Chapter 4: The Hero Star That Goes Completely Wrong 3
"Damn Norn! It's all your fault! Why were you laughing for no reason? And as soon as you laughed, you almost killed me, wuwuwu!"
I have been standing at the door of the medical laboratory for a full ten minutes , holding a rag in one hand and a mop in the other .
Yes, you read that right. After I threw away my dignity and acted cute and begged for mercy but to no avail, I was still brought here by the iron-faced and impartial Queen Yao Shanshan.
"You have one hour to clean it up. I'll come and check it out. If there's anything that's not up to standard, you'll have to stay here and clean all night!"
After opening the lock on the laboratory door and savagely pushing me in, Yao Shanshan, with a frosty face, stood there like the King of Hell who sentenced me to death, with a cruel smile on her lips. Then, while I was completely speechless due to the shock of the scene in the room, she stretched out her evil hands.
The light in the room suddenly dimmed, and the sound of a door closing rang out behind me. I turned around trembling, but before I could shout out, I heard a crisp "click" and the door was locked from the outside.
"Really? Senior Yao, please don't leave me here alone!"
I desperately pulled at the door in front of me, but it didn't move at all. Yao Shanshan's cold voice rang out from outside -
"Just stay inside and clean up! I'll come open the door for you when the time comes! Remember to clean it up!"
After saying that, the footsteps gradually faded away, leaving me alone inside the door, shouting in despair: "Hey! Open the door for me! Don't do this! It's so scary in here! Who can save me? Wuuuuuu!"
The only answer I got was silence.
Finally I got tired of shouting and realized that I only had 50 minutes left, but I stood there, not daring to move a step. Not to mention not daring to move, even looking inside for a second scared me half to death.
Do you know what a medical laboratory is? Turn your head and look at the row of pale skulls in the corner. Do those black eyes look like they are smiling? Then look at the various dried animal specimens on the shelf on the other side. There are small white mice that are less than the size of a palm, gray rabbits with two ears sticking up, and colorful butterflies. Although they may be very cute when they are alive, when they become specimens, it feels really gloomy!
What's more, the sun is about to set. The orange-red sunset outside the window shines in through the small window opposite, giving everything in the room a layer of red light. From a distance, it really looks like blood.
It was not until this moment that I discovered sadly that the only living thing, or to be more precise, living individual in this room, besides me, was a pot of spider plant on the windowsill. But the spider plant cannot talk, and will not help me clean, so I am still alone.
What should I do? I felt like I was about to collapse, and I had no idea how I was going to get through this hour. And from what Yao Shanshan said, if I didn't clean up within this hour, she would punish me by making me clean up all night.
Imagine a young girl imprisoned in a dark laboratory filled with skeletons, animal specimens, and various internal organs soaked in formalin in the pitch-dark night, crying faintly while reaching for a rag...
Woohoo! You might as well just kill me.
Who come and save me!
But no one would come to such a gloomy place. I put my ear to the door, but didn't hear any sound from outside for ten minutes.
It seems that I really can only rely on myself.
I summoned up the greatest courage in my life, turned around and took a small step inside.
It was really a small step, because it was only five centimeters at most, but even so, I felt that I was much closer to those horrible skeletons, and those dark holes seemed to suck me in.
Is there anyone who can help me? What have I done wrong to be with these horrible specimens? Why can't I just live my school life in peace?
When I thought about having to stay here all night, the fear and terror that I had been suppressing finally burst out: “Ahhhh!”
I threw away the rag and mop in my hand, clenched my Lucky Star tightly, and screamed loudly.
"Stop yelling! It's so noisy!"
Suddenly, in this almost dead space except for my scream, the voice of a second living person was heard. Although it was impatient, it made me feel warm.
The screaming stopped abruptly, and I raised my head with tears in my eyes. A tall figure, carrying the afterglow of the setting sun, walked towards me from the window.
Although the expression on his face was extremely impatient, the moment I saw him, I didn't even think about it. I stood up from the ground and rushed over to hug him.
"Woo woo! Norn, you bad guy! It's all your fault! If it weren't for you, why would I be punished to clean the laboratory? It's so scary here, I will definitely have nightmares tonight, woo woo woo..."
