Call him Brother Lu?
Fang Huan Xing’s face practically had four words written across it:
We’re not that close.
Shang Lu had been through the rebellious stage at seventeen or eighteen himself. Of course he understood the little thoughts running through a teenager’s head.
Calling someone “Brother” meant putting yourself one step below them.
Absolutely not.
Shang Lu had only been teasing him. He quickly returned to business and asked the curly-haired content creator, “When did you come in, and where have you been?”
The curly-haired man hurriedly gave an honest account. His name was Lin Rui, and he really was a content creator, with just under three hundred thousand followers. He had spent years making exploration videos for a long-form video platform, covering things like “murder factories,” “haunted houses,” and “abandoned hotels and entertainment complexes.” In recent years, channels like his had lost much of their traffic to on-location exploration videos featuring “anomalous-incident restricted zones,” “strange cases and mirages,” and “supernatural phenomena,” so he had started looking for similar locations to make content himself. He had learned about the mysterious disappearances and suicide among the workers at Xianlu Hot Spring Hotel from a post on Digua Forum. Thinking there had to be something wrong with the construction site, he arranged to come explore it ahead of everyone else with a friend. They had entered two days ago.
He had actually been trapped inside for two whole days.
Without showing any reaction, Shang Lu asked, “You came with someone else? How many of you were there? Where is he now?”
“J-Just one other person,” Lin Rui continued. “I don’t know his real name. Everyone calls him Old You. He’s a content creator too. We lost contact not long after we got inside. I searched several floors and never found him.” He suddenly became agitated. “Bro—bro, you have to check whether he made it out. If he didn’t, please help find him… There’s a monster in here! A really disgusting monster with a dog face and a human face, and it rolls around like a spinning top!”
The more Lin Rui spoke, the more frightened he became. His whole body trembled as tears and snot streamed down his face.
So they had encountered the giant fusion entity too. Shang Lu remembered the large pool of fresh, dark blood he had seen outside the linen room and felt his heart sink. If there were no other outsiders inside the construction site, then Old You had most likely met with a grim fate.
Fang Huan Xing had clearly reached the same conclusion. He had been the person closest to the monster earlier and might even have seen what was inside the linen room.
However, the teenager’s pale profile remained calm. He clearly had no intention of saying anything.
Shang Lu first steadied Lin Rui without mentioning the blood they had seen. “Other than the dog-faced monster, did you encounter anything else here?”
Lin Rui shook his head, horrified. “There are other monsters?!”
“No. I was just asking.” Shang Lu reached out to him reassuringly. “Get up first. If you know enough to be scared now, what were you thinking before you came in?”
Lin Rui used his hand to pull himself up, but he still hadn’t forgotten his friend. “Bro, I’m begging you. You have to find Old You. He has an elderly father bedridden at home waiting for him to earn the money for his medical treatment.”
“I’ll do my best,” Shang Lu could only say. Then he pointed toward the plumbing shaft. “How long have you been hiding in there?”
“Almost a day.” Lin Rui rambled on. “After Old You and I got separated, I kept searching the construction site for him. I only hid in there after I ran into that monster last night. This place has a ghost wall—you can walk forever and never get out. My phone has no signal either. All I could do was hide here and try to stay alive. Thank god you finally came…”
Shang Lu had already ducked through the small door.
The doorway itself was narrow, but the space beyond was relatively roomy, with enough room for a person to stand alongside some maintenance equipment. Just as Shang Lu had expected, there was a water-supply and drainage pipe shaft large enough for an adult to enter, extending straight down through the floor to the levels below.
A flashlight Lin Rui had left behind lay on the ground. Shang Lu picked it up, discovered it still worked, and shone it down the shaft.
Lin Rui only wanted to get out and didn’t understand what Shang Lu was doing. He asked Fang Huan Xing, “How many people did the Anomalous Case Department send in?”
The teenager apparently didn’t like talking to people. His expression was sour. “Just him.”
Lin Rui stared. “They-they only sent your brother and you?”
“Yeah.”
Fang Huan Xing couldn’t be bothered to explain.
Lin Rui was a little disappointed, but he no longer had the luxury of caring. According to public rumors, the Anomalous Case Department could practically work miracles. It didn’t matter how many people had come. As long as they could find a safe way out, that was enough.
Trying to get friendly with Fang Huan Xing, Lin Rui asked, “Hey, little bro, are you interning with the Anomalous Case Department?”
Amazingly, his action camera still had power. As he spoke, he switched it on and showed Fang Huan Xing some footage. “Could you put in a good word with your brother and ask him not to lock me up? Look, I got a lot of amazing footage. Once I edit this episode, I’ll put you straight into the acknowledgments—”
Fang Huan Xing walked away.
He ducked through the same small doorway and looked down along the beam from Shang Lu’s flashlight.
