CH 10

The ‘click, click’ sound disappeared for less than ten seconds; the strange silence seemed to last only a moment. During this flash of a moment, Lin Yi picked up the metal canister and placed it on the table propped against the wardrobe. At the same moment, there came a ‘zizizi’ sound. 

The sound was harsh and grating, like a sharp weapon scraping wood. And as a matter of fact, that was practically what it was. It was only a matter of time before those nails that could poke holes in the walls shredded the wardrobe.

Lin Yi took a step back. The ‘zizizi’ resounded like thunder in his ears but both Room 305 and Room 303 next door remained eerily quiet. There was no Qin Zhou loudly asking him questions; no Cheng Yang whimpering about prosperity and civilization.

The entire Room 304 seemed to be a separate space and no one would notice the noises here.

Zi! Zi! Zi! 

The wooden wardrobe vibrated under the thing’s scratches; the quivering sound torturing his eardrums.

Soon, pop!

Before Lin Yi’s very eyes, the entire wardrobe trembled.

The next second, the wardrobe door was pushed open from the inside.

It wasn’t hard to guess that the thing had scratched the side of the wardrobe that had been facing the window. The wardrobe had two sides, one was the back panel and the other was the wardrobe doors.

With the back panel out of the way, the thing partially advanced, entering the wardrobe. Now, all that remained were the two wardrobe doors in front of it that would open with a push.

Only that there was table in front of the wardrobe door and it couldn’t be opened completely at the first go.

But, it had been pushed open a crack. 

From where Lin Yi stood, he could see it was pitch black through the crack of the wardrobe door. And then all sounds disappeared, leaving Room 304 in silence.

He stared at the wardrobe, his entire body stretch taut. The silence confused him as to what this thing in the closet intended to do now.

The silence made Lin Yi feel a little uneasy.

As the unease of quiet intensified, just as he was about to reach the limit, there was finally movement in the wardrobe. 

A pair of black, swollen hands stretched out from the dark gap. Just as Lin Yi’s guessed, the ‘click’-ing sound was the sound of nails poking into the cement wall. Those fingernails were nearly two knuckles long; black and sharp, they were like metal nails.

Each hand held one door. Lin Yi found that this hand gesture was usually used to shred things.

The instant the crisis approached, Lin Yi thoughts burst like a volcanic eruption and countless fragments flashed in his mind.

Wang Duo, dying from over-eating; the closed-off second floor corridor; the old dorm manager guarding the duty room; the door to the building, the only thing new in the entire dilapidated dorm building. 

These fragments whirled around his three rules of death: failing to stop the thing from coming in, seeing the thing in its entirety, or being seen by the thing.

Oh.

He got it!

Lin Yi immediately rushed to the table, picked up the metal canister and smashed it towards the ajar door. He wasn’t smashing it down willy-nilly; rather, he avoided those finger nails and brought it down against directly on the thing’s fingers. 

The thing in the closet let out a shrill cry and then pulled its hands back.

The old dorm manager had said that it was very chaotic ‘outside’. There was a reason why despite the whole building being so dilapidated, the main door was brand new.

And that was because they weren’t supposed to let this thing in!

This scream strengthened the certainty in Lin Yi’s heart. The rule of death was – failing to stop this thing from coming in! 

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Seeing that the metal canister could cause damage to this thing, Lin Yi held the metal canister tightly, smashing it against the thing’s fingers whenever it reached out its hand.

He repeated this more than a dozen times. The wardrobe trembled and made several crawling ‘dong clang’ sounds. Finally, there was silence in the room. The thing left.

Lin Yi stared through the crack of the wardrobe doors. He didn’t need to go near to see if the thing had really left since his night vision was much better than ordinary people’s due to his partial color blindness. 

However, the gap was too narrow. Although he had good night vision, it was difficult for him to see the situation inside the wardrobe from this angle.

Lin Yi carefully adjusted his position and after a while he finally found the angle he wanted. Looking up and through the gap, his scalp went numb and his blood went cold.

