The Midnight Owl

Time 12:10, bloody number 9.

"Lin Lin, I'll go out for a while," Kuang Jinxin once again explained to the little girl next to him, but with one more sentence than before, "Don't go to the utility room, it's dangerous there."

According to the original development, Lin Lin should have suggested that he go to the utility room, but after being told in this way, the little girl didn't say anything, and just replied in a daze: "Oh, good."

Kuang Jinxin dragged Chi Yingxue to the stairwell.Along the way, Chi Yingxue was still brooding about revenge, and Kuang Jinxin really had nothing to do with him: "What kind of revenge is it? It's not a human being, so it doesn't know what to bite and what not to bite."

Chi Yingxue listened awkwardly: "Why do you speak for a snake?"

Kuang Jinxin glanced at him: "There are still people who want to fight a snake with a shovel."

Chi Yingxue: "..."

Kuang Jinxin: "Besides, it's a coral snake. It's very poisonous. We can't deal with it."

Chi Yingxue: "You just took a cardboard box and locked it in."

Kuang Jinxin: "It's going to bite you, I didn't think so much."

Chi Yingxue: "Little Four Gold."

Kuang Jinxin: "Huh?"

Chi Yingxue: "Give me your phone number, WeChat ID, and ID number."

The two just walked into the stairwell, and they chatted here in a hurry.

Kuang Jinxin thought that he had heard the fault, and asked again: "What?"

The stairwell is very quiet, and normal speech echoes.

"Give me your mobile phone number, WeChat ID, and ID number." Chi Yingxue said every word, her voice was light and cool, like a summer smoothie, "Let's make friends."

Kuang Jinxin looked at him a little defensively: "Do you need an ID number to make friends?"

"Ordinary friends don't use it, but you do." Chi Yingxue blinked and said it as a matter of course.

Kuang Jinxin found that not only could he not keep up with the other party's train of thought, but sometimes he could not even understand the other party's meaning.This person, who was trapped in the strange time circle like him, was neither anxious nor flustered, and his focus was always on some very subtle things.But it's not against you on purpose, or playing with you, but... ego.

He finally came up with a suitable word, yes, "self".Ordinary people will consider the environment, events, and the relationship between people when they speak and do things, and only by combining these can they make appropriate behaviors.But this person doesn't, he just follows his own mood, and his willfulness is so helpless and enviable.

"Brother," Kuang Jinxin knows that the other party likes him to yell. It usually starts with this, and the success rate of the communication is very optimistic. "Can we call the fire department to deal with the snake first, and then think about how to end the time and wait for everything to return?" Now that it’s on track, add WeChat?”

Chi Yingxue: "There are also phone numbers and ID numbers."

Kuang Jinxin: "Well, it's all for you."

Chi Yingxue doesn't like to wait, but occasionally, she can make an exception.

When Kuang Jinxin called the fire department, a business card was stuffed in his hand. When the call was connected, he also saw the words on the business card - XX brand design studio, art director, Chi Yingxue.

During the 5 minutes of being late this time, I not only looked for a shovel, but also looked for a business card.

It's time to go back in time, and he still insists on giving himself a name. Kuang Jinxin doesn't know what to say about him, but when he thinks about it carefully, he thinks he is quite cute.

After calling the fire alarm, he finally felt a little relieved, and his thoughts went back in time: "Why are we two?"

Chi Yingxue raised her eyebrows, and she also became curious.

Could it be that there is some connection between him and Xiao Sijin when they were selected... Chi Yingxue liked this speculation quite a bit.

"What does the countdown number mean? When it reaches '0', time will never go back again?" Kuang Jinxin didn't really want him to give an answer, but hoped that the two of them could discuss together and brainstorm ideas.

Chi Yingxue finally said: "Not necessarily, it may reach '0', we are dead, really dead."

"Then before '0', living past 4:44 p.m., will it be able to end all of this?" Kuang Jinxin always felt that the words on the small paper were the most critical clues to this matter.

Just as Chi Yingxue was about to speak again, the footsteps of several people came from upstairs, which was somewhat chaotic.

He remembered the "accident" before, and immediately pulled Kuang Jinxin over to protect him behind him.

Several security guards came down with a man. The man had a fierce look on his face, and his eyes fell on Chi Yingxue.

Chi Yingxue was not at all interested in this person who had already fought against him. He was worthless in force and even worse in appearance. What he was interested in was the flyer in the hand of the security guard next to him—that dog head, which was drawn quite charmingly.

The murderer came as expected, Chi Yingxue made a precise move, and amidst the screams of the security guards, she retracted her legs, and naturally took away the flyer from the security guard's hand.

What he watched was "The Dog's Head", and he admired it carefully.

Kuang Jinxin poked his head out from behind him, but what he was reading was the text. The next moment, he couldn't help but grabbed Chi Yingxue's clothes tightly.

