Aula 407 - Capítulo 11
"Wow! I didn't expect you guys to have a picnic here." Da Kai said, then grabbed a beer and started drinking.
"Pah! Picnic, my foot! The stench over there makes even dragon meat taste bland." Li Xu said this, but he was munching on beef jerky, and Da Kai was also eating heartily. The two of them hadn't eaten dinner and were starving.
The group stayed on the grass for a while, ate a lot of food, and drank a lot of alcohol. They returned to their dormitory after the crowd in the square had dispersed.
Da Kai, having finished his snacks, said goodnight and fell asleep. The others were also tired and soon drifted off to sleep. Only Zhang Da remained awake. His usual book-hunting prowess was fully unleashed; he dug out all the books under his bed and flipped through them, hoping to find some solution. He searched for a long time without feeling sleepy or finding any clues. Desperate, he lay in bed, thinking about the strange things he had experienced. After a while, he seemed to realize something. He felt that these past few days were different from his usual evenings, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Lost in thought, Zhang Da eventually fell asleep.
The next morning, the air was anything but fresh. The entire campus was filled with the stench of rotting flesh, which woke up everyone in Room 202. They were all sleepy, but the stench made it impossible for them to fall back asleep, so they all sat or lay on their beds.
Li Xu and Zhang Da usually get up early, but Zhang Da went to bed later last night. Although he woke up at this time, he still stayed in bed and was unwilling to get up. Li Xu, on the other hand, had already gotten out of bed and was aimlessly fanning the air in front of him with his hand.
Just as Gu Xing glanced at the clock by the bedside, there was a knock on the door. Li Xu, still half asleep, went to open it. Everyone knew it must be Mo Xiaoqiang coming to ask Da Kai to play ball. Gu Xing suddenly shouted, "Don't open the door!" But it was too late; Li Xu had already opened the door.
Li Xu glanced at Mo Xiaoqiang and immediately rushed to the toilet to vomit. Zhang Da, watching from the bed, couldn't bear it either and covered his mouth. Mo Xiaoqiang's basketball had turned red, his face was completely rotting, one eyeball was hanging from his mouth, and the other eyeball looked like it was glued to the pile of rotting flesh on his face, about to fall off. His lips were gone, only two rows of red and white teeth were visible. His whole body looked like soaked bread, swollen and rotten, with maggots crawling on his face. The pile of "things" slowly moved forward, trying to enter the dormitory. With each step he dragged forward, a trail of blood appeared on the ground. When he slowly lifted his foot, he brought up some red viscous fluid that was even thicker than blood. It could truly be described as "dragging flesh and blood." Just as he took a step, one of his eyeballs fell off and rolled all the way to the toilet, where he bumped into Li Xu who had just finished vomiting. Li Xu rushed back to the toilet and vomited violently.
Upon seeing this, Gu Xing paused for a moment, then immediately jumped out of bed and slammed the door shut. Da Kai and Yang Mian also moved chairs and tables to block the door. At that moment, a hoarse, strange cry came from outside the door: "I~~~~~~~~~Uh~~~~~~~~~~Gah, gurgle, gurgle... thump..."
Gu Xing, while holding the door shut, asked Da Kai, "What did he say?"
"Just keep pushing, and don't care what he says."
Zhang Da walked over at this moment and listened carefully. Li Xu also came out of the toilet after vomiting and said breathlessly, "It's still the same thing, I'm looking for 'Da Kai to play ball'."
“It’s somewhat similar, but also somewhat different.” Zhang Da listened intently to the strange noises outside. After a while, he turned to Li Xu and said, “His whole body is rotting, so even his vocal cords are rotting, making his speech unclear.”
"You bastard, saying this kind of thing is just trying to make me throw up..." Li Xu's stomach churned, but he managed to hold it in and didn't vomit. He turned his head to look at the scenery outside the window to distract himself. But after a while, he couldn't help but rush to the toilet to vomit again.
"Outside... Ugh... Ptooey... Ugh, look outside... Ugh." Li Xu had nothing left to vomit, he even threw up the snacks he ate the night before. While vomiting, he banged on the toilet door, trying to get Gu Xing's attention and make them look out the window.
The door was firmly secured, indicating that the thing didn't have much strength to break in. Reassured, Gu Xing and the others went to the window and saw two people—practically made of piled-up flesh—pulling at each other, their movements sluggish. Rotting flesh constantly fell to the ground from their struggle. The two cursed at each other, but it was all incoherent "ooh... gurgle... gaa." A large crowd of onlookers and people trying to break up the fight gathered. Two groups of people separated the two, while the onlookers bumped and jostled each other. A minute later, the school supervisor, covered in blood, dragged himself over and said something. Then, everyone slowly dispersed.
