Reality Programming Association

Chapter 134: Chapter 55: Eye of the Storm

She had clearly been interrupted by his arrival right in the middle of blow-drying her hair.

”I’m so sorry,” Yang Yiyi said hurriedly. ”The hairdryer was too loud. I couldn’t hear a thing outside.”

”It’s fine. As long as everything is okay.”

Yu Xian stared at the cabinet. He set his backpack down by the entryway and pulled the black wireless mouse out of a compartment. ”Senior Sister, I brought the mouse you asked for.”

”Thank you. Sorry for making you make the trip.” Yang Yiyi nodded, then paused as if something had just occurred to her. ”Why did you suddenly ask about the School of Life Sciences earlier today? Did... did something happen at the school again?”

”Yeah, something seems off at the School of Physics,” Yu Xian said, recalling the box trucks parked in the pouring rain and the hurried staff members. ”A lot of lab equipment was moved away. There are rumors among the students that several major labs and research groups in the school are evacuating. Also,” he added, thinking of Professor Shu’s absence that afternoon, ”the professor for one of our core classes today said he had to go abroad for a sudden academic exchange. He won’t be teaching for the entire second half of the semester.”

”Now that you mention it... that is indeed unusual.” Yang Yiyi fell silent for a moment and pulled out her phone to scroll through it. ”I haven’t heard of any similar moves at the School of Life Sciences today, but that might just be because I’m not on campus and don’t have access to a lot of information.”

”I just feel like something is fishy. Those previous rumors about the ’artificial rainstorm’ also seemed targeted at the physics community...” Yu Xian frowned. Realizing that dwelling on it wouldn’t yield any answers, he changed the subject. ”Have there been any new discoveries regarding Professor Mo’s hidden research project over the last two days?”

”Not yet. I’m still sorting out the lab reports and data for that project.” Yang Yiyi shook her head, a trace of unease creeping into her eyes.

Not wanting to cause Senior Sister Yiyi too much anxiety, Yu Xian took a deep breath. ”Alright then, Senior Sister, I’ll be heading back. Old Shi is still waiting for me at the dorm.”

”In such a hurry?” Yang Yiyi asked, looking a bit surprised as she held the mouse. ”Won’t you have a glass of water before you go? It must be quite cold outside.”

”No, thanks. Old Shi has something urgent. You should get some rest early too, Senior Sister.” With that, he turned around, pushed the door open, and hurried into the corridor.

A soft click echoed behind him as the door closed. Standing by the elevator, Yu Xian took a deep breath of the cold air in the hallway, then opened his umbrella and walked briskly into the rain.

When Yu Xian returned to the dorm room, Zhang Yang and Li Boxue were also there. They had already washed up and were lying quietly in their respective beds, both wearing earphones.

”It’s been a while since you came back to the dorm, Yu Xian,” Zhang Yang greeted him.

Li Boxue nodded as well without speaking. He just eagerly pulled his blanket up and prepared to draw his blackout curtains.

Yu Xian knew that whatever was about to play in their earphones was definitely that mutant audio of the Midnight Bus, or perhaps an even more bizarre scene.

Shi Zuozhou stood up and gestured toward the balcony with his chin. Understanding his intent, Yu Xian locked his backpack in his cabinet and followed him out to the balcony.

The campus was shrouded in rain under the night sky, the distant streetlamps looking like faint, blurry halos.

”It’s done,” Shi Zuozhou said, lowering his voice, his tone laced with unconcealed excitement. ”I got the library sorted out. The computers in the electronic reading room are all our nodes now. I tested it over there, and I could connect to the Rabbit Hole even through a wall.”

”You weren’t spotted, were you?” Yu Xian asked worriedly as the night breeze, mixed with drizzle, blew against his face.

”Relax, there was absolutely no one there. I just pretended to look up some information, plugged in the USB drive, and left a little while later, completely undetected.”

Shi Zuozhou went on to explain his installation plan for tomorrow. Halfway through, he checked the time and dragged Yu Xian back into the dorm room.

”Don’t talk about this anymore now that we’re back inside,” Yu Xian warned him.

Shi Zuozhou didn’t respond. Instead, he shoved the dorm room door open with a loud BANG, startling Yu Xian.

”Hey! Fire! Zhang Yang! Boxue! Get up, quick!” Shi Zuozhou suddenly screamed into the room like a maniac.