Chi Yingxue frowned, saw the content of the flyer, and immediately asked the security guard: "Where did the flyer come from?"

The security guard had just subdued the assailant again. He was afraid of this "one-footed" employee of the building, and immediately replied truthfully: "There are three lunatics all over the building. If it weren't for too many things today and not enough manpower, we would have sent them away." Arrested!"

"Too many things?" Kuang Jinxin questioned his sixth sense suddenly.

"That's right," the security guard grumbled, obviously being tormented a lot, "There's a guy on the top of the building who is about to jump off the building, and there's a guy downstairs looking for a rival with a knife. He just caught another sneaky guy," he looked at With one glance at the man with a fierce look, he was full of depression and turned his anger on this man, "Glaring at your mother, don't think that you can just carry it with your mouth, what do you want to do when you sneak in like an outsider? You can't hold your fart just by looking at it... "

The security guard twisted the man, cursed and went downstairs.

Kuang Jinxin asked: "Brother, do you think these things have something to do with going back in time?"

"Maybe," Chi Yingxue seldom thought about it, "Go to the tenth floor first."

Kuang Jinxin: "Yes."

Regardless of other things for the time being, someone knows the bloody number and owl head, this must be found out.

The security guards who had just descended one floor and the assailant seemed to be fighting again. Judging from the sound, it was not too intense. After all, there were so many security guards that it was not difficult to control the situation.But the two of them didn't want to "cross the battlefield" so as not to cause more trouble, so they turned back to the corridor and took the elevator instead.

Unexpectedly, the elevator just came down to the 13th floor and stopped suddenly.Either someone pressed the elevator outside, or it stopped suddenly without warning, and it might not even be the 13th floor.

The lights in the elevator flickered and went out.The button board is also darkened, only the emergency contact button is left, and the red light is still slightly lit.

"... Is there a power outage?" Kuang Jinxin nervously took out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and found Chi Yingxue standing there in a daze, as if lost in thought.

Kuang Jinxin's heart tightened. For some reason, this made him more nervous than being trapped in an elevator.Almost without thinking about it, he hugged him and patted him on the back like a child: "It's okay, it's okay, it will be fine in a while."

Chi Yingxue came back to her senses, not knowing why.He was just surprised by the power outage, and he was sure that he didn't have any mood swings. I don't know how Kuang Jinxin saw that he needed "comfort".

but……

It was quite comfortable to be patted lightly like this.

Chi Yingxue raised her hand to wrap her arms around the person, and gently rubbed the other person's hair, suddenly wishing that time would not go forward or backward, and stop here, just like the elevator, it kept stopping.

Unfortunately, as soon as I closed my eyes, before I could continue enjoying, there was a loud bang above my head, and the elevator car shook violently.

It seemed that something heavy fell into the elevator shaft and hit the roof of the car.The two raised their heads subconsciously, but the car was completely closed, so they couldn't see the outside.

The lingering sound quickly dissipated, but the hearts of the two of them lifted up in the increasingly quiet air.

"Little Sijin, this way." Chi Yingxue raised her arm.

Kuang Jinxin immediately turned on the light.

Chi Yingxue rummaged through the stationery box, and finally clicked on <[Anti] see-through wall>.

After about seven or eight seconds, the car board above the head gradually became transparent under Chi Yingxue's gaze.

The more transparent, the tighter Kuang Jinxin's breathing became. In the end, his throat was so tight that he could no longer breathe.

A girl with blood all over her face was lying on the roof of the car, her body twisted into a strange angle, her eyes opened unwillingly, blood slowly poured out from her mouth and broken limbs, staining the name tag on her chest red .

Lin Lin.

Kuang Jinxin's eyes turned red involuntarily, he couldn't believe that the girl who was smiling sweetly at him not long ago just disappeared.

Chi Yingxue squinted slightly, and caught the light above the elevator shaft through the gaps in the corpse.

There was light, and there was only one possibility—the elevator doors were open.

17th floor? 18th floor?Chi Yingxue judged the position of the opened elevator door based on the position where the light came in. The girl probably fell from that floor...

No.

Chi Yingxue's eyes suddenly sharpened - a person was poking his head out of the light and looking down.

It was too far away and the light was not enough. He couldn't see the man's appearance clearly, but he could feel that the man was not panicking.If an accident is discovered, or to find out, people will instinctively make a lot of small movements, but when the person poked his head out, he just stared at it, without even shaking his head.

The other party is watching, the person he pushed is dead.

The blood completely stained the roof of the car with a "blood cover", and suddenly there was a knock on the door outside: "Is anyone in there—"

Kuang Jinxin didn't dare to answer, and Chi Yingxue was also silent.

