Chapter 31

Su Mian pulled out a piece of paper and wiped another potted plant; after the dust was wiped away, the clean part was revealed, and the direction was exactly the same as the bloodstains.

Chen Mo: "Does that mean he was actually already dead before jumping off the building?"

Su Mian: "I can't be sure, but he must have been unconscious or unable to move before jumping, and then he was dragged up."

The four of them stayed on the top floor for a while longer, but finding no other clues, they left.

After returning to the psychiatry floor, Su Mian felt miserable; she might have been too cold to feel it on the top floor, but once she got into the elevator, she realized she was shivering, and now her nose wouldn't stop running.

She had caught a cold again.

Su Mian sighed, wondering when to go to the first floor to get some medicine, but thinking that taking cold medicine seemed useless for her now, she simply sat down.

Since she was a child, she had had countless colds and fevers, and she had switched through countless brands of cold medicine until she had built up an immunity to all of them.

Traditional Chinese medicine didn't work well either, so later she could only go to the hospital for IV drips.

It was just that she was in a game now, and Su Mian still didn't feel secure enough to be hospitalized here.

As soon as she lowered her head, she saw the inquiry files; Su Mian remembered that she hadn't finished today's work and struggled to get up again.

She remembered that Wen Cisheng's ward was on the 18th floor, and that floor was somewhat daunting.

When she and Su Tang first arrived, Wen Cisheng had come from that floor, and behind that tall figure was pitch-black darkness.

Su Mian asked herself, did she really have to go?

But while she was hesitating, her finger had already pressed the elevator button; her heartbeat wasn't as fast as she had imagined, and she had even been more resistant on the way to find Zhang Shuo Zhi yesterday.

She couldn't figure out the reason, so she simply emptied her mind.

Su Mian felt too miserable; her nose was blocked, and her throat was dry and itchy. She turned back to tuck her thermos under her arm before entering the elevator.

The elevator was empty, and the four metal walls reflected Su Mian's flushed face, the light diffusing into a soft mist that hit the girl's calm face.

The sound of breathing and the sense of presence were amplified, and this trip seemed incomparably slow.

She didn't know how much time had passed before the elevator slowly stopped at the 18th floor.

It was still the same pitch-black, exactly the same as that day, but it was daytime now; how could it be this dark?

Su Mian could only vaguely see a corridor and the distant emergency exit glowing with green light.

Su Mian sneezed, the echo circling the corridor several times.

She opened her eyes and peered around, but didn't step out directly.

But strangely, the elevator door didn't close; it just stayed there quietly, as if waiting.

Waiting for what?

For a poor prey to step into a tiger's den? Or for a foolish player to walk right into a trap?

Su Mian admitted that she was a bit timid; before the elevator door opened, she hadn't expected that the 18th floor would be devoid of light even during the day.

But now the instance didn't give her the right to regret; if she didn't step out, perhaps the elevator would stay here forever.

After agonizing for a while, she decided to step out, and the elevator door closed with a "snap."

Su Mian blinked; was this floor actually warm?

It was as if the heat had been turned on; usually, in this scene and on this floor, shouldn't it be cold enough to make one's teeth chatter?

She shook her head; never mind, she was probably delirious from the fever.

"Wen Cisheng?"

She called out tentatively, really not daring to go inside; the only response was the light from the emergency exit flickering twice.

Su Mian turned around in an instant, frantically pressing the elevator button, but there was no reaction at all.

A fine layer of sweat formed on her head; the elevator happened to pass by the 18th floor but didn't stop.

The light filtering from inside allowed her to see the words on the wall; Su Mian gasped, her whole body trembling uncontrollably.

"The 18th floor: enter only, no exit."

Damn it, why did she have to associate it with so much?

As soon as Su Mian saw this sentence, her brain immediately translated it into "Hell: enter only, no exit," scaring herself.

She rubbed her brow, helpless, and had to walk into the darkness; there were only two light sources in the entire corridor.

The red dot of the surveillance camera and the green light of the emergency exit sign; she couldn't see anything else, so she told herself.

Stay calm, stay calm, just pretend you're playing an escape room...

Suddenly, Su Mian felt a chill on her leg; she froze, not daring to confirm what it was, and she didn't dare to think about it in detail.

She lifted her leg and stepped back slowly, but she soon bumped into a wall, her heart rate suddenly spiking.

A ghost wall again?!

Su Mian groped behind her and found that she was already trapped in a small space, surrounded by walls, and her legs were entangled by an unknown object.

She tried to lift her leg, but the thing seemed particularly angry because of Su Mian's resistance and pulled her down directly.

Su Mian let out a low cry and closed her eyes instinctively, but the pain she imagined didn't come.

The bottom of her pants was sticky, and the entire space seemed to be filled with this mucus-like substance.

Realizing this, Su Mian struggled to move upward, but she couldn't overcome the thing and collapsed into the corner of the wall, drained of strength.

Those sticky substances didn't seem satisfied with this and excitedly slipped in through the girl's toe gaps, inner thighs, and waist dimples.

A cold sensation swept over her whole body; Su Mian held up her neck and shivered, the thing was "biting" her.

But it wasn't a heavy bite; it was like those little fish in a pond—since they had no mouths, this sensation was more like "sucking."

Her consciousness kept blurring, and her whole body was filled with an indescribable feeling, triggering one small electric current after another.

Those sticky substances bit open the buttons of her lab coat, revealing the thin shirt underneath, and then excitedly surged up.

"Ugh..."

Not knowing where it touched, Su Mian curled up in a stress response, her whole body going limp, and an unspeakable sensation washed over her.

She was so ashamed she wanted to escape, but she found that her body had betrayed her will, obediently displaying this inescapable palpitation.

Su Mian's eyes were filled with wet tears; in the pitch-black, blurred vision, she saw a faint red light flickering.

Su Mian pulled her legs in and stood her upper body up; she braced her consciousness and looked up toward the heights.

A gaze...

Such an intense gaze...

And... such a familiar gaze.

It always rudely traced her contours until her skin began to "awaken" and her body began to tremble, like a soft and dense spider web, wrapping around her so she had nowhere to hide.

Only one person would look at her like this; Su Mian's eyes flickered, and she called out tentatively.

"Help me."

"Cisheng..."

As the words fell, the sticky sensation receded like a tide.

The mucus on her ankles was unwilling to accept the facts and bit Su Mian's skin tightly, only to be fiercely pulled away by the mucus on the side, and it slowly crawled away.

The emergency exit sign lit up again, and Su Mian knew she had returned to the elevator entrance.

She wanted to prop herself up, but found that her legs had long since gone soft from fear.