After everyone had left, Gu Xing looked at the ground again and saw that it was covered with piles and puddles of bright red, light red, light yellow, red and yellow mixed, and black things. Some were mushy, some were dense, and some were chunks. Gu Xing's dormitory was on the third floor, but he could still clearly see that a large swarm of flies had gathered on those things.
"Ah! That yellow stuff might be protein, and the red stuff must be blood. Some of the thick blood has already deteriorated and turned light red. Hmm? And that black stuff is..." Zhang Da said with great interest, holding a forensic medicine textbook.
"Damn it, if you keep talking, I'll throw you out the window and let them study you down there."
Upon hearing Da Kai's words, Zhang Da immediately stopped talking, but continued reading and studying the book.
Gu Xing gave Li Xu some tissues, and then took some more to wrap up Mo Xiaoqiang's eyeball that had rolled off. Zhang Da saw this and asked, "How is it? Is that thing still elastic?"
Gu Xing glared at him and said, "Try taking a bite."
Zhang Da dared not speak again, but turned back to look out the window. Gu Xing threw the thing out the window, and it rolled far away like a ping-pong ball. Gu Xing smelled his fingers and went to the toilet to wash his hands. By this time, Li Xu had vomited until he was completely weak. He staggered back to the bed, but before he could reach it, his legs gave way and he collapsed. Da Kai caught him before he fell to the ground and slowly helped him to the bed. Yang Mian couldn't bear to see this and frowned as he looked at Li Xu. Gu Xing also came out at this time. Seeing Yang Mian like this, he went over and patted him on the shoulder, and they sat back down on the bed together.
More than an hour passed, and no one in the dormitory spoke. Da Kai sat next to Li Xu and saw that Li Xu's face was completely pale and his lips were bloodless.
"Li Xu, are you alright?" Yang Mian was feeling very upset because everyone was doing this for his sister.
"Hmm..." Li Xu groaned in response.
"Perhaps we should just forget about it, everyone..." Yang Mian said reluctantly.
Before he could finish speaking, Gu Xing patted him on the shoulder and said, "What about your sister? Do you think we're all just fair-weather friends? Actually, if anyone should apologize to, it's me. I'm the one who brought this all on."
"Alright, that's enough." Da Kai stood up. "Friends don't need to say anything, right?"
Suddenly, Zhang Da jumped up and shouted, "I've got it! I've finally got it! Listen to me, everyone..."
Li Xu looked at Zhang Da in fear, afraid that he would say something disgusting again. Da Kai also glared at Zhang Da and muttered, "Watch your mouth."
Zhang Da ignored Da Kai and said, "Didn't you often hear footsteps outside the door around midnight before?"
"Yeah, it's those guys in room 205 who often sneak out for late-night snacks and come back around midnight."
Zhang Da became excited. "Yes, they do this every day and it's become a habit. But in these past few days of this repetition, we haven't heard their footsteps. That means something must have changed at some point tonight. So, if we want to escape this space, the opportunity is at midnight tonight."
"Then what should we do?" Da Kai didn't understand what Zhang Da was saying, he just wanted to know what to do.
Zhang Da said, "I don't know."
"What?" Da Kai stared wide-eyed at Zhang Da.
Zhang Da calmly said, "Actually, I don't know what to do either, so tonight, let's go outside and see what's going on. Maybe there'll be a solution."
Gu Xing also stood up: "Alright, we can't just sit here and wait to die. Let's get a good night's sleep now, and we'll take action tonight."
Everyone lay down on their beds, their morale soaring, but precisely because of this high spirit, none of them could sleep. Adding to the problem was the unpleasant stench, and several flies buzzing around the room...
Suddenly, there was a dull knocking sound, not too fast. Gu Xing got out of bed and looked at the clock. It was already past seven o'clock in the evening. It turned out that everyone except Zhang Da and Yang Mian had fallen asleep without him noticing. Gu Xing got out of bed and walked to the door, which was blocked by tables and chairs. Zhang Da and Yang Mian were sitting on the bed looking at him worriedly. Gu Xing turned to Zhang Da and Yang Mian and said, "It's probably those people who want to watch the live football broadcast."
"Gu Xing~~~~~~~~~We~~~~~~~~Gu~~~~~~~~Gaga............Chirp............Ah."
Hearing the indistinct shouts outside the door, it seemed Gu Xing had guessed correctly. Since the lights inside weren't on, the thing outside shouted, "Gu~~~~~Xing, you~~~~ga, if you're not~ ...
Zhang Da shouted loudly, "None of us are here!"
Yang Mian threw a pillow at him and cursed, "Are you a pig? Do you even have a brain?"
Unexpectedly, there was no sound outside the door; it seemed that all those things had left. Zhang Da laughed and said, "Ha, their brains are all rotten; they're even dumber than me."
