sound.

"You...where did you take...the students?"

The group fell silent. Lu Yan, practically lying on the ground, strained to listen but could only catch fragments of the conversation.

"What's wrong? Can't the great police officer An handle it? You can't find out? Guess then!"

"The students? Aren't they all doing well?"

They didn't answer him, only jeering and delivering more blows.

"Alright, enough wasting time." A middle-aged man's voice rang out. "Get on with it!"

Lu Yan had made his way to the edge of the wall outside the stairs on the second floor. He peered cautiously around the corner, careful not to be detected in the dark factory. He watched as the group produced a small electric saw and started it up, the saw emitting a small, concentrated roar.

Then, the group burst into laughter and began to sever the man's head bit by bit.

Lu Yan couldn't take it anymore. He leaned against the wall on the second floor, slowly making his way towards the window's edge. He breathed slowly and steadily, trying to calm himself.

Was this An Ru's past?

From below came a chorus of unintelligible murmurs and jeers. Then, the headlamps of several vehicles outside the factory illuminated the night. The mob gathered their gear, loaded it into their cars, and departed.

In other words, that person's body should still be on the first floor.

Lu Yan observed the procession of vehicles vanish into the darkness before descending the stairs to the heart of the lobby.

He surveyed the blood-soaked corpse on the ground using his phone's light. The crimson stains saturated his clothes, the colour so vivid that it verged on black. The body was lacerated from head to toe.

Yet, one crucial thing was missing - the head. The headless cadaver, drenched in blood, lay on the ground!

Recalling the departing group of thugs, Lu Yan realized they carried tool bags. One person had a plastic bag, presumably containing An Ru's head.

They took An Ru's head with them, so he had to return to the school - to recover his head. And that's why those teachers met their tragic fate.

Lu Yan took one last glance at the headless body before turning and making his exit. The cause of An Ru's death was now apparent, but he needed to solve another puzzle urgently.

He messaged Chu Xiu, inquiring about his progress, and while waiting for a response, he continued on his way. It wasn't until much later that Chu Xiu answered his message.

[Come back soon,] the reply read. [The teachers are conducting room checks tonight, and it'll be bad if you're absent.]

In the office, a group of people were lecturing Chu Xiu on the subject of love.

Chu Xiu gazed hopelessly at the table where his phone and gun lay. The teacher had fallen for his lie about the toy gun, but the teachers didn't pay much attention to it, too preoccupied with his lecture on the perils of truancy and mobile phone addiction. His phone beeped with a new message from Lu Yan. He longed to seize it, but his body was bound to the chair, leaving him helpless as he watched the other person respond to the text.

Would he realize something was amiss?

The head teacher's stern voice interrupted his thoughts, "I just messaged your accomplice. He'll be here shortly. You two delinquents skipped class and ignored your teachers' instructions. You'll stand for an hour now. Tomorrow morning, you'll scrub the playground for me."

On the other end of the line, Lu Yan received the message and sensed something amiss. He mulled over it momentarily before sending a reply, feigning no knowledge of the unfolding events.

The taxi's tires screeched as it hurtled towards the school. Lu Yan knew better than to break any ghosts' rules, especially in this otherworldly place. He urged the driver, desperate to arrive at the school on time.

When Lu Yan arrived, he discovered he was also to be punished with Chu Xiu, standing side by side. The two boys exchanged information, whispering together in hushed tones.

Chu Xiu murmured, "I'll try again tonight. I don't know if I can return to the mirror world."

Lu Yan nodded, equally determined. They stood there for an hour before the head teacher dismissed them to the dormitory.

The six-person dormitory was cramped, but Chu Xiu and Lu Yan had to accept the arrangement. They shrugged off their jackets and laid down on their respective beds. As they drifted off to sleep, they chatted a little longer, discussing their plans for the next day.

One of the lads could barely bear the biting cold. He caught sight of Lu Yan's quilt, which seemed thick enough to smother a small fire. With a hesitant tone, he asked if he could swap. Lu Yan, unperturbed, lifted the earthy yellow quilt from his bed and carried it over to the boy's bed.

Having no intention of dozing off, Lu Yan leaned against the bedpost and shut his eyes to rest. Time crawled along, and the clock crept closer to midnight.

Eerie sounds, almost whispers, drifted through the dorm. The boy who'd borrowed the quilt still shuddered, cold as the Arctic, chattering his teeth so hard the entire room could hear.

"What's the matter? Are you taken ill?" asked the others.

"I don't know...I'm just bloody cold..." The boy shook violently.

"Ever since your trek to the Yin—Yang Road, you've felt this chill. Want to take a leave and see a doc at home?" suggested one of the roommates.

"Nah...not necessary...I'll just catch a wink... Lu Yan lent me his...his quilt..." The boy continued to shake as he spoke.

"Alright, then." The other roommates eventually stopped talking, allowing the whispers to fill the silence once again.

"So cold..." The boy wrapped the quilt around himself tighter and tighter.

Drenched in sweat, he still felt the chill seeping through his skin, despite the suffocating heat. The tighter he wrapped himself, the more sweat he produced, and the more sweat he produced, the more the cold consumed him.

He was drenched as if the bed sheets had been dragged through a river. The only action was to curl up his body until he finally surrendered and buried his head under the covers.

"What in God's name..." He tried to move, but he felt stuck, paralyzed. Was it the cold that numbed him to the core? No, it couldn't be that.

The boy tried to lift the covers, but his hands were glued to the cotton sheets! Slowly melting into them! He couldn't move his legs either! His entire being was merging with the covers!

This revelation was enough to drive him insane. He tried to scream, but no sound came out. Gazing downwards, he realized half of his neck was already assimilated with the quilt, melding like a wax effigy.

The dormitory was filled with obliviousness as nobody noticed his anomaly. Everyone was just relieved that he had stopped trembling. He opened his eyes and slowly fused with the covers.

The earthy yellow quilt thickened and emanated warmth, like an embrace from a lover.

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