Global Collapse

Chapter 34: Please stop sending red envelopes to this book, everyone!
Actually, Gu Mian wanted to research a problem.

What interesting things would happen if two Sadakos crawled out of two different television sets and their screens were placed side by side?
Unfortunately, there were no two television sets in his residence.

Unable to study the problem, Gu Mian could only open the popcorn and eat it while watching the movie.

But before the disc had been playing for long, just as the face of the first extra who had been scared to death was magnified on the screen, the TV suddenly froze.

Gu Mian choked, staring into that terrifying face.

Just then, a slow knocking sound came from the doorway.

Gu Mian's residence was very old, an extremely dilapidated apartment building.

There are hardly any residents upstairs; including him and the landlord, there are only five households in total.

The stairwell was filthy, several motion-activated lights were broken and hadn't been repaired, and no one cleaned it. The windows had large holes, letting in drafty air.

Normally, no one would wander around the stairwell, let alone knock on his door with such rhythmic knocking.

Gu Mian put down the popcorn and went to the door.

The door is also very old-fashioned, with paper pasted on it, and the lock doesn't seem very sturdy; it looks like it could be kicked open with a single kick.

Above the door is a ventilation window that can be opened. It is transparent, but it is covered with fuzzy paper. If someone outside is peering through it, they can vaguely see inside.

The knocking continued.

There was a peephole on the door, about a person's height, and Gu Mian went closer to it.

The sound suddenly stopped the moment he put his eyes close to the cat's eye.

There was nothing outside, except for half of the "福" (good fortune) character that had fallen off the opposite door, slapping against the door panel in the night wind.

The motion-activated light hanging on the wall had long been broken, so he could only look outside by moonlight, but after looking for a long time, he couldn't see a single person outside.

"Strange, looks like I need to find a flashlight..." Gu Mian muttered as she returned to the television.

The image remained fixed on that terrifying face, but something seemed different about it; its gaze appeared to have shifted.

Gu Mian didn't care where its eyes were looking, and directly reached out and patted the top of the TV.

He used to do this when the TV would freeze while we were watching TV in the orphanage.

I took two shots, but the image is still stuck here.

"So disobedient."

Gu Mian looked at the screen and reached out again, this time with tremendous force, so much so that the table under the TV shook a few times.

A disc click sounded, and then the picture finally became smooth again.

Gu Mian sat back down on the sofa, satisfied, and picked up the popcorn.

"My teammates haven't called me yet," he muttered to himself as he looked at the screen. "Looks like tonight's going to be a peaceful night."

But just as he took a bite of popcorn, the eerie knocking sound came again.

The same rhythm as before, slow and drawn-out, with each knock fading out, echoed eerily in the night.

Gu Mian walked to the door again and pressed her eyes against the peephole.

The moment my eye touched the peephole, there was silence outside.

The outside was still empty.

The howling night wind blew into the stairwell, making strange noises that echoed in the corridor, making people feel uneasy.

He turned around, intending to leave through the doorway.

But just then, that strange knocking sound came from behind again.

Gu Mian was prepared this time. She turned around abruptly and flung the door open. A cool night breeze instantly rushed into the living room from the doorway, and there was nothing else besides the wind.

The "Fu" character sticker on the opposite door was still banging on the door. Gu Mian turned her head to look to the left and right, but there was not a single person in sight.

Outside, there was only darkness and cold wind.

He closed the door again.

Perhaps because Gu Mian opened the door so suddenly, the knocking stopped for a while.

For a long time, the only sounds in the hallway were the wind and the sound of the "Fu" character stickers hitting the door.

But the silence didn't last long; the eerie knocking sounded again. "Thump—"

"Boom-"

"Boom-"

The drawn-out sound echoed in the dark stairwell.

But before the fourth sound could be heard, a white light shattered the eerie atmosphere.

A sinister face suddenly emerged slowly from above the door, holding a flashlight in its hand.

Gu Mian stood on the stool, revealing half of her pale face illuminated by the light, and looked out the door.

"I'd like to see which bastard is banging on the door like that!"

Meanwhile, Yuwen Hao was restlessly leaning against the bed.

He covered most of his body with the blanket, occasionally twisting his neck to look around.

The bedroom door was wide open, and the lights in the living room had been turned off, leaving it pitch black outside.

He was somewhat anxious.

For some reason, he always felt like someone was watching him.

The gaze seemed to come from the bedside, or from the shadows under the desk, or from the dark living room.

Yuwen Hao looked towards the bedroom door.

In the darkness of the night, it seemed as if a person was standing straight in the pitch-black living room outside the door, staring intently at him.

He flinched and stiffened as he glanced at the living room outside the door.

There was no one there, only darkness.

Yuwen Hao stared intently at the bedroom door, struggling internally for a while before daring to move his legs out from under the covers.

He put on his slippers, quickly went to the door, and closed the bedroom door.

"Phew—" He breathed a long sigh of relief after closing the door: "That's much better."

Just then, a sudden sound startled him half to death.

"Ring ring ring——"

"Ring ring ring——"

It was the phone ringing by the bedside; the caller ID showed Lin Yue'er.

Yuwen Hao quickly returned to the bedside to answer the phone, and then covered most of his body with the blanket.

"Hello? Yue'er?" He gripped the microphone tightly.

There was a long silence on the other end, followed by heavy breathing. After several breaths, Lin Yue'er's very soft voice finally came through the microphone.

"How is Yuwen... I... I'm a little scared right now, I don't dare to speak loudly..."

Yuwen Hao frowned, his voice lowering as he asked, "What's wrong?"

"It seems...it seems like someone is under my bed..."

"I was too scared to turn off the lights tonight... so I lay in bed, covered myself with the blanket, and then... then I heard something under the bed..."

"That rubbing sound... the sound of clothes rubbing against the ground, at first I thought I was imagining things... but then it started again..."

"The sound came right behind my back, from under the bed...it was almost right next to my ear..."

Lin Yue'er paused again at this point.

Yuwen Hao waited for a long time before the voice on the other end finally came again: "It rang again just now!"

"Don't be afraid," Yuwen Hao comforted softly. "Where are you now? Are you still in bed?"

"Um... I don't dare to move. I was about to get down, but I saw a hand retract from under the bed... Waaah, I'm afraid I'll be dragged back in if I go down, so I only dared to use the phone on the bedside table to call you..."

Since this book hasn't been published yet, sending red envelopes might affect the data and increase the workload for editors. So please try not to send red envelopes to this book before it's published—from the author who's crying and kowtowing.

Thank you Lin Fenghan for the donation! (^_-)
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(End of this chapter)