“So this is what you meant by ‘sealed shut’?” Zhang Xiangyi couldn’t help muttering as she looked at the wide-open door.
Xiao Xingzhi: “This isn’t scientific.”
“Since when is this game scientific?”
Xiao Xingzhi: “…Do you smell a lemon scent? Very faint.”
Hearing that, Zhang Xiangyi sniffed hard. “Yeah… a little…”
She understood at once. “Acid can soften glue!”
“Let’s head back first.”
Back in the room with the lights on, Xiao Xingzhi came back to life. “We should’ve grabbed the phone earlier.”
“It’s 8 p.m. now. The incident happened at 7, right when the sky suddenly changed.” Zhang Xiangyi checked her phone. Apart from the camera, calls, and flashlight, none of the other functions worked.
Only one hour had passed?
Yet it felt like she’d done so much, as if a long time had gone by.
“Xiao Xingzhi, check what time your phone says.”
Xiao Xingzhi already had his phone out. At her words he glanced at it casually. “8 p.m.”
Only then did Zhang Xiangyi start examining other things. Even the camera’s photo album was completely empty. The phone was basically useless, probably just a basic tool for new players.
Xiao Xingzhi rubbed his nose and looked at Zhang Xiangyi, still thinking hard. “By usual game logic, beginners get protected pretty well. So this instance shouldn’t be too difficult. We just need to follow the flow.”
Zhang Xiangyi lowered her lashes, the corner of her lips curling slightly. Slowly, word by word, she said, “But I want to leave as soon as possible.”
Everything that had happened felt too abrupt. It left her feeling utterly insecure.
Her life had already been carefully mapped out, everything moving forward step by step, and then, without warning, zombies and this game.
Xiao Xingzhi opened his mouth, but in the end swallowed everything he’d meant to say. “All right. I’ll help you.”
After that, the two sat facing each other.
Zhang Xiangyi: “The most important question right now, who exactly is the one who jumped?”
Xiao Xingzhi: “We need to find Fugui for that. If he looks like the victim, there must be some connection between them.”
Zhang Xiangyi: “Fugui was working in his shop from daytime all the way until 10 p.m. And we can’t leave the apartment grounds, so we can only…”
Xiao Xingzhi said, “Now that something like this has happened, Fugui is definitely a suspect. If he didn’t go to the police station, he’s probably home. We can go talk to him later.”
Zhang Xiangyi: “You’re going to have a heart-to-heart with two strangers?”
Xiao Xingzhi: “Don’t worry about that. Just watch what I do.”
Zhang Xiangyi leaned back slightly, narrowed her eyes, and looked at him with open disbelief. If Xiao Xingzhi truly matched what was said about him on the school forum, she might have believed him.
But the Xiao Xingzhi she knew now was talkative, noisy, useless, and afraid of the dark.
A scrutinizing gaze settled on him. Xiao Xingzhi put on a serious face. “You don’t believe me?”
Zhang Xiangyi didn’t answer.
Xiao Xingzhi slapped his own thigh. He hit it too hard and winced, but forced himself to go on. “We’re teammates!”
Still no response.
Just as he was about to say something else, there was a knock at the door.
Zhang Xiangyi glanced over. Seeing that Xiao Xingzhi wasn’t moving, she said, “What are you standing there for? Open it.”
Annoyed, Xiao Xingzhi could only go open it. He was already on his feet, so there was no point sitting back down.
When the door opened, two men in police uniforms stood outside. They flashed their IDs and spoke formally. After a calm glance at them, Xiao Xingzhi let them in.
“Hello, officers.” Zhang Xiangyi greeted them with a frightened look, then naturally sat down beside Xiao Xingzhi. “Officer, who is that person? He looks a lot like Brother Fugui, but something seems off. Brother Fugui has a mole at the corner of his mouth.”
Officer A sat across from them while Officer B began inspecting the room. Officer A replied, “Do you know Wang Fugui?”
“I wouldn’t say we know him…” Xiao Xingzhi held Zhang Xiangyi back as if calming her, and explained to Officer A, “We just see him sometimes passing by downstairs. Sometimes alone, sometimes chatting with an old lady. We only learned his name because the old lady calls him Fugui.”
“So you don’t know the deceased?”
Xiao Xingzhi smiled. “Officer, you can’t put it that way. We don’t even know who the deceased is, so how could we say whether we know him?”
Officer A spoke formally and stiffly: “What were the two of you doing before 7 p.m. tonight?”
……
After seeing the officers off, Zhang Xiangyi reached out, pulled the arm from around her waist, and turned away decisively. “They’re not police.”
“They’re not police.”
The two said it at the same time. Zhang Xiangyi looked at him, puzzled. “How did you figure it out?”
“I’ve dealt with police before. When they showed up downstairs earlier, everything was exactly like real life. But when they came to the door just now, there were too many things off.”
Xiao Xingzhi looked at his fingertip, then slumped back down. “First, when police come to your door, they usually state their identity right away. They normally say something while knocking.”
“They did show ID, but too fast, I didn’t even get a clear look at their faces. And they didn’t clearly state their purpose at the start. We knew why they’d come, but they should’ve said it themselves.”
Zhang Xiangyi nodded. She didn’t ask why he’d dealt with the police before, since she could tell she’d had her own brushes with them too.
“Also, one of them sat down to question us while the other searched the room without even asking. That’s strange. And there’s more…”
The two of them listed several inconsistencies. In the end, they traded a glance.
