As usual, Jiang Chen lied on the table, watching similar scenes repeated itself. No, if there’s something that changed, it’s probably because of her. He looked at the girl sitting under the window who was beaming in his direction at that moment. Speaking of which, after they confirmed their feelings for each other last night, they were now together.
Of course, he was still not used to the feeling of extreme happiness. He shyly hid his face in his sleeves as he suddenly realized that they seemed to have done something unbelievable yesterday.
They did it?
They did it!
“Yo, do you have something good you want to share with me?” Zhao Peng said as he poked Jiang Chen’s back with a leer.
“Go away.” Jiang Chen responded distractedly as he glanced at the rouge before lying on the table again. If he allowed this guy to find out, he’s afraid that the entire class would also find out. He vowed to defend this secret to his death to protect the goddess’ name.
“Oh, yeah, why do we have class today?” Jiang Chen was confused. Alliance Day should be a legal holiday.
“Don’t you know? The news said yesterday that the holiday is temporarily cancelled. The school posted on the terminal the news about class resuming today ” Zhao Peng gave the same bewildered look as Jiang Chen.
[You can cancel holidays?] Jiang Chen was stunned once again.
Truth be told, he did come to school with Yao Tingting today. When he left, he forgot about the holiday but didn’t remember receiving any messages. Jiang Chen took out the terminal and launched the holographic screen. Sure enough, there was a temporary notice symbol in the right corner.
[It did seem like I forgot.]
Jiang Chen then remembered the craziness that happened last night and couldn’t help but blush as he secretly took a peek at Yao Tingting’s direction. Then, he put the terminal away before lying on the table again.
The charming girl under the window was engrossed in the terminal. Her index finger was tapping on the screen, flipping the pages on the electronic book.
“Who cares? It’s OK if it’s not a holiday. Since we are already going out, it doesn’t matter if we can’t go to the movies.” He mumbled to himself and just like his usual habit, he leaned against his arm and began napping.
Startled, Jiang Chen woke up.
[Eh, where did everyone go? Oh, the third period in the afternoon is Physical Education. The activity today is swimming and I have to change in advance. Zhao Peng, that rascal, didn’t even wake me up], he ridiculed Zhao Peng in his mind as he rubbed his still dry eyes. He pressed against the table to stand up and headed to the door.
Thinking about it, he couldn’t help but imagine Yao Tingting in a swimsuit.
As he thought about this, his face began to suffuse with heat again. He forced out a laughed as he touched his nose, and shook his head to rid himself of the unhealthy vision.
The gym was located south of the library. It was the biggest building outside of the main academic building. The digital gymnasium included basketball court, soccer field, swimming pool, and track together with the combination of practical and virtual teaching. Simply put, the place was humongous.
Jiang Chen checked his watch on his way to the gym. Since it was already 5 minutes into the lecture, and he was already late and was too lazy to run, he simply slowed down his pace.
The campus was empty at this time, but it certainly did make sense. After all, class was still ongoing, and that made him the odd one for wandering outside the classroom at this time. When he passed by the library, he suddenly halted.
Why did Yao Tingting mention that there was a ghost in the library? For some reason, Jiang Chen didn’t feel scared, he had the urge to go ahead and explore instead. He gulped as he subconsciously moved one step to that direction.
[Forget it, maybe I’ll come back after school], Jiang Chen thought in his mind, troubled. Just as he was about to retract his step, all of the sudden, a deafening shout thundered in his ears and made him jumped up.
“You! What are you doing!”
[Fu*k, I am only late.. ] Just as when Jiang Chen was about to open his mouth to explain, the cleaning robot, who was sweeping the ground quietly, suddenly accelerated and collided into the guard.
“Fu*k.” The guard fell down because of the collision with the robot, and he scrambled to get up.
When Jiang Chen met a pair of ferocious eyes, he felt an irrational fear. The only thing left in his mind was to flee. He didn’t have time to think as he scampered towards the direction of the library. He dashed to the door towards the direction of the stair and sprinted to the second floor and ran to the other end of the hallway, panting heavily.
Through the second floor of the library was a shortcut to the gym. Jiang Chen could also use the terrain there to his advantage get rid of the vicious guard. In an open space, he certainly didn’t have the confidence to outrun adults who had been trained.
[Fu*k, if I got caught, I’ll probably be lectured!]
