Shao Lan pondered for a moment and looked at Jiang Mingran.
“Are you from the sports academy?”
Suddenly asked, Jiang Mingran nodded blankly: “Ah, yes.”
“Can you run fast?”
“The 100-meter dash is around 11 seconds flat, I think…” Jiang Mingran scratched his head. “Bro, why don’t you just tell me what you need me to do?”
Shao Lan glanced at Jiang Mingran, somewhat surprised by how quickly he caught on.
“I’m used to it,” Jiang Mingran rubbed his head. “Growing up, everyone around me treated me like a donkey.”
“…”
Shao Lan asked Jiang Mingran to quickly check the living room to see if the old-fashioned landline phone worked.
Generally speaking, when facing a serial killer, there were only a few options: 1. Escape 2. Call the police 3. Fight head-on.
Shao Lan didn’t want to fight head-on, and escaping had already been proven unfeasible, so calling the police was the most sensible option to try right now.
Especially since the newspaper even provided the phone number for the special task force; this couldn’t be a useless clue.
And the only thing in the entire house capable of making a call was that dial-up old-fashioned landline telephone.
“Alright,” Jiang Mingran nodded.
Shao Lan raised an eyebrow in surprise; Jiang Mingran had agreed a bit too readily.
This was a seemingly simple but extremely dangerous task. The living room and kitchen were separated by only a single door, and once the woman in the kitchen came out, Jiang Mingran had nowhere to hide—he was a whole circle larger than Shao Lan, and the space beneath the sofa couldn’t fit him.
Jiang Mingran scratched his head: “It’s fine, I’ve practiced free combat. If the killer comes out, I might even be able to subdue her directly?”
Shao Lan mused.
He didn’t think it was that optimistic.
“It’s fine, even if I really die, there are still two lives left anyway.” Jiang Mingran pointed to the small goldfish in the fish tank. “Brother Lan, your deduction skills are much better than mine. If I buy you a bit more time, clearing the game later will be easier for us.”
Shao Lan glanced toward the kitchen and patted Jiang Mingran on the shoulder.
“Don’t make any sound,” Shao Lan wrote on paper. “If the old-fashioned landline is fine, bring the living room trash can in here for me.”
Jiang Mingran raised an eyebrow in mild confusion, but didn’t ask why.
He took off his shoes, silently opened the bedroom door, and walked toward the old-fashioned landline phone.
The living room was dead silent. Shao Lan cautiously poked his head out and glanced in the direction of the other bedroom.
That was Pie Uncle’s bedroom; the door was closed and completely quiet.
Suddenly, a creaking sound came from afar—
The kitchen door opened.
Shao Lan was startled, and Jiang Mingran in the living room also froze, his body stiffening instantly.
Cold sweat broke out across both of their backs almost instantly.
Had they been discovered?
One second passed, two seconds passed.
The sound of water running came from the kitchen, followed by the sound of a stove igniting.
The woman hadn’t come out; it seemed she was just boiling something and had opened the kitchen door to let out some heat.
Shao Lan wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and waved at Jiang Mingran.
Jiang Mingran had already checked the telephone wire of the old landline and confirmed it was functional. He picked up the trash can and sprinted back into the bedroom.
The two of them closed the bedroom door, sat leaning against it, and tried to calm their racing heartbeats.
“I checked, the landline is connected to the line and works,” Jiang Mingran wrote on the paper. “But there’s no way to move it in here; this room doesn’t have a phone jack.”
The only thing they could bring in was the trash can, though Jiang Mingran didn’t know why Shao Lan needed it.
“I checked it in the living room last time, but there were no clues. This is the only thing I haven’t searched,” Shao Lan pointed to the trash can. “We have the emergency number, the landline, now we’re just missing one thing.”
“What?” Jiang Mingran frantically wiped the sweat from his brow, unable to think of anything else.
Shao Lan glanced at him: “Do you know where we are?”
Jiang Mingran froze.
Yes, he didn’t.
They had both been transferred unconsciously, waking up here.
The last thing missing was the address.
Shao Lan had already started searching the trash can.
Soon, a faint smile appeared on his lips.
“Found it.”
What remained in Shao Lan’s hand were some scraps of paper. He pieced them together, creating half an electricity bill.
“Electricity fee for this period: XX yuan. Payment deadline: XX year XX month XX day. Mailing address: Building 7, Xingfu Community.”
The text after Building 7 was missing.
Shao Lan searched the trash can again but couldn’t find the other half.
He went to the window and leaned down.
The rain seemed to have shrouded everything in a white mist, reducing visibility to less than five meters. He couldn’t see the opposite building or the floor below, making it impossible to determine which floor they were on.
