“There’s no internet connection, so I can’t check the balance, let alone pay the bill.” Wencai frantically tapped her phone, unable to hide her anxiety. “Everyone, put on all your clothes. It’s getting colder and colder.”
Whether they’d been charged for electricity or some unknown game had taken away their freedom to use it was no longer the point.
Only twenty minutes had passed, yet the room was already as cold as an ice cellar. They could only tuck their hands into their sleeves and hug themselves tightly. If they took their hands out, they would freeze stiff.
“If we have to be Safety Officers or whatever, won’t we freeze to death too?” Xie Yue spoke, great clouds of white vapor pouring from her mouth.
This couldn’t go on.
After pondering it over and over, Xu Kewang realized that if they were fined every ten minutes, the longer they stayed in the Dormitory, the longer the power would be out. By then, there’d be no point even trying to survive—they’d freeze to death right in the Dormitory, and their Corpses would stay fresh for a long time.
In the dream…
None of this had been in the dream.
She’d dreamed for three days. What useless things had she even dreamed about? Only this person dying, that person dying. She hadn’t dreamed at all about how anyone else could survive.
“We have to become Safety Officers.” Xu Kewang didn’t want to sit around and wait to die. The game had only just begun; she couldn’t just freeze to death for nothing. “I’ll go.”
Xie Yue raised a trembling hand. “You’ve only just recovered. You’re so skinny and weak. I should go. I’m the strongest in the Dormitory.”
“Why don’t we roll dice?” Wencai suggested.
“None of us wants anyone else to go, but someone has to step outside. We might as well leave it to fate.”
For now, this seemed like the fairest way. No one objected, so Wencai took out the dice left over from a game of Monopoly last year. “Same rule as always: whoever rolls the lowest goes on duty.”
Everyone was nervous. On the one hand, they didn’t know what this so-called Safety Officer would have to face, and the unknown filled them with Fear. On the other, none of them wanted someone else to go, but they didn’t want to go themselves either. In short, they were all terribly conflicted.
Xu Kewang breathed warm air into her palms. Without hesitating any further, she tossed the dice. They rattled crisply across the tabletop.
One.
Even she was stunned. How could anyone be as Unlucky a Person as her, year after year, for more than twenty years?
“There’s no suspense now. No one can roll lower than me.” She took out her Heat Packs and slapped them firmly against her stomach, back, and legs, then put on a wool hat and a black cloth Mask. “I’m going.”
Pretending not to see the other three’s Expressions as they tried to stop her, she hurried out.
Before leaving, she spoke softly from behind her Mask: “Don’t open the door for anyone.”
“Kewang…”
She shut the door, shutting Xie Yue’s Voice inside. Her irises, a few shades lighter than most people’s, surveyed the long Dormitory tunnel. A thin layer of ice had already crept over the walls.
It felt much colder than the Dormitory. It seemed their Dormitory had some insulating effect.
Her phone rang again.
【Please proceed to the Safety Officer Duty Room on the First Floor as quickly as possible.】
【Please note: when night falls, do not look back in the Corridor.】
【Do not look back.】
【Don’t! Look! Back!】
It was human instinct—or perhaps a conditioned reflex. When someone told you not to look back, you couldn’t help wanting to.
Xu Kewang stiffened her neck and forced herself not to stop. She hurried toward the Staircase.
The other Dormitories seemed quiet. As she looked around, she saw no lights on. Two doors were half-open, but she couldn’t tell whether their occupants hadn’t returned to campus or had all gone out. The light was too dim; she only glanced inside a few times and couldn’t make out what was there.
Actually, she hadn’t had time to see clearly.
Because—
Someone was behind her.
A set of footsteps, clearly out of sync with hers, sounded extremely close behind her head. Xu Kewang could even feel a cold, sour breath against her ear, more hurried than her own.
An unfamiliar weight, barely there, clung to her back, crawling along her spine little by little.
She never looked back, but whatever was behind her seemed to get angry and kept blowing cold air at the back of her head.
As she descended from the Sixth Floor, she finally heard several sets of footsteps when she reached the Fourth Floor.
Xu Kewang came across three girls who were also going downstairs. They had their backs to her; two were crying uncontrollably. Clearly, they felt the same discomfort behind them as she did.
But Xu Kewang could see that there was nothing behind them. No one at all.
That meant, as the Rules said, if they didn’t look back, those things couldn’t cause them any real harm. Xu Kewang felt much more at ease and picked up her pace.
It was just too cold.
She passed the girls without saying a word, her lips tightly sealed. In a place like this, a Voice would be far too conspicuous and diminish her Sense of Security.
She had only taken a few steps when someone behind her called out.
“Hey, Student.”
“Could you wait for me so we can go together?”
Xu Kewang frowned. Under these Rules, she didn’t think calling out to someone without warning was a kind thing to do. Many people had conditioned reflexes; when someone called to them, they would instinctively look back.
If the other person was doing it on purpose, they had malicious intentions.
If it was unintentional, they were an idiot.
Either way, Xu Kewang didn’t feel like responding. She sped up, leaping down three steps at a time to show that she’d heard.
When she reached the First Floor, she found that someone had locked the Dormitory’s main entrance from the inside with a chain. Outside, the torrential rain had turned into a blizzard. Snowflakes and hailstones pelted the ground with a clatter, as if they were about to smash through the Glass doors.
Xu Kewang noticed that a sign reading “Safety Officer Duty Room” had appeared at some point on the room opposite the Dormitory Manager’s Room.
She lifted her foot and gently kicked the door open.
This room seemed to have once been used to store bottled water, but the water was nowhere to be seen now. The room had been cleaned very thoroughly. There was a small bed and a table, a yellow light overhead, and the temperature was quite comfortable.
Xu Kewang kept her hands in her pockets. Hidden inside were a fruit knife she’d taken from the Dormitory and a small iron shovel. She’d sharpened their edges against the windowsill until they were quite keen.
She uncovered the towel wrapped around the shovel and stepped cautiously into the room.
The moment she went inside, the cold air at the back of her neck vanished. She even heard a resentful sigh, followed by footsteps slowly receding.
She looked around the room and, after making sure there was no immediate danger, examined a sheet of card on the table—
《Safety Administrator’s Handbook》
1. Do not leave the Rest Room without authorization during working hours. This is the safest place.
2. Every Safety Officer has a Rest Room of their own. Please do not exchange them or go on duty together. If Students come seeking help and find unauthorized Personnel present, they will feel uneasy.
3. Please resolve Students’ safety issues within the ten minutes after each hour. The more you resolve, the more respected you’ll be.
4. Some Students are naughty and will lie. If possible, please call them out on their lies to their faces.
Xu Kewang looked at the densely packed sheet and couldn’t help feeling a headache coming on.
She hated reading comprehension most of all.