sjar Chapter 398 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (9)
Chapter 398 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (9)
A salty, fishy smell suddenly filled the corridor, rushing in through the nose and throat with a chilling force.
Lu Liruan subconsciously shut her mouth and ran up the steps two at a time.
Whether it was her imagination or something incomprehensible had actually happened in the space, Lu Liruan felt that this floor, with its two sets of stairs, was incredibly long, so long that it felt like she had been climbing for several minutes.
Within the field of vision, each set of steps still only has eight steps.
By the time they reached the sixth-floor entrance, Lu Liruan's forehead was covered in sweat.
Picking up her phone, Lu Liruan looked at the time displayed: 9:47 pm.
What's going on? I checked the time before I took a shower and it was 9:05 pm.
Lu Liruan thought that taking a shower would only take about ten minutes.
I can definitely get upstairs before 9:30.
Where exactly is the time wrong?
"call--"
The fishy, salty smell seemed to be coming from downstairs, like an invisible yet surging tide, silently creeping up the steps, one by one.
When Lu Liruan went upstairs just now, she felt that the tide was almost touching her heels, and now it was approaching even faster.
This was the first time Lu Liruan had ever completely stepped out of her house at this time, unlike when she was inside the house sensing the strange and illogical activity outside.
Very oppressive.
It seemed that in the afternoon, after Liao Tingyuan told him what mental power was and he experienced the perception brought by mental power for the first time, he became more sensitive than usual.
"Bang bang bang-"
Lu Liruan didn't care about manners anymore and pounded on the door.
The person inside opened the door very quickly, before Lu Liruan could even remove her hand from it.
The light inside the room seemed to be vying with the dim, yellowish light that permeated the corridor.
The dim yellow light outside the door tried to invade the room, and the light inside seemed to be fighting and entangled with it. Lu Liruan suddenly felt as if she could see the boundary of their entanglement.
"Come in!"
Seeing that she looked dazed, Liao Tingyuan grabbed her hand, pulled her into the house, and then turned around and quickly closed the door.
"Cough cough cough-"
The fresh-smelling air in the room entered Lu Liruan's respiratory system and lungs, filling the alveoli that were already filled with murky, salty gases...
It made her throat itch, and she felt like she was choking, so she couldn't help but cough.
"Take a deep breath..."
Lu Liruan heard Liao Tingyuan's voice in her ear, his hand gently patting her back.
This man always has a kind of aloof yet gentle and tender temperament, light and airy, making people feel very peaceful when they are with him.
He is so good-looking, but at first glance, no one would notice his face. It's as if he can easily blend into the crowd.
Unless you deliberately look directly at his face and his eyes, no matter how many times you pass by him, he is just an ordinary and unremarkable office worker, drab and unremarkable.
Lu Liruan realized that she was attracted to him.
It was an unconscious, abnormal attraction. In the afternoon, Lu Liruan was too embarrassed to ask him whether this feeling was related to her mental strength or him as a person...
For example, the night before last, she was even like she was possessed, so enthusiastically and excitedly following behind him. Lu Liruan felt that feeling was too strange!
The words were on the tip of her tongue, but Lu Liruan swallowed them back.
If the other party says no...
If it has nothing to do with mental strength.
That means I was simply attracted to him, didn't that mean I have some kind of perverted side?
Although I am not very educated, I still want to be a good person.
Lu Liruan decided that since she was more familiar with the area, she should try to ask again.
The room smelled wonderful, a light lemon scent with a gentle sweetness.
Lu Liruan recovered.
"Why are you so late?" Liao Tingyuan helped her sit on the sofa.
Is the temperature okay?
"what?"
Lu Liruan hadn't reacted yet.
When her attention returned to herself and to the room, Lu Liruan felt a refreshing coolness from the moment she entered.
The air conditioner in the room was turned on.
Temperature: 25
Refreshing and pleasant.
The sweat on Lu Liruan's forehead slowly subsided.
"You... you opened it especially for me?" Lu Liruan asked, a little embarrassed.
"Electricity, electricity is quite expensive."
"It's okay." Liao Tingyuan handed her a pack of baby wipes. Only then did Lu Liruan realize that her hands were covered with dust and rust stains from the armrest, a mixture of red and black.
"My salary is quite high," Liao Tingyuan said casually.
