Try【correct typo】
There was no time to lose. No matter how many people we had, it was not enough. I called Yan Mo to get the machines. Anything that could be used for scanning and detection should be brought here first, and the search and rescue dogs should also be brought along. If there were still bodies in the other walls of this community, searching them would definitely be a very hard and arduous task.
On the other hand, I would like to ask the property management to take another trip to check the information of the owners of Room 0103 and the second and fourth floors. It would be best to cooperate with the local authorities to print out the water and electricity usage of the idle houses in recent years, and estimate how many people have rotated to live in these so-called vacant rooms.
The security and surveillance of this old neighborhood cannot be relied upon, so we have to rely on manual labor.
I was not idle either. I took the flashlight and continued to walk upstairs with Zhang Tianyi.
Originally, I asked Wu Chou and the others to open the door to check the living conditions of this building and check the rooftop. Bumping into Xiaoyu and the others was an accident. Now I still plan to take it step by step and complete all the verifications according to the original plan.
It was far from time to turn on the lights in the corridor, so I took the flashlight and just used the light to guide the way, and then walked at the front.
I have to say one more thing here. When we were evacuating just now, I noticed that except for Xiaoyu and the other person who were sent out by us personally, no one else had left the building.
Because it was broad daylight when the evacuation took place, most people were at work and had not returned yet. Although I thought it was a slight coincidence, I did not have the energy to think about it, and my attention was soon distracted by the complicated task of evacuating the crowd.
But as I walked up floor by floor, as the doors of each house were opened, the scenes that came into view made me feel a chill in my bones.
No one lives there, and there are no signs of recent human habitation anywhere.
The third, fifth, sixth, and seventh floors were all covered with dust two fingers thick, visible to the naked eye, on the remaining floors.
The residents' clothes were still hanging in the closet, the refrigerator smelled musty, and the kettle was empty, as if the water inside had evaporated long ago. The packed garbage bags were rotten, with the long-dried black water almost sticking to the floor.
It looked like someone had indeed lived here before, but suddenly left due to some unexpected circumstances. In their haste, they did not take care of other movements, causing everything in the room to freeze at the moment before they left.
Now even the team leader began to doubt his life. He took a breath and asked in surprise, "Did there happen to be a large-scale evacuation before us?"
I didn't have any conclusion, so I tried to turn on the light, but found that the power seemed to have been out for a long time.
"There's no water in this place?"
"No, there is none in this building, and I haven't seen any notice of water outage or maintenance."
This is not good. I led people out of the room on the seventh floor and went up to the rooftop, which should be the seventh and a half floor. We stood there and looked at the other residential buildings around us.
Everyone had already left, and it was getting dark. The houses were empty and there was no light. The street lights hadn't come on yet, and the darkness made everything blurry and distorted.
Even the annoying sandalwood scent in the morning had dissipated after a day. All that was left to smell, see, and recognize were the overly lush and colorful flower pots.
I suddenly had the illusion that I was in some dead zone, and I began to feel uncomfortable all over.
It is actually very difficult for people to trust themselves in the face of huge and bizarre changes. I stood on the rooftop and looked around, and I heard a guy muttering unconsciously, "Could it be that everyone has already evacuated, and we are the only ones still wandering here. How long have we been trapped?"
"Is there really such a thing as reversed cause and effect? Could it be that after we find our own bodies, we keep trying to repeat the actions and memories of when we were killed?"
My eyelids jumped, and I saw that the guy had walked to the edge of the rooftop at some point. Suddenly, he showed a very strange smile and looked straight at me.
"Advisor, we have been communicating with the property management and the family over the phone today and have never met them in person. Are they really here today? You said jumping from the fourth floor and jumping from the second floor are sometimes the same thing, but what evidence do we have that we actually witnessed? What about jumping from the rooftop?"
My scalp suddenly felt tingling for no reason and I immediately knew something was wrong.
But he had already stepped to the very edge of the rooftop, and when the evening breeze blew over, I found that this face was extremely unfamiliar, as if it would be blown away by the wind in the next second.
