"You want to join us?" The oldest boy tilted his head and looked at me. His eyes shone brightly in the dark, and for some reason, the gesture reminded me of that black cat I saw by the gate earlier.
"Since you're all playing anyway, adding me won't change anything. If it gets too weird, I'll just film from the side and you can play your game."
"Xue Fei, if we add him, that makes four people—just enough to play that game we've always wanted to try." The younger boy squeezed in front of me. "Hi, I'm Xiumu. That's my brother, Xue Fei. The short-haired punk is my classmate Shen Meng, and the shy youngest girl is Yingzi."
Xiumu looked small and fragile, like a gust of wind could blow him over, but he was the liveliest and boldest of the four.
"We actually already played a few games earlier—like the Pen Fairy, the Flying Dagger—but they didn't work."
"Daring to play Pen Fairy here? You guys are really asking for trouble."
"Well, that's what we found out after playing—it's all fake," Xiumu said casually. But I noticed the other three looked at me with cold eyes.
I felt uneasy. "If you know it's fake, why not just go home?"
"No, no. There's still one game we haven't played. It's a four-person game, and we don't have enough players."
"Not enough? Aren't there four of you right now?" There was something eerie about the way Xiumu said it, which made me feel uneasy.
"Yingzi doesn't play. She's too scared and never wants to join us."
My eyes glanced past the three toward Yingzi standing last. She was shy, always looking down and hardly speaking.
"Fine. I'll play with you once. But remember—when it's over, everyone goes home. It's late, your families must be worried."
"All right, finally got a full group."
I couldn't share Xiumu's excitement. I just wanted these kids to leave safely and then thoroughly search the campus.
"This game's called Four People, Four Corners. The rules are like this."
"At midnight, in a rectangular empty room, turn off all the lights. Then one person stands in each corner, all facing the corner, absolutely no looking backward."
"When the game starts, one person walks to another corner, gently taps the person's shoulder there, and stays in that corner. Then the tapped person walks to the next corner and taps the third person."
"Everyone moves clockwise, in turn. But if you walk to an empty corner, you cough once, then pass through that corner and keep going until you meet the next person."
After hearing the rules, I didn't think it sounded too scary.
"That simple? But as you said, one corner is always empty, so the game never ends."
Xiumu pressed his face to the window, peering inside. "Not necessarily."
"Friends who played before said that when no one coughs inside, it means every corner has someone. But there's always one person walking because you can hear footsteps."
"It's a four-player game, but during play a fifth person appears."
His explanation made me suddenly regret agreeing. "Sounds even scarier than the Flying Dagger."
"What's there to be afraid of? Maybe our friends were just messing around," Xiumu tapped his head. "If you're really scared, all four players can close their eyes and say 'Game over' together to quit. But if even one person disagrees, the game continues."
I glanced at my phone. The chat on The Netherworld Live Show was hyped, some even threatening to tip.
"Alright, shall we play here in this classroom?"
"No, this one's too small," Xue Fei said. "There's a special classroom in this building. Let's go there."
"Special?" I squinted. "Looking at the door signs, there should be fifteen classes in total, five per grade. But this building has four classrooms per floor, four floors total, so there's definitely one empty classroom."
We walked to the top floor and stopped in front of the last classroom on the left.
Peering through the window, the room was cleared out — only blackboard, podium, and a rusty ceiling fan hanging.
"Legend says this classroom was cleared because of a girl. Her family was poor; her parents worked multiple jobs to afford tuition. Compared to other students, she studied extra hard — listened attentively in class during the day, and at night stayed with a flashlight studying long after everyone else left."
"A week passed, then two, until one night, the girl was targeted by some rich boys who tormented her. Unable to bear the humiliation, she jumped from the fourth floor and died."
"Though her body perished, they say her spirit returns every night to study in this classroom."
"Stop it, Xiumu!" Shen Meng suddenly screamed, cutting off his own story as it got more intense.
"Scared now?"
Shen Meng pouted stubbornly, "No, I just don't want to scare Yingzi."
Yingzi, who always kept distance from me, stayed silent with her head down the whole time.
"Enough talk. Let's start." Xue Fei, the oldest, took charge and the others fell silent. "Also, this game requires total darkness. No light at all. Put the camera outside and have Yingzi watch it."
I nodded, placed the camera on the windowsill, and unlocked my phone screen just enough to keep the camera on for the livestream.
"Okay, let's assign spots." Xiumu gathered us. "I'll go first to the bottom left corner. Streamer, you go next to the top left. Then Xue Fei to the top right, and Shen Meng last to the bottom right. After everyone is in place, Shen Meng will cough once to start, then I'll move first. Everyone moves clockwise — when I tap your shoulder, you move, and if a corner is empty, cough once and keep moving without stopping."
"Remember the rules? Okay, begin."
The classroom was pitch black, thick darkness like a huge ink blot. Ten seconds after Xiumu entered, I took a breath and stretched out my hands, feeling my way inside.
It was truly dark—visibility less than half a meter. I stood straight, couldn't even see my own shoes.
Slowly, my arm touched the wall. In this darkness, that small corner felt strangely comforting.
I turned and scanned. The classroom was huge but invisible in the dark. The only faint light came from my camera's signal light flashing by the window, right next to Yingzi, head bowed.
Soon, Shen Meng coughed.
I knew the game had begun.
"Tap, tap, tap"—footsteps behind grew clearer. I faced the wall, knowing it was Xiumu behind me, but my heart couldn't stop racing.
"Pop." A light tap on my shoulder. I understood and moved clockwise to the next corner.
Unexpectedly, time in the darkness slowed, as if stepping into a passage leading nowhere.
Slowly, I saw a black human-shaped silhouette. It was too dark to be sure, even up close—I dared not confirm it was Xue Fei.
"Finally here." I gently tapped the black shadow's shoulder, stopped at the corner, watching the shadow move slowly, then vanish into the dark.
Waiting felt endless. Time blurred in this classroom. I silently counted seconds, listening to my heartbeat.
About a minute later, a cough came — "Shen Meng."
Soon after, footsteps approached again, and my shoulder was tapped.
I moved again, like an unending cycle.
The second cough sounded — low and indistinct.
From my guess, it was Xue Fei.