She woke up.
Orange light pours in from the skylight, covering everything in the attic.
She couldn't tell whether the morning or evening light shone on her face, so she woke up.
A sense of familiarity flooded into her mind like a tide. She should remember this place.
It's just that the answers to these questions like who I am and where I am are covered with a veil, making it difficult to see clearly.
I don’t really want to see clearly either.
She stood up and dusted herself off.
There was only a lonely bed frame and bed board in the attic, shrouded in light, reflecting the soft and warm look in her memory.
The sun shone in from the small balcony, and the light beams were filled with impurities. She wanted to take such beautiful and realistic deep breaths a few more times, but her hands pushed her and told her that she couldn't.
She lowered her head and looked at the stairs leading to the exit.
Empty.
Everywhere is empty.
The living room, like the rest of the house, does not look like it is inhabited or even lived in. The dust in the air carries a mysterious sense of security.
She didn't hesitate and went straight to the door, twisted the lock and pushed the door open, causing another burst of dust to rise.
There was a breath of life in the corridor. As she walked down the steps step by step, the sound of birdsong, the sound of kitchen utensils, and the high and low greetings of people downstairs matched her footsteps.
It looks like it's early morning, she thought.
In my ears is the sound of the city waking up, everything is so real.
"Bang".
A door is closed.
She stopped and stared at the woman a few steps down.
The woman closed the door, holding a small vegetable basket in her hand. She turned around and was about to walk down the stairs when she noticed her above.
"Ouch! This kid... This kid is standing here so early in the morning. Hey, you are..."
She seems to know me, she thought.
She walked down a few steps and met the woman's slightly surprised gaze.
The woman looked at her suspiciously.
"Aren't you the little girl from Xiao Liao's family before? Why did you come back after moving away for so long? Where are your parents?"
"Hello, aunt." She walked down the stairs and stood next to the woman, lowering her head slightly.
My last name is Liao, she thought.
The woman's gaze has softened, and her limbs are no longer stiff.
"Hey, hello! The little girl has changed a lot. I remember your name is Xiaolan. Didn't you move away four years ago? Are you moving back with your parents?"
Xiaolan, my name is Liao Xiaolan.
Mom and dad...
"I'm also looking for my parents." She looked down at her dirty shoes and shook her hand, "Auntie, have you seen them?"
Doubt and distrust crept into the woman's eyes again. In front of her was a gray-faced girl who said inexplicable words. The woman frowned, waved her hand and quickly disappeared at the end of the stairs.
She wanted to follow up and ask, but finally gave up.
At least I know who I am, she thought. Weirdly, everything here is weird. It feels familiar, but at the same time, it feels different.
Slowly walking down the steps, she pushed open the heavy door and came into the sunshine.
The mottled light shed among the trees in the morning, the smell of dew that had hung all night long, the sound of the world waking up from its slumber, and the palpable sense of reality struck her soul.
Did I just wake up from my sleep too? She thought as she walked slowly along the path in front of her.
The eyes of passers-by looked at her somewhat strangely, and she could probably understand the reason for this strangeness.
She knew she was looking for something. Although she didn't know where her destination was, she knew she was moving forward.
She walked out of the unattended door of the old community, followed what seemed to be a very familiar road, passed through several not-so-wide streets, and stopped as if she had found the end point.
In front of him was a desolate old site, with dilapidated brick walls and two unlocked iron doors that were crumbling, as if they would break away from the grassy courtyard wall and fall to the ground in the next second.
The several-story building, which looked already mottled, was empty and dilapidated, with the word "Demolish" written in big red letters on the walls.
This must be her own school, she was pretty sure of it, but the bleak picture in front of her couldn't arouse her sense of immediacy. She didn't know what the problem was. She just thought that there were enough things she didn't know anyway, so it wasn't bad. One piece.
She looked around and saw that there were no pedestrians passing by. This old house was so desolate that it had been forgotten by the city. The whole building gave off an aura that no one should approach.
She thought for a while, slipped in through the gap between the broken iron doors, and decided to find something herself.
In the small square in front of the building, weeds grew out of the cracks in the messy floor tiles. They grew tall, strong and healthy. The circle of willow trees surrounding the square also grew wildly. When the wind blew, the weeds grew wildly. Flowing with the willow trees.
She looked at the sky behind her with the lush plants and dilapidated buildings as a background. Different from the clear sky when she arrived, the sky was now gloomy, as if it was going to rain heavily.
She stepped on the broken bricks and walked into the main entrance of the building, preparing to find the secret of herself or the building.
On the right is a small room with a small window leading outside. This is the communication room, she thought, I still know this.
In front of the stairs was the stairs going upstairs. The wooden handrails and steel bars painted red were already mottled and covered with dust. She walked up the stairs and looked out from the small window at the corner of the half-story staircase. What caught her eye was The scene was the same as the front door. Turning around to the other half flight of stairs, she went up to the second floor.
There were doors extending to both sides from the stairs. She walked towards the nearest one. The door was also empty, but the old blackboard hanging in front of the room confirmed that this was indeed a school.
