The library of Rutherford University was dimly lit, almost pitch-black. Anyone who would stay up late in the library could be considered crazy. It was spooky and eerie inside the library by day and more so by night.
There were urban legends popular among the university students that the school library that had been standing strong for four hundred years had been the home of ghosts and evil spirits which were set free by a spell and fumed out of the pages of the yellow, acid-infested, old hard-bound books from the reference section.
Thus, no one dared to stay behind, even during examination week.
However, one particular lanky, aloof, young boy, aged eighteen was left alone particularly at a side table in the same spooky, old, majestic building that was called the university library.
The youthful boy laid his head on its left side, drool flowing lavishly from his half-opened mouth, completely unaware of the pa.s.sage of time. Perhaps due to lack of sleep brought by his hectic studious lifestyle and schedule, he had been knocked down for a good few hours uninterrupted, and without care about the world around him.
Seemingly, as if already getting enough dose of sleep his body needed, the young lad"s body flinched and grunted contentedly. While yawning unperturbed, his right hand automatically rubbed the sleep from his droopy eyelids as he tried to lift his face from the tabletop, but in doing so, the page that was drenched in his saliva stuck on his left cheek slightly before it let go and, blotches of ink transferred to it too.
Still oblivious to his unpleasant situation, his free left hand wiped the remnants of the saliva from his left cheek.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
And then…
His eyes popped open in wide consciousness.
"s.h.i.+t."
"What time is it?"
Still rubbing what remains of sleepiness in his eyes, he then fetched his dark-rimmed eyegla.s.ses that were neatly folded beside the book he had used as a make-s.h.i.+ft pillow.
"It"s already forty-five minutes past one in the morning! s.h.i.+t. s.h.i.+t. s.h.i.+t."
He turned his head drastically left and right as gooseb.u.mps rose on the surface of his skin. "I"m all alone in the library…"
"No one woke me up." For an infinitesimal moment, his eyes flickered with what seemed to be a mixture of sadness, annoyance, and lack of care to the world. "Right, it"s in the past. What"s done is done."
While busy with his thoughts, he collected all the scattered papers, books, and his pens and highlighters and scrambled without delay towards the library"s front door.
"Where are the boys?"
"Right, they went on a camping trip." He recalled as he took big strides out of that "haunted" library, or so the students say.
With a wet-wipe, he cleaned the ink that stuck on his left cheek while still walking towards his dormitory. When he finished, he threw it in the garbage cans alongside the road near the lamppost.
That was when he sensed something was amiss.
It was in the wee hours of the morning, around 2 am. The young lad, whose name was Chen Linyun happened to see a grey bundle by the lamp post while coming home late from the library at Rutherford University. At first, he paid it no mind, but then… It flinched.
"What the h.e.l.l?! Am I seeing things?!"
His previous gooseb.u.mps returned. He turned around and nearly decided to run for his life when he came to his senses.
"There are no ghosts. It"s just make-believe. That thing moved because something triggered it to move. Perhaps it"s a living creature – an enormous stray cat or even a person. No sane person will leave anyone outside just like that after seeing it. So I shouldn"t."
Gathering all his courage, he turned around again. The grey bundle squirmed.
"It"s a person. Definitely a person."
Chen Linyun warily approached the lying person by the lamppost. The person coughed hard, then s.h.i.+vered. It was late autumn. It wasn"t surprising that the person was attacked by the cold sleeping outside. Alarmed, Chen Linyun finally decided to catch that person"s attention.
"Excuse me, Bro... Are you okay? Do you need any help?" There was no response, but the coughing and the movement filled the air near the lying person with the stench of alcohol.
"Great." He thought, laced with sarcasm. He felt annoyed but then all of a sudden, he froze.
Eyes almost bulging from its sockets, young Chen Linyun grew as still as a monument alongside the road near the library at Rutherford University in Canada, akin to a state as if a spell was cast on him.
He looked at the person again and felt that this whole situation somehow felt weirdly familiar.
"d.a.m.n."
"What"s happening?"
With his right hand and with a swift movement, he pulled his dark-rimmed spectacles away while his other hand rubbed whatever grogginess was left in his eyes. He blinked once, twice, several times!
"What"s happening? It seems that this scene had already happened before."
Anyone who could relate to the feeling when an encountered instance suddenly felt oddly familiar as if it had already happened would agree that that feeling was ninety percent unease and helpless agitation, and the remaining ten, utter disbelief and indifference. Pfftt. It"s overrated for a circ.u.mstance that could not be validated anyway.
Chen Linyun brushed off the feeling and proceeded with what had to be done. He flung his shoulder bag across his body to ensure that it is securely wrapped around him, then grabbed both wrists of the person on the gutter. With one swift move, he rested the person on his back.
He wasn"t as surprised as he should. Rather, his nervousness intensified as a realization dawned on him.
"The person on my back. He"s a she. And she"s not just any she. She"s the girl in my dreams."
Some images flashed inside his head – those which he had dreamt earlier in the day as if they were not dreams, but memories.
It was autumn, and the chilly autumn wind was howling, but the young lad felt his cheeks heat up as if all the blood rushed towards his face, and true enough for the first time in his life, his interest was piqued by a girl and was *ahem* blus.h.i.+ng for… this girl. In the eighteen years of his existence, he had not been this close to a girl. How luck would play, it wasn"t just any girl. She"s that girl. The girl he would want to marry someday.