Chapter 151 : Chapter 151

Chapter 151: “Did you see your state of death?”

Chu Zu stood stunned on the spot for five minutes, the swollen and deformed creature had already breathed its last, and Chu Shiju's corpse grew stiff and cold under the scattered raindrops.

He was a little hungry, and after thinking about it, felt that he was not just hungry, but also needed rest, so he pushed open several more doors in succession.

Chu Zu's luck was both good and bad, he had run into all four types of rooms, but none were a threat.

He seemed to inherently know laboratory protocols, and also understood fire escape techniques, the remaining two were a live burial that posed no threat to his life, and the domestic violence room that completely ignored him.

In the domestic violence room, the murderer's previous corpse had already disappeared, the overturned furniture was also restored, and all that remained on the spot were the scattered severed limbs he had personally chopped off.

This might prove that the heads he buried in the well had not yet been restored.

But it couldn't be said that Tong Qinzhen and Yang Mangshu were safe.

The first thing Chu Shiju said after seeing him was: “Looking for someone?”

Chu Shiju clearly knew of Tong Qinzhen's and Yang Mangshu's existence, and also knew they were temporarily traveling with him——most likely he had already met them.

After Chu Zu left the room, the building changed, it was no longer just a three-story experimental building, but the high-rise apartment he had seen before.

He continued opening and closing rooms one by one, and found the needed food and water in a safe room.

“Borrowing” the room's original owner's backpack, Chu Zu stuffed in bottled water and biscuit-type foods that he could take, and also went to the kitchen to pick out a few fruit knives with sheaths, stuffing them in his pocket.

While rummaging through chests and cabinets, he also found information related to this building.

This building was the one where the fire had occurred before, the fire happened on a high floor, a company executive was preparing a private dinner party at home, and due to a series of accidents, it ultimately triggered a fire, finally resulting in five injuries, and twelve deaths from severe injuries.

In the end, this building was abandoned due to urban planning, people gradually moved out, and the real estate developer wanted to renovate it again, to rent it cheaply to young people whose wallets were tight.

This plot of land was a two-hour drive from the city center, the commute time was considered long, but there were always people willing to live here.

Currently, the progress was halted at the renovation preparation stage.

Chu Zu walked slowly down the building's corridor, the high-end apartment corridors rarely had windows, with rooms on both sides, and the progress of searching the rooms also slowed down.

He wasn't anxious at all, there was nothing to be anxious about.

He came here also because Gentleman told him to, now Gentleman was silent, and besides continuing to search rooms, and seeing if he could run into those two university students, he had nothing else to do.

——After leaving the mental hospital, he had no idea where he was going, or what to do.

Speaking of which, Chu Zu felt that going back to the mental hospital seemed pretty good too.

Living there all the time, there were books and movies to watch, and doctors and nurses to take care of him.

They would try their best to show respect, as if the patients really possessed some kind of dignity.

When he got old, perhaps his condition wouldn't be so severe, he would have to vacate the ward, and move to a place like a nursing home——he wasn't sure if anyone would continue to pay the fees for him, but it wasn't hard to get money, anyway, he would have a place to live.

Nursing homes weren't as strictly managed as mental hospitals, he could meet new, senile, and stubborn friends, and then quietly live out his life.

If he was lucky, he might even meet an orderly like Jiang Zu from Silent Peach and Plum, perhaps every lonely old person needed a passionate and sincere young person to accompany them——Chu Zu vaguely felt this way.

While Chu Zu was searching rooms distractedly, suddenly, a figure rushed out from the corner, crashing hard into his chest.

Chu Zu almost grabbed the other person's neck directly, but after recognizing this person was Yang Mangshu, the hand that was already by her neck moved down a bit, supporting her shoulder.

He originally wanted to ask what was wrong, but looking at Yang Mangshu's complexion, asking would probably be useless.

This person was completely on the verge of collapse, her eyes were wide, there was blood on the side of her face, no wounds were visible on her exposed skin, it should be someone else's blood.

