Chapter 363: USB Drive
“What? After so much effort, I get nothing...”
Chen Chen silently closed the window and right-clicked to open the properties of the USB flash drive but saw that the total capacity of the USB flash drive was displayed as unknown.
“So, the USB drive is broken?”
Chen Chen thought for a while and was just about to transfer some files to test out the USB flash drive. However, he heard a flurry of footsteps approaching from a distance. Then, the dormitory door was kicked open with a “blam” and Li Bo walked in doing the latest viral dance.
“Lil Chen, why’d you come back so early today?”
Li Bo yawned and sat next to Chen Chen. “Why did you dash off after cla.s.s just now? The cla.s.s leader was distributing admission tickets to the campus evening party at the back of the cla.s.sroom.”
“Isn’t the campus party organized by the school? What admission ticket do I need?”
Chen Chen said in objection.
“This time, the evening party is set up in the auditorium. It can only hold one-third of the school’s people. How can everyone possibly join?”
Li Bo shook his head and said, “Moreover, many celebrities have been invited to this party, so there are only ten tickets for a cla.s.s.”
“You guys can go then.”
Chen Chen yawned and waved his hand. “I’m not going anymore. I might as well game a few rounds if I have this idle time.”
At this moment, w.a.n.g Wei and Zhou Jie also returned to the dormitory. Suddenly, there was a raucous atmosphere in the dormitory. The four of them kept chatting about the campus party a few days later, but Chen Chen found out that none of them had even grabbed an admission ticket to the campus party.
“Come on, we’d still do what we gotta do.”
The dorm leader, w.a.n.g Wei, shrugged, and suddenly let out a “Huh” sound. “Lil Chen, what is that black thing on your computer?”
“A USB flash drive that I picked up in the cla.s.sroom.”
Chen Chen unplugged the USB flash drive and threw it to w.a.n.g Wei. “Take it if you like it.”
“It’s not like I don’t have one.”
w.a.n.g Wei handed the USB flash drive to Zhou Jie, who was beside him. “This USB flash drive looks pretty good.”
“Is there any good stuff in it?”
Zhou Jie’s eyes suddenly lit up. He quickly took out his computer and inserted the USB flash drive in.
“Nope, I’ve checked. There’s nothing inside and I can’t even see its capacity. It’s probably corrupted.”
Chen Chen gave a warning. Seeing that Zhou Jie was still enthusiastically studying the USB drive, Chen Chen did not continue to mind him.
Soon enough, there was a “ding” from Zhou Jie’s computer.
“Oh, is it really broken?”
Zhou Jie complained, “I tried to upload some files and a ‘Program Error’ window popped up directly! What a waste of its cool appearance.”
Hearing this, Chen Chen’s heart suddenly jolted. He seemed to have thought of something and said, without rhyme nor reason, “Maybe you can try a movie?”
“No files can be copied in, so of course, movies are impossible.”
Zhou Jie grumbled but he still followed Chen Chen’s words.
In a little while, Zhou Jie suddenly chuckled and said excitedly, “Who said it was broken? Isn’t it working just fine?”
Chen Chen reflexively raised his head. w.a.n.g Wei and Li Bo on the side also looked at Zhou Jie’s computer subconsciously, only to see that four avi-format movies had been put in the computer at this point.
[Ju-on.avi.], [Final Destination.avi.], [One Missed Call.avi], [Ring.avi.].
“D*mn, how come you put this kind of movie in, Nostril?”
w.a.n.g Wei said in puzzlement, “Do you like watching horror movies too?”
“They’re okay. Didn’t Lil Bo say he was looking for excitement before? So I downloaded them. It has been several days and I kept forgetting to watch them.”
Zhou Jie said.
Chen Chen just remembered that the reason Zhou Jie said this was because the school’s campus network was billed by time and the cost was not low. These guys in Chen Chen’s dormitory often ran out of time before the end of the month, so to reduce their online time and use less of the campus network, they all agreed to launch the “Night Cinema” activity.
After 11 o’clock at night every day, the four of them would only keep one computer connected to the Internet and everyone would sit in front of this computer to watch a movie, which was also considered team-building.
In terms of film selection, everyone in the dormitory had proclaimed the “three no’s” principle — no watching romantic dramas, no watching idol dramas, and no watching literary movies. After all, a group of grown men sitting together, watching those sort of sentimental, long-winded movies — well, if something happened, no one could bear the blame.
Apart from those, they could watch anything else. Nonetheless, Chen Chen preferred science fiction and disaster movies while dorm leader w.a.n.g Wei preferred horror and slasher movies. Zhou Jie’s taste was similar to w.a.n.g Wei’s while Li Bo prefers Hong Kong movies from the last century.
