my roommate

I went back to the dormitory very late that day.It was pitch black inside, and my roommate should have gone to bed early, so I took a shower and climbed into bed, speechless all night.

A few days passed peacefully.

There was no class on Friday morning, and I wanted to sleep in peacefully, but after my roommate got up, I tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep.For some reason, my roommate got up very early today, and I heard the sound of him getting out of bed at dawn, and then washed and dressed.

According to my long-term observation, my roommate is a person with a very regular life, and if he behaves abnormally today, something must be wrong.Just like that weekend, he didn't go home abnormally, he took a shower in the dormitory, and I found out that he was a monster.

When he packed up and went out, I stood up like a carp, dressed casually, didn't care about washing, and followed quickly.

There were very few pedestrians in the early morning, so I hid all the way and watched him walk into the abandoned construction site near the school.

I know the construction site, nothing unusual.As early as my freshman year, I sneaked in to have a look. Except for the broken house with a skeleton, there was only one towering tree inside, which should be a bodhi tree.The leaves are dense and luxuriant, and the summer shade is lush and overwhelming, which looks strange and spiritual.

I found a hidden grass, and I curled up behind my back.

I saw my roommate standing under the tree, reaching out to gently stroke the trunk, and said a word to it.

—"Are you my tree? Whose tree are you?"

Tree naturally wouldn't answer him.

And I was completely stunned.

Then he said again.

- "Fall down."

The tree fell, the trunk was split open, and it was actually empty inside, it was a hollow tree.

I rubbed my eyes, not hallucinations.

The roommate reached into the tree trunk and pulled out an object.

It's the shell of a crab.

He touched the shell of the crab with his hand, and quickly, the roommate's body fell down.After a while, the crab jumped out of his hand and dragged the roommate's body into the tree trunk bit by bit. The whole scene was extremely strange.

He swapped bodies with the crab.

My crab roommate took a few steps forward.

"Stand up."

The roommate didn't speak, and he couldn't speak either.This sentence echoed, as if consciously, it was directly passed into my mind.The tree stood up again, the trunk closed without a trace, as if nothing had happened.

My crab roommate got into the small river next to the construction site at an extremely fast speed and disappeared after a while.

I pinched my arm hard, and everything was not a dream.

Please don't look at me like that, I'm telling the truth.

... Well, even if you think I'm just making it up, please treat it as a fairy tale and listen to me at ease.

That afternoon, the roommate did not come back to class as expected.For the first time, he missed class.

Over the weekend, my mind was in a vacuum.

To be honest, my roommate is a monster, and this incident gave me a heavy thrill long ago.After thinking about it, although he was a bit withdrawn, he was a gentle and harmless roommate, so I gradually accepted the fact.

However, no amount of self-hypnosis would help. After seeing the truth with my own eyes, I was very distressed.Dude called me five times and sent me ten messages, and I didn't get back to him.

I lay in bed admiring the day ceiling.

Finally, on Sunday when my roommate was about to return to school, I made a great decision.

As far as I know, roommates always arrive at the dormitory around two or three o'clock in the afternoon in summer.At that time, the sun was very hot, and there were relatively few people coming and going outside, and even less people went to the abandoned construction site.

I purposely went to the construction site an hour early and waited.It was still shady in the dense grass, and I sat on the ground, looking straight at the small river bank.

Sure enough, not long after, a black and green crab climbed ashore from the water, and then the scene was exactly the same as before.

——"Are you my tree? Whose tree are you?" said the crab roommate to the tree.

The tree fell, and inside lay a humanoid shell.

The roommate touched the doll with the pliers, and the doll stood up. He moved his limbs and raised his head. That was the appearance of my familiar roommate.

Roommates put crab shells into tree trunks.

"Stand up," he said to the tree.His voice was very deep, exactly the same as when he turned into a crab.

The tree trunk slowly closed, and the roommate gradually left, as if everything had never happened.

The chirping of cicadas in summer echoed rapidly in my ears, my palms were sweating, and my heart beat faster.

I don't know if it's the right thing to do, or why I made the decision.Until now.

I walked out of the grass and came under the tree.Recalling the actions of my roommate, imitating his appearance, gently stroking the tree trunk, and then said

—"Are you my tree? Whose tree are you?"

The tree fell again, and the trunk contained the shell of the roommate's crab.

With trembling hands, I took out the shell.It is much lighter than I imagined, and it is of ordinary size, which is not much different from the crab in my cognition.If anything, the shell is darker than other crabs, and there is no pattern on it.

I took off my clothes, wrapped it up carefully, and said to the tree, "Stand up."

The tree stood up again, and after watching the trunk close completely, I walked back.

When I got back to the dormitory, my roommate was taking a shower. I took the opportunity to hide the crab shells in the closet, and put some cotton coats on them to feel relieved.

I took out my phone and texted my buddies.

"Playing ball later?"

Just after clicking send, my roommate came out of the bathroom wet all over. He looked at me thoughtfully and wiped his head with a towel.

I didn't say anything, I just looked down and fiddled with my phone.

"Where have you been?" My roommate's voice came from behind me.

I was startled by him, pretending to be calm and said: "Have lunch."

"It's late," he said again.

I glanced at the time, it was [-]:[-], it was really late for dinner at this time.Although I knew that my roommate cared about me, I might be guilty, so I hurriedly defended: "I want to eat later today, what? It's none of your business." As soon as I said the words, I felt a little regretful, my tone was too aggressive, and it was not like the usual me.

I looked at my roommate nervously, for fear that he would find out something.

Fortunately, he didn't respond and turned around to do his own thing.

I let out a long sigh of relief in my heart, just when my phone vibrated, my buddy texted me back.In a few words, I finalized the playing time with him, and I couldn't wait to go out.

Every second I spend with my roommate is suffering.

Recalling what happened at that time, I really feel cerebral congestion.

I didn't think about it a lot.

What should I do if my roommate finds out?will i dieAnd, why am I doing this?

Maybe I want him to exist as a person forever?

Later, my roommate didn't find out that I stole the crab shell.

Friday of that week was supposed to be the day my roommate came home in the crab shell, and I was extremely nervous and fidgety.After class, my roommate walked towards the construction site as always. Only I knew that without his shell there, he would return empty-handed.

Sure enough, the roommate came back soon.

I thought he would be anxious like an ant on a hot pot, and even prepared for the worst-he found out the truth, and I paid a terrible price for what I did.But amazingly, it didn't turn out as I expected.

His roommate looked normal, he sat back in his seat, and read ideological and political expressionlessly.

Staring at the back of him reading a book in a dignified manner, two hours later, I was sweating profusely and restless.

I finally couldn't help asking him: "Aren't you going home?"

"Yeah." He answered a plain word without turning his head.

For a moment, I felt mixed feelings.Resentment, anger, guilty conscience, and shyness mixed together. I clenched my hands tightly and then let them go, trying to take a deep breath to calm myself.

For a long time after that, I didn't say a word to my roommate.

The days seemed to go back to the past, and I lived separately from him without communicating.