Yang Mangshu couldn't calm down, grabbing Chu Zu's wrist and chattering endlessly: “He was taken away, Zhenzhen was taken away, that giant is still here, he kept chasing us, chasing me, Zhenzhen was snapped by him, I don't know... I saw Chu Shiju, the giant started chasing us...”

Chu Zu passed the water from his bag over, Yang Mangshu didn't react at all, grabbing him like a drowning person clutching driftwood, but she didn't ask for anything, just repeating the same jumbled words over and over again.

Chu Zu could now confirm that he was a very efficient person, he could maintain patience at certain times, but at other times, he was easily impatient.

Now belonged to the latter.

“Are you trying to tell me Tong Qinzhen is dead, and you're panicking. Or is he not dead yet, and you think the giant still being alive is my problem, so you keep repeating it, trying to push the blame onto me, to make yourself feel better?”

Yang Mangshu was stunned, the cold, restrained, and mocking tone made her reason gradually return.

In the limited time they had spent together, Chu Zu had always shown a good-tempered side, he wasn't taciturn, and when communication was needed, he would seriously analyze and give suggestions.

Now he suddenly seemed like a different person.

While she was in a daze, Chu Zu passed the water over again: “Drink some.”

Yang Mangshu took it, took a sip, only after her lips touched the coolness did she feel her throat was dry and sore, she chugged several large gulps in a row, pouring the entire bottle of water into her stomach.

Chu Zu: “When was Tong Qinzhen taken away?”

Yang Mangshu pursed her lips, her gaze shifting down: “I don't know... maybe a few minutes... or ten-plus minutes... I don't know...”

“Then that's a long time.”

When extremely panicked, people completely forgot they could check the time on their phones, and it was hard to perceive the flow of time in the building.

Chu Zu had eaten in the evening, but quickly felt hungry again, perhaps a long time had already passed.

Tong Qinzhen was probably beyond saving.

Yang Mangshu understood the meaning in Chu Zu's eyes, covered her face with both hands, her whole body shaking.

She slowly squatted down, and started crying.

After Chu Zu entered that door carrying two heads, Tong Qinzhen and Yang Mangshu fell into a brief silence.

With Chu Zu around, they could temporarily ignore many problems, university students were also adults, and began to want to maintain decency in front of strangers.

When the “stranger” temporarily left, the atmosphere gradually became heavy.

Yang Mangshu didn't know how to explain the matter with Jiang Ran, nor how to explain cheating and two-timing.

She and Jiang Ran had known each other for a long time, considered to know each other inside and out.

Before she even attended university, both sets of parents had met——her mom furiously said some dog-day university student was corrupting her little girl, and stormed into the school aggressively, not leaving her any face at all.

Yang Mangshu had no choice, she gave Jiang Ran's contact information to her mom.

Jiang Ran was attending university in another city and couldn't come back, Yang Mangshu's tyrant mother asked Jiang Ran's parents out.

Jiang Ran's parents and Jiang Ran were practically carved from the same mold, they didn't have this thing called 'being emotional', they first listened to the bombardment, and then said amicably: “Ah, they're dating, I thought Little Ran was just tutoring Shushu with her homework.”

“Little Ran also said, Shushu's grades are getting better and better, he's very happy he could help.”

Yang Mangshu really wanted to curse that dog thing, what 'tutoring homework', her good grades had nothing to do with him, but her mom bought this explanation, and after repeatedly warning her not to date early, she let the matter drop.

The type liked at fifteen, isn't necessarily liked at eighteen.

Maybe it wasn't that she didn't like him, just that she became more 'universally loving'.

Yang Mangshu didn't feel there was anything wrong with this change, only that the behavior was very immoral.

During freshman registration, she waited at the school gate for Jiang Ran to pick her up, after waiting for half a day, Tong Qinzhen ran up to her, looked at his phone for a long time, and asked her if she was Senior Yang Mangshu, saying Senior Jiang Ran had asked him to help carry things.