As though he knew exactly what Fang Huan Xing was thinking, Shang Lu said, “If my earlier analysis is correct and spaces containing the pipes are relatively stable, then we can try descending through the pipe shaft. The equipment room or something similar may be located near it. Even if we can’t find the equipment directly, this will still save us some distance and keep us from wandering through floors that keep changing.”
Lin Rui heard him from outside and immediately panicked again. “Go down through the shaft? Why? You’re trapped here too? You don’t know how to get out either, do you?”
Fang Huan Xing turned his head and moved his lips. “Quiet.”
If Lin Rui kept going, Fang Huan Xing really was going to hit him.
Lin Rui clamped his mouth shut.
For someone so young, this boy was surprisingly intimidating.
“The only problem is that once a building is completed, pipe shafts are usually sealed between floors or fitted with maintenance platforms, so there may not be a clear passage from one floor to the next,” Shang Lu continued. “But this place is undergoing renovation, and I saw quite a lot of piping stacked outside. It’s very possible that the shaft is being renovated at the same time.”
Fang Huan Xing had no urgent desire to leave this place, so he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about contributing to the conversation.
Shang Lu noticed but didn’t call him out on it. He only said, “We need to find a rope and lower either the flashlight or the action camera that gentleman is holding. That way we can see whether the floor seals are open and whether there’s enough room for a person to crawl through.”
As he spoke, a strange electronic alert began beeping rapidly.
Immediately afterward, a female voice announced:
“Please note: you have been inside a suspected interference zone for more than two hours.”
It was Diva.
Shang Lu had set a timer when he first entered the construction site, and it had now triggered the safety alert.
The notification was especially clear inside the confined space. Even Lin Rui, who was standing by the doorway picking at his teeth, heard it.
For some reason, despite always having had perfectly healthy teeth, his teeth had become loose and his gums had begun bleeding over the past two days. Just now he had touched one, only for the tooth to fall straight out. He figured he must have damaged it in a fall while fleeing from the monster earlier.
“What was that sound? An alarm?” Lin Rui became nervous, the fallen tooth still lying in his palm. “Bro, are we in danger right now?”
Shang Lu had already noticed the bluish cast to Lin Rui’s complexion and the way his eyelids sagged and turned outward. Now he had also seen the fallen tooth.
According to fusion-disease case files, exposure to a high-interference zone for more than eight hours created a risk of onset. That made eight hours the hard evacuation cutoff. Lin Rui, however, had already been inside for more than two days, and his symptoms matched the first stage of fusion disease.
Combined with the fact that Li Bei Shan had once worked here as the water-supply and drainage design engineer, Shang Lu could now more or less confirm that an interference source really did exist here—and that it had to be connected to the piping.
“Don’t worry.” Shang Lu’s expression remained normal. “It’s just an alarm I set myself.”
Lin Rui’s thoughts were already in complete disarray, so he nodded vaguely and didn’t say anything more.
Fang Huan Xing, however, watched Lin Rui for a moment before returning to their earlier conversation. “Where are you going to find a rope?”
That was a problem.
They had seen practically every kind of construction material on their way through the hotel, but no rope. Shang Lu looked into the pipe shaft. There were some steel maintenance frames visible inside, and he began considering whether he should simply climb down first to scout the route.
At that moment, Lin Rui suddenly called from the doorway, “You need rope? I know where there is some!”
He desperately wanted to get out now and was eager to contribute whatever ideas he could.
“When Old You and I were trying to escape, we tried tying a rope to a window and climbing down, but it didn’t work,” Lin Rui said. “It’s on this floor. The rope should still be hanging from the window.”
According to Lin Rui, they had left the rope tied to the window of one of the guest rooms. The glass there hadn’t been removed yet, and because they couldn’t find anywhere to secure the rope, they smashed one pane and tied it around the window frame.
“It was seriously freaky. We climbed down that rope and just kept climbing, but we could never reach the bottom!” Lin Rui said excitedly. “The view outside looked normal, but every so often everything would blur into one big smear, like we were inside some sci-fi movie. We got so scared we couldn’t keep going. We abandoned the rope and decided to try the stairwell instead.”
Shang Lu asked which room they had left the rope in. Lin Rui said he couldn’t remember, only that he was certain it was somewhere on this floor. He had already been frightened out of his wits and refused to go with them to retrieve it.
“Fine. I’ll find it.” Shang Lu told him to remain beside the plumbing shaft, then deliberately instructed Fang Huan Xing as well. “Kid, you stay here too.”
Fang Huan Xing had already taken half a step forward. At Shang Lu’s words, he shifted into an at-ease stance. “Whatever.”
The kid was unhappy.
But Shang Lu didn’t want another person taking unnecessary risks. “We came through this way safely before, but that doesn’t mean retracing our steps will be just as safe. It’ll be safer if both of you wait here.” After walking a few steps, he turned back and reminded Fang Huan Xing again, “If something happens, hide inside. Don’t run around. Understand?”
