It was like being entangled bit by bit by a huge monster's cold spider silk.
Gu Hezhi was trapped on an invisible web, helplessly experiencing the piercing coldness of the wetness, the caressing and licking of something. As time passed, even the panic and despair faded a little. Gu Hezhi knew that his brain was being paralyzed.
The body began to gradually become limp, and the trembling and intense touch spread from the bottom of the body to the innermost part of the body.
The corpse's hand seemed to be able to reach into the abdominal cavity, and then use the dead fingers to grab and play with Gu Hezhi's internal organs.
Gu Hezhi gave up resistance.
Like a drowning man, he could feel his soul falling, falling, falling into the dark abyss...
"Bang--"
Until a muffled sound suddenly came from outside the window.
Then, panicked screams suddenly exploded from downstairs.
"Oh my God, help me!"
"Someone jumped from the building!"
"Call 120! Quick! Someone's dead—"
…
Human instinct is always most sensitive to such warnings.
Gu Hezhi suddenly opened his eyes and woke up in an instant.
He gasped and jumped up from the bed, but then he fell to the ground due to exhaustion.
Prostrate on the ground, Gu Hezhi covered his mouth, gasping for air. The aftermath of fear still lingered deep within his body, but he forced himself to ignore it. He needed to regain his strength immediately, to extricate himself from this all-too-real nightmare.
His heart was beating fast and his whole body was wet from his own cold sweat.
When his body gradually warmed up, Gu Hezhi checked himself in horror.
Only then did he realize that his whole body was cold and his hands were almost numb from the cold.
But fortunately, there weren't many strange things inside his body. At least, there weren't any of the body parts he'd felt in his nightmares, frozen solid and then gradually softening under his body temperature.
Very good.
It was a dream.
Gu Hezhi began to try hard to convince himself.
It will only be a dream...
"That person will never come back."
"So don't worry anymore... Relax... You must relax..."
When he realized it, Gu Hezhi found that he was biting his nails nervously and mumbling to himself.
Fortunately, the continuous screams coming from outside the window finally brought Gu Hezhi back to his senses.
I don't know if it's a design problem with modern buildings or if they really have no sound insulation. Although he is on the 14th floor of the building, the sounds from the first floor are so clear that they seem to be right next to his window.
"Oh, in this state, there's no way to save him..."
"What a pity…"
…
Oh, yes, someone jumped from the building.
For some reason, after hearing the exclamation, Gu Hezhi's mind instantly emerged the shadow he saw at the end of the corridor before he walked into the house, and the pair of shoes that belonged to Dong Ruiming and were casually scattered under the windowsill.
He shuddered suddenly.
Before he could think about it, the young man had already staggered to his feet and rushed out of the room in a panic, holding on to the wall.
As soon as he opened the door, Gu Hezhi saw Dong Ruiming.
The man who had been hanging out with someone in the room not long ago and had not responded to Gu Hezhi's knock on the door, was now dressed neatly and sitting upright on the sofa in a slightly stiff posture.
And the direction he was facing was exactly Gu Hezhi's room.
"Old Dong..."
Gu Hezhi called out the other person's name in surprise, and then he suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Great, you, you're okay..."
He murmured something involuntarily.
Dong Ruiming's eyes were dark, but he was still staring at him straight.
After Gu Hezhi spoke for two or three seconds, Dong Ruiming slowly said, "Yes."
The voice was very low and hoarse, and it sounded strange.
Gu Hezhi frowned slightly, vaguely sensing something was wrong.
"Old Dong, what's wrong with you?" He stared at Dong Ruiming's face and muttered.
It was really strange. They had only not seen each other for a few days, but why did he feel that Dong Ruiming's face looked so unfamiliar? His hair was very messy and his cheeks looked very sunken.
Even at this moment, Dong Ruiming's face was covered with a very thick layer of white powder, and the sudden blush on his cheeks made the boy, who was originally considered a "handsome guy with an atmosphere", look even more weird.
"Are you really okay?"
Gu Hezhi didn't know why his heart suddenly felt so heavy.
Dong Ruiming's door was opened a crack, and Gu Hezhi took a look subconsciously. Perhaps because the curtains were drawn, it was pitch black inside and there was no sign of anyone moving around inside.
"Has Xiaoqi returned?"
Gu Hezhi calmed himself down and tried to make his tone and spirit sound a little more normal.
"By the way, I've always wanted to apologize to you. What happened at dinner that day..."
"Xiao Qi has left."
Dong Ruiming suddenly interrupted Gu Hezhi's somewhat incoherent apology and said quietly.
After a moment of shock, Gu Hezhi murmured, "Well, that's good."
