Volume 1: Breaking Ground Chapter 5: No visiting allowed!
In the dead of night, the knock on the door seemed particularly harsh.
Ke Xun felt the knock on the door was very close to his ears, and even thought it was the one knocking on room 411 where he lived.
The knocks on the door became louder and louder, followed by a crying female voice: "Open the door! Please open the door!"
The voice seemed familiar, as if it was one of the three long-legged girls. When he thought it was his companion, Ke Xun couldn't lie still anymore. He sat up and planned to look out the window to see what was going on.
Mu Yiran, who was lying next to him, reached out and pulled Ke Xun, and said in a very low voice: "The number is 410."
Sure enough, the knocking sound came again, and it even changed from knocking to banging on the door. The girl outside shouted for help: "Sisters! There is something wrong with this building! It is not habitable at all! Come out, let's discuss how to get out!"
The knocking on the door became louder and louder, with a desperate tone like someone on the verge of death.
But what answered them was deathly silence.
Ke Xun still wanted to see through the window, but his arm was clamped by Mu Yiran, and the other party's voice came to his ear: "The other party has violated the rules of the painting."
Ke Xun paused. Indeed, they had violated the doorman's ban of "no visiting after lights out". Knocking on the door itself was an invitation to visit.
There was a flash of light outside, like the flashlight in a cell phone. The light brushed against the window and then dimmed again.
The knocking sound gradually became quieter, and it seemed as if a girl was crying: "What should I do? Is there anyone else in this building..."
Another girl's voice said, "It's past 12 o'clock. Let's go back to the house. We'll move out tomorrow!"
The shadows of the two girls were reflected on the curtains by the light from the mobile phone. The light flickered and the shadows looked messy as if they were cut by the light.
The two passed by Ke Xun's window. The light gradually faded away, but the voice was very clear in the dark night: "Fortunately, we bought candles. Let's light them tonight." ...
Ke Xun and Mu Yiran remained silent for a long time. Ke Xun was still sitting on the edge of the bed, and Mu Yiran was still lying there.
In the pitch-dark night, people are very sensitive to light - a window opposite suddenly lights up, emitting a warm orange light. It is room 402 where the girls live.
"Among the three of them, one person is left alone." Mu Yiran still maintained a very low voice.
Indeed, there were only two girls who ran over to ask for help.
"Maybe they have violated more than one ban." Ke Xun lay down again, feeling that the participants in the painting this time were somewhat different from the previous ones. However, soon these people would submit to the rules of the painting - the so-called self-righteousness would be quelled in the face of death.
Because of the candlelight from the room opposite, this room was no longer so dark. Ke Xun lay on his side and looked at Mu Yiran's sharp profile. "Mu Yiran, have you noticed that everyone living in this apartment calls this place the Spring Bamboo Shoots Dormitory?"
The word "Mu" turned into a light tone in Ke Xun's mouth, sounding almost the same as "Yiran".
Mu Yiran simply ignored the fact that he was called "Yiran" and continued with the following topic: "The term dormitory often comes from a certain unit or school group."
"In theory, dormitory is an old-fashioned name. In the past, it was called student dormitory. Now universities call it student apartment." Ke Xun rested his head on his arm. "It seems that the predecessor of Chunsun Apartment is Chunsun Dormitory. So... Chunsun Apartment used to belong to a certain unit?"
Mu Yiran also agreed with this point: "The elderly people who were enjoying the cool air downstairs seemed to know each other very well. It was far from the way they communicated in ordinary residential areas or apartments."
"You mean, these elderly people used to be employees of a certain unit? So they are not only neighbors, but also former co-workers?"
If this is the case, the relationship between the residents of these unit dormitories is not so simple.
These people can be said to form a group of their own, and they are naturally xenophobic towards outside tenants.
It's just like the hostility that people in a certain village have towards outsiders.
"There are still quite a few outsiders here, and most of the people working in the shops downstairs have accents from other places." Mu Yiran's voice came clearly from beside the pillow. Although the pillows were a little far apart, Ke Xun felt that this distance was warm and comfortable.
"Well, for example, the fifth sister in the restaurant, and the lady in red in the Wenzhou hair salon," Ke Xun's mind flashed with the people he had seen this evening, and he shuddered in the hot summer, "Did you notice that the clothes those people wore today all had one thing in common?"
Mu Yiran did not answer immediately. After a while, he said, "Let's discuss this topic during the day."
Ever since Ke Xun summarized the characteristics of these people's clothing, he felt that it was full of bad omens. When he heard Mu Yiran say this, he also felt that it was not a good idea to say this in the middle of the night. Besides, they were now in a painting, and night was the most dangerous time - what the two of them said now might be heard by something else in the corner.
But the more he talked about it, the more he felt that this apartment was indeed full of weirdness. Ke Xun couldn't help but lean close to Mu Yiran's ear and asked, "When you first came here, did you observe this building carefully?"
Mu Yiran's voice was so low that it seemed only he could hear it: "From the outside it looks like a turret."
It turned out that I was not the only one who noticed this. If the entire cylindrical building looked like a turret from the outside, it would mean that there couldn't be too many windows on the column. But there were clearly windows facing the street in the room now!
Why can't these windows be seen from the outside? Where exactly are these windows located?
Ke Xun recalled the dark night as dark as a curtain that he saw through the window facing the outside when he first entered the room, and he seemed to understand something.
Some things are not suitable to be said at night.
