The first class of the new semester was with the homeroom teacher.
Not long after the bell rang, the faint murmurs of whispered conversations hadn’t yet died down. The homeroom teacher set down the chalk and turned around, sweeping the room with a sharp gaze. A few students who had been whispering immediately shut their mouths.
“Su Er.” Zhu Yun lowered her voice. “Stop writing.”
Su Er’s pen paused mid-sentence as he hurried to finish his holiday homework. Since he was only one sentence away from completion, he decided to wrap it up quickly.
A gust of wind brushed his face.
Someone had stepped in front of him, changing the airflow. Su Er didn’t really want to look up—he already knew what he’d see.
A hand reached out. “Hand it over.”
Under his deskmate’s sympathetic gaze, Su Er placed his freshly completed homework on the desk.
The homeroom teacher glanced at him. “What were you writing?”
Su Er answered honestly, “I hadn’t finished my new semester plan yet.”
The teacher narrowed their eyes. With a single word, they sealed his fate. “Read.”
With no other choice, Su Er read aloud from his hastily written text: “This new semester, I will study diligently and never engage in any activities unrelated to class—”
A wave of laughter erupted.
Zhu Yun turned her head, her shoulders trembling from suppressed laughter, while even the teacher seemed amused despite themselves. Originally, the teacher had planned to scold him, but upon noticing the dark circles under his eyes, the teacher hesitated. Su Er was the oldest student in the class. It was said that his parents had suffered an accident, leaving him mentally traumatized, and causing him to take two years off from school. The principal had specifically instructed the teachers to look after him.
Swallowing words, the homeroom teacher confiscated the ‘new semester plan’ and reiterated, “Senior year is important.”
Su Er nodded, looking like he had learned his lesson.
After that brief distraction, the class ended quickly. When the teacher left, Zhu Yun teased, “I told you not to write it.”
Su Er absentmindedly spun his pen. “What kind of era still makes us write new semester plans?”
As the saying goes, plans never keep up with change.
A few students gathered in the hallway near the door, making it easy to overhear snippets of their conversation. Zhu Yun took out some hand cream and applied it. “That book’s already been banned, and they’re still talking about it?”
Su Er asked, “What book?”
“<Seven Days, Seven Nights>.” Zhu Yun replied, “The content is super explicit, and it’s dark and terrifying. I heard that someone ‘committed suicide’ after reading it, so it’s been banned across the entire internet.”
Su Er raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t expect you to be into that kind of stuff.”
Zhu Yun scoffed. “I only heard about it from someone else.”
Su Er smirked. “Who told you?”
Zhu Yun opened her mouth to answer but suddenly hesitated, unable to recall.
Su Er nudged her with his elbow. “Imaginary friend?”
“I really haven’t read it!” Seeing that she couldn't explain, Zhu Yun gave up and buried her face in her arms to nap.
But the smile on Su Er’s face slowly faded. <Seven Days, Seven Nights> had started gaining popularity about six months ago. Everyone seemed to know about it, yet no one had read it. Out of curiosity, he had searched online for it before, but he never found anything.
Normally, no matter how thoroughly something was banned, there would always be traces left online for those patients enough to dig. But this book was different—either the webpage returned a 404 error, or the link led to fake downloads designed to bait clicks.
Shaking his head, he scolded himself for being too paranoid. He tore off a sheet of notebook paper and begrudgingly started rewriting his new semester plan: ‘This new semester, I will study hard, make good use of my spare time, and even during breaks, I will actively review the next class’s content—’
As he wrote the first stroke of the last character, he sighed involuntarily. Zhu Yun, who had only half of her face exposed from her arms, muttered, "Are you still obsessing over that?"
Su Er’s pen halted. “Do I sound that delusional?”
His paranoia wasn’t just about a novel. During a gathering over the break, a few friends had snuck in some drinks. In his drunken state, Su Er went on a rant about how he doubted his own origins, even suspecting that his family members were just fabricated beings. His friends had seriously started questioning his mental health.
Zhu Yun whispered, “Maybe you’re right.”
Su Er snapped his gaze to her.
“Your parents died and left you with a huge compensation payout, yet none of your relatives actively tried to get close to you.” Zhu Yun pouted. “When my dad won the lottery earlier this year, we had people at our doorstep every day.”
Su Er took a sharp breath. “That actually makes a lot of sense!”
Speculative doubts were easy to entertain, but life continued as usual. Before he knew it, half a semester had passed, and—just as expected—he hadn’t fulfilled a single one of his new semester resolutions. With midterms approaching, he had no choice but to force himself to study.
Knock, knock, knock.
Late at night, the knocking was loud—almost like someone was pounding on the door.
Su Er put down his book, furrowing his brows, and grabbed a pair of scissors before peeking through the peephole. Outside, in the dimly lit hallway, a pale, panicked face appeared. He froze, then quickly opened the door. “Zhu Yun?”
He glanced behind her but saw no one suspicious.
“Keep this!” Zhu Yun's voice was hoarse as she pulled a small stun gun from her pocket and shoved it into his hand. “No matter who asks, don’t mention it. Take it to save your life.”
