Girls' Dormitory Escape - Chapter 02: Please Protect Your Dormitory

Chapter 2: Please Protect Your Dormitory

    YES OR YES.

    A childish voice giggling in the night sky threw down a multiple-choice question without giving a negative option.

    The humming sound was lingering and creepy:

    "Welcome to the dormitory survival game~ Happy dormitory life begins!"

    "Ah, my phone!"

    Guo Guo screamed, accompanied by the sound of the phone being dropped, and pointed down tremblingly. She saw that the screen of the mobile phone was crowded with distorted dialog boxes, and the bright red text was exactly the same as the content of the humming nursery rhyme outside.

    Tang Xinjue took out her mobile phone—it was the same.

    She reacted immediately, first pulling Guo Guo up from the ground, then picked up the nearest chair and holding it against the floor-to-ceiling window leading to the balcony to prevent the eyeball monster from suddenly appearing again.

    Then she picked up another chair and walked to the dormitory door.

    "You, you, where are you going?"

    Guo Guo had completely fallen into a state of paralysis in fear, curled up in front of the table and didn't dare to do anything. As soon as she saw Tang Xinjue walking away, she became very nervous.

    Tang Xinjue said, "Wanqing is still outside."

    If the power goes out in the entire dormitory area, the public bathroom would be no exception.

    Imagine a sudden power outage in the bathroom halfway through the shower, and then the sound of a terrifying nursery rhyme outside... Zheng Wanqing would definitely be more impacted than those inside the dormitory.

    It seemed to correspond to Tang Xinjue's words. As soon as she finished speaking, the humming outside the dorm room suddenly stopped.

    The cheerful child's voice sounded again, but this time it was clearer, as if it was in everyone's ears:

    "The good students have entered the game, the bad students are still playing outside, the educators can't wait, the test papers have been opened-"

    "Important reminder: the game is about to start, all students outside the dormitory please return to the dormitory immediately! Educators do not like bad students, students who likes to play will be punished~"

    "When the game officially starts, the classmates who haven't returned to the dormitory will be punished the most..." The child's voice stopped abruptly, and the humming tune disappeared. The environment returned to silence.

    Educator? Exam paper? Game?

    Tang Xinjue kept all the key words she heard in her heart. At this moment, there was a muffled sound, and the two of them in the dorm were shocked and looked up. The dormitory door that had been hidden was closed by itself!

    Tang Xinjue stepped over a few steps and stretched out her hand, but no matter how much she pressed the door handle, the dorm door would not move at all.

    It's like... being locked from the outside.

    Guo Guo's terrified voice came over: "Xinjue, look at your phone!"

    On the screen of the phone, the dialog box disappeared, leaving only a bright black countdown.

    To the start of the game: 240 minutes.

    240 minutes is four hours, now it's eight o'clock in the evening, and four hours later is... midnight.

    While her thoughts were turning, Tang Xinjue drew out the information given by the strange child's voice:

    They were in the so-called [Dormitory Survival Game], and the game would officially start after four hours, that was, twelve o'clock. According to the child’s voice, it seemed that only people in the dorm room could enter the game.

    So what would be the punishment for those who do not return to the dormitory?

    Of course, it was possible that this was just a big prank, a realistic trick show. But if it's true... Tang Xinjue quietly stared at the door.

    Hearing her roommate's wailing, she was extraordinarily calm. The dormitory door couldn't be opened, so she tried to bump it with her knees and the chair, but found that the narrow door of this room, which was not very solid, didn't even tremble at all.

    Although she looked like a weak willow supporting the wind¹, she still knew how strong she was. Under normal conditions, even the door frame would shake.

¹) 弱柳扶风; ruò liǔ fú fēng: a weak willow supporting the wind, describes a woman as weak and soft in movement.

    If the child's voice was real, it meant that now, the rules of the game did not allow people who were already in the dormitory to go out. She was afraid that the door could only be opened when the people outside came back.

    Since the child's voice disappeared, the noisy screams and footsteps in the corridor had not stopped. Tang Xinjue gave up going out, and chose to stand on the door and shout outside,

    "Can you hear me? Wanqing, are you outside?"

    The footsteps quickened, the voice also changed from far to near, Tang Xinjue heard that it was the voice of her roommate.

