When Song Fei ran back to the dormitory, it was not yet 11 a.m., but the campus loudspeakers remained silent until 6 p.m. The entire dormitory area was eerily quiet, as if there were no living creatures, or as if some more terrifying creature was lurking in the silence, waiting for the night to fall and make its move.
Wang Qingyuan, Ren Zhe, and Xiang Yang—none of them returned.
Song Fei lay in bed, but her heart sank to the bottom.
He tossed and turned all afternoon, unable to sleep. Normally, falling asleep the moment his head hit the pillow was his specialty, but after everything that had happened during the day, the moment he closed his eyes, those horrific images began to replay in his mind. He wanted to banish those thoughts, so he forced himself to think about other things. For example, the announcement said there had been an accident, but what kind of accident was it? Can cannibalism really be considered an accident? And, unusually, instead of saying everything was fine and reassuring everyone, they directly told everyone to find shelter nearby. Didn't this mean the school hadn't yet brought the situation under control? And now? Is it under control now? If it is, why aren't they making any more announcements?
When he got too tired from thinking, he would comfort himself, thinking that maybe everything would be alright after a good night's sleep. But he couldn't sleep. The more he thought, the more chaotic his thoughts became, the more his head ached, and the more awake he became.
Thump!
The sudden banging on the door startled him so much that he jumped.
I held my breath and listened intently, but there was no sound.
After a long and oppressive silence, Song Fei mustered her courage and asked in a trembling voice, "Who is it?"
Knock knock!
The banging on the door became even more violent!
No, they weren't roommates, or even classmates, otherwise they would have spoken, and responded with shouts instead of banging on the door!
Song Fei abruptly pulled the blanket over his head, curling up completely. Just like the first time he slept alone as a child, he always felt like a hand would reach out from under the bed and pull his feet, so he had to cover himself up tightly, making sure there was no air left, even if he couldn't breathe, he couldn't leave a single gap!
Gradually, the banging on the door subsided.
After an unknown amount of time, silence returned. This silence was still oppressive, still suffocating, but Song Fei breathed a sigh of relief amidst this oppressive and suffocating atmosphere.
She cautiously peeked out from under the covers.
Song Fei was relieved that it wasn't lights out yet; at least for now, the darkness wouldn't add to his fear. However, staring at the stark white ceiling, he began to feel a chill. Could it be that the mutants wandering the corridor were also attracted to light like moths, which was why they were crashing into his door? But if the lights were turned off, he'd be scared to death, if not devoured.
Screw it, I don't want to think about it anymore. Anyway, the lights were turned on after dark. If something was going to happen, it would have happened already. Let whoever wants it, it's better to be bitten to death than to be scared to death!
Song Fei couldn't stay in bed any longer. He threw off the covers, tiptoed out of bed, and locked the balcony door. Through the glass, he could see the lights on in the building across the street.
One, two, three, four, five...
Song Fei had never counted the number of lit windows in a building so carefully as he had at this moment. In the end, he even pressed himself against the balcony door to count, because that gave him a better view.
One-third, plus two more lit windows, and that makes exactly one-third of the total number of windows.
This was only one side of the story; the other side was unknown. But this third of the light was enough to give Song Fei a sense of reassurance.
At least there are others like me, suffering in anxious waiting. Thinking about it that way, it doesn't seem so scary anymore.
His stomach rumbled, and Song Fei realized he hadn't eaten a single thing since morning. So much had happened that day; he'd been too busy escaping in fear to think about anything else.
With practiced ease, Song Fei rummaged through the cupboard and pulled out the instant noodles. He casually ripped open the bag with a ripping sound that was particularly jarring in the 440-degree noise. Startled, Song Fei immediately froze, only moving gently when he was sure there was no sound outside the door. Then, he carefully and softly placed the instant noodles into the lunchbox. Anyone who knew him would treat instant noodles like this; anyone who didn't would definitely think he was handling a block of tofu.
All four thermos flasks were filled yesterday, and they were all half full and wobbly. Song Fei opened Ren Zhe's high-end thermos, which supposedly could maintain 80°C even after being left to stand for 48 hours, and poured water into the lunchbox with great anticipation until the water covered the instant noodles. Then he put the thermos down, closed the lunchbox lid, and started to let it sit.
Five minutes later.
Song Fei couldn't wait to open the lunchbox, use chopsticks to loosen the flatbread, swallowed, and almost reverently opened his mouth to take a big bite.
Creak.
Very good, the texture is very chewy.
After wolfing down a packet of moistened instant noodles and drinking half a lunchbox of soup, Song Fei finally felt better. She also felt a bit better, and when she climbed back into bed, she felt tired.