If those “police” were fake, then things were serious.
“This is getting more and more complicated.” Xiao Xingzhi frowned, reconsidering whether their plan to find Fugui should change.
Time passed quietly as both fell into thought.
Suddenly Zhang Xiangyi fixed her gaze on him and said in a calm, careful tone, “What if this whole thing is just a scam?”
Xiao Xingzhi sighed. “If so, then your idea of grabbing a kitchen knife for self-defense at the start was pretty good.”
Zhang Xiangyi: “…”
10 p.m.
Each of them carried a backpack as they left the apartment. Zhang Xiangyi walked in front, Xiao Xingzhi behind.
“At this hour, is Fugui even home?”
“Go check and you’ll know.” Xiao Xingzhi clung to Zhang Xiangyi’s arm, constantly glancing over his shoulder with deep suspicion. “I seriously can’t believe it, the stairwell in this building doesn’t even have lights at night! Not even an emergency exit sign. If this were real life, I’d absolutely report it!”
Zhang Xiangyi put up with it for a long while, but his grip kept tightening. She felt like her arm was about to be squeezed off. “Relax.”
“I am relaxed.”
The grip tightened even more.
Zhang Xiangyi: “…”
Fortunately, they finally reached the door of 1-1. Zhang Xiangyi pushed him forward and slipped a hand into her backpack.
The instant Xiao Xingzhi looked back at her, she widened her eyes. “Didn’t you say you had a plan?”
Xiao Xingzhi took a deep breath and made a pleading face. “Sister, you’ve got to protect me.”
“Knock.”
Xiao Xingzhi raised a hand and knocked, lowering his voice. “Brother Fugui, it’s me! Didn’t you say you were looking for a girlfriend? I’ve found one for you, Brother Fugui!”
Holding the knife, Zhang Xiangyi took a deep breath and reminded herself that this was a teammate, she couldn’t stab him now.
So this was his so-called “plan”?!
If she trusted him again, she’d be a dog.
They knocked for a long time. Just as they were starting to think Wang Fugui wasn’t home, the lock clicked open with a “ding.”
But the person who opened the door wasn’t Fugui at all, it was…
The old woman from 1-4!
Xiao Xingzhi stepped back. He’d even lowered his voice on purpose, afraid of waking that old woman, yet after knocking on 1-1, she was still the one who opened the door?
Zhang Xiangyi looked up at the door number, 1-1, no mistake.
Her grip on the knife tightened further.
“Grandma… you… how…” Zhang Xiangyi pulled Xiao Xingzhi behind her with her other hand. After all, the old woman didn’t seem to like men much.
Seeing the woman’s face darken, Zhang Xiangyi suddenly blurted, mimicking some online flattery she’d seen, “Could it be… you’re Brother Fugui’s mother?”
The old woman’s expression turned even stranger. Her wrinkled face twitched as she said, “Fugui? Who’s Fugui?”
“Huh? Could we have it wrong?” Zhang Xiangyi forced a natural smile and went on without a trace of guilt. “Someone told us his name was Fugui, and he even asked my boyfriend to set him up with a girlfriend. Could he have lied to us?”
Behind her, Xiao Xingzhi also put on an indignant face. “I even went around asking and helping him look, and his name was fake the whole time!”
The old woman suddenly laughed. “That’s fine. I still have a grandson. Why don’t you come inside and talk?”
Go inside?
Not a chance.
Neither of them was looking to die.
Xiao Xingzhi put on a troubled look and tugged Zhang Xiangyi’s hand. “I’ve been telling everyone it was Brother Fugui. If we suddenly change it and don’t even tell the girl, that wouldn’t be right…”
“Then we’ll go tell her first. If there’s no problem, we’ll come back and find you.” Zhang Xiangyi gave the old woman an apologetic smile, then asked, “Grandma, have you always lived here?”
When the old woman heard that, her white hair seemed to grow longer before their eyes, and the skin on her body began to crack. Yet she acted as if nothing was wrong, speaking in a hoarse voice: “Yes… this whole apartment building is mine. Wherever I want to live, I live.”
Zhang Xiangyi sensed something wrong at once. Xiao Xingzhi reacted even faster, he grabbed her and ran.
How could someone renting here not recognize the landlord?
She didn’t expect it. One extra question, and that was exactly where the trap lay.
This was what people meant by “asking for trouble.”
“Why are you running? Don’t you like Grandma anymore?”
The already unpleasant voice suddenly rose in volume, cracking into a shriek. At the same time, countless strands of white hair surged toward them, making the scene even more suffocating.
The stairwell lights flickered on and off, then went completely dark.
Zhang Xiangyi pulled out the kitchen knife she’d readied in advance and swung it rapidly.
Xiao Xingzhi, meanwhile, was dragging her upward as they ran.
The two of them worked in perfect coordination.
Afraid of the dark?
When life is under serious threat, all fear becomes irrelevant.
“This doesn’t make sense. It feels like we’ve already climbed seven or eight floors.” Xiao Xingzhi stared at the endless staircase, counting silently, realizing he was already far past the fourth floor. “Are we supposed to die here?!”
“Close your eyes and run.”
Zhang Xiangyi looked at the old woman, who never seemed too far or too close behind them. Their speed was clearly changing, yet the distance stayed the same, there was only one explanation…
“Xiao Xingzhi, stop.”