Chapter 9
Why…?
Jiang Mingran was certain he’d seen Uncle Bing through the glass.
Why would Uncle Bing be wearing red embroidered shoes?
Clutching his right shoulder, Shao Lan asked hoarsely, “Did you see Uncle Bing’s head?”
Jiang Mingran nodded.
Shao Lan looked at him sadly.
“And was that… all you saw? His head?”
A chill crept up Jiang Mingran’s back. His whole body went rigid.
Slowly, he looked up. At some point, Uncle Bing’s face had been pressed against the glass, silently watching the people inside.
His eyes were fixed, his pupils dilated.
Uncle Bing was dead. The woman had killed him after climbing in through the window.
His lifeless face remained against the glass for a few seconds, then moved aside. In its place appeared that almost entirely white eye.
The woman had been crouching halfway down outside the door, holding up Uncle Bing’s head. Now she’d straightened, bringing her own face level with the glass.
Her sightless eye blinked. Then she smiled.
She slammed into the wooden door!
With a crash, the door panel split before Jiang Mingran’s despairing eyes.
Wood couldn’t match the strength of the security door. A few more hits like that, and it wouldn’t hold.
“Jiang Mingran.”
He turned. Shao Lan was looking at him calmly.
This young man couldn’t be more than a few years older than him, yet he’d remained extraordinarily composed throughout.
Using his good left hand, Shao Lan pulled him close and whispered the plan into his ear. “Hide in a moment. I’ll…”
Jiang Mingran’s eyes widened as he heard the rest. “No! You can’t. You’ll die!”
Shao Lan shook his head. “I can’t hide.”
He pointed to his blood-soaked right shoulder. The smell was like a constant broadcast of his location. Wherever he hid, the woman would find him at once.
“Can I ask you a favor?” Shao Lan coughed. “If I die, once you’ve made sure the police can subdue her, kill yourself.”
Jiang Mingran froze.
Then he understood.
“I will,” he said. “I promise. I’ll kill myself.”
Shao Lan nodded.
Given a choice, he didn’t like placing his life in someone else’s hands.
But there was no other way now.
Only two little goldfish remained in the tank. Once this attempt ended, each of them would have just one life left.
So in this loop, one of them had to survive long enough to see the police arrive.
“There’s no time. Hide. Don’t make a sound,” Shao Lan said.
His eyes red, Jiang Mingran hid off to one side.
The woman struck one last time. With a splintering groan, the wooden door gave way, and a withered hand punched through the panel.
Shao Lan leaned against the windowsill. Empty-handed, he looked calmly at her.
“Your child is lovely,” he said abruptly.
The hand tearing through the door stopped for a moment.
Shao Lan glanced behind him. Thick fog hid how many floors up they were. He could only tell they were high above the ground. Wind laden with rain blew in, cold to the bone.
He looked at her. “A boy or a girl?”
Behind the table, Jiang Mingran trembled all over, struggling not to make a sound.
“You don’t know?” Shao Lan said. “Shall I tell you?”
He spoke each word distinctly. “I’ll tell you. Neither.”
“You don’t have a child. Your child is a wad of cotton stuffed inside your jacket,” he said calmly.
He’d sensed something wrong when he found the medicine simmering in the kitchen.
According to Uncle Bing, the prescription helped a woman conceive. But if she was already pregnant, why keep drinking it?
And when she shielded her lower abdomen just now, the way her jacket changed shape had confirmed it. There was a thick wad of cotton in there.
“You don’t have a child, yet you keep protecting your belly. You’ve fooled yourself, haven’t you? Does lying to yourself make you happy?” Shao Lan asked coldly.
“You don’t have a child now. You probably never will. You’ve killed so many people… What child would choose to be reincarnated in a serial killer’s womb?”
Slowly, the woman’s eyes widened. A line of bloody tears ran from her one exposed eye.
Then she began to shriek.
She crashed into the door. The ruined wooden panel flew inward, and she charged at Shao Lan.
She shrieked, her all-white eyes turning scarlet.
Shao Lan fell backward.
His body slipped into the thick fog, dropping from the window.
The woman couldn’t see. All she knew was that her blood-scented prey was just ahead. By the time she charged forward and realized she’d reached the window, it was too late.
Her tall, thin body tipped off balance, most of it hurtling over the sill.
She hastily tried to stop herself.
At that moment, Jiang Mingran burst out of hiding.
With every ounce of strength he had, he slammed into her.
She let out a tremendous shriek, like the roar of some great beast, as the impact sent her through the window and into the fog.
Jiang Mingran clung to the sill, gasping for breath.
That had been Shao Lan’s plan.
Enrage her. Strip away as much of her reason as possible. Then… send her plunging into the depths.
But Shao Lan had paid the price, too.
There’d been no other way. Monster though she’d become, she clearly retained some intelligence. She’d even known to use Uncle Bing’s head to trick them into opening the door.
They’d needed bait…
Wind struck Jiang Mingran’s face. His eyes were red.
Uncle Bing was dead. Shao Lan was dead.
Alone, facing the rain and fog outside the window, he felt as though a great hole had opened inside him.
“Lan…”
“Xiao Jiang.”
The voice was terribly faint, as though its owner had only a last breath left.
Jiang Mingran’s eyes widened.
“Xiao Jiang.”
He wasn’t imagining it!
He looked down.
Shao Lan was hanging outside the window.
He’d used his jacket to secure his ankles to the window. Now he dangled upside down beyond the sill.
Jiang Mingran hurriedly grabbed his legs and hauled him up.
Shao Lan lay facedown on the floor. Bloody froth welled from his mouth with every breath.
The woman had hit him as she fell. Now he felt as though a bulldozer had run over every bone in his body, leaving none intact.
“Back… go back…” He weakly pointed across the hall.
The woman had fallen, but with a body as monstrous as hers, there was no telling whether the fall would kill her.
If she came back, the wooden door in Wang’s apartment was completely destroyed. The security door opposite might still hold for a while.
Jiang Mingran carried Shao Lan across on his back and locked the security door.
He’d just finished when a police siren sounded outside.
“The police are here!” Jiang Mingran nearly cried with joy.
Shao Lan let out a long breath, too.
He was so tired.
Blood loss had left him utterly exhausted. Fog seemed to fill his mind, slowing every thought. If he closed his eyes, he’d lose consciousness at once. Sheer will was all that kept him going.
“Police! Open the door!”
Someone knocked.
Jiang Mingran hurried over and looked through the peephole. “The task force?”
“Yes. Is the suspect inside? Is anyone injured?” a man called from outside.
“Yes!” Jiang Mingran hastily opened the door. “He’s badly hurt. He needs emergency treatment…”
Leaning against the wall on the floor, Shao Lan watched him unhook the security chain.
Suddenly, a thought flashed like lightning through the fog in his mind.
Too fast.
From the siren sounding to the knock at the door, it couldn’t have been a full minute.
That was too fast.
With an elevator, perhaps they could have managed it?
Did this building have an elevator…?
But… but… even if it did…
They hadn’t told the police the apartment number!
Every time they’d called, they’d only given Building 7, Xingfu Estate. They’d never specified a floor or apartment, because they hadn’t found those out themselves.
How could the police know? How could they come straight to the right door in less than a minute?
There was only one possibility…
“Don’t open it!” Shao Lan screamed himself hoarse. “He’s not a real cop!”
Too late.
Jiang Mingran’s eyes widened.
The man outside wore a somewhat worn jacket. He wasn’t tall, and his face was drawn. He looked like the most ordinary tired middle-aged man.
Except for one thing.
He held a long knife. The instant the door opened, the blade thrust through the gap and into Jiang Mingran’s chest.