"The elevator is malfunctioning. I'm here to repair it. I'm going to pry open the door now. If there are people inside, hide behind. Don't worry, it will be soon—"

As Chi Yingxue's gaze shifted, the elevator door gradually became transparent.

Outside the door, a master in a gray coat was using tools to open the elevator door. His face full of vicissitudes was full of worry and anxiety.

Kuang Jinxin's hanging heart finally let go.

The door opened quickly, and the master saw someone inside, with a look of astonishment on his face: "There is someone, why didn't I speak for a long time after shouting." Complaining about complaining, he still pulled the two of them out.

Just as Kuang Jinxin wanted to say thank you, master, Chi Yingxue suddenly pulled him behind and asked calmly, "Master, why aren't you wearing overalls?"

The gray coat froze for a moment, then smiled, and suddenly took out a switchblade from his pocket, pressed it, and the blade popped out, and stabbed Chi Yingxue from bottom to top, the whole movement was done in one go, terribly skillful.

Chi Yingxue narrowly escaped, pushed Kuang Jinxin away, and grabbed the opponent's arm with his backhand.

Unexpectedly, when the opponent turned around, he managed to break free with skill.

Chi Yingxue frowned, this man is not easy to deal with.

Kuang Jinxin got up from the ground, and he had already figured it out in his heart. Chi Yingxue's words could not even be called "doubt". He wanted to kill them both, whether they saw through his disguise or not!

"What are you doing—" A security guard ran over with sweat profusely, "It's still making people stop—"

Kuang Jinxin greeted him immediately: "He wants to kill us! Also, someone is in the elevator shaft..."

Before he could finish speaking, Kuang Jinxin lost consciousness amid the sound of electric shocks.

Chi Yingxue found out that the security guard had pulled out the switchblade, but it was already too late, and his distraction just gave Hui Jacket the opportunity to stab the knife into his chest. He was in a trance in severe pain.

……

Time 12:00, number 8 outside the window.

This time Chi Yingxue only took 50 seconds to grab Kuang Jinxin, and without a word, she dragged him to the 10th floor.

Kuang Jinxin also had the same idea - if he didn't ask the insider for anything, he would be driven crazy by this series of "accidents".

"Don't leave the beauty salon, don't leave, and don't leave anyone looking for it!" Before leaving, he almost gave Lin Lin a thousand and one instructions.

Lin Lin was confused and watched him leave.

The two ran to the stairwell in one breath—they couldn’t trust the elevator in a short time—they didn’t stop, and continued to run downstairs, but as they ran, they heard someone running down the stairs, and He was more anxious than the two of them, and his footsteps were very heavy. Hearing the "kicking and tumbling" made people tense up inexplicably.

Chi Yingxue and Kuang Jinxin speeded up and at the same time lightened their steps, and finally reached the 10th floor and left the elevator room quickly.

I thought that this would completely stagger the "unknown person" behind me, but unexpectedly, as soon as the two of them entered the corridor with their front feet, that person followed behind.

The two of them turned back immediately, fully alert, the man also saw them, and slammed on the brakes.

"Did you see the leaflets coming?!" The man spoke first, his voice trembling slightly, not malicious, but excited.

Chi Yingxue and Kuang Jinxin looked at each other, and they raised their arms at the same time to show the icon. The difference was that one was lifting it obliquely, freehand and chic, while the other was holding it obediently, as if answering a question in class.

Qian Ai was really surprised this time. He didn't expect Wu Sheng's trick to be really effective, and it worked quickly. He immediately raised his arm and showed his owl: "Student, we are classmates!"

Kuang Jinxin: "...Huh?"

Qian Ai stepped forward, enthusiastically narrowing the distance between each other: "Wu Sheng said, we are now in the same examination room, taking the same exam."

What Kuang Jinxin felt in this person was kindness and enthusiasm, so he relaxed his guard unconsciously: "Who is Wu Sheng?"

"People like us, uh..." Qian Ai hesitated, still a little guilty, and honestly added a condition, "It doesn't count as IQ, just like us."

"And Xu Wang," he continued, "also took part in this exam."

Kuang Jinxin was a little confused: "You always talk about the exam, what is the exam?"

"Just take this test." Qian Ai opened the cheat sheet and revealed the sentence, "This is our test question."

Kuang Jinxin came to a sudden, and only now did he understand.

"How many people are there?" Chi Yingxue asked suddenly.

"Five," Qian Ai told the truth, "you add me, and the two of them, so far there are only five of us, and there are others."

"Five..." Chi Yingxue pointed to her arm, "Are they all owl patterns?"

Qian Ai nodded: "Yes."

Chi Yingxue frowned, seriously wondering: "Then why is there a dog's head drawn on the flyer?"

"..." Qian Ai felt that he and the artist Wu himself might not be able to answer such a soul-torturing question, so Xu Wanglai had to.