Escape from the Thriller World – Chapter 30

Volume One: The Old Corpse in the Mountain Village

Caring

Actions betray true feelings, clearly showing care.

Gu Lin had just heard about what happened to his daughter at the convenience store, and he consolingly said to her with concern: “Zhenzhu, hurry and thank these two sisters!”

            

Gu Lin had only this one precious daughter, and he couldn’t help but feel protective of her.

Gu Lin had married late in life, and raising his daughter over these years hadn’t been easy. Having watched Gu Zhenzhu grow up, he naturally couldn’t bear to see her suffer even the slightest grievance.

Gu Zhenzhu turned her head, made a funny face at them, and said: “Thank you, sisters. I’m going to do my homework now.”

            

Gu Zhenzhu cheerfully took a few sips of her drink, pulled out her notebook from her mermaid backpack, and sheepishly ran upstairs to do her homework.

“Zhenzhu is only rowdy at home. When she’s out, she barely dares to speak. Please don’t mind her,” Gu Lin said while tidying up items in the store.

Ning Lan waved her hand and said: “It was nothing, no need to thank us.”

            

Gu Lin, aware that his attitude had been cold earlier, scratched the back of his head embarrassedly.

Gu Lin’s attitude made a complete 180-degree turn, and as he went to make tea for them, he invited them to sit and asked: “What exactly do you want to know about Tong Lau?”

Shen Qingyou spoke up: “Do you still have the original floor plan design drawings of Tong Lau? It’s very important to us.”

            

Gu Lin thought for a moment and said: “The floor plan design drawings? Let me look. I gave one copy to the real estate developer and kept another as backup.”

Those who work in design have a habit: one copy goes to the client, and another is kept separately as a backup original.

The design of Tong Lau was from an early period, in an era when saving to computers wasn’t common practice, and before USB drives were developed, so most of these important documents were preserved as handwritten manuscripts.

            

Gu Lin went upstairs to look for a while, then came down empty-handed and said, “Unfortunately, my original documents are still in the old house. We just moved here recently.”

“Where is your old house? Would it be convenient to take us there to look? The original floor plan is really important to us,” Ning Lan said with a sigh.

Gu Lin waved his hand and said, “I’m still running the store, so I’m afraid that won’t work… How about this: tell me which building’s floor plan you need, and I’ll try to recreate it roughly from memory.”

            

There were many things in the old house, and he had already cleared out most of them once – it was possible that he had already thrown away those design drawings as waste paper.

Gu Lin politely declined their request; he was truly too busy with business to get away, and this was all he could do to help.

Ning Lan nodded and said, “Thank you for your trouble. We have paper and pen here – could you try to recall the floor plan design?”

            

Ning Lan tore out several sheets from her notebook and handed a pen to Gu Lin.

After pondering for a long while, Gu Lin could only sketch out a rough outline, saying apologetically, “I’m sorry, this is all I can remember of the floor plan.”

Gu Lin handed the paper to Ning Lan, who examined it repeatedly and shook her head, saying, “This looks like an initial draft. Our apartment seems to have been renovated and modified.”

            

Gu Lin said apologetically, “Even with renovations, it shouldn’t be difficult. Each unit’s square footage is fixed, so you can deduce from the dimensions.”

The floor plan Gu Lin provided showed an area of 125 square meters, including a living room, kitchen, master bedroom, side bedroom, and balcony.

Following this logic, the layouts of each building didn’t differ much, and their apartment faced southeast.

            

However, after a fire in 1920, Wei Jinye had renovated it, changing some of the room layouts.

Ning Lan stood up and thanked him, saying, “Alright, I understand.”

After leaving the store, the two of them pondered over the floor plan of the 18th floor, with Ning Lan holding the rough sketch and already formulating a plan.

            

Ning Lan decided to check the layouts of the 17th and 19th floors – from these, they could figure out the layout of the 18th floor sandwiched between them.

Most of Tong Lau’s residents had moved out, and the 19th floor above them was completely empty – it seemed there was no hope of investigating the 19th floor.

For checking the layouts, Ning Lan thought of the kindhearted Wang Shen.

            

Wang Shen happened to live on the floor below them, with an identical layout.

On the way back, Ning Lan paused at the vegetable market and said with a smile: “Officer Shen… I mean, Qingyou, what would you like to eat tonight?”

Shen Qingyou had said not to call her Officer Shen anymore.

            

Ning Lan caught herself before saying “officer” and switched to using Qingyou instead.

Shen Qingyou’s eyes brightened as she stopped walking and said: “We’re ghost hunting tonight, why worry about food? A plate of jiaozi [a type of Chinese dumpling] from downstairs will do.”

Ning Lan pursed her lips and said: “Let’s buy some cold dishes [prepared dishes served cold] to take back. I’ll visit Wang Shen’s place too – it wouldn’t be right to check the layout empty-handed.”

            

Shen Qingyou crossed her arms and said, “So you’re going there for the floor plan? I thought you were actually going to show off your cooking skills.”

Ning Lan nodded and said, “Eating is a minor matter; solving the mystery of the 18th floor is the important thing.”

“Ning Lan, you’re such a blockhead,” Shen Qingyou gave her a sidelong glance.

            

The two bought some vegetables at the market, and noticing it was getting late, hurried back to Tong Lau.

Ning Lan had Shen Qingyou go up first to get ready, while she went alone to the 17th floor, just happening to meet Wang Shen who was returning with her nephew.

