Footsteps approached from afar, first wandering around the neighbor's apartment, then slowly drawing closer to the wall.
As Gao Ming pressed himself against the wall to listen, it seemed as though a face on the other side was pressed against it too. A dozen seconds later, the footsteps sounded again, as if someone had hurried out into the corridor and stopped outside Liu Yi's door.
No knock came in the darkness. Gao Ming listened with his full attention. The footsteps grew fainter and fainter, and when they sounded for the last time, it seemed whoever was making them had already entered Liu Yi's apartment.
"Meow!" Fortune dropped off the bed like a ball of fur. Liu Yi woke up and reached over to switch on the bedside nightlight. "Gao Ming, another nightmare?"
"It's nothing. Nothing." Gao Ming stared at an empty spot in the living room. Fortune was watching the same spot.
"Go back to sleep. You have work tomorrow." After coaxing Liu Yi back to sleep, Gao Ming searched again, but he couldn't find anything connected to that livestream.
Did watching that livestream get me targeted by something? Before the streamer disappeared, he said that if he didn't survive until dawn, someone else would have to enter the night. Was he looking for a substitute to die in his place? Or was this some stupid prank?
Gao Ming didn't sleep again before dawn. He got up early to prepare breakfast for Liu Yi and Fortune.
After Liu Yi left for work, Gao Ming took out the ring-shaped communicator Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals had given him. They hadn't assigned him any missions.
After thinking for a moment, Gao Ming contacted Tang Qing himself.
When the video connected, Gao Ming saw a face full of resentment and the weary misery of an