    The door was knocked a few times, and Zheng Wanqing came back, her voice that was normally full of energy was a little flustered: "Open the door quickly!"

    "We can't open the door by ourselves." Tang Xinjue answered truthfully. However, before she could continue speaking, the door in front of her creaked.

    The dorm door opened by itself.

    Zheng Wanqing squeezed in, and complained loudly with steam all over her body: "This prank is too much, the power was cut off halfway through the bath, and I didn't even have time to get my toiletries! If I didn't hear Xinjue's voice, I couldn't find the dorm room."

    Tang Xinjue: "Do you really think this is a prank?"

    Zheng Wanqing was stunned, "Is it not?" She had already fumbled for the mobile phone in her seat, and she was so aggressive, wanting to call to complain: "I don't know what the dormitory security is doing, isn't the school protected? How can such excessive trickery be allowed..."

    Zheng Wanqing didn't finish her words. In addition to the striking countdown on the mobile phone, it was also because the phone failed to dial out.

    The phone had no signal.

    Tang Xinjue stretched out her hand to pull the door, and the door in front of her had automatically closed again the moment Zheng Wanqing entered, returning to a state of motionlessness.

    She sighed: "Can pranks block our mobile phone signal?"

    After a few seconds of silence, Zheng Wanqing rushed over to open her computer in disbelief. As a result, the laptop, which was clearly fully charged, could not be turned on.

    Guo Guo said with a trembling voice: "It's useless, I just tried to turn on the lamp, but there was no response..."

    There was no light source in the dorm, and the dark environment made anxiety and fear infinitely prolonged. The screams outside the bedroom came one after another. As if separated by a layer of membrane… how could they not hear clearly?

    Zheng Wanqing stopped talking, and could only look at Tang Xinjue for help. She knew that Tang Xinjue must be the most calm and rational person at this time, and her analysis was also the most reliable. But there was no light in the dorm, so she couldn't find the other party's position at all.

    "..." She stomped her feet irritably, angrily: "Whatever you think, anyway, this dormitory escape game can't be real!"

    After speaking, she groped to the balcony and tried to break the window: "Don't we share the same balcony with the next dorm? Go out and ask the next door to find out."

    Guo Guo's voice cracked: "You are very similar to the cannon fodder role in a horror movie, we are on the sixth floor! Tang Xinjue, you hurry up and persuade this idiot!"

    In case something happened on the balcony... Guo Guo was horrified. Before she got up to stop her, she saw Zheng Wanqing's movements suddenly stop.

    In the dark night, the girl turned her head inexplicably and looked at the wall opposite the sink.

    "Here... there is a door."

    Guo Guo just wanted to say nonsense. You can call the balcony floor-to-ceiling window if you want, but in a flash, she realized that Zheng Wanqing was definitely not referring to the balcony window.

    A gust of wind blew, and Tang Xinjue strode here as if her line of sight was unobstructed.

    Before coming over, just in case, she took out a long, rigid object from the shopping bag on the ground. Although she didn't know what it was, at least she could defend herself at a critical time.

    When they came to the balcony, Tang Xinjue immediately understood what Zheng Wanqing meant.

    Guo Guo also touched her tremblingly, and the three stood together, looking at the wall opposite the washbasin.

    On this wall, there is a literal door. With the weak light of the mobile phone, only the general outline can be seen. There's nothing special about it.

    ——However, their dorm was a room without a bathroom, this wall had always been empty, and there had never been a door!

    The roommate who insisted on atheism was silent, but the roommate who was addicted to metaphysics was about to cry, "Prank… can it create a door?" 

    The answer is self-evident.

    Tang Xinjue took a deep breath and settled them down with a deep voice: "After eliminating all the impossible, no matter how unbelievable the rest is, it must be the truth.

    "I tend to believe that the voice is true, the game is true, and the rules are true."

    What's more, these scenes had vaguely appeared in her dreams. Tang Xinjue didn't say the latter sentence, now the first thing to do was to calm down and avoid further panic.

    She looked at the door that suddenly appeared in front of her. Unlike the balcony window and dorm door, this door did not make her feel dangerous at present.

    So Tang Xinjue took the two people who were already looking stupid behind her, and pushed open the door in front of her with the rectangular tool in her hand.

