As Li was running wildly in the water, his ears were filled with Qiao Qiao's screams, the telephone ringing like a ghost, and the violent crash of the water. Gradually, those sounds faded from his world, leaving only his heavy breathing like a broken bellows.
“Huh!” “Huh!”
Li Zheng's tall running figure suddenly stopped. Wasn't that the same voice on the other end when the phone rang for the first time tonight
The reason why it sounds so vague and it's hard to tell whether it's a man or a woman is because it's the overlapping breathing sounds of multiple people running
"Xiao Li, run—"
The girl's piercing cry pierced Li Zheng's eardrums. He woke up instantly and gritted his teeth to speed up.
On the second floor, Chen Yang stared at the direction of the service desk. The ringing of the phone made his breathing slow and heavy.
"It's too late." Brother Yu stared at the stopwatch on his phone. "I'm going to die." His face was stiff. "I can't make it."
Pan Lin's eyes were wide open, filled with helplessness and panic: "What will happen to us if no one answers the phone?"
No one spoke.
It's unknown, and anything can happen.
Pan Lin also realized this. He supported himself with weak hands and feet to stand up, and trembled as he walked towards Liu Liu: "It's all your fault!"
"What does it have to do with me?" Liu Liu said with a look of disgust. "Are you mentally deformed? How could everyone die just because a phone call was not answered?"
"Even if there is punishment, it will be for the person who went down to answer the phone but missed it." Liu Liu hummed.
Out of self-protection, Pan Lin hoped that what Liu Liu said was true, but... Li Zheng was too unlucky.
"He took it. He took it for you." Pan Lin glared at him.
Liu Liu said: "I didn't ask him to replace me."
"You!" Pan Lin was shocked by his shamelessness.
Liu Liu pushed Pan Lin away, and he moved away from the team and sat down in a place that was neither too far nor too close.
At the guardrail, Qiao Qiao closed his eyes and clasped his hands together, his lips trembling as he prayed: "Please... please please..."
Someone around exclaimed, and Qiao Qiao opened her red eyes a little bit, and saw Li Zheng lying in front of the service desk with his hand on the microphone. She was stunned and tears fell all of a sudden.
Li Zheng received a call, and the sound of his bubbles was like heavenly music, celebrating his escape from death. His bulging muscles were soaked by cold sweat and sea water, and he had spasms, and he grabbed the edge of the service desk with his hands to avoid kneeling in the water.
"What's that sound on the phone?" Brother Yu's anxious voice came from the second floor.
"Bulu bulu sound." Li Zheng didn't dare to stay in the water. He always felt that something was approaching him. He hurried to the corridor, took a few big steps up the stairs, sat down with his butt, and gasped for breath so heavily that his lungs seemed to explode.
The sound of footsteps coming down the stairs came closer and closer. Li Zheng tilted his head back, and a beam of light shone into his eyes, as well as his little fairy.
Qiao Qiao stood for a while, panting lightly, then squatted down to look at Li Zheng.
Li Zheng's wet chest rose and fell violently, and his nostrils, which were spewing hot air, were filled with a fishy smell.
"There's water on your face." Qiao Qiao shone the flashlight and said, "There's water on your mouth, too."
Li Zheng regained consciousness a little. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and made a few "Puh" sounds to the side.
"It smells so fishy." Li Zheng grabbed his shirt and smelled it, then sniffed his hands that he had wiped with water.
Qiao Qiao said: "It's sea water."
When the last word fell, the corridor fell into silence.
The water was silent, and the two young men and women were also silent.
Li Zheng had just finished a short-distance race. The contestant was him and the Grim Reaper. He ran to his death and now he can't relax at all. His overextended calf muscles are still cramping.
Qiao Qiao looked at the halo of the flashlight, her long eyelashes drooping, covering her watery and bright eyes. She did not look very well, as if her emotions had experienced a huge fluctuation, and she felt a little tired and dull.
"Hiss" Li Zheng groaned in pain.
The flashlight's halo immediately moved from downstairs to Li Zheng, and Qiao Qiao asked nervously, "What's wrong?"
"I hit my ribs." Li Zheng pretended to groan pitifully.
Qiao Qiao was not able to check that place, so she patted Li Zheng on the shoulder and said, "It was safe."
"Yes, thank goodness." Li Zheng exhaled with a trembling heart. At that time, in the life-and-death situation, he was the only one in the entire team who was willing to risk his life to fight.
Looking back on it later, Li Zheng was terribly scared. If he died like this, then the words he had not said would be taken to the underworld by him. Once he walked across the Naihe Bridge and drank the Mengpo soup, his past and future would disappear into thin air.
Li Zheng felt as if his heart was being grabbed. He suddenly said, "Qiao Qiao, I like you."