Just as Zhang Da finished speaking, a commotion suddenly broke out outside the door, and strange cries could be heard intermittently.
“Goo~~~~~~~~~~~Gah, Chirp~~~~~~~~~Ah~~~~~~~~Chirp~~~~~Uh~~~~Heh~~Ah~~~~~~~Chirp.”
"Chirp~~~~~~Caw, chirp~~~~~~Ah."
Immediately, the door began to pound against it repeatedly. Gu Xing struggled to push it open, while Zhang Da and Yang Mian rushed to help. As the three of them pushed, they saw pools of dark red blood flowing in from the gaps under the door, and heard squeaking and rustling sounds, like mud being stirred. They pushed for several minutes, and the blood on the ground attracted a swarm of flies, emitting a foul stench. The three of them had to cover their noses with one hand.
After a long while, everything calmed down. The three of them breathed a sigh of relief and sat back on the bed. Strange noises kept coming from outside the door, making them nervous. Even though it was night, they didn't dare turn on the lights. Gu Xing went to the window to see what was going on. Under the dim streetlights, the ground was littered with piles and puddles of things, including a whole arm. Gu Xing didn't want to look anymore. He turned back and saw Da Kai and Li Xu still sleeping. Gu Xing didn't want to wake them, so he just sat down next to Yang Mian and stayed with him. At this moment, there was another knocking and strange noise: "Creak~~~~~~Squeak~~~~~Someone's looking for you~~~~~~Creak." It lasted for about a minute and then stopped.
"It's possible that Fang Yi sent someone to find Da Kai, to wake him up and ask him if he wants to go out and see Fang Yi."
After hearing Zhang Da's words, Gu Xing couldn't help but curse, "So Yang Mian was right to call you brainless earlier. Fang Yi might have become just like those people outside now. Why bother sending him out?"
Zhang Danuo pursed his lips and stopped talking. The dormitory fell silent again. Gu Xing looked at the clock from time to time through the dim light from the streetlights outside the window. When it was past ten o'clock, Gu Xing muttered, "It's past ten o'clock. There's going to be a fire upstairs."
Sure enough, a commotion erupted upstairs, and after a few minutes, the entire school building erupted in noise, with strange sounds filling the air: "Gah~~~~~~~~~~Gu~~~~~~~Ah~~~~~~~~~~~Squeak~~~~~~~Squeak." At that moment, the dormitory door was knocked on, and Gu Xing and the others heard some indistinct sounds: "Quick~~~~~Gah~~~~~~Fire~~~~~~~Gu." The sounds continued for about half a minute before stopping.
Da Kai and Li Xu also woke up at this time.
"What's wrong?" Li Xu asked, rubbing his eyes.
"It was past ten o'clock when a fire broke out upstairs, which is why it was so noisy."
Da Kai, Yang Mian, and Zhang Da walked to the window and saw a large group of "corpses" in the square. Two other people stood up and were gesturing and talking to the group of "things." Yang Mian thought that the two must be the school supervisor and the dormitory supervisor. Just then, one of them, in his excitement, raised his hand and threw something from his hand, which stuck to the other's face. Yang Mian didn't know whether to laugh or be scared.
"Haha, look." Zhang Dahe laughed heartily, "Hehe, Gu Xing, come and take a look."
Gu Xing saw Da Kai waving at him while talking, so he curiously walked over. Li Xu, afraid of being too disgusted, sat on the bed and didn't go over to see. At this moment, Da Kai and Zhang Da were vividly describing what had just happened. After they finished speaking, Gu Xing laughed along with them, which also infected Yang Mian, who couldn't help but laugh as well. Li Xu also heard what Da Kai and Zhang Da were talking about and laughed as well. Gu Xing thought to himself: This is also finding joy in hardship.
Around 11 o'clock, the guys in the square dispersed, and the entire school building became quiet. Gu Xing and the others got ready, and Li Xu washed his face to clear his head. When it was 12 o'clock, the group stealthily moved the tables and chairs in front of the door and carefully walked out of the dormitory. They found that the dirt on the ground had disappeared, and the air was fresh and pleasant. The group greedily inhaled the long-lost fresh air.
"The stench is gone! It's the start of Saturday, let's quickly look for anything that's wrong," Zhang Da said excitedly.
"Let's split up and search. Da Kai and Li Xu will be in one group. Go upstairs and take a look." Gu Xing looked at Da Kai.
Da Kai didn't say anything, just nodded and led Li Xu upstairs. Gu Xing and the others went downstairs to find out what was wrong, but they found no one in the duty room.
"The dormitory supervisor isn't here." Gu Xing looked at Zhang Da with some surprise. Then he asked him, "What time is it?"
