Translator: Reina Editor: Killian
“So, before we get devoured, we have to escape from here.” Lu Xia enunciated his sentence word by word, with a rare trace of seriousness in his expression.
“Escape?” Sun Zheng failed to understand the reasoning behind the word. According to his life experience thus far, the word escape was only suitable to use in situations where there is danger and a possibility of survival.
So it did not feel appropriate for them to be using this word right now.
Was it because he didn’t consider their current situation as dangerous yet?
Or was it because he thought there is no chance of survival?
Of course it had to be the former, Sun Zheng laughed at himself mirthlessly.
“Although no one has ever succeeded,” Lu Xia added with a sardonic smile.
“Lu Xia!” Sun Zheng was a little miffed at his friend’s wry way of cracking cold jokes.
Lu Xia shrugged. It was obvious that Sun Zheng did not hold the same views as him, but he also understood that it was human nature for anyone to feel lost when faced with such a predicament, then naively attempt to turn to the familiarity of science for a comforting logical explanation.
He turned back to the floor plan, motioning for Sun Zheng to come over and take a look too.
“Remember what I said just now?” Lu Xia ran his forefinger back and forth over the surface of the paper, making rustling noises. Because of the silence, the sound became clearer, and because of the darkness surrounding them, his motions became more obvious. “We want to escape from this hospital. The first thing we can try is to see if we can go down here.”
No!
This was Sun Zheng’s first instinctive answer. The mere idea made him shudder.
But why not?
If he was as stubborn as he’d appeared, he would definitely answer yes. However Sun Zheng knew he had already partially accepted Lu Xia’s theory in his heart and started to believe that this space is not entirely the same as the real world, and the instinctive fear stemming from that belief made his body tremble.
Sun Zheng did not answer. Lu Xia seemed to have expected the lack of response and didn’t mind it. He paused his moving forefinger on the blueprints of the fourth floor. “There appears to be two rooms on the fourth floor which are safe for now. Have you memorised the locations? If we meet anything on the fourth floor later, we can run in there together to hide.”
“The Injection Room…and the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine?” Sun Zheng looked at the two rooms circled on the map and confirmed their names.
The fourth floor…
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Why did he feel so uneasy?
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Trust him, because there is no one else in this world here.
“Let’s go!” Lu Xia picked up the flashlight and slapped Sun Zheng on the shoulder.
Sun Zheng stood up and followed Lu Xia to the door.
Lu Xia pulled the chair propped up against the door away, then abruptly spun around to face Sun Zheng.
“You have to be mentally prepared. We have basically adapted to the darkness now, but we have to use a flashlight to find those two rooms. It takes more than ten seconds to adapt to the change in light intensity, and at that time, we have to be the most vigilant.”
Vigilant. What did they need to be vigilant for?
Sun Zheng wanted to ask this question very badly. They needed to escape, to be on guard, to endure fear, but he had no idea what he had to look out for.
“The two sets of stairs, one at each end of the corridor. When we go out, we will turn left immediately. Follow me closely. Remember, take small but quick steps, don’t make too much noise, and most importantly, don’t look back.”
“Don’t look back?”
“Because looking back will only make you more scared,” Lu Xia said in a low voice.
Sun Zheng understood. When he turned around and looked into the deep darkness earlier, he had indeed felt an inexplicable sense of fear.
And he also understood the ridiculous and unscientific saying that the more you fear something, the more likely it would appear.
One of the slightly more scientific explanations for that is that fear causes changes to the biological wavelength, making it closer to the “paranormal” or “spiritual” wavelength, resulting in the two wavelengths mutually attracting each other.
But he didn’t believe in ghosts. Sun Zheng frowned.
“What we see may be an illusion created by imagination, or it may be real,” Lu Xia whispered from the side.
As soon as those words left his lips, the door of the dean’s office sprung open.
The dark and cold atmosphere immediately surged towards them like a raging wave.
Left!
Lu Xia was muttering under his breath.
Their hearts thundered erratically, but their silent steps in the black mist seemed to closely follow a steady rhythm.
Cold sweat drenched their palms.
Sun Zheng could visualise the rows of rooms and doors they were passing.
Behind the closed doors, there were many deep and mysterious unknowns lying in wait.
The vice president’s office, the three reference rooms, the cleaning room, the ladies’ washroom…
“Head down, Zheng!” Lu Xia’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
A sudden sharp force dragged him downwards. He staggered, stumbling down the stairs.
Behind them, the row of doors on the fifth floor looked like lonely staring eyes.
As though they were deep in contemplation.
Such a wild thought ran through Sun Zheng’s mind as he stumbled down the steps.
“Clang.”
“Clang.”
“Clang.”
The two pairs of feet which were hurrying down the stairs came to an abrupt halt.
“Clang.”
“Clang.”
“Clang.”
“What’s that sound?” Sun Zheng tried to hide the tremor in his voice.
They were currently standing at the bottom of the stairs on the fourth floor. The flight of steps behind them zigzagged back up to the frigid cold darkness enveloping the fifth floor while the scene in front of them was the unknown and pitch black fourth floor.
“It has a pattern… to it,” Lu Xia answered with some difficulty.
“Clang.”
“Clang.”
“Clang.”
Sun Zheng took the initiative to grab Lu Xia’s hand tightly.
“It’s coming from the fourth floor,” Lu Xia added.
Could there be someone else?
This lone thought surfaced in Sun Zheng’s mind.
Is someone there? Sun Zheng wanted to call out.
Or, perhaps, the more appropriate phrasing would be, is something there…?
But he found that his mouth was closed tightly. He couldn’t find the energy to even pry it open, let alone ask any questions.
“Don’t worry about it now, let’s just continue to run!” Lu Xia couldn’t bear the rhythmic sounds, which sounded like loud and sharp collisions of metal parts that immediately faded.
He pulled on Sun Zheng, spun them around and continued running down.
“Wait! This sound… it’s, it’s an elevator!” Sun Zheng exclaimed.
reina: Here to clear the air a little about why Sun Zheng is so obsessed with relying on science and logic to explain everything.
Long story short, the Chinese government essentially ‘bans’ horror and tells their citizens to embrace science in an attempt move away from the hold superstitions have over the masses. So my understanding of Sun Zheng is that he doesn’t really want to give up on his ‘no ghosts’ mindset, but at the same time, he also knows he cannot explain everything happening around him with science anymore… so his one braincell is now caught between a rock and a hard place.
To believe in ghosts or science?
Neither, Zheng’er, neither. Just believe in XiaXia!!!
Hmm, tbh if I were them, I would stay in that “safe” room until sunrise. Tho that’s probably why I might never live to see that sunrise 😅
I like how fast-paced this novel is! Thank you for the update!
Unfortunately, the sun will never rise in that place, and the people trapped in this alternate world will still feel things like hunger, thirst, etc. 😭 That being said, the “safe” room does remain safe!
This novel is pretty fast paced, the first arc is only about 8 chapters long, and they will go down another floor in the next arc! Thank you for reading!
This is a “self-fulfilling prophecy” in Thomas’ theory. That is, things that seem real to us are real in their consequences. For example, if you are sure that you will not pass the exam because the teacher will specifically ask you difficult questions, then any question (maybe super easy one) from the teacher will lead to the fact that you will be very nervous and wind yourself up and probably will not pass the exam as well as you could. Or the example of the Great Depression
So, this saying is close to reality. Maybe I’m just too scared to believe in mysterious thing right now
Thank you for your translation 💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