PCJ – Chapter 68 Horror Campus

Gong Ziyuan slept until broad daylight. If it weren’t for the noisy reading of early-arriving students, Gong Ziyuan would probably have slept through the class bell. Glancing at the Shanghai-brand mechanical watch on his wrist, he quickly rolled out of bed.

“Oh my, it’s already seven o’clock.” Gong Ziyuan hurriedly rushed to the faculty canteen. However, just halfway there, he heard a scream coming from one of the classrooms.

“Snake!”

Gong Ziyuan immediately stopped in his tracks. Although it wasn’t his class, as a teacher in the school, he couldn’t ignore such a commotion.

It was a sixth-grade classroom. Since they would be taking the junior high school entrance exam next year, the students in this class had been working hard since this year. In the nineties, although junior high school was technically part of compulsory education, it still required passing an exam. Those who didn’t meet the admission criteria wouldn’t be accepted by Meizi Village School. Those who failed to get in would basically drop out and return home to help with farming. For rural people, teaching their children to read a few characters was to ensure they didn’t end up blind or ignorant. Almost no parents sent their children to school with the aim of them going to college. After all, college was too far-fetched for rural children. In this year, out of the tens of thousands of residents in Gezhuping Town, only about a hundred or so applied for college, and fewer than ten were admitted. From elementary to junior high, about half of the students would be eliminated, and from junior high to high school, about two-thirds would be eliminated. From the first to the third year of high school, fewer than half of the students would make it to the college entrance examination. But in every village, there were always a few children who loved to study.

Liu Wenbo, a sixth-grader, was one such student who loved to study. From first grade to sixth grade, he had been the top student in his class every year. Every day, except for the teachers who lived on campus, Liu Wenbo was the first to arrive at school.

When Liu Wenbo arrived at school this morning, he sat down at his desk as usual to study. However, he didn’t notice anything different about his desk until he reached for his pen after reading for a while. He felt something cold and soft inside the desk. When he pulled it out and took a look, he was almost scared out of his wits. It wasn’t a rope at all—it was a snake!

“Snake! Snake!” Without bothering to check if the snake was venomous, Liu Wenbo quickly threw it out.

Thud!

The snake landed crisply on the platform. It was a harmless species, but it still scared Liu Wenbo half to death. He dashed out of the classroom, but before he could fully retreat, he collided with Gong Ziyuan.

“Teacher, there are so many snakes!” Liu Wenbo cried out as if he had seen a ghost, tears welling up in his eyes.

“Where? Where?” Gong Ziyuan was startled too, suddenly remembering yesterday afternoon’s incident. Did the snake swarm make its way into the classroom?

Liu Wenbo pointed towards the classroom but dared not enter again.

Gong Ziyuan pushed open the classroom door, about to step inside to take a look. But as soon as the door opened, a snake fell from the door frame with a thud and slithered away like a wave as soon as it hit the ground.

“Ah!”

This time, both Gong Ziyuan and Liu Wenbo exclaimed in surprise.

Gong Ziyuan grabbed Liu Wenbo and ran to the empty playground. He couldn’t tell whether those snakes were venomous or not, and he knew far less about snakes than Liu Wenbo did.

“Teacher, what should we do?” Liu Wenbo asked fearfully.

“Don’t be afraid. Let’s wait here for others to come,” Gong Ziyuan replied, unsure of what to do and hoping that some local teachers would arrive soon.

But for some reason, the teachers of Meizi Village Elementary School were all later than usual that day. Gong Ziyuan gathered the students on the playground. With no shelter, the barren playground, though made of yellow soil, had been trampled by two to three hundred students every day, preventing any grass from growing.

Zhang Jiaohua had heard about many households in the village being invaded by snakes that morning, but he still came to school on time. As soon as he entered the school gate, he noticed a crowd gathered on the playground.

“Zhang Jiaohua, come over here!” Gong Ziyuan waved frantically at him.

Zhang Jiaohua scratched his head and muttered, “Are we having PE class first?”

“Zhang Jiaohua, stand here and don’t move. We can’t go into the classrooms right now,” Gong Ziyuan explained, not bothering to explain too much. There were plenty of other kids clamoring to explain.

Sure enough, before Zhang Jiaohua could ask why, several other kids chimed in:

“There are snakes in the classroom!”

“No, there are many snakes!”

“I almost went into the classroom just now. Teacher Gong stopped me.”

“I took a peek into the classroom earlier, and oh my god, it was full of snakes.”

…

Gong Ziyuan felt a headache coming on. Were there really so many snakes in the classroom? But he couldn’t be bothered to correct the kids. He kept looking towards the school gate, hoping to see the principal and some local teachers.

“Gurgle!”

Gong Ziyuan had overslept that day and hadn’t gone to the canteen for breakfast because of the snake incident. Now his stomach was starting to protest.

“Teacher, are you hungry?” The kid had no idea if it was impolite to ask such a question.

Gong Ziyuan smiled awkwardly. “Maybe I drank too much water.”

“No, no. Teacher, if you drink too much water, it makes a gurgling sound. If your stomach growls, it means you’re hungry.” Another kid boasted.

All the kids burst into laughter, peeking at Gong Ziyuan’s expression as they laughed.

Gong Ziyuan felt as if he had swallowed a fly, his face contorted into a smile that looked more constipated than anything else. It was almost uglier than crying.

Zhang Jiaohua caught a whiff of an unusual smell. Snakes naturally had a fishy odor, which wasn’t usually noticeable. But with so many snakes around, the collective stench became overpowering. As long as one’s sense of smell was even slightly acute, it could be detected. Although Zhang Jiaohua had only practiced cultivation in his dreams and only practiced swordsmanship a few times in reality, his body’s sensitivity was much higher than that of an ordinary person.

“Where is this strong fishy smell coming from?” Zhang Jiaohua was puzzled, but he kept his thoughts to himself. His eyes scanned the surroundings. Indeed, he saw a snake on the steel mesh covering the classroom window!

As it approached eight o’clock, Ma Lisong hurriedly entered the school gate, his bald head shining, and the sparse hair on his head swaying in the wind like the few remaining wild grasses on the empty playground.

“Are you guys planning a rebellion? It’s time for class, why aren’t you in the classroom?” Seeing a crowd gathered on the playground, Ma Lisong immediately shouted loudly.