Chapter 13 The Final Round “Em . . . he is my parent’s friend, living with my family temporarily,” Lu Mengmeng explained to Lin Ruize, emphasizing the word “temporarily” as she warned Danjinos with her eyes.
“So, that’s it.” Lin Ruize’s surprising joyful expression made Lu Mengmeng confused. Why was he so happy?
The broadcasting system sounded when they were absorbed in their own thoughts.
“Compet.i.tors, please go to the appointed area. We will have the last round in twenty minutes.”
Danjinos and Lin Ruize went toward the gymnasium, and their fans followed them.
The gymnasium was lit up as if it was daytime. The walls were full of encouraging banners prepared by the fans. Danjinos and Lin Ruize changed into their basketball outfits and started to warm up.
Lu Mengmeng took a seat in the auditorium, but her teacher told her to go to the chemical lab to get some equipment. Though this requirement in the evening seemed weird, she did not think too much. She followed the teacher to a long-abandoned lab.
Why did the teacher ask me to come here to take anything?
She was pushed by someone from behind and staggered into the lab. Dust was stirred up and she coughed heavily.
Some girls with punk outlook appeared in front of her. The leader had green hair and an eerie heavy makeup that looked terrible at night.
“Tell me, what’s your relationship with Danjinos?” the leader aggressively asked her.
Lu Mengmeng took a careful close look at her for a long moment, and finally she remembered that she was the leader of the Danjinos’s Fans League.
“Well, in fact, we have none,” Mengmeng replied.
“We heard you speaking. Are you living together?” The leader was not satisfied with her answer.
“Eh, he is my parent’s friend, living in my apartment occasionally.”
“Really?”
The leader stared coldly at her for a while. Then she took out a letter from her pocket. “Since you said you have no relationship, would you help me give him a love letter?”
Wouldn’t you be afraid of being eaten by him? She started to mourn for her.
“Sorry, I can’t. You two are impossible.”
You are so young and unthinking, you don’t know what kind of monster the guy is. For your safety, I should be brave, Mengmeng thought.
“Is he really a girl?”
“Oh, of course not!”
The leader soon became agitated again. Her gaze on Mengmeng turned malicious. “So you are planning to seduce him, right? Good. Let us be his protector.” The leader pushed her on the ground, and took her teammates out of the room to leave, closing the door.
Lu Mengmeng stood up and tried to open the door, but found it locked from outside.
“Don’t expect anyone to come to this idle lab to save you!” the leader yelled outside.
“No . . . let me out . . . !”
It was five minutes until Danjinos and Lin Ruize’s final round of compet.i.tion.
The lab was old and the only light was overhead, and it blinked with sporadic illumination, which made her even more scared. Lu Mengmeng told herself to calm down, and tried to encourage herself to find a way out. Suddenly, the light went out and stayed out.
“Ah. . .” Mengmeng was shocked by the abrupt darkness, and she stepped backward, knocking her elbow on something. A clear and sharp crack sounded, and then a blue fire burst into flames on the ground.
It was . . . white phosphorus！
The burning point of white phosphorus was low and the old lab had no fireproofing, so the flame grew quickly, and then branched out.
“Help! Help!”
Mengmeng banged her hands on the door and yelled loudly for help. Though she had tried her best to push the door open, it didn"t move.
In the gymnasium, the audience was cheering and chatting loudly. This compet.i.tion would come to its end after the final round, so their happiness rose as the event got underway. Most of the people were squeezed into the gymnasium, not knowing there was someone screaming desperately in the old lab.
However, Danjinos’s ears suddenly quivered.
He felt someone was asking for help, but the voice was far away and the people here were too noisy. Though he could hear the sounds beyond a hundred meters, he could not discern the voice.
Danjinos stopped his warm-up and p.r.i.c.ked his ears; he heard nothing.
Was he wrong? n.o.body was calling?
His eyes swept quickly through the auditorium to fix Mengmeng in the audience, and he found an empty seat.
Where is she?
He felt his heart was sinking.
“Compet.i.tors, are you ready?” The referee was standing in the middle of the basketball court, preparing to blow his whistle.
In the lab, Mengmeng was still pounding the door with desperation, her tears running down her face as the fire blazed. How could she die so early?
But all the people were in the gymnasium to watch the best game of the year, and her voice was heard by n.o.body.
“Wait!” Danjinos suddenly raised his hand to the referee, and bent to put his ball on the floor.
“Danjinos, anything?”
“I quit from this round. His win.”
“What?”
Not only was the referee stunned, but all the audience burst into uproar.
Danjinos rushed out after saying this, without giving them an acceptable explanation.