3: Shh, it's watching you.

The next day, early morning.

As soon as Lin Que entered the classroom, he sensed that something was wrong with the atmosphere.

It was too quiet.

During the usually noisy morning reading time, no one dared to speak loudly at this moment.

A few boys in the back row huddled together, their faces pale and eyes dark with fatigue.

"Hey, did you sleep well last night? After I finished reading that book, I kept the light on all night and kept feeling like there were footsteps outside the door."

"Don't bring it up. My mom got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, and the sound of the door opening almost scared me to death on the spot!"

"Now the book title has become a banned word on the school forum, saying it will cause student panic, but everyone is whispering about it behind the scenes. The more it's banned, the more excited people are to read it!"

"Really? What book is so freakish?"

"You actually don't know? It's called the human world is like a prison! The Longdekong Forum is already boiling over, saying that anyone who reads this book will be targeted by dirty things!"

Lin Que raised an eyebrow slightly.

The effect seemed even better than expected.

He quietly took out his phone and logged into the author backend.

The data refreshed.

Lin Que's pupils constricted slightly.

In just a single night.

Chapter requests: 99+

Likes 99+

Comments 99+

The review section was a sea of wailing, filled with readers' messages that were both terrified and excited.

[Materialist Warrior]: This book is poisonous! After reading it last night, I didn't dare to use the restroom and held it in until dawn! Author, you owe me a bladder!

[Night Owl]: Divine setting! Ghosts cannot be killed? How is anyone supposed to play this? It's too hopeless! But I just can't stop reading it!

[Who Moved My Cheese]: I am under the covers, and I always feel like someone is lying outside the quilt... Help, emergency!

[Update Fanatic]: Ten King of Gifts have been sent! Great Master author, update quickly! As long as you dare to write, I dare to read!

Lin Que scrolled through the comments, his fingers tapping lightly on the desk.

This thrill of manipulating other people's emotions was truly intoxicating.

This was also why, even though he graduated from a top-tier 985 science program in his past life, he still resolutely plunged into the screenwriting career.

At this moment.

The light at the classroom door dimmed.

A tall figure blocked the morning light.

Shen Qingqiu stood there, her face a bit paler than usual, with obvious bloodshot veins in her eyes.

Her gaze swept quickly across the classroom and finally nailed onto Lin Que.

"Lin Que."

The voice made one's scalp tingle.

The entire class instantly fell silent, dozens of pairs of eyes casting uniformly toward Lin Que.

Being called out by Old Shen early in the morning meant he was mostly doomed.

Yet Lin Que looked completely calm, stood up under everyone's gaze, and walked out of the classroom.

At the end of the corridor, the wind was a bit strong.

Shen Qingqiu had her back to him, her shoulders slightly tense.

"Teacher, are you looking for me?"

Lin Que asked, feigning ignorance.

Shen Qingqiu turned around abruptly.

She was gripping that composition notebook tightly in her hand.

In those cold, beautiful eyes, extremely complex emotions were currently churning.

There was shock, confusion, and exhaustion...

Clearly, she had a hard time falling asleep last night because of this composition.

She stared at Lin Que, her voice so hoarse it was almost out of tune:

"That back to back... When you wrote those words, what on earth were you thinking in your head?"

"Did you really write it?"

Facing the beautiful head teacher's man-eating gaze,

"Of course I wrote it, Teacher."

Lin Que was extremely calm.

"Didn't you say to use fear as the theme?

I feel like nothing is more terrifying than the unknown."

Shen Qingqiu took a deep breath, trying to calm her still wildly beating heart.

Last night, after she posted this composition into the Writers Association chat group,

those old writers who usually boast that their faces wouldn't change even if Mount Tai collapsed before them all blew up in the middle of the night.

Some said this was grandstanding, some said it was unorthodox,

but more people were privately asking her:

Who is this student? Are there any other works?

"Do you know that what you wrote... is very dangerous?"

Shen Qingqiu stared closely into Lin Que's eyes, trying to read something from the face of this student who usually had mediocre grades.

"Dangerous?"

Lin Que tilted his head, feigning innocence.

"Teacher, isn't literary creation meant to break conventions?

If one only knows how to write bland and lukewarm things, then what is the meaning of literature's existence?"

These words slammed heavily upon Shen Qingqiu's heart.

Thinking of her own steady and unoriginal award-winning works, she suddenly felt a bit blushed.

"You..."

Shen Qingqiu was at a loss for words for a moment, and sighed after a long while.

"I have already submitted this composition of yours to participate in the city competition.

But I must remind you, most of the judges are conservatives, and a style like yours... might not curry favor with them."

Lin Que smiled:

"Thank you, Teacher. Whether I win an award or not doesn't matter; as long as I can scare them, I'm satisfied."

Shen Qingqiu was amused to laughter by his "dark humor" appearance:

"You! Alright, go back to class. From now on... from now on, write less of this kind of stuff late at night!"