I cursed and complained incoherently. His body was extremely stiff, but I couldn't care less. At least his body was warm. It didn't matter whether he was an alien or a human. As long as he was alive, it was fine as long as I wasn't left alone.
At this moment, I am really grateful to Norn. I don’t want to know why he suddenly appeared here. It doesn’t matter even if he came to tease me or to take revenge on me. I can forget all the past grudges. As long as he is here, everything will be fine!
I cried for several minutes until Norn's clothes pressed against my face turned from warm to cold, and I realized that I could no longer shed tears.
The strange thing was that even though his body was extremely stiff, Norn never pushed me away.
Reason finally came back to me from the sky. I loosened my hands embarrassedly and glanced upwards secretly.
There was no light in the laboratory and everything was dim. I didn't know if it was an illusion, but I felt that Norn's face was red, and even his neck was red.
It must be the setting sun, right? I felt I had found the reason, so I lowered my head and said two words in a very low voice: "Thank you!"
Thank you for coming, no matter what the reason.
"Ka-ka..." He seemed to be choked by his saliva. After a violent cough, his eyes kept wandering around the room, but he didn't even look at me. He spoke in a rough voice, "Didn't the student union punish you to clean the lab? Where do you start?"
"Ah?" I was stunned and asked in disbelief, "How did you know?"
"I..." His gaze suddenly paused, then he glanced at the window behind him, then turned back and stammered, "Well... it was Qian Qian! She passed by here after school and heard you crying here, so... so she called Tian Yifeng, and I... I happened to be there, so Tian Yifeng sent me over... to help."
He divided the short paragraph into many sentences before he could finish it. His tone was obviously nonchalant, but his awkward look looked quite cute. I couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Unexpectedly, this really irritated him. He glared at me and said, "Hey! Do you want to clean up or not?"
“Yes! Yes! Yes!”
I nodded quickly and ran over to pick up the rag and mop. Before I could decide which one to give him, he grabbed both of them and yelled at me in a particularly bad manner, "Don't make trouble. Stay away!"
"Ah? Oh!"
I don’t know why I was so obedient. I actually nodded and ran to the window.
It's really strange. This dark laboratory seemed as scary as a den of dragons and tigers in my eyes just a few minutes ago. But a few minutes later, just because there was one more person here, who was someone I didn't get along with at all, everything seemed not so scary anymore.
I watched Norn walk over and turn on the laboratory light, then he rolled up his sleeves and started working with a rag.
The lab was so quiet that the only sounds were our breathing and the occasional collision when wiping things.
Under the bright incandescent light above his head, Norn was no longer wearing the silver-white outfit he wore in the morning. He was wearing the uniform of the Ailey College. The navy blue uniform made his figure look more upright. He had two buttons of his snow-white shirt unbuttoned. As he moved, his delicate and beautiful collarbone was exposed from time to time. His eyebrows were drooping, his rosy lips were slightly open, and it seemed that sweat was faintly seeping from his full forehead, gradually wetting the fine hair on his forehead.
"Well..." I couldn't help but say, "How about I come and help!"
"Don't make trouble! Stay away!"
He took a moment to glance over and his hands moved faster.
Although he said something harsh to me, for some reason, a warm current flowed through my heart. This should be the first time I have lived in peace with him since I came to Ailey College. Every time we met before, we either quarreled or he stuffed a bunch of inexplicable things at me. This morning, if he hadn't come over and stuffed a box of braised pork at me, and for some reason he hadn't been laughing while circling around me, how could I have been caught by Yao Shanshan...
I'm not blaming him, although I hated him very much in the beginning, but since he appeared here just now, all the unpleasant things before seem to be far away from me.
What's even more strange is that I don't know if his appearance gave me strength, but I actually heard a hint of concern from his bad tone. Because no matter what the reason, he appeared when I was most afraid and needed him the most, and he is my hero. What's more, he didn't cause me any substantial harm, but I was indirectly affected by him. His nature is not bad, right?
I don’t know if it’s because I like a person that I start to like all of his actions. I was subconsciously finding excuses for him and looking for kindness in his previous actions, such as the smile that shocked the entire Avery College that morning.
