Chapter 27 Tide Proverbs (Nine) 1, 2, 3, 4...
Xia Zhu felt a tightness in her scalp, and with the movement, she felt the coldness at her ankles. Looking back, she realized that her trouser legs were soaked at some point. Feng Feng's eyes made her subconsciously withdraw her hand.
But Feng Feng immediately grabbed her hand and pulled her back a little, bringing the two of them even closer.
"Although everyone seems to have changed to some extent, I believe that the three of us are so capable that we will definitely, definitely get out of here."
A light gold tint shone on the side of her face closest to the window, blurring the edges of her features and making her honey-colored eyes shine again.
Xia Zhu looked outside and saw the sun for the first time in this world.
No matter how thick the clouds are, they will always rise again on a new day.
The three of them went to the classroom anyway; according to their routine, today should be math class.
Unexpectedly, even though the teacher may have sunk into the sea, the bell still rang as usual, the students sat obediently in their seats, and even the subject names appeared on the blackboard with the same handwriting as the teacher.
Everyone was silent, and the atmosphere was really strange. Just thinking that Liang might be in the same room with her at this moment made Xia Zhu feel a little excited.
These emotions are certainly not normal.
Xiao Feng told her that she suddenly sat up in the middle of the night yesterday, got out of bed expressionlessly, picked up the raincoat hanging on the door and was about to go out. No matter how Feng Feng called her, Xia Zhu acted as if she didn't hear him.
I originally thought she might be the one among the three who had undergone the least mutation, but now it seems that might not be the case.
Her recent behavior has been unusual; this excitement and assertiveness are unprecedented, but for Xia Zhu, this may not be a bad thing.
Just like some people who have a fever or are drunk, their blood vessels dilate and their minds are in a state of extreme activity, which allows them to take the opportunity to do something groundbreaking.
So, Xia Zhu walked onto the podium in full view of everyone.
She cleared her throat. Such unexpected situations were not in the programming of the NPCs. They raised their heads blankly, their expressions as if they were stuck. Xia Zhu scanned each face one by one.
The cunning Liang did not reveal his true colors so quickly.
"I have a math problem that I can't solve no matter how hard I try. It keeps me up at night, but maybe it's because I'm not good enough. I just can't find a way to solve it."
"I'd like to ask you all, can anyone help me answer this?"
Three tourists arrived at a hotel and each paid 10 yuan to share a room, actually paying 30 yuan. The owner discovered the room only cost 25 yuan, so he asked the waiter to refund 5 yuan. On the way back, the waiter kept 2 yuan, only returning 1 yuan to each of the three tourists, meaning each person actually paid 9 yuan. Now, the total cost is 9 x 3 = 27 yuan. The 2 yuan he kept makes a total of 27 + 2 = 29 yuan. The question is, where did the remaining 1 yuan go?
After she finished speaking, she observed everyone's reactions again, and deliberately put on a troubled, puzzled, and somewhat embarrassed expression.
"I know this is a very simple logic problem, but my brain hasn't been working too well lately, and the more I can't solve it, the more I want to know."
Xia Zhu finished her one-woman show on the podium, and as expected, zero people paid any attention. She waited a while, then returned to her seat with a sullen expression.
This little incident was quickly forgotten, and the three-hour math class ended with the 14 students sitting there doing nothing.
Unsurprisingly, everyone will still eat in the cafeteria according to the usual rules.
Xia Zhu told the brother and sister to go to the cafeteria first, and she would go later. Then she lingered in the classroom, which was now empty, for a long time before finally leisurely returning to her room.
As soon as I opened the door, I looked down and found a note slipped under the door. I picked it up and saw that it was the answer to the question.
She stuffed the note into her pocket and went to the cafeteria to meet up with Feng Feng and the others.
Even without the teachers, the cafeteria still automatically served its three standard fish dishes, steaming hot as if they were freshly made.
"So here's the question: where do teachers usually spend their time?"
Only the three of them remained in the cafeteria. Night was approaching, and even the rarest sunlight would soon fade. This was the perfect opportunity. The three of them went to the back of the food trays and began to feel their way along the wall.
A cool touch, accompanied by a subtle vibration, traveled to my fingertips, and a rusty smell wafted from somewhere.
The canteen was dark, with only a few iron-gray and scarlet lights filtering in through three windows. The sea rose and fell silently outside, and the green emergency exit sign next to the door added to the desolate atmosphere. It was as if they were truly on a ship that had lost its way, destined to drift aimlessly to their deaths.
Their figures appeared somewhat blurry, with the setting sun only illuminating a few strands of hair on their heads, making the heads of the two Feng family members look as if they were on fire.
"It seems like there's nothing behind this wall," Feng Feng said softly. She half-squatted down and pressed her face close to the cold wall, and a hollow echo came out when she gently tapped it.
Feng Feng held up a finger, and a very thin green vine grew from her fingertip, winding its way into an almost invisible crack in the wall.
The vines seemed to be groping along the inner wall, and then a slight, muffled turning sound came from the silence, and the wall broke open and collapsed inward.
Sure enough, there was a door.
"I'll open the door, everyone step back a little!"
"No, there's no way we know what dangers are behind the door. I'll open it."
Xia Zhu squatted beside the half-open door. At this crucial moment, the two of them were actually arguing about who should open the door. A strong fishy smell wafted out from behind the door. She glanced at the brother and sister, hesitated for a moment, and then reached out and poked the door open.
