The Door, We Will All Die

Zhuanghe was from Harbin and lived in the employee dormitories of the Harbin Cotton Mill.

The Harbin Cotton Mill had long since ceased to exist. Back then, many old state-owned enterprises like it had gone under due to poor management. Some had been restructured and sold to private owners, while others had simply declared bankruptcy and shut down.

The Harbin Cotton Mill had gone bankrupt, and all its employees had been laid off to fend for themselves.

Those who had done relatively well had already moved away from the cotton mill. They rented their homes out to young people from the countryside who had come to the city to make their way, so there were now very few people from the cotton mill still living in its dormitories.

The remaining residents were either people who truly could not make it outside, or elderly people who had lost their ability to work.

As a result, the residents in the cotton mill's family housing area were now a mixed lot. Coupled with Harbin's several rounds of urban redevelopment, the place had become a rural-urban fringe area, making its population even more complicated.

As Wu Lun drove, he introduced us to the situation at the cotton mill.

"The Zhuanghe you're looking for grew up at the cotton mill. His father was once the mill's chief engineer, second only to the factory director in status. Back then, enterprises like this usually had one director, two deputy factory directors, and one chief engineer. The factory director oversaw everything. Of the two deputy factory directors, one handled production and operations, while the other handled administration and logistics. The chief engineer was responsible for technical management."

Wu Lun had clearly done his homework. After he explained it, Xu Qiuyan and I more or less understood.

Xu Qiuyan asked curiously, "By the way, Old Du said your nickname is Half-Immortal. Can you really tell fortunes?"

Wu Lun glanced at Xu Qiuyan through the rearview mirror. "How would I know how? I just like fooling people."

I asked, "Did Zhuanghe have a job of his own?"

"No. Most of the time, he went hiking and traveling, but I heard that someone sponsored him every time he went out." Gu Song answered the question. He had some say in the matter.

Wu Lun nodded. "That's right. Zhuanghe doesn't have a proper job. His hobby is traveling, but as far as I know, his trips aren't ordinary tourism. They're all purposeful expeditions. Those so-called sponsors are actually bounties. He takes expedition jobs from a website. Once he accepts a job, he gets a sum of money, enough to cover all the expenses of the expedition. If he completes the job, the employer gives him an additional generous reward. In his line of work, he goes three years without a job, then lives off one job for three years."

I looked at Gu Song. He shook his head, indicating that he knew nothing about it.

Wu Lun continued, "That website is pretty famous, though its name isn't very pleasant. I think it's called Donkey Egg Net. I've looked at it before. It should be an overseas website, full of all kinds of strange hiking jobs, most of them treasure hunts based on nothing but rumors."

I smiled. "So a lot of those jobs are just wishful thinking?"

"Probably. Like Zhuanghe's last job—entering Lop Nur to search for the Twin Fish Jade Pendant. How could that thing possibly exist? Yet someone believed in it, and the bounty offered by the person who posted the job was frighteningly high. Do you know how much it was?"

I shook my head, thoroughly shocked.

I hadn't expected Wu Lun to know so much, even the details of Zhuanghe's final job. But if that was true, then it conflicted with what Gu Song had said. Gu Song said they entered Lop Nur because of a post someone had made on a forum, while Wu Lun said Zhuanghe had accepted the job on Donkey Egg Net to search for the Twin Fish Jade Pendant.

Gu Song sounded helpless. "I didn't know much about this matter. Zhuanghe and I weren't close. I didn't even know him before we went to Lop Nur. Xiao Tang knew him much better, and he was the one who contacted Xiao Tang first. He was also the one who told Xiao Tang about the forum. But there really was an article on that forum. I read it. Xiao Tang and I decided to go after reading it."

I believed Gu Song was not lying. That article did exist, but it was very likely written by Zhuanghe himself. Zhuanghe had accepted a job on Donkey Egg Net, but he could not possibly venture deep into Lop Nur alone. He needed helpers with some wilderness survival skills, as well as a certain ability to appraise cultural relics and conduct archaeology. They might even need to understand feng shui and geomancy.

