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◎Day 1: Flickering◎
The overlapping sounds of knocking on the door, crying, chopping meat, etc. seemed to merge together. For some reason, they turned into strange nursery rhymes in my ears.
Ding Dong sound, empty car,
My head is banging, my heart is beating fast,
Don't panic when you step forward.
The green light flashes, the sound of shoes flows,
The ladders are endless, the walls are piled up,
At the end of the walk, there's still the old porch!"
The nursery rhymes sounded shrill and strange, like the clanging and echoing of a broken music box in an empty corridor.
As the last line of the nursery rhyme faded away, the figure of the woman in the mirror disappeared instantly.
The mirror was still broken, but this time it reflected the blurry outlines of Jiang Chuxu and Xiao Hei, as well as a small empty corridor behind her.
Jiang Chuxu didn't look at the mirror. Her eyes calmly swept across the edge of the mirror and fell not far behind her.
That is the place where the woman in the mirror's last "sight" passed through.
really.
About three steps away from her, the woman in the mirror stood there quietly.
Her body leaned forward slightly, and her smooth, pale face was facing Jiang Chuxu.
Jiang Chuxu and her faced each other quietly. Xiao Hei made a very slight gurgling sound from his throat, and his vertical pupils were fixed on the white figure.
A few seconds passed, and the figure in white pajamas did not move, did not pounce, and did not make any sound, just stood there quietly.
Jiang Chuxu and Xiao Hei were even a little uncomfortable. She tilted her head slightly, as if looking at the woman in white, guessing what she would do.
This time she did not take direct action like she did with the ghost on the stairs, because the behavior pattern of this female ghost was a bit strange, and she did not seem like a purely aggressive vengeful spirit.
During this brief confrontation, the outline of the white figure began to blur, like clear water dropped into ink, silently dissipating into the dim air.
No screaming, no struggling, as if it had never happened.
Jiang Chuxu withdrew his gaze and no longer paid attention to the disappearing female ghost.
She walked a few steps to the broken dressing mirror leaning against the corner of the wall. The mirror was large, but the cracks crisscrossed, cutting the originally complete picture into pieces.
She stretched out her leg, pressed the toe of her shoe against the edge of the frame, and applied a little force.
"Bang!"
She knocked the mirror over completely, laying it flat on the floor, raising a cloud of dust. The broken surface of the mirror faced upwards, like a scarred, strange face.
Jiang Chuxu lowered her head and looked at the mirror.
What was reflected in the mirror was not just the corridor ceiling, but...
A hanging white figure!
It was the faceless female ghost who had just disappeared.
She was still wearing her white pajamas, her body hanging in an extremely unnatural and stiff posture, her long hair hanging down, covering where her face should be.
The faceless female ghost's toes were only a few inches off the ground, as if she was hanging by an invisible rope right above Jiang Chuxu's head.
Jiang Chuxu didn't raise her head. She didn't even lift her eyelids.
“Meow—”
The little black boy on Jiang Chuxu's shoulder suddenly stood up with his fur standing on end, and he let out a very intimidating roar towards the air above his head. His body arched, as if he was going to pounce out in the next second.
Almost at the moment when Xiao Hei's cry rang out, the white figure hanging in the mirror disappeared without a trace again, leaving only the fragmented light and shadow and the reflection of the ceiling in the mirror.
Jiang Chuxu then raised his eyelids and glanced at the empty ceiling.
She raised her foot expressionlessly and stomped hard on the broken mirror that had been laid flat on the ground.
Click.
The already cracked mirror shattered completely under her feet, turning into a pile of even smaller glass shards. She kicked it a few times and gathered the shards into the corner of the wall.
After doing all this, she carried Xiao Hei to the window. The window glass was so dirty that almost no light could penetrate it.
Jiang Chuxu casually wiped a small piece of the glass with the back of his hand, allowing him to barely see the area outside.
There should be a residential building outside the window, but now it is surrounded by a cordon and there are cars from special departments parked there.
What's more, from this angle and height, coupled with the dirty glass, it would be impossible to see the scene downstairs clearly.
But Jiang Chuxu could clearly see the scene downstairs through the cleared area.
Ding Yucheng, Lin Hezhao, Chen Dangui... the colleagues from the special department who had just sent her off, all raised their heads at the same time, their eyes fixed on the window where she was.
They all had an extremely uniform and extremely strange smile on their faces, with their mouths grinning and their eyes curved. They were clearly smiling, but there was not the slightest hint of a smile in them. Instead, they were filled with an inhuman indifference.