Yu Xian was about to stop him, but then he noticed there was zero reaction from inside. The two beds, hidden behind drawn blackout curtains, were completely silent.

”See that?” Shi Zuozhou purposely coughed loudly a few times, then dragged his chair out with a harsh SCRAPE. He turned back and offered a bitter smile, not lowering his voice in the slightest. ”While you were gone these past few days, this dorm turned into a morgue the second the clock hit eleven p.m. These two don’t make a single peep. I could throw a rave in here and they still wouldn’t wake up.”

He sighed and rubbed his arms. ”To be honest, it’s pretty creepy. For the past few nights, I’ve had to leave the main light on and crank my tablet’s volume to the max, playing palace drama shows. I could only fall asleep listening to those concubines bickering.” His face contorted in distress. ”Thank goodness you’re here. Otherwise, if this kept up, I was afraid I’d go crazy too.”

Yu Xian patted him on the shoulder, his own heart feeling somewhat heavy. ”It’s fine. Didn’t our four-person room just turn into a two-person room? It’s a free upgrade.” Yu Xian came up with a rather unfunny joke.

The two of them quickly washed up. To embolden himself, Shi Zuozhou did indeed turn on a palace drama, its audio echoing through the air.

”Your Majesty, I cannot do it...”

That classic line, paired with a mournful wail, carried a very peculiar flavor in the dorm room at this moment.

Yu Xian lay in bed. He hadn’t drawn his blackout curtains; in truth, he was feeling a bit creeped out himself.

”Old Yu, are you asleep?” Shi Zuozhou’s voice drifted over from behind his curtains.

”No.”

”I can’t sleep either. Old Yu, don’t you feel like...” Shi Zuozhou sighed. ”I just feel like something huge is about to happen.”

Yu Xian didn’t say anything, merely letting out a soft, ”Yeah.”

”I mean, it’s been raining for almost a month now, right? Even though it’s not as heavy as before, it just keeps pouring and pouring, like it’s never going to stop. Don’t you think that’s incredibly abnormal?”

”Yeah.”

Shi Zuozhou rambled on, sounding as if he were talking to himself, yet also like he was pouring his heart out to his only listener. ”First it was Old Gao... Why did Professor Gao just kill himself out of nowhere? He cast a veto vote, and then left behind those baffling last words.” Shi Zuozhou paused before continuing, ”And then there are these untraceable audios. Taking advantage of the internet blackout during the rainstorm, they’ve been replicating like a virus. Look at the state of Zhang Yang and Li Boxue—you call that sleeping?”

Shi Zuozhou seemed to roll over, his bedframe letting out a CREAK. ”Those people outside have gone crazy too. Not only are they buying into rumors, but they actually dared to come and smash up the labs. I refuse to believe there’s no one organizing this behind the scenes. Now the School of Physics looks like it’s moving out entirely, and just like Professor Shu, they claim it’s for ’academic exchanges,’ but who knows where they’ve really run off to.

”Even though classes have resumed and everything seems to have returned to normal on the surface, my heart is constantly on edge, and my eyelid keeps twitching.” He sighed again and paused for a long time, seemingly organizing his thoughts. ”I just feel like JCU is currently acting like a massive vortex. All these messed-up events are being swept up together, spinning faster and sinking deeper. Although the past two days have seemed calm and peaceful, I just feel like... I just feel like something even bigger is about to happen.”

With the light from the incandescent bulb filtering through the blackout curtains, Yu Xian kept his eyes open as he listened to Shi Zuozhou’s rambling.

Something bigger?

He thought of his parents’ research paper on the ”Soul Container.”

He thought of the two opposing factions playing chess behind TDI.

He thought of Professor Mo’s research group and their hidden research attempting to ”hijack spindle waves.”

He thought of Shao Yiyi and the divination she had cast for him: ”Celestial Killer Lone Star” and ”endless days of tribulation.”

He knew that Shi Zuozhou’s intuition was probably right.

This seemingly endless rainy season was perhaps just a prelude. The true storm was only just beginning to brew. And they were standing right on the edge of the vortex.

”Go to sleep, Old Shi. Like you said this afternoon, if the sky falls, someone taller will hold it up. The only thing we can do right now is try to gather as much information as possible to avoid those dangers,” Yu Xian said softly, not knowing if he was trying to comfort Shi Zuozhou or himself. ”When the wind dies down and the rain stops, the world will still be exactly where it belongs.”