Crimson Blood was burning.
Winding serpents of flame twisted across the floor, spewing searing heat that evaporated the blood rain, destroyed the barrier, and reduced the young couple's newlywed home to ashes.
Their former happiness and present terror all became ashes drifting through the raging flames.
Ji Li stripped off his blood-soaked coat, covered his mouth and nose, and limped toward the sofa crushed beneath the ancient coffin. Mei Sheng reached out to him.
A drop of blood trickled from his deeply sunken eye socket onto the back of his hand, hastening the melting of the white frost.
Amid the towering flames, the two silently departed.
The fire engines' sirens were already drawing closer. They had arrived quickly—twice as fast as expected.
Xue Tingtao stood anxiously outside Unit 301, his face covered in beads of sweat, whether from heat or fear. He stretched an arm toward Ji Li.
"Hurry, the firefighters are almost here. We have to leave."
As he spoke, something stirred at the door of Unit 302, and a woman's startled cry came from inside.
Xue Tingtao's expression darkened. He withdrew his arm, rushed to Unit 302, and blocked the door with his body.
By then, the two had escaped the sea of flames.
Just before leaving, Ji Li turned and took one long, searching look at Unit 301.
The child who had been crying and screaming amid the flames had vanished entirely. The wooden floor crackled as it burned.
And two corpses were being burned away, along with all traces of them.
A single fire brought the story of Unit 301 to an end.
Back in the car, Xue Tingtao wiped the sweat and grime from his face with his sleeve, started the engine, and drove away from Building 8.
A fire engine roared past them,