"I think I remember... Did I kill Li Xing? Sister Li Xing is gone, so who is standing at the door?"
The calm in "Gao Xi's" eyes fractured into panic and terror, before finally shattering into sheer madness. Shrieking, she collapsed to her knees and scrambled away from the crumbling iron door.
Gao Tian never imagined that a ghost could be brainwashed—much less that a ghost could be terrified of another ghost.
It seemed "Gao Xi" had immersed herself too deeply in the role. She now completely thought of herself as human, entirely under the sway of the Memory Ghost's rules that Gao Tian had grasped.
But influencing the "sister" alone was far from enough. After all, he was currently trapped in a family of four. The Memory Ghost was playing three separate roles, and the "mother" and "father" remained completely unaffected.
The "father" suddenly became agitated. He shot to his feet, marched over to Gao Tian, and jabbed a finger at the iron door as he bellowed:
"Gao Tian, you are getting completely out of line! It's one thing for you and Li Xing to have a lovers' spat—that's normal for young people. But why would you spout this nonsense about ghosts to curse her to death? Why would you terrify your sister like this?
"You have this intermittent amnesia or whatever, but do you have any idea how much your sister has done for you over the years? Is this how you repay our family?"
At the same time, the "mother" rushed over to the "sister." She wrapped the trembling girl in a hug, murmuring soft comforts while attempting to re-implant the memory that "Li Xing" wasn't dead. She was trying to wrest control of the situation back into her own hands.
Gao Tian watched the two ghosts play good cop and bad cop. He had fought hard for this slight advantage, and he wasn't about to hand it over. In the face of the "father's" harsh scolding, he simply sneered and pointed at the spreading cracks and the multiplying handprints on the iron door:"Open your eyes and take a good look. Is that the 'Li Xing' you know? A girl so fragile she couldn't hurt a fly and gets terrified by a hamster?
"She's a girl who wouldn't even step on a patch of grass. Yet here she is, battering a brick-thick security door into scrap metal with her bare hands. You're telling me that's Li Xing? Not even a grown man could do that.
"Dad, Mom, I know you both adored Li Xing. After she passed away last summer, you even sighed and said we'd never find such a wonderful daughter-in-law again in this lifetime. When you went out for groceries, you zoned out multiple times and mistook the backs of random young girls for her.
"But a fact is a fact, whether you accept it or not. Li Xing is gone forever. She is never coming back. As for what exactly is standing outside slamming against the door right now, you two should know better than I do.
"Mom, Dad, how long are you going to keep lying to yourselves!
"If you keep living in denial and open that door for the thing outside, all of us—including Xiao Xi—are going to die here today!"
Thanks to Gao Tian's impassioned, improvised speech—and the decidedly inhuman roars accompanying the relentless pounding outside—a genuine look of utter bewilderment finally cracked the expressions of the "father" and "mother."
The Memory Ghost was beginning to affect their memories, too.
"Honey... Tian Tian is right. The thing standing at the door... it absolutely can't be Li Xing.
"I've spent time with that sweet girl. She was so soft-spoken. She even needed Xiao Tian's help just to twist the cap off a soda bottle."
The confusion in the "father's" eyes only deepened:
"But when exactly did Li Xing die? What day did we attend her funeral?
"Why can't I remember a single fragment of it, no matter how hard I try?"
Seeing the front door on the verge of collapsing, the "mother" aggressively hauled the "father" to his feet, abandoning any attempt to explain:
"Just grab the kids and run! This isn't the time to be thinking about this!"
By this point, the three members of this "family of four" had their memories completely subverted by the Memory Ghost's own power.
Getting a little too deeply into character clearly had its drawbacks.
Now that they had decided to flee, the panicking "mother" led the charge. She guided Gao Tian and the others down the hallway and straight into the Study. The room connected to a small balcony, and from there, they could use the exterior air conditioning brackets as footholds. Dropping from the fourth floor down to the Third Floor wouldn't be too difficult.
Once inside the Study, the "mother" didn't forget to lock the inner door for good measure. If the "Li Xing" outside managed to smash through the iron door and breach the living room, they would at least have this flimsy wooden barrier to buy them a few seconds.
With the entire family gathered in the Study, a new problem arose. If they wanted to scale down the exterior wall from the balcony, they needed some sort of rope for support.
But a frantic search of the Study's cabinets yielded only a single thin blanket. Since there was only one, they could only lower one person over the balcony at a time.
This meant whoever climbed down the balcony first, before "Li Xing" could break down the front door and reach the Study, would be the safest. The second person's timing would be tight, heavily risking getting caught and killed when she burst into the room.
