Reality Programming Association

Chapter 86: Chapter 36: Adventure in the Rain

Outside, the frantic rain battered against the glass, with water spilling from the window frame onto the floor. Yu Xian gripped his phone, a sense of unease spreading wildly in his chest. Nearly twenty minutes had passed since he sent that message, yet there was still no reply. He paced back and forth across the living room, walking from the balcony to the entryway, and then back again.

He wasn’t particularly worried about Wen Xiao. The security at the North Campus dormitories was strict. As long as she and Shao Yiyi stayed put in their twelfth-floor dorm room and didn’t run around recklessly, they would be fine. The person truly keeping him on edge was Yang Yiyi. When they parted ways last night, Senior Sister Yiyi had specifically asked him for the file, saying she wanted to use the lab’s equipment to help him analyze that audio clip. He recalled Shi Zuozhou once saying that Brother Yi was the most action-oriented person he had ever met. If she had braved the torrential downpour to go to the lab, even on a one-in-ten-thousand chance... the consequences would be unimaginable.

Just moments ago, he had seen the crowd gathering outside—people who had lost their minds, incited by rumors. Perhaps they had lost their property in the storm, or perhaps the rain had threatened their lives and the health of their families. That was why they had become so frantic and enraged. For some unknown reason, the absurd rumor that a ”scientific experiment caused the artificial rainstorm” hadn’t been swiftly suppressed and censored like usual, handing the mob the perfect excuse. The Life Sciences Building was located in the southeastern part of JCU, not far from the South Gate. It would undoubtedly be one of the first areas to bear the brunt of their fury.

Yu Xian stopped pacing as a wave of hunger hit him. It had been nearly twenty hours since he had eaten the bowl of egg noodles his cousin cooked yesterday afternoon, which contained a complex mix of seasonings. Since then, he had only taken a few sips of water. His body was pushed to the brink of exhaustion. Forcing himself into the kitchen, he whipped up some simple dried noodles and ate them mechanically. He prayed silently that she would be okay. He reasoned that perhaps the signal was just bad, or maybe she hadn’t checked her phone. After all, the internet was down and cell reception was practically nonexistent, making it entirely normal to lose contact.

Just as he choked down the last of the noodle soup, fighting back a wave of nausea, his phone suddenly buzzed. He snatched it up. The screen lit up with a text message. It was Senior Sister Yiyi!

Yu Xian’s heart skipped a beat the moment he saw her name, and he hurriedly unlocked the screen. However, his heart sank as soon as he read the contents.

”Life Sciences Building W112”

He stared intently at the words. There was no explanation, no context, not even a punctuation mark. He had never seen her send a message like this before. Arriving at such a critical moment—amidst network outages, lost connections, and utter chaos—this abrupt, contextless message carried a suffocating sense of a cry for help.

W112. According to the naming conventions for JCU’s laboratories, W stood for the West District, and 112 indicated the first floor. It was on the west side of the ground floor. That was the side closest to the main road by the South Gate, making it the most vulnerable to an attack.

He wondered why she had only sent a location without explaining what was going on. Was it because she didn’t have time to type? Or was she already trapped, only managing to send a hasty location pin?

Shoving his phone into his pocket, Yu Xian didn’t even bother grabbing his backpack. There was no time to worry about his laptop or his thesis. He rushed to the door, snatched up his still-dripping raincoat, and threw it on. He yanked the zipper all the way up, the stiff material biting painfully into his neck.

Just as he pushed open the security door, he came to an abrupt halt. The campus was currently an information silo; once he went over there, he would lose contact with the outside world again. If he ended up trapped as well, there would truly be no one left to save them.

He pulled his phone back out, his fingers flying across the screen as he searched for his cousin’s number. He quickly typed out a message.

”I need to make a trip to JCU. If I don’t reply, it’s because there’s no signal over there. I’m going to the Life Sciences Building, room W112, to find a classmate. If you can’t reach me, I’ll definitely be at this location.”

He hit send. Only after seeing the ”Sent” confirmation did he tuck his phone safely away. Taking a deep breath, he charged out into the torrential rain without a moment of hesitation.

***

Subway Line 4 was one of the few transit lines in Jiangcheng that hadn’t suspended operations. Stepping out of the subway station, the sight at the South Gate made Yu Xian draw a sharp breath. The South Gate commercial district, usually a picture of peaceful daily life, now resembled a grim battlefield beneath the gloomy sky and the violent downpour.

Figures in raincoats milled about, the beams of their flashlights slicing wildly through the rain like erratic searchlights. Banners lay strewn haphazardly across the ground, so soaked by the rain that their slogans were rendered illegible. The retractable security gate had been violently shoved open, and the entrance was filled with the sounds of hoarse, hysterical shouting. The mist kicked up by the torrential rain obscured the faces of the mob, just as it had obscured their reason. ℯℯ𝑙.

Yu Xian didn’t approach the crowd. Instead, he sprinted toward a gap in the perimeter wall—a shortcut he used to take to pick up food deliveries. The Life Sciences Building was only a few dozen meters ahead.

The situation was even worse than he had imagined. Several of the ground-floor floor-to-ceiling windows had already been smashed, their fractured glass webbing outward, with shards washed away by the relentless rain. Fortunately, the mob seemed to still be clustered around the main entrance and the lobby. The W area on the side appeared deserted.

Pressing his back against the wall, Yu Xian moved swiftly until he reached the door of W112. The blinds were drawn tight, allowing not a single sliver of light to escape. Hesitantly, he reached out and knocked gently on the door three times.

There was no response.

He wondered if she wasn’t inside, or if she was simply too afraid to make a sound. His chest tightened. He knocked twice more, this time with greater force, and pressed his face against the glass to peer through the slats of the blinds.

Right at that moment, the latch on the inside of the outer door suddenly made a faint CLICK.

The door was pushed open just a crack. A slender, pale hand reached out from the darkness and tightly grabbed the sleeve of Yu Xian’s raincoat.