logic - Chapter 23
No one spoke; everyone felt the chances were very low.
“It was mostly Long Yingshui and his gang who did it,” Xu Sen said in a low voice. “Perhaps it will all end today.”
Yes.
Will it? Everyone smiled bitterly to themselves—death is no longer the worst outcome.
Waiting to die is the hardest thing to endure.
We waited all afternoon, but nothing happened. Everyone called and ordered boxed lunches to eat in the office.
Continue to wait.
As darkness fell, all the employees in the office building had left for the day, leaving only a few of them in the entire building.
.
Zhao Xuejun suddenly needed to use the restroom. This was already her seventh time doing so since the afternoon; she had no choice.
That's what happens when you're nervous.
As she reached the door, she noticed the hallway lights were off. Feeling a little scared, she turned back and looked at the others pleadingly.
Seeing that everyone else's attention was focused on Xu Sen and Yang Tianwen, Jiang Shichao had no choice but to come out and keep her company.
The building was deserted, making the corridor exceptionally quiet; even the lights seemed to be silent. The restroom was at the end of the corridor, around the corner.
Zhao Xuejun was a little scared, taking a few steps and then looking back, which made Jiang Shichao nervous, so he followed her.
Looking back—there was nothing behind me, only a long shadow trailing on the ground.
He glanced back a few times, then ignored Zhao Xuejun and continued walking. Seeing him quicken his pace, Zhao Xuejun...
She quickly came up and took his arm, but his eyes kept wandering around.
After taking a few more steps, he suddenly stopped, looked up at the ceiling, and his expression changed. Zhao Xuejun was...
His face suddenly turned pale, and he was terrified. He shook his arm and asked repeatedly what had happened.
He couldn't say anything; he only felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him from head to toe, chilling every cell in his body.
A chill was emanating from it.
Then, he slowly turned around—behind them, their own long shadows stretched out.
Where there is light, there is shadow; that's not surprising. What is surprising is that there's only one shadow on the ceiling in the middle of the entire corridor.
A chandelier. When they came out of the office, the chandelier was in front of them, so their shadows were behind them, which was...
normal.
However, they had now passed the chandelier, which was behind them, and the light was coming from behind them.
Logically, their shadows should appear in front of them.
But what he saw was that the shadow was still trailing behind him, stretching long against the light.
Even more terrifying was that, although they were clearly standing still, their shadows were still moving. It wasn't the kind of movement that was altered.
It's not a change in position, but a change in size; it's constantly stretching, slowly extending towards the other end of the corridor.
As you approach the principal's office, the door suddenly turns a corner and extends into the building.
Zhao Xuejun initially didn't think anything was amiss, but the more she looked, the more alarmed she became, seeing the shadow enter the principal's office.
In the room, she finally couldn't help but scream. The silent corridor seemed to grow even more profound because of her scream. Jiang Shichao originally wanted to stop her.
He found himself screaming along with them. As they screamed, their hearts pounded wildly, as if they were about to burst from their chests.
It seemed to spring out of his mouth.
Their shouts alerted the people in the office, and several voices could be heard asking loudly, "What's wrong?"
Before they could answer, the lights flickered and then everything went black. The two men were so tense they were trembling all over.
Cold, they held each other's hands, groped their way to the wall, and stood with their backs against it. A commotion arose from the office.
Amidst the panicked sounds, the principal was shouting, "Don't panic, everyone!" while Leng Xin and Lin Ding were calling out Jiang Shichao's name. Chaos...
After a few minutes, I calmed down a bit and heard the principal's loud voice say, "Don't panic, everyone come to my side."
"Now I'll take attendance!" He called out Jiang Shichao's name first, and Jiang Shichao shouted, "Zhao Xuejun and I are in the corridor!"
Then they slowly moved along the wall towards the office. They had experienced power outages before, but after a few...
After a few minutes, my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and I could vaguely see some things. By then, several minutes had passed.
It was still pitch black before their eyes. They could see the streetlights shining brightly outside through the corridor windows, but inside the corridor...
There was no light at all; it was pitch black.
---Magpie Bridge Fairy
Reply [38]: The principal then called Yang Tianwen's name, but no one answered. Everyone's heart skipped a beat, and the principal then...
They called several times, but still no one answered. The others joined in, and together they called out Yang Tianwen and Xu...
Sen's name was called, but the two men didn't utter a sound. In the darkness, only Duan Yun's trembling voice could be heard saying, "They must be..."
"They're dead. Didn't you smell the seaweed? They died just like the others before them!!"
Everyone thinks the same thing, but they just don't want to say it. Leng Xin softly rebuked:
"Don't talk nonsense." Then everyone fell silent.