Watching Lin Que's receding back, a strong premonition surged in Shen Qingqiu's heart:

In the future, this student is afraid to turn the entire literary world upside down.

Returning to the classroom, his deskmate Wu Di immediately crowded over with a gossipy look:

"Brother Que, what did our Sister Bingbing want with you? Did your composition go off-topic?"

Lin Que smiled mysteriously:

"Nothing much, just exchanged some insights on being afraid of ghosts."

"Ghosts? What is a ghost?"

Wu Di had a bewildered look on his face.

Lin Que patted his shoulder:

"You will know soon."

...

Over the next few days, the data for the human world is like a prison skyrocketed as if riding a rocket.

In this world lacking entertainment, a novel that could make one's adrenaline surge spread at a viral speed.

Soon, it broke into the top ten of the Hong Guo Net new book list.

And with an unreasonable posture, it blasted down the sci-fi and urban novels of those veteran supreme masters one by one.

The Hong Guo Net editorial department.

The duty editor "Lüluo" was staring at a data monitoring screen with her mouth slightly open.

On the screen, a new book called the human world is like a prison had all its data indicators presenting a bizarre red alert status.

"Sister Hong, you have to come look at this!"

She shouted toward the Editor-in-Chief's office.

Editor-in-Chief Hong Hu walked over, looking at the reader retention curve that was almost perpendicular to the timeline, and frowned:

"What book is this? Have they been faking data?"

"Doesn't look like it."

Lüluo pulled up the user comment analysis.

"Look, the activity level in this book's comment section is thirty times that of new books of the same level, but negative emotional vocabulary...

for example, being scared, not daring to sleep, scared to piss oneself, and so on, accounts for as high as 70%.

A normal book would have already been cursed by readers until it was taken down, yet its serialization retention rate is...

98%!

Readers curse while continuing to read it, and some even check in at the comment section to report they are safe."

Hong Hu's expression turned serious as she quickly flipped through the novel's content.

When she saw the setting that "ghosts cannot be killed," she drew a sharp breath of cold air.

"This... completely violates our platform's content guidelines centered around science fiction."

She muttered.

The content risk control team leader nearby leaned over upon hearing this, his expression solemn:

"Editor-in-Chief, this book's content orientation is very dangerous. Colleagues from the legal department have already issued warnings; it might touch upon some red lines."

Hong Hu fell silent.

She looked at the terrifying data growth in the backend, and then looked at the risk warnings from the legal department.

After a moment of struggle, she made a decision.

"The higher the risk, the greater the opportunity."

She finally made the call.

"Lüluo, contact the author immediately! Send him a LV4 contract; we need exclusive copyright and the right of first refusal for all subsequent works!"

Just at this moment, Lin Que's phone vibrated once.

An on-site message from Hong Guo Net popped up:

[Respected author "Hell Dream Weaver", hello, your work the human world is like a prison has reached the signing criteria. I am your duty editor Lüluo. Please add my contact info QQ: XXXXXX...]

The corners of Lin Que's mouth curled up slightly.

But he wasn't in a rush to add the editor.

Where are we even at right now? He would wait until it rushed to number one on the new book list and he had more bargaining chips before talking.

Evening self-study.

Lin Que was typing on his phone when he suddenly heard a repressed exclamation from the front row.

"Ah!"

It was the class belle Su Qianqian.

At this moment, she was holding her phone, her little face pale white, her body trembling slightly,

but her eyes were staring dead at the screen, unable to bear looking away even a bit.

Lin Que glanced at her screen—the familiar black background with white text interface was precisely his the human world is like a prison.

Su Qianqian seemed to sense something, and when she turned back, she happened to meet Lin Que's gaze.

As if caught doing something bad, she flurriedly flipped her phone face down on the desk, her face instantly turning completely red.

"Lin, Lin Que, don't misunderstand, I wasn't looking at messy things..."

Su Qianqian explained stammeringly.

Lin Que held back his smile:

"It's fine, I also like reading this kind of... stimulating stuff."

Su Qianqian's eyes lit up, as if she had found a kindred spirit, and she lowered her voice to say mysteriously:

"You also read the human world is like a prison? It's too terrifying! That Door-Knocking Ghost is simply absolute!

You say... could our school also have this kind of thing?"

Lin Que looked at the girl in front of him who sucked at it yet loved playing anyway, and a mischievous sense of humor welled up inside him.

He lowered his voice and spoke in a ghastly tone:

"Who knows? But I heard that before our school was built, it was a mass grave...

Perhaps, right now something is clinging to the outside of the window, watching us have our evening self-study..."

"Ah!"

Su Qianqian was so frightened she covered her ears directly, tears swirling in her eye sockets.

"Lin Que, you're so hateful! I'm not talking to you anymore!"

Just at this moment, the classroom lights suddenly flickered twice.

The whole class instantly fell silent, and everyone instinctively looked toward the pitch-black night outside the window.