Lu Liruan: ...
I vaguely felt that he was saying this to me, because in the afternoon I told him that I was considering working at his company.
"Was something holding you back?" Liao Tingyuan asked softly as he saw her wiping her hands.
"Huh? No!" Lu Liruan looked at his outstretched wrist.
The mechanical watch showed that it was now 10:07 PM.
"What happened?" Lu Liruan exclaimed in disbelief.
"When I came out, it wasn't even 9:30 yet! When I got to your door, I specifically checked my phone, it was only a little past 9:40, and I had just walked in..."
As Lu Liruan spoke, she took out her phone from her pocket, but the sound stopped as soon as she turned on the screen.
10:08pm.
Bright and clear.
Liao Tingyuan's expression became more serious.
"How did you tell time the past few days?"
Lu Liruan didn't need to think: "I have a wall clock at home that chimes on the hour, and it's very loud."
Did you check your phone at the time?
"I don't remember..."
Lu Liruan really didn't remember. Perhaps she saw it, or perhaps she looked up at the wall clock.
"The time on your phone is wrong, you... give me your keys." He felt a little strange, but he said it anyway.
Lu Liruan was puzzled, but she still placed the key in his outstretched palm.
"you……"
“I’m going to your house. Wait for me inside.” He stood up.
"Oh." Lu Liruan was a little anxious. She had been quite frightened a few days ago, and now that she knew the situation was changing, being alone made her nervous.
“It’s okay, I’ll be right back…” Liao Tingyuan gently comforted her, then added, “If I don’t come back, don’t look for me. Stay here until dawn, and you can use whatever you need here.”
"Are you alright?" Lu Liruan thought to herself: Your safety is more important to me than mine!
"It's alright, I'll be fine, don't worry." Liao Tingyuan walked to the door and saw Lu Liruan chasing after him, looking up with a worried expression. Suddenly, he slightly curled the corners of his mouth.
"Okay, then be careful!" Lu Liruan instructed.
The door closed again, and the faint yellow light that had entered quickly dissipated and melted into the brightness of the room.
Lu Liruan watched the time on her phone tick by.
One minute, three minutes, five minutes...
At thirteen minutes, the door opened.
Lu Liruan turned her head sharply to look, and for a moment she even worried that it wasn't Liao Tingyuan who came in, but something else entirely.
Fortunately, it was Liao Tingyuan.
"How are you?" Lu Liruan went up to him and carefully examined him. She breathed a sigh of relief when she found that he was unharmed.
But Liao Tingyuan did not look relaxed.
"It has found you."
"what?"
"Daytime is actually within the time frame controlled by space, it's just that it's at a different level than nighttime."
"At that time during the day..."
"Yes, it has found you."
As Lu Liruan listened to his calm tone, a chill ran down her spine. This anthropomorphic description seemed to give human perception and action to an unknown, indescribable, and nameless thing, making people want to imagine.
What exactly does "it" look like?
Where exactly is it...?
Lu Liruan shook her head, trying to stop herself from thinking any further.
"So the time on my phone, and the time I perceive, are all things that 'it' wants me to perceive?"
"Yes, you're very smart. You're the fastest at understanding these things that I've ever met."
Liao Tingyuan pursed his lips, not wanting to put too much psychological pressure on Lu Liruan.
"Thanks, haha." Lu Liruan said with a wry smile.
It doesn't seem like a very good thing.
"The clock in your house keeps accurate time; it's a bit like some kind of anchor point in space."
"Anchor?"
"Yes, sometimes, space can be distorted and become unequal to the outside space and time. But this usually happens in enclosed spaces. However, an enclosed space cannot simply be a dome that appears out of thin air and covers the entire space. So, there must be places inside and outside the space that are distinguishable to people, that are normal and that are abnormal."
"Like the wall clock in my house?" Lu Liruan thought, it does indeed chime the time every day.
It seems that sometimes... after hearing its sound in the middle of the night, everything around suddenly feels normal.
"But if it only saw me today, then I saw and heard it before."
"It must be because of me, because it can sense me. Compared to investigators with high mental strength, it will notice us, the survivors from the infected space, first."
“So investigators and executors usually work in teams to complete missions.” After saying this, Liao Tingyuan suddenly fell silent, but Lu Liruan was not paying attention to his words and did not notice his momentary unease.
