Ke Xun stood up, opened his phone, and activated the camera.
The camera was set to selfie mode by default, and his own face appeared first in the frame. Perhaps due to the dim lighting, his entire face had a bluish-gray tint, making his pupils appear exceptionally large, almost completely obscuring the whites of his eyes, giving them a hollow, dark look. His lips were also bloodless, like those of a long-dehydrated patient, with a grayish-white, wrinkled appearance.
Ke Xun tapped the camera switch, switching from the front to the rear camera, and then, with a "Holy crap!" his hand jerked, and the phone flew out. Mu Yiran, a few steps away, reacted quickly, catching it and holding it in a shooting position to check the screen.
"W-what's wrong?" Wei Dong asked Ke Xun anxiously.
"...Nothing." Ke Xun wiped the cold sweat from his palms on his pants. "I was impressed by my own handsomeness."
Upon hearing this, Wei Dong didn't dare ask any more questions.
Qin Ci and Zhu Haowen, standing nearby, silently turned on their phones' camera functions. Despite the lessons learned from Zhang Hanrui and Ke Xun, they still couldn't help but tremble slightly upon seeing the image on the screen before quietly putting their phones back in their pockets.
The newlyweds, however, clearly lacked this composure. Xu Zhen also pulled out her phone, glanced at it, and then screamed uncontrollably, throwing it to the ground.
"What is that?! What is that?!" Even the most composed office lady could no longer remain calm and collected after witnessing such a scene. She turned and grabbed Mu Yiran's arm, her fingers icy cold with fear.
"As you can see," Mu Yiran said expressionlessly, dodging her grabbing, walking a few steps forward, and handing the phone back to Ke Xun.
The phone's camera function hadn't been turned off; a dark, gray image was displayed before them.
It was the same corridor, the same rooms with doors facing each other, the same chaotic stairwell corner. What should have been empty was now filled with emaciated, ashen-skinned, expressionless figures.
These people wore baggy, grayish-white clothes, standing in various corners, staring blankly in the direction of the group. Their faces were gray and withered, like cracked, decaying tree bark; their lips were bluish-gray, covered with wrinkled, dead skin; their black, hollow eyes coldly observed the scene, like rows of human tombstones.
However, if one looked away from the phone screen and directly ahead, there was nothing there, only these ashen, lifeless figures visible through the camera lens.
Ke Xun looked away from the phone screen and pulled Wei Dong.
Because there was someone standing right in front of him on the screen, their black, hollow eyes staring blankly into his.
The newcomers were terrified. Qi Qiang also laboriously looked away from his phone screen, glancing at the veteran members: "What the hell... what do we do now?"
Only now did Qi Qiang finally believe Qin Ci's words, his facial muscles twitching uncontrollably.
"Keep trying to open the door." Mu Yiran's calm voice brought Qi Qiang back to his senses, and he pressed his hand against the iron gate again to try the password.
Before Ke Xun swiped off the camera, he saw seven or eight gray-white figures standing around the iron gate, seemingly watching Qi Qiang.
Qin Ci walked to Mu Yiran's side and lowered his voice, "Tell me, what are these 'people' doing? Why are they here?"
Mu Yiran looked up into the void, as if looking at "people" who only existed in the darkness: "Maybe they are employees of the research institute. They are wearing the same clothes."
"No, not exactly the same." It was Ke Xun who spoke. Mu Yiran looked over and saw him pointing to his left chest, near his heart. "There is a set of numbers on their shirts here, and the numbers are different for each person."
Mu Yiran's eyes flickered slightly: "Are you sure?"
"Trust me, my eyesight is excellent," Ke Xun said.
Qin Ci wanted to say that if he was unsure, he could take out his phone's camera to check, but Mu Yiran seemed to trust Ke Xun's eyesight so easily and didn't seem to want to take out his phone to verify.
"What do these numbers represent, employee numbers?" Zhu Haowen looked at Ke Xun.
"Maybe," Ke Xun said. "These numbers are all composed of letters, followed by hyphens and numbers, like A-013. I just glanced at it, and the first letters are A, B, C, and D. Maybe there are more, but I didn't look closer."
"Could these numbers be clues?" Xu Zhen tried to calm her still-shaken emotions, her voice trembling slightly.
Qin Ci nodded: "It seems so, but the specific direction of this clue still needs further verification."
As he spoke, Qi Qiang roared: "Open!"
The lock on the iron door clicked, like a giant finger snapping open, its fingernail striking everyone's hearts.
Qi Qiang didn't open the door immediately, but stood up, his face grim as he looked at the veteran members: "What's next? Go in or not?"
"In." Mu Yiran answered calmly without hesitation.
Just as he was about to step forward, Ke Xun grabbed his arm: "Wait a minute, let's take a look first." He raised his phone and activated the camera again.
