Global Collapse

Chapter 527 There really aren't many authors as diligent as me.
"How is it?" Cang Yue looked at the person in front of her. "Have you remembered anything?"

The company building had lost power, and the office lights couldn't be turned on. Cang Yue was holding a flashlight and shining it on the desk in front of her, trying her best to make Zhao Shuang see the desk clearly.

There were messy documents on the table, several pens that had run out of ink, and a thermos with half a cup of water on the corner. There was also a half-empty bag of candied fruit in the drawer, which Cang Yue certainly didn't dare to eat.

Zhao Shuang examined the desk by the light of a flashlight. She had only forgotten some of her memories, but she still remembered her own desk.

But this didn't seem to help her recover her memory. Zhao Shuang stared at the desk for a long time but couldn't recall anything related to October 1st.

She shook her head helplessly at Cang Yue, indicating that she couldn't remember at all.

Cang Yue's eyes flickered. She realized that Zhao Shuang hadn't noticed the photo was missing. The photo of Zhao Shuang and Sun Zihao was originally placed in a very conspicuous position, but Cang Yue took it and gave it to Wang Chuan, and Zhao Shuang didn't notice that the photo was gone.

Did she not notice or did she completely forget about it?

Just as Cang Yue was frowning, considering whether to ask Zhao Shuang and Sun Zihao about it, she suddenly heard a loud shout from outside—"Run!"

The two looked towards the door in surprise.

The side closest to the door is all glass, and the office door is not far from the stairwell door, so the two people can see the dark stairwell from their angle.

The three people who were originally at the stairwell had all run away. Cang Yue immediately saw the reason why the three people ran away.

A pale, bloodshot face emerged from the dark staircase and stared at Cang Yue and the other person.

She jolted awake, her mind racing. They had already been seen by the ghost; there was no way they could stay hidden in the house any longer.

The instant she realized this, Cang Yue abruptly turned off her flashlight, grabbed Zhao Shuang, and rushed outside with her.

The ghosts were already on the stairs leading to this floor. They couldn't run up the stairs, so they could only run anxiously through the stairwell door and head towards the other staircase.

At this moment, Wang Chuan was panting and crawling up the stairs behind Coco.

The moment he spotted the ghost, he initially wanted to run to the other side of the corridor, but then he saw Coco running straight up the stairs.

The ghost was on the stairs leading from the twelfth to the thirteenth floor. Anyone with a brain wouldn't choose to run up the stairs, but Coco rushed up without hesitation.

Wang Chuan immediately sensed something and stopped running after Coco.

Xia Jianren had already run off to the other side of the corridor, and no amount of calling could stop him.

After the two of them ran up several floors, they were so exhausted that they stopped and leaned against the wall, panting heavily.

They looked down in the dim light from the window, but there was nothing below, nor did they hear anything climbing up. The ghost hadn't followed them.

Wang Chuan breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look at Coco in front of him: "Why...why did you run upstairs just now?"

Coco took a deep breath and said, "When we split up to search the office, Gu Mian tried to go down the other staircase, but the door was blocked and couldn't be opened."

This office building has two staircases and four elevators. The elevators are currently out of service, so running to the blocked staircase on the other side is suicidal.

Upon hearing this, Wang Chuan shuddered violently: "It's sealed off? Luckily, Gu Mian went to check over there first... Luckily, I followed you up the stairs."

Coco stared downstairs: "The ghost didn't chase us."

They must have gone to the thirteenth floor.

One staircase door on the thirteenth floor is sealed off, and the other staircase is blocked by ghosts. The people inside are like prey trapped in a trap, at the mercy of others.

“I saw Xia Jianren run in the other direction. Cang Yue and Zhao Shuang in the office will definitely try to avoid danger as well. They won’t run into the dangerous staircase. They will just run in the other direction like Xia Jianren,” Wang Chuan sighed. “The three of them are probably in grave danger.”

Coco patted her clothes and stood up straight: "Let's walk around some more and see where we can leave. The ghost has already discovered us, and it's not safe here."

Wang Chuan nodded in agreement. He was already in a precarious situation himself, so there was no need to waste too much time feeling sorry for others.

Meanwhile, Xia Jianren on the thirteenth floor had already run to the other end of the stairwell and stood there dumbfounded.

He looked at the locked door in front of him; pushing it wouldn't budge it, and even ramming it wouldn't open it.

Just as he was anxiously wondering what to do, Cang Yue and Zhao Shuang ran over from behind.

"Why aren't you leaving?" Cang Yue rushed over and pushed open the stairwell door without hesitation, asking Xia Jianren, who was standing to the side, as she did so.

After asking, I realized that the door couldn't be opened at all; it was locked tightly.

At the same time, she saw, by the light, an A4 sheet of paper pasted on the door—"This door is broken."

"Damn it!" The usually composed Cang Yue kicked the door in front of her hard, but the kick had no effect.

Xia Jianren was extremely anxious, almost jumping up and down. He kept glancing down the corridor in the distance, fearing the ghost might come up, while fumbling in his pockets for something useful: "What am I going to do now!"

Now we should try every possible method. Cang Yue made a decisive decision: "Let's go check the elevator!"

