Chapter 4
After putting down her phone, Zhou Xiaoming drifted off to sleep. She rode her motorcycle along the asphalt road, which seemed endless, with concrete blocks in the middle. As she rode, she suddenly realized something was wrong. [The motorcycle's wrecked! Is he crazy?]
Just as he finished thinking, the scene changed, and Zhou Xiaoming was standing under the pale white light. The surroundings were gray, with pale white walls all around. The ground was dirty, with brownish stuff, like gauze or something else, scattered all over the place.
A stench, whether from disinfectant or decay, lingered in the air. Zhou Xiaoming sniffed around, trying to pinpoint the source of the smell. She realized her sleeve was covering it, so she rolled it up and looked at the two bare radius bones on her arm, somewhat surprised. "Huh, where's my flesh?" she thought. She raised her arm again and sniffed, then nodded as if remembering something. "I'm dead. My flesh rotted away, so the stench is from a corpse."
So she floated forward like a zombie, her arms outstretched, her clothes transforming into a wide white robe.
She went from room to room, as if looking for something.
After searching around and around, a white bed suddenly appeared in the middle of a room. Under the white blanket, it seemed like there was a person. Zhou Xiaoming floated over and said with a grin, "Oh my, found it."
She abruptly threw back the covers, revealing a dark, indistinct figure underneath. The figure saw her and let out a sharp screech, but Zhou Xiaoming couldn't hear a thing; all she could think was, "When someone dies, they should be put in a coffin."
Then the scene around them changed again. A large, abnormally round moon appeared on the horizon, shining on a low shed, inside which were four coffins.
The bushes surrounding the shed looked like black silhouettes pasted on, only their black outlines visible. Black birds darted across the bushes, one flying away, then another, as if the bushes were constantly producing and releasing baby birds.
Zhou Xiaoming spun around, lifted his robe, looked at his skeletal body, and kept spinning in place, as if he had forgotten what he was supposed to do next.
She only stopped when her gaze swept over the coffin beside her. She floated over, lifted the coffin lid with both hands, and peered inside. It was dark inside. [Hmm, nothing.]
They lifted another coffin lid [nothing there], and then lifted three more, but still nothing.
When they reached the last coffin, Zhou Xiaoming squatted down and looked under it. There were many pebbles at the bottom of the coffin. She reached out and grabbed a handful, starting to play "picking up pebbles." But for some reason, the pebbles kept slipping through her fingers, and she couldn't collect them all. Zhou Xiaoming got a little angry.
Looking at his skeletal hands, which resembled chicken claws, he suddenly realized, "My hands have no flesh, so I can't grab everything."
She started clapping her hands incessantly, trying to brush off the dust that had stuck to her hands from playing with the stones on the ground.
The moon had disappeared at some point. Zhou Xiaoming stopped. Everything in her sight was hidden in the darkness, leaving only the covered coffin in front of her.
She floated slowly over and stood beside the coffin, muttering, "What's inside?"
She stared intently at the coffin lid, which was painted red and so smooth it reflected light. She reached her hand through the gap in the coffin and suddenly flung the lid open.
She peered into the coffin, bending lower and lower until she seemed to be trying to crawl inside, until she saw the dark figure inside and cried out, "Found it!"
The shadowy figure inside seemed to have seen a monster, and was so frightened that it let out a silent scream.
Zhou Xiaoming glanced at the dark figure, then closed the coffin lid again. At the other end of the coffin, a huge Buddha statue appeared out of nowhere.
Looking at the Buddha statue, she felt a surge of immense sorrow and began to weep for some reason.
Zhou Xiaoming, awakened by his own sobbing, was completely bewildered: "I've been doing fine lately, why am I crying?"
My lips felt a little tight. I wiped them; hmm, I must have drooled in my sleep. I smelled my palm [Ugh, smells awful. I think I smelled stinky saliva in my dream. I need to drink some Banlangen (a traditional Chinese medicine) to cool down.]
Zhou Xiaoming was busy on Saturday. He cleaned the house, bought and prepared the vegetables for next week, made them into semi-finished products and put them in the refrigerator. After lunch, it was already 2 p.m.
The sun was shining brightly outside, but she chose to stay home and play video games.
She always plays games solo, turns off voice chat, and doesn't make friends in the game.
Her gaming skills are quite average; she's the kind who just helps others get kills, but she still enjoys it immensely.
Zhou Xiaoming's game nickname has a very distinctive style, consisting of random numbers and letters; even the nicknames of AI opponents aren't this perfunctory.
I played several rounds, and my best result was when I survived until the final circle, crawling in the grass, and was found and killed by a grenade.
I got third place, which isn't bad, but it's still pretty good.
Zhou Xiaoming maintained her cautious style, not daring to jump into the houses, but instead jumping to the side of the road some distance away from the houses. Her goal was to jump down and get into a vehicle.
Unexpectedly, a player with the same idea jumped down next to her, but in her panic, her hand speed actually increased a little, and she got into the driver's seat first.
That player did something bizarre; he sat in the passenger seat, and...
She had no choice but to drive to the nearest residential area, honk the horn twice, and signal him to get out of the car.
As soon as he got out of the car, Xiaoming turned the steering wheel and sped away.
By playing defensively, she actually managed to get the chicken dinner (winner's last kill). After watching the kill replay, it turned out that by chance, Xiaoming recognized the player who killed her as the guy sitting in the passenger seat.
Although, Xiaoming was still very satisfied with the game. He exited the game and was about to close the platform when a friend request popped up. Xiaoming clicked on it, and the request box read: "Thank you! Let's add each other as friends and play together."