The first time they had gone through the loop, they had run into the stairwell, but after trying to recall, Shao Lan and Jiang Mingran couldn’t remember any numbers written on the walls.
“Never mind, being specific to Building 7 of the Xingfu Community should be enough,” Shao Lan wrote. “The police can pinpoint which community and building it is, and by checking each resident, they can find the murderer quickly.”
The next step was to call the police.
This was the hardest part.
The landline couldn’t be moved inside; to make a call, they had to go to the living room.
But if they spoke in the living room, she might hear them.
Especially since she was cooking soup, and the kitchen door was open.
Shao Lan pushed the door open a crack and looked towards the kitchen.
Outside the kitchen, there was a large pile of dark yellow paper bags, stacked together like a small mountain, making it difficult to see what they were.
But what they were wasn’t important; what was important was that the gap between this small mountain and the corner of the wall was just enough to hide an adult man.
“I have a plan.” Shao Lan turned around and picked up a pen and paper.
“We’ll leave the bedroom together. I’ll go to the living room to make the call, and you hide behind the pile of clutter next to the kitchen door.”
“The best-case scenario is that she doesn’t hear me on the phone and stays in the kitchen. In that case, after I call the police, we can retreat back to the bedroom together.”
“But if she leaves the kitchen…”
Jiang Mingran’s eyes narrowed, and he made a fierce gesture: “I’ll ambush her!”
Shao Lan shook his head: “No, you can send me a signal.”
“She can’t see me. As soon as I receive the signal, I’ll immediately stop making any noise and leave the landline. She won’t be able to pinpoint my location quickly.”
“You also need to leave the spot immediately after sending the signal. The rest is just hide-and-seek. As long as we stay quiet, there’s a high probability we can buy time until the police arrive.”
“Even if we really have to take action, try to delay until the very last resort,” Shao Lan said. “Remember, our goal is survival.”
Jiang Mingran nodded, completely convinced by Shao Lan’s words.
However, they couldn’t see the kitchen door while making the call, so the signal had to be given by sound.
A sound that wouldn’t arouse her suspicion.
“I’ve got it,” Jiang Mingran’s eyes lit up. “I know how to squeak like a mouse.”
Before Shao Lan could stop him, Jiang Mingran let out two “squeak, squeak” sounds, which were indeed quite lifelike.
Shao Lan glanced toward the kitchen door. Everything was as usual; the woman hadn’t come out to check.
It seemed that a mouse squeak wouldn’t draw her attention.
“Alright, let’s go with that,” Shao Lan nodded.
This was already the best plan for now.
The dark night was silent, with only the bubbling sound of soup boiling coming from the kitchen.
Jiang Mingran successfully hid behind the pile of clutter, gave Shao Lan an “OK” gesture, and puckered his cheeks to mimic a little mouse again.
Shao Lan also signaled back to Jiang Mingran that he understood, then headed to the living room.
The old-fashioned landline phone sat right on the small coffee table next to the sofa.
Shao Lan picked up the receiver and rapidly punched in the numbers on the keypad.
Whether due to aging parts or Shao Lan’s psychological state, the buttons made a distinct clicking sound, sounding exceptionally loud in the dead of night.
The phone connected with a beep.
“Hello, Municipal Bureau Special Task Force.”
Shao Lan breathed a sigh of relief and spoke urgently: “Building 7, Xingfu Community.”
Although he kept his voice as low as possible, much like the clicking of the buttons, it still seemed extremely clear in the night.
The person on the other end didn’t seem to hear clearly: “Hello? Could you repeat your issue?”
Fortunately, no mouse squeaks came from Jiang Mingran, nor were there any sounds of struggle, meaning the person in the kitchen hadn’t come out.
Shao Lan slightly raised his voice: “Building 7, Xingfu Community. Currently, there is a knife threat.”
As he spoke, he kept a close eye on his surroundings.
Jiang Mingran’s side was completely quiet, with no signal sent.
The person on the receiver responded quickly: “Received, we—”
Shao Lan hung up the phone.
That was enough. For a police emergency call, the most crucial elements were the time, location, and nature of the case. The “knife threat” he just mentioned fell into the category that police would judge as an emergency and respond to immediately.
Now all he had to do was return to the bedroom and signal the lookout, Jiang Mingran, to fall back as well.
Suddenly, Shao Lan felt something was wrong.
A stream of icy air brushed against the back of his head, just like a night breeze blowing through a window.
But the window was clearly right in front of him, and it was tightly shut.
So it wasn’t the window.
Instead, someone was silently standing right behind him, their freezing breath exhaling onto his body.