PFC Chapter 416 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (27)
Chapter 416 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (27)
Lu Liruan breathed a long sigh of relief when she felt that there was no more impact on the door.
The "person" was so strong that Lu Liruan felt she and Liao Tingyuan were about to be thrown away together.
Lu Liruan rubbed her right hand, which had been gripping the hammer tightly.
When I turned my head, I saw that Liao Tingyuan was also rubbing his arm.
He had been locked in a stalemate with that "person" for so long that he had almost no feeling in either of his arms.
The two looked at each other and suddenly found it a little funny.
They had seen each other looking disheveled, and the feeling was a little strange.
Lu Liruan initially thought that Liao Tingyuan, who looked thin and weak, actually had ridiculously high combat skills.
It's quite interesting to discover that he can also get hurt, has concerns, and is clever in his own way.
But he still shouldn't get hurt again; Lu Liruan's heart pounded just thinking about it.
Lu Liruan handed Liao Tingyuan a flashlight, and the two of them looked out through the crack in the door. The two entangled things had already sunk into the darkness.
"Come out."
Liao Tingyuan stepped out first, then turned around and stretched out his hand behind him.
When Lu Liruan took his hand, she held it firmly. Lu Liruan always felt that as long as she was by Liao Tingyuan's side, she could feel the sense of security he gave her.
"Clang—Clang—Clang—"
The sound reached their ears, but neither of them tacitly shone their flashlights over.
After all, nobody wants to watch it again.
Lu Liruan lowered her voice: "Are we just going to wait like this?"
Liao Tingyuan shook her hand to indicate his denial.
Feeling Lu Liruan pinching his fingers and asking a question, Liao Tingyuan shook the hand holding the flashlight.
The flashlight beam drew dim circles on the ground, and Lu Liruan heard a soft, metallic clanging sound.
Lu Liruan didn't react at first.
She then turned her head sharply, squinted and looked closely, only then noticing that Liao Tingyuan had a thin metal ring hooked on the little finger of the hand holding the flashlight.
The keys below made a sound as he moved.
"I go--"
Lu Liruan's eyes widened: "When did you get it?"
"Just now." Liao Tingyuan suddenly tilted his head with a hint of smugness, and Lu Liruan was stunned for a moment by his slightly curved eyebrows.
It was rare to see him with such a lively expression. Lu Liruan opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything for a moment. She just stared at him.
Liao Tingyuan's expression lasted only a short time before he deftly tossed the bunch of keys into his hand.
"gone."
Liao Tingyuan watched as the two creatures wrestled to one side, then cleared the way down the stairs and pulled Lu Liruan through the gap, quickly descending the stairs.
"Oh no! Will they come after us?"
Lu Liruan was considerably shorter than Liao Tingyuan. As she ran, she couldn't help but look back, afraid that what happened that day would repeat itself. The way that thing pounced on its prey like a hungry tiger was deeply imprinted in Lu Liruan's mind...
Fortunately, those two things seemed to be following some fixed procedure during this time. They were originally paying attention to them, but now they seemed to ignore their actions and even seemed to be completely unaware that the two of them had run away.
Liao Tingyuan was going very fast, and when he turned, Lu Liruan felt like she was going to be thrown off the ground on the outer edge.
"Big brother, I'm flying!" Lu Liruan wasn't even sure how many times her feet touched the ground.
Liao Tingyuan slowed down a bit, and Lu Liruan tried to shine her flashlight around, but she couldn't see anything.
"Something's not right..." Lu Liruan then realized how many floors Liao Tingyuan had pulled her down to.
Which floor are they on now?
“It’s okay. Just like you did that day, as long as you keep going, you’ll eventually get outside.” Liao Tingyuan knew what she was talking about; he had noticed it even earlier than Luo Luli Ruan.
Lu Liruan was about to nod when she suddenly tripped and fell forward. Liao Tingyuan caught her and pulled her back. Lu Liruan felt that this time her feet were really off the ground.
"Shall I carry you?" Liao Tingyuan asked softly, hearing Lu Liruan's panting breaths.
"It's okay..."
"what!"
