Chapter 4 All Come Down

  Fresh blood slowly flowed into my throat along my mouth, and my lips were almost not lips. I crawled forward one step, and it was pitch black, unable to see anything. One hand wiped a handful of blood. Scared myself, it turned out that it was the blood from my own broken lips earlier.

  Morning exercise, I opened the flashlight. My line of sight suddenly became clear and bright, he suddenly stretched out his hand in front of me, handed me a medical disposable mask, I wore it with confusion.

  Looking back at him, he already had one on. He said: "The air is very bad here, I saw them wearing masks when they came out, so I prepared one."

  I nodded, and he motioned for me to hurry up and move forward. We stood up, I took another flashlight, and "felt" around everywhere. This place was completely different from upstairs, the passageways on both sides were all stone, so at night in the still unheated "spring" weather, it was extremely cold. I really regretted wearing so little, shivering as I walked forward. Probably we still needed to walk a bit more, and we didn't see any "doors" or places where documents might be stored.

  Yan 'exposed' saw me afraid of the cold, and he domineeringly returned his jacket to me. I looked at him in this dark tunnel, unable to see his facial features clearly. I said a thank you and continued on my way.

  We walked for about ten or twenty meters and saw a ventilation shaft. Yes, after walking so many steps, we only saw a ventilation shaft. I couldn't help but curse the school's perversion in my heart, why did they put the materials in this underground room.

  Ling rushed to the front and observed the ventilation opening, which was less than a dozen centimeters in size. As soon as we entered, the cold wind I felt was probably due to this opening and the 'door' responding to each other. I asked if it was okay, it would be troublesome when dawn broke. He nodded, and we continued walking forward, not forgetting to take a glance at our watches. The time was exactly 10 o'clock, and if everything went smoothly, we could get out before dawn.

  We walked a few more steps and reached the end. In front of us was a stone, with two paths on either side. I looked at Chen Yan 'Lu', he also had an incredulous expression. I'm sure he's struggling to decide which path to take, so I patted him on the shoulder and said: "Why don't you take one path, and I'll take the other? When we find the data library, we can contact each other by text message." I took out my phone and found that there was no signal. Shaking my head, I said: "No signal on the phone, it won't work."

  He said: "No way, I have a bad feeling. We can't split up, you choose one."

  I'm 165cm tall, looking up at his 178cm. It's as if I just need to jump a little higher and the stone can be pushed away. Chen Yan 's "exposure" threw the difficult question to me, and I had no choice but to force myself to choose one.

  "Go to the right." I walked in, looked at him, and he followed me to the right. I found that these two small paths separated from the main path were not high, but rather narrow, and only one person could pass through.

  I found that the flashlight's beam of light stretched far into the distance without a visible end. I couldn't see anything ahead, and my heart started to feel anxious, as if I had entered a tunnel.

  Ling said behind me: "Be careful of your feet."

  "Uh-huh."

  Even speech has an echo.

  We continued walking and after ten or so meters, just when I suspected we had already walked out of the school underground, we saw three 'gates'! My eyes lit up and I thought to myself, it's finally been found by us.

  Here, the road gradually widens and can accommodate two people passing through. We jogged to the front of the three 'doors', which are in a "T" shape, and now four or five people can stand here, with plenty of space. We exchanged glances and decided to start with the first 'door'.

  It's finally open, and this "door" isn't locked. As soon as the morning dew opened it, a wave of dampness hit us, making us both feel nauseous. This smell can also be detected in the corners of libraries. It's just that the smell isn't as strong here; it's the result of books rotting and being exposed to dampness for years without seeing sunlight. As I stepped inside, I saw that the floor had changed from stone to tile, and only then did I confirm that this was still a university.

  He went in, and the flashlight lit up the entire room. It was about 40 square meters, which wasn't small for a basement. I also walked in and closed the "door". In front of us was a box about 1.6 meters long lying horizontally, looking like a coffin. On both sides were wooden bookshelves, with books stacked very disorderly. If you wanted to browse through them, it would be very difficult. Because you had to move them down one by one, unlike the books standing upright on the shelves, where you only needed to look at the name on the spine to quickly find what you were looking for.