Still, fortunately, the four of them had a common movie category that they liked, that was, the X-rated genre.
However, this genre was more suitable for viewing alone. It was inevitable that one would lose the mood if they watched it together. Therefore, when they were together, they still watched Hollywood blockbusters most of the time.
At this time, Li Bo, who was more afraid of ghosts, said with a guilty conscience, “No way, Nostril, do you want everyone to watch these four movies?”
“Of course.”
Zhou Jie smugly put the USB flash drive on the table. “Now, we even have a shared USB flash drive. In the future, you can upload any movies you want to play for ‘Night Cinema’ so that we can even save the last bit of campus network time!”
“Not bad. That’s more like it.”
w.a.n.g Wei was also extremely excited. “These films are much better than European and American slasher films. Europe and the United States don’t understand horror. They either scare people using jump scares or fill the screen with blood and gore or make some furniture fly around. It’s getting so old. For real horror, you still need to go for j.a.panese horror!”
Everyone immediately started talking in full swing.
However, the enthusiastic group did not notice Chen Chen, who was sitting opposite, had turned pale at this time. He stared at the USB flash drive on the table but suddenly felt an inexplicable throbbing in his heart.
He felt like after moving the horror movies into this USB flash drive, something bad would happen...
This ominous premonition was getting heavier. Dorm leader w.a.n.g Wei finally noticed that something was wrong. He asked with concern, “Lil Chen, are you feeling sick?”
“I’m fine...”
Chen Chen shook his head. He was about to take the USB flash drive and throw it away but Zhou Jie, who was opposite him, picked up the USB flash drive again and started fighting with Li Bo.
Seeing this, Chen Chen had to give up.
Soon, it was noon and four of them went to the cafeteria to have lunch. Then, they returned to the dormitory, laughing and talking, and lay down in bed.
In this dormitory, Chen Chen and w.a.n.g Wei had always had the habit of taking a lunch break but Li Bo and Zhou Jie did not have this habit. However, during their lunch break, they would also tacitly lower the sound of the computer, so as not to affect the other two.
After having lunch, the foreboding in Chen Chen’s heart had gradually disappeared. Finally, he looked at Zhou Jie and the USB flash drive next to the computer. He gave up on thinking anymore and just closed his eyes.
Soon, Chen Chen fell asleep.
In the beginning, Chen Chen slept extremely comfortably because he found that today’s dormitory was exceptionally quiet as if he was the only one in the entire dormitory.
However, for some reason, after falling asleep, Chen Chen only felt that his whole body was getting colder. He had already covered himself with the quilt but there was still an inexplicable chill in the dormitory.
Not only that but as he drifted between sleep and wakefulness, Chen Chen seemed to see something stretching over the upper bunk and approaching his face bit by bit. However, when the thing was about to reach Chen Chen’s head, the dormitory’s broadcaster suddenly blared.
It was the wake-up call at two o’clock in the afternoon.
Chen Chen opened his eyes quickly but saw a flash of something white suddenly retracting into the upper bunk. It looked to be a hand. Chen Chen just sat up, yawned heavily, and subconsciously looked at the opposite side.
What Chen Chen saw was that on the opposite table, Zhou Jie was sitting in front of the computer with a slack expression. His face white as if he had been attacked by something...
“What’s wrong, Nostril?”
At this time, the rest also got up one after another, and suddenly noticed Zhou Jie who was slumped in front of the computer, so they started to inquire with concern.
Even so, Zhou Jie was like a wooden man. Even if he heard everyone’s inquiries, he did not respond.
“Nostril, Nostril!”
w.a.n.g Wei quickly got out of bed, walked in front of Zhou Jie, and waved his hand before Zhou Jie’s eyes. At this point, Zhou Jie opened a pair of dull eyes and slowly turned his head to look at w.a.n.g Wei.
“Nostril, what’s wrong with you?”
Chen Chen also got out of bed. He subconsciously walked around Zhou Jie, only to see that the computer in front of Zhou Jie was turned on and the computer was displaying a “Program Error” window. On the right side of the computer, the black USB flash drive was plugged in...
“Did you watch these movies?”
Chen Chen’s heart sank. He immediately grabbed the mouse and crossed out the program error window. Then, he selected all four movies on the USB drive and pressed Ctrl+D at the same time.
With a “swoosh”, all four movies were deleted!
After doing all this, Chen Chen secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Although he did not understand where his inner anxiety came from, for some reason, this USB flash drive always felt evil to him.
“I’m fine!”
Just then, Zhou Jie also stood up suddenly, smiled stiffly at everyone, then turned around and walked outside the dormitory.
After he had left the dormitory, Chen Chen, w.a.n.g Wei, and Li Bo looked at each other.
