Chapter 14 The First Chain

Zhao Xi's phone slid out of his wound and fell to the ground through the torrential rain.

At the height of five stories, the phone shattered into pieces, completely destroyed by the impact.

The fragments of life Zhao Xi captured with his phone, the words he spoke to himself in loneliness, the life he longed for and envied, the dark brutality buried in his heart—all dissipated in the heavy rain.

Soaked through, Gao Ming only began to climb upwards after hearing the sound of the phone hitting the ground.

"Hold on tight! You reckless man! You really dared to jump!"

"Be careful! You still have to get past the window on the fifth floor!"

Teacher Yao and the Disfigured Investigator, their upper bodies wet from the rain, exerted all their strength to pull Gao Ming up.

With his fingers tightly grasping the rope, Gao Ming had done everything he could do; this could also be considered the end of Zhao Xi's own phone, by his own hands.

Standing on the fifth-floor balcony once again, Zhao Xi looked at Gao Ming with a somewhat dazed gaze, different from before, cold numbness replaced by confusion and pain.

"Friends," "family," "neighbors" had put him in a difficult situation, made him despair, and ultimately led him to the edge of the building.

No one cared about him, even after his death people complained, wondering why he couldn't have died further away, how unlucky, how the property values in the complex would drop.

In the final stage of his life, he had met many people, always inadvertently pushed towards the window, only Gao Ming had not done so.

The video playing on the phone were the things Zhao Xi wanted to do, the malice hidden by this honest man. But now that malice had been "personally" destroyed by him.

A dense black shadow seeped out of him, seemingly the connection between the unknown world and Zhao Xi, or perhaps some kind of special energy.

Lifting his head, Zhao Xi stood alone in the room. 2507 had always been his room; on that rainy night, he had also stood just like this for a long time.

Dragged by the rope, Gao Ming fixed his gaze on Zhao Xi inside the room and then made a decision.

Standing on the windowsill of 2507, Gao Ming adjusted his body. He let go of the rope and jumped back into room 2507.

Seeing this scene, Teacher Yao and the Disfigured Investigator were truly dumbfounded, and even Teacher Yao, who hadn't sworn in over thirty years, let slip a curse.

"Why has he gone back in there?!"

"I've never seen anyone dare to jump back and forth across a fifth-floor windowsill," complained the Disfigured Investigator, truly exhausted, yet not daring to let go of the rope, fearing Gao Ming might jump out again!

Gao Ming also heard the voices of Teacher Yao and the Disfigured Investigator, but he pretended not to hear them and walked step by step towards Zhao Xi.

"You have been yielding all your life, afraid to cause trouble for your family. So even when life punches you again and again, you just dust yourself off and keep soldiering on," said Gao Ming as he stopped in front of Zhao Xi. "I will let everyone know what you have endured. I will be your true family."

Not going for a handshake, Gao Ming opened his arms and gently hugged Zhao Xi: "You've worked very hard."

During our most vulnerable times, what we need is not just comforting words, but a hug from a family member.

Bones crossed, neck twisted and pulled backward, Zhao Xi seemed quite unaccustomed to this.

As Zhao Xi stepped back, the black shadows rising from his body seemed to have found their target, beginning to surge toward Gao Ming.

Unable to penetrate Gao Ming's body, they gathered just under the surface of his skin, resembling animated black veins or tiny, living chains.

Gao Ming reached out to touch them, feeling oppressed, in pain, and in despair. Those shadows were a fusion of Zhao Xi's memories.

With searing pain in his arm and breathing becoming difficult, Gao Ming tried to grasp those chains. He had a special hunch inside him, as if by holding onto the chains, he could possess the same ability as Zhao Xi, but Zhao Xi might disappear.

Zhao Xi silently watched Gao Ming, and as the black shadows left him, the wounds on his body and the look in his eyes slowly returned to normal. What's worse, his body also became increasingly ethereal. It seemed that once Zhao Xi completely faded away, the black chain on Gao Ming's body would fully form.