After closing the application and gulping down a large glass of water, Xiaoming stretched and prepared to go for a run.
After a good night's sleep, Xiaoming was invited to play basketball at the gym, and afterwards had lunch with Sister Wu.
I took a shower when I got home, lay on the sofa and read a novel. After a while, I got bored and turned on the computer to log into a game.
There was a red dot in the friend request section. Xiaoming clicked on it and saw that it was the same player from yesterday. The message read: "You're a pretty nice person. Let's add each other as friends and play together."
Close the window and start the game.
Today's game experience was not as good as yesterday's. I couldn't even survive by hiding. I kept getting ambushed and killed by Lao Liu. I spent the whole afternoon just parachuting. Xiao Ming finally logged off, cursing and swearing.
I opened the food delivery platform, ordered fried chicken, fries, and cola, scrolled through short videos, and waited for the delivery to arrive.
Not long after, there was a knock on the door.
A delivery guy, completely covered in sun protection gear, handed her a paper bag at the door. Xiaoming took the food, closed the door, and muttered to herself: "The economic situation is really getting worse and worse. Even such a handsome guy is out delivering food now. Sigh. If he's willing to go to a club, I'll definitely chip in some money to support him."
Although I couldn't see his face clearly, his figure and features made him undeniably handsome.
Xiao Ming was happily eating chicken inside the house, while Jiang Lan stood at the elevator entrance looking at her phone screen.
He recognized the girl at a glance as soon as he saw her.
He almost asked someone to add him as a friend by scanning a QR code, but luckily he held back, otherwise he might have been reported for harassment.
Once inside the elevator, Jiang Lan couldn't help but pull off her mask, raise her phone, and scrutinize herself from side to side to make sure she hadn't aged or become ugly recently. Most other girls' eyes would light up when they saw her, but Jiang Lan always looked at her expressionlessly.
He was delivering food today and a girl stopped him to add her as a friend. That means the problem isn't with him; the girl is just too aloof.
As for the possibility that the girl might have a boyfriend, Jiang Lan didn't even entertain that thought.
On Tuesday afternoon, just before the end of the workday, a notice was posted in the company's group chat that we would be having a team-building activity next Wednesday and Thursday, going rafting in the mountains of another city.
Yingjie asked her, "Xiaoming, you're going to stay out overnight, who's going to take care of your child?"
What a kind colleague! She hadn't even thought about having a virtual son to take care of, but you remembered. It's also my fault for not wanting to go to the team building event last time; my excuse was that there was no one to take care of the baby.
"Ah, relatives, ask them to help watch over it for a couple of days."
Yingjie patted her on the shoulder and smiled, "That's good. The boss wants everyone to participate. You've made all the arrangements, so just relax and have fun."
Xiao Ming forced a smile.
When she got home that evening, she lay on the sofa scrolling through her phone and saw a local news article: the driver who caused the car accident a few days earlier had suddenly fallen ill in the detention center and died en route to the hospital despite all efforts to save him.
Xiao Ming was astonished. Was this the legendary karma? It seemed he should always strive to be a good person with a clear conscience.
I watched other videos and saw that now that it's summer vacation, we often see news about children drowning, and in some cases, the entire family of children has perished.
Seeing those parents kneeling on the ground crying and wailing is truly heartbreaking. Every year we educate people to prevent drowning and not to swim in unsupervised areas, but some people just won't listen no matter how we teach them, and many people still drown every year. It just goes to show that everything is fate.
This weekend, Xiaoming went to a large supermarket to buy things for his team building activities: two sets of dark-colored quick-drying clothes, sun protection gear, beach shoes, and his favorite snacks.
There were still quite a few people on the weekend, and there was a queue at the self-checkout. Xiaoming was dragging his basket and scrolling on his phone, and he didn't see the person in front of him, so he bumped into them.
His mouth moved faster than his brain, and he immediately bowed his head and apologized profusely: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
As she spoke, she looked up at the person she had bumped into. Ah, another handsome guy.
Why do I say "again"? Because she's been seeing handsome guys way too often lately.
The handsome man looked down at her and said gently, "It's nothing."
She smiled apologetically and nodded, then walked to the empty checkout machine to pay.
Carrying large and small bags, she walked out of the supermarket entrance, found her car in the parking lot, and was bending down to arrange her belongings when she heard someone next to her say, "Hello."
Xiaoming looked up and saw the handsome guy she had bumped into at the checkout machine calling her. She was a little confused: "Hello. Is there anything else?"
Seeing the girl staring at her, Jiang Lan felt her ears getting hot and said to her, "Can I scan the QR code to add you as a friend?"
Xiao Ming was a little confused. A handsome guy was chasing after him, asking him to scan a QR code to add Green Bubble?! This was truly a strange thing!
After thinking for a moment, Xiaoming nodded reservedly and opened his phone: "I'll scan your QR code."
After adding green foam and putting his phone in his backpack, Xiaoming got on his bike, turned on the gas, and was about to leave when he suddenly braked to a stop.
She turned around and waved to the handsome guy: "Goodbye!"
The handsome guy waved to her and said, "Goodbye!"
Jiang Lan received an unexpected surprise today, and the corners of her lips were constantly turned up in a smile.
Only after getting into the car did I take out my phone to browse the girl's profile.
Disappointingly, the homepage was set to only show content for three days, so he didn't see any information.
Jiang Lan went out for a big shopping trip today, driving an SUV that she doesn't usually drive.
On his way home, Jiang Lan kept glancing at both sides of the road. Perhaps the girl hadn't taken this route, because he hadn't seen her, and he felt a little disappointed.
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