Rules-related weird stories: 4016

May 7, 2023, 21:06.

"Ding!"

Accompanied by a crisp chime, the elevator came to a smooth and steady halt.

All five cautious occupants of the elevator turned their gazes to the floor indicator.

"14".

Lin Yi narrowed his eyes; they had arrived at their floor.

The entire process could be described as uneventful, solely because he adhered to the most fundamental rule: 【Do not attempt to understand how the elevator works】.

However, he didn't relax his vigilance; on the contrary, he became even more cautious.

Because he clearly understood that the main event was about to begin.

The elevator vibrated slightly, and a subtle scraping sound traveled through the shaft to the soles of Lin Yi's feet. His breathing became steady, and his whole being quieted, but the muscles in his body slowly tensed, like an arrow being drawn in a bow.

In the space of a breath, Lin Yi had prepared himself mentally to deal with any sudden eventuality.

"Clang... Clang!"

The elevator doors slowly opened, like uncorking a jar of wine sealed with mud, and an icy aura began to pour in.

"Whoosh--"

The anxious sound of the wind whistled through the gaps in the elevator walls, sending shivers down one's spine.

Lin Yi and Wei Liang stepped out of the elevator.

"Clang!"

As the elevator doors closed, Lin Yi felt as if only a cold wall remained behind him.

He glanced down at his watch.

21:07.

A direct elevator with ten passengers took several minutes to ascend one floor.

Such a time span would be shocking anywhere.

"There's still nearly an hour to walk back to the dorm... If nothing unexpected happens, there should be enough time," Lin Yi thought to himself.

But... after experiencing so much, he increasingly felt that the phrase "if nothing unexpected happens" was a joke.

He withdrew his gaze and began to observe his surroundings.

At first glance, there seemed to be nothing wrong with the dormitory hallway. The hallway itself was three meters wide, significantly wider than the distance between his original dorm rooms.

Moreover, as stated in the dormitory notice, the interior of the dormitory hallway was a circular structure. Therefore, from his perspective, the incandescent lights on the ceiling, like the guide lights on an elevated highway curve at night, curved into the distance with a gentle arc.

The incandescent lights cast an orange-yellow glow, illuminating the entire hallway, revealing dorm rooms facing each other on both sides.

The doorplate to his left read "1401," and the one to his right read "1402."

Judging from the arc design, the inner side of the curve had uniformly numbered doors, while the outer side had even-numbered doors.

They only needed to walk forward seven sets of dorms to reach their pre-booked dorm, 1414.

"So far... everything is normal," Lin Yi thought to himself.

For some reason, after exiting the elevator, the oppressive and unpleasant feeling he had felt earlier had faded considerably, but the completely enclosed hallway still made him feel somewhat stuffy and agitated.

Lin Yi took a deep breath, intending to return to the dorm first.

At that moment, a somewhat icy hand quietly landed on Lin Yi's shoulder.

It was Wei Liang's hand.

"Damn it, Liangzi, you scared me!" Wei Liang's ghostly move forcibly dispelled some of Lin Yi's sense of oppression.

He turned his head and saw Wei Liang's pale lips and somewhat nervous expression.

"Didn't they say... Liangzi has rich experience in surviving in the dorm? Why does he seem even more nervous than me, someone who's here for the first time?"

This question suddenly popped up in Lin Yi's mind.

"Liangzi, are you okay?" he asked with concern.

"I'm okay... just a little cold."

Wei Liang's gaze constantly flitted around the hallway, as if constantly on guard against something invisible.

Even Wei Liang himself didn't notice that his behavior was even a little neurotic.

"Cold...?" Lin Yi was slightly taken aback, and couldn't help but feel that Wei Liang's situation seemed really bad.

This hallway... wasn't cold at all.

"It's a little cold indeed," he echoed.

Wei Liang said to himself, "This is normal... The dorms in the campus are very humid. You don't feel it now, but you'll find out after staying here for a while..."

As he spoke, he exhaled a breath.

Lin Yi's pupils changed slightly.

He noticed that when Wei Liang exhaled, a breath of hot air came out of his mouth and nose, but within that hot air, there were vaguely some pure white ice crystals.

Just like the head teacher back then.

"Liangzi has also been contaminated?!"

Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat. He really wanted to say, 'Liangzi, didn't you say you survived for seven days? What the hell did you experience in the last two days?!'

But he certainly couldn't say that.

He thought of what the head teacher had said, that a steely will was the key to resisting pollution.

So...

"Liangzi always thinks he's fine, so even if he's deceiving himself, at least under the blessing of such a 'will,' he can resist this pollution?"

Because "I think I'm okay," so "I'm really okay," even if "there's a problem," then "it's not my problem"?

"What the hell... is this some kind of divine operation?!"

Lin Yi was somewhat glad that he hadn't blindly chosen to follow Wei Liang's approach from the beginning, otherwise, with his so-called "high sensitivity," he wouldn't be able to achieve Wei Liang's kind of "self-deception."

Because Wei Liang deceived himself, Lin Yi was sure that he couldn't remind him at this time, or even guide him to make such considerations.

To do so would be to harm Wei Liang.

Wei Liang would be driven crazy by this unacceptable turn of events.

"Don't worry too much about me, Lao Lin..." Not knowing if Wei Liang had noticed the change in Lin Yi's micro-expressions, he specially spoke up to remind him, "The last time I came, it was like this for the last few days... This may be a common problem in the campus, so the experience period is only seven days."

Lin Yi's heart tensed. He thought Wei Liang was talking to him, but suddenly realized that Wei Liang wasn't talking to him at all, but was using a way that seemed like a conversation to keep talking.

"Liangzi... is anchoring himself through me?!"

Lin Yi noticed Wei Liang's hand.

A faint bluish-gray color appeared on Wei Liang's hand, very cold, but not completely cold.

At the point of contact between Wei Liang's hand and his shoulder, there was still a trace of warmth remaining, but this temperature was like a flame in the wind, flickering and uncertain when it would extinguish.

Wei Liang looked flustered, muttering to himself, but it seemed very much like he was talking to Lin Yi.

And in these words, Lin Yi keenly captured a sentence:

"..., really don't worry, once we get back to the dorm, a hot shower will warm us up..."

"Hot shower...?"

He suddenly felt a flash of inspiration.

The student rules specifically listed a rule for dormitory showers. If showers weren't beneficial, they could have simply written, 【Borrow the time from physical education class to take a bath at the gym every other day】, instead of specifically writing a rule for it, right?

"Could it be that hot showers can effectively combat pollution... or at least alleviate it?"

So, he said in a low and firm voice, “Liangzi, I'll take you to the dormitory right away. Just hang in there.”

As if his words had triggered some incomprehensible hidden mechanism, before he could finish speaking, a rustling, eerie wind suddenly swept through the corridor.

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“Whoosh—”

It was as if something invisible had suddenly climbed onto his shoulders and exhaled a cold breath in a subtle, puffing manner. He suddenly shivered, feeling the hairs on his body standing on end uncontrollably.

The temperature in Wei Liang's palm suddenly returned. His panicked expression suddenly changed, and he lowered his voice, saying, “No, Lao Lin, don't say things like that. Quickly say, ‘I won't take you to the dormitory’!”

“I have my student ID, I… I can open the door myself! I don't need you to take me!” Wei Liang added anxiously.

Lin Yi was slightly taken aback, but the creepy feeling made him feel instantly more pressured. He hadn't yet understood the meaning of Wei Liang's words, but he immediately and decisively said, “'I won't take you to the dormitory'.”

Hearing Lin Yi say this, Wei Liang immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

At the same time, the strange, eerie wind that had silently sprung up also quietly receded, and that cold feeling peeled away with great reluctance.

Lin Yi glanced at the dormitory doorplate next to him and instantly realized something. He only felt uncomfortable all over, and a chill ran down his spine.

The dormitory doorplate next to him read “1406,” which seemed to have no problem, but the doorplate made him think of a dormitory building notice:

【When you encounter a dormitory room with a number that does not match the doorplate, please remind yourself that you have misread it and ignore all calls from that dormitory.

Note: Abnormal dormitories will never open the door on their own initiative, unless!!! invited by you. (The word 'unless' is circled and marked with a huge '!!!' symbol)】

There is a very terrifying keyword in this sentence—invitation.

