Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I didn’t sleep a wink.

After returning home, I zoomed in on that photo over a dozen times. The wear on the toe, the dust along the edges, and even that tiny crack on the side-everything matched.

The last time I saw Lu Qingchuan before she went missing was at the entrance of the Municipal Bureau.

She had joined the police force and entered criminal investigation right after graduating from university. Three years into the job, she had grown thinner, but the light in her eyes only grew brighter. That day, she treated me to a bowl of beef noodles and told me she was following an old case related to the building where I worked. She didn’t go into detail; she only warned me not to use the West Staircase lately, especially when working late into the night. She told me not to push my luck and to just take the elevator.

I teased her, saying she was suffering from an occupational hazard.

She didn’t laugh. She just looked at me and said, “Kening, if I ever go missing, don’t look for me, and don’t report it to the police. Just wait for me to come back on my own.”

At the time, I thought she was just acting out a scene from a TV drama.

Three days later, her phone was turned off. Her last WeChat message was: “Don’t reply to me for a while.” A week later, the Municipal Bureau only said she was on a classified mission. Later on, even Du Jingzhou stopped picking up my calls.

I comforted myself with the thought that she was a police officer; she would be fine.

But for half a year, it was as if she had vanished from the face of the earth.

The next day, I walked into the office with bloodshot eyes. My colleague, Lin Pei, was holding a cup of coffee and sharing ghost stories about the building.

“Have you heard? Someone counted the Eleventh Step on the West Staircase again recently.” She lowered her voice. “The administrative group chat is going crazy. They say that woman from five years ago disappeared right there.”

My heart tightened. “What woman?”

“A cleaner,” she said. “I heard it from the auntie downstairs. They say someone saw a single shoe on the stairs in the middle of the night back then, and a female cleaner died the very next day. Since then, the building gets haunted every few years. Whoever counts to eleven is in for bad luck.”

Someone nearby snorted, calling it a marketing rumor for an old office building.

I didn’t join the conversation.

When I went downstairs at noon to pick up my takeout, Han Zeqian was standing by the front desk registering visitors. Seeing me approach, he held the door open for me as usual, acting as if nothing had happened.

“Did you sleep well last night, Miss Tang?” he asked with a smile.

I stared at him. “Brother Han, did something really happen on the West Staircase before?”

His movements paused for half a second before he resumed his amiable demeanor. “It’s an old building; there are all sorts of rumors. You girls shouldn’t scare yourselves.”

“What about the Eleventh Step?”

“There are always ten steps.” He looked at me, his voice very soft. “If you count wrong, it just means you’re too tired.”

He gave me a reassuring nod after he finished speaking.

But the cap of the signature pen in his hand had already been snapped, leaving a visible crack.

I lowered my head and pulled out my phone, scrolling to the photo Lu Qingchuan sent before she disappeared. She was sitting in a car, only half a leg visible, with a blue braided cord tied to her shoelace. I put that photo side-by-side with the one I took of the shoe last night. They were identical.

Suddenly, I didn’t want to wait for anyone else to give me answers anymore.