I'll preserve the requested paragraph structure, including the title and the chapter's scene break.Lingren: Not a Fan of Exercise

The three of them steadily drew closer to the Clock Tower.

Along the way, they even saw the ghostly shadow of a woman wearing an apron. She stood before the gaping doorway of a building, calling a name over and over with a numb mental pulse, as if summoning a mischievous child home for dinner—even though her "home" was itself a writhing, living building.

Her child would never come home.

All the "residents" were absorbed in their own lives, paying no attention to the three as they passed.

Their behavior was so much like that of humans in the real world, yet everything about them revealed an essence of despair and distortion. They seemed to be performing a grand, sorrowful puppet show. The strings were the rules governing the City of Terror at night, along with their own fixed fears and obsessions.

"Look, that's Uncle Hans." The little girl walked ahead, occasionally pointing at a passing shadow and introducing it in a low voice. "He was a baker when he was alive. Now he kneads dough there every night, but it never rises."

"Over there is Auntie Mary. She's always looking for her cat. I saw it earlier—someone skinned it and hung it up on another street. But when I told her, she didn't believe me."

Her tone was as casual as if she were introducing her neighbors, yet it sent a chill down the listener's spine.

This "everyday life," forcibly established amid absolute abnormality, was more unsettling than pure madness.

It seemed to suggest that horror didn't always bare its fangs. It could also seep in quietly, disguising the deepest despair as numb routine.

The little girl led them around several areas that seemed peaceful but radiated danger.

Once, she reached out and stopped Lingren, who was about to