Sometimes, for no apparent reason, people would be startled by certain things.
For example... someone suddenly opening a door, someone suddenly speaking, or a sound suddenly coming from somewhere.
These sounds were all perfectly ordinary. They were not necessarily strange; they were things people heard all the time. But at moments like this, they would become extraordinary.
When the telephone rang, the warden had both hands on the armrests of his chair and was just about to stand when the sudden ringing made him shudder.
The shrill ringing echoed through the office. Every time it rang, it sent a needle-like stab of pain through him.
It clearly could not actually hurt, yet it gave him the sensation of pain, as though a needle were pricking him somewhere.
It was not severe enough to leave him unable to stand, but he could not ignore it either.
The telephone kept ringing. Ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring...
The pores on Dian Yu's nape began to tighten. On a microscopic level, a "tsunami" was rapidly sweeping from the back of his neck across the top of his head.
His scalp tingled faintly. After the telephone had rung several times, he picked it up.
He knew that if he did not answer, it would keep ringing, because it had not stopped.
"You finally answered..."
The voice on the phone made him somewhat uneasy. It was his wife's call.
"What is it?" Before his wife could finish speaking, the warden interrupted her.
His heartbeat began to quicken. His other hand gripped the armrest tightly, squeezing harder and harder, as if he could snap it at any moment.
There was no bad news on the phone.
"Did you forget?"
"Tomorrow is Ke Sai's graduation ceremony. We agreed to go together, so you'd better come home early."
Ke Sai was the warden's