I'm Actually Panicking Because My Heart Doesn't Beat (GL) - Chapter 1

Guan Xiaoxuan finished her work for the day and stretched at her desk.

Today marked her first month interning at this studio. The studio was small, with only about a dozen people. Guan Xiaoxuan’s job was mainly odd tasks and making some simple PowerPoint presentations. The work was easy, but her boss had some urgent matters, so right before leaving, he suddenly gave her several files to organize, which made her stay late.

Guan Xiaoxuan sighed, “Is it easy for me to get my internship stamped?”

She stood up, packed her things, and shut down her computer.

At the door, she punched out and turned off the office lights. After making sure no one else was inside, she locked the main door.

It was already 10 PM on the street. There was no one around, and her stomach was growling with hunger, but she couldn’t even find a snack stand. Oh well, Guan Xiaoxuan thought, I’ll just go home and have some instant noodles.

On her way home, she passed a long bridge spanning a rushing river below.

The April weather was still a bit chilly. When Guan Xiaoxuan walked across the bridge, the wind made her pull her neck in and sneeze loudly—

“Achoo!”

She shivered and shouted, “Isn’t it spring already? Why is it still so cold?”

Right after she spoke, a car with its high beams on appeared on the bridge, the lights so bright they made her unable to open her eyes. Before she could curse, the bright lights kept growing stronger and stronger.

Then—boom! —the car crashed through the guardrail, heading straight toward Guan Xiaoxuan!

A sharp pain lifted her off the ground. As she fell, she saw the shattered bridge pillar and the big bridge disappearing behind her, along with the black car plunging into the water.

As she hit the water, she wondered why she was so unlucky.

The studio keys… were still in her pocket… How would the office people… get to work now…

“Guan Xiaoxuan.”

“Guan Xiaoxuan…”

In the pitch-black fog, Guan Xiaoxuan felt someone calling her name. She blurred opened her eyes and tried to find where the voice was coming from.

But her body was cold, stiff, and completely immobile.

What happened?

Guan Xiaoxuan thought. Did she die from falling off the bridge?

That made sense. She couldn’t swim, and the crash was so violent. Even if she could swim, the impact would have probably ruptured her internal organs. Plus, she fell into the water—there was no way she survived.

“Guan Xiaoxuan…”

She heard the voice again. She tried to frown because the voice sounded familiar—like… her own voice.

“Welcome back, Guan Xiaoxuan.”

Suddenly, Guan Xiaoxuan opened her eyes wide and took deep gasps of air.

The loud rustling of plastic bags was sharp in her ears. She felt her limbs moving and quickly reached forward to touch the object wrapping her—it was a thick plastic bag all around her.

She struggled to find the zipper at the top and pulled it open with difficulty. Only then could she sit up, breathing a long sigh of relief.

“Almost suffocated…”

Holding her chest, Guan Xiaoxuan gasped and looked around. The room was quiet except for a faint blue light glowing in the corner. The surface she lay on was hard, like a stainless-steel slab.

A slab?

A question popped into her mind.

Why was she lying on a slab?

If she was still alive, she should be in a hospital bed. But this place looked like… a morgue.

Her heart dropped. She hurriedly felt her whole body and was relieved to find no injuries. But when her hand touched her chest, the smile she had just raised froze on her face.

“Holy crap!” Guan Xiaoxuan cursed loudly, “My heart isn’t beating!”

She had just checked all over her body—everything was intact except that her heart wasn’t beating at all!

As she scrambled down from the cold steel slab, strange images flooded her mind—images she had never seen before.

In a clear blue lake, she saw herself walking step by step into the water. That ‘Guan Xiaoxuan’ struggled in pain, then floated still and lifeless.

Then a flood of information streamed into her mind like data being uploaded.

Guan Xiaoxuan, 19 years old, a sophomore student in Xinglin City.

There were many other details: she was an orphan with no parents, completely alone; she had no friends at school and was always isolated. She was gloomy, shy, and had severe social anxiety—in short, a girl with no presence, sharing the same name as this Guan Xiaoxuan.

Her head spun. She still felt dizzy and her limbs weak as she got up and went to look for the ‘autopsy report.’

Click! The morgue light switched on.

Besides her slab, there were many others for corpses. The room was very cold—she even shivered.

She found a white lab coat on a hanger and put it on. Then on a nearby desk, she found the autopsy reports and located the one for ‘Guan Xiaoxuan.’

An unidentified female corpse… 20 years old… time of death… April 17th…

The time matched exactly.

Guan Xiaoxuan trembled holding the report. She didn’t know what was happening or what she should do, or even where she was. She had never heard of the city ‘Xinglin’ before.

Her head felt like it was going to explode, stuffed with strange and different memories.

She was dead. Then she had come back to life.

Ridiculous.

As she wondered why she was alive again, suddenly a loud bang made her drop the file on the desk, creating a loud noise.

“What the…” she said, startled.

Before she could finish, knocking sounds came from the morgue cabinets. Guan Xiaoxuan stepped back in fright as the bags holding the bodies began to move—arms and legs stretched out, trying to crawl out!

“Ahhh!”

Guan Xiaoxuan screamed, “Zombies!”

She panicked and shouted wildly. Even if she was a bit foolish, she knew none of these ‘brothers’ around her could still be alive, and that they weren’t suddenly waking up like her to crawl out and call her brother.

As she panicked, she saw one of the first bodies break free from the bag and sit up straight on the slab.

The person didn’t know how they had died; their face was pale and twisted, the head crooked. They looked around and noticed Guan Xiaoxuan standing by the cabinet.

Huff—

The corpse gasped roughly, its white eyes staring at her from a strange angle, making a strange rattling sound in its throat.

Guan Xiaoxuan’s scalp tingled, and her mind went blank for several seconds.

Anyone would freeze at a scene like this—it was too terrifying, scarier than most horror movies!

While she was stunned, more ‘brothers’ crawled out of their bags. Just as her brain started to work, a loud ringing exploded in her head.

She was doomed!

The first corpse that woke up smashed a nearby bag and crawled toward her on hands and feet!

Guan Xiaoxuan’s pupils shrank. She quickly crouched and dodged around the cabinet, rushing to a small locked side room in the corner.

Click, click—

She tried the door handle but it was locked. This was probably a storage room, a staff break room, or maybe a lab—but now it was locked tight!

Meanwhile, more corpses climbed down from the slabs. Some had broken flesh, others broken bones, but all turned their heads toward Guan Xiaoxuan with white, lifeless eyes fixed on her.

Her heart jumped into her throat. Was she really going to die again right after waking up?