A blood-red eye appeared in the crack, secretly watching his movements.

For Lin Yi, this was harder to bear than if it had just rushed out directly. He was very sensitive to others’ gazes. He felt unwell being looked at by other people, not to mention being stared at such a malicious and dangerous pair of eyes at this time. 

This was Lin Yi’s weakness.

Lin Yi endured the discomfort and said to the thing in the wardrobe. “I know you’re inside. I’ve found you.”

This thing must have made those noises, pretending to leave, in order to get Lin Yi to relax his vigilance. Once Lin Yi put down the weapon in his hand, it would climb out of the closet.

Lin Yi wanted to send this thing packing in the simplest and rudest way possible but its eyes kept staring at him without blinking, as though it had no eyelids. 

His eyes were full of animosity and hatred for Lin Yi.

Lin Yi understood that this thing was trying to wear him down. Night was when people grew sleepy and it was also when human will was at its weakest.

But without the white noise from his MP4 player to lull him to sleep, Lin Yi couldn’t fall asleep. Were it anyone else, getting through this night of terror would be unbearable.

Lin Yi was silent for a while and then said to the things in the wardrobe. “Then let’s wear each other down.” 

Truthfully, going without sleep wasn’t difficult for Lin Yi. He’d stayed awake til dawn last night and hadn’t even noticed how slowly the night passed.

But at this time, being stared at by this eye, Lin Yi finally experienced the slow passage of time. Add to that, he was still holding on to this heavy metal canister and he did not dare to let go of his concentration.

This night wasn’t easy for Lin Yi. He didn’t know how long it took but a ‘dong clink’ sound came from the wardrobe and that eye finally disappeared.

Just as Lin Yi was wondering whether this thing was trying to repeat the same trick, the loudspeaker in the corridor blasted out: “Breakfast. Breakfast. Breakfast in Room 103.” 

It was daybreak.

Before Lin Yi could even put down the metal canister, there was a knock his door.

Qin Zhou’s voice: “Little genius!”

Hearing Qin Zhou’s voice, Lin Yi breathed a sigh of relief. When he put down the metal canister, he was startled to realize that his arms had long gone numb. Now, it was like countless needles were pricking his skin. 

Bang bang bang.

Qin Zhou’s knocks on the door became louder: “Lin Yi!”

Dragging weak legs, Lin Yi went to the door to open it for Qin Zhou. Qin Zhou seemed relieved to see him intact. He then said, “Why didn’t you answer?”

Lin Yi pointed to his throat, and after a long while, he said hoarsely, “Scared.” 

There was the sound doors opening along the third floor corridor. The others must have heard the loudspeaker and were all heading downstairs to eat. Qin Zhou rushed in and closed the door behind him.

Qin Zhou first glanced at the wardrobe against the window. The wardrobe had already half-collapsed. He could imagine what Lin Yi had experienced last night.

Lin Yi rubbed his throat and softly let out several “Ahhhh”s to find his voice.

He then quickly said, “Senior, we can now be certain of the rule of death. It’s failure to prevent that thing from crawling in.” 

Qin Zhou looked back at him. Lin Yi’s eyes were red and swollen, the dark blue swaths under his eyes had grown bigger. He looked extremely tired.

This man hadn’t slept for two nights.

Lin Yi looked at the wardrobe but didn’t tell Qin Zhou how he’d survived last night nor did he repeat the rules of death.

Qin Zhou had said that when a person successfully avoided a rule of death, it would cause a new rule of death to come in effect. 

So last night’s rule of death had expired.

He asked Qin Zhou, “If the rule of death has become invalid, will my note still attract the 7-7 Monster?”

Qin Zhou said, “It will.”

“Because the appearance of a new rule of death doesn’t mean that the existing rules of death have become invalid. It only means the rules of death in play have increased.” 

Lin Yi: “…Oh.”

“So, if you think about it, the fact that I didn’t die last night isn’t exactly good news.”