"Well..." I started again, "Why are you smiling this morning?"
But what I didn’t expect was that when he heard my question, he actually looked at me with surprise, as if that look was saying that I was mentally ill.
"How could I be laughing?" He looked extremely innocent.
" Hey! Don't think you can lie just because you're handsome!" I got anxious all of a sudden, and rushed to him in two or three steps, staring at his handsome face that once made my blood pressure soar, and retorted in a crackling voice, "All the girls in the school can testify that you were obviously smiling, and you had so many crazy fans surrounding you to look at you, causing the roads in the school to be blocked. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been punished by Yao Shanshan to come here to clean!"
After saying this in one breath, I put my hands on my hips and looked at him with dissatisfaction, waiting to see how he would deny it.
He did not deny it again, but showed a serious thinking look. After a full minute, his tightly furrowed eyebrows finally relaxed, and he nodded in sudden realization: "Well...you are talking about that! I laughed, you didn't dislike that box of braised pork!"
Don’t like that box of braised pork?
I was confused and stunned. What did my liking of braised pork have to do with his smile? Why couldn't I understand what he was saying?
I wanted to continue asking, but he suddenly pushed me and said, "Move away, you're about to touch this skeleton!"
Huh? I turned my head reflexively and happened to look closely at the skeleton placed high on the table.
"No!" I screamed, holding my chest and taking a big step back. Only then did I realize that I was too excited and followed Norn to the side of the skeleton.
very scary!
I quickly retreated back to the window. Norn, who was still carefully wiping the skull, uttered an inaudible sneer. My face turned red and I was about to retort, but I swallowed the words back.
Forget it, since he helped me, I won’t bother with him, huh!
After a while, I couldn't help asking, "Why did you always give me gems? Aren't those things very precious? Where did you get them from?"
"precious?"
Should I be thankful? Finally, a question caused Norn to look up and answer. Although his expression looked very puzzled, his eyes that seemed to be able to see through people's hearts were wide open, his head tilted slightly to one side, and the movement of his hands stopped.
"That kind of garbage is everywhere. Only the lowest races would exchange it for some daily necessities. You don't think it's precious, do you?"
Hey! Why is he looking like he's seen something incredible? Why is he a little worried? Is it abnormal for me to think gems are precious?
I don’t know if it’s my illusion, but I always feel that if I agree with him and say that the gems are beautiful and precious, it would be a huge blow to him.
What exactly is this magical premonition?
I opened my mouth again and again, wanting to say something against my will, just like this morning when I said that the braised pork was not tasty and was disgusting. Maybe I could still see that smile that could almost light up the whole world.
When I recalled that smile, my heart started beating violently again. A heat spread from my chest to my neck, then to my face, and finally even my ears began to feel hot.
Oh my god! It's so hot!
I quickly raised my hand to fan myself, turned my head to look out the window, and muttered incoherently, "Oh my! It's almost dark without me noticing. It looks like I need to speed up. Yes, I need to speed up! Yao Shanshan might be here soon!"
When Yao Shanshan's name was mentioned, I quickly raised my wrist to look at my watch.
Oh my god! Before I knew it, there were only eight minutes left before the one hour Yao Shanshan had scheduled .
I was no longer in the mood to chat with Norn, and even forgot my fear. I quickly ran over, picked up the mop and started mopping the floor. What should I do? The specimens haven't been wiped clean yet, and the floor hasn't been cleaned yet. Queen Yao Shanshan won't really let me stay here all night, right?
Just when my mind was completely distracted, I heard a teasing voice in my ear: "Why are you so afraid of Yao Shanshan?"
I didn't want to talk anymore, but Norn was in the mood to chat. He seemed to find it funny to see me spinning around in the lab like a top, and he asked curiously while wiping the table.
"Humph! If someone picked on you every other day, you would be very depressed, right?" I raised my head and rolled my eyes. I felt aggrieved when I mentioned this. "You don't even know how strange the reasons she has for picking on you are lately."
