Her entire demeanor instantly shifted from relaxed chatting to alert, combat-ready mode, her ears twitching slightly as she carefully discerned the sounds outside.
Wang Xiaoya and Chen Xiaocao were startled by her sudden seriousness. Their laughter stopped abruptly, and they looked at each other, not daring to breathe.
"Wh...what's wrong, Sister Su An?" Wang Xiaoya asked nervously in a low voice.
"Don't speak." Su Tang's gaze was sharp as a knife, piercing through the curtains as if she could see the scene outside.
The footsteps disappeared.
The world fell silent once again, with only the chirping of unknown insects in the distant grass.
"Maybe...maybe it was a patrolling sentry passing by?" Chen Xiaocao guessed softly, but her heart was pounding uncontrollably.
Su Tang didn't answer, remaining intently listening. Her intuition told her it wasn't that simple.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, a blinding beam of light swept across their dormitory window once again!
"Ah!" Chen Xiaocao gasped in fright and quickly covered her mouth.
The flashlight beam was so bright, frighteningly bright, like an emotionless eye peering into their secrets.
The three girls' hearts jumped into their throats instantly.
After the beam of light swept across, there was another suffocating silence.
Wang Xiaoya nervously swallowed, just about to ask, "Have they left?", when the beam of light swept back again! And this time, it didn't move away immediately, but lingered on their window for a full two seconds!
It’s over!
This thought exploded in the minds of the three girls at the same time.
Immediately afterwards, a clear, heavy, and undeniably rhythmic series of footsteps approached from afar, heading straight towards their dormitory building!
"Thump...thump...thump..."
It was the sound of leather boots stepping on the cement floor, steady and powerful, each step feeling like it was stepping on their hearts.
And it wasn't just one person! Judging from the noise, there were at least three or four people!
"Oh no! It's the instructors! They're here to check the dorms!" Wang Xiaoya was genuinely terrified, her face turning pale. "If we're caught hanging out together in the middle of the night instead of sleeping... we'll definitely be punished by having to clean the latrines!"
"Quick! Get back to bed!" Chen Xiaocao panicked completely and frantically tried to climb off Su Tang's bed.
"Don't panic!" Su Tang snapped. "Go back to your bed immediately, cover yourself with the blanket, and no matter what you hear, don't make a sound. Pretend to be asleep! Do you understand?"
"I...I understand!" The two girls were terrified and scrambled down from Su Tang's upper bunk.
In her panic, Wang Xiaoya bumped her head against the iron railing of the bed with a dull thud. The pain brought tears to her eyes, but she bit her lip tightly, afraid to make a sound. She scrambled onto her bed, slipped under the covers like an eel, and covered herself completely from head to toe, leaving only a small gap for her to breathe.
Chen Xiaocao returned to her bunk at the fastest speed she had ever traveled, her heart pounding so hard it felt like it would burst out of her chest.
Su Tang then closed the blue chocolate tin, along with the wax paper and oilcloth, and with a thought, it instantly disappeared into her palm and was stored in her spatial storage.
She quickly tidied her bed, drew back the curtains, lay down, covered herself with the blanket, and adjusted her breathing to make herself look like she was already fast asleep.
Almost the instant they were all "in place," heavy footsteps arrived at the door of their dormitory.
Then, it stopped.
The whole world seemed to have been put on pause.
The deathly silence outside the door was even more terrifying than the footsteps from before. The girls inside the dormitory held their breath, the only sound the pounding of their own hearts.
Time passed second by second, each second feeling like an eternity.
Suddenly, three loud, forceful bangs on the door shattered the suffocating silence!
"Open the door! Emergency ward round!"
...
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