Tong Qinzhen had a baby face, after learning she was a freshman junior sister and not a senior sister, his face flushed red, and he immediately roared at the person on the other end of the phone: “Why did you lie to me again!”

After roaring, he embarrassedly took Yang Mangshu's luggage, pretending nothing had happened: “If, if there's anything you don't know, you can ask me, I'm a sophomore, and I'm more honest than Senior Jiang Ran.”

He emphasized, “Much more honest!”

Later, when Yang Mangshu was on a date with Jiang Ran, she mentioned Tong Qinzhen.

Jiang Ran asked with a grin: “He's very cute, right? Jumps when teased, cries when anxious.”

Yang Mangshu thought, he is pretty cute.

Jiang Ran seemed to quite like this junior brother.

What a coincidence, she also quite liked him.

So after committing a moral flaw herself, and discovering her boyfriend had also committed a moral flaw, Yang Mangshu and Jiang Ran decided to come out at night to have a good talk.

Neither of them actually cared, and from the current look of it, Tong Qinzhen seemed to think they were both joking——whether to really turn it into a joke, this was the question that needed to be discussed.

But they couldn't discuss a result.

The unforeseen event happened, Jiang Ran died.

Yang Mangshu regretted it a little, she shouldn't have told Tong Qinzhen about any 'third party' or not.

This senior's mind was surprisingly simple, perhaps all his 'cunning' had been exchanged for learning ability, he believed whatever was said, and before attacking others, he attacked himself first.

Tong Qinzhen was not good at handling this kind of situation, but this time, he was the first to speak.

“After you get out, you must call the police, bring Ran brother back...”

He was quite scared, his hands clenched very tightly, as if they would start trembling at any moment.

It wasn't obvious when Chu Zu was around, at that time, the giant couple who saw them as children was the biggest trouble.

Now there seemed to be a glimmer of hope for survival, so Tong Qinzhen thought more——he was also capable of thinking, it's just that he couldn't speak his nonsense out loud.

Yang Mangshu slapped his forehead: “Can't we get out together? What do you mean 'after I get out'.”

“I think Chu brother is a strong thigh, that calm 'sweeper monk' type. You hold on tight, Shushu, you can definitely get out. After you get out, then find a way to get me and Ran brother out.”

Tong Qinzhen's head ached from the slap, his hand also hurt, he had never suffered this much except during military training.

Yang Mangshu felt he was very off, like he was giving his last words, his eyes even darting to the upper diagonal corner from time to time.

This was also Tong Qinzhen's old habit, he often zoned out, looking at the sky, and wouldn't say what he was looking at when asked.

Everyone in the department called him the 'Melancholy Old Prince', because he also loved to cry, the 'Melancholy Old Prince' was instantly promoted to the “Brightly Sorrowful Melancholy Old Prince”.

Yang Mangshu wanted to say something else, when suddenly, two figures walked out from the end of the corridor, one tall and one short.

The short one revealed a playful smile upon seeing them, and directly aimed a gun at them.

The tall one, they “recognized”.

Yang Mangshu and Tong Qinzhen exchanged a look, completely obeying discipline, turned tail and ran in the opposite direction.

Actually, there was no need to even see if the person was carrying heads in their hands.

Chu Zu's face was scratched by a knife on the lower floor, and he had a band-aid on his face that Yang Mangshu found.

——This person was Chu Shiju!

They ran to the stairwell, the experimental building only had three floors, there wasn't much escape space upwards or downwards, and the sound of rapid footsteps was already sticking to the backs of their heads, getting closer and closer.

Tong Qinzhen glanced at the sky, and said firmly: “Upwards!”

Yang Mangshu didn't think much about why, if someone proposed a plan in an emergency, the other person would often obey unconditionally.

They ran all the way up, Yang Mangshu was pushed in front, the accident laboratory from before was on the third floor, and above that was the rooftop.

If they went to the rooftop, they would truly have no way out.

