DA chapter 16

 

“Why is it raining again?” Buzzcut’s expression turned ashen.

The significance of the rain was not something that Lin Jia needed to explain. At that moment, after peeling back the layers of the dead, the threat it posed was almost devastating.

Indiscriminate killing meant that, to get through the rain safely, they could only rely on luck.

But no one dared to guarantee that their luck was supreme.

The rain interrupted Lin Jia’s sorting of the questions. Naturally, he would not stay in the same room as these people. If the torrential rain caused the apartment to lose power again, more people would discover his fear of the dark.

While the rain was still light, Lin Jia opened the door and prepared to leave.

The cat jumped down from the windowsill and followed him.

Buzzcut hurriedly followed, staring at Lin Jia’s back. “Today’s question…”

Lin Jia never turned back. His voice entered Buzzcut’s ears through the airflow on both sides of him: “First, survive this rain.”

The rain became heavier and heavier, washing over the ground with a loud roar. Only someone who couldn’t think things through or was tired of living would ask Fishman questions during a torrential downpour.

Just after Buzzcut returned to Room 103, the power in Yile Apartments suddenly went out.

Fortunately, Lin Jia had prepared in advance, taking out his phone and turning on the flashlight. The light made Lin Jia feel steady, and he locked the door with his backhand.

The cat noticed that there was not much battery life left on the phone. Just as it was about to speak up, it saw Lin Jia take out another phone—Buzzcut’s phone, which Lin Jia had not returned.

The cat let out a breath of relief.

The person and the cat remained silent. For a while, the room was so quiet that a pin drop could be heard.

Probably because there was nothing to say or do, they could only wait silently for the dead to appear and then leave. The cat then turned its gaze toward Lin Jia. In the dim light, the cat saw the outline of Lin Jia’s face, smooth and cold like charcoal strokes.

The cat admitted that Lin Jia was good-looking, but that wasn’t the main reason it paid attention to him.

During the first rain, when the dead appeared, the power had gone out suddenly, catching Lin Jia unprepared and causing him to become mentally disoriented.

He wouldn’t let himself fall twice in the same place, so he took precautions early on.

The cat suddenly smelled danger—not from the dead, but from Lin Jia.

Someone as cautious and distrustful as Lin Jia… The cat knew his secret fear of darkness. That meant…

Right now, the cat was still useful to Lin Jia. It could provide him with light, and after some prompting, it could also recall information that Lin Jia had not learned. Therefore, Lin Jia did not touch it. But what about after leaving Fish Belly? Would Lin Jia kill it?!

Lin Jia looked at the cat as if sensing something.

Cat: “…”

The sound of “bang, bang, bang” rolling down interrupted Lin Jia’s meaningful gaze.

The cat lowered its head, and its heart beat “bang, bang, bang” in sync with the rolling sound.

The rain grew heavier; lightning lit up the black clouds, and thunder exploded across the sky.

Xiao Mei sat uneasily, occasionally glancing out the window. The rain poured down, and the scenery outside looked steamy and blurry.

Water began to flood the ground, and an unpleasant, fishy smell made people nauseous.

Xiao Mei dry-heaved several times, but nothing came up. Yet she had barely eaten in days, and her stomach churned violently with fear and dread.

Seeing that her complexion was poor, Sister Fang poured her a cup of water.

Holding the cup, Xiao Mei said gratefully, “Th… thank you.”

“It’s nothing.” Sister Fang replied, “If you’re afraid, go to sleep. The rain will stop after you sleep.”

Xiao Mei had just opened her mouth to speak when she suddenly heard a strange sound mixed in with the rain—rustle, rustle, rustle.

The sound grew louder and louder, as if something were walking closer toward them.

Xiao Mei’s face instantly turned ugly. “Sister Fang, did you hear it?”

Sister Fang gave no answer. She quickly walked to the door and checked the lock. Because she was close to the door, she could clearly hear that the rustling had reached their door and stopped.

If the rustling sound was the dead…

Then the dead must be at the door!

Sister Fang stepped back as if she shocked by electricity. She retreated until she pressed against the innermost wall. Her face turned pale in an instant. Even an experienced person could not stay calm when their life was in danger.

Xiao Mei was frightened by Sister Fang’s reaction. “Outside the door is… is…”

For a moment, Xiao Mei did not dare say those two words.