Qiao Qiao slowly lowered her head and looked at him without saying anything.
"It's not the kind of love that comes from being a buddy. I don't want to be your brother either, never." Li Zheng picked up the white skirt that was dragging on the ground and whispered, "I liked you the first day you came to Jingfeng."
Qiao Qiao still didn't say anything.
"I know we are not from the same world. I am tall, not handsome or rich, but I, I... I will try my best." Li Zheng hesitated, becoming less and less confident. His head drooped and he knelt on one leg on the stairs like a princess's knight. "In fact, I had planned not to tell you for the rest of my life, but now that I am here..."
The life-and-death dependence here, and the fear of never having another chance, gave him courage.
"That's it, you can do whatever you want." Li Zheng showed an attitude of "the knife is in your hand, you can do whatever you want."
Qiao Qiao curled her lips: "You talk too much."
"So what do you think..." Li Zheng was stunned for a few seconds and approached her carefully.
In the dim light, the girl did not run away on the spot, nor did she resist and ridicule him. This gave Li Zheng a glimmer of hope in his heart, which expanded wildly in an instant.
Qiao Qiao's soft lips moved slightly, as if he wanted to say something.
"Wait, don't say anything yet!" Li Zheng screamed as if someone was holding him by the throat, "We get out alive, then you can answer me."
Qiao Qiao: “…Okay.”
Li Zheng found that the atmosphere between him and Qiao Qiao was not awkward, and was the same as usual.
I don’t know whether to be happy or depressed.
Li Zheng and Qiao Qiao returned to the second floor. When he saw Liu Liu's nonchalant look, he was so angry that he raised his middle finger.
Liu Liu wrapped himself in his suit jacket as if nothing had happened, closed his eyes and curled up against the wall.
Others expressed their concern for Li Zheng, which made him feel as if he had won a victory, but the feeling did not last long.
Li Zheng couldn't get ahead of himself because he hadn't figured out the clue about the phone call and hadn't completed the mission.
"What's the point of all these calls in the middle of the night?" Mr. Zhang was puzzled. "All these calls are just bubbles. It's meaningless."
Yu Ge hesitated and said, "Could it be that we have missed the point?"
"I suspect the point is not the sound of bubbles, but something else?" He looked at the others.
"If the point isn't the sound of bubbles, what else could it be?" Pan Lin rolled up his notebook. "Water?"
"We both touched it when we answered the phone, and it's fine." Pan Lin said to himself, "The water has been drained, and the things in the water haven't appeared. After thinking about it, the only clue is the voice on the phone."
Brother Yu shook his head: "I still think..."
He stopped talking midway, as if he couldn't figure out what was going on.
Chen Yang looked at his phone. It was almost five o'clock. There was no difference between day and night in the building. The passage of time was just a simple change in numbers.
Everyone didn’t sleep well tonight because of the phone calls, and we don’t know what will happen tomorrow.
Chen Yang stood by the guardrail, looking down at the water without blinking. He was not watersick, nor was he afraid of heights, but he still felt dizzy, so Chao Jian pulled him back.
"Don't stand too close, or you'll fall." Chao Jian said.
Chen Yang took a deep breath, suppressed the nausea, put a hand on his forehead, and heard a low and impatient voice in his ear: "You have a fever."
"... Fever?" Chen Yang touched his head and neck, then tested his palms, "Not bad."
Chao Jian dragged him back to the glass wall without saying anything and asked him to take off his wet shoes.
"Just wear it like this." Chen Yang said, "I can't go into the company now, and I can't find shoes to wear. The ground is very wet, and it's easy to slip if you go barefoot."
Chao Jian took out the sports jacket he brought from home from his backpack.
Chen Yang watched Chao Jian throw the coat at his feet and roughly wrap his feet. He was stunned: "No need to do this... It's just a cold." He felt bad for wrapping his feet with such an expensive coat.
Chao Jian wrapped his feet tightly without saying a word.
"A-choo—" Chen Yang sneezed, and the sneeze sprayed all over Chao Jian's face.
"Wipe it off quickly, wipe it off, don't let it infect you..." Chen Yang hurriedly took out a tissue.
Chao Jian held his hand and said, "No, I have a cold and it's okay, don't make a fuss."
Hearing this, Chen Yang couldn't help but say, "It's okay if I have a cold."
"Aren't you afraid of taking medicine?" Chao Jian said.
The moment Chen Yang heard it clearly, Chao Jian turned off the flashlight, and his facial features were obscured by the dim light, becoming unclear.
"How do you know I'm afraid of taking medicine?" Chen Yang said strangely.
Chao Jian leaned his head against the cold wall, his voice sticking to his lips and teeth: "You said that in your dream."
