Bai Jiang woke up, choking on smoke.
"Cough, cough! Is there a fire?" She coughed as she sat up, her surroundings pitch dark. Instinctively, she reached for the bedside lamp switch, fumbling around until her fingers found the button.
Click!
The light flicked on—and Bai Jiang immediately realized something was wrong. This wasn't her bedroom.
The room wasn't large, its layout completely visible at a glance. It was furnished simply: to the left was a door, with a shoe cabinet on one side and a bathroom on the other. She was lying on a bed facing a small TV.
It was clearly a hotel room.
The thick smoke that kept making her cough was seeping in from under the door. Even in the few seconds she'd spent observing, the room had begun filling with smoke, blurring her vision.
"Cough, cough!" Bai Jiang climbed out of bed and rushed toward the door. She grabbed the doorknob and twisted hard. Locked! Being so close to the source of the smoke made her cough even harder.
Thinking fast, Bai Jiang rushed into the bathroom. She grabbed a towel from the rack, turned on the faucet, and soaked the towel before pressing it tightly over her nose and mouth. Finally, she could breathe a little better.
Something was definitely wrong. She had to get out of here.
Clutching the wet towel over her face, she tried the door again. This time, she found a key sitting on top of the shoe cabinet. She inserted it into the lock and managed to unlock the door.
But what appeared before her eyes made her heart sink.
Opening the door revealed a corridor engulfed in flames. She looked both ways—the entire hallway was ablaze, the end of the corridor nowhere in sight. Across from her, another door opened. She saw a terrified face—and in the next second, an explosion rocked the flames even higher.
The intense heat and smoke slammed into Bai Jiang, knocking her backward. She could feel the hair on her head and eyebrows being singed.
Thinking quickly, Bai Jiang slammed the door shut, rushed back to the bathroom, tore down a bath towel, soaked it in water, and stuffed it along the gap under the door to block the smoke.
For the moment, the smoke was kept out. But when she touched the door handle and panel again, the once-warm surface was now scalding hot.
It was clear: escaping through the corridor was impossible.
She ran to the room's only window. But it was sealed shut. She pounded on the glass, but it was solid and unyielding.
Looking around frantically, she remembered the bathroom. Returning there, Bai Jiang tied the towel securely over her face and went to the bed, dragging over the old wooden nightstand.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
She smashed the nightstand against the window, aiming repeatedly at one spot. Finally, the window cracked. Bai Jiang felt a surge of hope and continued smashing.
Boom!
Another explosion rocked the hallway. She felt the floor tremble beneath her. Turning back, she saw flames licking at her wooden door; smoke billowed inside. She could hear people screaming for help, shouting "Save me!"
Time was running out.
Throwing the nightstand aside, Bai Jiang climbed onto the windowsill.
She cursed. She was high up—a quick count told her she was on the ninth floor, the top of the building! Looking up, down, and around, she saw that other rooms in the hotel were also on fire. People were sticking their heads out from other windows, some already climbing out. She saw someone jump from the second floor and crawl away after landing.
So lucky! Bai Jiang thought bitterly.
Resigned to her fate, she jumped back into the room and tore the bedsheet from the bed. It was just one sheet—she'd have to cut it and tie it together to make it longer.
"Scissors… scissors…"
She rummaged through the nightstand drawer and found a pair. Working quickly, she cut the sheet into several strips, tied them together, and fastened the makeshift rope securely to the bed frame. She dragged the bed over to the window. By now, the room was completely filled with smoke. Flames had reached the bed itself. Her eyes stung. The damp towel over her mouth felt hot and dry.
There was no more time.
She threw the makeshift rope out the window, gripped it tightly, and began climbing down.
People below were still smashing windows. One woman looked up at her with teary eyes, pounding on the glass, shouting for help.
Bai Jiang shook her head grimly. She could barely save herself.
She stopped for a moment at the window ledge of the floor below, adjusted her grip, and continued descending. The exterior wall was hot under her hands. She had no experience climbing, but she forced herself to grip the rope tightly, inching downward. Her palms burned with pain, but she dared not loosen her grip.
But the sheet was too short.
After descending two floors, the makeshift rope was stretched thin. She frowned, untying the cloth she'd secured around her waist and adding it to extend the rope. She even tied on her damp towel to gain a little extra length. Barely, she managed to descend to the sixth floor, stopping at a window where the room inside seemed silent. Either no one was inside, or they'd already passed out.