Before he could finish the rest of his words, Gu Hezhi heard Dong Ruiming continue, "I'm leaving too."
"ah?"
Gu Hezhi glanced at Dong Ruiming in confusion.
Dong Ruiming's pupils were cloudy, and there seemed to be a thin layer of white film covering the surface of his pupils.
Perhaps it was because of this that the man looked indescribably weird at the moment.
Gu Hezhi's whole body tensed up slightly when he was being stared at, and then he heard a whisper as thin as a mosquito coming out of Dong Ruiming's mouth.
"I'm sorry, Gu Hezhi, I'm the one who let you down."
The man made the strangest apology Gu Hezhi had ever heard in his life.
"What are you sorry for?"
Gu Hezhi asked blankly.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry..."
Like a tape recorder, countless "I'm sorry" came out of Dong Ruiming's throat.
Gu Hezhi was confused by what he heard, but his heart sank involuntarily.
He was chilled all over.
Was it an illusion? He always felt that Dong Ruiming's hollow and deep eyes were not fixed on him at this moment... but behind him.
What's behind him now?
This thought suddenly flashed through Gu Hezhi's mind, and he was startled and his hair stood on end.
It was at this moment that Dong Ruiming suddenly stood up, then he walked directly past Gu Hezhi and staggered towards the gate.
"Crack—"
When opening and closing old security doors, the door hinges will make a long, thin metallic friction sound.
"Dong Ruiming? What's wrong with you? Damn, wait..."
Gu Hezhi just felt that Dong Ruiming's current behavior was weird in every way. After he came to his senses, he immediately chased after him.
However, in just a few seconds, when Gu Hezhi pushed open the door, he found that there was only dark silence in the long and narrow corridor outside the door.
Dong Ruiming seemed to have disappeared, with no trace at all.
*
"fuck your mother--"
"Bang--"
"What are you doing here, you little jerk, showing off? You've even played a trick on your grandfather!"
"Show him some color!"
"Yes, beat him!"
…
Deep in the old city of City A, which has become increasingly desolate and dilapidated due to the cancellation of the demolition plan, the alleys are filled with men's inarticulate curses and the dull sounds of fists and feet.
The originally loud insults were soon replaced by the men's cowardly and painful pleas for mercy. After the fat, big-eared and ferocious men left one by one, it was a long time before Qi Wei limped out from the shadows with a bloody head and staggering steps.
"Son of a bitch*(*...%——"
A mouthful of phlegm mixed with blood spurted out of his throat along with a series of vicious curses. Qi Wei gasped for breath and staggered towards the outside of the old city.
His vision was a little blurry and his face was badly swollen.
Gradually, the cursing stopped. Qi Wei stopped in front of a mahjong hall for a moment, and the anger on his face gradually turned into anxiety and panic.
He actually didn't quite understand why things had turned out like this.
She clearly brought money with her, but after losing money in the mahjong parlor, the cash she handed to her fellow gamblers turned into brightly colored, obviously fake pieces of paper under the men's smoke-yellow fingertips.
"Fuck you, you're not even that unlucky! You're using ghost money to play cards. Do you think we're all dead? Ah, are you looking for death?!"
…
The man who was smiling a moment ago suddenly changed his expression and overturned the table on the spot.
Qi Wei originally thought that the guy was cheating on him.
As a result, after Qi Wei angrily took out the remaining cash from his wallet, he was shocked to find that the "Chairman Mao" that he had counted over and over again while hiding in the room not long ago was now clearly a stack of crudely printed "Tian Di Bank" money.
Qi Weiren was dumbfounded.
Thinking about the wallet he had picked up when he returned home dizzy after a night of gambling, even Qi Wei himself became unsure...
Are the coins I saw this morning really real RMB?
But, but the wallet I found was clearly Dong Ruiming's wallet? Why did this idiot put so much paper money in my wallet?
It's not that he didn't feel it was weird, but at the same time he felt it was weird, Qi Wei had already been dragged to the back alley and beaten up.
The worst thing is that because of this incident, the debts he originally owed have increased significantly - and someone has given him an ultimatum. If he doesn't pay back the money, he may really be sent to northern Myanmar to be a "piglet" to pay back the debt.
Thinking of this, even Qi Wei, who was fearless, finally realized that his life was facing the most real crisis.
In desperation, Qi Wei pulled out his cell phone and tremblingly called his cousin Dong Ruiming. After all, this matter was somehow related to him. Qi Wei thought, whether it was coercion, bribery, or deception, the most urgent thing was to get some money from the people around him...
However, after the call was connected, there was a cold and stiff electronic voice on the other end.
