Chapter 3 Ladder
The familiar ceiling.
The alarm clock jolts me awake in the early morning, and Li Cheng opens his eyes, sitting up abruptly in bed.
This is a medium-sized bedroom, with several game posters plastered on the walls, and the bookshelf crammed full of a variety of books, including but not limited to mathematics, physics, chemistry, detective fiction, astronomy, folklore, and computer programming, amongst others.
There's a computer desk at the foot of the bed, and a crumpled backpack lying on the floor.
What happened last night was not a dream.
I'm still wearing my school uniform, and the clothes carry the fishy scent of the river water they've been soaked in. Glancing at the mirror, traces of injuries are visible on my neck and palms, but there's only a thin scab over the wounds now, hardly noticeable unless looked at closely.
Why did they heal so fast? Is it the sting from the bee creature, or is it because of that Divine Calamity Fragment thing?
Without time to think it through, Li Cheng strips off his clothes and shoves them into the lowest drawer of his computer desk.
There's no time to wash the clothes now, and definitely cannot put them in the washing machine—it would stink up the machine.
He then digs out some desiccants from the bottom of the wardrobe and seals them in a ziplock bag with the water-damaged phone to dehumidify.
Finding a clean set of clothes, he quietly opens the door and tiptoes out.