Chapter 179: Movie Premiere
“Look at that back view—is that…?”
“Shhh, the movie’s starting. No matter how important it is, wait until it’s over. These tickets were hard to get…”
Hearing this from their companion, the person who spotted Shen Xiu thought the same—no matter how fast Shen Xiu left, he’d still need to finish the movie first.
By then, it wouldn’t be too late to tell their friends that Shen Xiu had watched the same movie as them.
——
Twenty-some seconds later, the opening credits ended, and the main feature began.
The story began at Chenglin High School.
It was the weekend, and only the senior students stayed on campus for review sessions.
Qin Xiao, a top student and also the class monitor of Senior Class 1, was not only deeply immersed in his studies but also responsible for maintaining silence during the evening self-study session.
The college entrance exams were approaching. The summer night’s insect chirps mixed with the cool evening breeze drifting in through the windows of the stiflingly hot Senior Class 1. The ceiling fan overhead creaked and whooshed as it spun.
“Ugh, it’s so hot, so how come the books I left in my drawer are damp?”
“Did one of you pour water in my drawer?”
“What the hell—who went to the bathroom and didn’t dry their hands? You got my test paper all wet! The writing’s smudged!”
Not long after self-study began, several complaints started rising from the back of the classroom.
Qin Xiao, seated at the front, paused mid-writing. Without turning his head, he said, “Quiet. There are 37 days left until the college entrance exam. Don’t distract everyone from studying.”
“Class Monitor, it’s not that I don’t want to study, and I’m not trying to cause trouble. It’s just that this place is seriously uncomfortable to sit in…”
“Whoa, Xie Kai—what’s going on with your back? There’s a huge black patch!”
“Wait, isn’t the class behind us Class 2? It’s not even near the restroom—so why is the wall suddenly leaking and getting moldy?”
“Those mold spots—I’m sure they weren’t there when I came for evening study. How did they suddenly appear? It’s weird… I’m kind of scared.”
“Is there a water leak next door?”
As the students in the back row continued to complain, the rest of the class couldn’t focus either. Curiosity drew everyone to gather at the back of the classroom.
Qin Xiao frowned and got up from his seat, walking toward the rear of the room.
Below the desks, on the lower part of the wall, large patches of black mold had appeared at some point, emitting a damp, musty smell.
“Class Monitor, should we call a teacher to take a look? This feels kind of strange.”
“It’s giving me the creeps. I’m scared.”
“Wait… have you noticed that, aside from us talking in here, there’s no sound coming from outside at all…?”
“There—there’s no one outside. Only our classroom still has the lights on!”
That one sentence plunged the entire room into panic.
Everyone stared fearfully out the windows but didn’t dare step out.
Upon hearing that, Qin Xiao reached out and touched the wall. When he pulled his hand back, his fingertips were covered in black mold.
“Class Monitor, what should we do?”
“Don’t tell me… we’re stuck in some ghost—”
“Shut up. Schools are filled with strong positive energy. Don’t go spouting superstitions here.”
“But isn’t there a rumor that schools are built on graveyards, and our youthful energy is used to suppress—”
“That’s enough.”
Qin Xiao pulled out a pack of tissues and wiped the mold off his hand. “My house is like this too. As long as you don’t touch it, it’s fine. It won’t affect anything. We’ll let the teacher know after study hall. Let’s get back to work.”
The classmates: “……”
The dampness and moldy stench in the air were growing stronger—yet the class monitor still expected them to study?
But…
Everyone’s gaze turned toward the outside. It was pitch black now, and even the insects that had been chirping earlier had fallen completely silent.
The stillness was unnerving.
In such eerie silence, no one dared to leave the room. All they could do was place their hopes in Qin Xiao.
Maybe… Qin Xiao was right. Maybe everything would be fine once evening study ended.
Clinging to that sliver of hope, the previously noisy classroom fell silent again.
But everyone’s minds were uneasy. No one turned a page or touched a test paper—except for Qin Xiao.
The students sat rigidly in their chairs, even holding their breath without realizing it.
Thud, thud, thud…
Knocking sounds echoed from behind the wall. At once, everyone felt a chill run down their spines and turned in unison toward the source of the noise.