"Advisor," he smiled at me, "time... is a scam."
"--Suddenly there was a bang as the two were pushing and shoving each other," for some reason, the second half of the original version of the rumor about the jumping case flashed through my mind at an inopportune time.
The first half has been explained and verified by Xiaoyu and the others. The second half seems to be happening right now. "A figure fell straight down from a high altitude, and was torn into pieces. Blood suddenly gushed out—"
The blood spread to my feet.
It's strange, my mind is completely blank and I can't understand why the situation has taken such a sudden turn for the worse.
Something completely beyond normal cognition happened.
The guy jumped down in front of me, but the next second, something heavy came crashing down from behind us. The broken limbs and body parts became very unfamiliar under the huge impact force. Along with the gushing of blood, I heard a burst of extremely painful and shrill wails echoing in my ears.
It took me some time to realize that the inhuman sound was an illusion after my own sanity collapsed. The dead man's neck was completely broken, and he was still staring at me with that weird and joyful smile, but there were only two empty holes where his eyes should be.
This scene was too sudden. The heat that suddenly splashed from my back left me no time to think. I took a step forward and almost stepped out of the building. I didn't know whether to say that I was lucky or something, but I kicked a flower pot and it blocked my kick. There was a clang, the sound of porcelain pieces falling and shattering.
But I looked over subconsciously, and I was dazed for a moment, and found that there were still nine flower pots on the roof, only the original gap remained the same.
…Where is the flowerpot I kicked?
No, could it be that the one that was missing at the beginning among these flower pots was actually the one that was kicked away by me at this moment?
Unprecedented calmness or cold-bloodedness made me stand still. I stopped everyone present and asked coldly, "Last time on the rooftop, when I almost fell off, a guy talked to me. Who was it? Repeat your exact words."
The guys looked at each other in bewilderment. After a while, Wu Chou shuddered and said blankly, "...It's the one on the ground."
"He said, it seems like he said..." Wu Chougan swallowed several times before squeezing out the words, "Advisor, why did you kick the flowerpot and jump out by yourself?"
After saying this, Wu Chou seemed to realize what he had repeated. His hair stood on end and he took two steps back, cursing several swear words.
Xu You held him down, asked the others to avoid the huge pool of blood, and said sternly, "Disciple, come here first!"
I shook my head. Things had come to this point, too many lives had been lost, and I wasn't so fragile as to commit suicide, but I really needed to sort out my thoughts.
"What's his name?"
“… Ding Jiu.”
It's also the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. I said okay, thought about it, and calmly asked everyone present, "There have been quite a few horrible things today. I have a question, even now, how many people have collapsed like Ding Jiu and wanted to commit suicide?"
The guys looked at each other in silence for a long time, a little hesitant, but all shook their heads.
"Advisor, if the sky falls, there will be someone taller to hold it up. You guys in charge are all alive and well, so why should we be afraid?" Someone muttered, rubbing the back of his head, "...It's really going to be terrible. Such a grand scene today is really spectacular."
Wu Chou came to his senses a little, glanced at the pool of blood on the ground, and said with pity, "Advisor, what do you mean?"
“That may not be very humane,” I deadpanned, “I can’t understand or empathize with his breakdown.”
"If someone who is well-trained and used to seeing life and death can suddenly go crazy and commit suicide, I would think he is trying to achieve something with his death."
"——Xu Ranxing."
Zhang Tianyi suddenly stopped me and said softly, "Ranzi and I will talk alone for a while, you two can go to the corridor and take a rest first."
I didn't say anything. After a moment, Zhang Tianyi came over and patted my shoulder.
I wiped my face vigorously, knowing that he had discovered something. I walked over to the still miserable pile of flesh and blood, "What on earth did he recognize just now? What truth could have made him despair the moment he realized it, to the point that he lost all will to resist?"
"footprint."
Zhang Tianyi said, "You said before that there was someone on the rooftop who left so many repeated footprints."
