Before Lin Sanjiu carried out her plan, she gave herself a pep talk. What she told herself was similar to what a girl in a modeling competition would think before going on stage. She was skinny enough, so she could definitely win this time.
However, unlike a future model, Lin Sanjiu was thinking to herself, "It would be great if I were a shorty."
Lin Sanjiu let out a sigh of relief and turned the item in her hand into a card. A palm-sized makeup mirror appeared in her hand.
Of course, after surviving in the apocalypse for so many years, she had long lost the habit of paying attention to her appearance. If it weren't for her grand prize's meticulous care when he prepared her daily necessities like an old mother sending her daughter on a long journey, she wouldn't even have this mirror. The reason why she suddenly paid so much attention to her own height was that if nothing unexpected happened, her little life would depend on how tall she was and how thin she was.
She turned the mirror over so that it was slanted outwards and scanned the corridor back and forth. With such a low angle and such a small mirror, her vision was murky, so the effect wasn't very good. However, she still managed to get a general idea of what was going on.
The guards were of different heights and all of them seemed to be men — or at least, they used to be men. It was hard to tell their height when they were lying on the ground, but Lin Sanjiu guessed that they were about 1.7 to 1.8 meters tall, so they shouldn't be too far away from her.
She observed for a while and found that when the first group of guards had just reached the pantry, the second group of guards had already turned back. This meant that there was a precious gap of two to three seconds before the first group of guards turned back. However, after running the calculation in her mind several times, she realized that it would take her at least four seconds to roll out from under the chair, get up, turn around, and dash to the T-shaped corridor in one breath. No matter how fast she was, it would take her at least four seconds to get out from under the chair, get up, turn around, and dash to the entrance of the T-shaped corridor. After all, she was missing an arm, so she couldn't climb out from under the chair that quickly.
One second was more than enough for the guards to see her.
Unless … she climbed out from under the chair before the second group of guards turned around?
"Wouldn't you be seen by them?" Mrs. Manas asked. Her voice was a little high-pitched due to her nervousness.
Lin Sanjiu didn't answer. Instead, she focused on the movements on both sides of the T-shaped corridor.
After a few hours, she had completely familiarized herself with the footsteps of the first and second group of guards. When she was fully focused, she could easily block out the sound of their footsteps from her mind. All that was left was the sounds of the two corridors on the left and right of the T-shaped corridor.
Judging from the distance of their footsteps, the guards on the left side of the T-shaped corridor happened to have their backs facing the T-shaped corridor. Lin Sanjiu called them the fourth group of guards. Coincidentally, the fifth group of guards on the right side of the T-shaped corridor had just turned around at that moment and could see the T-shaped corridor.
"Their uniform should be black, right?" Lin Sanjiu glanced at the mirror, but she couldn't be sure because of the thick fog in her field of vision.
"Do you think I can see more clearly than you?" Mrs. Manas said snappily.
"I think so." Lin Sanjiu replied as she rummaged through her card, "This row of chairs isn't wide, and the legs are thin. If you stand, you can see half of the floor under the chairs. The reason why they didn't look under the chairs is because I was hiding in the shadows of the cracks in the wall, leaving half of the floor empty … I'm lucky that they didn't find me after such a long time. However, if I continue to stay here, they will find me sooner or later. Don't be unhappy. I have no other choice but to take the risk. "
Mrs. Manas didn't say anything. She sighed, "... The fifth last card."
"What?"
"The fifth last card is a black coat."
Lin Sanjiu heaved a sigh of relief and quickly took out the coat. Even though it was a little awkward, she managed to put it on without making a sound. The coat that she had been wearing at the cashier's counter was nowhere to be found. Once again, Lin Sanjiu realized that any resource was extremely precious during the apocalypse. Perhaps, it could be of great help.
Her fingers were trembling due to the waves of nervousness. Her heart felt as if it had been plunged into icy water and then lifted up again. Lin Sanjiu counted down to seven minutes. When the first group of guards walked to the front of the chairs, Lin Sanjiu's body tensed up. She slowly crawled towards the edge of the chairs.
There were six guards and three rows of feet. Even though Lin Sanjiu didn't know why there was an extra foot in the second row, all six of them finally walked past the chairs. When the last row of guards reached the end of the long chairs, Lin Sanjiu rolled away silently. Her heart almost jumped out of her throat. She felt as if her heart was going to jump out of her throat. She rolled away for about ten minutes. She even felt that the eyes of the second group of guards were on her. However, when she regained her composure and leaped up from the ground, she didn't hear any warning.
At that moment, the first row of guards opened one of the doors and looked inside. Their patrolling habits were different from those of the first group. Every time they patrolled, they would poke their heads into the rooms. If Lin Sanjiu didn't notice this and knew that they were about to open the next door, she wouldn't have rolled out from under the chair even if she had ten thousand guts.
However, once she got out, she would be able to escape into the T-shaped corridor in two to three seconds!
When Lin Sanjiu stood up, she was standing behind the first group of guards. She was only a foot away from them.
She couldn't hear anything, but at the same time, she could hear everything clearly. In the next two or three seconds, she fell into a strange state. She forgot who she was and what would happen if she was caught. There was only a series of actions and processes in her mind. It was as if this was the only thing that mattered in the entire universe.
She shrunk her shoulders and squatted on the ground. She made herself as small as possible and used the bodies of the guards in front of her to block the line of sight from the opposite side. At this moment, the second group of guards slammed the door shut and walked towards the first group of guards. Seeing that they were getting closer, Lin Sanjiu's heart was beating faster and faster. However, after a greeting, the second group of guards turned around and went back to where they came from without finding anything.
"They didn't see anything!"
Goosebumps rose all over Lin Sanjiu's body. Her body moved faster than her mind. She twisted her body and dashed toward the left side of the T-shaped corridor. When she stepped into the T-shaped corridor, the guards on both sides of the corridor had their backs facing her. She glanced at a sign on the wall. Then, she turned around and followed the fourth group of guards on the left side of the corridor.
In the next second, the fifth group of guards turned toward her.
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