“C-Class Monitor, the wall… the wall is m-moving…”
Bang!
Having faced this kind of situation before, Qin Xiao didn’t hesitate. He turned with a dark expression and flung a politics textbook straight at the wall.
The bulging wall immediately calmed.
Qin Xiao turned to the student who had spoken, smiling faintly: “It’s quiet now. Can we continue self-study?”
“…Yes.”
Drip, drip, drip…
Gurgle… gurgle…
The sound of dripping water, mixed with a guttural, throat-like groan, echoed from outside the classroom.
The students instinctively looked out the windows, curiosity driving their gaze.
Their hearts stopped as they stared outside the windows and toward the door—eyes filled with fear. The scream forming in their throats hadn’t even left when—
Bang!
Qin Xiao slammed the front classroom door shut without a moment’s hesitation.
Turning his head slightly, Qin Xiao smiled at his classmates and said calmly, “What are you looking at? Focus on your self-study.”
The classmates, scared out of their wits but too stunned to scream: “……”
Screeeeech—
As the classroom door shut, sharp, grating sounds of fingernails scraping against the glass echoed through the room, making everyone’s teeth ache and scalps go numb.
Everyone instinctively looked toward the windows—only to see countless bulging, pale eyeballs pressed against the glass, and arms covered in fingers slapping violently against it.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
Before anyone could scream, Qin Xiao swiftly pulled all the curtains shut.
“No matter what happens, nothing should disrupt classroom order or our studies. Continue your self-study.”
……
The lights went out. No one could study anymore.
When they opened their eyes again, the students of Senior Class 1 found themselves in a hospital.
Each of them had an identity card and a corresponding task.
Qin Xiao looked down at the words “Dr. Qin” printed on his card. Frustrated that he could no longer self-study, he turned to stare at a grotesque, twisted body—obviously made up of countless human parts fused together—and spoke in a low, calm voice: “I understand now.”
The students with cards labeling them as patients or nurses shuddered upon hearing his words.
Qin Xiao turned to meet their terrified gazes, confusion written across his face. He asked, “We’re medical students now, aren’t we? Isn’t it normal not to show fear when seeing severed limbs? Stitching together broken limbs, or restoring a deformed body to its normal human form—these are standard procedures. Why are you all looking at me like that? Did I do something wrong?”
“Let’s get to work. Heal all the monsters in this hospital, and we’ll be able to go back to self-study.”
No one responded.
Expressionless, Qin Xiao began carving away—piece by piece—the grotesque creature pretending to be a patient, the one that had held his hand and returned with him. Over two meters tall, its entire body was a disturbing fusion of mismatched human limbs and fleshy lumps.
The monster didn’t stay still—it tried countless times to devour Qin Xiao. But he was even more agile and ruthless than the creature, rallying others to assist him.
“What are you standing around for? It’s mentally unstable. Nurse, hold down its hand—don’t let it struggle.”
“Patient in Bed 7—control your head. Do not attempt to grow a second one.”
“Dr. Qi, get your drool under control. Rotten, uncooked flesh is not appetizing.”
“Move faster. Don’t waste valuable study time.”
……
The bloody horror, the violent, grotesque visuals, the nauseating stench splashing across their faces—paired with Qin Xiao’s eerily calm and inexplicable remarks…
Everyone who followed Qin Xiao’s instructions wasn’t just mentally numb by now—their whole bodies were frozen.
……
School grounds, hospital, graveyard, abandoned warehouse, lake…
As they endured more and more of these forbidden zones together, the way the students looked at Qin Xiao gradually changed—the trust in their eyes now mixed with obvious fear.
When they emerged from the latest forbidden zone, they saw a countdown on the wall beside the blackboard.
Only 7 days left until the college entrance exam.
Seeing the number “7,” everyone’s minds went blank for a moment. Then they all sighed in relief, their gazes toward Qin Xiao filled with complicated emotions.
“Huh? The other classes already went down to take their graduation photos. Why is Class 3-1 still up here? Hurry and get going.”
Hearing the familiar voice of their teacher, the students finally realized—
They were back in the real world.
Qin Xiao tilted his head toward the teacher and gave a bright smile. “Got it, teacher. We understand.”