Tong Qinzhen decisively pushed open a door, took a gamble, and pulled Yang Mangshu inside.

Fortunately, this was a safe room.

A simple three-bedroom apartment, the wall clock pointed to 6:30 PM, the living room TV was on, CCTV-6 was playing Empresses in the Palace again, the rich aroma of chicken soup wafted from the kitchen... it could even be considered cozy.

Tong Qinzhen looked at the ceiling, his lips moved, and he silently said 'thank you'.

They waited inside the door for a while, the noise outside disappeared, it should be considered safe.

Yang Mangshu's stomach growled, she went to the kitchen, in the large clay pot on the stove, yam and chestnut chicken was stewing, she found bowls, and ladled out two servings.

Yang Mangshu wanted to call Tong Qinzhen to the kitchen, but no one answered after several calls.

She walked to the kitchen doorway, and saw a soul-shattering scene.

Tong Qinzhen had opened the room door, and gently took the hand that reached in from outside——the "male giant's" hand.

The "male giant" was even more irritable than before, his palm was as big as Tong Qinzhen's entire head, with a slight squeeze, Tong Qinzhen's entire right hand was crushed out of shape, and then he was about to be dragged out the door.

Yang Mangshu let out a scream, and rushed over, wanting to grab Tong Qinzhen like before.

But Tong Qinzhen pushed her away, very decisively, exactly like the way Jiang Ran had pushed him away back then.

The look in Tong Qinzhen's eyes as he looked back at Yang Mangshu was also exactly the same as Jiang Ran's.

He had always been very scared, but now he wasn't scared anymore, at this moment he calmly accepted some things, so his puppy-like wet eyes held a faint smile that didn't match his personality.

“He was... dragged away.”

Yang Mangshu's voice came from between her fingers, “I left the room, and the outside was no longer the laboratory... this building is too big, I don't know where to look, every floor looks the same.”

“I didn't dare to push open doors... I kept thinking, either find Zhenzhen, or find you... or else run into Chu Shiju... it was bound to be one of these three possibilities...”

“Are you sure it was the 'male giant'?”

Chu Zu said.

“What?”

Yang Mangshu's voice still held a sob.

“Are you sure it was the 'male giant'?”

Chu Zu spoke very slowly, ensuring Yang Mangshu could hear every word clearly.

“Yes... I could tell from the clothes...”

“Then your action was correct, you couldn't push open doors, there was a one-in-four chance, that one type of room was a room of certain death for you.”

Chu Zu said, “I buried both heads in that room, the 'female giant' was left in that well, and the 'male giant' returned to his original room.”

“It was the same before, all those who entered that room and survived were male——”

Chu Zu paused, remembering what Gentleman had said.

「Do not be alone in the same room with a female.」

This reminder wasn't to help Chu Zu escape his predicament.

It didn't matter which room Chu Zu entered, but if he and a certain female entered the room with the well together... he would personally watch the other person be buried alive before his eyes.

And only after he woke up in the corridor would he belatedly realize this rule.

Chu Zu would realize that, in the well, he didn't care about the terror of the person before him, and might even say something to comfort her.

'Just endure it and it'll pass, it's just a few minutes of suffocation, at least you'll still be alive, this is already the best possible outcome.'

These words would become a boomerang, a person who became a survivor merely because of gender, persuading someone to wait for death, and even telling her to remain emotionally stable, ultimately becoming one of the corpses at the bottom of the well.

This was even harder to accept than direct murder.

Then, Chu Zu thought of another sentence: 「Man walks towards high places」.

He immediately pulled Yang Mangshu up, and ran towards the emergency exit.

Chu Zu was tall, with long legs, one of his steps was equal to two of Yang Mangshu's, after he quickened his pace, Yang Mangshu couldn't keep up at all, and was dragged along, stumbling.

In the stairwell, the footsteps sounded extremely hurried, the voice-activated lights gradually lit up as the two went all the way up.

