The lock of Room B-307 clicked open with a crisp snap, the sound piercingly loud in the empty corridor.
Lin Xiao pushed the door open and stepped in first. Wang Ruofei followed close on her heels, pulling the door shut with a heavy thud behind her, as if trying to seal out some invisible threat.
It was a standard double room, cramped and confined, with two single beds dominating the space. The air was thick with the stale scent of poor ventilation, mingled with a faint trace of disinfectant that made one's chest tighten inexplicably.
"Finally here." Wang Ruofei tossed her backpack onto the bed and let out a long sigh, slumping her whole body down. "This place looks pretty new, so why does it feel so gloomy?"
Lin Xiao didn't respond immediately. She walked over to the window and shoved it open.
The wind rushed in from outside, yet it failed to carry away the oppressive atmosphere inside. The Naisida Park was now completely swallowed by the night; there were no streetlights in the distance, only the dark, heavy shadows of trees swaying in the wind like a group of silent, looming giants.
"When we were on the first floor just now, did you notice that notice?" Lin Xiao suddenly turned around, her gaze landing on Wang Ruofei.
"Notice? You mean the one at the dorm manager's door?" Wang Ruofei paused, trying to recall. "I saw it. It said to swipe our cards to get the room keys. Why?"
"That paper wasn't right." Lin Xiao walked to the desk, her fingertips tapping the surface unconsciously. "It wasn't a single sheet; it was many layers stacked together."
Wang Ruofei frowned. "Many layers? You mean multiple layers were pasted on?"
"Mm." Lin Xiao nodded. "The top layer was a guide for new employee check-in. But I peeled it back and took a look; underneath were all red-text notices."
"What did they say?"
"Regarding dormitory adjustments." Lin Xiao lowered her voice. "The first layer changed from a four-person room to a two-person room, and below that, from a six-person room to a four-person room. And the age of those papers was exactly the same, as if they had all been pasted up at the exact same moment."
Wang Ruofei felt a chill run down her spine and instinctively hugged her arms. "You mean... in a short period of time, the personnel density here was adjusted continuously? Doesn't that imply..."
"It implies that in a short time, people were constantly disappearing, or constantly being stuffed in." Lin Xiao finished her sentence, her tone calm to the point of indifference. "Also, when I tore that paper, the texture felt strange. It didn't feel like tearing paper; it felt more like tearing the skin of some living creature."
"Stop it." Wang Ruofei shuddered, clearly unwilling to dwell on the topic. "We're here now, might as well make the best of it. Let's just rest."
Lin Xiao said nothing more and turned toward the bathroom.
She twisted the tap, and freezing water rushed over her hands. The face in the mirror was pale, devoid of any color, with faint dark circles under the eyes. Since stepping into this park, she felt like a string in her brain was winding tighter and tighter, ready to snap at any moment.
She turned off the tap and looked up, staring at herself in the mirror.
The person in the mirror had a cold, detached gaze, as if scrutinizing a stranger.
Lin Xiao took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
Just then, a dull, heavy thud suddenly came from outside the window.
Thud!
The sound wasn't like a heavy object hitting the ground; it was more like a sack filled with fluid and soft flesh being smashed hard against the solid concrete.
Wang Ruofei screamed and jumped up from the bed.
Lin Xiao rushed to the window and looked down.
The light spilling from the first-floor lobby illuminated a small patch of ground in front of the building. In that pale, sickly light, a twisted figure lay silently in a pool of blood.
Bright red liquid slowly trickled along the cracks in the concrete. The corpse's eyes were wide open, staring straight at the sky, as if silently accusing something.
Lin Xiao recognized this person.
Just half an hour ago, on their way to B-307, they had passed Room B-302. The door had been open. Two girls were sitting on the edge of the bed chatting, and one of them was the owner of the corpse now lying below. At that time, their gazes had met briefly in the air; the other girl's eyes had been muddy and unfocused, as if she hadn't fully awoken from a deep slumber.
Now, she had become a puddle of mangled flesh on the ground below.
"Is that... the girl from just now?" Wang Ruofei's voice trembled violently as she clamped her hand over her mouth.
Immediately after, a succession of window-closing sounds echoed through the corridor. Others in the dorm, attracted by the noise, had also seen the scene and reacted instinctively.
As if simply by closing the windows, they could seal out that bloody misfortune.
Lin Xiao also reached out and closed the window of B-307.
Blocking out the sounds from outside, the dorm room fell into a deathly silence.
"We need to go down and look," Lin Xiao said suddenly.
"What?" Wang Ruofei's eyes went wide. "Are you crazy? What if..."
"Just one look." Lin Xiao cut her off. "If we don't confirm it, will you be able to sleep tonight?"
Wang Ruofei gritted her teeth, realizing Lin Xiao was right. She took a deep breath and nodded. "Fine, let's go together."
To save time, the two ran out the door. Their footsteps echoed in the empty corridor; no one poked their head out to check. The tightly shut room doors looked like sealed coffin lids.
The first floor was just as it had been when they arrived. The pale lights shone down coldly, illuminating everything in stark detail.
Lin Xiao didn't step out of the lobby; she just stood by the window on the first floor, silently watching outside.
From leaving the room to coming downstairs, only a minute had passed.
Yet in that single minute, the female corpse had vanished without a trace.
Gone with it were the bloodstains and the fragments of flesh on the ground.
Lin Xiao felt her temples throbbing.
Wang Ruofei's voice trembled, "But it was just there..." She stopped halfway, her tone filled with intense uncertainty. "Did we hallucinate?"
Lin Xiao shook her head. "Not a hallucination." She pointed to the grass outside. "Look at the grass blades over there."
Although it was already winter, the lawn presented a bizarre, vibrant emerald green, teeming with excessive vitality. The hair-like tips of the grass blades were currently stained with a speck of dark red that was easily overlooked.
Wang Ruofei: "...So there really was a body just now, but it was taken away?"
Lin Xiao lowered her eyelashes. "Perhaps."