The roar outside the window sounded on time.
It's not a human scream, it's that kind of thing - a heart-eating demon. The sound was like a rusty saw scraping bones, coming from the depths of the city layer by layer.
I lay in bed, staring at the familiar crack in the ceiling. It extended from the corner and branched off at the third sheet of drywall, like a dead tree growing upside down. During the ninety-seventh cycle, I was so bored that I counted the crack lines, a total of 437.
The phone vibrated on the bedside table.
You know who it is without looking. Lin Wei. Time is accurate, and the starting point of the cycle is always the call for help from her. When she first picked it up, she cried so hard that she couldn't breathe, saying that monsters had burst into the dormitory building. The second time, with a trembling voice, she asked me if I was Senior Shen Yan. The third time, she just said "Help me" and the call was disconnected.
