Chapter 7 Dormitory Civility Rules (Part 3)
Not to mention an hour, it's only been a few minutes since I got up. There's obviously something wrong with the time shown on my phone.
Signaling his roommate to be quiet, Tang Xinjue counted in a low voice:
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5..."
At the fifth second, the time jumped to 9:01. Five seconds later, the screen changed to 9:02.
Zheng and Guo held their breath, their pupils contracted. What was going on?
"From this, we can see," Tang Xin Jue put down his phone and concluded, "the speed of time in the test is about 12 times faster than real time."
From eight in the morning to eight in the evening, it is 12 hours on the surface, but in fact, they only have one hour to act!
——To be more precise, if we remove the last 5 minutes, there are only 55 minutes left.
In this short period of time, even if we could thoroughly search the dormitory, we might not be able to find out what Xiaohong wants. Moreover, Zhang You is now missing and his life or death is unknown, and there are only three people left.
Guo Guo was devastated: "This game is too bad! What can we do now?"
"You can't be as blind as a headless fly. Just like when doing a question, you must first understand the logic and approach of the question."
Tang Xinjue calmed down instead. She took out a piece of paper and wrote down two words: Xiaohong and dormitory.
There is a line connecting Xiaohong and the dormitory. "From the title, we know that Xiaohong is a member of our dormitory. Here are her lost items and her desk. When night falls, she will walk around the dormitory."
Guo Guo shuddered and listened carefully with his neck shrunk.
Tang Xin Jue drew a circle on the line: "In this case, Xiao Hong must have left traces of her life in the dormitory. Maybe it's daily necessities, or maybe it's other clues. Finding these things can further decipher Xiao Hong's identity information."
The test questions and prompts all mentioned words like "Xiaohong has a boyfriend" and "Xiaohong loves cleanliness". If Xiaohong's information was not important, these prompts would not be given.
After deciding on the initial action, the three men immediately set out to take action.
Because everyone knows their own things best, the three of them first searched their beds, desks, wardrobes and washing areas. Once they found something they had never seen before, it was most likely related to "Xiao Hong".
"Be careful when you look for it."
Tang Xinjue lowered his eyes, "After all, Xiaohong doesn't like her desk to be messed up."
Zheng Wanqing readily agreed and continued to work quickly, but Guo Guo was stunned for a moment, as if he realized something, pursed his lips with a pale face, and carefully moved to his position to check.
For a while, the only sounds in the room were the moving of tables and chairs and the rummaging of things. About five minutes later, Guo Guo suddenly let out a suppressed scream: "I have an extra notebook here!"
Guo Guo pointed tremblingly at the small bookshelf beside his desk. On it was a dark red notebook with half of its cover exposed. Apparently, when Guo Guo found it, he was too scared to take it out directly and only pulled out half of it.
Tang Xinjue came over and took it out. When her skin touched the cover, she could feel the abnormally low temperature. It reminded her of the white monster last night, which was also icy and cold... Is this a common feature ?
Turning to the inside pages, the first page showed a crooked matchstick figure wearing a skirt and with long hair that fell to her thighs. Her features were very obvious.
"It looks like Red herself."
Tang Xinjue turned to the second page, where a few lines of words were scribbled.
[9.01 I’m so nervous about the date. What if (crossed out) I don’t like her? My roommates suggested that I prepare well. Oh, they are so considerate. My roommates are the best roommates in the world.]
Next page.
[9.02 The cosmetics I spent all my money on online shopping have arrived. I don’t know how to use them, so I can only sit in front of the mirror and cry. My roommates stay away from me and don’t come to help me put on makeup. Are they doing this on purpose? They must want to embarrass me and make me laugh! Disgusting bitches! I want to punish them…]
Next page.
[9.03 Well, they have paid the price, forgive them for now.]
[By the way, I’m going on a date with (crossed out) tonight, so I have to prepare well. My roommates said they would help me remember my things, so if I lose them, I can just ask them for them. Oh, they are so considerate. My roommates are the best roommates in the world.]
…After reading the last sentence, several people complained in their hearts at the same time: I don’t believe you.
Oh, no, this person really seems to be a ghost.
Turning the page again, the following pages are blank, and the record ends here.
The air was silent for two seconds, and Guo Guo suddenly asked in a low voice: "What day is it today?"
"September 4th."
"…So isn't it today?"
According to the time in the diary, Xiaohong will write another new diary today. Combined with the record on September 2, it is not difficult to infer that if Tang Xinjue and his friends fail to find Xiaohong's lost items, they will be punished like the roommates who did not put makeup on her before.
What is the punishment? No one knows.
Putting the notebook back to its place, Tang Xinjue looked at the time. Time was passing at 12 times the speed and it was already 11 o'clock in the morning.
Zheng Wanqing's stomach growled, and then Guo Guo's. Both of them looked embarrassed and looked at Tang Xinjue somewhat at a loss.
Tang Xin Jue pressed his lower abdomen: "I feel very hungry too. The feeling of hunger is like it has been half a day."