With her eyes closed, Song Fei finally drifted off to sleep.
It was a very ordinary, but very comforting dream.
In his dream, Song Fei endured the last hour and handed in his CET-4 exam paper without a hitch. Then he met up with Qi Yan at the cafeteria, and they enjoyed a delicious lunch together. The lunch was sweet and sour pickled mustard greens, and the cafeteria lady even gave him an extra half spoonful. During the meal, Qi Yan tearfully admitted the mistakes he had made in their relationship, expressing his regret for not recognizing a gem in a gem. He then held Song Fei's hand and promised, "From now on, I won't go to the library anymore; I'll dedicate myself to watching the latest anime and scrolling through Weibo with you," begging for reconciliation.
Song Fei woke up while nodding vigorously, laughing at himself.
Sunlight streamed into dormitory 440, which was usually bustling with life but was now eerily quiet, almost desolate.
He sat up sleepily, almost believing that everything that had happened yesterday was a dream, until he reached for his phone charging beside his pillow—it was fully charged, but the signal was still on hold.
Song Fei instantly snapped out of it. He scrambled out of bed and ran to the glass sliding door of the balcony. Sure enough, he found a distorted face pasted on the glass of the sliding door of the building opposite.
Upon seeing Song Fei, Luo Geng immediately perked up and waved enthusiastically.
Song Fei waved back, then carefully opened the balcony door. At first, there was only a crack, and after listening closely, he couldn't hear anything. He mustered his courage and rushed out, but still held onto the door frame with one hand. He was determined to only glance downstairs quickly, and if anything seemed amiss, he would immediately slip back inside.
The area downstairs was completely empty.
Song Fei maintained his posture, one hand holding the door frame and the other on the balcony, searching for two minutes with his "24k titanium alloy eyes" (a metaphor for keen observation). He confirmed that there was absolutely nothing in sight. No living people, no mutants, no corpses, not even severed limbs. The bare shrubs surrounding the green space remained as neat as ever, though the flowers and plants within had withered and turned yellow from the cold weather. The blackboard at the top of the building was still as vibrant as ever, although the Conan illustration no longer proclaimed "There's only one truth" but rather "The dormitory is our home, civilization depends on everyone."
Everything remained calm and peaceful.
Just ignore the pools of blackened blood on the asphalt road.
Unfortunately, Song Fei ignored him and, to make matters worse, had exceptional eyesight—unable to hold onto the door frame any longer, he ran straight to the toilet and vomited violently.
Luo Geng had just followed suit and opened the door, assuming that Song Fei across the hall had bravely confirmed the outside was safe for him. Unexpectedly, Song Fei rushed into the bathroom, her face pale, causing Luo Geng's heart to skip a beat, and he shrank back inside. Only when he saw Song Fei emerge, her face still pale, did he ask with concern, "Are you alright? Are you pregnant?"
If they weren't so far apart, Song Fei really wanted to wait a bit longer before throwing up in his face.
Luo Geng also tried to find humor in his suffering; no one could have an easy time after such a grueling night: "Hey, did you listen to the radio last night?"
Song Fei's eyes widened, her eager question tinged with barely concealed hope: "Was it broadcast at night?!"
Luo Geng was stunned: "I don't know, I didn't hear it, that's why I asked you."
Song Fei suddenly realized that he had misunderstood Qi Yan. There are many people in this world whose words make you want to slap them, but compared to them, Qi Yan, who can repay with his words, is truly a breath of fresh air in the world of witty comebacks.
"Good morning." Luo Geng suddenly nodded to Song Fei.
"Good morning," Zhou Yilu said lazily, as if he hadn't slept enough. "How's it going... yawn... any new news? Can you arrange a retake?"
Song Fei's black line.
Luo Geng was also stunned, and after a long while, he finally managed to utter a single sentence: "Your focus is really..."
Song Fei helped him say, "He's utterly depraved."
Zhou Yilu felt this was a case of the well-fed not knowing the hunger of the starving: "So you don't care about the lives of others after you've made it through your own life, huh?"
Song Fei was about to say that he was also interrupted halfway through, but Luo Geng on the other side was one step ahead of him: "Who told you I passed?"
Song Fei was stunned. He clearly remembered that when he ran back to the dormitory yesterday, Luo Geng across from him was still asleep: "You didn't pass, so you're not going to take the exam?"
Luo Geng tossed his head nonchalantly: "I'm quitting the exam."
Zhou Yilu couldn't stand it anymore: "Have you no shame? Your dad's so old, and you're going to make him a ghostwriter for you?!"
Luogeng: "..."
Song Fei: "..."