Several ashen figures remained motionless around the door in the frame.
Ke Xun suddenly realized that these people filling the hallway might not be looking at them, the outsiders who had intruded; they were staring intently at the door itself.
Mu Yiran walked over and grasped the doorknob. The girls screamed in fright, seeking shelter. Since Ke Xun was holding his phone, and Qin Ci and Zhu Haowen stood on either side of the door, the girls huddled together and hugged Wei Dong, the only idle member of the group.
Wei Dong: ...The peach blossoms came too fast, like a tornado, but I'm not moved and dare not move at this moment.
Mu Yiran exerted a little force and pulled open the heavy, cold iron door.
Ke Xun's phone screen was immediately filled with a dense array of ashen, emaciated faces. The small doorway was crammed with people.
Or rather, it was crammed with such faces.
From the door frame to the threshold, every gap was filled with faces, almost obscuring their bodies. They seemed to be scrambling and stumbling, trying to escape through the door. Withered, grayish fingers clung to the doorframe, the bones protruding sharply from the force of their grip, almost breaking the skin.
Ke Xun felt a chill run down his spine.
It wasn't just the faces crowding the doorway, but the gaping mouths on those faces, like bottomless black holes, stretched to an extreme beyond what a normal person could manage. Inside, there were no teeth or tongues, only endless blackness and visibly agonizing screams.
Ke Xun moved his phone away, took a deep breath, and suddenly, an idea struck him. He turned the phone towards the corridor behind him.
In the scene, the gray-white figures who had been standing indifferently in various corners, looking this way, had somehow, like the people inside the door, desperately opened their dark, gaping mouths. These mouths, set against their gray, expressionless faces, stood out even more vividly, darkly, and terrifyingly against the dusty, dilapidated stairwell.
Ke Xun felt a bit of trypophobia from the sight of so many gaping black mouths. He rubbed the goosebumps that had suddenly risen on his arms and followed Mu Yiran through the iron gate.
Inside the doorway, there was no one in sight. A counter, resembling a reception desk, led to a narrow staircase below, blocked by an iron gate. The steps descended, gradually sinking into deep darkness, obscuring the view at the bottom.
Mu Yiran turned on her phone's flashlight and searched the iron gate, but found no manual or combination lock. Pushing and pulling didn't open it an inch.
"The door is either mechanical or electronically controlled," Mu Yiran thought, turning to search the counter. Qin Ci, Zhu Haowen, and Ke Xun helped. Of the newcomers, only Qi Qiang and Xu Zhen stepped inside. Huang Pi stood outside, his expression gloomy, silently watching the group inside.
Wei Dong, held back by the girls, huddled together for courage outside, while Deng Guang cowered, almost burying himself in the nearby pile of clutter.
The group inside didn't spend much time finding a dusty, cobweb-covered machine in a corner of the counter. A diamond-shaped metal sign on it read "Number Dispenser."
"Numbers," Ke Xun said, glancing at the others. They exchanged knowing looks.
"Don't rush to get one. We need to make some arrangements," Qin Ci said, looking up at Mu Yiran. "What do you think of this number dispenser, Mu?"
"We can't be sure how it will assign numbers," Mu Yiran said, her eyes darkening. "We can only try it with four people first, to see the pattern of the first four numbers."
"So, which four people should go first?" Qin Ci asked.
"I don't recommend having all the veteran members do it," Xu Zhen, who had been listening in, couldn't help but chime in. "It would be best to have both new and veteran members, as well as men and women, so we can find more patterns."
"I agree," Qin Ci said. "So, who's the veteran member?"
"Me," Ke Xun walked over and, before anyone could react, pressed the button on the ticket machine. With a "click," a card-sized card popped out from the card slot above the machine. Ke Xun held it in his hand and glanced at it in the light of his phone. It read: A-182.
Noticing the others staring at him silently, Ke Xun raised an eyebrow. "What?"
Zhu Haowen looked at him and said calmly, "When the risks are uncertain, you always rush to the front."
"…So," Ke Xun put his hand on Zhu Haowen's shoulder, "Are you praising my bravery?"
Zhu Haowen lowered his eyes and didn't answer.
Qin Ci suddenly chuckled beside him, "You're making our caution and hesitation seem cowardly and selfish."
"No, I don't have such high awareness," Ke Xun said, fiddling with the card between two fingers, "I'm just used to it. In the past, when participating in competitions, the first person to go out always had the most pressure and the heaviest responsibility. As the captain, I was always assigned to that position."
Mu Yiran suddenly said, "Hurry up."
As she spoke, she reached out her hand, and Ke Xun couldn't stop her in time, watching helplessly as that slender finger pressed the button on the ticket machine.
A-183, Mu Yiran's card number was linked to Ke Xun's.