CH 7

Chapter 7: Dormitory Civilization Code

Not to mention an hour, it only took a few minutes from waking up to this moment, and there was obviously a problem with the time displayed on the mobile phone.

Signaling her roommates to be quiet, Tang Xinjue counted in a low voice:

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5..."

In the fifth second, the time jumped to 9:01. After another five seconds, the screen changed to 9:02.

Zheng Wanqing and Guo Guo held their breath and their pupils contracted. What's the situation?

"It can be seen," Tang Xinjue put down the phone and concluded: "The flow of time in the test is about 12 times faster than the real time."

From eight in the morning to eight in the evening, on the surface, it was 12 hours, but in fact, there was only one hour left for their actual action time!

——To be more precise, if she removed the 5 minutes just now, there were only 55 minutes left.

At this time, even if they searched the dormitory carpet, it might not be possible to figure out what Xiaohong wants. Not to mention that Zhang You's whereabout was now unknown, and there were only three people left.

Guo Guo's expression collapsed: "This game is too tricky!! So what can we do now?"

"We can't be blind like a headless fly, just like doing a problem, we must first clarify the logic and entry point of the problem."

However, Tang Xinjue calmed down. She took out a piece of paper and wrote two words: Xiaohong, dormitory.

There was a line connecting Xiaohong and the dormitory, "It can be seen from the title that Xiaohong is a member of our dormitory, there are her lost items and her desk, and when night falls, she will walk around the dormitory. "

Guo Guo felt a cold shiver, and shrank her neck and listened carefully.

Tang Xinjue drew a circle on the line: "In this case, Xiaohong will definitely leave traces of her life in the dormitory. Maybe it's daily necessities, maybe it's other clues, if you find these things, you can further decipher Xiaohong's identity."

Both the questions and prompts of the test mentioned words such as "Xiaohong has a boyfriend" and "Xiaohong loves cleanliness". If Xiaohong's information was not important, these prompts would not be given.

The initial action was determined, and the three immediately set off for action.

Because everyone knew their own things best, so the three of them first searched their own beds, desks, wardrobes and washing areas. Once they found something they had never seen before, most of them were related to "Xiaohong".

"Be careful when you look for it."

Tang Xinjue lowered her eyes, "After all, Xiaohong doesn't like her desk being messed up."

Zheng Wanqing responded quickly and continued to move, but Guo Guo was stunned for a moment, as if she was realized what was happening. She pursed her lips with a pale face, and carefully moved to her own position to check.

There was only the sound of tables and chairs moving and rummaging in the room for a while. About five minutes later, a suppressed exclamation suddenly sounded from Guo Guo's side: "I have an extra notebook here!"

Guo Guo shivered and pointed to the small bookshelf beside the table. There was a dark red notebook with half of its cover exposed. Obviously, Guo Guo was too scared to take it out when she found it, so she only took out half of it.

Tang Xinjue came over and took it out. Her skin touched the cover, and she could feel the abnormally low temperature on it, which reminded her of the white monster last night, which was also cold... Was this what ghosts in this game have in common?

Opening the inner page, on the first page, there was a crooked matchstick figure, wearing a skirt, with long hair hanging down to her thighs, with obvious features.

"Looks like Xiaohong herself."

Tang Xinjue turned to the second page, with a few lines scrawled on it.

[09/01 I'm so nervous about going on a date, what if (crossed out) doesn't like it? My roommates advised me to prepare well, oh they are so sweet, my roommates are the best roommates in the world. ]

Next page.

[09/02 The cosmetics I bought online have arrived. I don’t know how to use it. I can only sit in front of the mirror and cry. My roommates are far away and can’t come to help me with makeup. Are they intentional? They must be trying to make a fool out of me, laughing when they see me! Nasty b*tch! I'm going to punish them...]

Next page.

[09/03 Well, they have already paid the price, forgive them for the time being. ]

[By the way, I'm going on a date with (crossed out) tonight, so I have to prepare well. My roommates said that they would help me remember things, and if I lost it, I could just ask them. Oh, they are so caring. My roommate is the best roommate in the world. ]

... After reading the last sentence, several people invariably complained in their hearts: I believe you are a ghost*.

*我信你个鬼; wo xin ni de gui=I believe you are a ghost, used to say that you do not believe what someone has told you. This slang comes from a short video.

Oh, no, this one seemed like a real ghost.

Turning back again, the following pages are blank, and the entry was interrupted.

The air was silent for two seconds, and Guo Guo suddenly asked in a low voice, "Uh, what date is today?"

"September 4th."

"... Then isn't it today?"

According to the time in the diary, Xiaohong will write another entry diary today. Combining the records on September 2, it is not difficult to infer that if Tang Xinjue and the others fail to find what Xiaohong lost, they will be punished like those roommates who did not make up her before.

What was the content of the punishment? Nobody knew.

Putting the notebook back in its original place, Tang Xinjue glanced at the time. With12 times the speed passed, it was now 11:00 noon.

Zheng Wanqing's stomach made a grunt, followed by Guo Guo's. Both of them looked embarrassed and looked at Tang Xinjue in a bit of a sense of bewilderment.

Tang Xinjue pressed on the lower abdomen: "I also feel very hungry, as if it's really been a long time."

If it was just a few thrilling hours last night and not eating in the morning, they could still bear it, but they couldn't bear skipping a few meals in a row. Tang Xinjue didn't hesitate, "Let's eat first."

