004 A Playing Card

Last night’s events haunted me so much that I barely slept, and today I drifted through the hours in a haze of fatigue. As I climbed out of bed, my thoughts returned to University D’s strange taboo—why is it forbidden to return to the dormitory at midnight? Is there something unusual lurking inside the dormitory building? For now, I can only call it “something,” as I am, after all, an atheist.

Does this “something” exist in our world, or is it a native of another realm? If it coexists with us, why am I the only one who encounters it? If it belongs to another world, how did I slip into that world and then return again?

Wait—where is everyone? I glanced around and realized I was alone in the dorm once more.

Normally, I would have simply busied myself, unconcerned, but after all the strange incidents I’d been through, I suddenly yearned for the comfort of human company. Only then, it seemed, could I reclaim a sliver of safety.

I pulled on some clothes and an old jacket, preparing to head out. Just then, a playing card slipped from my body and fell to the floor.

“What is this?” I picked it up. It was a playing card, engraved with strange patterns, as thick as a fountain pen. The back depicted an ancient bronze mirror, while the front showed two black spades.

“The two of spades?”

Who bought this deck? The craftsmanship was surprisingly fine. It must belong to one of my roommates—I certainly didn’t want to be blamed for losing someone’s prized anime merchandise.

But as the card neared the table, before it even touched the surface, a wave of intense unease surged through me. At that moment, the door behind me slammed shut with a bang.

I felt as if I’d been plunged into an icehouse, a freezing current swirling behind me, making me shiver uncontrollably.

On instinct, I tossed the playing card over my shoulder.

Strangely, the cold vanished in an instant.

“What on earth is this card?” I crept back, picked it up, and examined it again. The intricate patterns seemed to draw me in, my gaze growing more and more absorbed, as if the card would swallow me whole.

“Come closer, come closer!”

A sudden, eerie voice rang in my ears. Startled, I threw the card away and hurried back to my bed.

Perhaps this was an omen; perhaps I should avoid going out today. For once, even a skeptic like me opened my phone’s perpetual calendar—today, as it happened, was an inauspicious day to leave home.

I posted my bizarre experience online, hoping someone might offer advice. Instead, everyone dismissed it as a supernatural fiction and showered me with praise. Is honesty so rare these days that no one believes the truth?

I shook my head in resignation, propping up my chin, and deleted all the messages from editors eager to sign me up. All I wanted was a reasonable explanation. Was that too much to ask?

“Zijian!” A hand landed abruptly on my shoulder, startling me so badly I rolled upright on my bed. My reaction, in turn, frightened the person behind me.

“What’s wrong with you?” he exclaimed, clutching his chest as if I’d given him heart trouble. “You almost scared me to death!”

“You’re one to talk! Don’t you know it’s dangerous to frighten people?” I spun around and gave him a punch. I didn’t need to look; only Blackie, the most bored soul in the dorm, would try to scare me like this.

“How do you explain the punch you gave me when you barged into my dorm the other night?” Blackie protested, climbing onto my bed.

I looked at him. “Did I… do that?” My memory was as fleeting as a goldfish’s; I’d already forgotten.

“It was last night, you idiot!” he said, fiddling with a playing card from my bed.

“Oh.” The memory returned: the strange message last night, being summoned downstairs though I’d never received any notification.

“Whatever, there’s nothing fun here. I’m heading back,” Blackie said, tossing the card onto the bed and turning to leave.

But for a split second, I thought I saw a card peeking out of his pocket—a card so inconspicuous I almost missed it.

It looked like… the ace of diamonds…

I rubbed my eyes to get a better look, but Blackie had already left.

Enough, I thought, better get to class. If I keep busy, I won’t have time to dwell on these things. Glancing at the clock, I saw it was already nine-thirty; I’d slept in, and chatting with Blackie had cost me more time. My next class was at ten-twenty—I had to hurry. I shoved my accounting and economics textbooks into my bag, tossed it onto the bed, and rushed through my morning routine.

As a pseudo-straight-A student, I always sat in the front row—it made me look studious and kept me from getting distracted by my phone or falling asleep. Leaving the dormitory building, I barely had time to savor the warmth of the sun before I collided with a man dressed in black.

But I had no time to worry about him. I sprinted toward my classroom, but a nauseating stench seemed to follow me. Tracing the source, I discovered a sticky red substance smeared on my shoulder.

Ugh.

I grabbed some tissues and wiped it off, disgusted. Without thinking, I tossed the tissues behind me—only to hit someone.

“Hey, you! Stop right there!” the unlucky soul I’d hit shouted.

Knowing I was at fault, I didn’t run. Instead, I turned around and faced him. “What’s wrong?”

Seeing that he was much shorter than me, my confidence surged.

He shrank back, lowering his voice. “Um… I’m new here. Could you tell me how to get to the anatomy lab?”

I almost laughed. Why would he think I knew where the medical anatomy lab was? If he’d asked about the ERP simulation lab, maybe I could have helped. After all, I knew the business school better than the medical college.

“Sorry, I’m not from the med school. You’ve got the wrong guy,” I said, turning to go.

But he persisted. “Please, I’m almost late. Help me out!”

“How are you so sure I’m from the med school?” I asked, exasperated.

“It’s the smell!” He held up the tissue I had thrown at him. “Students from the med school often go to the anatomy lab, so they smell like corpses. And you even have flesh on your shoulder!”

“The smell? Flesh?” He had to be joking. But when he unfolded the tissue, I realized—there really was a piece of meat.

“So you’re saying this is human flesh?” I grabbed him by the arm.

He startled, then stammered, “I don’t know! I’m new here too! All I know is, it’s a piece of dead animal flesh, but I have no idea what animal it’s from. I really don’t know if it’s human!”

From his panicked response, he didn’t seem to be lying.

I released him and pointed him in the general direction of the medical college, though I couldn’t tell him where the anatomy lab was.

But if what he said was true, how did that piece of meat end up on my shoulder? Was it from the person I’d brushed past at the dorm entrance? My mind raced, startling even myself with the speed of my associations. If it really was flesh from a corpse, then the person I bumped into just now…

I dared not think further. Why would he enter the dormitory? What could he possibly want from a men’s dorm?

A flash of realization struck me—playing cards! Damn, the card I’d used this morning to dispel that chilling feeling!

Damn it, that thing could save my life—I couldn’t afford to lose it. I dashed back toward the dorm, calling Third Brother and Blackie as I ran.

“Hey, Third Brother, I can’t make it to class. Can you sign me in?”

“Blackie, go check my dorm—see if that playing card is still there.”

I hung up before either of them could answer, sprinting all the way back. When I arrived, I found Blackie collapsed unconscious at my dorm room door.