The fright made Sister Fang breathe heavily, so much that she could not answer Xiao Mei’s question. She wanted to nod, but in her shaken state of mind, she felt it was unnecessary. They had been chosen in the second rain.

Knock, knock, knock.

The thing outside began knocking on the door. The knocking came from the lower part of the door. Through the low sound, it was easy to imagine the dead’s posture outside.

Knock, knock, knock…

The room was filled with an oppressive despair. Xiao Mei’s mental state deteriorated because of the continuous knocking. She shrank into the chair, afraid to touch the ground. Helplessly, she covered her ears, trying to convince herself that if she ignored the knocking, it would stop.

Her elbow accidentally knocked the cup off the edge of the table. The cup fell to the floor, and the sound of breaking glass rang out in the already eerie atmosphere.

Unable to bear it, Xiao Mei screamed in fright, “Ahhhh—”

No one comforted her this time. After a long while, Xiao Mei, with blurred vision from tears, glimpsed the glass shards on the floor. Only then did she belatedly realize that it had just been the sound of glass breaking.

The dead was right outside the door. Xiao Mei wanted to leave the table and chairs and go to Sister Fang’s side to seek comfort.

But when she looked up, Sister Fang tightly covered her mouth and shook her head wildly at her.

Why was she shaking her head? Why shake her head? What did it mean at a time like this?

Xiao Mei did not know what Sister Fang meant by it. She could not guess!

“What is it…” Xiao Mei choked up, as if she had missed her chance at life. “What exactly does it mean…”

Finally, Xiao Mei saw Sister Fang trembling as she pointed behind her.

Her heart clenched suddenly. She even forgot to breathe as a terrified thought rolled through her mind. She paused and stiffly turned her head. Behind her, however, there was nothing; there was no horrifying scene as she had imagined.

She looked at Sister Fang again. Sister Fang was still shaking her head and pointing behind her.

Xiao Mei was just about to speak—

Clink.

A slight sound came from behind her.

Xiao Mei suddenly fell silent. She forgot to cry.

Because she had heard that sound very clearly—it was the sound of something stirring the glass shards on the floor.

Turning stiffly, her gaze moved downward. There was an extra shadow on the floor, lying amid the broken glass.

The shadow raised its head. In that instant, the air seemed to freeze. Xiao Mei unexpectedly met a pair of red eyes.

“Ahhhhhhhhh—”

Xiao Mei didn’t know when the locked door had been opened or when the dead had crept up behind her. It was only at that moment that she remembered to run.

A twisted, icy hand grabbed her ankle. The corpse dragged her down from the chair. It pressed against her, its red eyes level with hers.

“What were you saying just now?” the dead asked in her ear.

“Ahhhh, help— Sister Fang save me.”

Xiao Mei struggled, but how could Sister Fang dare to save her? She could only stare as the dead dragged Xiao Mei out the door by the ankle. Soon after, bang, bang, bang came from the corridor.

Sister Fang’s face was completely pale. She knew the rolling sound this time was made by Xiao Mei.

—

After the rain had stopped, Sister Fang finally awoke as if from a dream and ran out of the room.

As expected, Xiao Mei lay lifeless in the corridor, and the trail of blood had fresh blood added to it—a glaring red.

Sister Fang arrived late; the others were already in the corridor.

Buzzcut asked directly, “What happened?”

The two of them had been in the same room, so she must know what happened.

She could not bear to look at Xiao Mei again. She looked toward Lin Jia, who was also looking at her, and said, “When it rained—”

After describing the situation during the second rain, Sister Fang shook her head. “I don’t know why it was only Xiao Mei. I thought…I thought I would die too.”

Liu Ying: “Could it be that the dead only kills one at a ti—”

The back of his head was suddenly slapped by Buzzcut. Buzzcut lifted his chin. “Inside the room.”

Liu Ying looked at Fishman with lingering fear. Several people went toward the room where Xiao Mei had stayed before her death.

As soon as they entered the room, Lin Jia noticed the broken glass scattered on the floor.

Liu Ying continued what had just been interrupted, but looked at Lin Jia. “Does the dead only kill one person at a time?”

If that were so, at least the others could catch their breath when the dead appeared, although it was cruel.

Lin Jia did not give Liu Ying the answer he wanted. He lifted his eyes. “You said the dead said one sentence to Xiao Mei at the end, right?”

