But what the hell is this reverse nesting doll scenario?! Impossible, absolutely impossible.

Lin Yi felt that if he continued to think about it, his brain would overload again, so he shook his head to clear it and stopped thinking, deciding to keep this guess in mind and discuss it with Tian Bufan later to see if Tian Bufan had any other interpretations.

Meanwhile, Li Huiyuan had already been waiting at the stairwell for about two minutes. Lin Yi walked over and called out to her, but he realized that Li Huiyuan didn't respond to his call.

After calling her name twice more without a response, an ominous premonition quickly overwhelmed him. He hurried over and tapped Li Huiyuan on the shoulder, only to find her body uncontrollably trembling and even emitting a cold breath from her shoulders.

Lin Yi's expression turned grim, "Not good, she lost her layer in just these two minutes?!"

"Li Huiyuan! Li Huiyuan!"

Lin Yi shook Li Huiyuan's shoulders and pulled her back from the layer.

After regaining her senses, Li Huiyuan looked at Lin Yi in astonishment and also realized something was wrong with her, as a cold sweat broke out on her back.

"What did you see just now? How did you drop layers?" Lin Yi asked.

Li Huiyuan's face was still somewhat pale. She gasped for air and pointed towards the direction of the staircase, "I... I was just looking at the staircase, didn't do anything else, and then, I don't even know what happened. By the time I came to, you were calling me..."

"Oh! I think I remember now!"

Li Huiyuan's expression changed slightly; she covered her forehead, and her gaze suddenly became unfocused, as if drifting into some kind of memory.

"The staircase! There's something wrong with that staircase! It... it's not normal!"

Lin Yi quickly looked towards the stairwell, but at first glance, he couldn't see anything wrong.

However, he didn't doubt Li Huiyuan. Instead, he took her into the sunlight to rest for a bit and then started observing the stairwell himself.

According to the Teaching Building's regulations, students from classes in sequences above four are required to use the stairs to return to their respective classrooms after ascending or descending the building, and as an 'Experience Student' with a 'Student ID card', there theoretically shouldn't be any danger for Lin Yi to simply look at the staircase.

A minute passed, and Lin Yi noticed nothing unusual, nor did he experience any changes akin to a so-called "spider-sense" in his vision.

"Could it really be no problem? Or is it an issue with Li Huiyuan herself?" Lin Yi glanced at Li Huiyuan, who was gradually returning to normal, and couldn't help but feel puzzled.

Still, it might be best to check the floors above the fourth floor of the Teaching Building.

He looked at Li Huiyuan and asked, "How do you feel? Can you walk?"

Li Huiyuan's eyes flickered, then she pressed her lips tightly together and stood up, nodding firmly, "I can."

"Then come with me, let's go into the stairwell," Lin Yi extended his hand, "We'll hold hands. If one of us senses something wrong with the other, the other must immediately try to pull them out of the stairwell."

If things were really amiss, for safety's sake, they had no choice but to temporarily exit the stairwell.

"Classmate Lin..."

"Is there a problem?"

"No problem, but... am I just cannon fodder?"

Lin Yi was speechless for a moment, thinking, What on earth is Li Huiyuan up to? Does she have a death wish?

"Cannon fodder and freebies, are two different concepts."

Li Huiyuan paused, then reached out her hand.

Lin Yi took her hand and slowly walked towards the stairwell.

Li Huiyuan looked at Lin Yi's hand, momentarily lost in thought, then unconsciously matched Lin Yi's walking pace.

Lin Yi's hand was warm, and the strength of his grip was just right. The two left the corridor and entered the stairwell.

The fire doors at the stairwell entrance of the Teaching Building were always open, and there was a translucent window every half-floor and incandescent lights on the ceiling, so though it was darker during the day, the overall stairwell was still quite bright.

However, as they approached the stairwell, a faint sense of discomfort suddenly settled over Lin Yi.

Lin Yi noticed Li Huiyuan subconsciously tightened her grip on his hand, which meant she probably sensed something too.

"It seems there really is a problem," Lin Yi stopped at the entrance to the stairwell and looked at the stairs in front of him.

Suddenly, he rubbed his eyes, then widened them, staring in disbelief at the staircase before him.

In front of him, there were two sets of steps.

Normally, the architectural style in S city, no, in all of Huaxia, has staircases built from right to left in a counterclockwise ascension, but what appeared before him were two staircases mirroring each other around a central axis of rotation!

He was stunned; usually, even if layers fell or phantom visions appeared, all he saw were distorted lines and broken light images. Staircases as regularly patterned and artistic as this were a first for him.

So, holding Li Huiyuan's hand, he decisively exited the stairwell.

"Did you just see anything?" Lin Yi asked.

Li Huiyuan said, "I saw two steps... Classmate Lin, did you see them too?"

Lin Yi nodded.

Li Huiyuan said, "That's the issue I mentioned earlier... I saw those two steps the moment I looked, and then I remembered what the student guidelines said about 'always keep to the right-hand side of the stairway in any building on campus', but what I don't understand is..."

"The guidelines say 'keep to the right-hand side', which should mean the right-hand side of one staircase, right? But now there are two staircases, each with a right-hand side... Which one should we take?"

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