  "It seems they've moved these books in, with no intention of reading them. This isn't a library, it's a basement." He pulled out a nearly rotted book, took a look and found it was human anatomy, continuing: "And this isn't data, but medical texts."

  "I said: 'Then let's go to the second 'door'."

  He stuffed the book back and his gaze fell on the "coffin" placed horizontally opposite him.

  I was about to touch it when I hastily stopped myself!

  What does he want to do? He bumped into everything, I had a bad premonition, no matter what, I must go out. The force of 'Lu' was too great, I couldn't move him, and we were stuck for a long time. He asked: "What are you doing?"

  "I... I don't know either, just stop playing around and let's go find another 'door' quickly!" I pulled him to leave, but suddenly he pressed something and the box "clunked" open.

  As the eerie sound arose, my heart rose to my throat. It felt like it had been years since I heard such a terrifying sound of opening the lid, the rusty hinges between the wood and wood had aged. The sound was as if an old 'door' was being opened, we took a step back hastily. Two flashlights shone together onto the "coffin".

  The cover was lifted, and the flashlight shone directly inside. I let out a loud shriek. It really was a coffin, and there was actually a 1.6-meter-tall human body lying inside! Moreover, it was pitch black, and nothing could be seen. Although there was no stench of rotting flesh, it was still a black cloth-wrapped human figure. Why would there be a coffin in the school's underground room? And whose body was that lying inside?

  Yan 'Lù' covered my mouth tightly with a mask. I felt his hand was also cold, probably because he had given me his jacket. I quickly took it off and told him I wasn't cold anymore. He insisted that I put it back on, so I had to do as he said and put it back on again.

  "Dummy, take a good close look at what that is." He urged me to go over. I didn't dare, hiding behind him.

  Ling Yu let out a sigh and walked closer to the coffin, reaching out her hand to grab a black thing covering the corpse.

  "What are you doing?!"

  ...The latter didn't say a word, and I couldn't stop him. He suddenly tore off that black thing!

  A half-intact skull with half of the brain's blood vessels exposed on the outside... a human body model?!

  I'm no longer afraid, I walk closer to take a look. The weak 'touch' it once, and it turns out that it's indeed a human body model. Later on, I remembered that during the course selection at the beginning of the school year, I heard a professor talk about the human body using this model, but... why is it here?

  "Morning study 'Lu' said: 'This mouthful of house is medical data, let's go to the second mouth.' After finishing speaking, I was about to leave, but I thought to check again. So I took down all those black things that were actually black plastic bags."

  The human model was fully exposed in front of me, and it turned out that this was a model that could no longer be used. The belly and legs were gone from the bottom of the body. It may have been damaged by students, but I didn't think much about it here.

  I put the plastic bag back on the model, closed the box and followed Yan "Lu" out of the first door... Before we reached the second door, suddenly we heard the first door make a "rumbling" sound, not too loud or too soft. It just happened to be audible to both of us. The leading Yan "Lu" turned back, planning to go back and take a look.

  "Never mind."

  He stretched out his hand towards the first 'door' handle, saying: "How can this be done? If it's not a mistake, the school will think we're thieves. If they check our fingerprints, we'll be in trouble."

  He thought it through, I agreed. Together we came back to the first 'door' again, and what was introduced into my eyes was actually - the human model in the box sat up in the "coffin"!

  We both jumped in fright, and I suddenly had the urge to retreat. I wanted to hurry back to the ground as soon as possible, it was too cold here, and it made me feel an unprecedented sense of fear.

  Chen Yan 'Lu' is a boy, he boldly went in, circled around the coffin, turned back to me and shook his head. Nothing unusual, he pressed the human model back again.

  He came out and comforted me by saying: "Nothing, don't be afraid. There's just a bad spring behind you, I've already pressed it back, let's go."

  I nodded silently and prepared to open the second 'door'.

  This thing is still terrifying when I recall it now, and I dare not think about it too much. Then came the second "door", and we heard the same, identical "rumbling" sound again!

  I suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, while Chen Yan 'Lu' quickly opened the first door and ran inside!