The cat's shrieking followed right on his heels, the piercing sound seeming to bore straight through
"I need to buy Ying Tong a time gap—I need to create a time gap!"
Chen Ge felt as though he were walking along a cliff's edge. His plan was recklessly dangerous—one slip from anyone and they'd all be killed. Ying Tong would lose his chance to open his eyes, and Chen Ge himself would be buried behind the door forever.
The cat's wailing drilled through his skull. Chen Ge felt like he was being driven mad, but he had no choice now—only to sprint forward with everything he had.
He absolutely could not stop. Ying Chen might be armed with a weapon. If he caught up, Chen Ge would be injured for certain.
If he got hurt during the chase, his speed would only drop further and further, and the end result would be Ying Chen slowly playing him to death.
The world behind the door was cruel and nightmarish. Despair was its native language.
Sprinting at full speed, the only thing Chen Ge had to work with was a rough mental map. He remembered the length and width of the corridors, and his body strained to maintain balance.
But he couldn't see, and he didn't dare slow down at random—even as he approached a stairwell corner, he was still barreling forward.
Every footfall slammed into the ground. The echo of his steps sounded slightly different in the stairwell than in the hallway; in the stairwell the reverberation was louder. It was a detail Chen Ge had noticed earlier, and right now it was the only cue he had to judge when to decelerate.
Holding his breath, listening intently, Chen Ge caught the echo of footsteps amid the cat's shrieking. He had to slow down, or at full speed he'd slam straight into the wall and hurt himself.
The skull crusher was far too heavy—under these conditions it was more burden than help. He let it go without hesitation.
The instant his footfall shifted, Chen Ge spun around and hurled the skull crusher behind him with all his strength.
He wasn't expecting to hit Ying Chen. If it could just slow the man down even a fraction, he'd call it a win.
As the hammer flew, Chen Ge decelerated, spreading his arms until his fingertips found the stair railing.
He'd confirmed his position. He lunged toward the fifth floor.
"Ying Tong should be around the fourth floor by now. I can't go to the fourth floor—I need to get into the fifth-floor hallway first!"
His mind raced. Every nerve was stretched to its limit. On the razor's edge between life and death, he drew out the deepest reserves of his potential.
"You can still do all this with your eyes closed?" Ying Chen's voice came from a few meters behind. When Chen Ge had spun around, Ying Chen had caught a glimpse of him.
Truthfully, Chen Ge had done remarkably well. He'd held out until the very last moment before appearing in front of Ying Chen. If the man had spotted him earlier, that devil would have found a dozen ways to toy with him to death.
Between two people of comparable intelligence, how could a blind man in an unfamiliar environment ever hope to outmaneuver a psychopathic killer?
The mission was almost a guaranteed death sentence, yet Chen Ge had carved out a path anyway. He'd enlisted the help of the building's residents and, before Ying Chen could react, moved the final confrontation forward.
In other words, Chen Ge's logic was straightforward: he couldn't see and was at an absolute disadvantage, so he had to stay hidden in the shadows. If hiding was no longer possible, then it came down to a face-to-face fight to the death.
The cat's wailing behind him was like a death knell. Chen Ge could feel Ying Chen closing in, and worse still, his stamina was draining fast—he could barely maintain this pace. But Ying Chen hadn't slowed at all. Given how things were going, being caught was only a matter of time.
From the sixth floor down to the fifth, the gap between Chen Ge and Ying Chen narrowed again. The cat's scream seemed pressed against his scalp—as soon as he stopped, the monster behind him would swallow his head whole.
"Run through the fifth-floor hallway, get into the corridor on the other side. I'll have two choices: head up to the sixth floor or down to the fourth."
"My speed going up and down stairs is far slower than Ying Chen's. Every time I enter a stairwell, the gap shrinks. Next time I step into one, he could catch me right there in the stairwell. That's a problem I can't dodge."
"I have to find a solution!"
In the time it took to think, Chen Ge had already crossed the fifth-floor hallway and entered the stairwell.
Going to the fourth floor might interfere with Ying Tong. To make sure he lured Ying Chen away, Chen Ge gripped the railing and drove himself toward the sixth floor like a man possessed.
He took three steps at a time, but halfway between the fifth and sixth floors, his backpack was seized. A rush of cold air surged toward his neck.
His scalp tightened. Chen Ge let go without hesitation.
Clang!
The blade struck the iron railing with a sharp ring. Chen Ge's heart hammered: "Ying Chen has a knife!"
The backpack was ripped away. Chen Ge didn't pause—without looking back he kept sprinting toward the sixth floor with everything he had left.
Back when he'd first stepped through this door, back when he'd discovered his eyes were blind and he couldn't see a thing, he'd already pulled the comic album from his backpack and tucked it against his body, and slipped the ballpoint pen into his pocket.
He'd anticipated the possibility of some emergency that would force him to abandon the bag. What had seemed like a pointless precaution back then had now become the key to keeping his trump cards.
No skull crusher, no ever-present backpack—for the first time Chen Ge looked this wretched.
When Ying Chen swung the blade, Chen Ge had put two steps' worth of distance between them. By the time he made it back to the sixth floor, the cat's shrieking had latched onto him once more.
"Hasn't Ying Tong finished yet?" Chen Ge felt like his legs were about to give out. He was blind, and disaster could strike at any moment. If he hadn't dodged that knife, he really would have died behind the door.
"I can't stop! Stopping means death!"
Cornered, with no road even visible before him, Chen Ge kept sprinting for all he was worth. He had never once considered giving up. He had always been this way.
The cat's wailing filled his skull, the sound so close it seemed to graze his ear, like a sharp blade pressed against the back of his neck.
The rhythm of his footsteps began to shift. Even in this state, Chen Ge still had to split his focus to judge whether he'd entered a stairwell.
The echo of footsteps reached his ears—he'd crossed the hallway and entered the fully enclosed stairwell. But just as he was about to slow down, the arm he'd reached out to grab the railing was suddenly clamped by a tremendous force!
The force came from inside the stairwell!
"Ying Chen is behind me— whoever's in the stairwell isn't him!" The moment that thought flashed through his mind, a voice rang out right in front of his face.
"I got him!" It was Ma Gui's voice. Ying Chen's accomplice had been lying in wait inside the stairwell!
His arm was caught. Ma Gui blocked him from the front, Ying Chen closed in from behind. It was an inescapable dead end.
Chen Ge wrenched his arm with all his strength, but couldn't break free. The cat's wailing was right behind him. He clenched his teeth until they drew blood and, in less than a second, made his decision—he threw his entire body toward the spot where Ma Gui's voice had come from!