Volume 10: Days of Cultivating in the Republic of China
The Doorbell
Ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong
Given this game’s piss-like nature1, Shen Maomao felt that no matter which side they were on, they couldn’t escape the fate of being thrown into the river.
Fortunately, she could swim. As long as there was nothing else in the water, it shouldn’t be a problem… right?
Forget it, it’s better not to set up any flags2.
“Oh, right.” Just as the players were preparing to disperse in the hall, Kang Yuanhuai suddenly said, “There will probably be thunder later. For safety’s sake, it’s best if everyone uses the lights sparingly after returning to your rooms.” After speaking, he smiled and waved at the group. “Well then, I’ll see you all tomorrow.”
For some reason, Shen Maomao felt that his smile carried some sort of indescribable meaning. If she had to sum it up, it could only be—not harboring good intentions?
Everyone waved goodbye to him. The men dispersed on the spot, while the women went upstairs together, entered their respective rooms, and closed their doors. The world fell quiet, with only the sound of the rain and thunder outside the window remaining.
Purple lightning tore across the sky, and raindrops pattered against the window. Shen Maomao tiptoed to the bedside, turned on the bedside lamp, letting the warm yellow light dispel the surrounding darkness, and then began to move the table.
She moved both the vanity and the desk to the doorway, using them to block the door in case someone tried to open it in the middle of the night without her knowing.
After doing all this, she sat panting on the bed, observing her surroundings by the lamplight.
She had already checked the wardrobe and under the bed; there was no one inside. She had locked the window herself and drawn the translucent white gauze curtains herself. Everything should be foolproof.
Then her gaze fell on the lamp.
Clearly, “do not turn on the lights at night” was a taboo.
But at the moment, she wasn’t sure which side Kang Yuanhuai was on, so she couldn’t judge whether she should follow his instructions.
After thinking for a moment, Shen Maomao climbed out of bed, took a nightdress from her suitcase to change into, and turned off the lamp after all. Then she flopped down and burrowed into the quilt, enveloped by darkness once more.
She was like a stiff corpse, lying motionless with her eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling, without the slightest hint of sleepiness.
Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night.
Even though it had only been a day since she parted with Lou Jingmo, she missed her terribly.
She wanted to discuss the plot with Sister Lou, wanted to hold handsies with her, wanted to curl up in her arms and sleep.
The more Shen Maomao thought, the more miserable she felt. She quickly stopped her brain, lest she suddenly burst out crying. It would be bad if she scared the possibly existing Ah Piao3 in the room.
Another clap of thunder boomed. The wind slipped in through the crack in the window and playfully started a game with the white gauze curtains, blowing them into a gentle dance and making the window clatter.
Shen Maomao shifted her gaze to the window, and then her body suddenly went rigid.
As the curtains danced, she saw what looked like a person standing in the shadows!
She was instantly wide awake, any drowsiness she had managed to build up vanishing completely. Her body under the quilt trembled slightly.
What was that thing? A person? Or a ghost?
She stared at that shadow for a full ten minutes, but ultimately couldn’t resist the inner clamor to uncover the truth. She threw back the quilt, grabbed the lamp beside her as a weapon, and tiptoed over.
Curiosity can kill the cat, but if she didn’t confirm whether there was someone there or not, Shen Maomao felt she would be thinking about it until the next morning.
Lightning split the sky, momentarily illuminating the dark room. The shadow behind the curtain had nowhere to hide and became incredibly clear.
It really was a person, a tall man, but it was just a blurry shadow, and she couldn’t make out what he looked like.
Another flash of lightning. Shen Maomao’s heart pounded wildly, its speed shooting straight for 180 mph4, making her eardrums ache a little.
She tightened her grip on the lamp, gritted her teeth, and yanked the curtain open, simultaneously raising her right hand high, ready to smack the person behind it if things looked wrong.
The window reflected the light from a distant lighthouse. The lightning illuminated the blurry sheen of water on the glass and also reflected her own bewildered face.
There was absolutely no one behind the curtain.
Shen Maomao silently let the curtain fall back into place, and the dark shadow reappeared behind it.
Now she could be certain. This was a ghost.
“Sorry, big brother,” she apologized in a low voice. “You can stand here for as long as you like. I’m going back to sleep…”
The moment she finished speaking, a harsh scraping sound of table legs against the floor suddenly came from the doorway—the tables she had set up were being pushed aside!
Shen Maomao sucked in a cold breath and immediately turned to look behind her.
The door had been pushed open a crack by someone. A cold wind now blew in through the gap, messing up her hair and sending her heart into a panic.
It was only the first night, did it have to be this intense? A pincer attack from both front and back?
A pale hand reached in through the crack in the door. Shen Maomao couldn’t worry about the big brother behind the curtain anymore. She dashed to the door in a single bound, planning to strike first and be strong5, to see if she could shut the door and maybe break its hand in the process.
“Rabbit-jie…”
Just as she reached the door, she heard a familiar voice from outside. At the same time, the hand that had reached in made a “peace” sign at her, its two fingers even wiggling a bit.
“Fuck.” Shen Maomao had ten thousand ‘mother sells cunt’6 to say in her heart, and she also wanted to smash Golden Retriever’s dog head.
If she died of fright, she would definitely give Golden Retriever first-class merit!