As for the third and fourth people, survival was completely out of the question.
With a deafening crash outside the Study, "Li Xing" finally battered down the front door after fifteen minutes of relentless pounding. Heavy, elephant-like footsteps approached one by one. The time they had left would barely be enough for two people to make it down safely.
The "mother" grabbed the "father's" hand and opened her mouth to speak.
Gao Tian saw right through her. She wanted the "father" to grab the blanket first and swing down to the Third Floor.
There was absolutely no way Gao Tian was letting that happen. The "father" was a ghost to begin with. He was immortal and indestructible—why the hell would he need to run?
But he was one human trapped with three ghosts. If they reached a consensus, there was no way he could overpower them alone. Before the "mother" could speak, Gao Tian beat her to the punch:
"Dad, whatever you do, you can't stay behind to cover our retreat!
"I knew you'd offer! You were exactly like this last year at that massive pile-up. Multiple cars were engulfed in flames, and the severely injured drivers were trapped inside, unconscious. They could have exploded at any second; even the fire trucks were afraid to get close. But you threw your own life on the line. You smashed those windows and dragged the unconscious drivers out to safety, one by one.
"And it's you who donates over fifty thousand to charities every single year. You never think about yourself. You're always playing the hero, risking your own life to save others. This time, you want to stay behind to buy us time again, don't you?
"I'm begging you, Dad, you've already done enough. You don't need to sacrifice yourself anymore!"
Hearing Gao Tian's desperate plea, the "father's" eyes slowly glazed over in confusion:
"Did I really do all that?
"Why can't I remember any of it?"
Gao Tian gave him no time to process it. To ensure the "mother" didn't flee first, he immediately spun on her:
"You and Dad have the deepest bond. I know that if Dad stays behind to hold the line, you'll stay with him to walk this final path together. Even if you couldn't be born on the same day, I know you'd choose to die on the same day.
"It's so painful for me, having parents whose love is stronger than gold. Do you have any idea how much it's going to hurt us kids to lose both of you at the same time?
"You don't care about your son's feelings at all! You only care about each other! You only have eyes for each other!"
The "mother's" memories had already been warped by Gao Tian. She gripped the "father's" hand tightly:
"Let the children go first. I'll stay right here with you."
The "father" was still struggling to resist the Memory Ghost's interference:
"Wait, I think I do remember making some donations... but when did I ever run into a blazing car crash? I... I have absolutely no memory of this."
Meanwhile, "Gao Xi" had already tied one end of the blanket to the balcony railing. Clenching the other end tightly, she prepared to make a run for it.
Gao Tian shouted at her:
"Xiao Xi, even though you have a terminal illness and barely a month left to live! You've said so many times that you just want to die, but in a moment of life and death, as your older brother, I won't hesitate to give you the chance to survive!
"Go down. Escape down this balcony and enjoy your final month of life. You don't need to remember us three. It's only right that the rest of us—able-bodied and with long lives ahead of us—lay down our lives to hold the ghost back, just to buy you one more month!"
At his words, a look of overwhelming shame instantly washed over "Gao Xi's" face. She shoved the end of the blanket into Gao Tian's hands:
"Bro, I can't leave. I'm staying right here with Mom and Dad. You go down first."
Gao Tian didn't waste breath on false modesty with her. She was a ghost in disguise just like the others. Besides, the "Li Xing" from the living room had already reached the Study. With a single, devastating punch, she shattered half the wooden door into splinters.
A furry, red arm thrust through the massive hole in the splintered wood, dripping fresh blood. Outside the Study stood a disproportionate black silhouette, its exact features impossible to make out.
The "mother" was completely in character now. She blocked the hole in the door with her own body and screamed back at the two children on the balcony:
"Go!
"Don't worry about me and your father! Just go!"
Gao Tian wrapped one end of the blanket around his wrist, vaulted over the edge of the balcony, and planted his feet squarely on the exterior air conditioning bracket.
From above, he heard the sound of the Study being breached. The "father" let out a single muffled grunt and went completely silent. The "mother" managed to hold out just a fraction longer. "Gao Xi" stood to the side, shrieking endlessly as if she were staring at something that shouldn't exist—just screaming, and screaming.
Gao Tian knew the next step was the most crucial.
His feet left the support of the air conditioning bracket. Using the blanket anchored above to support his entire body, he began to descend, continuously lowering himself as he tried to reach the protruding windowsill of the Third Floor.
As long as he stepped onto that windowsill, he could escape the hellish fourth floor, slip into the Third Floor, and finally catch his breath.
Just then, Gao Tian felt a pair of eyes watching him from the balcony. He looked up—