The spiraling stairwell seemed to have no end, the continuous climbing caused a dry mouth and throat, hands and feet didn't feel like his own, and looking up made one feel even more dizzy.

“That news report was missing a part, and as luck would have it, it was missing the key part.”

Chu Zu, on the other hand, his heart wasn't racing nor was he out of breath, seeing that Yang Mangshu really couldn't walk anymore, he squatted down, let her climb onto his back, and carried her up, taking two or three steps at a time.

Yang Mangshu panted for a long time, and asked in a low voice: “What was missing?”

The old newspaper in the domestic violence room, that news report was blurred by black blood in one part, one could only make out the report of the boy being domestically abused.

But if one wasn't in a hurry at the time, and thought carefully about the report's content, one could actually discover some clues.

——「There were eyewitnesses who saw it.」

“Eyewitnesses couldn't see what happened inside the house, so the eyewitnesses witnessed certain things from outside.”

——「Nearby residents urgently called the police.」

“Not neighbors, nor building residents, it was nearby residents who called 110.”

——「Police investigation revealed that this pair of parents were suspected of long-term domestic violence, and the violent behavior on the day of the incident caused the boy to go into shock at one point. But the two did not seek medical treatment in time, and instead worried about bearing responsibility.」

“Shock, not immediate death.”

“This pair of parents, in order to escape responsibility, did something else.”

As soon as Chu Zu's voice fell, a black shadow flashed past the stairwell window used for ventilation.

He stopped at once.

Yang Mangshu hadn't reacted, and continued to ask him in a low voice: “...Did what?”

“You've actually already guessed it.”

Chu Zu sighed slightly, and squatted down again, putting her down.

Yang Mangshu hung her head: “Originally they wanted to destroy the corpse, but it resulted in the child's direct death... right?”

Chu Zu didn't say if it was right or wrong, and helped her tidy her hair.

They were peers, but Chu Zu was just like an elder, an elder who would severely point out problems, but would also soften his tone at certain moments.

“It's too late.”

Chu Zu said, “Let's go downstairs.”

At the bottom of the building, in the parking lot, Yang Mangshu tilted her head up in the rain, looking distractedly at the streetlight, while Chu Zu looked at her.

This angle, this direction, this gaze——

Yang Mangshu looked at Tong Qinzhen's corpse, pierced through the chin by the sharp top of the streetlight, hanging up there, blood dripped into the rain, washed towards the ground, and disappeared completely on the asphalt road.

Gentleman voiced the speculation that had formed in Chu Zu's mind——

“They carried the child, who was only in shock, to the rooftop, intending to fake a fall, and were seen by neighbors during this time.”

“The child was thrown down, and inadvertently impaled on the streetlight at the bottom of the building, nearby residents saw this scene, and called the police.”

“The child died from excessive blood loss, Jiang Ran and Tong Qinzhen are the same.”

“Tong Qinzhen often raised his head, looking at a certain spot in the sky.”

Chu Zu no longer cared if Yang Mangshu would hear, or what she would think of him...

Right now Yang Mangshu couldn't hear anything, even if he roared in her ear, she could only hear the pouring rain, perhaps that wasn't rain, but blood pouring down.

“He saw something very tall, vaguely in the shape of a person, but couldn't see the face clearly.”

“This thing perhaps accompanied him since he was young, because it was far away, he couldn't see the face clearly. He never felt scared, but was instead very excited. Children tend to like things similar to UFOs.”

“Maybe he also told his family, but it wasn't taken seriously, and his life wasn't affected either.”

Chu Zu said, “When he heard me relay the cause of death of the murderer's accomplice, he instantly thought of Jiang Ran, and that shadow in the high place.”

Tong Qinzhen wasn't stupid, he could get into a top-ranked university in the country, his IQ was definitely not bad.

Moreover, his imagination was very rich, having a “friend” floating in the sky since childhood, he would always imagine more, perhaps his exceptionally naive personality also came from this.

Tong Qinzhen's ghost friend told him to run upwards in the stairwell, he did so, and avoided Yang Jing.

