Chen Mo · Chat

The torrential rain dragged the evening of Yungang City into darkness ahead of schedule, the muggy, humid moisture seeping through every crack of the old tube-shaped apartment building. In the corridor of the fourth-floor boys' dormitory, the air was permeated by the smell of moldy mops and cheap tobacco that had lingered for years. Chen Mo's black sleeveless vest was soaked through in large patches, rainwater dripping from his pale, sharp jawline into the hollow of his protruding collarbone. Because the specimen processing in the anatomy lab had ended early, he had returned to the dorm without any warning. The entire corridor was dead silent, only the rain outside roaring against the windows. Chen Mo's footsteps were extremely light, like a nocturnal animal accustomed to slinking along the walls in the dark. He walked to the door of Room 402, habitually placing his hand on the rusty metal doorknob, about to press down—when his movements froze solid in an instant. The door wasn't locked. It wasn't even fully closed, leaving a narrow gap two fingers wide. No light leaked through the gap, only the icy cold air from the air conditioner mixed with an extremely secretive scent, slithering into Chen Mo's nostrils like a snake. It was the woody men's cologne Su Chen often used, and... a breath vaporized by body heat. Two utterly different scents intertwined and fermented in the darkness, so thick and sticky they nearly stole one's breath away. Chen Mo's breathing suddenly halted. He didn't push the door open, nor did he step back, his pale gray eyes seeming nailed to that gap in the door. Through the narrow fissure, by the dim lightning that occasionally flashed outside the window, Extremely quiet. So quiet it was as if no one was in this dorm at all. But the quieter it was, the more that maddening, desperately suppressed feeling was like a rusty scalpel, sawing through Chen Mo's eardrums inch by inch. "Squelch—" Chen Mo stood frozen in the shadow outside the door. Rainwater dripped from the tips of his hair onto the tiles at his feet, splashing into a tiny droplet.