What the hell?
Zhu Yun didn’t give him time to react and turned to sprint away.
Su Er immediately chased after her.
His physical fitness had always been excellent—he once broke the school record for the 800 meters at the sports meet—yet even with that advantage, he still lost her. Standing at the entrance of a dark alley, he patted his pocket. Feeling the cool metal casing of his phone, he let out a breath of relief—at least he had it with him.
The phone rang for a long time, but Zhu Yun never picked up. Su Er hesitated for a moment before deciding to call the police. Zhu Yun was a rational person; she wouldn’t have acted so strangely unless something was seriously wrong.
What he didn’t know was that Zhu Yun’s father had already reported her missing. That evening, when he called her to dinner and received no response, he pushed open her door—only to find the room empty. There was only a letter left on the desk. In it, she wrote that the pressure of school had become too much, and she wanted to go out for a while. She didn’t know when she would return and asked her parents not to worry.
The police took Su Er’s statement. He deliberately left out the part about the stun gun but made it clear that Zhu Yun’s behavior had been abnormal. After a long night of questioning, it was already past midnight by the time the police drove him home and gave him a few words of caution.
Su Er sat in his swivel chair, feeling heavy-hearted, unable to focus on his books. Outside, a torrential downpour started in the dead of night. Half-asleep, he was jolted awake when his phone suddenly began vibrating violently on the desk. A string of unfamiliar numbers flashed on the screen.
“Hello?”
“It's me.” The voice on the other end was muffled and unclear.
Su Er had countless questions—like whose phone she was using and where she was—but before he could ask, Zhu Yun cut him off. “Do you remember <Seven Days, Seven Nights>?”
“The banned erotic horror novel?”
There was a moment of stunned silence on the other end, but instead of correcting him, she hurriedly continued, “Right now, it’s 3:42 AM. In exactly three minutes, you will enter that novel—”
Her voice started breaking up. “Remember to keep the stun gun with you—”
The call abruptly ended.
Su Er frowned and tried calling back, only to hear a busy tone.
Almost instinctively, he picked up the stun gun from his desk, turning it over in his hands. At the police station earlier, he had subconsciously omitted mentioning it. Beyond Zhu Yun’s warning, there was also the fact that he had a history of emotional trauma—if he told the police everything, they might even suspect that he had done something to Zhu Yun.
He hadn’t even pressed the power button when a violent surge of electricity shot through his body.
Half of his body instantly went numb. Su Er struggled to move his fingers to call for an ambulance, but it was as if he was being crushed by powerful ocean waves, unable to fight back. Before he could react, he was forcibly pulled into the vortex.
—A short circuit!
That was his last thought before everything went dark.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a gray, misty world. Su Er squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them again, only to see several others standing nearby, just as bewildered as he was.
“Where is this?” Someone asked the question on everyone’s mind.
No one had an answer.
“There’s someone over there!” A girl suddenly pointed into the distance.
Following her gaze, they saw several small desks set up ahead, resembling a recruitment event.
The girl couldn’t hold back and ran forward, and the others quickly followed. Su Er trailed behind them at a steady pace, his gaze sweeping the surroundings. Including himself, there were four people in total.
Panting, the girl reached the nearest desk and was about to speak when—
“Shut up!” A man sitting cross-legged slammed his hand on the table, startling her into silence.
At the neighboring desk, a woman was more patient. “There are pamphlets summarizing information from those who came before you. You can read them yourselves.”
Su Er and another man reacted the fastest, both reaching for a pamphlet at the same time.
“You first,” the man said generously. There was a thick stack, so there was no need to fight over them.
One by one, everyone took a copy.
“Not bad,” the cross-legged man sneered, his tone dripping with mockery. “Unlike the idiot last time who had to get beaten half to death before accepting reality.”
As he spoke, Su Er flipped to the first page.
The title read <Seven Days, Seven Nights>, and the table of contents was clearly structured:
Abstract………………………………1
1. Organizations………………………2
1.1 Major Organizations………………2
1.2 Requirements for New Recruits……3
2. Demons and Sprites
2.1 Methods to Deal With Them………4
……
As he scanned the booklet, Su Er bit his lip hard enough to taste blood. Only when he was sure it hurt did he casually lick his wound.
Pain. A real wound. The chances that this was a dream were slim.
So, book transmigration had an entire industry now? A warning beforehand and a pamphlet explaining the world upon arrival?
“It’s about to start,” Su Er overheard one of the ‘recruiters’ muttering to himself.
At that moment, a massive water screen rose in the distance.
The cross-legged man’s expression turned serious. “Long story short, listen up. Your performance in the newcomer round will be publicly displayed on that screen. All major organizations will be watching for potential recruits.”
Publicly displayed?
Su Er frowned. He flipped through the pamphlet and found a note stating that only a player’s first trial would be broadcast. He exhaled softly in relief.
The man noticed his reaction and sneered. “If every round was fully exposed, wouldn’t that mean no one would have any secrets?”
And in this world, survival depended on having secrets—or, more precisely, having leverage to stay alive.
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