There could be someone standing outside. Chen Ge felt that opening the door like this was far from safe, but he had no better options right now.
This was an opportunity—one he couldn't afford to miss.
"Ying Chen hasn't gone far. There's very likely a trap outside the door—someone waiting for me to open it and step right in."
The cat's meows could serve as an early warning against Ying Chen, but they were useless against his accomplice. Chen Ge knew this from painful experience—he'd already been pushed off a building by that child once. Throughout the entire process, the kid hadn't made a single sound, only baring its fangs at the very end.
"There are two possibilities now. The first is that Ying Chen and his accomplice are each standing guard outside Mr. Wood's and Miss Hong's doors. The second is that Ying Chen is hiding somewhere in the hallway, his accomplice hasn't left at all, and is standing right outside the door—everything he just said was deliberately meant for me to hear."
Chen Ge turned both scenarios over in his mind. For an ordinary person, the best choice right now would be to stay inside the Skirt Lady's apartment. Even though that psycho killer had a key to this room, as long as he barricaded the door properly, nothing too terrible should happen.
But doing that meant surrendering the initiative entirely. Ying Chen could use that time to do all sorts of things.
Chen Ge's stamina was limited. The fact that he'd managed to hold on this long was already extraordinary. The longer he dragged things out, the higher the chance that something would go wrong.
What worried him even more were Mr. Wood and Miss Hong. After all, that bastard Ying Chen was completely devoid of humanity—he was capable of anything.
If even one of the three ran into trouble, it would become nearly impossible for Ying Tong to ever open his eyes again.
"Maybe I can use the trap Ying Chen set for me—turn it around to shift the disadvantaged position I'm in now." An idea took shape in his mind, but to execute it, he first had to confirm that there really was someone outside his door.
Chen Ge dragged the sofa backward, deliberately making a loud racket, though in reality it had only moved a few centimeters.
Gripping the doorknob, Chen Ge slowly removed the mop that had been wedged diagonally against the lock.
He pressed the handle down bit by bit. The lock was already open.
The silence outside was terrifying. He couldn't hear a thing—the corridor beyond seemed completely empty.
"Was I overthinking it?" Chen Ge held his breath and slowly pulled the door toward him. Just as it was nearly open, a tremendous force suddenly slammed into the security door from the other side!
"Someone's there!"
The door slammed back into the sofa. A freezing hand reached through the gap, and those withered fingers clamped around Chen Ge's wrist!
Chen Ge reacted in an instant, throwing every ounce of strength he had into trying to shut the door.
The sofa hadn't been moved completely out of the way. The door crashed into it, which absorbed some of the impact—and that saved Chen Ge's life.
The door couldn't be pushed fully open. Both of Chen Ge's hands were on the door trying to close it, but the other person had his wrist, and the hand outside was jammed in the gap—the door simply wouldn't shut.
The gap in the security door was growing wider and wider. Chen Ge couldn't see what was in front of him. Consumed by desperation, he had no time to worry about anything else—he lowered his head and bit down hard on the hand gripping his wrist!
When a person was in a state of extreme tension, their bite force was astonishing. A child's scream rang out from beyond the door. The hand loosened in pain, and Chen Ge immediately threw himself against the security door, forcing it shut through sheer willpower.
He grabbed the mop from the floor that had been propping the door, wedged it diagonally under the doorknob, then shoved the sofa back in front of the entrance.
Panting heavily, Chen Ge's back was already drenched in cold sweat. He pressed his body against the sofa to hold it in place, and just then, the phone from the Lady in the Dress in his pocket suddenly started vibrating.
Chen Ge's fingers tapped rapidly across different spots on the phone screen, and after a moment, the call connected.
"Hello?"
"It's me. Ying Chen is outside my door."
Mr. Wood's voice came through the phone, his tone dark and his voice pressed especially low.
"Lock your door from the inside and stay away from it. You have to make sure Ying Chen can't hear our conversation." Chen Ge steadied his breathing. All of this was within his expectations — once Ying Chen learned that Ying Tong had accepted Ah Mu, he would definitely go after Mr. Wood and Miss Hong.
"I'm in the study, far from the living room door. He can't hear me."
"Did Ying Chen say anything to you?"
"No. He's just been standing at my door. If you hadn't just warned me, I would have had no idea there was someone outside." Mr. Wood's voice was still trembling.
"He's probably waiting for you to open the door so he can rush straight in. That lunatic is capable of anything." Chen Ge kept retreating until he'd slipped to the other side of the sofa, lowering his voice to barely a whisper to make sure the person outside the door couldn't hear a word: "There's something I need to ask of you."
"Go ahead."
Chen Ge took a deep breath. He was going to gamble against Ying Chen: "Ying Chen is stationed outside your door. His helper is outside mine. Call Miss Hong right now and have her take Ah Ying out of that room immediately. She needs to find a way to hide Ah Ying in the cleaning cabinet on the third floor without alerting anyone."
"The cleaning cabinet? Are you insane?"
"Listen — Ying Tong can only open his eyes once he's accepted Ah Ying, Ah Tong, and Ah Mu. We have to get Ying Tong in contact with all three children. If we all just hide in our rooms, Ying Chen and his helper only need to guard two doors, and we'll never win." Chen Ge was completely calm.
"This is insane."
"Ah Tong has claustrophobia, so the only one who can hide in the cleaning cabinet is Ah Ying!" There was indeed a trace of madness in Chen Ge's tone — something even he hadn't realized himself: "Ying Chen is blocking your door on the second floor. His helper is blocking mine on the first floor. No matter how this building loops around, Miss Hong will be far away from both of them. She'll have plenty of time to do what needs to be done."
"But what's the point of doing this?"
"Ying Chen set a trap for me, but in setting it, he left an opening. This is our only chance." Chen Ge's voice seeped through clenched teeth. Though he couldn't see, the trap Ying Chen had laid told him exactly where both Ying Chen and his helper were positioned.
Mr. Wood thought for a moment, seeming to grasp what Chen Ge was planning: "Alright. I'll call Miss Hong right now."
The call disconnected. All he could hear was the dial tone.
About ten minutes later, the phone in Chen Ge's palm vibrated again: "Hello?"
"Miss Hong has hidden Ah Ying in the third-floor cleaning cabinet. Thank God — nothing went wrong." Mr. Wood's voice came through the phone.
"Is Ying Chen still outside your room?"
"Yeah. He actually knocked on the door just now, but I ignored him."
"Good. Now comes the most critical step." Chen Ge struggled to keep his composure: "You should have Cleaner Auntie Wu's number, right? Have her find a way to work her way toward me. Once she gets here, I'll take Ying Tong out of the room and come find you."