Fang Huan Xing knew Shang Lu was worried he would run off again, so he didn’t answer.
Shang Lu’s clothes were torn and ragged, but none of it diminished his mature, composed bearing. The injury on his forearm and the scrapes on his face looked almost like medals on a grown man, and now he was taking responsibility without a second thought. Lin Rui watched him with envy, then turned and started envying Fang Huan Xing too. “Your brother treats you really well. I wish I had a brother like that.”
Fang Huan Xing held both straps of his backpack and immediately shut the conversation down. “Not talking.”
The teenager was strikingly handsome, with a cold gaze and an innate air that kept everyone at arm’s length. After being trapped for so long, Lin Rui had finally encountered other human beings again. Seeing Fang Huan Xing with his backpack and pajamas, he had naturally been curious and wanted to chat to distract himself. But faced with that attitude, there really was no conversation to be had.
The two stood there for nearly a minute. Fang Huan Xing remained expressionless, thinking about who knew what, while Lin Rui’s teeth began bothering him again and he resumed picking at them. Fang Huan Xing’s face immediately showed disgust, and he silently took one step farther away.
Lin Rui became completely absorbed in picking at his teeth. Before long, he spat out another one.
A plump white molar landed in his palm. Strangely, it didn’t hurt at all. His gums merely itched. He ran his finger around inside his mouth for a while and discovered that every single tooth still seemed to be present.
He had no idea which tooth had actually fallen out.
That was strange.
As he thought this, hunger suddenly hit him. His stomach, which had barely received any food in almost two days, contracted painfully. He couldn’t help asking Fang Huan Xing, “Little bro, do you have anything to eat?”
Their eyes met.
Lin Rui’s open mouth was bloody.
Fang Huan Xing tightened his grip on the straps of his bulging backpack. It was difficult not to imagine that it contained some kind of emergency supplies from the Anomalous Case Department.
He only glanced at Lin Rui before answering, “No.”
Share food? Impossible.
That apple was his last emergency ration. Even more impossible.
Lin Rui could only nod. Apparently forgetting that Fang Huan Xing had already refused to chat, he asked, “Why did the Anomalous Case Department come in this time? Are you inspecting the site, or investigating the disappearances?”
Fang Huan Xing said nothing.
He had come in here completely at random. As for Shang Lu… maybe the Anomalous Case Department had brainwashed him.
“I saw a post saying the two missing workers were an electrician and a night security guard. I never saw the electrician, but the security guard…” Lin Rui lowered his voice mysteriously. “He already became that huge ball of flesh. Want to know how I figured it out?”
He leaned in conspiratorially.
“Because of the dog. The security guard’s family said he disappeared together with his dog… Have you seen those videos of deformed people online? One of them was filmed by a friend of mine, and he swore to me it was real. Can you reveal even a little of your internal information?”
The action camera magnetically attached to Lin Rui’s chest was blinking green.
Fang Huan Xing frowned. “Are you filming me?”
Lin Rui was indeed filming him. In fact, he had deliberately angled the camera straight toward Fang Huan Xing’s face.
It was occupational instinct. He had grown accustomed to recording everything at all times, whether daily life or urban exploration. The moment he confirmed that Shang Lu and the others were from the Anomalous Case Department, he had switched the camera back on. Once he escaped, he could quickly edit the footage. Being trapped inside a bizarre hotel construction site, encountering a malformed monster, then being rescued by the Anomalous Case Department—his firsthand experience would definitely attract plenty of attention. Add a face like Fang Huan Xing’s to the video, and the views were practically guaranteed.
Unfortunately, the teenager looked as though Lin Rui had struck exactly the wrong nerve. His expression darkened, and he reached out to snatch the camera.
Lin Rui stepped backward, just avoiding Fang Huan Xing’s hand.
But the next second, without Lin Rui even understanding how the teenager had moved, the weight vanished from his chest.
The camera was somehow already in Fang Huan Xing’s hand.
“What are you doing? You’re stealing my stuff?” Lin Rui reached to take it back.
Fang Huan Xing turned the little device over a few times but couldn’t figure out how it worked. “Delete it.”
Lin Rui still assumed he was an intern with the Anomalous Case Department. “The footage is my personal property. You don’t have the right to delete it. Worst case, I’ll blur your face and Investigator Shang’s. Please, give me a break. I nearly traded my life for this footage.”
Fang Huan Xing ignored him.
He threw the action camera onto the floor and crushed it beneath his foot.
Lin Rui stared downward with his eyes wide open and didn’t speak for a long time. Bloody saliva began running unconsciously from his mouth.
When he finally raised his head again, his face twisted and spasmed.
Inside his eye sockets, another pair of eyeballs flickered briefly into view, like shadows hidden somewhere beneath his flesh.
In a sinister voice, he asked, “Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to break other people’s things?”
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