Zheng Wanqing gritted her teeth, "You eat first, I can hold on..."

Before she finished speaking, she saw Tang Xinjue's body shake, and hurriedly rushed over to help her sit on the chair, "Are you alright!"

Tang Xinjue looked very thin and very malnourished, but now her face was pale, as if the wind would disperse, and she was too weak. She raised her eyelids and whispered softly: "It's okay, I'm just a little low blood sugar, I just feel a bit dizzy."

Zheng Wanqing didn't listen to it at all, and hurriedly hugged all the snacks on her table, she was about to open the bag and fed the bread into Tang Xinjue's mouth, "Guo Guo, what are you doing, hurry up to get the water, don't you see Xinjue is about to faint?"

"I'm really fine, I just have to eat something, you don't have to worry about me..."

Seeing Zheng Wanqing's completely disbelieving gaze, Tang Xinjue sighed helplessly, knowing that she couldn't say anything she would believe. After all, her dignified appearance of weak willow* is really unconvincing.

* 弱柳扶风; ruò liǔ fú fēng: a weak willow supporting the wind, describes a woman as weak and soft in movement.

Besides, she did not feel very well just now. She checked her[Body Information] and saw that there was another negative attribute on it:

[Excessive hunger, health point -3]

Zheng Wanqing and Guo Guo's health point were also reduced by 5 points and 7 points. Guo Guo's health bar fell directly below the yellow line, changing from [Healthy] to [Minor Injury].

Guo Guo wanted to cry without tears, "Why did my health bar drop so fast! Won't anyone care about me just this once!"

After tossing for a long time, Tang Xinjue, who seemed to be the weakest, was actually the least damaged. After swallowing two creamy buns and resting for less than a minute, she shook her head and stood up, "I'm fine, go ahead and continue."

To prevent the other two from not believing her, she opened her [Body Information] and stretched forward. Her hunger debuff disappeared, even the effect of san value was restored, and the health bar was directly full to 100%.

The two people who are still gobbling up and fighting against the negative state: "...???"

Guo Guo: "God Jue, your appearance and physical fitness are definitely inversely proportional, right? Good guy, Lin Daiyu pulling the weeping willow* is painted with you as a prototype, right?"

*Lin Daiyu is a classical Chinese novel character portrayed as a well-educated, intelligent, witty and beautiful young woman of physical frailness who is somewhat prone to occasional melancholy. "林黛玉倒拔垂杨柳", meaning 'Lin Daiyu Pulls the Weeping Willow', is a painting depicting the frail Lin Daiyu able to pull a whole tree. It is famous for its contrast.

"Lin Daiyu Pulls the Weeping Willow"

"Have you seen Lin Daiyu holding a toilet plunger?" Tang Xinjue smiled, clapped her hands and returned to the wardrobe.

Two double-door wardrobes were arranged at the entrance of the dormitory, and the cabinet doors were marked with numbers 1 to 4. Perhaps in order to use the cramped length of the dormitory, the wardrobe was designed to be narrow and deep, and it was dark inside at first glance, and she needed to put her head in to see the inside clearly.

She didn't think there was anything before, but only now did she realize that these deep corners all revealed a dangerous atmosphere that was enough to brew a horror movie. Tang Xinjue frowned, pressed the thought down temporarily, and concentrated on searching.

A few seconds later, she suddenly thought about it, and looked at the right corner of the wardrobe following her intuition.

Although she hadn't seen it yet, the strong premonition that suddenly appeared told her that there was a high probability that there was something there.

Suppressing her heart palpitations, she rummaged through clothes a few times. Sure enough, she found a cold metal hard object. When she pulled out her hand, there was already a mobile phone in her palm.

"What is this, a cell phone?"

"You're stupid, a phone that's not hers is in Xinjue's closet, it must be the little roommate, Xiaohong! It's... how does it look so retro?

The two quickly rushed over with half-eaten bread. Their eyes were wide open.

No wonder Zheng Wanqing couldn't recognize it. The pink flip phone was decorated with rhinestones. This style and size was designed many years ago, and there was a strong sense of aging. It looked like a toy that was not really usable after opening.

Tang Xinjue pondered: "It seems that our roommate, Xiaohong, went to school many years ago."

Just like the mobile phone that didn't have a lock screen in that era, the interface lights up as soon as the phone was opened. There were no programs in it, just basic phone calls, text messages, and cameras.

"There is no network signal, but there is a communication signal."

Open the address book, there are only four contacts in it. The mobile phone number is displayed as a mess of garbled characters, and only the names can barely be seen.

In black characters on a white background, there are four contacts in sequence: "Honey, Best Friend Xiaolu, Counselor, and Supermarket Owner."

Tang Xinjue read out the contacts one by one and raised her eyebrows. Before she could say anything, the phone in her hand suddenly shook.

"Ding ding ding, ding ding ding—"

On the screen of the mobile phone, a strange call alert appeared.

"Shit, the ghost is calling?" Guo Guo pulled Zheng Wanqing and ducked back, as if she had conditional reflex from being too frightened, and her eyes were full of fear, "You won't answer, will you?"

At this moment, in her mind, emerged thoughts of hundreds of ways to die because of the call. But after Tang Xinjue lowered her eyes and thought for two seconds, she still clicked to answer.

"Beep-beep-"

"Hey, hey, can you hear me?"

A familiar, anxious voice came from the other end of the phone along with her rapid panting.