Wang Shen smiled at her and said, “You’re just getting back? And carrying groceries too.”

            

Ning Lan grinned and said, “I was just out for a casual walk, just got back.”

Wang Shen sent her nephew inside first, then stopped to chat with Ning Lan, who mentioned buying extra fish that she didn’t know how to cook.

“Oh my memory, I bought an extra fish. Wang Shen, would you like to take it? It would be a waste to let it sit.” Ning Lan held up a bag with a plump grass carp [a common freshwater fish in Chinese cuisine], its tail still moving inside.

            

Wang Shen smiled and pulled Ning Lan into her house, saying, “It’s not good to waste food. I’ll accept your kindness.”

Wang Shen accepted the grass carp, saying she felt embarrassed, and insisted on inviting Ning Lan in for a meal.

Ning Lan stepped into Wang Shen’s home, looked around, and said while waving her hand: “Wang Shen, I keep hearing the sound of marbles bouncing upstairs. What do you think that strange noise is?”

            

“The 19th floor – there was a family living there before, they had several children who liked to play with all sorts of nonsense,” Wang Shen said as she put the grass carp in the kitchen sink.

Wang Shen complained about those children, saying there were always some difficult residents in the building who couldn’t even discipline their own children.

Could these peculiar habits be the source of the strange sounds mentioned in Tong Lau’s rules?

            

“Wang Shen, how do you know about this?” Ning Lan asked.

“Those children recently played pranks with marbles, deliberately placing them in front of residents’ doors. Many residents tripped and fell,” Wang Shen said while cleaning the fish, her face showing displeasure.

While chatting with Wang Shen, Ning Lan’s mind was working quickly to memorize the layout of the apartment.

            

While Wang Shen was busy in the kitchen, Ning Lan tore off a piece of paper and used a 4B pencil to sketch the floor plan.

Having achieved her goal, Ning Lan stuffed the paper in her pocket and called out to Wang Shen who was busy in the kitchen: “Wang Shen, please continue with your work, I’ll head back now.”

Wang Shen turned and said: “Alright, little Ning, I’ll make some pork rib soup tomorrow and bring it up to warm you up.”

            

Ning Lan returned to the 18th floor clutching the rough paper. Shen Qingyou had just washed her hair and was drying her black hair with a towel while blow-drying it.

“Ning Lan, you’re back. How did it go?” Shen Qingyou asked while drying her hair.

According to Ning Lan’s calculations, there was a large sealed space between the living room wall and the side bedroom, forming a closed-off hidden room.

            

“I’ve figured it out – the hidden space is behind the wall, but where could the entrance be? We can’t just break through the wall,” Ning Lan said, completely puzzled.

“Wait a moment, I have an idea,” Shen Qingyou said, scanning the apartment’s layout up and down.

“I’ve noted down the layout. Wang Shen’s floor plan downstairs doesn’t differ much from Gu Lin’s initial design, but our floor was renovated after that fire.” Ning Lan handed the rough paper to Shen Qingyou, who was busy drying her hair and just glanced at it briefly.

            

Her finger had been burned yesterday, and now she got a small electric shock from the hair dryer, making her finger tremble.

Ning Lan quietly stood behind her and said softly, “Since your finger is hurt, should I help dry your hair?”

Shen Qingyou rubbed her hair strands and said, “Ning Lan, have you finally come to your senses? Wasn’t it you who said yesterday that we should keep our distance?”

            

Her words contradicted her feelings – she clearly cared.

Ning Lan held the hair dryer on medium setting, letting warm air flow through her hair strands. Shen Qingyou was momentarily dazed.

“This is purely teammate concern. I’m worried about your finger getting hurt again,” Ning Lan said with a smile, changing the subject.

            

Pretending – she was still pretending.

She wanted to see how long she would keep up this act.

“This ‘teammate concern’ feels rather ambiguous. I’d better do it myself,” Shen Qingyou grabbed back the hair dryer and started drying her own hair.

            

“Can you manage by yourself? How’s your finger? Let me apply medicine on it again,” Ning Lan said, about to go to the side bedroom for the hair dryer, but Shen Qingyou stopped her.

“Ning Lan, you don’t need to be so nice to me. Are you really just being a teammate?” Shen Qingyou asked pointedly, but Ning Lan remained silent.

“I… I don’t know what my feelings for you are. I want to be close to you, yet I’m afraid of getting too close, worried about ruining this beautiful thing…” Ning Lan said quietly, looking down at Shen Qingyou.

            

Shen Qingyou lowered her gaze and said, “I understand, Ning Lan. You don’t need to say anything. I know your dilemma.”

Ning Lan couldn’t make any promises in this horror world simulation, where they faced death at any moment.

If she were to be killed by ghosts first, leaving the other alone to survive in the horror simulation – wouldn’t that be endless suffering…

            

Ning Lan avoided addressing their feelings, concealing her emotions.

Ning Lan made a soft sound and said, “We’re just teammates now. That’s good enough.”

A flicker of dimness passed through Shen Qingyou’s eyes as she softly said, “You’re right, we shouldn’t cross that line…”

            

Ning Lan shrugged and slowly said, “Qingyou, that’s not what I meant, I…”

She was just afraid of becoming a burden to her.

As Ning Lan tried to explain further, Shen Qingyou unplugged the hair dryer and walked straight to the master bedroom.

            

Her words were lost in Shen Qingyou’s retreating figure, leaving them both in wordless silence.

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LP: Useless lesbians bruh

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