Both the inside and outside of the classroom were covered with thick dust, and there were messy and varied footprints on the dust. It seemed that this place was not completely deserted, she thought.
The door of the classroom was unlocked and ajar. She walked in carefully and looked around for useful clues, but there seemed to be nothing here except the blackboard. She did not hesitate and left the classroom and walked to the next door. .
The second and third doors seemed to have been cleaned in this way, even though they looked dirty.
The next door was different. There was no small window on the small door with peeling green paint, and there was no light coming through the cracks. She opened the door and did not smell the smell of corruption and closure as she had imagined, but she was really surprised. one time.
This small, light-tight room turned out to be a toilet.
The toilet window was closed, the translucent glass blocked the light, and the four small cubicles had their doors tightly closed.
The strange thing is that compared to the previous classrooms, the footprints here are the most numerous and messy. There are faint traces in almost every corner. Some of the footprints are even very new. She looked at the shoe prints she made and felt that the latest ones were The footprints may have been left recently.
A flicker of excitement suddenly ignited in her heart, and she was about to know something.
After thinking for a few seconds, she decided to start searching from the closed compartment.
She tiptoed and walked gently to the first cubicle.
Grasping the rusty handle, she opened the small door closest to her.
Inside the small door is an ordinary and shabby squat toilet. It has obviously not been used for a long time and has long since dried up and fallen into dust.
The walls of the cubicle were covered with gibberish written by ballpoint pens or correction fluid.
"Old witch..."
"Curse sees..."
"I don't want to go to school anymore..."
She glanced at it randomly and saw that most of them were childish words. Under the layer of words was a trace of white paint that had been casually brushed. Under the white paint, more messages could be seen, but the specific content could not be distinguished so far.
She thought for a while, then leaned over to check carefully to see if she could get any useful information. She tried for a few seconds and then gave up.
She looked around and saw that there was really nothing in this compartment.
The same goes for the second compartment, and the same goes for the third.
She was a little disappointed. The expected clues did not appear, but at the same time she also had a little expectation. The blank spaces in the first three compartments might be because everything was in the fourth and last compartment. She stood on the four In front of the number, I had such complicated emotions.
She stretched out her hand and put it on the handle. The rustiness of the handle was no different from the previous three. She tried to open the door with the same force, but found the first difference in this door - it seemed to be closed a little tighter.
She was looking forward to it, but was afraid that her expectation would be disappointed, so she increased her strength in an attempt to reveal the secret, but the door was still stubborn. She was a little puzzled, so she stepped on door No. 3 with her right foot and prepared to use all her strength.
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
Two loud noises sounded almost simultaneously.
Before she could react, the completely unplugged Door No. 4 had already hit her hard, and she quickly raised her arms to block it.
The wood had been rotting for many years, and the joints had long been rusted. It fell apart with just a little force. She shook her head and shook off the debris on her head, thinking that it wouldn't hurt if the door hit her. When she lowered her head, she saw that door No. 3 had also been completely covered by her. He kicked it off and fell to pieces in compartment three.
She looked up into cubicle No. 4 and saw something strange and unexpected.
Inside the cubicle was a set-up tripod, with something like a camera placed flat on the stand, facing the direction of the window.
Looking along the camera's shooting route, a perfectly round hole was cut out on the window side of the cubicle. The camera could directly shoot through the small hole to capture the situation outside the cubicle.
She was stunned and didn't realize what she saw for a long time.
When her thoughts returned to her mind, she understood that someone had been active in this abandoned teaching building. No matter what the purpose was, this was a good thing for her.
Looking down, it turned out that the fourth compartment was densely covered with footprints. The traces of movement had taken away the dust. The ground was like a dusty mirror that had been wiped carelessly a few times and was not clean.
She walked towards the camera and saw that the surface of the camera was smooth, indicating that its owner had not abandoned it.
The camera isn't running, it's just standing here.
At this time, everything seen from the small hole was calm and monotonous, a small square of opaque glass, a dirty corner of the window sill, and even the scenery and weather outside the window could not be seen.
She was confused and decided to wait here for the owner of the camera. She also had the urge to secretly look through the past videos recorded by the camera, but after thinking about it, she decided not to. After all, if it was broken, it would be quite embarrassing when they met.
The weather outside the window gradually changed, and the dark clouds that were on the other side just now filled the sky little by little. She walked to the window and looked out at the world outside the window through the upper half of the transparent glass.
The tall and thin weeds on the playground swayed wildly, the wind picked up, the blue sky was gradually swallowed up by thick clouds, and the good weather in the morning seemed to suddenly disappear from a dream.
As her thoughts continued, the skylight gradually disappeared outside the window, cumulonimbus clouds came over, and the small toilet became dark. The street outside the small playground was deserted, and she realized that the whole street was like this. desolate.
She heard the whipping wind slamming against the window, and the deafening sound of the wind was like the whimpering of the earth. She understood that a storm was about to begin.
Yes, the storm is about to begin.
