The piercing shriek of a cat burrowed into his ears.
"Ying Chen? You usually always take the elevator. What made you suddenly interested in climbing stairs today?" The Skirt Lady's voice drifted from the sixth-floor landing. Perhaps the shock of seeing the severed head hadn't fully worn off yet—there was a faint tremor in her voice.
"I thought I heard someone talking in the stairwell just now, so I came up to check. Oh, and why are you here?" Ying Chen's voice came from the stairwell corner. At that moment, Chen Ge and Ying Tong were less than five meters away from him. Just a few more steps upward and he would spot the two of them pressed flat against the wall.
"A-Mu's medicine ran out. I wanted to see if Miss Hong had any to spare." The Skirt Lady slowly calmed down. The excuse she offered was entirely convincing.
"Oh, picking up medicine." Ying Chen's tone visibly relaxed, carrying a hint of a smile. "Taking care of A-Mu must be exhausting. You won't have to worry about it for much longer. I've already contacted a welfare institution. In a few days, they'll all be sent out."
As the two conversed, Chen Ge and Ying Tong quietly shuffled their feet upward through the darkness, inch by inch. At this moment, the slightest sound would give them away to Ying Chen.
"You're going to send A-Mu away?" The Skirt Lady's voice still carried a thread of tension. Having learned Ying Chen's true nature, there was no way she could face him as she normally would.
"Yes. I've been troubling you all to look after those children for so long—it weighs on my conscience." Ying Chen's voice appeared on the sixth floor. He seemed to have walked right up to the Skirt Lady. "After all, the reason those children ended up the way they did…"
His voice grew lower and lower, and the Skirt Lady couldn't quite make it out. "What did you say?"
"I said the reason those children ended up the way they did…" Ying Chen seemed to have pressed right up against the Skirt Lady. "Is entirely because of me!"
Bang!
The Skirt Lady's body slammed hard against the wall. Muffled, choking sounds echoed through the floor—her mouth seemed to have been sealed shut by something.
"Shh, keep quiet. Don't be nervous. I'm not going to slit your throat right here." Ying Chen's voice drifted through the stairwell, the same as always—comfortable, soothing, as though he were playing a game with a child.
"Just now downstairs, I heard you say something about a severed head? You don't need to answer. Just nod or shake your head."
"You didn't say it?"
"If you keep this up, I'm going to stop liking you. I've always admired your directness—just like you've always admired my warmth and selflessness."
"I'll ask you one more time. Did you say the words 'severed head'?"
"So you really did say it. Since you said 'severed head,' you must have seen my dear brother. He's the one who stole the head from my closet."
"Now, the second question. My brother should be somewhere nearby. Is he upstairs? Behind one of the doors? Or hiding inside the cleaning supply closet?"
"Did I squeeze too hard? Those bulging eyes of yours seem to have involuntarily flicked upward toward the higher floors?"
"Don't worry, I'm not going to go after him. The feeling of squeezing your throat like this—I've fantasized about it countless times. These rough hands closing around such a delicate neck, my knuckles pressing against your veins, tightening little by little, and then watching your expression slowly change… why would I ever want to leave?"
"You're like an elegant cat—no. You'll become the most beautiful cat I've ever adopted."
The stairwell gradually fell silent. By now, Chen Ge and Ying Tong had reached the seventh floor.
"Each floor is named after a date. The entire building is like an inescapable loop—meaning going up from the seventh floor likely brings you right back to the first."
The Skirt Lady lived on the first floor. A-Mu was still in her room.
"Ying Chen knows the Skirt Lady saw Ying Tong. There's no way he'll feel at ease leaving A-Mu in her room. He'll definitely go for A-Mu."
"I have two options. Get to the Skirt Lady's room before Ying Chen and find A-Mu. But there are two problems with this approach. First, A-Mu might not open the door for me, and the knocking could trigger even more complications. Second, once I'm inside the Skirt Lady's apartment, Ying Chen could simply camp outside and wait for me to come out."
Time was running short. Chen Ge couldn't afford to deliberate any longer. Ying Chen walked without making a sound, but the cat's yowling in his ears never stopped—they hadn't gained any distance on him at all.
"If Ying Chen takes A-Mu, finding him again later will be even harder. He might even kill A-Mu outright! If that happens, a part of Ying Tong's memory could be lost forever. And if that prevents Ying Tong from opening his eyes beyond the door…" The thought was too terrible to entertain. Chen Ge pulled Ying Tong forward, but Ying Tong showed no intention of moving upward. "Ying Tong? Come on, keep up."
"Let's just split up. Everyone who tried to help me has died. I…"
"Don't stop walking." Chen Ge wasn't about to stand here and debate with Ying Tong. He lowered his voice, gripped Ying Tong's arm, and pushed past the seventh floor.
Stepping onto a new flight of stairs, Chen Ge groped his way along based on the layout committed to memory until he found the Skirt Lady's door.
He tapped lightly on it. As the knocking echoed down the corridor, the cat's yowling grew louder.
And besides the cat, Chen Ge heard another sound—something heavy being dragged across the floor.
"A-Mu! Open the door! Hurry, open the door!"
Sweat beaded on his forehead. The cat's cries were fraying his nerves. His heartbeat hammered faster and faster, and his knocking grew more frantic—he couldn't care less about being discovered now.
Once a choice was made, the consequences had to be faced. And in this building, the price of the wrong choice was death.
"A-Mu! A-Mu!"
Footsteps sounded from inside. At the same instant, the dragging noise ceased—replaced by an even more piercing cat's scream!
Ying Chen had dropped the body. He was sprinting toward them at full speed!
"A-Mu!"
The lock clicked open. The very moment the latch turned, Chen Ge shoved the door and burst inside with Ying Tong.
He didn't dare hesitate for a second. He threw his weight forward, and the instant they were through, he groped along the door and slammed the security door shut.
"Don't speak! Not a word!"
With his back pressed against the security door, Chen Ge sank to the floor, both hands gripping his backpack for dear life.
In the darkness, the cat's agonized shrieks echoed around them, drawing closer, and closer, until they stopped right outside the door.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The pounding came, and Chen Ge's heart clenched. He braced his back against the security door, cold sweat streaming down. Only then did something truly horrifying suddenly flash through his mind: "Ying Chen killed the Skirt Lady! She might have had this room's key on her!"
In such an extreme situation, even Chen Ge's mind had its blind spots. Ever since entering this world beyond the door, his nerves had been wound impossibly tight—especially in that last instant.