"He said a lot to me that day, things he never said normally."

"The person you were talking about, is he still in this building now?" Chen Ge could hear the voice beside him trembling.

"He moved out and hasn't been back for a long time."

"Then do you want to see him again?" Chen Ge gently pulled the corner of his clothes: "I think you should have a lot to say to him. After all, it is him who makes you feel cold and unable to feel the warmth."

"I……"

"It's okay. I will help you. I will definitely help you." Chen Ge slowly stood up, holding on to the wall. "If he hasn't left Hanjiang, I will bring him here within a week. After you meet him, I can take you to a warmer place."

The woman didn't answer, and Chen Ge was not in a hurry: "Now I have one more reason to live. You can keep the coat. I will be back."

Chen Ge was about to walk up when he heard the woman's voice again: "Don't go any further. You can't come back."

"Can't come back? Why?"

"Because above the thirteenth floor is the fourteenth floor."

A coat was stuffed into Chen Ge's clothes, and the cold and damp feeling slowly dissipated.

"What does she want to tell me?" Chen Ge clutched the coat in his hand. "There is no fourteenth floor in the residential building in Jiangyuan Community. There should be fifteen floors above the thirteenth floor, but she said there is fourteenth floor above the thirteenth floor? Does that mean the fourteenth floor actually exists?"

Having come this far, Chen Ge would not retreat. He knew that he was very close to the truth.

Counting the stairs silently in his mind, Chen Ge arrived at the thirteenth floor. This floor was very quiet, just like an ordinary residential corridor, without any abnormality.

Walking towards the fourteenth floor, when Chen Ge was halfway there, his nose moved slightly and he smelled the fragrance of rice.

I don’t know what it’s made of, or what dish it is, but my brain seemed to determine in an instant that it was the aroma of rice, as if it was imprinted deep in my memory.

"It floated from the fourteenth floor. Is someone cooking?"

Going up step by step, perhaps because of excessive physical exertion or mental fatigue, Chen Ge felt that there were an unusually large number of steps between the thirteenth and fourteenth floors.

The number is the same as the other floors, and the number of leg lifts is the same, but it takes more time.

As the fingertips touched the wall, cracks appeared on the originally smooth wall, and there seemed to be a lot more debris in the corridor.

Everything around him gave Chen Ge a feeling that was both familiar and strange.

He mechanically repeated the action of lifting and lowering his legs, smelling the fragrance of food, and finally reached the fourteenth floor.

Just as he stood firm, the hinges of the door in the corridor turned with a rattling sound, and an iron door was opened. Then a man's voice came from the depths of the corridor: "Chen Ge, are you home?"

The moment he heard this voice, Chen Ge's mind went blank and he turned abruptly to face the corridor.

He has been listening to this man's voice for more than twenty years, and he has heard the words "go home" countless times since he was a child.

He had memorized this voice in his heart and engraved it in his bones.

"The meal is ready. Your mother heard your footsteps as soon as you came upstairs."

His nails dug into his flesh. Chen Ge slowly raised his arms and grabbed the black cloth covering his eyes.

He wanted to take a look. He had never wanted to open his eyes so much.

He gripped the black cloth more and more tightly, and dark blue veins appeared on the back of his hand.

“How did it feel to go to school alone for the first time?”

"Do other kids have people to pick them up?!"

"No one bullies you, right?"

"Have you made any friends? Your personality is so similar to mine, shouldn't you be unpopular?"

"Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands, don't run around..."

Words came from deep in the corridor until the door hinges turned again and the iron door closed.

The man's voice disappeared, and other people's voices were heard in the corridor one after another, including men and women, old and young.

"What's wrong with the new family? They wait until the child falls asleep and then go out in the middle of the night. No wonder the child has nightmares every day."

"Did you hear that his house is full of laughter during the day and crying at night? Isn't the child scared when he is alone in the house?"

"It's weird. I saw the three of them go out during the day. How come there's a child crying in the house at night?"

"Brothers! I discovered something. The problem with the new family isn't with the adults, it's with the child! I saw with my own eyes a doctor from some hospital in Xinhai come to treat the child! Don't let your children play with him!"

"Why does it feel like the child is even sicker after being treated by the doctor? Do you know? The child tells his parents about his nightmares during the day, and when his parents are not at home at night, he tells those nightmares to his shadow. It's so scary!"

"That's not right. He doesn't sleep day or night. When did he have the nightmare? Was what the child said really a dream?"

"Don't scare me. Never mind. They're moving away soon anyway. Just bear with it for a few more days."

"Moving away?"

"Well, I heard they are going to the western suburbs. The child's parents are going to work in an amusement park."

The sound in his ears slowly faded away, but Chen Ge was still standing there, his hands still holding the black cloth covering his eyes.

After a long while, Chen Ge took a deep breath and said, "I only remember the good things. I have forgotten most of what the neighbors said, but there are a few key points that need to be paid attention to."

"When I was very young, I came into contact with a doctor from Xinhai Hospital. It was after I was treated by him that I began to tell my nightmares to my shadow."

"My shadow must have started to become strange from that time. The key to everything was that doctor."

"The doctor came from Xinhai, and the cursed hospital is right between Xinhai and Hanjiang. Is this a coincidence?"

Standing on the fourteenth floor, Chen Ge silently turned around and turned his back to the corridor where all kinds of noises were coming from.

He slowly exerted force on the hand that was holding the black cloth, and finally removed the slightly wet black cloth. At this time, his eyes were still closed.

"I really want to see you guys as soon as I open my eyes, but I know that's impossible." Chen Ge didn't look back. He held onto the wall and continued to walk upwards. "You gave me everything you had. Now I will use everything I have to find you."

In the dark corridor, Chen Ge's back looked a little different from usual.

Fifteenth floor, sixteenth floor, seventeenth floor...

Counting the stairs silently in his mind, Chen Ge knew that he was now on the seventeenth floor, which was theoretically the top floor of the building, but he was not in a hurry to open his eyes.

"The fourteenth floor doesn't exist, but the girl with the cold body said that there is a fourteenth floor above the thirteenth floor. This building originally had seventeen floors. If the extra fourteen floors are included, there should be eighteen floors in total, just like the eighteen levels of hell."

After Chen Ge finished speaking, he moved his feet along the wall, and soon the tip of his shoe touched the stairs going up.

"Sure enough, there is an eighteenth floor."