Before Lu Liruan could finish speaking, she felt Liao Tingyuan lift her up. Lu Liruan instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck, and then Liao Tingyuan very skillfully bounced her around.
Before she knew it, she was already on Liao Tingyuan's back.
Lu Liruan: Just now, I felt like a bag of flour.
For a moment, Lu Liruan wanted to ask: What, did you do any manual labor jobs like carrying bags before?
"Let me carry you on my back, it'll be faster that way, you're walking too slowly." Although Liao Tingyuan's voice was very gentle, it still sounded hurtful to Lu Liruan.
Are my legs... really that short?
"Could you shine a flashlight on me?" He seemed to realize that something was off about what he said... and managed to get away with it.
"okay."
Both of them tacitly pretended that what they had just said had never happened.
Lu Liruan strained to shine the flashlight forward, trying her best to make Liao Tingyuan see more clearly.
Finally, after turning an unknown number of corners, Lu Liruan finally saw the entrance to the building!
Only after stepping out of the building did Liao Tingyuan put Lu Liruan down.
The outside light was much brighter than the corridor light; at least the streetlights were still on.
But it just doesn't feel the same as usual.
The two exchanged a glance and tacitly walked in the same direction.
“We…” Lu Liruan turned around and looked at the entrance of Unit 5. It seemed that her sense of distance had returned to normal after they came out, and the two of them were now some distance away from the entrance.
"Go to Unit Two?" Liao Tingyuan asked interjecting.
"You saw it too?"
Lu Liruan watched the mother and child walk into the second unit of the building.
"Hmm." Liao Tingyuan nodded: "Since there are no other clues, let's proceed according to your guess for now."
He trusted Lu Liruan's appearance completely.
"What if it doesn't matter..."
“If not, look for other clues.” Liao Tingyuan glanced at her: “Trust yourself more. Your mental strength is very high. You can sense many things that others cannot. This is your… talent.”
Lu Liruan felt that there was something hidden in what he said, but he didn't explain anything. He just took Lu Liruan's hand and quickened his pace.
“Unit 2, but we don’t know which floor it is…” Lu Liruan was a little worried.
If they experience sensory dissonance again once they enter the building, how will the two of them find them?
"From the third floor upwards," Liao Tingyuan said confidently, looking up.
"Ah? How did you know?"
"I saw it through that window." Liao Tingyuan pointed. He had noticed the woman after hearing her yelling at Lu Liruan.
To ensure adequate lighting in the stairwell, they've made the windows at the landing quite large; a normal adult standing upright would have their head sticking out of the window.
The entrance to Unit 2 was similar to that of Unit 5. As soon as Lu Liruan stepped inside, she felt a bit cold.
The two of them slowly walked upstairs, wary of anything scary that might appear in the stairwell.
But the hallway was eerily quiet.
After going up to the next floor, Lu Liruan deliberately stood on tiptoe, raised her flashlight, and shone it on the building sign.
2
Nothing strange happened.
The two of them made it to the third floor without incident.
In any case, in this space, there's no situation where people make noise in the middle of the night, wake others up, and then the police call them.
Liao Tingyuan stood beside Lu Liruan, wary of everything around them. Lu Liruan held the door key and tried it on door by door.
There is none on the third floor.
There's none on the fourth floor either.
As she climbed higher and higher, Lu Liruan's heart pounded with anticipation.
Could it be that our guesses, even if we weren't in this unit, were wrong?
When they got to 603, Lu Liruan fumbled around, aligned the key with the lock, and pushed it in...
They actually got in!
Lu Liruan stared wide-eyed and tried to twist.
"Click——"
The sound of the door lock was so clear in the endless silence that it made both of them pause in their tracks.
Liao Tingyuan took Lu Liruan's place, holding the key himself, and slowly pushed the door open a crack...
The room was pitch black inside.
It doesn't look like anyone is there at all.
“Don’t that mother and child live here? That shouldn’t be the case…” Lu Liruan cautiously followed them inside, her hand groping on the wall by the door until she found the light switch.
"clatter--"
Lu Liruan shuddered in fright!
The light actually turned on!
Lu Liruan saw that there were several pairs of shoes placed at the door, including a pair of children's shoes, which were the shoes that Lu Liruan had seen the little boy wearing earlier that day.