When did the guard start doing the job of the school director? [This is ridiculous.] It was rumored that the guard in the front gate had a bad tempered. Even though Jiang Chen had a faint feeling that even if he did anger him, he wouldn’t beat him up, he was irrationally frightened nonetheless. Thus, he didn’t think before running away.
[Wooo… whatever, it’s better not to be caught or else I would have to go to the office and explain.]
[Eh?] Jiang Chen was about to go down from the other end of the library when he found an opened activity room. The door wasn’t locked.
Normally, these barely used activity rooms would be locked. Only when the directors came to audit would the school create some odd temporary clubs to deal with the inspection. However, the door of this activity room was actually open.
Jiang Chen stood in front of the door and for some reason felt a strong déjà vu. [I haven’t been here before, but this place feels important. And I think I have seen this place somewhere else.]
The sudden deafening roar of the guard echoed down the hallway and almost scared him to death.
“Fu*k, don’t shout in the library. There was not enough time as Jiang Chen hid into the activity room, closed the door and locked it up. He leaned his body against the wall as held his breathe, while listening quietly to the movements outside the door.
The footsteps did not come, surrounded by frightening silent as though the roar had never happened in the first place. In the silence, Jiang Chen heard his own rapid heartbeat. He let out a breath slowly as he moved away unhurriedly from the door and took out the terminal from his pocket.
It’s already this time. Looking at the distinct number in the holographic screen, Jiang Chen gave a wry smile. Physics class was about to end. There was still no noise from outside the door, but Jiang Chen couldn’t muster enough courage to step outside. After debating for a while, he left the door reluctantly. He was still a little scared; however, there’s no use in going now since class was ending soon.
A flat air conditioner hung in the corner of room, which was probably the most expensive device in the entire room. The interior looked very spacious with only a table and a chair. With the window sealed and being in the midst of summer, the temperature was tolerable outside the room, but felt like a furnace inside.
Jiang Chen walked to the edge of the window and pressed the button to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. “Is it broken?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows as he surveyed the thick layer of dust on the window sill. It seemed like there hadn’t been anyone here in a while, and there wasn’t any sign of wind. He then gave up on opening the window and walked in front of the desk as he picked up a USB-shaped device at the corner of the table.
“Activity room management access right seems to be… used like this?” Jiang Chen inserted the USB into the terminal and selected to open the air conditioner.
All equipment in the school could be operated through the terminal, but it required an access right prior to using it. The access right could be granted through wireless connection, but some special room must be accessed through a physical device.
For example, the electronic key at the corner of the table, when connected to the terminal, the user’s ID would be registered on the “whitelist”, and then the user would be able to turn on the air conditioner through the terminal.
Fortunately, the air conditioner was functional. A gust of cool air blasted through as Jiang Chen let out pleasant sigh. [I’ll wait until the class is over before leaving. That guard would probably be gone by then.]
The only thing that bothered him was that he remembered that the guard should have access to all rooms. “Maybe he was too lazy to look for me by searching every room. Which dumba*s would be that bored…”
Since he already decided to skip class, there was nothing to do outside, so he pulled out the chair under the table and sat on top as enjoyed the refreshing cold air. [Ah, it’s too hot outside, I really don’t want to go out.]
Jiang Chen, who was bored out of his mind sitting on the bench, suddenly realized something was off. He abruptly stood up and patted his behind.
“No dust?” Jiang Chen was stupefied, then he touched the table. There was also no dust… [This doesn’t make sense. Has anyone been here lately?]
When he thought about it, he had a strange desire to explore since he had nothing better to do. He then opened the terminal and used access right to view the user record.
<User in the past three months. Total result: 1 person. ID: Jiang Chen>
“I’ve been the only person here for the past three months?” troubled by the words on the screen, he then extended the search to one year. Same result.
“No one had used the activity room even when there was a celebration?” Jiang Chen tried to search for the memory in his head as he recalled the school’s annual celebration in first semester of grade 10. The directors at that time visited the school, and Wanghai Sixth High School did create some club events.
[I remember that they used the activity rooms in the library… I also seem to have been an “actor”.] Jiang Chen could not think of an answer as his finger continued to scroll through the screen. This time he extended the search criterion to 55 years which was the maximum searchable time query.
However…
<User in the past 55 years. Total result: 1 person. ID: Jiang Chen>