She looked around. Many others like her were trying to escape using makeshift ropes. People on lower floors had ropes long enough to reach the ground. But those unlucky enough to be trapped on higher floors—like Bai Jiang—faced the same deadly problem.
If each room below hers had someone who tied a rope and escaped, maybe she could use their ropes to climb further down.
But that was just wishful thinking.
How was she going to get down? More and more people gathered below. Bai Jiang looked down and saw patches of red on the ground. She didn't dare imagine what those red stains were.
"Come on! Climb! You can do it!" people shouted from below, encouraging her.
Taking a deep breath, Bai Jiang spotted a long sheet-rope hanging two rooms over to her left. No one was climbing it.
She didn't have time to wonder whether its owner had escaped—or died. She had to reach that rope.
Holding tightly to her own rope, she pressed her feet against the wall and edged sideways. She stretched out her arm toward the other rope, but there was no foothold—she slid back to her original position.
Crash!
Nearby windows shattered, shards of glass spraying toward her like burning knives. Bai Jiang instinctively turned her head, eyes squeezed shut, feeling sharp pain along her cheek.
The broken window above her burst into flames. Fire licked toward her. She smelled her clothes burning and pressed herself against the wall, extinguishing the flames on her body.
Glancing up, she saw the burning window on the eighth floor. Flames were eating through her makeshift rope.
No time.
She looked down once, gritted her teeth—and let go.
Her body plummeted through the air. Below, survivors screamed.
"Oh my god, another one's falling!"
"She's dead for sure!"
But in the next moment, Bai Jiang gambled—and won.
She caught hold of a sheet-rope hanging from the fourth floor, her body slamming painfully against the wall. She let out a muffled groan of pain.
The sheet-rope she clung to was taut—and burning too!
No time. She scrambled down. At the second floor, the burning sheet snapped.
Bai Jiang twisted her body midair, adjusted her posture—and crashed heavily to the ground.
Pain shot through her body. Darkness swam before her eyes. For several seconds, she lost consciousness.
"Miss! Are you alright? Miss?!"
She felt someone holding her.
"Wake up! You made it! You didn't die!" A woman's voice said shakily. "You're alive!"
"Cough… cough…" Bai Jiang coughed up blood.
"You're spitting blood! Oh my god!" the woman cried.
"I'm fine. Help me sit up, thank you," Bai Jiang said weakly, her gaze fixed on the burning hotel.
"Oh, okay!"
The hotel was now entirely consumed in flames. Fire and thick smoke poured from its windows. People still clinging to the walls fell one after another. Bai Jiang looked up and saw someone sitting in a ninth-floor window, crying. After a moment, the person jumped.
Blood splattered on the ground.
Bai Jiang looked up at the gray, ominous sky. Everything about this place felt wrong.
"Are you really okay? You're coughing blood…" the woman beside her asked nervously.
Though complete strangers, they felt connected by shared danger.
"I'm fine. Do you know how we ended up here?" Bai Jiang asked, voice low.
The woman shook her head. "I don't know! I just woke up in a room. Luckily, mine was on the first floor, so I smashed the window and escaped." Suddenly, her expression changed. "But that's not right! I remember… I was in a car accident. I died! It was a huge truck…"
She looked at Bai Jiang, horrified.
Bai Jiang, in contrast, felt relieved. So she wasn't unique.
Smiling faintly, she said gently, "Don't be afraid. I'm dead too. We're the same."
The woman's eyes widened. "You… you're dead too?"
"Yeah. Cancer. Dead as dead can be." Bai Jiang wiped the blood from her lips. She was used to it. When she was sick, coughing blood had become normal.
All around, there were dozens of people, sitting or standing, talking in confusion. Many of them seemed to realize they were dead.
But then what was this burning hotel? Some kind of new cremation method?
"I'm Lin Wei. Like 'Rose' but just 'Wei'," the woman said awkwardly.
"Bai Jiang. Like the ginger used in cooking."
Lin Wei laughed. "That's a funny name. Do you like eating ginger?"
"I'm allergic to it."
"…Oh." Lin Wei changed the subject. "I'll go ask if anyone knows what's going on."