Lu Liruan instinctively wanted to turn off the lights, worried that someone would come out of the house the next second and see them trespassing.
"Wait a minute." Liao Tingyuan stopped her and tentatively walked inside.
The interior of the house must have been renovated many years ago; the dark brown floorboards creaked as I stepped on one of them.
Liao Tingyuan walked to the half-closed doors of the bedroom and study, pushed them open, and looked inside.
“Nobody’s here.” He spoke in a normal voice and waved to Lu Liruan.
Lu Liruan breathed a sigh of relief and walked towards him.
When Lu Liruan got to the kitchen, she turned on the light and saw leftover food covered with plastic wrap on the table.
It seems like it was eaten at night.
Everything in the house seemed normal, like people were living there, but there was no one in the house.
Lu Liruan felt that they had entered this house in the infected space, while in the normal world at this time, the mother and child should already be asleep in bed.
Lu Liruan looked at the small bed in the child's bedroom, which was filled with plush toys, and had a strange feeling.
"You mean... is this a real house? Where exactly are we now?" Lu Liruan couldn't help but ask.
Liao Tingyuan shook his head; he couldn't answer that question either. But what he could tell Lu Liruan was that this phenomenon was very common in the space.
“If we were to explain it using a concept… you could use the analogy of the surface world and the inner world,” Liao Tingyuan said softly to her.
"Once I get out of here, I'll definitely catch up on horror movies..." Lu Liruan sighed, her little face looking dejected.
"Okay." Liao Tingyuan smiled.
"Will you watch it with me?" Lu Liruan asked without even realizing it.
Liao Tingyuan paused for a moment, then said calmly, "That works too."
Since there was no one inside, the two of them no longer needed to be so careful.
Lu Liruan first surveyed the room as a whole.
Room number three on each floor is the largest room on that floor.
It has three bedrooms, one bathroom, and a small built-in living room without windows.
Lu Liruan pushed open the door and looked at the general layout.
There are two bedrooms, one for the couple and one for the child, and the remaining room is set up as a study, presumably for the male homeowner.
The sofa in the small living room looks like it hasn't been used in a long time.
The leather on top is starting to peel and flake off...
The floor looked old and worn, as if no one had taken good care of it.
The children's room was decorated quite carefully.
It's clear that this family takes great care of their child.
From what Lu Liruan saw today, she could tell from the child's mother's attitude that even when she was arguing with her husband, she still cared a lot about her child.
But why did she argue with her husband?
The tone of his voice was very resolute.
"Don't you already know that?"
"Didn't you see it too?"
What should we know? What should we see?
Since this key can open this family's door, it proves that one of those two things is the male head of the household.
What did the male head of the household do to deserve such a fatal fate?
In an instant, all the questions flooded into Lu Liruan's mind, leaving her unsure where to begin.
Liao Tingyuan had already entered the bedroom, where the couple's wedding photo was hanging on the wall.
The photo was covered in a layer of dust. Liao Tingyuan reached out and touched it.
This house hasn't been properly cleaned in a long time.
There must have been problems in this family for some time now.
Liao Tingyuan opened the wardrobe again; he had a habit of organizing things, keeping everything neat and tidy.
But the family's wardrobe looked very messy.
Liao Tingyuan frowned and reached inside to rummage through the contents.
Most of the clothes belonged to the female owner; the male owner had very few clothes, to an abnormal degree.
Liao Tingyuan pondered for a moment, then said to Lu Liruan in the bedroom, "Ruanruan, can you check the study? Is there a simple bed, or are there any male owner's clothes in the closet?"
"Oh, okay!" Lu Liruan was in front of the bookshelf, looking at the stacks of books on it.
Hearing Liao Tingyuan's words, he turned around and looked around the room.
Sure enough, under the table, I found a small, foldable, extendable bed.
It looks like it wouldn't be very comfortable to sleep on...
Lu Liruan then saw a packing bag on the ground. When she opened it, she found the male homeowner's change of clothes and everyday clothes for going out.
"found it!"
"Okay, I understand." Liao Tingyuan's guess was confirmed.