For a moment, the whole laboratory was filled with my accusing voice: "I was slow in doing exercises, I wandered around in the school at noon, I fell while walking, I bumped into others while carrying a plate in the cafeteria, and there was even one time when they said that I didn't wear my school uniform properly and violated school rules by wearing jewelry. Oh my God! What kind of weird excuse is this? How could I wear any jewelry? Wasn't it just a lucky star? And I tucked it into my clothes, not like the other girls... um..."
A big hand still holding a rag suddenly covered my mouth. A destructive and pungent smell rushed into my nose, and I almost fainted.
The reason he didn't faint was because someone next to him was yelling in frustration, "Shut up!"
Huh? What happened?
I was so irritated that I couldn't think straight. I couldn't understand why Norn, who was chatting peacefully just now, suddenly became crazy. And he looked so angry, his eyes were shining, and he was breathing heavily through his nostrils. It seemed that he wanted to swallow me up!
How did I offend him?
"Let me go!" I let go of the mop and tried to pry his hands apart.
Please take the rag away first, it just wiped the skull!
I felt like I was about to vomit. But he obviously didn't hear me, and the hand blocking my mouth even tightened, almost stuffing the dirty rag into my mouth.
Norn, you are such a bad guy! You did this on purpose!
Just then, there was movement outside the door.
I quickly stopped struggling, pricked up my ears and listened. Sure enough, there were footsteps, and they were getting closer and closer.
Oh my god! Yao Shanshan is here!
All of a sudden, the hairs on my body stood up, because I suddenly thought of a very, extremely, super serious problem -
The door of the laboratory is locked, and the laboratory is on the fourth floor. How should I explain where the guy covering my mouth came from?
Should I say: "Hello! Minister Yao, Noen may not be from Earth, but may be from outer space..."
Please! If you say that, I am sure that I will not show up at Ai Li College tomorrow. Yao Shanshan will definitely kick me out of Ai Li College like a ball!
Norn next to me also heard the noise outside. He finally took his hand off my mouth, then his eyes widened and he looked at a loss.
I quickly signaled to him with my eyes, you are an alien! Use your Anywhere Door skill to escape quickly, don't hide in front of me!
But he still stood there motionless.
I was going crazy, my heart felt like it was being roasted on fire, and the pimples on my forehead were about to pop up. I didn't dare to remind him loudly, so I had to lower my voice and ask him, "Where is your Anywhere Door?"
"It doesn't work now!" He lowered his head in frustration and glared at me.
Hey! What do you mean by glaring at me? I didn't make your portal disappear. Besides, how can such an important skill fail at the critical moment? Are you an alien or not?
Just as we were staring at each other, the footsteps outside were already getting closer.
I seemed to have seen Yao Shanshan's smug face, and even foresaw myself being kicked away like a meteor.
I worked so hard to get into Avery College, am I going to leave in such disgrace?
No!
The cruel reality finally inspired me, and my eyes suddenly lit up when I swept across the two tables in the corner that were filled with various utensils.
Yes!
I grabbed Norn and dragged him, who was about 1.80 meters tall, towards the corner: "Hurry up! Crouch down there!"
"No way! I..." He stiffened his neck and tried to resist.
I jumped up, grabbed his shoulders, and pushed him down a little bit: "If you don't want to be pointed at tomorrow, just hide down there!"
"But I..."
"No buts!"
After a fierce eye battle, Norn was finally frightened by the most terrifying aura I had ever seen in my life and squatted down unwillingly. However, the look in his eyes when he looked at me was like that of a Samoyed dog that had been treated cruelly, which made my heart soften involuntarily.
Don't be soft-hearted! Bai Jie Ni, didn't you hear the clattering of keys outside?
Damn it! What did this guy eat to grow up so tall?
Seeing that Norn was still a head taller than the table after he squatted down, I had to use all my strength to hold his head down and push him inside.
"Hey! Stop pushing! My head is stuck!"
Norn's low, painful cry was heard from beneath the table.
But I didn't care anymore and used all my strength with my hands and feet.
Phew! Finally got through!
I clapped my hands, stood up, and shook my head hard.
Why is there a "crackling" sound in my ear, like something breaking? I must have heard it wrongly.
I threw away the questions in my head, forced a twisted smile, and then waved the mop towards the figure at the door.
"Hi! Senior Yao! I'm done cleaning!"