Chen Yang said "Oh" awkwardly.
"The company has cold medicine. I'll give it to you when you go in tomorrow." Chao Jian's tone suddenly became cold.
Chen Yang pretended to be dead.
Sneezing is contagious. After Chen Yang sneezed once, several more sneezes were heard in the corridor.
It is summer now, and the building surrounded by sea water is very humid and stuffy. In addition, their clothes are wet by the water, wrinkled and stick to their skin, making them very easy to get sick.
"It will definitely not happen again this time." Sister Wang straightened the ends of her wet hair, her slightly plump face full of fatigue.
Pan Lin seemed to be dazzled by the flag. He let out a strange cry: "Sister Wang, don't say that!"
The last word was still lingering in the air when the phone at the service desk on the first floor rang.
The atmosphere in the corridor changed suddenly.
Why is there more
Is this ever going to end?!
"Ding-ling-ling"
The ghost was singing, and every sound carried death and blood.
Chen Yang forgot that his feet were wrapped in his coat. When he stood up, he did not stand properly and sat back down. His eyes accidentally passed over a few pairs of wet shoes and stopped.
Then Chen Yang's gaze returned and he looked at the wet shoes one by one. After counting them, he remembered something he had missed.
The number of times the phone rang, including this time, is exactly twelve times.
twelve…
"This is the last time." Chen Yang heard the voice he suppressed.
Brother Yu hurriedly said, "Then there must be important clues. Who will go down?"
The team is now full of the elderly, the weak, the sick and the disabled, and the girls have limited physical strength and body functions, so they can only run once and cannot sprint again.
Li Zheng grinned: "I'll go."
As he said this, he returned Qiao Qiao's stall to her, and his lower body was a little unstable.
Chen Yang said: "It can't be you."
Li Zheng thought Chen Yang said this because he thought he couldn't run the third time, so he kicked his legs and said, "I'll try my best..."
"The number of calls corresponds to our number of people. Everyone must go into the water to answer the calls." Chen Yang interrupted him.
Li Zheng paused for a moment: "Then..." Something flashed through his mind and he turned his head to look for Liu Liu.
There was an uproar in the team.
"There are still two people who haven't gone down!" Pan Lin's voice was a little shrill because of panic.
The phone rang for the last time, but there were two people who didn't answer the phone. One was Liu Liu, who had refused to go down and was replaced by Li Zheng, and the other was a female white-collar worker who had never appeared.
This means that the two of them will compete for it.
Liu Liu didn't think about that. He looked at the people in the corridor one by one and said, "What if I don't go down?"
"What if I don't answer the phone?" Liu Liu is 1.7 meters tall and thin. He can't hold up his business suit. He looks like a child wearing adult clothes. At this moment, he is talking nonsense and seems crazy. "It's not time to go to work yet. No one has turned into a monster, so there is no taboo... Why does everyone have to answer the phone? It's unnecessary."
Although he said he didn't believe it, his hands and feet were shaking uncontrollably.
"The number of calls corresponds to the number of people. If you don't answer it, you will die." Pan Lin looked at Liu Liu, emphasizing each word.
Liu Liu was so scared that he wanted to curse.
Mr. Zhang pointed to his watch and said, "Xiao Liu, you don't have time to hesitate."
When Liu Liu came to his senses, he was already running in the corridor, but before he reached the stairs, he noticed something and looked back.
Everyone was looking downstairs, as if something had happened, and their expressions were strange.
No, it's not "seemingly", it's "something happened"! Liu Liu unconsciously leaned forward, and the next moment he saw a figure standing at the service desk, with the microphone already in his hand.
It was that female office worker! She came down from the third floor and answered the last call.
Liu Liu stared with eyes wide open, staring blankly. He turned his head to look at everyone stupidly.
There was deathly silence all around.
The phone between Liu Liu's fingers fell to the ground. He touched himself tremblingly and pinched himself a few times. It's okay, he's fine.
"This is indeed not a taboo. One-on-one phone calls do not mean..."
Liu Liu suddenly stopped moving, his mouth still open, but no sound came out. His pupils began to tremble, and he wanted to call for help in fear.
But his body flew up.
What everyone saw was that someone was standing opposite Liu Liu and reached out to push him down.
"Boom—"
A huge sound of water came up from downstairs.
Liu Liu fell into the water on the first floor without even a scream. The water level was clearly not up to his waist, but he seemed to be pressed down by something invisible and could not get up no matter how he struggled.
"Wow" "Snap"
Liu Liu kept struggling in the water.
Then, everyone on the second floor heard the sound of bubbles.
Very loud.
The sound seemed to be amplified many times and sent to their ears simultaneously.
