Chapter 42

Bosi said, “Don’t you humans all sleep in beds?”

“Why are you sleeping on the floor?”

Lu Li’s drowsiness was mostly gone.

He nervously hugged his Pillow and blanket, carefully lying on the farthest edge of the bed from Bosi.

He looked longingly at the small corner where he had just moved from, which still retained some warmth.

Lu Li hugged the blanket tightly, burying his face in it.

He pouted unhappily.

He couldn’t sleep on the floor anymore.

To look a bit more human, he had to do as the others did and sleep in a bed.

That’s right, he was human…

The empty feeling on both sides made his mind feel a little dazed.

On his side, lying flat, on his stomach.

Nothing felt right.

Whenever he stretched out his Arm, he could never reach the edge.

It felt like the walls of the Laboratory.

No matter how hard he tried, reaching out, he could never touch the boundary.

Lu Li closed his eyes and began to hear ringing in his ears. In a daze, he felt like he was back in the Laboratory where he had spent twenty years.

A tingling sensation, entirely imaginary, started at his fingertips.

A Researcher shone a bright flashlight into his eyes, opened a gaping black mouth, and shouted loudly:

“He’s about to fall asleep again. Use electricity to wake him up!”

“He hasn’t shown pupil dilation yet; he can hold on for at least ten more days. The sleep deprivation test has already been running for over three months. It’s a miracle he’s lasted this long without sleep! There’s never been a more outstanding test subject than him!”

“Ha! Still struggling like some kind of insect. Ridiculous! Restrain him! Stretch out all his limbs. We still have to dissect his organs today. I’ll take out his Heart first! After so many experiments, none of his organs are like a human’s, they’re all displaced. Who has a Heart growing in the middle?”

Lu Li’s fingers clenched tighter around the sheet, his palm soaked with cold sweat.

–

Bosi sat on the other side of the bed, feeling Lu Li tossing and turning restlessly, almost like he was rolling around.

He finally managed to look at the documents, flipped to the next page, and thought disdainfully to himself:

Is it really necessary to be so happy just because you get to sleep in a bed?

The next second, his Black Robe was grabbed hard from behind.

Lu Li clutched at him like a lifeline, gripping tightly, suddenly sitting up with sweat rolling down his temple.

His opened gray eyes looked a bit damp.

Lu Li said firmly, “I don’t want to sleep in the bed.”

“Sorry, I didn’t realize it was your clothes.” With a silky smooth sensation in his hand, Lu Li looked down and realized he had wrinkled Bosi’s Black Robe. He quickly let go.

“Let me smooth it out for you.”

He gave Bosi a pale smile, and his sweaty palm also left a mark on Bosi’s Black Robe.

After cleaning up his mess, Lu Li tightly hugged his Pillow, awkwardly and clumsily got out of bed, and returned to the corner from before. A muffled voice came from behind the blanket, “So what if I’m not like a human? I like it here.”

With his back pressed against two solid walls, Lu Li let out a comfortable sigh: it was still better here.

Anyway, the only Audience in the room was Bosi… a ghost.

Bosi also knew he wasn’t like ordinary humans.

Here, there was no need to pretend or to learn.

Back in his comfort zone, Lu Li soon fell into a deep sleep.

Bosi stared at the open document for a long time without turning a page.

Only when he heard Lu Li’s breathing gradually become steady,

did he lower his gaze to look at the wrinkled corner of his Black Robe.

Bosi thought, since it’s dirty now, when morning comes, he’ll have to burn this Black Robe first.

After all, he had a serious obsession with cleanliness.

–

In the morning, Lu Li reluctantly put the Pillow back on the bed, patted it, and recommended it to Bosi, “It’s really useful. The gift you gave me is wonderful. These last two days have been the best sleep I’ve had.”
Bosi whispered, “You’re not used to the bed here?”

He’d thought about it all night, and this was the only explanation he could come up with.

A strained smile appeared on Lu Li’s lips. He didn’t like bringing up things from the Laboratory. His fingers unconsciously touched the Black Neck Ring at his throat, shackling him like a collar. “Something like that.”

He left the room in pretty good spirits and stepped into the Elevator, where he saw Luo Jia Bai’s heavy dark circles.

Luo Jia Bai yawned three times in a row. “That woman cried louder and louder last night. I almost felt like I was sharing a bed with her!”

The rattling of wheels on the floor drowned out Luo Jia Bai’s voice.

Qi Mingda pushed in a Handcart, crudely assembled from a wooden board and two wheels. Qiao Ren was sprawled out on it, his face contorted in pain.

Qiao Ren had lost both legs, severed cleanly at the thighs.

He had always been short and fat. Now, with only his upper body left, he looked even more like a meatball stuck with two chopsticks.

Qiao Ren’s fingers clung to Qi Mingda’s pant leg, whimpering softly, “Medicine, Brother Qi, just spray me a little more. The pain’s killing me! I got hurt for you, you promised you’d heal me!”

Qi Mingda was already impatient pushing the Handcart; now, seeing this, he grew even more irritable, roaring, “I sprayed it yesterday. The medicine can only be used once a day, and my Points are running low!”

“Didn’t you scam tens of thousands of Points from me? How come Brother Qi’s Points are never enough?”

A woman’s faint, mocking voice came from the corner of the Elevator, dripping with sarcasm and amusement.

“Zhu Yue? You-you’re still alive!” Qiao Ren stared wide-eyed, cold sweat pouring down his forehead, stinging his eyes so badly he didn’t dare blink. His lips were cracked from dryness. “Am I… am I dead already? Is that why I’m seeing a ghost?”

Qi Mingda smacked him on the head. “Cut the crap!”

Zhu Yue smiled at the two of them. “I’m not dead. Are you disappointed?”

Her gaze swept lightly over Qi Mingda, then finally settled on Qiao Ren, sharp with intent.

At the same time, an idea flickered in Zhu Yue’s mind.

She bent down, feigning concern as she leaned closer to Qiao Ren. She lifted her hand and waved it gently in front of his eyes. “You look awful right now. You’ve already made it to the Second Floor, why push yourself? Find somewhere to sleep for a bit.”

As she moved her wrist, the Evil Spirit Bracelet jingled softly, and beneath it, a Silver Bracelet added a crisp, pleasant chime.

Qiao Ren’s eyes grew even more vacant.

He echoed Zhu Yue instinctively, “Sleep… sleep for a bit.”

“I knew it! You again!” Qi Mingda didn’t notice anything strange. His pent-up anger finally found a target as he glared fiercely at Lu Li and shouted, “I’m going to kill Zhu Yue, and you just have to get in my way, don’t you?”

“I wasn’t the one who saved her.” Lu Li replied mildly, glancing at the already open Elevator doors. He sidestepped past the Handcart reeking of blood. “She saved herself.”

Luo Jia Bai and Zhu Yue followed him out.

Qi Mingda was left behind, so furious he stomped his feet, looking like a deranged lunatic.

He glared at Lu Li, the hatred in his eyes as thick as black water, nearly overflowing.

The room on the Second Floor was frighteningly huge; the walls were far away in every direction.

Thick white fog obscured whatever lay deeper inside.

Nuo Nuo clung to the ceiling, peeking down at them. Her lips curled upward in a naive and expectant smile.

“You finally made it to the Second Floor. I’m sure you must be strong. Maybe you can help me with a problem that’s bothered me for a long time.”

“The Clown is my best friend, but it never talks to me.”

“It’s inside right now. Can you make it say something to me?”