The person on the other end said that the number Qi Wei dialed had been cancelled.
"grass--"
Qi Wei was so angry that he almost laughed.
A few days ago, he was using this number to call Dong Ruiming so that he could deal with Xiaoqi. Today, there was a system error saying that the number was cancelled...
Is this being stupid?
Cursing, Qi Wei walked towards the rental house with his face swollen like a pig's head, one foot deep and one foot shallow.
After returning home, Qi Wei found that the entire room 1401 was silent, as quiet as a cemetery.
"Where are the people?"
Qi Wei couldn't help but frown. After making sure that all the rooms were empty, he couldn't help but mutter something.
Then, his eyes rolled around and some bad thoughts popped up uncontrollably.
As the sub-landlord, when he rented the house from the landlady, he secretly gave everyone an extra set of keys.
Because the people who came to rent the house were all acquaintances, none of them asked to change the locks.
Qi Wei originally wanted to make a copy of the key just to be prepared for any eventuality, but now he felt that he was really foresighted - unlike him, Qi Wei, the other people in the house lived much better off than him, so it was not excessive for him to get some money from them for emergency use.
With this in mind, Qi Wei tiptoed out the key and began to "check" room by room.
However, the mission started off badly. Qi Wei found nothing in the first two rooms he checked, namely those of Qiao Liang and Dong Ruiming.
Whether it is Qiao Liang or Dong Ruiming, they usually look bright and shiny, but when Qi Wei went in, he found that these two people were poor. Although they looked bright and shiny, a closer look revealed that there was not a single valuable thing in their room.
Qi Wei's face instantly became long.
Holding on to the last glimmer of hope, Qi Wei slowly pushed open the door of Gu Hezhi's room.
"Hiss—shit, it's so cold."
The moment he entered, Qi Wei couldn't help but shiver.
Gu Hezhi's room was clearly not in the shade, but it felt like an ice cellar, dark and cold, and no one knew why.
While thinking, Qi Wei endured the indescribable coldness in the air and walked around the room several times.
At first glance, Gu Hezhi had very few things, but not long after, Qi Wei dragged out a box with a combination lock from under Gu Hezhi's bed like he knew his way around it.
After poking it with a wire, the combination lock opened. When he opened it, he saw a bunch of luxury goods inside that were not even unpacked. Qi Wei was instantly overjoyed.
"Ha, I knew it."
Qi Wei stared at the things in the box, and the muscles on his face twitched as if in spasm.
Gu Hezhi would never have thought that Qi Wei had actually been keeping an eye on him when he just moved in.
Every few days, Gu Hezhi would receive a courier.
The sizes of the express deliveries vary, but the only constant is that every time I receive something, I have to suppress my irritation and disgust on my face.
Later, Qi Wei picked up several things in the trash can - just like the things piled up in the box at this moment, what he picked up were all luxury goods with plastic wrap that had never been opened.
Watches, jewelry, jewellery...
Qi Wei didn't have much hope at first, but when he sent it to a second-hand store, he found out that all the things were real.
Qi Wei almost laughed his mouth off.
Sadly, not long afterward, he was inexplicably involved in a car accident. If he hadn't been lucky enough to be rescued, he would have nearly died on the spot. Even then, Qi Wei needed several stitches on his head and face. When he returned to 1401, Gu Hezhi seemed to have realized something and looked at him strangely. After receiving those "gifts," he hadn't thrown them into the trash can again.
Qi Wei was heartbroken.
However, since then, Qi Wei has kept this matter in mind.
"You don't have any use for it anyway... why not lend it to me? Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda..."
Qi Wei greedily reached out to the things in the box, muttering to himself.
He knew that these things were actually given by Gu Hezhi's suitor, and that Gu Hezhi must have hated that person.
When he bought it second-hand before, he had taken out the love letter that person had written to Gu Hezhi from the packaging.
At that time, he was holding the letter paper and looking at the dark red handwriting on it, he almost laughed out loud - it was already this day and age, and there were still people who used such an old-fashioned way of writing love letters to pursue others.
The funniest thing is the words in the love letter, which are also incoherent.
[I like you, Azhi. I knew I liked you the first time I saw you.]
[You won't believe this, but I was born into this world for you. Everything I have is for Azhi.]
[Azhi is my god, my master, my world.]
[So even if I hate you, I'm happy as long as Azhi still exists.]
I saw you feeding a stray dog again today. I was so envious of it, really envious. Why am I not a dog, but a human? If I were just a clingy dog, someone as soft-hearted and gentle as Ah Zhi would probably be able to tolerate me, right?
I'm sorry, Ah Zhi, I didn't mean to kill it. I was just too envious, so I accidentally peeled off its skin. If I could pretend to be a puppy, Ah Zhi would look at me more.