Zhang Da glanced at his watch: "It's exactly twelve o'clock."
"What? We left at midnight?"
Zhang Da carefully examined the watch on his wrist. Seeing that the second hand had stopped moving, he said, "The watch is broken."
Gu Xing continued walking forward helplessly, when he suddenly heard Zhang Da shout behind him. Gu Xing immediately turned around and covered his mouth, afraid that he would alert everyone, because he didn't know what the consequences would be.
Zhang Da's mouth was covered, but his hand kept pointing at the wall of the duty room. Gu Xing and Yang Mian looked in the direction he was pointing and saw that the clock on the wall of the duty room was pointing to twelve o'clock.
"It wasn't my watch that was broken; it turns out time has stopped." Zhang Da felt a chill run down his spine, never expecting such a thing to happen.
Gu Xing wasn't entirely convinced, so he pointed to his wrist and asked Yang Mian if he had a watch. Yang Mian shook his head, raised his wrist, and showed that he wasn't wearing a watch.
"Your family is so rich, yet you don't even own a watch?"
“If you guys eat it all, where will we get the money to buy more?”
Just as Gu Xing and Yang Mian were talking quietly, Da Kai and Li Xu rushed downstairs with a "bang, bang, bang." Gu Xing immediately went to meet them, put his index finger to his lips, and made a "shush" sound to indicate that they should keep their voices down.
"What? Nobody's in any of the dorm rooms upstairs!" Da Kai shouted loudly.
quiet------
Gu Xing stayed for a while, then walked to a dormitory room with an open window. He saw that there was no one inside. Then, Gu Xing noticed that Li Xu was wearing a watch, so he took his hand and checked the time. It was twelve o'clock.
Zhang Da saw it too, and said to Gu Xing, "See? I told you time had stopped flowing."
Da Kai, not understanding what Zhang Da was talking about, pushed him aside and said to Gu Xing, "Also, when we went up there just now, we saw lights on the sports field. It's midnight, how come there are people on the sports field? That's really strange."
After hearing Da Kai's words, Gu Xing rushed towards the sports field, and the others followed. When they arrived at the sports field, Gu Xing and the others carefully walked to the stands and saw that the grass on the field had turned into a black pond at some point. A large group of people were standing by the pond, but their bodies were not rotting. They were just like sleepwalkers, with lifeless eyes and their hands hanging down.
On the other side of the pond, a man in a black cloak was vigorously stirring the water with a large scythe. Gu Xing stealthily approached him, and Yang Mian and the others followed him with their heads bowed.
Gradually, she could see the person clearly; it was Xu Chen. After fiddling with it for a while, she took out a black object from her clothes, threw it into the pool, and said with a smile, "Hehe, this time you'll be scared half to death, won't you?"
Then, Xu Chen said a few words that were incomprehensible. One by one, the group of people on the other side of the pond walked into the pond in two rows. When the first group came out of the pond on the other side, they were all rotten, and you could see the wriggling maggots on their bodies from a distance.
Gu Xing couldn't help but rush out and shout, "Stop! Don't hurt anyone anymore!"
Xu Chen turned his head in surprise to look at Gu Xing, then stuck out his tongue and said, "Oh, we've been found out."
"So you are the Grim Reaper." Li Xu was very interested in these kinds of supernatural things.
"You mean this?" Xu Chen picked up a corner of the cloak. "I saw this in a boutique when I was shopping. What do you think? Do I look good in it?"
When Xu Chen asked this question, Gu Xing and the others were speechless.
Zhang Da asked, puzzled, "What about the sickle?"
"This sickle, well, I got it from someone named..." Xu Chen held the large sickle in one hand, raised his head, put the index finger of his other hand to his lips, and thought hard, looking quite cute: "Ah! I've got it, I snatched it from someone named Niu Erqing."
Zhang Da asked in surprise, "Is it that murderer?"
"Yes, yes, you're right, you know that too." Xu Chen said excitedly, jumping up and down innocently and cutely, when he saw someone agreeing with him.
"Who is that person?" Da Kai asked Zhang Da, puzzled.
"A year ago, a notorious murderer who liked to kill people with a large scythe in the dead of night killed a total of twenty people. The bodies of the men and women who were found were all dismembered. He was later arrested and sentenced to death, but the murder weapon has not been found to this day."
After listening to Zhang Da's words, Gu Xing and the others looked at each other.
Xu Chen looked at them for a while, then sighed and said, "This is really no fun. I was planning to scare you all again tomorrow before moving on to the next part, but you guys found out. This is so boring."
Yang Mian thought Xu Chen had gotten tired of playing with her, so he asked, "Are you willing to give my sister back to me now?"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Xu Chen waved his index finger in front of him: "It's still early, two more days. Now I'm going to get serious with you guys."