But Zhuanghe did not want them to know about Donkey Egg Net, because he wanted to keep the bounty all to himself.

Wu Lun said the reward was twenty million.

Gu Song sucked in a breath. "That much?"

Wu Lun laughed. "Is that a lot? Not at all. If he really found it, people would fight to buy that thing even if it cost one or two billion."

Wu Lun was right. The Twin Fish Jade Pendant could no longer be measured in money.

Even those so-called national treasures would pale before it.

I gave Wu Lun a mischievous look, then reached out and touched the jade pendant hidden on my body. If he knew the thing he was talking about was in my hands, would his jaw drop?

But I did not do it. That would only bring trouble upon myself.

I understood the principle that possession of a treasure brings crime.

Besides, I had already been targeted by Onmyoji from the Island Nation. I did not know whether they would follow me to Harbin.

The car came to a stop.

"He lives on the fourth floor, Room 404. He's alone now. His parents passed away one after another a few years ago. He's already over forty and still unmarried. But that's not surprising. How could someone who wanders around all day be willing to be tied down? I won't go up with you. I'll leave the car for you. Here are the hotel room cards."

Wu Lun handed me the room cards. There were three in total.

"The hotel isn't far from here. Just use navigation, and you'll find it easily."

I nodded.

He looked at me. "You really are in a hurry. Couldn't you get settled at the hotel before starting work?"

I said nothing and merely smiled at him.

I was indeed in a hurry. I was worried that Zhuanghe might be in danger.

And Gu Song had said that after Zhuanghe returned, he had also developed some problems. Like that team member and Xie Xiaotang, he seemed possessed.

That was why I wanted to see Zhuanghe as soon as possible.

Wu Lun took a taxi and left. The Buick minivan was left for us to use temporarily while we were in Harbin.

"Let's go up."

Gu Song glanced at Yin Wuyu in the car. The kid had already fallen asleep.

"What about him?"

I said, "Let him sleep for a while. That kid actually played games all night."

But the moment I finished speaking, Yin Wuyu opened his eyes. "Boss, I don't want to stay in the car alone. I'm scared!"

He habitually bit his finger when he spoke. The sight was a little strange—a young man who looked seventeen or eighteen making such a childish gesture.

But I did not laugh. I reached out and patted his head. "All right, then. Come up with us."

This was an old family apartment building. Though it was divided into units, it only had stairs.

We reached the fourth floor and found the door marked 404.

I knocked on the door, but there was no response.

Xu Qiuyan knocked a few more times, much harder than I had.

The door opened.

It opened right after she finished knocking.

But there was no one in sight who had opened it.

I looked suspiciously at Xu Qiuyan. She also found it strange.

I pushed the door open and walked inside. There really was no one in the living room.

The place was a complete mess. The table was covered with junk food wrappers and more than a dozen beer cans.

Dirty clothes and smelly socks occupied almost the entire sofa.

I frowned. Was this any place for a person to live?

"Cough, cough!" A cough came from inside the room. Xu Qiuyan and I took the lead and arrived at the doorway. It was a bedroom, and it was no better than the living room.

A man sat on the bed, tightly wrapped in a blanket.

His face was waxy yellow, and his hair was long. It seemed he had not taken care of it for a long time.

There was also a pungent stench in the bedroom, one I could not identify.

He saw us as well, and terror appeared on his face. "Who are you? How did you get into my house?"

I narrowed my eyes. I could see the deep fear in him when he looked at us.

There was something else that felt strange. The door had clearly been shut tight just now, yet it opened after Xu Qiuyan pounded on it. The person who opened it was obviously not the man before us. Then who was it?

If nothing unexpected had happened, the person on the bed should have been Zhuanghe.

I looked at Gu Song. Gu Song nodded and stepped forward. "Zhuanghe, do you still recognize me?"

Zhuanghe stared fixedly at Gu Song, as though carefully trying to identify him.

"You're Xie Xiaotang's man, that University Professor! Why are you here? Has Xie Xiaotang already died?"

Gu Song's expression changed slightly at his words. "How did you know?"

Zhuanghe smiled, and his smile was extremely eerie. "We will all die. All of us will die. No one can escape."