Chapter 44
After a whole afternoon of adjusting, when it was evening, inside dormitory 417, the resting state on the bed was replaced.
Su Mo, who was originally in a resting state, regained energy, while Lu Jia, who was taking care of Su Mo falling asleep, had already fallen into sleep.
In between the two of them, on the screen of a white mp3 player about the size of a matchbox, there was a flashing green light, and there were moving words on it.
This was the culprit that caused Lu Jia to almost not come back a long time ago, and also the mastermind behind Su Mo's major sliding adventure.'
When they were having dinner that night, this mp3 player suddenly appeared. When Lu Jia opened it, she discovered that it still had battery, so she decided to make full use of it based on the principle of not wasting power.
Later on, the two of them lay on the bed, listening to songs, continuing to rest. Gradually, Lu Jia, who felt tired, fell asleep.
The stuffy heat of the night didn't affect Lu Jia much, after all, she relied on Su Mo who had a slightly cooler body temperature. The white mosquito net kept mosquitoes away, and the music blocked the annoying buzzing sound from outside the mosquito net. All of these were enough to give Lu Jia a good sleep.
Silently gazing at the person beside her, the yellow candlelight on the table outside shone through the white mosquito net, reflecting on Lu Jia's profile. The faint glow flickered on Lu Jia's profile, adding a touch of vitality and night charm to the sleeping person.
Watching the small flame, about the size of a thumb, flickering on Lu Jia's face, the flame seemed like a naughty butterfly dancing on her face, causing Su Mo, who was looking at her, to feel a bit lost in thought.
Driven by this feeling, she gently poked the flame on Lu Jia's face with her finger. It felt soft and warm, making Su Mo reluctant to let go. She even had the urge to poke it even more. If she didn't stop, Lu Jia might be woken up soon.
Fortunately, someone saved Lu Jia.
Originally, Su Mo, with a smile on her face, was poking Lu Jia's cheek. But suddenly, she felt something in her head, and her expression changed to seriousness. Her finger, poking Lu Jia's cheek, also stopped abruptly.
She looked up towards the balcony, her intuition telling her that something strange was happening outside. And at that moment when she felt danger, her originally gray eyes turned back to black, like a normal person's.
She looked down at the person sleeping soundly and took off her headphones. At the same time, she picked up her mp3 player that was placed nearby and selected a soft song. She turned on the repeat mode and raised the volume a bit.
Placing the mp3 player gently in a gap, she turned to look at Lu Jia. The anticipation that suddenly grew in her heart made her bend down and leave a kiss on Lu Jia's nose.
"Rest well," she said.
Her voice was like a refreshing breeze, brushing past Lu Jia's ears, and then sinking into Lu Jia's dreams, causing the sleeping person to subconsciously murmur, "Mmm."
Hearing the sound that came to her ears, Su Mo, who was about to get up, was surprised.
When she thought she had woken up Lu Jia, she looked at her with some anxiety, but Lu Jia was still sleeping soundly in bed.
Unconscious? Thinking this, Su Mo relaxed and couldn't help but smile, looking at Lu Jia with a very gentle expression.
She gently put the earphones in Lu Jia's ears and watched as Lu Jia instinctively rubbed the pillow. Su Mo wished she could stay here like this, but the overwhelming smell of decay in the air told her she couldn't.
As she quietly crawled out of the mosquito net and stood barefoot on the ground, feeling the coolness of the floor, even she didn't understand why she regained consciousness.
At this moment, a hand reached out from outside the balcony of Room 417, tightly gripping the edge of the balcony. It looked like something wanted to crawl into the dormitory from outside.
When she saw that hand, Su Mo couldn't help but furrow her brows. She immediately walked barefoot towards the balcony, and as she leaped onto the balcony, she grabbed the door and closed it, smoothly sealing the balcony shut.
And then she continued to move forward.
Standing on the edge of the balcony, Su Mo stepped on the hands hanging on the balcony. In front of her was the air, and standing on the edge, with just one step forward, she would face falling down.
Under the dim moonlight, her eyes turned gray once again.
Suddenly, she bent down and grabbed the zombie's neck with her hand, lifting it up effortlessly. The zombie struggled, but it was futile.
Below the zombie, more zombies jumped from the third floor towards Su Mo's direction. However, their attempts to reach the balcony were in vain, and most of them fell straight down.