Abnormal dormitories will never open the door on their own initiative, unless invited by you!

There is too much information in these words, and he inexplicably understood one of the meanings!

No matter how abnormal the dormitory is, it is impossible to open the door by itself. What can open the door must be something in the dormitory.

But this thing will not open the door on its own initiative unless it is invited.

Who will invite it?

He, Lin Yi.

His sentence just now—"I'll take you to the dormitory right away"—if something indescribable automatically took it upon itself, wouldn't it become that 'you'?

This is more than just an invitation; it's a… proactive leading!

Lin Yi's mind went ice-cold. He thought of a rule about European vampires.

“Uninvited bloodlines may not cross this threshold.”

Although there are no vampires here, there are… strange classmates. Not only are there strange classmates, but there are also those ghostly figures hidden in the mist, and those terrifying and artificial creatures that enter the classroom after the lights are turned off.

Since the dormitory building is one of the most dangerous areas on campus, it might as well be assumed that all these strange things are likely to appear in the dormitory building.

Then, let's assume… that these things have some kind of mechanism, and the mechanism of one of the terrible species is that it needs to be “invited.”

Of course, these thoughts were all things he instantly understood, and he wasn't sure if they were right or wrong, but that didn't matter.

What was important was that after he repeated Wei Liang's words and said the words of “rejection,” this strange feeling that had originally enveloped him really dissipated a lot.

He continued forward.

Dorm 1407, Dorm 1408, Dorm 1409…

“Almost there.” Lin Yi said silently in his heart.

He glanced at the corridor ahead.

The corridor was quiet and serene. Although the lights were bright, there was always a faint aura of danger lurking behind the curve that was beyond the reach of sight, lingering like perfume.

“Don't let any mishaps happen at this time!” Lin Yi subconsciously gritted his teeth, one hand clutching the strap of his backpack, the other gently placed on Wei Liang's cold palm.

On the one hand, he comforted Wei Liang, and on the other hand, he calmed himself down.

At the same time, he also repeatedly recited in his mind in advance:

“My name is Lin Yi, my student ID is X0230506098…”

“I am in the 14th-floor dormitory building, my dormitory is 1414, I am going to the dormitory…”

“My name is Lin Yi, I…”

He repeated this while cautiously leading Wei Liang forward.

Before long, he walked past Dorm 1412. If nothing unexpected happened, Dorm 1413 and Dorm 1414 should be facing each other ahead.

But Lin Yi's footsteps suddenly stopped, because, as expected, something unexpected happened.

He silently looked at the corridor ahead, his expression a hodgepodge, wonderfully piecing together several expressions.

It was roughly one part “Here we go again,” two parts “I knew it,” three parts “A little panicked,” and four parts “Hey, dormitory building, I curse your stupid ass XXX.”

“Sigh…”

Lin Yi sighed faintly, only feeling that this kind of “sudden situation” had become commonplace, unremarkable, and as plain as water. But even so, he still wanted to know…

“How the hell did this right-angle turn replace the arc-shaped corridor ahead so seamlessly, huh?!!!”

He had just walked past the door of Dorm 1412 and was planning to happily take out his student ID from his pocket to swipe the card and enter Dorm 1414, but as a result, a right-angle turn appeared ahead!

It was smoother than the hair of that girl in the Dove shampoo commercial!

“Sigh…”

Lin Yi used the full belly of complaints to suppress the peeping desire for the environment in his subconscious brought about by his high inspiration, and then followed the guidance of the dormitory building notice, and slowly turned around with Wei Liang.

“There is no corner ahead, no corner ahead, no corner ahead… Important things are said three times…”

The dormitory building notice (rules) said:

【If you find a right-angle turn ahead when looking for your dormitory, please turn around and tell yourself that there is no right-angle turn ahead, and then turn around again.

You may continue forward until you confirm that the front has returned to normal.】

He turned 180 degrees and, after chanting the dormitory building notice firmly like a mantra, Lin Yi turned around again and looked forward again.

The right-angle turn was indeed gone.

But Lin Yi couldn't laugh, and even the complaints in his heart were cleared for a while.

The right-angle turn was gone, but what disappeared with this turn was everything in front of him.

The front of him was empty.

Not to mention the corridor, there wasn't even a hair.