Jiang Mingran trembled all over, cold sweat soaking his back.
He had never seen a corpse before, let alone witnessed a living person instantly turn into a corpse right before his eyes!
The old man’s body was dragged into the kitchen, and that pair of red embroidered shoes returned to the living room, bringing a radio back into the kitchen.
After a burst of static noise, music drifted from the radio, 1980s golden oldies medley echoing in the old room, sounding exceptionally bizarre.
Shaking all over, Jiang Mingran muttered with a pale face, “Uncle Bing…”
Shao Lan glanced at him, asking with his eyes, “You know him?”
Jiang Mingran’s lips trembled. “He sells scallion pancakes at the snack street behind our school. We all call him Uncle Bing…”
Jiang Mingran’s eyes grew a bit red.
Uncle Bing had bad legs, but his cooking was great and he had a warm heart. He had even bought scallion pancakes from him just last week.
Yet in the blink of an eye, he had turned into a corpse.
Shao Lan glanced toward the kitchen. The music from the radio was loud, mixed with the sound of a knife chopping bones.
“Take the chance.” Shao Lan pointed toward the security door and motioned to Jiang Mingran, “Let’s get out first.”
Jiang Mingran rubbed his face hard.
Uncle Bing was already dead; all they could do now was escape this place as quickly as possible and bring the police back.
Taking off their shoes, Shao Lan and Jiang Mingran rushed toward the security door on tiptoe.
The music continued to play behind them. From the old radio, a female voice was plaintively singing of her sorrow in love.
Jiang Mingran shoved open the security door. The old metal parts made a teeth-gritting crunching sound. He rushed outside, only to be abruptly tripped by something.
It was a garbage bag. Piles of trash were stacked outside the door, filled with food turned into slop, and the leaking juices made the entire floor wet and slick.
Just as he was about to slip, Jiang Mingran hurriedly braced his hand against the adjacent wall, barely managing to steady himself.
However, the garbage bag that had tripped him also crashed against the wall from his kick, and several glass bottles filled with rotting canned oranges inside made a sharp collision sound.
“Clang, clang!”
The chopping sound in the kitchen abruptly paused, and immediately, the radio was turned off.
The woman had heard it!
Shao Lan and Jiang Mingran exchanged a look. Not daring to stay for a single second, they ran for their lives.
The two sprinted down the corridor and reached the stairs in the blink of an eye.
Jiang Mingran was running ahead of Shao Lan. As the two rushed down the stairs one after the other, Jiang Mingran looked back while running and whispered with a trace of relief, “Bro, she didn’t ch—”
This was the last sentence Shao Lan heard Jiang Mingran say in the stairwell.
Or rather, the last half-sentence.
What Jiang Mingran meant to say was likely “She didn’t chase after us,” but he never got to finish it completely.
Because the exact moment his words were cut in half, Jiang Mingran suddenly vanished.
In the pitch-black stairwell, only Shao Lan remained.
That instant happened with such extreme speed that by the time Shao Lan’s brain formed the question, “Why did Jiang Mingran suddenly disappear?”, his body had already carried him past the spot where Jiang Mingran had just vanished due to the momentum of his sprint.
In that exact instant, everything seemed to vanish.
The stairs beneath his feet disappeared.
The walls surrounding him disappeared.
Even the air itself seemed to have vanished.
A person felt as if they were floating into pure face.
In utter darkness, there was nothing here. He couldn’t move forward, couldn’t retreat, couldn’t breathe.
Was he going to die here?
Or rather, was he already dead?
……
“Tick-tock, tick-tock.”
Shao Lan opened his eyes on the sofa, feeling a headache.
He seemed to have just had a dream, a dream in which he woke up in the house of a serial killer and experienced some extremely bizarre encounters.
Shao Lan closed his eyes and reached for the sofa beneath him.
The next instant, his body stiffened.
Smooth leather, a faint, indescribable odor.
He looked at the living room.
An old house clearly showing its age, cluttered with miscellaneous items, an old-fashioned landline phone, enamel mugs.
It wasn’t a dream.
Everything that had just happened was real!
Shao Lan closed his eyes again, biting his tongue hard. The taste of blood instantly spread in his mouth, making his body shudder with pain.
Despite his reluctance, he had indeed entered a loop; now, he was back in the living room of this serial killer’s house.
Opposite the sofa was still the small mourning hall, and where the portrait should have been placed was an oval-shaped fish tank.
Through the dim light, three small red goldfish could be seen swimming inside.
Wait…
three?
Shao Lan closed his eyes, feeling his headache worsen.
He clearly remembered that the last time he saw this fish tank, there were four small red goldfish.
Suddenly, a click came from his left.
Shao Lan turned his head sharply.
The time was still exactly four in the morning. The owl in the old-fashioned clock popped out, mechanically chiming:
“Game begins! Game begins!”
At the same time, a click came from the security door not far away.
There was no other way.
Shao Lan rolled off the sofa again, hiding in the gap between the sofa and the floor.
As soon as he lay down, Shao Lan keenly noticed that there were more markings on the floor.
Before, there were only the two words “rules,” but now there was an entire line.
“Rule: Those who haven’t ventured into the depths of the mist cannot leave it.”
Footsteps sounded, neither too loud nor too soft. Shao Lan shrank back, holding his breath.
Through the gap in the sofa, just like last time, a pair of old-fashioned red embroidered shoes slowly passed through the living room.
Then the kitchen light came on, pots and pans clattered, and the refrigerator door opened.
Shao Lan saw that black, frost-covered head again.
The kitchen door closed, and the thud of chopping meat filled the air.
In the living room, where only the sound of rain could be heard, Shao Lan heard his own rapid breathing.
He hesitated for only a brief moment before immediately getting up and rushing to the nearest bedroom.
He flung open the door, and Jiang Mingran stood behind it, his eyes wide open, staring at Shao Lan who had suddenly appeared before him.
However, this time, Jiang Mingran didn’t hold up his student ID to prove his identity. Instead, his mouth was open, his lips trembling slightly, as if he wanted to say something but dared not, his eyes filled with extreme fear as he looked at Shao Lan.
Their eyes met, and after a few seconds, Shao Lan confirmed one fact.
“Jiang Mingran?” he mouthed.
As if the fear in his heart had collapsed like a boulder, Jiang Mingran’s shoulders slumped, and he nodded heavily.
No more words were needed; they both understood that the other, like themselves, had experienced this again.
He retained memories of everything that had just happened.
Shao Lan closed his eyes, and his last shred of wishful thinking was completely shattered.
Previously, he had been unwilling to believe the impractical guesses in his heart.
At this moment, he knew the time had come when he had no choice but to believe.
“This really is a game,” Shao Lan said, looking at Jiang Mingran. “Either we find a way to beat it.”
“Or… we’ll just die here.”