Volume 1: Days Moving Bricks at the Construction Site
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Love even in death
After strolling around the Yama Hall, Golden Retriever successfully made it ashore. Fortunately, because he was covered in mud and water, the two girls couldn’t see that he had been scared to pee. He collapsed on the railings and couldn’t get up for a long time, and it was Shen Maomao who helped him remove the still-moving hands from his body and threw them back into the pond.
Xiaolou said, “There is indeed something at the bottom of the pool.”
Golden Retriever replied, “Isn’t that obvious QAQ.” He wanted to change his pants and take a bath, but he was too afraid.
Xiaolou looked up at the sky and said to Golden Retriever, “There’s still some time. Do you want to take a bath? We can accompany you.”
Either let the two girls watch him bathe, or go back to sleep covered in mud and whatever else, or wash himself.
“Wash!” Unable to endure his situation and extremely terrified, Golden Retriever chose to abandon his shame. Since the two girls didn’t mind, why should he care?
Shen Maomao asked, “Ah? What are we doing?”
Xiaolou pointed downwards, gesturing for her to get off the railings first.
Shen Maomao, still confused, was pulled forward by Xiaolou.
The three of them went to the bathhouse together, entering the male bathhouse.
The bathhouse still had electricity, allowing everything to be seen clearly at a glance. The male bathhouse was much larger than the female one—after all, construction sites mostly have men. In the middle, there were two scrubbing platforms, covered with a thick layer of dust.
Shen Maomao looked confused: “What are we doing? Is this being scumbags? Are we going to bathe in the same place?”
Xiaolou loudly said, “He’s the one bathing! We are accompanying him!” Her voice echoed repeatedly in the empty bathhouse.
Shen Maomao said, “Isn’t it inconvenient?”
“If inconvenient, it still must be made convenient.”
Golden Retriever didn’t dare to enter the glass door to bathe by himself and begged the two to accompany him.
Xiaolou, with an indifferent attitude, pulled Shen Maomao and him in together.
“Let the water run for a while first, there’s rust in the water,” Xiaolou reminded him.
The two women turned their backs to him, and Golden Retriever turned on the faucet to let the water run, awkwardly starting to undress.
The sound of rushing water covered the small noises, and Golden Retriever, extremely timid, talked with them while washing himself and his dirty clothes.
Xiaolou responded to him intermittently.
Time passed by the minute and second, and Golden Retriever quickly finished rinsing his body. He put on the clothes and pants he had scrubbed countless times under the faucet and said to the two women in front of him, “I finished washing!”
They turned off the light and walked out of the male bathhouse one by one. By the bright moonlight, Shen Maomao immediately saw the wall clock and was greatly shocked: “It’s 8:57, Sister Lou!”
Xiaolou’s expression also changed: “How could it be?!” When they came in, the clock clearly showed 7:10. Golden Retriever’s bath time definitely did not exceed an hour.
Now it was too late to return to the dormitory, so Xiaolou made a decisive decision. She pulled Shen Maomao with one hand and Golden Retriever with the other, dragging them both behind the counter to crouch down: “There are still three minutes. I’m not sure if hiding here will allow us to hear the sound. If the sound appears and you can’t bear it, you can come to me to knock you unconscious.”
Behind the counter, there was also a layer of dust. Golden Retriever sat down on the ground, and his freshly washed pants got dirty again: “Or… maybe just knock me out now?”
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“Are you sure?” Xiaolou said, “If something comes in, we won’t take you with us when we escape.”
Golden Retriever: “No, no, I can handle it, I can do it.”
Shen Maomao also panicked: “When you escape, make sure to take me with you… don’t call for me, I can’t hear!”
Xiaolou covered her mouth and wrote an “ok” in her palm.
The three of them shrank into the gap behind the counter, none of them daring to make a sound.
After nine o’clock, those noisy sounds appeared again.
The construction site seemed to return to its former bustling state, with various noisy sounds emerging. From inside the male bathhouse came the sound of rushing water, accompanied by voices of unknown origin.
Golden Retriever and Xiaolou held their breath and concentrated, pricking up their ears to listen to the conversation inside. Shen Maomao looked at their obviously concerned expressions and felt like a fool…
“They promised to pay wages today, but they keep delaying and delaying. They want the horse to work but don’t feed it grass. Shi Xin, that scoundrel, is planning to push us to a dead end, huh.”
“Lower your voice, what if there’s someone outside?”
“He’s afraid of others talking about what he does? Just watch, if he keeps this up, I’ll deal with him!”
“You think you can deal with him?”
“Hehe, I have dirt on him. You know? He’s hands and feet are not clean.”
“Oh? What kind of dirt?”
Next, these two people whispered, and they outside could not hear clearly. After speaking in low voices for a while, the two suddenly started to laugh loudly, the tone of their laughter becoming higher and higher, finally turning into a very sharp and piercing sound, like a steel needle piercing into their brains.
Golden Retriever painfully covered his ears and fell to the ground, Xiaolou also covered her ears, her body slightly trembling.
Shen Maomao put her hands over Xiaolou’s hands, hoping this better-than-nothing help could slightly relieve her pain.
The two people inside the bathhouse laughed for a long time and then simultaneously quieted down.
