DA chapter 5

 

All three daily questions have been answered, and one remains. Since there are no more clues to be found in the Yile Apartment, today’s search is over.

Shi Luo said, “There are exactly eight rooms with open doors. Choose one for yourselves. Once you’re back in your room, try not to come out. The nights in the Fish Belly are only more unbearable than the days. Wait until tomorrow, when the question quota is refreshed, before continuing.”

The high school boy, too afraid to live alone, hunched his neck and asked, “That… that Shi Luo brother.” He made a “2” sign, indicating two people per room. “Is that okay?”

Shi Luo replied, “Whatever you want.”

The door to the Yile apartment was locked, but through the crack, the faintly visible sky outside indicated that it was still some time before nightfall. Glasses was anxious to leave Fish Belly and unwilling to waste time. He said, “Isn’t Room 303 the home of blogger Xiao Wu? We could go take a look. Maybe we’ll find something.”

The guy with the buzzcut said, “Go ahead.”

Glasses retorted, “Finding the Soup Base isn’t just my responsibility.”

At that moment, someone tugged on Glasses’s sleeve and whispered, “Are you stupid? Have you forgotten the Fishman task?”

Glasses fell silent, stealing a cautious glance at Lin Jia.

Lin Jia stood before the Fishman, staring into its eyes. He seemed unaware that he had triggered the Fishman task.

“Let’s go,” someone else urged. “There’s no rush to find the Soup Base. We’ll deal with the rest tomorrow.”

The people in the first-floor lobby gradually left, leaving only Lin Jia, who stood as straight as a pine tree, and the black cat.

Lin Jia wasn’t deaf. In fact, his hearing was quite good. Every word of the others’ advice fell clearly into his ears, but Lin Jia didn’t scoff at it; instead, he quietly stared straight at the Fishman.

The Fishman task caused Glasses to abandon the idea of exploring Room 303. This revealed that the true purpose of the task wasn’t for Lin Jia to knock on Room 303’s door, but rather to send him there to die.

Room 303 was extremely dangerous.

Lin Jia naturally didn’t believe that Shi Luo had simply forgotten to tell the newcomers about the number of questions. Even if he had, there were still five veterans present. Had they all collectively lost their memory?

That was impossible.

It was a deliberate act to put the newcomers through the wringer.

Even his comments, such as “Blogger Xiao Wu is a good person” and “Materialization doesn’t necessarily mean murder,” seemed like misdirection now.

Lin Jia stood before the Fishman for a moment, then turned and walked toward Room 103.

In this apartment building, all rooms ending in “3” were separate, with a corridor between them. Room 103 was closest to the Fishman, and no one wanted to live there.

Upon arriving at Room 103, Lin Jia took the cat off his shoulders and tossed it onto the bed. There was nothing gentle about the process, yet the cat didn’t complain. First, Lin Jia wasn’t known for being gentle. Second, the cat hadn’t warned him about the trap of the number of questions in time.

“I’m sorry,” the cat said guiltily. “I…I just remembered.”

Lin Jia brushed the cat off the bed, lay down, and closed his eyes. “The first person to do it is a genius, and those who followed are fools.”

This refers to using the excuse of ‘forgetting’ to appear innocent.

The cat hurriedly explained, “I really forgot. I need reminders to remember many things.”

Lin Jia remained noncommittal and asked, “What about you?”

The cat was confused. “What?”

Lin Jia asked, “What is it?”

The cat paused and said stiffly, “Think about what you should do now.”

Lin Jia mumbled, “Cold.”

The business world is full of intrigue and deception. Some win, and some lose. Lin Jia has experienced both, and he can afford to do so. It’s the same anywhere else, except here, where losing means death.

The cat jumped to Lin Jia’s side and said, “Are you giving up now? Why don’t you give it a try? What if you survive?”

Lin Jia replied, “Let’s talk after dark.”

With that, he rolled over and went to sleep. Then, a thought struck him, and he stood up and headed for the bathroom. Unfortunately, there were no toiletries, so he took two sips of water and splashed it on his face.

Returning to bed, Lin Jia finally took off his coat and lay down again.

The cat asked hurriedly, “Do you have any ideas?”

Lin Jia ignored it.

It seemed as if day and night hadn’t transitioned seamlessly. The bleak white sky suddenly turned black.

The cat nudged Lin Jia’s arm and said, “It’s dark.”

Lin Jia opened his eyes. The room was dark and unlit. His pupils dilated, and his breathing became heavier. “Turn on the light.”

The cat leaped onto the table, stretched, and turned on the light.

With the light on, Lin Jia slowly regulated his breathing. Only after his fear of the darkness faded did he stand up.

He quickly washed up in the bathroom before leaving Room 103, holding his priceless, custom-made jacket. The cat snuck out through the crack in the door, too. His footsteps activated the hallway’s sound-sensitive lights. After climbing the first staircase, Lin Jia seemed to remember something and turned to look at the corner of the hallway.

The Fishman was still there. Ever since Lin Jia appeared, the Fishman’s gaze had been fixed on him.

At night, the Fishman was even more terrifying and eerie than during the day.

Lin Jia glanced at it briefly before continuing on his way. He walked steadily toward Room 303 on the third floor. Reaching the third floor, he turned right toward Room 303. Lin Jia pulled out his phone and checked the battery level. It still had 60% remaining—more than enough.