Jiang Shichao and his companion groped along the wall for a while, passing through eight offices in total. The next one should be...
They were in the principal's office. The two reached the door, which was open. Afraid of going to the wrong place, he tentatively called out, "Are you in..."
"Are you there?" Before the words were finished, a series of echoes came from inside the room: "Are you there—are you there—you..."
Are you there? Are you there…” It was as if he were facing not a small room of a few dozen square meters, but a huge…
The auditorium. Jiang Shichao and Zhao Xuejun, their fingers intertwined, seemed to have gone limp with fear. They turned to run, but...
Their legs were now extremely heavy; they strained desperately, but could only barely lift their feet off the ground slightly, and no matter how hard they tried...
Despite their efforts, they could only move at an extremely slow pace. This often happens in dreams.
People often encounter situations where they want to run but can't. This is exactly their current situation; their body movements seem to have slowed down.
The camera panned. Zhao Xuejun felt like she was suffocating with fear, gasping for breath. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her.
A terrifying thought: what if the hand she was holding so tightly wasn't Jiang Shichao's? The more she thought about it...
The more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed. I wanted to ask, but I was afraid. Finally, I asked hesitantly, "Shichao, are you holding..."
"My hand?" Jiang Shichao let out a scream; she felt the hand in hers tremble noticeably, and then it slammed into her grasp.
She struggled, seemingly trying to break free, but she immediately let go. Jiang Shichao asked, trembling, "What if what I'm holding isn't yours?"
"Hands...whose are those?" Zhao Xuejun's entire body was covered in goosebumps, and she used the same...
The voice asked in a low tone, "I don't know, I... I just thought of it, you... you really weren't holding my hand? That was just..."
"Whose hand was that that just slipped from my grasp?" After a brief silence, Jiang Shichao's voice calmed slightly.
A little: "So you were just asking! That was my hand just now! Sister Xuejun, don't scare me with questions like that."
"Is it okay?" Zhao Xuejun finally breathed a sigh of relief: the atmosphere was already scary enough. The two of them were scaring themselves even more.
The echo of Jiang Shichao's voice caused another wave of panic in the office, followed by people searching for each other.
Then, Leng Xin shouted, "Shichao, what's wrong?"
"I don't know, where are you?" Jiang Shichao's voice had distorted beyond recognition.
He was truly terrified. Now, one hand was groping against the cold wall, while the other hung limply in the air, making his heart pound.
A chill ran down his spine, fearing he might bump into something terrifying if he swung his arm. He longed to hold Zhao Xuejun's hand again, at least...
Knowing that there was indeed someone with him in the darkness gave him a sense of security. Just as he was about to speak, Zhao Xuejun preemptively spoke up.
The idea struck them. The two reached out their hands in the direction of the other's voice, groping in the air, their hearts pounding. Okay.
It wasn't easy for them to hold hands, and Zhao Xuejun, still worried, asked again, "Shichao, is that you?" Jiang Shichao nodded repeatedly.
Suddenly realizing that the other person couldn't see her nod in the dark, she quickly answered loudly, "Yes, it's me!"
A strong, fishy smell of seaweed filled the entire corridor. People in the office kept calling their names, giving him...
They led the way. They dared not linger, continuing to struggle forward with their heavy legs. After a few steps, Jiang Shi...
Chao felt Zhao Xuejun's hand pulling him down, as if she wanted him to bend over. He asked, "Sister Xuejun, what are you doing?"
?
"What? I was just about to ask you that too," came Zhao Xuejun's puzzled voice.
It felt as if a frost-like wind had swept through his body; he felt icy cold all over, and fear rose to his throat, but he couldn't utter a sound.
Zhao Xuejun's voice was right next to his ear, but the hand he was holding was clearly positioned below, according to that...
The direction of the force applied and the manner of the handshake confirm that the hand's owner was either squatting or sitting on the ground. Could it be that the hand...
Not Zhao Xuejun's? A chill crept into his heart. He gripped the hand tightly; it was much larger than his own.
These hands were much larger, completely unlike Zhao Xuejun's previous small and soft hands. Moreover, they were cold and sticky, as if they had just been washed.
There were also wispy, furry things.
"Sister Xuejun, pinch my hand!" he said softly to Zhao Xuejun to confirm.
He waited a short while, but there was no response. He forcibly suppressed the urge to shake off the hand: "Sister Xuejun, didn't you hear me?"
"Is it my turn to speak?" This time, Zhao Xuejun immediately replied, "I've already pinched your hand several times, why didn't you?"
"Do you feel it?" Her voice was filled with terror. "Shichao, why are your hands so wet? Have you been sweating a lot? How come..."
Even the backs of your hands are wet?