“What happened to Nostril?”
“Maybe he’s sick or is he just scared by those four horror films?”
“It shouldn’t be that. Nostril isn’t so timid...”
The three of them exchanged a few words casually without much thought. After that, they packed their things, left the dormitory, and walked toward the teaching building.
When the three of them entered the cla.s.sroom and saw Zhou Jie sitting in his seat as usual, everyone felt completely relieved.
Soon, the cla.s.s teacher hurried in and the cla.s.s began.
Chen Chen listened to the cla.s.s as usually did, but for some reason, as he sat in cla.s.s, Chen Chen felt a tingling sensation at his back.
It was as if someone was staring at him...
Chen Chen looked back subconsciously but was immediately met with a pair of clear and deep pupils.
Was that the girl he saw in the morning?
At this time, the little girl was sitting alone in the back row of the cla.s.sroom, in the same column as Chen Chen. As Chen Chen turned his head abruptly, the two looked at each other by coincidence.
Chen Chen saw a stunned look on the girl’s face before she widened her eyes and smiled at him.
Chen Chen reluctantly squeezed out an awkward smile and quickly turned his head back.
In the next cla.s.s, Chen Chen distinctly felt that the cold tingle on his back had lessened significantly. This was because his head was filled with the girl’s smile. He did not know why, but her eyes seemed to have seared deeply into his heart.
It was nothing like a crush, but a feeling of pity.
Chen Chen did not know why he had to pity her. He just forced himself to finish the cla.s.s. After the teacher had left, he stood up and started to pack his textbooks.
However, Zhou Jie in front of him moved faster. He picked up the textbooks and left the cla.s.sroom right after cla.s.s.
“Lil Chen, I feel something is wrong with Nostril. I’ll go take a look. Help me take my books back.”
The dorm leader w.a.n.g Wei quickly patted Chen Chen on the shoulder. Before Chen Chen could agree, he also walked off.
“I’ll go take a look too.” Li Bo also waved to Chen Chen, then turned and left.
Chen Chen thought nothing much of this. He took the notebooks and textbooks of the two of them and put them together with his own.
However, just as Chen Chen bowed his head to pack up the books, a burst of unknown fragrance came to him.
“h.e.l.lo there!”
There was a clear voice by his ear. Chen Chen raised his head subconsciously, only to see the girl standing directly in front of him. She was looking at him with a smile on her face.
“Hey there...”
Chen Chen replied instinctively, “What’s up, cla.s.smate?”
“I’m a new transfer student. Can I be friends with you?” the girl asked enthusiastically.
“Be friends?”
Chen Chen was astounded. As a member of the loser gang, he knew his place in the social hierarchy. He was one of those who would become invisible in a crowd of people. In other words, he had a very common face. Thus, ever since a young age, he had never encountered a situation where a girl took the initiative to strike up a conversation with him.
Not only that, but because of his relatively introverted personality, although Chen Chen could be said to be experienced, it was all in theory. He had never touched a girl’s hand.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen glanced around subconsciously but saw several people also looking over in astonishment, seemingly wondering why he would be favored by the girl. He quickly lowered his head and smiled dryly. “Cla.s.smate, shouldn’t you first make friends with those of the same s.e.x?”
“It’s all the same.”
The girl giggled and then bounced out of the cla.s.sroom.
Seeing this, Chen Chen felt completely relieved. He was truly a little lost in the face of the girl’s sudden enthusiasm.
Holding a thick stack of books back to the dormitory building, Chen Chen panted and walked up to the fourth floor. When he opened the door of Dorm 404 with the key, Chen Chen suddenly froze.
He should have felt completely relieved but for some reason, when he stepped into the dormitory he was familiar with, his hairs suddenly stood up all over his body and he got gooseb.u.mps without warning!
He had never felt this way.
“What’s up with that?”
Chen Chen frowned and could only bite the bullet and walked into the dormitory. He threw the books directly on everyone’s beds and then sat back on his own bed.
He had gradually realized that ever since today or strictly speaking, since he picked up the black USB flash drive, he had been feeling rather peculiar.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen subconsciously looked at the location of Zhou Jie’s computer. Sure enough, the USB flash drive was still plugged into Zhou Jie’s laptop.
Could it be that something was wrong with this USB drive?
Chen Chen could not figure this out. He simply took advantage of the fact that everyone in the dormitory had not come back and walked directly to Zhou Jie’s computer, moving as if he was about to unplug the USB flash drive.
However, the instant Chen Chen touched the USB flash drive, a pale arm suddenly stretched out from beyond Chen Chen’s line of sight and grabbed Chen Chen’s hand...
Chen Chen’s pupils contracted quickly!