"If the urban legend is real, then when the statue decides her words are false and invalid, something terrifying will happen."
Ma Ying stared at the blood tears streaming down the statue's face, and a peculiar emotion stirred within her — part fear, part familiarity. This scene felt like déjà vu.
"We can't stay here. We need to leave right now — hurry!"
Hearing Ma Ying's urgent voice, Liu Xianxian remained motionless. Her slender arms folded inward, hugging her own shoulders as though she'd suddenly been struck by a chill.
"So he really doesn't like me after all. It was all in my head." Liu Xianxian's composure cracked. She couldn't hold back the tears anymore, crying as she spoke to the empty air. "If you didn't like me, why did you give me hope? Why did you keep tormenting me?"
Ma Ying grabbed Liu Xianxian: "We'll talk once we're outside. This place isn't safe."
She stood a full head taller than Liu Xianxian and was sturdier in build. She forcibly pushed Liu Xianxian out from behind the shelving.
As the two turned to leave, a sound like teeth grinding echoed from the deepest recesses of the warehouse, where the statue stood. Blood tears flowed without cease, and the grotesque sculpture seemed as though it could stand up at any moment.
Unlike when they'd entered, something unknown had changed inside the warehouse.
Rows upon rows of shelving seemed designed to disorient them, and all manner of clutter blocked the center of the path. Getting out had become incredibly difficult.
"Didn't we throw the easels against the wall earlier? How are they suddenly blocking the middle of the aisle now?" Ma Ying had to tend to the emotionally shattered Liu Xianxian while simultaneously figuring out how to clear a path.
She moved the heavy easels by herself, her mind screaming at her to go faster — faster!
A thudding sound reached her ears, as if coming from somewhere deep inside the warehouse. It set her heart racing.
Sweat quickly beaded on Ma Ying's forehead. She had never been this frightened before.
After moving several easels out of the way, she was about to head out when she noticed that the chairs, desks, and stools that had been stacked in the corner had somehow ended up dumped in the narrow passageway as well.
"Did these chairs come to life on their own? I didn't hear a single sound — who could have stacked all of these in the middle of the path in such a short time?"
Ma Ying dragged Liu Xianxian along. There was no time to move the furniture piece by piece. "Follow me — we'll climb over!"
The warehouse was different from when they'd entered. Liu Xianxian noticed the changes too. Despite her grief, she didn't want to be a burden to her roommate.
The two girls clambered up the precariously tilted furniture. The moment they reached the highest point, Ma Ying saw that the monitor ahead — which had been shut off earlier — had been turned on again by someone. The cold glow of the screen stood out starkly in the pitch-dark warehouse.
"Who turned on the computer? Was it that person I saw earlier?"
The thought had barely formed in her mind before the answer could follow when a face suddenly materialized on the computer screen.
It was a bald man, his face swollen.
At the same time, the photocopier beside them whirred to life on its own. Sheets of white paper fed out of the tray one after another, and each sheet seemed to bear a human face.
The papers ejected faster and faster, and the faces grew clearer with each one.
Not daring to hesitate any longer, Ma Ying jumped straight down from the tilted desk. The room was pitch black — without a phone for light, nothing could be seen.
"Jump now! Over here!" Ma Ying pulled out her phone and aimed the light for Liu Xianxian. Liu Xianxian spotted a patch of clear floor with no debris on it, and just as she was about to leap, something suddenly brushed against Ma Ying.
Ma Ying flinched, and the phone swung around behind her. At that exact moment, Liu Xianxian jumped.
Where there had been nothing moments before, a three-legged chair had somehow appeared on the ground.
Liu Xianxian's left foot landed right on the edge of the chair. She let out a sharp scream and crashed to the floor.
Her arm was scraped, and her ankle was sprained.