“Mm.” Sister Fang nodded and repeated the dead’s words: “It said, ‘What were you saying just now?’”

Buzzcut had not expected the dead to say that and frowned. “Why would it say that? Did you hear wrong?”

“I don’t know.” Sister Fang did not dare guarantee it. She had also been extremely terrified at the time. “Probably…probably didn’t hear wrong.”

“That’s strange.” Buzzcut’s brows twisted together. “Since it kills indiscriminately, asking that isn’t unnecessary.”

But Buzzcut did not dare to ignore the dead’s words. Maybe it held the clue to finding Soup Base.

While listening to the others discuss, Lin Jia looked again at the fragments on the floor.

He accidentally caught sight of the cat, and suddenly remembered that, during the first rain, after his consciousness returned, he had seen the cat sticking its butt up and staring at the red dot under the doorframe.

There was no need to guess what the red dot was, yet the cat had stared at it anyway.

According to Sister Fang, the dead had also stood outside the room.

Lin Jia rubbed two fingers together.

When he lowered his eyes to think, his dense eyelashes swept down and cast a faint shadow beneath them.

During the first rain, red eyes peeped through the gap in the door. They definitely saw the light inside and knew someone was there, yet they stayed outside without entering.

During the second rain, the dead stayed outside the door and finally entered the room.

A locked door could not stop the dead. But why did the dead enter here and not Room 103 at that time? Moreover, Room 103 had not even been locked.

This does not fit the description of an indiscriminate attack. An indiscriminate attack would mean immediately pushing open the door and slaughtering the people inside.

There must be a reason that lured the dead into the room. Or rather, the dead was waiting for a signal to enter and kill.

Lin Jia looked around, his gaze fixed on the broken cup.

Was it the sound of the cup breaking?

No, not the cup.

Lin Jia did not expect the high school boy to drink water to ease his fear and anxiety under such a terrifying and oppressive atmosphere. Otherwise, his lips would not have been so dry that Lin Jia had to ask Sister Fang to give him water.

Lin Jia interrupted everyone’s discussion: “Before the dead entered, besides breaking the cup, what else did Xiao Mei do?”

Sister Fang shook her head. “Xiao Mei did nothing. She kept helplessly shrinking in the chair, but I… I couldn’t help her.”

Sister Fang also saw the broken cup on the floor and recalled the scene from that time. “When the cup broke, she screamed in fright.”

“Screamed.” Lin Jia softly repeated, not stopping the rubbing of his fingers.

When the dead was standing outside the door, Xiao Mei made a sound. However, when the dead was outside Room 103, neither Lin Jia nor the cat made a sound.

This might be what lured the dead into the room.

However, there was one contradiction that urgently needed resolution. During the first rain, the rustling sound came first, and only then did the high school boy scream.

Clearly, the high school boy screamed only after the dead found him; his scream did not attract the dead into the room.

The high school boy must have done something else to lure the dead from the first floor to the second floor.

What the high school boy did must have been similar to Xiao Mei’s scream.

Not a scream, yet similar to a scream.

Lin Jia looked at Sister Fang. “During the first rain, did Xiao Mei cry out loud?”

Sister Fang shook her head. “No.”

Xiao Mei had hidden under the blanket and cried silently.

Lin Jia asked again. “Then what about you? When you were comforting her during the first rain, did you make a sound?”

How could comforting not involve speaking? Buzzcut and Liu Ying looked at Lin Jia in confusion.

Sister Fang still shook her head. “I… also didn’t make a sound.”

In her eyes, Xiao Mei was just a child. She had patted Xiao Mei’s back lightly, as if coaxing a child.

“This…” Sister Fang felt uneasy. “What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing much.” Lin Jia said. “I just found the overlap in safe behaviors.”

Previously, Lin Jia had summarized the behaviors that had helped them survive the first rain: sleeping, listening to music, crying, and comforting others.

The overlap in safe behavior was the method for avoiding being killed by the dead. Buzzcut quickly asked, “What is it?”

Lin Jia: “Not speaking.”

Buzzcut didn’t speak while sleeping. Liu Ying didn’t speak while listening to music. Xiao Mei cried silently, and Sister Fang comforted silently.

So, making no sound could avoid being killed by the dead.

Unfortunately, during the first rain, the apartment suddenly went dark. Plunged into darkness, Lin Jia unconsciously murmured aloud.

