Why...?
Jiang Mingran was certain he'd just seen Uncle Pancake through the glass.
Why was Uncle Pancake wearing red embroidered shoes?
Clutching his right shoulder, Shao Lan asked hoarsely, "Did you see Uncle Pancake's head?"
Jiang Mingran nodded.
Shao Lan looked at him sadly.
"And was his head... all you saw?"
A chill crawled up Jiang Mingran's back. His entire body stiffened.
Slowly, he looked up. At some point, Uncle Pancake's face had been pressed against the glass, silently watching the people inside.
His eyes were fixed, his pupils dilated.
Uncle Pancake was dead. The woman had killed him after climbing through the window.
His lifeless face remained against the glass for a few seconds before being moved aside. Then the almost entirely white eye appeared in its place.
The woman had been crouching outside, holding up Uncle Pancake's head. Now she straightened, bringing her own face level with the glass.
That blind eye blinked. Then she smiled.
She hurled herself against the wooden door!
With a crash, the panel split. Jiang Mingran stared in despair.
Wood couldn't match the security door. A few more impacts and it would give way.
"Jiang Mingran."
He turned. Shao Lan was watching him calmly.
This young man looked only a few years older than him, yet he had remained extraordinarily composed throughout.
With his working left hand, Shao Lan drew him close and whispered his plan. "Hide in a minute. I'll..."
When Jiang Mingran heard the rest, his eyes went wide. "No! Man, you'll die!"
Shao Lan shook his head. "I can't hide."
He indicated his blood-soaked shoulder. The smell of all that blood was like a constant location beacon to the woman. Wherever he hid, she would find him immediately.
"Can you do something for me?" He coughed. "If I die, once you've confirmed the police can subdue the killer, kill yourself."
Jiang Mingran stared.
Then he understood.
"I will," he said. "Man, 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 goldfish remained in the tank. After this, everyone would have just one life left.
So in this loop, one of them had to stay alive to witness the police's arrival.
"We're out of time. Hide. Don't make a sound," Shao Lan said.
His eyes red, Jiang Mingran hid nearby.
With the woman's final blow, the door splintered under the strain. A gaunt hand punched through and reached inside.
Shao Lan leaned against the windowsill, unarmed, watching her calmly.
"Your baby is adorable," he said abruptly.
Her hand paused as it tore at the door.
Shao Lan glanced behind him. The thick fog concealed how high up they were. All he could tell was that it wasn't low. Wind laced with rain blew in, chilling him to the bone. This chapter was taken from novelping dot com without permission.
He looked back at the woman. "Is it a boy or a girl?"
Behind a table, Jiang Mingran shook uncontrollably, fighting to keep silent.
"Don't know?" Shao Lan said. "Want me to tell you?"
He enunciated every word. "I'll tell you. Neither."
"You don't have a baby. Your baby is a wad of cotton stuffed inside your jacket," he said calmly.
He'd sensed something wrong when he'd discovered the herbal brew in the kitchen.
According to Uncle Pancake, it was meant to help a woman conceive. But she was already pregnant. Why was she still drinking it?
And the way her padded jacket had changed shape when she'd shielded her lower belly had confirmed it. What lay beneath was a thick wad of cotton.
"You don't have a baby, but you keep protecting your belly because you've fooled yourself, haven't you? Does lying to yourself like that make you happy?" he asked coldly.
"You don't have a child now, and you probably never will. You've murdered so many people... What child would want to be reincarnated in a serial killer's womb?"
The woman's eye slowly widened. A tear streaked with blood ran from the single eye visible through her hair.
Then she shrieked.
She slammed into the door. The battered wooden panel flew away, and she charged at Shao Lan.
She screamed, her all-white eye turning blood-red.
Shao Lan fell backward.
His body disappeared into the fog as he dropped from the window.
The woman couldn't see. She only knew that the prey reeking of blood was just ahead. By the time she charged forward and realized she'd reached a window, it was too late.
Her lanky body tipped off balance. More than half of her shot past the sill.
She desperately tried to stop.
At that moment, Jiang Mingran burst from hiding.
He threw every ounce of his strength into ramming her.
With a roar like a great beast, she was knocked out of the window and plunged into the fog, howling.
Jiang Mingran clung to the sill, gasping.
That was Shao Lan's plan.
Enrage her, strip away as much of her reason as possible, and then... send her into the abyss.
But Shao Lan himself had been the price.
There'd been no other choice. Though she was a monster, she retained some intelligence. She'd even used Uncle Pancake's head to trick them into opening the door.
So someone had to be bait...
Wind and rain blew against Jiang Mingran's face. His eyes burned red.
Uncle Pancake was dead. Shao Lan was dead.
Alone before the rain and fog outside the window, he felt as though a huge hole had opened inside him.
"Brother Lan..."
"Little Jiang."
The voice was extremely weak, as though its owner had only one breath left.
Jiang Mingran's eyes widened.
"Little Jiang."
It wasn't a hallucination!
He looked down. This story is hosted at g.com.
Shao Lan was hanging outside the window.
He'd secured his ankle to the window with his jacket. Now he dangled upside down.
Jiang Mingran grabbed his legs and hauled him back inside.
Shao Lan lay on the floor. Blood bubbled from his mouth with every breath.
The woman had struck him as she'd fallen. Now he felt as though a bulldozer had crushed his bones. Not a single one seemed intact.
"Back... across..." he whispered, pointing toward the opposite apartment.
The woman had fallen, but her body was monstrous. There was no telling whether the fall had killed her.
If she returned, the wooden door in Brother Wang's apartment was completely destroyed. The security door across the hall could still buy them some time.
Jiang Mingran carried him back across the hallway and locked the security door.
He'd barely finished when police sirens sounded outside.
"The police are here!" He almost cried with relief.
Shao Lan let out a long breath, too.
He was exhausted.
Blood loss had drained him. His mind felt fogged, his thoughts painfully slow. He could lose consciousness the moment he closed his eyes. Only sheer will kept him awake.
"Police! Open up!"
Someone knocked.
Jiang Mingran hurried over and peered through the peephole. "The task force?"
"Yes. Is the suspect inside? Is anyone hurt?" a man called from outside.
"Yes!" Jiang Mingran hurriedly opened the door. "Badly hurt. He needs emergency treatment..."
Sitting against the wall, Shao Lan watched him undo the security chain.
Suddenly, a thought flashed like lightning through his fog-shrouded mind.
Too fast.
From the first siren to the knock at the door, not even a minute had passed.
Far too fast.
Maybe if they'd taken an elevator?
Did this building have an elevator...?
But... but... even if it did...
They'd never told the police their apartment number!
Every time they'd called, they'd only given Building No. 7 of Happiness Residential Complex. Never the floor or apartment. They hadn't even found those out themselves.
How could the police know? How could they arrive at the right door in under a minute?
There was only one possibility...
"Don't open it!" Shao Lan screamed. "That cop is fake!"
Too late.
Jiang Mingran's eyes stretched wide.
The man outside wore a worn jacket. He wasn't tall, and his face was haggard. He looked like the most ordinary, exhausted middle-aged man imaginable.
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.