Seeing everything below, Su Mo increased her strength in lifting, until her hands, which were being stepped on, separated from the zombie's body, tearing the tendons and skin apart.
Noticing that the zombie's head was still struggling in pain, Su Mo became annoyed. With a loud "thud," she slammed the zombie's head against the balcony wall. The head flattened and splattered white substance, completely ceasing any movement.
Glancing at the motionless entity, Su Mo silently released her grip. The freed zombie plummeted downwards, crashing onto the ground, completely motionless.
Looking down, apart from the one that was thrown earlier, all that remained were neatly lined up heads.
They climbed along the fence to the second floor, then relied on their elasticity to swing onto the third-floor balcony. Their destination was the fourth floor.
Some succeeded, others failed. If they fell to the ground and could still move, they would climb up again. This demonstrated their extraordinary jumping ability.
In the midst of it, there was a zombie that successfully jumped onto the third floor and then leapt over to the fourth floor.
Its jumping ability was good, looking as if victory was assured, and its hand was about to reach the balcony on the fourth floor.
Unfortunately, before its hand could touch the rock wall of the fourth floor, it was directly kicked in the head by Su Mo, causing its skull to shatter. It fell straight down, hitting the ground and becoming motionless.
Su Mo held onto the balcony with both hands, dangling outside. She looked down at the things that were still jumping up to the fourth floor in an endless stream. Like kicking a ball, she kicked them away one by one. But even though she used kicks, she was already tired, while those things kept coming.
Qiao Tang, who was on the second floor, put down the book in her hand and intended to use the restroom.
Watching her get up and walk towards the restroom, Gu Xici silently withdrew his gaze from Qiao Tang, not thinking much of it.
Heading to the restroom, washing her hands, Qiao Tang did it all in one go. She felt the cool water on her hands seeming to bring warmth. Qiao Tang couldn't help but close her eyes, but as soon as she did, the image of the deceased boy would appear in her mind - the sudden chill that surged from behind, forcing her to open her eyes again.
Even without light, she could see her pitch-black self in the mirror, seemingly trembling. So she had to use water, pouring it over her face, hoping to maintain her composure.
The stimulation from the water made her memories in her mind even clearer. She even remembered every breath and struggle when her neck was being suppressed by those hands.
Back then, she felt like a freshwater fish thrown into the sea, struggling for breath. This made her wash her face faster and faster.
That suffocating breath clung to her. Even though the boy had died, he left her with so much. All she could do was keep washing herself with water, as if that could wash away the disgust and fear he had left, as if she could scrape it all off.
These days, she tried hard to divert her attention, to think about Lu Jia and Su Mo. But whenever her mind stopped, she would still fall into a helpless and endless cycle of struggle.
She was afraid to go out. She felt uncomfortable under those gazes, which carried pity, understanding, and even sympathy. She knew the gazes were not malicious, but their presence reminded Qiao Tang of the fact that she had almost been violated.
She even started to question what she would be like without Su Mo and Lu Jia. She hated herself for being so sensitive.
She thought she was just overthinking. Others would think she was overthinking too. It seemed like everyone else could easily move on, but she couldn't. She felt strangely separate from everyone else, taking things that could easily be forgotten and making them weigh heavily on her. After all, nothing really happened. She seemed overly dramatic.
Overly dramatic. Because of this phrase, she despised her own fear. She should be standing on the moral high ground, looking down on everything. But in reality, she was weak and couldn't escape that fear.
It shouldn't be like this at all. She silently laughed, mocking herself for being timid, ignorant, and still being affected by that dead and insignificant man. But as she laughed, her eyes turned red.
Finally, when a tingling pain spread across her face, she regained her sanity. She forced herself to stop washing, feeling the stinging sensation on her face. Even without looking, Qiao Tang knew how red her face was now, and it might even be scraped.
She took a deep breath and instinctively looked into the room. Under the dim yellow light, Gu Xici sitting on the bed seemed motionless, which eased her worries a little. She didn't want Gu Xici to worry about her in the current situation.
It was somewhat quiet and somewhat uneasy around.
Rustling sounds came to her ears, just like the sounds of crawling animals she had heard in the "Animal World" before.
Listening to the sounds in her ears, she felt like something was crawling on her body, which made her feel uncomfortable all over.
But her sixth sense made her subconsciously turn her head and look over the balcony railing.