"It deliberately made me think I still had time? And then its purpose was to trap me in the corridor?" Lu Liruan felt a chill run down her spine.
"Can it hear? Can it understand?"
“I don’t know, every space is different.” Liao Tingyuan sighed. “I would say there’s no pattern to it at all.”
“Your movements…are quite innovative and challenging, huh?” Lu Liruan gently patted his arm.
"Well, it is."
I'd much rather work as a waiter in a hot pot restaurant than do such a challenging job.
I didn't cherish the days when I was a waiter...
Lu Liruan sighed inwardly.
I'm really not very brave!
Isn't this world just a giant haunted house?!
"So what do we do next?" Lu Liruan shook her still-wet hair.
Then Liao Tingyuan took a hairdryer out of the bag. He had carried the bag downstairs and then brought it back.
Lu Liruan looked closely: Isn't this my hair dryer?
Noticing Lu Liruan's gaze, Liao Tingyuan nodded: "I don't have this at home. When I went into your house just now, I saw it on the sink. I didn't search your house."
Lu Liruan waved her hand: "It's okay. Even if a thief breaks into my house, the thief will still curse that today was a bad start."
Taking the hair dryer, Lu Liruan found a power outlet next to the sofa and plugged it in.
I came out looking all messy after washing my hair, without even combing it. All that fussing has made my long hair all tangled up.
Lu Liruan accidentally pulled at herself several times, making her grimace.
"wait a moment."
Liao Tingyuan was looking at something on his phone while listening to the little girl next to him hissing in pain.
He got up and walked towards the bathroom.
Then he came back with a small disposable plastic comb.
"Where did they come from?" Lu Liruan wondered, thinking that there were no signs of anyone else living in the house...
"It was a complimentary gift from the hotel when I stayed there during my last business trip."
"Wow." Lu Liruan laughed.
"Did you bring slippers and disposable toiletries?"
Then Liao Tingyuan nodded naturally.
"Didn't you say your company pays pretty high salaries?" Lu Liruan looked at his face and found it hard to believe.
Before checking out of the hotel, he stuffed all the complimentary items into his neatly organized briefcase.
Thinking about it... it's kind of funny.
It's kind of cute.
A good homebody.
"I learned it from my senior colleagues. They said we should be thrifty and manage our household well." Liao Tingyuan smiled softly as well.
"Don't move, let me help you."
Seeing Lu Liruan forcefully pull out several strands of her hair with two combs, Liao Tingyuan held the comb down and gently cleaned away the broken hair with his fingertips before throwing it into the trash can.
He was very skillful with his hands, and before Lu Liruan could even feel it, her hair had already been combed open and was now draped wetly over her shoulders.
He didn't ask Lu Liruan any more questions. He picked up the hair dryer, turned it on to the lowest setting, and carefully and patiently dried her hair from root to tip. When he got close, he tested the temperature on his palm first to avoid burning Lu Liruan.
The set of movements was fluid and graceful, much better than when Lu Liruan did it herself.
"How come you're so good at blow-drying other people's hair? Did you often blow-dry your girlfriend's hair before?" Lu Liruan felt the warm breeze blowing on her head, and occasionally the other person's slightly cool fingertips brushed against her neck and earlobe before quickly moving away.
"No." The hairdryer was very loud, making Liao Tingyuan's voice sound very soft.
"How did you train? You're really professional. Don't tell me you used to work in a hair salon..."
"I practiced this when I was blow-drying and braiding little girls' hair." Liao Tingyuan reached out and touched the roots of her hair to make sure it was thoroughly dried.
"You can even braid hair?" Lu Liruan blinked, and for some reason, she suddenly felt that the man behind her was exuding a faint, very tolerant and loving aura.
A little weird.
But it doesn't seem out of place on him.
"Yes, I do."
"Then help me comb it up." Lu Liruan took advantage of the situation and handed over the hair tie on her wrist.
"Do you want a bun or pigtails?"
Liao Tingyuan followed her words and gently teased her as if he were coaxing a little girl.
Lu Liruan felt a little amused by his words, yet also inexplicably felt a strange warmth within her.
Suddenly, a cat's meow outside the door broke the atmosphere inside the house.