Xiao Cheng walked towards the guardhouse.
The door wasn't locked, and the handle could be easily turned. There was no sound from inside, so it didn't seem like anyone was home, but Xiao Cheng still knocked on the door: "Is anyone home?"
No one responded.
"Open the door and go in!" Number 1 urged from a short distance behind her.
"Wait, I'll go with you." Fang He pressed Xiao Cheng's hand, stopping her from pushing the door open.
"No need, I can react faster on my own." Xiao Cheng shook her head and refused him.
Fang He silently released his hand, took two steps back, and subtly separated Xiao Cheng from the digital man.
The door was slowly opened a crack, and Xiao Cheng leaned forward slightly to look inside.
There is no one.
The guardhouse was empty.
She breathed a slight sigh of relief, opened the door wide, casually put her hands in her pockets, and turned to look at the digital figures: "Nobody's here. Do you want to come in?"
"Go ahead and look on the table." Number 1 politely declined her suggestion and didn't seem inclined to let the other digital people in either.
"I'll go with you," Fang He said.
Xiao Cheng raised an eyebrow, glanced at him, said nothing, and walked into the guardhouse on her own.
The small cubicle was not very spacious, containing only a table, a chair, and a plank bed pieced together from wooden planks.
On the table sat a pen holder made from an aluminum can, with two broken pencils inserted inside. Next to the pen holder was an empty entry and exit register, the last page torn out, leaving uneven edges.
"Where's the key? Have you found it?" Number 3 stood at the door, peering inside.
"Don't rush them, they need time to find the keys," Brother Number 7 said disapprovingly.
"You're such a nice guy," muttered Number 3, but then awkwardly shut his mouth.
A heavy military overcoat was draped over the back of the chair, and Fang He was rummaging through its pockets. Xiao Cheng thought for a moment, then took out a pencil from a soda can pen holder, turned the whole can upside down, and still found nothing.
"It's not in the pen holder."
"It's not in the clothes either." Fang He draped the military overcoat back over the chair.
There aren't many places to hide things here, and since we can't find it, it can only mean that the key isn't here at all.
"Wait, there's one more place." Xiao Cheng suddenly had a flash of inspiration and called out to Fang He, who was about to leave.
Fang He followed her gaze and nodded knowingly.
Then he reached out and closed the cubicle door.
A large calendar was pasted on the back of the door panel, with the dates from the 1st to the 7th crossed out and the 8th marked with a heavy asterisk.
The center of the calendar was slightly raised. Xiao Cheng carefully peeled off the tape and lifted a corner of the calendar.
A bunch of keys fell out and were caught steadily by Fang He.
When the door opened again, Number 3 started mocking again: "Can't even find a key, but you're quite the charmer when it comes to romance. What were you doing behind closed doors just now?"
"Sorry, I found it." Xiao Cheng hooked the key ring with her index finger and waved it in front of him. "Unlike you, who can only be sarcastic."
Number 3 was shut down by a single sentence, but by then no one was paying attention to his emotions anymore.
"Go open the stairwell door quickly." The man in room number 7 seemed very happy. "Then put the key back."
The stairwell was dimly lit, and because it hadn't been used for years, a thick layer of dust had accumulated on the floor and railings, and the air was filled with a faint musty smell. The large iron doors that locked the floors were opened one after another, and Xiao Cheng rubbed the dark red grime on her fingers.
It doesn't look like rust.
“I have a three-year-old niece,” Fang He suddenly said.
Xiao Cheng: "?"
"I'm curious about everything I see, and I want to touch everything," Fang He continued.
Xiao Cheng: "..."
"There's one more thing." Fang He pulled a small pack of wet wipes from his pocket and handed it to Xiao Cheng. "I don't actually have a niece."
They received the second night's game at 7 p.m.
The blank sheet of paper reads: "Look in the mirror, you two must look exactly alike."
"Hehe, what a pity, Number 6 and Number 8 are completely different from the start, starting with their genders." Number 3 laughed.
According to the rules, Xiao Cheng can only be paired with number 2. Since the mirror in Xiao Cheng's room is broken, she can only play the game in number 2's room.
"Let's go," Number 2 urged. "The sooner we start, the sooner we finish. I don't have the habit of letting people stay overnight in my room."
Room 202 was similar in layout to Xiao Cheng's room, except for a full-length mirror opposite the bed. Number 2 deftly lit a candle in front of the mirror and then turned off the light.
Xiao Cheng and she stood face to face, and only Xiao Cheng's own reflection was shown in the mirror.
“I will learn from you.” Number 2 adjusted his posture, and the two shadows intertwined in the candlelight. “I will be exactly like you.”
She accurately captured every subtle movement of Xiao Cheng. As the imitation deepened, her face slowly began to move, gradually shaping her features like a clay figure, becoming more and more like Xiao Cheng.
The "Xiao Cheng" in the mirror slowly turned to the side and slammed her hands on the mirror with a loud thud. Two bloody handprints seeped out of the mirror's surface, and cracks spread from the center of the mirror. The mirror, unable to bear the weight, made a cracking sound.
She's coming out.
"You need to concentrate on the game." Number 2 grinned, revealing her newly formed lips. Her skin began to melt, dripping wetly down her bone structure, accumulating into a sticky puddle at her feet. The puddle of liquid seemed to come alive, extending fleshy red tentacles that wriggled and reached towards Xiao Cheng.
"Your turn!" The person in the mirror let out a shrill laugh, pounding on the mirror with increasing urgency.
Xiao Cheng took a half step back, barely avoiding the tentacles that were about to climb onto her trouser leg. She reached into her trouser pocket, pressing a cold, sharp shard of mirror against her palm.
“Look, we’re exactly the same.” Number 2 smiled and approached her. She raised her hand and invited her in a very sincere tone, “Let me become you.”
Her hands melted completely, leaving only bare white bones.
Looking at these bony hands, Xiao Cheng suddenly thought of the comb from last night.
"I'm sorry," she said, throwing the shards of mirror on the ground. "I don't like looking in the mirror, so you should go back."
The mirror shards landed on the tentacles, suddenly unleashing an extremely eerie vortex of red light, and a tremendous suction force engulfed all the liquid. The person in the mirror screamed hysterically, "No! Impossible! You can't do this!"
Her body was shattered, pieces clattering and falling away until it finally turned to ashes.
The shards of the mirror lay silently on the ground, and in the glow of the candlelight, the silhouette of a female ghost in red was revealed.
The lights suddenly turned on.
Number 2, now back to normal, stood opposite Xiao Cheng and blew a huge bubble. Her face puffed up almost entirely, stretching it thin, making it look like a balloon with a number on it.
She pointed at Xiao Cheng and said, "Congratulations, you won."
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