[I don't want to go crazy, Azhi. I just can't control my body. I love Azhi so much, so much, so much, so much. I love him so much that I want to eat him up. But I'm afraid you won't be happy.]
[Or I'll just let Ah Zhi eat me up. ]
"If I could stay in Ah Zhi's body, even for a short while, it would be a blessing from heaven, right? But when I think about how I would be unconscious when you swallowed me, I can't help but envy myself for being a piece of meat."
"Azhi, the legendary two-headed dragon body of the Xishan Dragon God is the result of the Dragon God and his Dragon Consort gradually transforming from two separate entities into a single divine body over countless ages. Everyone thought it was terrifying when I visited, but I was incredibly envious. I wish I could be like them, forever stitched together with you. Haha, you must be disgusted by this, but it's okay, I won't do it. After all, how could a lowly creature like me deserve to be fused with your flesh and blood?"
…
It was said to be a love letter, but in Qi Wei's opinion, this person was a complete psychopath.
I don't know if it's because he knew that Gu Hezhi wouldn't even open the package, so every letter he wrote was particularly crazy, filled with all kinds of jaw-dropping fantasies and nonsense.
Even when I read those letters with a sense of humour, I would occasionally feel disgusted by certain sentences.
Of course, even if the pervert was disgusting, Qi Wei wouldn't begrudge the expensive gifts he gave Gu Hezhi. Especially those watches. If he could sell them successfully, not only would he not have to worry about paying them back, he would also have a large sum left over...
However, just as Qi Wei was about to go out with a big bag in his arms, he heard the clear sound of a door opening and footsteps outside.
Damn, just at this moment, someone came back.
"Bang, bang, bang—"
Then there was a knock on the door.
"Dong Ruiming?"
…
Hearing the familiar voice outside the door, Qi Wei's face changed.
Why did the knock happen to be like this? It just happened to be Gu Hezhi himself who came back?
Qi Wei was so anxious that he broke out in a sweat. He paced back and forth in the room twice in a panic. Finally, in a panic, he squeezed his body under the narrow and low bed in the rental house at the moment before the door opened.
Then, he watched the door open and Gu Hezhi walked into the room with unsteady steps.
Obviously, Gu Hezhi didn't realize that there was someone lying under his bed.
The skinny young man seemed to be weightless when he lay on the bed. Qi Wei breathed a sigh of relief and lay under the bed with bated breath, waiting quietly for Gu Hezhi to fall asleep so that he could find a chance to slip away.
However, things did not go as planned. After a few seconds of silence on the bed, Qi Wei felt that Gu Hezhi was tossing and turning constantly.
The bed kept creaking, and just when Qi Wei was getting agitated, he heard Gu Hezhi let out a suppressed and painful whimper.
grass...
Qi Wei cursed in his heart. He didn't expect to encounter a man doing this kind of thing in bed.
Gu Hezhi usually appears a little nervous in front of others, and looks like he is living in a dream. It is only because of that face that ordinary people would think he is mentally ill when seeing him like that.
However, at this moment, Gu Hezhi was lying on the bed, and the moans that kept coming out of his mouth sounded indescribable, as if thick honey was flowing out from even the cracks in his bones. It was sweet and astringent.
With the bed shaking from time to time, even Qi Wei felt a little distracted at the moment.
The man changed his position cautiously under the narrow bed uncomfortably, and his eyes inadvertently glanced at the wardrobe in the corner of the room that could not be used properly due to hinge problems.
Qi Wei froze.
etc...
When did the wardrobe door open a crack?
Qi Wei remembered clearly that when he was looking for a hiding place, he rushed to the closet the next time, but when the door didn't open, he remembered that there was something wrong with it and withdrew his hand. He was 100% sure that the closet door was closed tightly at that time.
But now, the dark red door opened little by little in front of him.
Then, Qi Wei saw a pair of pale hands.
Those hands were completely bloodless,the kind of hands you would find on a corpse that had been lying in a funeral home for several days.
The hands reached out from the depths of the closet.
…
Qi Wei covered his mouth tightly with such force that he almost suffocated himself to death under the bed.
That thing is not a human.
The moment he saw the shadow, Qi Wei realized this clearly. After all, a living person would not have joints twisted in such strange directions, nor could he crawl slowly in such a strange way.
Dark red blood continued to flow from his body, forming a dirty puddle of blood on the ground.
A chill that seemed to freeze one's bones continuously spread from it. And at that moment, Qi Wei suddenly figured out why only Gu Hezhi's room was so cold.
turn out to be...
So it had been in the closet all along?