After speaking, he turned to his classmates, his smile no different from before they had entered the forbidden zone.
“Didn’t you hear what the teacher said? Let’s go.”
With that, Qin Xiao was the first to leave the classroom.
Once he left, the whispering finally began.
“We were in there for a whole month… yet no one seemed to think it was strange? That’s really weird.”
“After all the weird stuff we’ve been through, is this even that strange anymore?”
“Is Qin Xiao even human? No matter where we ended up, the moment we finished a task, he’d start giving us review sessions—covered in blood, without even washing up. What kind of person does that? He’s insane.”
“But without Qin Xiao, how would we even take the college entrance exam?”
“Is that the point? The real question is… do you guys think… we’re really still alive?”
“Are we… still ourselves?”
“I think so. I mean, we still remember everything we studied. Would a monster know exam material?”
“Who cares? I feel like I’m still me.”
“Hahaha, same here. I’ll always be me…”
At the end of the film, all the students of Senior Class 1 took their college entrance exam and went their separate ways.
But afterward, in every place those students had once lived—except for Qin Xiao—traces of damp, moldy air and mildew, just like during their self-study sessions, began to appear…
As the credits finished rolling, Shen Xiu took off his 3D glasses and left Theater 6 at the fastest speed.
At the same time, the audience who had just finished watching the first screening of New Life were already excitedly removing their 3D glasses and eagerly discussing it with their companions.
“I finally understand why New Life was categorized as a horror film when I bought the ticket. Before watching, I was so confused—what does a coming-of-age school drama have to do with horror? Now I get it.”
“So this is why they needed all that special effects work—my god, the visuals were so realistic and twisted. Watching it made me feel like I was going insane. What kind of warped mind comes up with effects that intense? Even thinking about it now makes my brain go numb… Wait a second—when those monsters were trying to descend into the human world, I remember feeling like reality itself was bending. But now, thinking back, I can’t even picture what they looked like. When did my memory get this bad?”
“I didn’t notice until you mentioned it. I can’t remember them either. Just this deep, bone-chilling fear that won’t go away.”
“So… is this about multidimensional layers overlapping—higher dimensions forcibly intruding into lower ones, causing terror, corruption, and distortion?”
“Every time I was scared out of my mind, I’d think about how after all that insanity, they still had to go to Qin Xiao’s class. Studying in a forbidden zone surrounded by monsters… there’s something disturbingly sick about that.”
“Then what about the ending? Did the descent succeed or not? The Class 3-1 students who returned to their own world—are they really still the same people?”
“I don’t think so. Honestly, I even wonder if Qin Xiao was teaching them at all. Maybe he was teaching it—domesticating the monsters to be more human?”
“Damn, if you’re right… then what is Qin Xiao now? …Wait, where’s Shen Xiu?!”
“What Shen Xiu? Don’t tell me the movie’s scrambled your brain too—”
“Aaah! It’s your fault! I saw Shen Xiu before the movie started—I wanted to tell you, but you stopped me! And now we’ve been so caught up discussing the film, I completely forgot—wait, why are you dragging me?”
“What else? We’re going after him!”
…
Outside the cinema, Shen Xiu was stopped by a group of reporters who had been waiting for him.
During the release of New Life, many journalists—drawing on past experience—suspected that while Shen Xiu didn’t seem particularly invested in the film, he might still show up at a theater to watch it.
So, while scrambling for tickets like everyone else, they also made sure to rush out of screening rooms the moment the credits rolled, hoping they might run into him.
Some even split up—some went in to watch the movie, while others stayed outside the exits, ready to ambush.
Of course, with so many cinemas across the city, it all came down to luck.
And the reporters at this particular theater couldn’t believe theirs—they’d really managed to catch Shen Xiu.
They immediately surrounded him, stopping just one step short, and thrust their microphones forward.
“Director Shen, may we ask—at the end of the movie, are the students of Class 3-1 who returned still the same people they once were?”
Shen Xiu: “……”
Typical journalists—fast, sharp, and scarily sudden. He was nearly startled into cardiac arrest.
As for the question itself… Shen Xiu wanted to know the answer too. He turned his eyes toward the livestream camera, and with a genuinely curious expression, asked:
“What do you think?”
