Two days later, my deskmate’s punishment of standing in class finally ended, and he could sit down to attend lessons like the other students.
I thought seeing him sit in class again would make me feel better, but it didn’t.
Doing something bad is really strange—it doesn’t make you happy before, during, or after.
If that’s the case, why are there still so many bad people in the world?
I was terrified they’d find out what I had done. I was afraid I’d end up in prison.
I endured this anxiety for what felt like forever, until, during the second class in the afternoon, the entire room suddenly began to shake.
The homeroom teacher, who had been lecturing, let out a piercing scream when the shaking started, her face turning beet red. A few seconds later, she abandoned us, fleeing the classroom like her life depended on it.
She stumbled every few steps, half-running, half-crawling, as if being chased by a man-eating tiger.
Watching her frantic escape, the students sat in the trembling room, exchanging bewildered looks.
The teacher had said that if anyone left the classroom without her permission during class, their pinyin test scores would be marked as zero.
But what were we supposed to do now?
I sat rigidly in my chair, hands clasped behind my back. Maybe if I waited until the shaking stopped, until the teacher returned, she’d see me sitting straighter than the other kids and praise me as a “good child.”
But even as cracks began to spread across the walls, even as ceiling fans started crashing down, the teacher never came back.
The spinning fans fell one after another, landing on the students. I watched as the kids in the front row were crushed beneath them, screaming in agony, blood pooling around them.
Only then did people finally start standing up. Everyone realized something was terribly wrong.
“Zheng Yingxiong!” My deskmate yanked my arm. “Run! The classroom’s collapsing!”
“N-no… I can’t…” I clenched my hands behind my back. “The teacher said—”
“Dang it! Screw the teacher!” He hauled me to my feet. “Zheng Yingxiong! This is an earthquake—if we don’t run, we’ll die!”
But I couldn’t trust him. He was a bad kid. Everyone said he was from some other place, and his clothes were always dirty…
As I hesitated, the fan above us finally gave way. With a deafening crash, it plummeted down, spinning menacingly as it fell.
At the last second, my deskmate shoved me hard, sending me sprawling to the floor. I felt something warm splash across my face.
Dazed, I scrambled up to check on him—only to see one of the fan blades buried deep in his chest.
He slumped in his seat, convulsing, blood gushing from his mouth with every breath.
“Xu Jiahua…” I choked out, shaking him desperately. “Xu Jiahua…”
But I had no idea what to say.
“Zheng Yingxiong… run… just run…” He weakly pushed me away with his grimy hands, each word punctuated by a spurt of blood. “Dang it… *cough*… hurts like hell…”
“I’m sorry… Xu Jiahua… I’m so sorry…”
“Don’t… just run…” He kept shoving me. “I promised… to look out for you… go…”
But I had to apologize. If I didn’t do it now, I might never get another chance.
“I stole the meal ticket… Xu Jiahua, I framed you…” I sobbed. “Please don’t die…”
“I know… I know…” He patted my arm weakly, his face drenched in sweat from the pain. “It’s fine, Zheng Yingxiong… just run…”
But even as the ceiling collapsed the next second, even as the entire school building buried us all together, I never understood what Xu Jiahua meant by “I know” and “It’s fine.”
Was he in too much pain to hear me clearly?
Was he so close to death that he’d lost his mind?
I was the one who set him up. I was the one who planted the meal ticket in his desk.
I was the one who got him punished for two days.
Yet he wasn’t angry—he just kept telling me to run.
But where was I supposed to run to…?
I truly had nowhere to go. I didn’t want to flee to the streets, didn’t want to do homework under that streetlight again, didn’t want to return to a home now reduced to rubble.
If I had to run… could I run back to my childhood?
I’d done so many things that made my parents angry. I wanted to go back and start over, to be a good kid this time.
Later, I learned that no one could escape this thing called an “earthquake.”
Whether I ran to the streets, under the streetlight, or into the shattered remains of my home—there was no escape.
When I woke up again, I was hanging from the ceiling of a dimly lit room alongside eight others. Our hands were bound with elastic-like ropes, swaying like rows of roasted ducks.
What was happening now?
Three strange figures stood in the room—one wearing a rabbit mask, one a tiger mask, and the last a dog mask.
Behind them loomed a massive machine, its screen frozen on a ten-minute countdown.
“Good morning, nine of you,” the rabbit-masked man spoke. “Pleased to meet you here. You’ve been unconscious before us for twelve hours.”
Was this prison?
Because I lied, stole, and hurt someone… I’d been dragged to prison!
If you’re taken to prison… do they notify your parents?
I’ll be beaten.
The stench in this prison was unbearable—from the moment I opened my eyes, a foul odor assaulted my senses.
I’d never smelled anything like it before… no, it was more like my nose had never been this sharp.
The other adults seemed to say a lot, but I was too terrified to remember any of it.
“Now, we’ll play a game with you,” the rabbit continued. “The ropes binding your arms are specially made. If you pull hard enough or scrape at them with your nails, you can break free. The moment someone escapes, the countdown behind me will start. You’ll have ten minutes to retrieve the key to this room.”
He pointed to a wooden door in the corner. “Anyone who tries to break the door will face ‘sanctions’ here.”
“Where’s the key?” a middle-aged man demanded.
Glancing at the others hanging beside me, I realized that apart from one young woman, the rest were all elderly—uncles and aunties.
“The key is in the well.” The rabbit walked to a corner and gestured. Only then did I notice a round hole there.
“Someone can go down to retrieve it,” he added. “Descend five meters, and you’ll find five gas masks. Go ten meters, and you’ll get the escape key. How you survive is up to you.”
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