Chapter 14
He had made the monster. He had stayed beside her, right up until the final moment.
He hoped that when that moment truly came, he would have a chance to say goodbye.
I’m sorry, Suxia.
Goodbye, Suxia.
…
Shao Lan opened his eyes.
The radiance before him faded. So did everything in the apartment.
The funeral altar, the clock, the fish tank, the man and woman, the sirens and rain. It all seemed like a dream they’d just had.
The three of them stood in the doorway of an empty room.
Looking around, Jiang Mingran suddenly exclaimed, “This isn’t the corridor we were in!”
Shao Lan narrowed his eyes.
The layout had indeed changed completely. The stairs and rooms had vanished. The only path led to an elevator.
With a ding, its doors opened. It stood empty, as though waiting for them to get in.
Jiang Mingran studied the eerie elevator, his face turning a little pale. “What do we do now? Get in?”
Shao Lan walked toward it. “It’s the only way. Let’s go.”
They entered. All three paused.
There were no buttons, no display, nothing. It was simply an iron box.
“This doesn’t look right…” Unease flickered in Jiang Mingran’s eyes. He hesitated, wanting to leave, but the doors had already closed.
Cold white light fell on their faces, making them look sickly yellow.
The elevator rumbled, apparently starting up.
After an unknown length of time, the rumbling stopped. They’d arrived.
The two iron-gray doors slid apart. A young woman in business attire stood before them.
“Congratulations on passing the screening and becoming residents of Building 7, Xingfu Estate.”
She wore a dark blue work uniform. A name badge on her chest read “Property Management.”
“Mr. Shao Lan. Mr. Jiang Mingran. Mr. Zheng Bingfeng.” The property manager smiled sweetly. “Your rooms are 802, 803, and 804, respectively.”
“On behalf of Property Management, I am awarding each of you five hundred yuan for successfully surviving the screening scenario, Night of the Cannibal.”
Shao Lan asked, “How do you know our names?”
The property manager looked at him with a smile.
Jiang Mingran grew impatient. “Lan asked you a question. Who are you? Why do you know our names? And what the hell is this place?”
Still smiling, she spoke again. “Congratulations on passing the screening. Mr. Shao Lan. Mr. Jiang Mingran. Mr. Zheng Bingfeng. Your rooms are…”
She didn’t answer either man’s questions. She simply repeated her welcome speech.
“Do you not understand a word we’re saying?” Jiang Mingran was furious now. Had it been a man in front of him, he probably would have thrown a punch already. “Stop playing dumb. I’ll ask you one more time…”
As he advanced angrily, the property manager’s smile remained unchanged. Even the curve of her lips stayed exactly the same.
“It’s no use.” Shao Lan stopped him. “She won’t answer.”
He studied the property manager. She looked twenty-five or twenty-six, no different from a real person. But closer inspection revealed something uncanny.
Like a programmed NPC, all she could do was repeat herself.
Uncle Bing said anxiously, “I don’t live in your estate! I want to go home! My granddaughter will worry when she wakes up and can’t find me!”
He turned to take the elevator down, then remembered it had no buttons. He couldn’t make it go to the first floor. Anxiously dragging his bad leg, he looked around the corridor, muttering, “How do I get downstairs…?”
His question seemed to trigger something in the property manager. She immediately came to his side.
“Hello, Resident Zheng Bingfeng. Would you like to go to another floor?”
She pointed. “The emergency stairwell for this building is ten meters ahead of you.”
“The emergency stairwells contain stairs connecting every building. Residents may walk to their desired floor.”
“Please take special care not to use the elevator for this purpose. We accept no responsibility for the consequences.”
In other words, to reach another floor, they had to use the stairs. Not the elevator.
Stairs were fine. Anything was fine, as long as he could get out quickly. Before she could say more, Uncle Bing was already dragging his unsteady leg toward the stairwell.
He was so frantic that he nearly tripped himself several times.
Ever the helpful college student, Jiang Mingran hurried after him. “Uncle Bing, let me help.”
According to the property manager, they were on the eighth floor. It wouldn’t take too long to walk down.
Uncle Bing was small and walked slowly. Jiang Mingran simply hoisted him onto his back.
“Aren’t you coming with us?”
Turning, he found Shao Lan still standing where he’d been.
After a moment’s thought, Shao Lan turned to the property manager. “Can I check in later?”
This seemed to be a question she could answer. She immediately nodded politely. “Of course. I’ll wait here, ready to assist you at any time.”
At that, Shao Lan turned and followed Jiang Mingran.
Jiang Mingran was puzzled. “Why’d you ask her that? Don’t tell me you actually want to live in this weird place.”
Shao Lan shook his head. “No. I just like to leave myself a fallback.”
They entered the emergency stairwell together. It resembled an old communal apartment block, with a faint smell of mildew. Perhaps the bulbs were about to give out. They cast only a pitiful yellow glow, barely enough to light the steps underfoot.
With Uncle Bing on Jiang Mingran’s back, they soon reached the first floor.
At the sight before them, all three froze.
The first floor was spacious and empty, with scraps of rubbish scattered over the ground.
No doors. No windows. Walls on all four sides.
The walls had been white, but were now covered in dark brown stains, filthy beyond recognition.
At intervals along them were black squares, about the size of a small child’s palm.
“No door…” Uncle Bing murmured, his face white. “How can the first floor have no door…?”
Every building should have an entrance on the first floor, shouldn’t it?
But this one had none.
No door meant no way out.
“Could we have gone the wrong way?” Uncle Bing muttered. “Is this really the first floor?”
They retreated into the emergency stairwell. The red sign there did indeed display a large numeral 1.
“Maybe it’s the first basement level…” Uncle Bing murmured, unwilling to give up.
But he knew that was impossible. They’d counted the floors on the way down. This was definitely the first.
“Maybe the exit’s on the second floor?” Jiang Mingran tried to give himself a little hope. “Whatever happens, let’s go up and look.”
He picked up Uncle Bing and was about to head upstairs when he noticed Shao Lan leaning close to one of the black squares, examining something.
His expression was grim.
“What’s wrong…?”
“They’re windows,” Shao Lan said quietly. “These squares are tiny windows.”
Startled, Jiang Mingran and Uncle Bing hurried closer to look.
The light was so dim that they’d mistaken them for patterns on the wall.
Up close, they could see they were holes leading outside.
But beyond the holes was pure, unbroken blackness.
Like a night without a single source of light.
Jiang Mingran reached out. But the “window” was only the size of a small child’s palm. His arm plainly wouldn’t fit.
“If we widen it, could we get out?”
He knew it was a ridiculous idea. But after a sleepless night of torment at a monster’s hands, he was beginning to feel a little mad.
He searched the rubbish on the floor and actually found a screwdriver.
Breaking through such a thick wall with a screwdriver was obviously unrealistic. Still, he pushed it through the small window and struck hard around the edges.
The wall didn’t budge. But Jiang Mingran’s expression suddenly changed.
The screwdriver in his hand… felt a little lighter.
He yanked it back. All three of them went deathly pale.
Every part that had extended beyond the window was gone. Only the handle remained in his hand.
“How… how is that possible…?” he murmured.
His face cold, Shao Lan picked a small stone off the floor and threw it out through the window.
All three held their breath. The silence around them was terrifying.
They never heard it land.
Shao Lan’s expression grew grimmer.
He’d expected this place to be strange. But what he was seeing went far beyond anything he’d imagined.
“Even if we find a door, I don’t think we can leave…” he said heavily. “Anything that leaves this building ceases to exist.”