The smile was so stiff that it looked like it was painted on.
Jiang Chuxu looked at those people calmly for a second. She was very sure that what she saw was definitely not the real Ding Yucheng and others.
Perhaps it was this building that distorted her perception, projecting the scene that she might subconsciously want to see, but in fact, she now wanted to see her master, senior sisters and brothers from her original world, and Qin Huai.
She withdrew her gaze from the window, then turned decisively and walked towards the other side of the corridor.
Several elevators were not far away on the right side of the corridor. The old metal doors were closed and the indicator lights were naturally off.
Jiang Chuxu held Xiao Hei in his arms and walked past the elevator door without looking around.
Just as she passed the center of the last elevator door.
"bite!"
The elevator arrival signal sounded suddenly.
Immediately afterwards, there was a dull thud, and the two heavy metal doors suddenly bounced open to the sides at an extremely fast speed.
The power has been out here for a long time, and I don’t know how these ghosts made the elevator work.
She turned the flashlight, and only the pale beam of light swept in a corner, illuminating the center of the bottom of the car.
There, a pair of red high heels were placed neatly.
The toes of her shoes were pointing towards the open elevator door, like a silent invitation.
Jiang Chuxu didn't pause at all, and she didn't even glance at the dazzling red shoes and the open elevator. She walked straight past them as if they were just an insignificant background.
As if seeing that she had no intention of going in, the open elevator door behind her suddenly slammed shut as if irritated.
There was only a deafening sound, and the huge impact force seemed to make the entire elevator door frame vibrate, and dust fell down.
The force was definitely not what an ordinary elevator door would produce when closing. It was more like some kind of crazy hatred.
The right side of the corridor was similar to the left side, except that there was no faceless female ghost and mirror. As expected, Ding Yucheng, Lin Hezhao and others could be seen through the window on this side.
Jiang Chuxu felt that this trick was nothing new, and the way to break the deadlock didn't seem to be here, so she returned to the stairs again.
Behind the door is the stairwell leading to the third floor.
Things seemed to have returned to normal. The steps were cold cement, the walls were mottled lime, and the strange feeling of stepping on flesh and the illusion of blood oozing from the walls had disappeared.
The black silhouette that had been peeping was no longer on the corner platform on the first floor.
Jiang Chuxu raised his head and looked higher.
It was unknown which floor the black outline was on now, but it still maintained its posture of peeking down. Jiang Chuxu ignored it.
Her eyes fell on the corner landing leading to the third floor, where there should be walls and windows.
But now, a door appeared there out of nowhere.
It was a metal door and the house number was a little blurry, but if you looked carefully, you could see it was 8012.
This is the room where Li Qiang, the person involved in the task details, is located.
The door was ajar, leaving a gap about a palm's width. It was pitch black inside and nothing could be seen clearly.
Jiang Chuxu stared at the door that appeared out of nowhere and the glaring house number. There was no expression of surprise or curiosity on her face, only an almost indifferent understanding.
She walked up slowly, and nothing strange happened this time, perhaps because the strangest door had already appeared.
She didn't go closer to the door to see if there was anything inside, but walked forward and stretched out her hand.
Then, there was a soft "click".
She closed the half-open door decisively.
Closed tightly.
After doing all this, she brushed off the non-existent dust on her hands.
Don’t believe anything unreasonable you see in the ghost wall, let alone enter it.
She dared to go to the second floor just now because the ghost wall had been broken. This time, it might look like a door, but there was nothing behind it. She fell down the stairs as soon as she stepped on it.
Jiang Chuxu didn't look at the closed door again. He held Xiao Hei in his arms and walked up the stairs leading to the third floor.
She would definitely go to the eighth floor and check Li Qiang's room, but not by being invited into a trap like this.
Once again, the only sound in the stairwell was her distinct footsteps.
This time there was nothing unusual, only a lingering feeling of tiredness and whispers in my ears.
Jiang Chuxu remained calm and just quickened her pace. Her goal was very clear. She just wanted to see what this ladder of no return looked like.
The trouble is quite troublesome now, and it is easy to be exploited if you are not careful, but she is not afraid and is not worried about accidents.
Before the door 8012 appeared, Jiang Chuxu was planning to go to the third floor to take a look, but now she plans to go directly to the eighth floor.
Just as she stepped onto the third-floor platform and prepared to continue ascending, something strange happened again.
Another burst of crying came out without warning from behind the tightly closed fire door on her left. The voice was very soft, but with a strong sense of sadness and despair, it penetrated the thick fire door and clearly entered Jiang Chuxu's ears.