The dead was attracted by the sound of Lin Jia’s voice and stopped outside Room 103.

Afterward, however, the cat covered Lin Jia’s mouth, and the room fell silent. This is why the dead knew someone was in Room 103 but did not enter.

Afterward, the high school boy’s self-talk must have attracted the dead again. The dead left Room 103 and found the high school boy.

During the second rain, the dead heard Xiao Mei and Sister Fang’s conversation, was attracted to it, and stopped outside the door.

Then, Xiao Mei broke a water cup and screamed when she was frightened by the sound of it breaking. Hearing a human voice again, the dead entered the room.

Lin Jia cleared away the fog. Buzzcut slapped his forehead. “Damn!”

Liu Ying still didn’t understand. “If the dead was attracted by the sound of a human voice, then why did it ask Xiao Mei, ‘What were you saying just now?’”

Sister Fang did not understand either. “Yeah?”

Lin Jia said lightly, “Then ask Fishman if the dead had ever been hurt by words.”

Liu Ying: “What…what does that mean?”

Only Buzzcut understood: “That was a question!”

Often, when someone hears something unpleasant, they ask back: ‘What did you just say?’

But if she hadn’t been hurt by words and hadn’t hated human speech so much, why would the girl in the photo wear the white dress she hated and roll down the corridor?

After returning in concrete form, why would she ask, ‘What were you saying just now,’ and then kill them by recreating her own death?

The rain stopped, and dawn came.

Buzzcut said: “The questions have refreshed.”

Lin Jia opened the door, and the other three quickly followed him to the first-floor lobby.

At that moment, someone was crouching in the lobby. Seeing Lin Jia and the others, he stammered, “Did you see my camera and computer?”

It was blogger Xiao Wu.

Buzzcut looked at blogger Xiao Wu. His expression changed, and he walked to Lin Jia’s side. Lin Jia had arrived first. “Still asking?”

Lin Jia looked at Fishman, who was almost finished mutating. “Why not ask?”

Buzzcut thought it made sense. Blogger Xiao Wu was acting like a coward; the only harmful thing he had done was to film them with a camera. Now that the camera and computer were gone, he was no longer a threat.

Lin Jia asked the first question: “Was the dead hurt by words?”

Fishman grinned. “Yes.”

Second question: “Was it because of what she wore?”

“Yes.”

When Lin Jia asked the third question, he glanced at blogger Xiao Wu. “While tracking the white shadow, did you learn that the dead had been hurt by words?”

Fishman said: “Yes.”

The cat looked disdainfully at blogger Xiao Wu but then heard Lin Jia ask the fourth question.

“Were all the neighbors killed by blogger Xiao Wu?”

The cat froze. Everyone froze. All stared at Lin Jia, dumbfounded. Even blogger Xiao Wu, who had been suddenly called out, looked toward Lin Jia.

This was not only because Lin Jia had directly mentioned the neighbors in the question, but also because this was the fourth question to trigger Fishman’s task.

Fishman’s mouth stretched from ear to ear. When he spoke, the membrane beside his ears pulled as if it would tear in the next second.

“Yes.”

The cat froze at once, and everyone was even more stunned.

They looked at blogger Xiao Wu. The blogger, who had been shrinking, straightened his body and looked expressionlessly at Lin Jia.

Fishman excitedly said, “Why don’t you ask blogger Xiao Wu why he killed all the neighbors?”

As if he had been preparing to ask an additional question for a long time, Lin Jia was the only one present who remained calm.

He didn’t take Fishman’s task seriously at all and didn’t pay blogger Xiao Wu any attention.

He refused the task, saying, “Nothing worth asking.”

“The videos he posted only revolve around the white shadow. They don’t mention the dead at all.” Lin Jia gave a faint, emotionless laugh, his tone as casual as if he were chatting: “Other than increasing the popularity of the White Shadow Documentary and convincing netizens that the white shadow is real, what possible reason could there be for killing all the neighbors besides revenge for the dead”

They’re all just villains.

If he refused Fishman’s task, Fishman would eat him alive six hours later.

The cat jumped onto Lin Jia’s shoulder and began to meow, but Lin Jia pressed its whole head down with one hand.

“Unfortunately, Soup Base has been found.” Lin Jia withdrew his smile and looked at Fishman. “So the task won’t be done.”

 

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