What if the elevator suddenly comes back on? What if it just doesn't have lights on but can still function normally?

As she thought about it, she ran towards the elevator, and Zhao Shuang and Xia Jianren behind her also ran desperately towards the elevator.

The corridor was too dark, and Xia Jianren couldn't see if the ghost at the other end had come up. He could only numb himself and pretend that it hadn't reached the thirteenth floor yet.

The three of them ran to the elevator in a few seconds and were pleasantly surprised to find that the indicator lights on the elevator screen had lit up.

This bright red light stood out starkly in the darkness.

"Power's on! Quick..." Cang Yue excitedly reached out to press the button next to the display screen, only to find that the red number on the screen had already started changing from "1" to "2".

The elevator was going up, but the three people hadn't had a chance to press the button yet.

Is... someone else in the elevator?

The thought had barely lingered in Cang Yue's mind for a second when it was shattered by Zhao Shuang's horrified voice: "These elevators, all these elevators have come up!"

They're all... up? Cang Yue stared at the other three elevators with her mouth agape. Their displays showed bright red numbers flashing, and in less than half a second, the numbers neatly changed from "2" to "3".

This is definitely not the speed an elevator should be traveling at.

Xia Jianren gritted his teeth a few times, his expression filled with fear, and said, "It's them! They're here!"

Four elevators, thirty people.

The red text kept flashing.

Cang Yue was the first to react. She didn't know where to run, but she instinctively took steps: "Don't stay here, run!"

The two behind her followed Cang Yue like headless flies. They really didn't know where else they could run, so they could only follow behind with a sliver of hope, hoping to find some place to hide.

In the end, they rushed into the toilet.

Each floor has a symmetrical east-west layout, and each floor also has a toilet.

Cang Yue ran ahead and rushed into the innermost stall of the women's restroom. The other two also stumbled in and then slammed the stall door shut and locked it.

Almost simultaneously, the three heard the sound of several elevator doors opening at the same time.

"Tap" "Tap" "Tap"

Footsteps, the sound of many people's footsteps echoed on this floor.

It was eerie and stiff.

They are coming.

From the very first sound of footsteps, they knew they were coming this way.

The sound stopped right at the doorway.

Cang Yue imagined dozens of people standing stiffly at the door, staring into the room.

Zhao Shuang, standing beside him, shrank back and forth in the darkness, causing Xia Jianren, who was next to her, to tremble as well.

Cang Yue pressed herself tightly against the corner of the cubicle, staring intently at the handle lock on the partition door. She knew that this thing couldn't keep out ghosts.

In the quiet night, footsteps sounded again.

Someone came in.

They heard it step into the toilet, take a few steps, stop at the door of the first stall, and then suddenly pull the door open.

There was nothing inside, of course.

The footsteps sounded again...

Coco and Wang Chuan, who had just arrived on the 20th floor, also noticed that the elevator was powered on.

All four elevator displays showed the same number – "13".

"What's going on?" Wang Chuan stood in front of the elevator, somewhat bewildered.

Coco took a few steps back and looked at the numbers: "Something took the elevator from the first floor to the thirteenth floor... and it would take four elevators to carry it."

Wang Chuan's hair stood on end: "You can't be talking about..."

“Thirty people, four elevators should be enough,” Coco said, looking at the elevator doors in front of her. “They’ve all arrived.”

Wang Chuan's mouth was a little dry. Just as he opened his mouth to say something, he suddenly saw the numbers on one of the elevator displays start to jump again.

It goes from "13" to "12" and then to "11", going down all the way until it finally stops on the first floor.

Wang Chuan unconsciously took a few steps back: "Is someone else coming up?"

There were only five stalls in the women's restroom, and the footsteps were not fast, but they didn't linger for long either.

The three people in the last cubicle were huddled together, sweating profusely.

They heard a "smack" as something outside slammed the door of the third cubicle. A few steps later, the door to the cubicle next to them was pulled open, but of course, they found nothing there either.

Finally, the footsteps stopped at their door.

Cang Yue stared blankly into the gap under the partition door and saw a pair of bluish-purple, bloody ankles.

"boom"

It's something outside pulling the door!
The locked door wasn't pulled open immediately, and everything outside went quiet. Just as the three were about to start wondering, the door suddenly began to shake violently.

It was something outside constantly pulling at the partition door, accompanied by banging sounds.

Cang Yue rushed forward in fear and grabbed the handle lock, hoping she could stop it.

The force of the door jolted her so hard she almost vomited, but she still held on tightly to the handlock, not daring to relax for a moment.

Fortunately, the cubicle door was of decent quality and was not forced open by the force. After the loud noise, the shaking of the door stopped.

The restroom was quiet; nothing was moving outside, as if it had already left.

But the group still dared not make a sound, much less go out.

He kept his eyes glued to the door in front of him, fearing something might go wrong.

Several minutes passed, and all was still quiet outside. Just as Cang Yue and Zhao Shuang were staring intently at the toilet door, Xia Jianren's weak, fearful voice suddenly reached their ears:
"Why don't you look up and see?"

Can delaying a manuscript be considered delaying?
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(End of this chapter)