Chapter 34: Scream

Although she had climbed onto the bed and pulled the quilt over her head, Audrey underneath the quilt was still extremely tense.

Because Elizabeth's appearance was too bizarre!

Suddenly, she heard a sound — the sound of Elizabeth standing up and walking toward her side.

She listened as the sound came from the mirror side, step by step toward her bedside, and then stopped just like that.

Audrey clutched the edge of the quilt tightly, afraid Elizabeth would suddenly reach out and yank the quilt away.

Sometimes, what is most frightening is not when the event has already arrived, but when it is about to come yet has not arrived.

The dormitory fell into an extreme silence, so silent Audrey could hear her own heartbeat and heavy breathing.

But bizarrely, although the footsteps had clearly stopped at her bedside, she heard no breathing from Elizabeth at all, let alone a heartbeat.

Alright, ordinary people can't hear a heartbeat anyway!

But at the very least you should be able to hear breathing! Yet there was none.

In this extreme silence, amid her own rapid heartbeat and heavy breathing, Audrey suffered terribly.

Some people, when fear reaches its limit, summon a desperate courage and guts — like Audrey. After enduring several minutes in this bizarre silence, she could endure no longer. "Fuck Squid, bring it on!"

Audrey flung the quilt open. She wanted to see what her bizarre roommate was up to. But once the quilt was open, the bedside was empty. Elizabeth was not standing at her bedside, nor sitting before the mirror — she was already lying in her own bed, even covered with the quilt, fast asleep!

This isn't right!

Audrey was stunned. She hurriedly got off the bed, mustered her courage, walked to Elizabeth's bedside, and observed closely.

Elizabeth seemed to be sound asleep, breathing lightly, as if she had never sat before the mirror combing her hair, never walked to Audrey's bedside, but had simply lain quietly in bed asleep the whole time.

Audrey was puzzled. Could she have seen wrong earlier, or was it a hallucination?

But she didn't have a habit of smoking leaves; aside from illness, she couldn't possibly have hallucinations! So what was going on now?

She looked back in puzzlement at the mirror in the dormitory. Suddenly she discovered something flash past in the mirror, but when she looked carefully, she found nothing.

"Hah..."

She took a deep breath and exhaled it. Perhaps because she had experienced too many things recently — her mother unemployed, several moves, wandering displaced — she had nearly been unable to attend twelfth grade at eighteen.

If not for Chen, perhaps she would have had to find a job.

And Olivia would have wandered the streets.

And eleven-year-old Alan, and ten-year-old Claire might have been forcibly sent to the welfare institute to seek adoptive families.

The family would have fallen apart!

But fortunately, God sent this Eastern man called Chen, who became her nominal husband, gathering the nearly scattered family back together.

After the family's ups and downs, Audrey was deeply impacted. Even though she successfully entered school and repeated twelfth grade, she was heavy-hearted.

Perhaps it was because of this heavy heart and the constant setbacks that she suddenly had a hallucination...

Having found a reason for herself, Audrey finally deceived her own heart, forcibly self-hypnotized herself into deep sleep.

Early the next morning, Audrey woke with a start from a nightmare, and saw Elizabeth likewise awake. She discovered Elizabeth had also overslept; after checking the alarm clock, she hurriedly got up to wash up.

This subconsciously made her breathe a sigh of relief, finally confirming last night's events were merely her hallucination! After a day of classes, Audrey and Elizabeth returned to the dormitory after eating in the mess hall. She went first, taking her clothes into the bathroom to wash away the day's fatigue, while Elizabeth sat before the mirror to remove her makeup.

That's right!

Even as a twelfth-grade student, Elizabeth had long been in the habit of wearing makeup; removing it every night upon return was mandatory homework.

"The basketball court in PE class, that school team center — he seems a bit interested in you! He looks manly, Audrey."

Elizabeth took off her false eyelashes, put them aside, then began using makeup remover to wipe off her eyeshadow and other cosmetics.

She spoke while removing makeup.

"I won't date anyone!"

Under the shower, Audrey rinsed the bubbles from her hair while responding to her roommate's teasing.

"At the very least before getting into university, I won't date anyone!"

Of course she couldn't date anyone, because the Immigration Bureau would randomly inspect their marital status within these two years to guarantee the Eastern man as spouse wasn't using a fake marriage to get a green card.

Not to mention, she needed to guarantee her loyalty to the marriage; at the very least before Chen got his permanent green card, she wouldn't let the Immigration Bureau find fault because of her.

After all, the nanny salary Chen gave Olivia guaranteed their family wouldn't be separated, and she could still attend school normally.

She didn't want to lose this life, because her mother Olivia had told her, once Americans fall to the bottom and get that white card, there is no room to turn over again.

So, finishing twelfth grade and getting into a good university was her effort to avoid falling into America's bottom.

If dating caused the Immigration Bureau to suspect the marriage's authenticity, and Chen lost his chance at a permanent green card, then the Hill family, now in difficulty, without that nanny salary could only fall into hell.

Moreover, she didn't like that center. Her mother had said these people's track is too narrow; very few climb to the pyramid top each year.

They're all bottom-rung people with no other path, forced to desperately climb that one road. Because too many climb, many are squeezed off.

Those are several single-log bridges; very few make it across.

That center, she wasn't optimistic about his future — not even as good as the wizard at home!

After all, these past months, through clients her mother brought, that Eastern wizard husband had earned quite a lot.

As his reputation spread through clients whose problems he solved these months, future business would surely get better and better.

There are still prospects.

Of course, that Eastern wizard husband didn't seem to intend to communicate feelings with her; every time she went back she only received his very polite treatment.

And that was it! Elizabeth combed her hair before the mirror. Hearing her roommate say she wouldn't date boys before university, she was taken aback: "Audrey, no need to be so hard on yourself!

If you don't have a boyfriend before the twelfth-grade graduation ceremony, people might laugh at you!"

Unexpectedly, a sudden voice came from the bathroom where Audrey was putting on her bathrobe: "I don't have a boyfriend, but I'm married!"

What? Hearing this, Elizabeth was so shocked the comb in her hand fell. She instinctively lowered her head to pick it up.

But unexpectedly, when she lowered her head to pick up the comb, the her in the mirror combing her hair did not lower her head along with her. Instead, she looked at the Elizabeth who had lowered her head to pick something up with a sinister gaze, like looking at prey! Elizabeth didn't see her own bizarre appearance in the mirror, but Audrey, who had just opened the bathroom door, suddenly saw it! "Ah..."

A scream rang through the entire dormitory building! (Chapter End)