This crying sound was completely different from the vague sound heard in the corridor on the second floor before. It was extremely clear and real, as if there was a living person behind the door who was suffering great pain.
Then there was a dull and regular knocking sound, like someone rhythmically hitting the inside of the door panel with their knuckles or forehead.
"Let me out, please, let me out..."
A weak male voice begged amidst the crying, filled with fear of being on the verge of collapse.
"It's watching me, always watching me, save me..."
The sound was so close that Jiang Chuxu stopped in her tracks. She turned her head and her eyes fell on the fire door that made the sound.
The strange thing was that the door panel actually vibrated slightly with each impact.
This is a fire door.
She was silent for two seconds, and just when the miserable cry for help reached a climax, Jiang Chuxu made a move.
She didn't turn the doorknob, nor did she look closely through the crack.
She raised her foot and kicked the fire door decisively.
"Bang!"
This sound drowned out the banging sound inside the door.
The crying and begging sounds from inside the door suddenly stopped.
The stairwell fell silent again.
Jiang Chuxu retracted her foot, her face still expressionless. She no longer looked at the door, but continued walking without hesitation and stepped onto the stairs leading to the fourth floor.
No more sound came from inside the door.
However, just as she stepped onto the stairs and turned her back to the third-floor platform.
The fire door that she had kicked through had a small bulge on the door panel near the door handle that slowly began to form.
The bulge squirmed, and gradually the outline of an eye appeared.
An eye filled with resentment and confusion stared at Jiang Chuxu's back as he walked upwards.
A bloodshot eye appeared above a door.
This picture looks weird no matter how you look at it.
Jiang Chuxu didn't look back, and Xiao Hei ignored him.
She quickly stepped onto the 4th floor and looked up. The black silhouette was still not far away from her.
Everything was eerily quiet at this moment.
There was nothing unusual about the walls, stairs, doors, or ceiling.
But the biggest abnormality is the absence of abnormalities.
If I guessed correctly...
Jiang Chuxu looked up and saw that it was true.
The red spray paint above shows that this is still the 3rd floor.
"Tsk," she smacked her lips softly, the sound particularly clear in the overly quiet stairwell, "It's not over yet, is it?"
This level of ghost wall was indeed a little more troublesome than expected, but only a little.
She lowered her head, and Xiao Hei on her shoulder also raised his cat face to look at her. Jiang Chuxu raised his hand and rubbed its furry head. Xiao Hei squinted comfortably and snored even louder in his throat.
"Let's go upstairs." She said in a calm tone, as if she was not the one who was trapped just now.
Before she went up, the voice-activated lamp covered with cobwebs and dust suddenly lit up with a click without any warning.
A pale light instantly poured down, illuminating where Jiang Chuxu was.
The moment the light came on, Jiang Chuxu didn't stop, and didn't even lift his eyelids.
However, the light did illuminate the fresh footprints on the steps.
That's Jiang Chuxu's.
Jiang Chuxu was unaffected and continued to move forward.
And on the stained ceiling above my head, next to the voice-controlled light.
There was a dark red liquid flowing rapidly into the depths, and it was about to form an upside-down rotten human figure.
"Meow!" Xiao Hei didn't wait for it to take shape. He let out a short warning from his throat and shot up with his small body like a cannonball.
There was no crash.
The dark red ball of rotten flesh that had just formed disappeared like a phantom the moment Xiao Hei pounced on it, without even a struggle.
Xiao Hei landed lightly on the next step, turned around and wagged his tail at Jiang Chuxu, as if to say "Done".
Jiang Chuxu picked it up and put it back on his shoulder, rubbing its smooth fur with his fingers.
As for the light above his head, after the human-shaped object disappeared, it flickered briefly and then went out.
Jiang Chuxu finally stepped onto the platform on the fourth floor.
This time, the red spray paint clearly displayed the "4".
Then, the fourth floor, the fifth floor, the sixth floor...
Every time she went up a floor, she was one step closer to the peeping black silhouette, but each time it seemed like she was just a little bit off.
The voice-activated light came on again.
But there was no abnormality like before.
Jiang Chuxu slowly walked up to the 7th floor.
Seventh floor platform.
The lights are still on.
The first steps leading to the eighth floor are right in front of you.
Just as Jiang Chuxu's shoes were about to step onto the step.
“Pah.”
The voice-activated light above my head went out again without any warning.
Jiang Chuxu's steps did not hesitate at all, and he stepped steadily onto the first step leading to the eighth floor.