If it was just the thrilling few hours last night and not eating in the morning, they could still bear it, but no one could stand going hungry for several meals in a row. Tang Xinjue did not hesitate, "Let's eat first."
Zheng Wanqing gritted her teeth and said, "You guys eat first, I can still hold on..."
Before she finished her words, she saw Tang Xinjue's body sway, and she rushed over to help him sit on the chair, "Are you okay?"
Tang Xinjue already looked very thin and malnourished, and now his face was pale, as if the wind would blow him away, so weak. She raised her eyelids and whispered to comfort him: "It's okay, I just have a little low blood sugar, and I just fainted."
Zheng Wanqing didn't listen at all. She hurriedly took all the snacks on her table, opened the bags and was about to feed the bread to Tang Xinjue, "Guo Guo, why are you standing there? Hurry up and get some water. Can't you see that Xinjue is about to faint?"
"I'm really fine, I just need to eat something, you don't have to worry about me..."
Facing Zheng Wanqing's completely unbelieving gaze, Tang Xinjue sighed helplessly, knowing that what he said was in vain. After all, with her frail appearance, her words were not convincing at all.
Besides, she did not feel very good just now. She checked her [Physical Information] and saw another negative attribute:
[Excessive hunger, health value 3]
Zheng Wanqing and Guo Guo also lost 5 and 7 health points. Guo Guo's health bar dropped directly below the yellow line, changing from [Healthy] to [Minor Injury].
Guo Guo wanted to cry but had no tears. "Why is my health bar dropping so fast? Is there anyone who can care about me ?"
After struggling for a long time, Tang Xin Jue, who looked the weakest, was actually the least damaged. He swallowed two small cream buns, rested for less than a minute, shook his head and stood up, "I'm fine, I'll go continue first."
In case the other two didn't believe her, she opened her [Identity Information] and stretched forward. The hunger state had disappeared, and even the influence of the sanity value was restored, and the health bar was directly filled to 100%.
The two who were still eating voraciously and fighting against the negative state: "......???"
Guo Guo: "Jue Shen, your appearance and physical fitness are definitely inversely proportional, right? My goodness, Lin Daiyu uprooting a weeping willow was written based on you, right?"
"Have you ever seen Lin Daiyu holding a toilet plunger?" Tang Xinjue smiled, clapped his hands and returned to the closet.
Two double-door wardrobes are placed at the entrance of the dormitory, with the doors marked with numbers 1 to 4. Perhaps to save space in the dormitory, the wardrobes are designed to be narrow and deep. At first glance, it is pitch black inside, and you need to stick your head in to see the inside clearly.
I didn't think anything of it before, but now I realize that these deep corners all reveal a dangerous atmosphere that is enough to brew a horror movie. Tang Xinjue frowned, temporarily suppressed his thoughts, and concentrated on searching.
After a few seconds, she suddenly had an idea and followed her intuition to look towards the right corner of the cabinet.
Although she hadn't seen it yet, a sudden strong premonition told her that there was probably something there.
He suppressed his palpitations and rummaged through his clothes. As expected, he touched a cold, hard metal object. When he pulled his hand out, there was a cell phone in his palm.
"What is this, a cell phone?"
"Are you stupid? This phone in Xin Jue's closet is not hers. It must be that Xiao Hong's! But... why does it look so retro?"
The two men came running over, holding half-eaten bread in their hands, staring at each other.
It's no wonder Zheng Wanqing couldn't recognize it. The pink flip phone with rhinestones was designed many years ago in both style and size, and it gave off a strong sense of age. If it wasn't for the fact that it could actually be used after opening, it would have looked like a toy.
Tang Xinjue thought thoughtfully: "It seems that our roommate Xiaohong started school a little early."
Just like the phones without lock screens in that era, the phone interface lights up as soon as the cover is opened. There are no apps in it, only basic functions such as phone calls, text messages and camera.
"There is no network signal, but there is a communication signal."
When I opened the address book, there were only four contacts in it. The phone numbers were displayed as a mess of garbled characters, and only the notes were barely legible.
In black letters on a white background, there are four notes arranged in order: "Dear, my best friend Xiaolu, my counselor, and my supermarket owner."
Tang Xinjue read out the notes one by one and raised his eyebrows. Before he could say anything, the thing in his hand suddenly vibrated.
“Ding ding ding, ding ding ding—”
An unknown call alert appeared on the phone screen.
"Fuck, a ghost call?" Guo Guo pulled Zheng Wanqing back and hid, as if being frightened had become a conditioned reflex, with fear in his eyes, "You're not going to answer it, are you?"
At this moment, a hundred ways of dying, including The Ring, had already emerged in her mind. However, Tang Xinjue lowered his eyes and thought for two seconds, then clicked to answer the call.
“Beep—beep—”
"Hello, hello, can you hear me?"
Accompanied by rapid breathing, an all-too-familiar anxious voice came from the other end of the phone.