In other words, they were also in the water, right next to Liu Liu, listening to him blowing bubbles.
The strange scene did not last long, and Liu Liu sank to the bottom of the water.
The water surface returned to calm.
"Team mission, this is a team mission." Brother Yu lit a cigarette with shaking hands, speaking incoherently, "I said no one can stay out of it, but he didn't listen."
Li Zheng murmured: "It's not my fault."
"It's not your fault," said Mr. Zhang. "He reaped the consequences of his own actions."
"It almost hurt us." Sister Wang had no sympathy for Liu Liu. She only felt fear and powerlessness about the mission rules. "If Xiao Li hadn't rushed to answer the phone at the last minute, no one knows what would have happened."
When Li Zheng saw Qiao Qiao approaching, he grabbed her hand and squeezed it like a revolutionary comrade.
Qiao Qiao couldn't say any words of comfort because his hands were hurting.
No one noticed that Pan Lin was in tears. He had been through a near-death experience and was crying out of fear.
Fortunately, when he asked Zheng Zhiqin to knock him out tonight, the other party did not do that, otherwise he would be finished.
Pan Lin looked at the man who was smoking. He saved his life again.
"A sponsor won't have any feelings for his pet." Pan Lin repeated this to himself several times, biting his tongue to make himself sober. He walked towards Zheng Zhiqin step by step and walked into the pungent smoke.
"Brother Qin, thank you." Pan Lin said in a low voice.
Zheng Zhiqin pinched the back of his neck with the hand holding the cigarette: "Thank me for what?"
Pan Lin did not comment on Zheng Zhiqin's question, he lowered his head obediently, letting the other party pinch the skin on the back of his neck. "You are so nice to me." Pan Lin said.
Pan Lin heard the man laugh in a gentle voice. He didn't see his expression, but he could imagine that he was cold and indifferent.
Chen Yang stared at the woman at the service desk. From the time Liu Liu fell to her death, she stood there the whole time, without moving or screaming.
I was so frightened that my brain became numb.
“Half of it is a monster!” The woman tilted her head back, opened her mouth, and screamed sharply from her throat, “Half!”
The cry sounded chilling, like a chicken being strangled by the neck and smashed to the ground, with blood splattering and on the verge of death.
Li Zheng shrank back towards Qiao Qiao: "Fuck, I'm so scared."
Pan Lin was also frightened. He hugged Zheng Zhiqin's waist and said, "She said the same thing again. Every time she appears, she says, what's going on? Has she been brainwashed by a monster?"
Mr. Zhang was a little scared of the petite young woman: "How could you forget about that lunatic?"
Brother Yu took a deep puff of his cigarette, his face covered with white mist. He whispered, "She's still in the water. Aren't you afraid?"
"She was too scared and forgot to run." Sister Wang said with red eyes, "She is so lucky."
"… "
Chen Yang listened to everyone's complaints and followed the woman with his eyes until she disappeared from his sight before returning to the wall.
While binding her feet, Chen Yang suddenly paused. There was no work ID card hanging around her neck!
Chen Yang licked his dry lips. The woman’s only colleague was one of the two Aries, the second deceased person. Now no one knew her.
I don’t know her name, but if I meet her again tomorrow, I’ll have to find a way to talk to her.
"Ah" The mute walked to Chen Yang and gave him a unicorn ice pack.
Chen Yang took it and touched it. It was cool. He put it against his face and said, "Thank you, sister."
When the mute saw that he could use it, his little eyes curved.
Chen Yang watched the little mute return to his original seat. He looked down at the ice pack, then rubbed it on the other side of his face, and a comfortable sigh came from his burning throat.
There were coughing sounds from both sides, and it was a bit chaotic. Chen Yang was not the only one who had a cold, and the germs were flowing in the air.
Chen Yang was resting drowsily against the wall. In a daze, he threw away the small bag that was no longer cold.
The next second, Chen Yang felt a slightly cool touch on the palm of his hand, and he instinctively grabbed it and stuffed it into his arms.
The clothes were not enough, so Chen Yang pressed the thing into his neck.
The thing stiffened for a moment, then began to move around, moving around his collarbone like a snake.
It's so itchy. Chen Yang's eyelids seemed to be burned by a fire, his eyeballs were burning, and he couldn't wake up.
After a while, the thing was warmed up by Chen Yang and was no longer cold at all. He threw it away in dissatisfaction.
When Chao Jian saw Chen Yang mumbling and groping for the small ice pack, his cheek twitched and he kicked the thing away. Then he put his hand on the wall, waited until it was cool, then stretched it over to let Chen Yang grab and rub it.
Chen Yang rubbed the thing until it was warm and then threw it away, and it returned to his arms after a moment.
Always cold.