A chilly wind blew between the two dormitory buildings.
Luo Geng: "It's probably something serious that happened, the kind of situation that even the school couldn't control."
Song Fei: "Yeah, otherwise it's impossible that there would only be one broadcast and then nothing more."
Zhou Yilu scratched his head, somewhat confused. How did the topic change without him noticing? Had they finished talking about the previous topic?
Not long after Song Fei and his group started their conversation, people from other dormitories heard the noise and came to their balconies. Half an hour later, all the alumni who were still breathing in both dormitories came out to talk.
"They're gone?"
"Are you blind? Can't you see they're all loitering around in the hallway?!"
"What the hell is that?"
"The school doesn't even know you're asking me?"
"Damn, when this happened yesterday, I thought it was a safety drill. I was thinking, this time it looks like something... Aaaaaaahhhhh—"
The sudden scream froze the atmosphere that had just eased up. Under the watchful eyes of dozens of people, the man was dragged into the house alive.
No one knows how their door got open—was it unlocked, the lock was broken, or the door was forcibly broken down.
The only clear sounds were the wailing, the struggle, and the deathly silence that followed.
"What on earth happened?!" Luo Geng's eyes were red with anxiety. The incident occurred on the second floor diagonally below him, and even if he hung upside down on his balcony, he couldn't see what was going on. But the faces on the opposite building, pale and filled with extreme fear, made him scratch his head, desperate to know what had happened.
Nobody paid any attention to Luo Geng.
Including Song Fei.
Luo Geng couldn't see it, but everyone on their side of the building could see it clearly—the student on the second-floor balcony across the street was dragged inside for a few minutes, then returned. He was still dressed the same as before: a blue thermal undershirt and gray long johns, clearly not a matching set, and the undershirt wasn't even fully tucked into his johns.
This should be a design that makes people feel incredibly friendly.
If he hadn't only had half a face left.
Like the human anatomical models commonly found in hospitals, one side is a human face, and the other side is muscle tissue fibers without skin. The only difference is that the muscle fibers in the model are complete, while this one only has scattered pieces of flesh, which are smeared on half of the face, like a lump of mud, with the glaring white bones vaguely visible underneath.
Song Fei had nothing left to vomit, so he could only dry heave.
The student with half his face returned to the spot where he had been chatting with everyone, but his hands were no longer on the balcony. Instead, like a robot that doesn't avoid obstacles, he kept wriggling forward, only to be blocked by the balcony railing time and time again.
If yesterday's unexpected situation limited everyone's fear to the macro level...
Now, this fear has found its clearest and most concrete form.
Some students burst into tears.
Normally, it might be shameful for a grown man to cry, but now, Song Fei actually envied him. Crying is a form of catharsis; once you cry it out, you're no longer afraid, at least it's better than him holding it in and trembling all over.
Luo Geng stopped asking questions. He recalled his experience yesterday, and combined with the screams he had just heard and the expressions of the people opposite him, he could roughly imagine the situation.
Either the school has gone mad.
Or they've gone mad.
Suddenly, the sound of many people running could be heard in the wind, just like what Song Fei had heard in the classroom yesterday when the incident occurred. His eyes widened, temporarily forgetting his fear, as if he had a premonition, and he stared intently at what was below!
Sure enough, it was almost a repeat of yesterday's mass exodus. First, one or two students led the way, followed by a pack of students running for their lives like a herd of beasts, their cries and screams echoing as they surged into the dormitory building like a tidal wave!
Song Fei stared intently at the dense crowd below, but there were too many people and they were moving too fast, so he couldn't see them clearly at all. He was so anxious that he wished he could jump down and sift through them one by one to see them!
I wanted to call out that person's name, but I was afraid that if that person was really inside, calling out would slow them down.
Nothing worked, nothing worked. Song Fei was so anxious that he started pulling his hair. Just at this critical moment, a strange feeling swept over him, like a scene often used in movies and novels, a sudden inspiration. In the past, Song Fei would have scoffed at this, but at this moment, he really looked over as if possessed. It was almost the end of the line, just running around the corner and entering Song Fei's field of vision.
Qi Yan was right there.
As he ran, he looked up, searching for something, until his gaze brushed past the balcony of room 440.
Song Fei was filled with hatred!
Well, it's understandable that the focus might be off in a mobile battle. If the mountain doesn't move towards him, he'll head towards the mountain!
Luo Geng didn't know why Song, the classmate opposite him, suddenly started waving his arms wildly. His eyes were so eager that it was like a young woman who had finally spotted her sweetheart among the oddballs catching the bouquet. His actions were so violent that it was as if he was warning the other person, "If you dare not catch it, I'll kill you."