Qin Zhou was about to say something, but Lin Yi snatched his words, “But it’s not bad for Senior. Your godlike teammate is still alive.”

Qin Zhou: “…” 

“What with Senior’s expression?” Lin Yi said aggrievedly: “Does Senior also think that my survival was unnecessary?”

Qin Zhou: “Are you really a social phobic?”

Lin Yi: “Ah.”

Qin Zhou: “You don’t look it.” 

Lin Yi: “I’m just good at controlling myself. I’m not going to blush when I see someone or stutter when I talk.”

“Your heart would have to move in order to blush or smatter.” Qin Zhou said and then asked, “What did you see last night?”

This was an important point and a clue to finding out the new rule of death.

Lin Yi said, “It had hands and eyes.” 

Qin Zhou frowned. “Human?”

Lin Yi couldn’t guarantee it and only said, “The old dorm manager and that thing outside aren’t in league together.”

Qin Zhou: “Why do you say that?”

Lin Yi said, “The old dorm manager warned us that it’s very dangerous outside. Thinking about it now, he must have been referring to that thing from last night. If they were allies, there would have been no need for him to say that”. 

Qin Zhou: “Do you mean to continue searching for clues from the old dorm manager?”

Lin Yi nodded: “Senior, you go.”

Qin Zhou: “What about you?”

Without Lin Yi having to say it, Qin Zhou had already guessed. “You’re going to start drawing the Monster out?” 

“Yes.” Lin Yi said, “Yeah, the more rules of death there are, the easier it would be for the Monster to lure us into triggering them. It would be better to draw it out in advance.”

Qin Zhou asked, “What are you going to do? Give the others the note?”

“No.” Lin Yi said, “I thought about it for a long time last night. A genius’ entrance should be a bit grander, don’t you think?”

Qin Zhou: “…” 

Room 103.

The five of them ate breakfast without tasting the food. Seeing the Lin Yi and Qin Zhou didn’t show up, Qu Jialiang said, voice trembling, “Last night, it… it couldn’t have been the both of them, right?”

Cheng Yang was the first to disagree, “Shut your f*cking crow's mouth.”

Qu Jialiang snorted and said, “What are you pretending for? You actually wish it was the two of them, don’t you?” 

Cheng Yang: “F*ck yo I’m pretending. You’ve got a big mouth.”

Qu Jialiang put down the bowl and glared at Cheng Yang. Cheng Yang rolled up his sleeves, “Are you looking for a fight? I’ve been beating up college f*ckheads since I was a freshman in high school!”

Xu Xiazhi held Qu Jialiang and Qu Jialiang kept glaring at Cheng Yang, “You think you’re so great! Then why don’t you die in their place!”

Die — this word was too ugly to hear and it touched on the others’ nerves. 

Zhou Lingling put down her bowl and chopsticks. Cheng Yang has always respected these two senior sisters, so she helped Cheng Yang out, saying, “Is it wrong to not want our companions to die?”

Qu Jialiang said, “Did I say that?”

Zhou Lingling: “That’s right. What you’re saying is that you want us to die and you to live.”

Qu Jialiang stared at her. 

Li Ying pulled the corner of Zhou Lingling’s clothes in fear. “Lingling, stop talking.”

Amidst the commotion, Qin Zhou suddenly appeared at the door of Room 103.

“What’s with this ruckus?” Qin Zhou’s eyes swept over them and everyone fell silent, “Have any of you found a clue? If not, then shut up.”

Everyone bowed their heads, not daring not refute him. Qin Zhou said, “Lin Yi has found a clue, so listen up.” 

Then he moved to the side, revealing Lin Yi behind him.

This was the grand entrance that the little genius had thought of.

Everyone looked at Lin Yi in surprise. At least, this was how they all appeared on the surface.

Only that, one among them, gently stroked the length of a chopstick, feeling its tapered end. The tip was blunted but it wouldn’t be difficult to pierce into through a human eyeball; or with a little more force, right through the back of the head. 

The author has something to say: thank you for your support, bow.