The Scene

The Qipao Woman forced down her fear and turned to look at the mirror.

The next second, her expression froze completely.

"Ahhhhh!!!" Her eyes bulged from their sockets, and the Qipao Woman fell backward to the floor. Her mouth fell open of its own accord as she let out a bloodcurdling scream.

A black shadow flashed past her eyes. The terrible pain lasted only a brief instant, then everything fell silent.

A mistlike darkness filled the pitch-black corridor, lingering for a long time without dispersing.

It was a quiet night, at least for Jiang Cheng and the Fatty.

The Fatty was still fast asleep when a scream suddenly rang out in a daze.

He was covered with two quilts and had taken Jiang Cheng's advice, pulling them up to his chin so that only his round face showed.

Just then, a piercing cry sounded outside their room: "Ahhhh! Someone's dead!!!"

The Fatty jolted in fright and nearly rolled out of bed.

Jiang Cheng had taken the Fatty's place on night watch a few hours earlier and had been keeping watch ever since.

The scream had come from a woman. She was young, and Jiang Cheng recognized her voice.

It was one of the three newcomers—the Dinosaur Pajamas Girl.

"Doctor..." The Fatty trembled as he tried to say something, but perhaps because he had just woken up and wasn't thinking clearly, all he managed was to repeat how frightened he was, without saying anything useful.

So Jiang Cheng told him to shut up and immediately moved toward the door.

He waited until he heard a door open outside and the sound of hurried footsteps before opening the door and stepping out.

The Fatty followed close behind, his face full of fear.

A short distance away, the Sleepwear Woman was slumped on the floor. People crowded around the doorway of the room opposite her, and blood seeped from inside, an eye-searing crimson.

Judging by the amount of blood alone, whoever was inside was surely in grave danger.

The Fatty's little eyes darted around. After a long moment, he swallowed and whispered, "The Qipao Woman's missing."

Even without the Fatty saying it, Jiang Cheng had noticed immediately that the Qipao Woman was the only one missing from the crowd. It went without saying who had died.

The Sleepwear Woman was so terrified that she had lost all composure and could only scream over and over.

"Fuck!" The Hat Man was already in a foul mood, and the girl's shrieking had become unbearable. He cursed, then turned toward her with a stony expression and slapped her across the face.

The sharp crack rang out, and the whole world fell silent.

The Sleepwear Woman was knocked to the floor. She stopped screaming and lay half-prostrate, rigid, her body trembling uncontrollably. Her eyes, however, were filled with a despair so suffocating it was hard to bear.

This time, no one helped her. No one even offered her a word of comfort.

Even the usually gentle Suit Man turned a blind eye to what had happened to her.

At the sight of that glaring blood, it seemed everyone had been reduced to their true selves.

In a sense, the task had only truly begun once someone had died.

Jiang Cheng led the Fatty toward the room, step by step. By then, the others had noticed them approaching, and even the Middle-aged man in the vest made room for them.

It was a dorm room, but it looked as if it had been abandoned long ago. Not even one of its windows was intact.

A pair of legs protruded from behind the corner. Looking closely, he could see specks of blood spattered across them.

Jiang Cheng was now certain that this was the Qipao Woman's body.

The door was half open, but he couldn't tell whether it had been that way when they arrived or if someone had left it open.

He pulled the door all the way open and went in first.

The Fatty's whole body shook violently at the sight. The tremor ran through him, rippling across his body like waves on a lake. He opened his mouth to stop Jiang Cheng, but he was already too late.

Jiang Cheng had entered the room. He lowered his head and stared at one corner.

Near the corner lay a woman's body.

A large pool of blood surrounded it.

The blood was splattered everywhere. The table, wardrobe, and abandoned bed were all stained, as were the walls around them.

The dorm room floor was visibly uneven. Blood had gathered near the bed on one side, forming a pool.

The floor was slightly muddy, and every so often, stepping on it produced an unpleasantly slick sensation.

It was indeed the Qipao Woman's body. She lay facedown on the floor. From this angle, there were no signs of a struggle or external injuries, so he couldn't yet find the source of the bleeding.

A few more people entered. The Suit Man, the Hat Man, and another woman all looked grim the moment they saw the Qipao Woman's body.

Sometimes having your suspicions confirmed was a kind of pain in itself.

Then the Fatty steeled himself and came in too. He stepped in a patch of blood, slipped, and nearly fell.

The air was filled with a strange odor, a mixture of a pungent, sweet, bloody smell and a faint stench of decay. It involuntarily brought a few bizarre images to Jiang Cheng's mind.

It was an old habit of his. He shook his head, trying to suppress the feeling, but it only made things worse.

In a daze, he took a step backward.

He never expected such a simple movement to set off a chain reaction. The Suit Man, the Hat Man, and the Ponytail Woman from Room 406 all took a step back at the same time.

"What's wrong?" the Hat Man cried.

Jiang Cheng ignored him. He opened his right hand and pressed his thumb and middle finger hard against his temples.

After a while, he began to feel a little better. When he looked up again, the Suit Man and the others had backed all the way to the doorway.

Everyone was staring at him, ready to turn and run at the slightest provocation.

"What's wrong with you all?" Jiang Cheng asked with a frown.

The Hat Man eyed him suspiciously for a long moment. When he seemed to find nothing unusual, he replied, "Nothing. You're just acting pretty strange." He pursed his lips and asked tentatively, "Did you notice something?"

"No."

"Really?" The Suit Man didn't seem convinced.

"Really," Jiang Cheng said firmly. "Now I need someone to help me turn over her body and take a look. We might find some clues."

"Who'll do it?" he added.

At that, everyone fell silent. Even from the heart, it was hard not to recoil from a corpse with such a bizarre appearance.