That's true. I pulled myself together and said, "But you all don't seem to agree. Why?"
He gestured for me to follow a few sets of footprints and said, "People have different habits of how they put their feet when they walk. Even if they are wearing standard one-size-fits-all shoes, the footprints they leave will still be slightly different due to height, weight, force habits, flat feet, etc."
I slowly calmed down as I thought, "Is there something wrong with these footprints? Are they fake?"
"To be precise, the footprints of two people overlapped in a very deliberate way. Generally speaking, only people who hide their walking traces will have such abnormal behavior. But the problem is that the owner of the footprints is unlikely to do such a thing."
Zhang Tian said, "Xu You and I's first reaction was that someone was playing tricks."
I looked at him, and the divine messenger actually had the answer, "Are these the footprints of Ding Jiu and me?"
"——Ding Jiu followed us to the rooftop for the second time, but he recognized his own bloody footprints all over the rooftop. He was sure that he was dead, so he collapsed."
I speculated and shook my head, "No, most people don't have your vision, so they must be missing something."
Zhang Tian walked again, and this time we reached the iron gate together. He said to lower his head, and I seemed to sense something, so I lowered my eyes to take a look.
There were two very fresh footprints on the steps. They were very shallow, but the edges were very clear, as if they were accidentally stained with something. The owners of the footprints were obviously one after the other, stepping on the steps one after the other.
"...the garbage bag on the seventh floor." I said, with mixed feelings, "There was some leakage on the floor of the kitchen on the seventh floor. There were many of us and it was quite crowded when we entered. I guess I didn't pay attention and stepped on the remnants, which stuck to the soles of my shoes."
That's right.
I put my feet down parallel to the two footprints and compared them side by side.
A picture appeared in front of me. It was Ding Jiu walking among the guys. Suddenly he was stunned and noticed that he was stepping on someone's footprint.
The overlap of the two footprints was originally an insignificant matter, but it gave him a strong sense of familiarity, so much so that he gritted his teeth and followed the other companions in uneasiness, but he immediately discovered that among the bloodstains on the rooftop that had long since dried and turned black, there were identical footprints in every corner of the rooftop.
If I were Ding Jiu, what would I do at this moment?
I thought about it, looked towards the ground on the rooftop in front of me, and searched for Ding Jiu's other footprints.
I should verify it first, and compare other people's footprints to see whose is more consistent, to see if it's not because of too much stress that I'm paranoid.
From the perspective of escapism, Ding Jiu must not want me to be the one whose footprints overlap with his. He would take advantage of everyone's inattention, spot a footprint I just stepped on, and try to overlap it.
Then came the second and third repetitions, which were unacceptable.
At some point, he would shudder and suddenly realize, "Are these overlapping bloody footprints all over the rooftop the result of my repeated experiments?"
But under what circumstances would a person ignorantly make so many repeated attempts without realizing it?
What kind of situation would cause every footprint to be covered in blood?
Ding Jiu's conclusion was death, not just once, but in a repetitive manner. One person's blood volume was not enough to cover the rooftop balcony with solidified black blood.
Then he saw me standing on the edge of the rooftop, looking around defenselessly.
Ding Jiu recalled what he had asked casually, and realized that his blurt-out "I kicked the flowerpot and jumped downstairs" was not some exaggerated slip of the tongue, but had not actually happened yet.
Just like the red mud, the fried dough sticks, the faucet lock plate, the non-existent house number of Xiaoyu and all the "leads" that would be taken for granted before the incident, at that moment my death was imminent and it was too late.
"He felt that he and I were the dead on the rooftop, and that we were constantly wandering around chasing each other's footsteps."
I said, "What made him despair was not his own survival, but the fact that I was also dead, and I died in front of everyone, right now."
I found that familiar behavioral logic again, "So the only thing he can do is to immediately turn himself into a dead person, so as to take the lead in occupying the causal chain of death that has already occurred."
"This is a desperate attempt to see if we can influence the 'cause' by changing the 'effect' in this inverted rule."
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