Global Collapse

Chapter 38: The Most Deadly Update is at Midnight

“I can… team up by myself.”

But before Gu Mian could finish expressing her opinion, Qing Huan interrupted her: "Then I'll team up with Dr. Gu."

Gu Mian silently swallowed her words.

Yuwen Hao looked at them, then at Lin Yue'er and Huang Yu, and said, "No one should want to be on their own, so let's make a team of three."

Lin Yue'er and Huang Yu tacitly agreed.

Yuwen Hao took out a cell phone from his pocket and handed it to Gu Mian: "This is a cell phone I bought on the way here. I have one here too. It doesn't have many functions, but it already has a SIM card inserted. My phone number is saved in your phone. We'll share one for each other so we can communicate more easily."

It's 2002 now, an era when you don't need an ID card to get a mobile phone SIM card.

Gu Mian took the phone and put it inside her white coat.

Yuwen Hao continued, "We'll meet here again at 5 PM... no, 4 PM. We also need to set aside time to discuss where we'll stay."

Gu Mian didn't think that changing houses would stop the ghost from following, but since his teammates wanted to do it, he wouldn't object.

After the discussion, the teammates, who looked exhausted, finally dispersed and began their operation.

None of the four of them slept much last night, and the consequences of staying up all night in the instance are the same as staying up all night in real life: severe sleep deprivation and extremely low work efficiency.

Qinghuan kept yawning as she followed Gu Mian out the door.

Gu Mian glanced at him: "It's not good for boys to stay up late often. It can cause kidney deficiency, and in severe cases, it can even lead to infertility."

Qing Huan paused for a moment upon hearing this: "Doctor, you seem to know a lot about these things."

Gu Mian walked quickly on the asphalt road: "I'm a doctor, of course I know about these things."

Qinghuan jogged up to catch up: "But Dr. Gu, are you an internist?"

The sun is slowly rising higher; the weather seems nice today.

Gu Mian looked up at the sun: "No, I'm the kind of surgeon who can skillfully use a hammer, tweezers, scalpel, electric drill, and electric saw."

"Surgeon..." Qinghuan paused: "Surgeons are so aware of the dangers of staying up late?"

The surgeons in his mind were not only highly skilled with their hands, but also had excellent verbal skills and loved to tell dirty jokes. However, no surgeon had ever explained to him the dangers of staying up late.

"I memorized books when I was in school, I could memorize the whole book, so of course I remember it clearly."

"Didn't the teacher highlight the important knowledge points for you?"

"Patients don't get sick according to the rules of knowledge."

"..."

During their conversation, the two finally arrived at Gu Mian's residence.

The house is rented.

This is a very dilapidated apartment building. The roof is a triangular roof with a sign that reads "Hongsheng Apartment". The building is painted yellow, but it seems that the paint ran out when they got to the top, so they used a similar light pink instead, trying to get away with it.

However, the disguise was really poor. The light pink ring on top was very conspicuous, and anyone with less than 800 degrees of myopia could tell at a glance how many colors were on the building.

The building has three units, five floors, and ten rooms in each unit, but now only five households remain. Gu Mian knows which household the landlord lives in because there's a large piece of paper posted at the bottom of the building with a handwritten note on it.

"Please have the tenant pay the water and electricity bills on time each month at the west unit on the fifth floor of Unit 3".

Gu Mian lived in the first floor of unit 1, which was the furthest from the landlord.

Without dwelling on whether her apartment was close or far from the landlord's, Gu Mian strode towards Unit 3, with Qing Huan quickly following.

Perhaps because she hadn't slept well last night, Qinghuan started panting heavily when she reached the fourth floor, which drew Gu Mian's attention.

"Brother," he patted Qinghuan on the shoulder, "Why do you look so weak?"

Qinghuan looked up at him with some surprise: "Doctor, you have great stamina! You carried such a big guitar up to the fourth floor without even panting?"

Of course, with the chainsaw on my back, if I weren't physically strong, I wouldn't even know where the body would be buried by now.

Qinghuan straightened up and continued climbing: "I haven't exercised much since I started college. Classrooms are mostly on the first or second floor. It's tiring to go from the dormitory to the school gate to pick up a package. And now there are elevators. I haven't exercised in a long time."

Human beings' physical condition is indeed in grave danger.

After finally getting Qinghuan up to the fifth floor, Gu Mian was about to knock on the door on the east side when the door of the landlord's house across the street creaked open from the inside.

The two turned around to look.

The door behind them opened a crack, and half of a woman's face appeared in the gap. The light was dim, and it was not very clear.

The woman behind the door stared at them, her expression somewhat unnatural, and asked, "Who are you...?"

Gu Mian looked at her: "I also rented a house here, and I have some questions for the landlord. Who are you?"

But the woman didn't seem to want to talk to her. She just gave a cold "oh" and then slammed the door shut.

Qinghuan leaned closer mysteriously: "Based on my years of experience reading supernatural novels, this woman is definitely suspicious!"

So this is what the Chinese literature major does on a regular basis?
Without further ado, Gu Mian knocked on the landlord's door.

A few seconds later, a sound came from inside. A person slowly walked to the door and then opened it a crack.

Behind the door appeared a wrinkled face. The landlady was an elderly woman with snow-white hair, not the kind of white mixed with gray or muddy water, but a pure white without a trace of impurity.

She was dressed fairly neatly, wearing glasses, and holding a yellowed newspaper in her hand.

"Little Gu!" Upon seeing Gu Mian, she warmly opened the door and pulled her inside: "What brings you here?"

The instance assigned an identity to each person, but didn't tell them the specifics of that identity.

The landlord knows Gu Mian, but Gu Mian doesn't know her, so she has to pretend.

He sat on the sofa with a fake smile: "Well, I've been feeling that something's not right with the house I'm living in these past few days, so I came to ask you about it."

"Something's not right?" The landlady pushed up her glasses, which were so low they reached her nose, seemingly surprised. "What's wrong?"

Gu Mian looked at her: "There will be strange knocking sounds at the door in the middle of the night."

"Strange knocking?" The landlord pondered the words carefully. At first, his expression was slightly puzzled, but then his expression changed drastically as if he remembered something.

Thank you to Black Treasure, Salty Fish Turns Over, and Lin Fenghan for the donations. (づ￣3￣)づ╭～
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(End of this chapter)