She climbed onto the table and whispered through the door, “What are you doing? Are you trying to die?”
As she spoke, she turned to look at the window. The big brother behind the curtain had left at some point. She just didn’t know if he had gone out or come in.
Golden Retriever said from outside, “I’m scared… Can I sleep with you?”
Shen Maomao: “Are you sick? Have you forgotten if you’re a man or a woman?”
Golden Retriever said, on the verge of tears, “The wardrobe in my room is moving. I’m going to die QAQ.”
Shen Maomao whispered, “Hurry back. It’s not safe here either. It’s the middle of the night, how dare you run around.”
Golden Retriever added, “It wasn’t convenient to talk to you during the day. Let me tell you, whatever you do, don’t eat that fish. My nose is sensitive, and those fish dishes reeked to high heaven to me. It was disgusting.”
“Thanks for the warning. You can go back now.”
Golden Retriever was reluctant. “Is it really a no?”
Shen Maomao: “No. Scram.”
“Alright.” Golden Retriever left unwillingly, his footsteps so light that they didn’t make a single sound.
After persuading him to leave, Shen Maomao truly breathed a sigh of relief.
In the pitch-dark, she couldn’t possibly tell if the person at the door was really Golden Retriever just from a crack in the door. How could she just let someone in like that?
She closed the door properly, carefully pushed the desk and vanity back against it to block it again, and then moved back to the bed to lie down.
A quilt always brought a sense of security, especially on such a cold and gloomy rainy night.
Shen Maomao’s tense nerves quietly relaxed, and a wave of drowsiness washed over her, making her yawn twice uncontrollably.
Eventually, she was too sleepy and closed her eyes for a while, but she never fell into a deep sleep. Subconsciously, she remained wary of the door and the window, startling awake from time to time to glance in their directions before drifting off again.
…
“Ding-dong—”
“Ding-dong—”
“Ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong—”
After an unknown amount of time, a rapid ringing of the doorbell suddenly sounded. The ringing drowned out the thunder and rain, jolting Shen Maomao, who was still in a deep sleep, wide awake.
She sat up with a start, thinking it was already morning.
In fact, it was not.
The room was still pitch-black; the second day had not yet arrived.
Cold sweat trickled down her temples. The piercing ringing continued, as if it wouldn’t stop until everyone was awake.
She didn’t turn on the light. Stepping onto the floor with her bare feet, she moved toward the window step by step and, mustering her courage, lifted the curtain to look outside.
From the height and distance of the second floor, she could barely make out the situation at the front door. Rainwater trickled down the glass like little crawling insects, somewhat obstructing her vision.
“Rumble—”
Lightning illuminated the sky. At the door, she saw a twisted oil-paper umbrella and a section of a red dress.
Shen Maomao swallowed and backed away from the window.
No one else was making a move, so it certainly wasn’t her turn to go see who was outside.
So much had happened tonight. She had already dived into and out of her quilt three times.
The ringing grew more urgent, gradually merging into a continuous sound that was grating and impossible to ignore.
But no one on the first or second floor moved. Even the NPC Kang Yuanhuai didn’t come out to check on the situation, so there was even less reason for players like them to go out and court death.
After an unknown amount of time, the thing at the door seemed to have tired itself out and finally stopped its disturbing behavior. The world suddenly fell silent. Shen Maomao closed her eyes again and fell back asleep.
…
The consequence of waking up so many times during the night was—Shen Maomao couldn’t get up this morning.
A knock sounded three times on the door. Kang Yuanhuai called from outside, “Classmate, hurry and get up. We’re getting ready to go eat.”
Shen Maomao didn’t react at all.
Kang Yuanhuai knocked three more times. “Classmate? I’m going to call the next person. You should get up quickly!”
“Ah… I’ll be right up,” Shen Maomao responded groggily. She only opened her eyes a few minutes later, getting up with a yawn to put on her clothes. After getting dressed, she moved the tables back to their original positions.
Kang Yuanhuai made his rounds and then gentlemanly went downstairs.
After the women finished getting ready, they left their rooms together. When they met on the stairs, they noticed that everyone had dark circles under their eyes. Clearly, no one had a peaceful night.
Sisi stretched lazily and asked, “Anyone want to go to the toilet together? Last night was too intense. I was so scared I didn’t dare to go.” After speaking, she draped her arm over Golden Retriever’s shoulder and asked with a grin, “Shishi-meimei, want to go together? Look at your pale little face. You definitely didn’t sleep well last night, right?”
Shen Maomao was silent for a second, not knowing what to say.
She was afraid Golden Retriever would be beaten to death the moment he dropped his pants.
Golden Retriever’s face turned red again, and he shook his head repeatedly in refusal.
Sisi then turned and grabbed Mingyue and Anjing, and the three of them went downstairs together, heading to the toilet as a group.
Golden Retriever whispered a complaint to Shen Maomao behind him, “Why does she always bother me? She couldn’t be a “baihe”, could she?”
Shen Maomao: “Could it be that you look relatively weak and easy to handle?”
Golden Retriever sighed.
Shen Maomao asked him, “Was that really you who came to find me last night?”
Golden Retriever nodded. “It was me.”
Shen Maomao breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Don’t come looking for me in the future. To prevent any accidents, I won’t open the door for you. At the same time, you need to remember that I will absolutely never go looking for you in the middle of the night.”
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