So Ke Xun yawned and said, "Go to sleep. We have to get up early to go to the restaurant tomorrow."
"Um."
Ke Xun turned over and lay down: "Good night?"
"Good night."
Although he said good night before going to bed, Ke Xun couldn't fall asleep for a while. His mind was replaying the people he saw today: the girl in a red short skirt at the entrance of the hair salon; the fifth sister in the small restaurant wearing retro black leggings and a white T-shirt, with large patches of red maple leaves printed on the chest of the T-shirt, and a string of words: Maple Leaf Love...
Also, the doorman wearing a red cross-bar vest, and the old lady next door who lives in 409, also wearing a red floral sweatshirt...
It is no coincidence that all these people are wearing red clothes of varying shades.
Red clothes are obviously a symbol of joy, but when all these people were wearing red clothes, especially at night, in such a strange apartment building, the joy turned into an inexplicable ominous sign.
The night was still very quiet, and it seemed that the expected danger had not occurred. Or perhaps the danger was hidden too deeply and could not be revealed for a while.
The girls who lived in 402 across the street, who had already violated the taboo, still had candlelight in their windows...
Ke Xun fell asleep unknowingly, and he slept very soundly. He was woken up by Mu Yiran early the next morning: "Something happened outside."
If something goes wrong, in the painting it means someone dies.
Ke Xun sat up and felt that the light in the room was still very dim. There was light towards the door and the small window next to it was also bright, but the bed seemed to be plunged into darkness.
Ke Xun couldn't help but look towards the large window facing the street opposite. There was not a single light outside the window. Mu Yiran simply pulled open the curtains. Outside the window stood a black-gray concrete wall, only half an arm's length away from the window.
No wonder I felt like this building was a turret yesterday, with no windows at all! Someone actually built a concrete wall around the building! The entire building was sealed in the concrete wall, and people could only see the world inside the building, but could not see or hear anything outside.
I don’t know who did this strange and artificial isolation. It can’t be someone in this building.
Ke Xun didn't have time to think too much. He stood up and went out of the house with Mu Yiran. Standing in the corridor outside the door, he saw a lot of people gathered in the courtyard, and two bodies covered with white cloth.
Shaliu and Qiulu were also standing by the railing looking down. Shaliu must have realized that a death would happen today. There was a dead calm in his eyes behind the lenses, but his body couldn't help shaking.
Qiu Lu was completely stunned: "What... happened?"
"Let's go downstairs and take a look." Mu Yiran took the lead and walked towards the stairs, followed by several people with heavy expressions.
When the few people came downstairs, almost all the onlookers had dispersed, and most of the remaining people were from their own team. Everyone's face was either terrified, compassionate, or dull, in short, it was very ugly.
Qin Ci lifted the white cloth and found that the body had been burnt black, and the same was true for the other body.
Xinmiao, one of the three long-legged girls, was trembling with fear. "I told them that it's dangerous to light candles all night, but they didn't listen..."
Qin Ci frowned and asked, "Was there a fire in the room last night?"
"Maybe... maybe." Xinmiao's lips trembled and he couldn't speak coherently.
Qiu Lu couldn't help asking, "You two live in the same room. Don't you know if there's a fire?"
Xinmiao kept shaking his head: "I slept the whole night, and in the middle of the night I felt a little choked and coughed a few times. I thought it was Tina smoking... I didn't feel any heat at all... Until the morning, I found that the two of them had..."
Xinmiao's eyes were wide open and his body was shaking. He seemed unable to recall the scene of this morning - the two charred corpses sleeping beside him.
The doorman, still wearing the faded red vest, directed several people to carry the body away, waving the big keypad in his hand: "Go to Wumei Restaurant for breakfast at eight o'clock."
The door was immediately opened and the people carrying the body went out through the door.
Xin Miao suddenly rushed out like crazy, staring with eyes wide open: "Let me out! Let me out! This is not a place for people! Who dares to stop me! I'm going to call the police! I'm going to sue you for illegal detention!"
Finally, several people worked together to stop him. Sha Liu's sharp eyes shot through the lens: "You will only die faster if you go out!"
Xin Miao was so desperate that he almost convulsed: "What's going on? Can anyone tell me what's going on?!"
Mu Yiran looked at the watch on his wrist: "It's just seven o'clock now, let's go to the scene of the death," his eyes stayed on Xin Miao's face, "You'd better calm down and tell us everything you can remember, so that we can perhaps avoid the next tragedy."
Xin Miao's eyes were hollow as corpses at this moment, and he was still mumbling: "They were still alive and kicking yesterday, but this morning they turned into charred black... The room was full of black powder from their corpses... It was everywhere..."
Ke Xun looked at Sha Liu and said, "You stay and persuade her. We will go up first."
Ke Xun still believes in Sha Liu's ability to comfort and persuade.
Sha Liu nodded and pulled Xin Miao aside: "The reason for this is that they broke the rules first. They knocked on other people's doors after turning off the lights last night, which in itself is a sign of visiting."
Xinmiao breathed heavily like a dying fish: "Yes, they went to knock on the door of 410 last night..." Xinmiao's voice suddenly became louder, staring at Shaliu, "You live in 410, right? Why didn't you open the door for them?!"
Sha Liu's expression was cold: "If I opened the door, I might be the one burned to death."
Sha Liu then asked, "What about you? What were you doing when they knocked on the door last night?"
