After closing the door to Room 2002, Gao Ming's oil lamp became his only source of light. Its faint flame flickered inside the glass vessel, like a bird stripped of its freedom, draining the last of its lifeblood to sing.
He carried the oil lamp down the corridor, his elongated shadow seeming to dance in the firelight, offering worship to an unknown god.
At the end of the corridor was his room—2009. The number on the door looked like a significant year, its black digits printed in a history book. A casual turn of the page, and countless people's fates became dust.
Wind and snow battered the corridor windows. Tiny ice pellets struck the glass, their rapid pattering like sharp fingernails endlessly tapping at a door.
He breathed onto the glass, its lingering warmth turning it into a canvas. Gao Ming gently traced a finger across it, and a smiling face appeared in the winter night.
"The snow's getting heavier again."
Unlocking Room 2009, Gao Ming looked into the empty room and walked straight in without even closing the door.
He opened the wardrobe and tucked a spare duvet cover and bathrobe beneath the bedding to make it look as though someone was in bed. Then he pushed the bathroom door to a specific angle. If he returned to find that angle had changed, it would mean something might have entered his room.
Once he had finished, Gao Ming lay on the bed and slipped a hand into his pocket.
After some rummaging, two seeds that gave off a meaty fragrance appeared in his palm.
Clenching the seeds, Gao Ming could clearly sense something calling to him from a certain direction. It seemed to be the Flesh-and-Blood Giant Tree planted in Jiang Miaomiao's nightmare.
In the previous Middle Nightmare, a