Tong Qinzhen's ghost friend told him to open the door in the room, he did so, the "male giant" only saw one child, and he voluntarily became that child.

Then he fell from the rooftop, and became his friend.

Gentleman said objectively: “Yang Mangshu doesn't need to blame herself, this is the path Tong Qinzhen chose for himself.”

“His past self, his present self, his future self, together they decided on this path.”

Chu Zu: “What about you then, Gentleman? If you are my future, would you help your past self?”

Gentleman turned his head for the first time.

He always stayed in the deep shadows, or rather, he was like a shadow himself, not far, not close, untouchable, unapproachable.

If someone suddenly discovered a gentleman in the corner with his back to them, they would inevitably guess if he possessed a terrifying face.

The unknown often triggers deeper fear.

But in fact, there were no unsettling modifications on Gentleman's face, he looked more than forty years older than Chu Zu, with wrinkles of age on his face, but his upright posture and three-piece suit showed no signs of old age.

On the contrary, he was very energetic, the rain couldn't drench him, he was worlds better off than Chu Zu, who was soaked from head to toe.

Gentleman said flatly: “I am just doing what you have always been doing, Azu.”

Little yellow chicken felt a bit reluctant to look at the main text.

Tong Qinzhen and Yang Jing faced the same situation.

After they died, they appeared beside their past selves, human instinct is to protect oneself, to save oneself.

But fate plays tricks on people.

Tong Qinzhen's cause of death determined that he could not get close to his past self.

His throat was pierced, he couldn't make any sound, and little Tong Qinzhen couldn't understand his meaning either.

By the time he understood, they had together chosen to let Yang Mangshu live.

Yang Jing's death was too tragic, he was affected by the leaked substances from the laboratory, and under the exaggerated evolution of the door, he rapidly deformed, dying in the form of the "Gnarled Man".

No matter how much he wanted to get close to his past self, he would only get the opposite result, Yang Jing feared his approach, his friendly gestures, and wished he could chop him to pieces.

The matter of accidentally killing his classmate was also an accident.

Yang Jing knew he would do something irreversible, and wanted to stop it.

But he had long since gone numb, had already forgotten what his past personality was like, and instead became the emotional catalyst for his past self.

By the time he realized, it was already too late.

Everything was over.

He knew he would die from listening to Chu Shiju's suggestion, but he couldn't stop it.

Chu Shiju killing him was just a matter of lifting a finger...

He could only watch himself, just like in the past, cursing the same words, carrying the same hatred and disdain for the "Gnarled Man", following the same trajectory... and dying.

Little yellow chicken should have felt fortunate about Gentleman's situation——an aged Chu Zu, healthy, energetic, elegant and decent.

Was there a better future than this?

But it was hard for it to say “hooray” in this situation.

A person's life is not only dominated by will, but also manipulated by fate.

Fate was mixed with the gift of repeating time, this should have been a perfect opportunity, but it was precisely this gift that brought about the original destiny.

This was too... hopeless.

Little yellow chicken hesitated for a long time, just as it was planning to temporarily focus its full attention on the virus, the instant its peripheral vision was about to leave the main text panel, it saw the thing that refreshed on the panel——

【Shakespeare adores the rainstorm.

Not just in The Tempest (The Tempest), in King Lear (King Lear), he also wrote in the play's third act, King Lear experienced a night of violent storms on the heath.

At that time, the rainstorm, violent winds, lightning, and thunder intertwined with King Lear's cries of anguish.

The rainstorm is the will of heaven.

The will of heaven made someone who shouldn't have appeared, appear behind him.

Chu Zu's chest was pierced, he looked down, and saw the tip of a blade glinting coldly after being washed by the rain.

Lifting his head again, Gentleman still just watched him flatly.

From behind came Chu Shiju's voice, like a cold snake clinging to him: “Did you see your state of death?”

But Gentleman said: “Go to sleep, I'll wait for you.”

————————The Fifth Door: Chu Zu】