So he put on his coat, turned on the flashlight on his phone, and raised it to eye level.

He waited for all the sound-activated lights in the hallway to go out before slowly and gently approaching Room 303. His footsteps from the hallway to the door didn’t trigger the lights.

Knock, knock—

He knocked.

The cat was right next to Lin Jia’s feet and couldn’t help but slow its breathing.

Knock, knock.

Even though his knocks weren’t hard, they were abrupt in the quiet of the night.

Knock, knock. Just as he knocked on the door for the third time, there was a slight “bang” overhead, and the camera in Room 303 focused on him.

Lin Jia heard the sound but didn’t look up. Instead, he continued knocking as instructed by the Fishman.

After this knock, however, Lin Jia stopped and waited quietly.

After an unknown amount of time, an eerie “click” echoed through the night.

The door to Room 303 opened from the inside.

According to the Fishman’s instructions, Lin Jia had to verify that the person in Room 303 was blogger Xiao Wu. But the room was pitch black. Lin Jia, who always refuses to enter the dark, took out his phone and shone its flashlight into the room. In previous videos, Xiao Wu’s home was simply furnished, but tidy. Facing the door was a window, beneath which sat a tall table with a potted plant on top.

Under the flashlight, Lin Jia could see the table and the plant. Next to the table was a desk with a chair. On the desk sat blogger Xiao Wu’s computer, camera, and some books and stationery.

Next to the desk was a bed with plain blue sheets.

Next to the bed stood a 1.6-meter-tall dressing mirror. Illuminated by Lin Jia’s light, the mirror emitted a halo that seemed to explode. Although the halo obscured the mirror’s reflection, it was clear that something was being reflected.

Lin Jia could vaguely make out the reflection—

Inside the room, standing by the door against the wall, was a figure:

Blogger Xiao Wu.

—

Instantly, darkness gave way to the bleak dawn.

Shi Luo glanced at the light outside the window. He didn’t rush out of Room 203. Instead, he pulled a plastic bag from his pocket. He unwrapped it and found the food he had prepared for himself: compressed biscuits.

After eating one and drinking some water from the tap, he finally opened the door and left.

Just then, the man with the buzzcut walked out of Room 201. The two exchanged glances from a distance. Shi Luo said, “Wipe your mouth! I don’t want the newcomers to know we have food. Wouldn’t it be annoying to be pestered for food?”

The man with the buzzcut wiped his mouth and removed the crumbs.

Shi Luo asked, “Where’s everyone else? Still awake?”

Buzzcut knocked on 202’s door. Glasses came out looking groggy.

“Not awake yet?” Buzzcut scolded.

Glasses quickly put on his glasses. “I didn’t dare sleep the first half of the night. I only caught some sleep later.”

“Are you going upstairs? I need to eat something first.”

The buzzcut replied, “Eat for nothing! Even though I got four clues yesterday, they’re useless. Let’s check on the Fishman first.”

Glasses thought that made sense and lost his appetite.

As the group walked downstairs, Glasses looked up at the stairwell and said, “I wonder if that guy’s still alive.”

“Whether he’s alive or dead is none of your business,” said the buzzcut.

“I think he’s quite smart.”

“He’s the most qualified of the three newcomers, so he’s okay,” said Shi Luo. “It’s a pity the other two didn’t dare speak up, so he’s the only one left to answer the fourth question. I can’t help it. Each question and answer brings me closer to finding the truth.”

As they spoke, the three of them descended from the second floor to the first.

Because Room 303 was dangerous, no one had chosen the third-floor rooms the previous night. The two remaining elderly residents stayed in Room 101, and the two newcomers paired up in Room 102. Hearing the conversation in the hallway, they all opened their doors and left.

The seven of them gathered in the first-floor lobby.

The high school boy thought he was going to be asked more questions. Fearing he would be used as cannon fodder like Lin Jia, he kept his distance from the Fishman.

The five old men didn’t pay any attention to the high school boy. They stared at the Fishman with serious expressions.

The man with the buzzcut: “Fuck.”

The man with glasses was stunned. “This…this is too fast.”

The Fishman was slightly different from the one yesterday. Yesterday, the Fishman had only teeth, but today, scales began to grow on its exposed skin in addition to the teeth.

The scales covered its face, neck, and hands and glowed with an eerie light.

The new girl was puzzled. Trembling, she asked the other woman present…

Sister Fang replied, “The Fishman will change over time. Once it’s fully transformed, it will eat us one by one.”

This was exactly what the buzzcut had meant: the time limit.

“Damn it,” the buzzcut cursed. “At this rate, it will be fully transformed in a few days.”

“I can’t afford to be so cautious. I need to ask the questions I need to ask,” said Shi Luo.

Then, Shi Luo asked directly, “Is White Shadow human?”

“No,” the Fishman grinned.

Then he said, “Why don’t you go check for yourself and see what the white shadow really is?”

Shi Luo was stunned.

Everyone was stunned.

Shi Luo said, “This is only the first question.”

Suddenly, he had an idea. He turned and furiously shouted at the others, “Who the hell asked the question? Who? Who asked all three questions today?”

Everyone stared at each other, unsure of what was happening.

Soon, however, a calm voice rang out from behind the seven people.

“Me.”

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice. Lin Jia stood calmly at the back of the group.

A cat clung to his shoulder.

 

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