"Brother Zhao, everything I just said is true. I can even take you to meet the other family members later," the pain that tore at Gao Ming's spirit made his expression distort as he desperately held down his trembling arms.

Zhao Xi in Room 2507 was making his final choice. He had been standing still for a long time before slowly turning his neck. Zhao Xi looked towards the full-length mirror in the living room, the world upside down in its reflection, yet it did not show his own body.

Hands roughened with calluses and wounds waved gently, but still, there was no sign of Zhao Xi in the mirror.

As if understanding something, the mutilated corpse—Zhao Xi—turned around in silence. He did not continue with the plan to jump off the building with Gao Ming; instead, he walked toward the stairwell.

All neighbors in the mobile WeChat group chat were fictitious; he had been alone in the entire apartment building all along.

Zhao Xi walked down the stairs as the shadows that enveloped the apartment building began to dissipate behind him. The air temperature slowly rose wherever he passed.

"Brother Zhao! I didn't lie to you!"

Seeing that Zhao Xi was about to leave, Gao Ming immediately followed him out. Upon hearing his voice, the Investigator and Teacher Yao also hurried out.

"Zhao Xi left?" Teacher Yao was only slightly surprised, while the Disfigured Investigator's eyes were filled with disbelief.

"How did you do it? Hurry up! I need to record this! We've resolved the Abnormal Event before dawn even broke! This is a miracle!" The Investigator, overwhelmed with excitement, took hold of Gao Ming's hands.

"Adults need understanding and comfort as well. I just wanted to become family to him, and then he left," Gao Ming saw the Investigator beginning to frantically take notes and quickly intervened, "Don't just record anything! I managed to grasp his psyche through various analyses and the fact that Zhao Xi and I were neighbors for many years. This method can't be replicated."

"That's amazing! I felt there was something special about you the moment I saw you!" The Investigator still wouldn't let go.

"When you first saw me, you completely ignored me."

"That's not important!" The Investigator said earnestly, "If you're interested, you could join our investigation bureau. I'll be your referee!"

"If I can't find a job, maybe I'll consider it," Gao Ming pointed to Zhao Xi's room, "There might still be some clues in there, you can go and check."

After sidetracking the Investigator, Gao Ming didn't linger but ran downstairs following Zhao Xi. There were rewards after clearing the game.

When he reached the ground floor, Zhao Xi had already gone, the shadows had retreated, and a black-and-white funeral portrait lay at the entrance of the stairwell.

Gao Ming was about to pick it up when Teacher Yao beside him suddenly cried out in alarm.

"What's the matter?"

Under Gao Ming's gaze, Teacher Yao raised his hands, his body beginning to fade away with the shadows, "I... seem unable to leave this place now."

"Teacher Yao!"

As the temperature rose, the lights in the stairwell flickered once, and Teacher Yao's body merged into the shadows.

When the lights were fully on, Teacher Yao had vanished, leaving behind only the black-and-white funeral portrait where he had stood.

Gao Ming picked up the two portraits. Teacher Yao's black-and-white picture was ordinary, showing a somewhat helpless smile on his face; on the back were the scrawled words of a child.

"Photo of Family Member (Person on Death's Door): I heard the voice within my heart. Rather than lying on the bed waiting for death, losing freedom and dignity, I wanted to re-experience the feeling of being alive."

In reality, Teacher Yao was terminally ill and bed-ridden. In the shadow-engulfed world, it seemed he had found the feeling of being alive again.

"Was this truly Teacher Yao's own choice?"

Gao Ming took out the second portrait. In the photo, the grotesquely twisted Zhao Xi was falling from the balcony, while Gao Ming stood at the window, grasping onto him firmly.

In the photo, apart from Gao Ming who was in color, the arms that reached for Zhao Xi were entwined with black veins like chains, binding together their arms, one human, one apparition.

"Photo of Family Member: The bonds between family are promises, responsibilities, but also rights and control. I willingly become a part of you, hoping you can let more people know my pain."