The familiar whistle sound appeared again, and the source of the sound was just in the male bathhouse separated by one wall.
Golden Retriever was grinning and rolling on the ground, his leg kicked the cabinet, making a loud noise.
Xiaolou immediately raised her hand to knock him out, but it was already too late. The water sound and whistle sound inside the bathhouse suddenly all stopped, followed by a burst of footsteps from inside.
The owner of those footsteps started whistling again, leisurely wandering around. Walking left, walking right, just not walking towards them.
Shen Maomao, although unable to hear, could see Xiaolou’s painful expression. She lightly and skillfully lay on the ground, looking outside through the gap in the counter.
She saw a pair of feet. These feet’s toes were continuously facing their cabinet, sliding left a bit, sliding right a bit, just not moving forward, like a cat playing with a mouse.
F*ck, is it a crab?!
Shen Maomao secretly cursed in her heart, straightened up wanting to ask Xiaolou what to do next.
But just controlling herself not to make a sound had already used up all of Xiaolou’s strength, she had no extra energy to write words bit by bit on Shen Maomao’s hand.
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This time truly is calling to heaven and heaven doesn’t respond, calling to earth and earth doesn’t work…
Xiaolou bit her lips until they bled, her head hurt so much she wished she could just crash and die.
Shen Maomao looked at her painful expression, only hating that she didn’t know her skill to knock people out, unable to use her elbow to knock her out.
The person outside the counter kept walking back and forth, not knowing why they didn’t attack them.
Perhaps… the sound she couldn’t hear was his way of attacking?
Shen Maomao tentatively poked her head out from behind the counter, originally thinking she could see the true face of the owner of those feet, but who would have thought that those feet suddenly disappeared.
The person was gone, but Xiaolou’s expression was still very painful, suggesting that the noise still existed.
When the enemy is cowardly, she becomes strong. Shen Maomao climbed onto the counter, strongly enduring her fear as she looked around, not discovering anything strange.
She hesitated for a moment, but still decided to risk it all, opening her mouth wide to begin singing.
“Even in death — must love! Not thoroughly, not happy!”
Like a devil’s sound piercing the ears, lingering for three days, not dissipating for a long time, it directly suppressed the whistle sound.
Xiaolou was stunned. She got up from the ground, covering her ears, and shouted loudly: “You can stop now! You can stop!”
Shen Maomao closed her mouth.
Xiaolou wiped away the bloodstain on her lips and gave her a thumbs up.
The one whistling was probably shocked by this ear-piercing singing voice, remaining silent for a long time, but the noisy talking sound was still there. The singing seemed to have attracted something, as the ground of the bath pool gently trembled.
Shen Maomao got down from the counter, and the three of them huddled together. She whispered to Xiaolou: “It seems like the monster I encountered in the supermarket, the one with the full stomach of faces.”
She had told Xiaolou everything that happened last night, and Xiaolou knew that big guy seemed to have no malice towards them, but there was no need to risk their lives to gamble on its friendliness to humans. She wrote in Shen Maomao’s palm: 【Don’t make a sound, try to hide.】
Shen Maomao nodded and honestly sat down.
Xiaolou tried to distinguish what these sounds were saying, listened for a long time, only hearing some meaningless curses.
The huge footsteps gradually went far away, and the ground no longer trembled. She seemed to hear a scream coming from a distant place, and afterward, the whole world fell into silence.
In the second half of the night, nothing happened. Early the next morning, Shen Maomao shook Golden Retriever awake, and the embarrassed three left the bath pool to assemble with the main group at the canteen.
It was around seven o’clock now, and the canteen was empty. Forget about the others, normally Yan Nan should have finished cooking early… it seems like yesterday’s events affected more than just them.
Shen Maomao asked, “Sister Lou, should we go look for people?”
Xiaolou pretended not to hear and, with her hands behind her back, strolled around the kitchen.
Shen Maomao: “…” understood her attitude.
Golden Retriever still had lingering fears about last night’s events, and he timidly asked, “Are they all in trouble?”
Xiaolou said, “Impossible.” Whether it’s Yun Shengjin entering Beidou or Leng Bingbing, it’s impossible for them to be eliminated so easily. This instance isn’t actually very difficult, aside from the monsters causing mental pollution, no other attack methods have been found.
Some of the older ones can only hide, while the newcomers might encounter trouble.
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They also won’t just wait around.
Golden Retriever couldn’t do anything, so he stayed in the canteen. Xiaolou had Shen Maomao steam rice while she herself sat by the big pot and started the fire to cook.
Xiaolou can actually cook! And she looks like a skilled hand!
Shen Maomao watched her cleanly and swiftly stir-fry, methodically adding seasonings, and in no time, she had fried up a plate of fragrant dish.
She fried three dishes in total, each in a generous quantity. As they brought the food to the table, a group of people walked into the kitchen.
Yun Shengjin, Yan Nan, Beidou, Leng Bingbing, and Binzi.
The five veteran players looked tired, dirty, and disheveled, with Binzi even having a wound on his stomach. The remaining two newcomers were nowhere to be found, which seemed ominous.
Eight people sat down and began to eat in silence.
Shen Maomao had a premonition.
—If she had chosen to follow Yun Shengjin at the start, she probably would be dead by now.
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