The homeless man looked at the child in front of him, whose eyes were filled with a strong desire to survive. He felt somewhat relieved that the other party hadn't been injured at all in such a major disaster as the entire library collapsing.

The only injury he sustained was his fingers getting scraped and bleeding when digging out of the rubble.

"Child? Child!"

The boy, who had just been rescued, still seemed a bit dazed.

The homeless man waved his hand twice in front of his eyes, continuously shouting.

"Oh, oh, I'm fine, thank you." Wu Liang came to his senses and thanked the homeless man.

In fact, even without the homeless man, he was about to climb out of the debris, and judging from the torn clothing, the rubble all over his head, and various large and small wounds on him, it was clear that he had just crawled out of the wreckage himself.

In such a disaster, being able to barely escape death and still turn around to dig out others buried is already quite a noble act by the homeless man.

"Ha! Why are ya thankin' me? I should be thankin' you! If you hadn't given me some buns this morning, who knows if I would've had the strength to crawl in." The homeless man showed a simple and honest smile.

Feeling the sting on his fingers, Wu Liang looked at the slightly familiar dirty face of the homeless man.

He suddenly remembered who the other party was—

This morning, when Wu Liang came to the library to look up archaeological books related to the area where his parents had disappeared, he met a homeless man squatting on the steps reading a book at the entrance.

The man's face and clothes were dirty, but the hands holding the books were exceptionally clean, turning page by page cautiously, as if afraid of damaging the book.

Wu Liang went over and took a look.

The book the homeless man was reading was "Living."

Curious about this strange scene, Wu Liang spoke up and started chatting about the contents of the book with him.

Seeing someone talking to him, the homeless man was obviously a bit flattered.

But when it came to the book contents, he still spoke energetically about his views, and finally hurriedly explained the origin of the book, proving that it wasn't stolen.

"The bookstore owner lent it to me, I'll return it when I'm done, I didn't steal it."

"So why don't you go inside and read?"

Wu Liang was even more curious.

Weren't there a lot of books in the bookstore that could be read for free in the reading rooms inside?

Why did the homeless man sit on the steps outside?

But when it came to this, the homeless man just scratched his head awkwardly and said, "I'm not clean, it's not good to dirty the inside for the owner, reading here is fine."

Only after a detailed conversation did Wu Liang learn—that the other party had been sickly since childhood, abandoned by his family, and was picked up and raised by another homeless man, who taught him to read, clinging to a dictionary bit by bit.

Now, the one who raised him is dead, and without a residence permit or education, he has become the next homeless person.

Wu Liang, who had only found out his parents had died less than a year ago, felt somewhat touched, perhaps sharing a similar sense of being homeless.

Before entering the library, he went to the nearby breakfast shop to buy two big bags of meat buns for the homeless man.

Originally, a homeless man who loved reading met Wu Liang, who happened to be kind and received a breakfast.

It was just a fleeting encounter.

But shortly after, the library inexplicably collapsed around noon, and the two were reunited now.

"This shoddy construction! Who knows how many people it harmed! We better get out and call for help!" The homeless man said to Wu Liang indignantly.

This was the first year of a major disaster, and most people were not yet aware of what supernatural resurrections meant.

Even at this moment, Wu Liang believed that the collapse was caused by shoddy construction, and he dragged his weary body along with the homeless man to find the way out.

Upon stepping outside, they realized that the library hadn't completely collapsed, only parts of the floors had; the overall external structure of the building was still stable.

The floor where he was researching was the third floor, and it was the fourth and fifth floors that had collapsed.

Seeing the corridors filled with rubble and cracks, with dust swirling in the air, Wu Liang suddenly thought of something.

Curiously, he asked the homeless man: "Weren't you outside? How did you get buried in the building?"

The homeless man continued to smile honestly and said, "I heard it collapsing inside with a loud bang and thought you hadn't come out yet, so I went inside to rescue you, and then got buried too. Luckily, both of us have big lives!"

Hearing this, Wu Liang felt a bit overwhelmed in his heart, he actually came in to look for him!?

After thanking the homeless man once more, the two supported each other in finding the way down.

Due to the collapse issues, Wu Liang was having a hard time figuring out where the original staircase was, and indeed many corridor ends were completely blocked by stones.

Click—

While they were searching, a strange noise came from a room on the other end of the corridor.

"Is there a survivor over there?" Wu Liang hurriedly walked towards the room, hoping the people buried might still be alive.

The two reached the room's door, only to find an even stranger scene.

There were indeed survivors inside the room, as many as ten of them.

Oddly, the door wasn't blocked by rubble, and none of these ten people were buried; through the window, everyone seemed unharmed.

Yet, they were all huddled in the corner of the room, eyes filled with terror.

"Are you all okay?" Wu Liang tried to pull open the door to communicate with them.

Bam—

The next second, they picked up stones from the ground and hurled them fiercely at Wu Liang, yelling frantically, "Don't open the door! Don't let the ghost in!"

The stones hitting the room's window glass startled Wu Liang backward, and the homeless man couldn't help but shout at them angrily:

"What are ya doin'! What are ya doin'! We came to rescue ya to take all of ya out! Aren't ya afraid it'll collapse again and bury ya? Good intentions treated as donkey liver and lungs!"

Faced with his rebuke, the people inside the room paid no attention, continuing to tremble and huddle while watching them.

At this moment, Wu Liang keenly noticed—that although the room's door wasn't blocked by large stones, it was firmly braced by two fallen bookshelves inside.

Moreover, the other bookshelves were some distance from the door. This looked as if the people inside the room deliberately moved bookshelves to brace the door, preventing others from entering.

Why do this?

Like the homeless man said, aren't they afraid of it all collapsing again, burying them in the room?

And when they threw stones just now, what did they mean by "don't let the ghost in"?

"Hey! What do you mean by 'ghost'? Can anyone explain?" Wu Liang walked up to the window, attempting to engage these ten people once again.

Upon seeing this, the people inside felt that if they didn't clarify, these two seemed unlikely to leave.

Then, a braver man hesitantly opened his mouth, saying: "There's a haunting in this library! After the floor collapsed, we were preparing to go out and get help, but everyone who stepped out of this room..."

At this point, the man hesitated.

"What happened to them?" Wu Liang asked.

"...were grabbed by a faceless shadow! Some had their necks twisted and snapped before being dragged away! Right outside the corridor! You two better run!"

A woman, driven by extreme panic, screamed hoarsely, worried that if they continued standing at the door, they might attract the shadow.

But they dared not open the door out of fear that the shadow would appear just as they did.

Hearing this tale, Wu Liang instinctively surveyed the surroundings.

Indeed, he found some splattered black and red liquid on the wall, and it seemed to be quite recent.

Could it be blood splattered from having one's neck twisted?

That seems too unrealistic, though? What kind of force would it take to twist someone's neck off alive?

But he didn't see any bodies around here!

Could it really be like they said, that the bodies were dragged away?

"Um... I don't know if I should say this," the homeless man tugged on Wu Liang's coat at this moment, speaking with a slightly trembling voice.

"Hm? Go ahead," Wu Liang responded.

After receiving Wu Liang's approval, he nervously and cautiously said:

"Wasn't there just ten people in this room? How come I just counted an extra person?"

"!!?"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.