As her footsteps fell.
A burst of electrical noise came out from the high-intensity flashlight in her hand without any warning!
Then, the flashlight's steady beam began to flicker violently, flickering on and off at an alarming rate, cutting the stairwell into wildly dancing black and white fragments.
In the crazy flickering of light, Jiang Chuxu caught a glimpse from the corner of her eye that something seemed to move in the shadow in the corner of the seventh-floor platform that she had just left.
The outline of that thing was not very clear, like a curled up human figure, looming in the flickering light and shadow.
It seemed to be looking at her.
In this breathtaking flash.
The first flicker.
Jiang Chuxu caught a clear glimpse from the corner of his eye: the outline of the blurry figure that was originally curled up in the shadow of the corner on the seventh floor platform seemed to be clearer.
It was no longer a blurry mass, and the outline of its arched back and lowered head could be vaguely seen, like a stone statue, facing her direction.
The second time it flickers.
The figure is gone!
No, not gone.
Just a little forward from where the figure was just now, the group of figures reappeared.
It still maintained a curled-up posture, but its position moved forward a long way silently!
The distance is shortened.
The third time it flickers.
The moment the beam of light lit up again, Jiang Chuxu's pupils shrank slightly.
The human-shaped shadow changed its position again, almost right below the place she had just left!
The curled-up posture remained unchanged.
But it’s no longer just watching.
The fourth time it flickers.
Darkness swallowed everything again.
The fifth time it flickers!
Light!
That shadow...disappeared?
No!
Just as the beam of light came back on, a blue-gray hand with twisted knuckles suddenly stretched out from the shadow of the steps below, with its five fingers spread out, tightly grasping the edge of the step under Jiang Chuxu's feet.
His hand was less than ten centimeters away from her heel.
The skin on his hands was covered with corpse spots and frostbite-like sores, and the cracks between his nails were filled with black and red dirt.
It just appeared there so suddenly, as if it had been lurking in the darkness, waiting for this moment.
Xiao Hei was completely furious. He no longer waited and pounced directly on the ghost hand clinging to the edge of the stairs.
However, Xiao Hei came up empty-handed.
Just as its sharp claws were about to touch the ghost hand, the sixth flickering darkness descended.
The darkness lasted less than half a second.
The seventh time it flickers.
The light beam came back on.
The edge of the steps was empty.
The blue-gray ghost hand disappeared without a trace, as if it had never appeared.
Only the disgusting fishy smell lingering in the air proved that what had just happened was not an illusion.
Xiao Hei landed on the steps, turning his head warily.
Jiang Chuxu stood in place, the flashlight beam still flashing nervously, making her face flicker, but there was still no big change in her expression.
She didn't look down at the empty edge of the steps, nor did she try to comfort the angry Xiao Hei.
Her sight, past the visual afterimages caused by the crazy flickering light, was firmly fixed on the front, which were the last few steps leading to the eighth-floor platform.
The eighth flicker, then darkness!
The ninth flicker, light!
Right at the entrance to the eighth-floor platform, in the shadow next to the fire door, the curled-up human figure appeared clearly again!
It still maintained the same posture, with its head lowered and its face unclear.
This time, the distance was actually a little further.
The tenth time, flickering, darkness!
This time the darkness felt especially long.
The electrical noise of the flashlight seemed to have disappeared, leaving only absolute silence and the suppressed breathing of Jiang Chuxu and Xiao Hei.
In the darkness, Jiang Chuxu felt a cold air current with a strong fishy smell blowing across the back of her hand holding the flashlight.
It's not an illusion.
The eleventh flicker, light!
The moment the beam of light comes on!
Jiang Chuxu's breathing paused very slightly for half a beat.
The huddled human-shaped shadow disappeared.
Not disappearing in front, but...
Right in front of her!
She's just one step away!
It was no longer curled up in the shadow of the platform entrance, but appeared directly on the second to last step that Jiang Chuxu was about to step on.
He was still in that hunched-over position, with his back to her, blocking the last step leading to the eighth-floor platform.
Its hunched back, beneath its tattered fabric, almost touched her knees.
Xiao Hei let out a sharp scream, and the hair on his body stood up like a sea urchin.
The beam of light from the flashlight was now flashing wildly on the back of the curled up figure.
The bluish-gray skin beneath the rags flickered in the flickering light, and the twisted seams wriggled like ugly centipedes.
It was stuck there, motionless.
The next step, as long as she took another step, her foot would be directly on the back of this thing.
The twelfth time, flickering, darkness!
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