There was no danger as I had imagined; it seemed as if there were no living creatures inside, but rather a nauseating, putrid stench.
"So that man was really hiding in here?" Feng Feng peered inside.
At the far end of the room was a round window, like the cabin where sailors lived. The setting sun was framed within it, and all its light was concentrated into a beam, projecting onto the mountain of dead fish piled on the floor. In contrast to the gray and rotten matter, it created a style similar to that of a Renaissance oil painting.
How to put it? It was both tragic and heroic.
Thick, greenish fluid, carrying bits of fish scales, was flowing from beneath the pile of fish to the feet of the three people.
"How disgusting... I have a bad feeling about this..." The three of them pinched their noses and exchanged a silent glance.
This pile of dead fish is probably the raw material from the food they ate.
The layout of this place is similar to the kitchen of a ship's cabin, with some metal shelves on both sides. The room is not big, but it is fully equipped with a washbasin, countertop, and stove.
The pool was blocked by something, perhaps fish scales or entrails, and the murky water was almost overflowing. The faucet was still dripping, injecting new power into the already raging pool, enough to cause a flood to erupt at any moment.
They found a cot behind a pile of junk, with several harpoons propped up at the head of the cot. The harpoons were rusted and stained with blood, some of which still seemed to be wet.
A rope was hanging from the ceiling on the wall next to the bed. Feng Feng reached out and gently pulled it, and a familiar bell suddenly rang, startling the three of them.
"Don't start shaking the students again."
It seems that the teacher, who is responsible for taking care of all the students, curls up on this small bed every night. Perhaps he has to go fishing before dawn, and when he comes back, he has to cook, ring the bell, and go to class on time.
Thinking about it, he was quite hardworking and conscientious, even somewhat heartbreaking. However, the more he did so, the stranger his role seemed.
He was both an oppressed and loyal person, yet he met a fate that was not good but rather particularly bad.
"That's not right. If he usually does all these things, then who was responsible for the writing on the blackboard today, the morning bell, and the dinner just now?"
Feng Feng's words, chilling and mingling with the surrounding fishy smell, added a touch of spice to the eerie atmosphere.
The atmosphere became even stranger.
“That’s the key to the problem. We only need to go to one place to confirm it.” Xia Zhu’s glasses reflected the light in the darkness, but the eyes behind them looked like two perfectly lit candles, almost bursting with flame.
When the three of them walked to the pool, the student who was in charge of cleaning today looked like he had just finished his task. It was unclear how he knew the order of the cleaning duties.
Perhaps his teacher appeared to him in a dream? Feng Feng's mind was a complete mess.
After the students on duty left, they crowded to the warehouse door.
The windowless room smelled strange and stagnant; the continuous rain seemed to have caused the clutter inside to become moldy to varying degrees; and there wasn't even a light.
"I won't go, I'll wait for you outside." The beautiful sunset had completely disappeared, and some circular spots appeared on the ground, stirring up dust. It had even started to rain again.
Feng Feng gave them two lamps for lighting. She really didn't want to enter the warehouse. It seemed that she was even more afraid of the dark than Feng Mian. Maybe she would have to see a psychologist after this dream ended.
But after hearing her description, an ordinary doctor would probably jump to conclusions and simply send her to a mental hospital. Thinking about this, Feng Feng found it somewhat amusing and squatted down by the pool, leaning against the warehouse wall.
"It's raining, move to the inside so you don't get wet," Fengmian's mother kindly advised.
"I'm not a child." Feng Feng didn't turn around or move, still squatting there with his head drooping.
The worried older brother shook his head helplessly and took the Jinjin lamp into the house to find Xia Zhu.
Seeing that Xia Zhu had searched through the pile of clutter without finding what she wanted, he shook his head at Feng Mian, who had just walked in.
He walked over to Xia Zhu and, holding up the lamp, looked around as well.
"Ah Zhu, what do you need to confirm?"
Xia Zhu seemed unsure as well, her tone hesitant, "Xiao Feng was right just now. Our most crucial task now is to find..."
Before she could finish speaking, she seemed to see something and walked towards a corner.
Seeing that she was staring at the sign-in sheet hanging on the wall without moving, Fengmian also shone his lamp on it.
The sign-in sheet for the water pool duty roster shows that six people have already taken their turn, counting from top to bottom.
No. 1 Xia Zhu, No. 2 Feng Feng, No. 3 Feng Mian…
"What's wrong with this..." Before he could finish asking the last question, Feng Mian realized something was amiss.
Following this order, there was another number 4 after him, but his name wasn't written next to the number; there was only a lonely "4". The fifth and sixth students on duty later only had their names but no numbers.
Xia Zhu had seen both of them before, and there was nothing unusual about them. The students on duty would indeed take turns among the 15 people.
"Does this mean that only those who enter from outside the dream will have a number?" Feng Mian pointed to the number three before his name, then slowly scrolled down. "Then, this number 4 is..."
He abruptly withdrew his hand, a chill running from his tailbone to the top of his head. Under the glow of the lamp, Xia Zhu turned around and met his gaze. In her flickering eyes, he heard her voice, which sounded somewhat unreal, as she uttered that chilling answer.
"From beginning to end, there was a fourth person here besides us."
She should have known about the existence of that fourth person.
Suddenly, the sound of water falling came from outside the door.
"Xiao Feng!"
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