    Under the light of the mobile phone screen, it could be vaguely seen that this was a bathroom, and there was a shower area with complete facilities on the left side. Zheng Wanqing whispered from the back: "My toiletries are on the wall!" But her toiletries were clearly in the public bathroom, why did they appear here?

    After a few seconds of reaction, Tang Xinjue realized: This game gave them a private bathroom?

    Giving them such a good thing?

    The three of them closed the door and returned to the "safe area" in the middle of the dormitory. They stood under Tang Xinjue's bed number 4, and no one spoke for a while.

    Guo Guo and Zheng Wanqing were too shocked to speak, while Tang Xinjue frowned and thought.

    The situation was too bizarre right now, and there was very little information available: what exactly is this game? What does the game want them to do? They know nothing.

    Facing the fear of the unknown, but they were trapped in a dark dormitory and could only passively wait, this did not feel good.

    Moreover, there was a bad feeling lingering in her heart. Tang Xinjue always felt as if she had forgotten something.

    She didn’t know how long it took, but Guo Guo, who had been in a state of being frightened and her spirit halfway out of her body, managed to calm down a little, and suddenly slapped her thigh, "By the way, Zhang You just told me half an hour ago that she had left the subway station, and she will immediately go to school!"

    At the same time, Tang Xinjue also remembered what she had forgotten:

    Their dormitory was not full now because the fourth roommate, Zhang You, who was delayed by the flight, had not returned!

    The other two obviously thought the same thing, Guo Guo fought a cold shiver and said incoherently: "That voice said that there will be punishment for not returning to the dormitory, right? If, then, if Zhang You is also in the dormitory area, should she hurry up to come back?"

    Tang Xinjue looked out of the balcony window again, the darkness seemed to be a little more intense.

    The countdown on the phone had unknowingly ticked for thirty minutes, the minute hand pointed to 8:30, and suddenly stopped.

    At the same moment, the child's voice sounded again without warning: "Dear classmates, thirty minutes have passed~ Let me see which bad students have not returned to the dormitory~ Hey, there are so many!"

    Turning around, the voice suddenly became hoarse and sharp: "Educators hate disobedient bad students the most. Punishment and danger will come early. The dorm room is the only safe area... Hee hee hee, but who can guarantee that it is absolutely safe?"

    "After all," the voice added with a giggle: "Only the last student alive can successfully enter the game—"

    "Ding, the first rule has been unlocked: please guard your dorm room!"

    The voice in the air disappeared again, but this time after a long period of silence, more tragic screams and chaotic footsteps sounded outside the dormitory door:

    "Help! Something is chasing me!"

    The sixth floor where Tang Xinjue was located belongs to the Department of Finance, and many dormitories are filled with people from the same class. They were all acquaintances. She quickly distinguished the familiar voice from the noise.

    Holding Tang Xinjue's arm tightly, Guo Guo also whispered, "Is the person who called just now Sun Jia from next door? She's still outside, isn't she..." Was she punished?

    Tang Xinjue frowned, and the sound in the corridor quickly disappeared, but for the people in the dormitory, the silence at the moment was even more terrifying.

    "Bang bang bang!" The sudden knock on the door made the tense people in the dormitory almost jump up. Tang Xinjue picked up the roommate with weak legs and asked loudly, "Who is it?" 

    "It's me." A familiar female voice sounded outside: "I'm Zhang You, I'm back."

    It turned out to be a roommate.

    The other two were relieved. Zheng Wanqing was about to open the door in a hurry, but Tang Xinjue grabbed her wrist.

    Zheng Wanqing didn't understand: "There is danger outside, we have to open the door quickly!"

    Tang Xinjue didn't let go, she walked to the dormitory door by herself: "Zhang You, isn't your flight from Chengdu late? Why are you already here so early?" 

    The voice outside the door paused for a second, and then replied, "I'm was going on my way quickly, besides, aren't you all worried about me?"

    In the darkness, the voice outside the door was soft, and it was indeed Zhang You's voice. It was right.

    But Zheng Wanqing and Guo Guo in the door shivered at the same time. Zheng Wanqing also withdrew the hand that was going to open the door like an electric shock.

    ——Because they knew that Zhang You's flight was from abroad and had nothing to do with Chengdu, but when Tang Xinjue said this, the voice outside the door did not respond.

    Outside the door... is it really Zhang You?

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