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| Descend from the Stars (STARS) |
Clear, fishy breathing sounds pressed against their ears. Xu Rongchuan even instinctively turned his head, but there was nothing around them except empty space.
The closer they got to Room 5409, the heavier the breathing became. Xu Rongchuan drew his dagger and asked, "Did the Demon emerge from within him? Is he still alive then?"
Li Xing didn't answer. When Xu Rongchuan turned to look, he saw the bloodstained carpet seemingly come alive, tightly wrapping around Li Xing and covering her mouth and nose with its edges. Her face was already turning blue and her eyes bulging—she was on the verge of suffocating to death!
A deep blue serpent tail tugged at the carpet, but it didn't budge. Instead, it coiled even tighter. Xu Rongchuan rushed over and sliced through the weird fabric with his sharp, specially-made dagger. The carpet flinched slightly, loosening its grip just enough for Li Xing to gasp for air—but soon, the carpet healed itself, and as if greatly angered, wrapped directly around Li Xing's neck.
Li Xing gurgled for help, her face rapidly turning crimson.
"Lighter!" Xu Rongchuan shouted.
Xu Dan tossed a lighter from his bag. Without kindling, the damp, aged carpet was hard to ignite. Xu Rongchuan immediately stripped off his shirt, lit the dry T-shirt, and threw it onto the ground.
The carpet began writhing wildly. If it could make a sound, it might have been screaming in terror.
Fire—scorching, Darkness-dispelling fire—seemed to be its ultimate fear. Within seconds, it shrank into a corner of the hallway like a discarded rag while fearfully "staring" at the burning T-shirt.
Li Xing lay motionless on the ground. Xu Rongchuan reached out to check on her and then heaved a sigh of relief.
She was still alive.
Xu Rongchuan hoisted Li Xing onto his back and said, "I'll take her back to the lobby. It's the place connected to reality. If 'it' fully awakens, staying there might give her a chance to survive."
Xu Dan's serpent tail coiled around Li Xing as he took off his own jacket and draped it over Xu Rongchuan. "I'll go. Brother, wait for me—two minutes."
Xu Rongchuan didn't argue and nodded. Someone had to stay on the top floor; who knew what else might happen here?
As Xu Dan carried Li Xing into the elevator, he added uneasily, "Wait for me. Be careful."
"Got it," Xu Rongchuan replied dismissively before turning to examine the door to Room 5409.
Xu Dan: You don't look like you're going to wait at all!!
He felt aggrieved, but the elevator doors closed just then. The moment they shut, he clearly saw Xu Rongchuan walk up to Room 5409's door and attempt to sever the iron chains with his dagger.
With a clang, the chains bore only a shallow mark. Xu Rongchuan then pulled out a gun and fired at the lock. Sparks flew, but the lock remained intact.
How to get in?
Xu Rongchuan surveyed the surroundings. Though he didn't know what had happened here, it was undoubtedly the scene of an extremely gruesome and horrifying murder. Maybe some weapons had been left behind...
After searching, he found nothing.
His gaze fell on the carpet cowering in the corner, and an idea struck him.
He picked up the still-burning T-shirt and approached the carpet. The carpet jerked up and scrambled backward, but Xu Rongchuan seized a corner and dragged it toward the flames.
The carpet immediately went limp and kept trembling violently as if shivering in fear.
"Good boy," Xu Rongchuan smiled warmly, "open the door, or else..." With a flick of his wrist, flames licked at the edge of the carpet.
The carpet writhed swiftly, crawling to the door where it coiled around sections of the iron chains on either side and began pulling with all its might. Xu Rongchuan stood by supervising, and whenever it slackened, he'd dangle the burning T-shirt closer, spurring it to leap up and tug harder in this bizarre tug-of-war.
When Xu Dan returned after settling Li Xing elsewhere, this was the scene that greeted him:
Xu Rongchuan leaning against door 5409 and casually waving the flaming T-shirt while cheering on the carpet. The entire carpet had now stood upright and straining against the chains with such force that metallic screeches filled the air as it desperately tried to snap them.
Xu Dan: "..."
So this was an option too. His brother was truly impressive—another lesson learned!
Just as he moved to assist, several sharp cracks echoed through the hallway. The chains actually gave way under the carpet's assault. Exhausted from the effort, the carpet collapsed limply onto the floor, its surface undulating faintly as if panting before becoming completely still.
Xu Rongchuan extinguished the T-shirt, cleared the remaining chain fragments, and drew his gun.
"Stay behind me," he ordered.
Xu Dan refused: "I'll go first. Brother's body is too fragile."
The first time anyone had ever called him fragile, Xu Rongchuan paused. "...Enough nonsense. Getting hurt would hurt you just the same. Pangu Working Regulations Article One: field operatives obey their team leader."
Even if said regulations had been freshly minted moments ago.
Before Xu Dan could protest further, he pushed open the door to room 5409 and stepped inside.
......
......
Blood...
A trickling river of blood...
Xu Dan had vanished. The moment they crossed the threshold, the room contained only Xu Rongchuan.
His shoes grew damp in the spreading crimson. This place felt profoundly wrong—nothing like the hotel. The peeling "No Smoking" sign on stained walls triggered inexplicable déjà vu. His heartbeat accelerated uncontrollably as his feet carried him toward the blood's source against his will.
Soon he stood before the innermost hospital room's doorway.
A room within a room? Was 5409 some sort of spatial or temporal waystation? Had Xu Dan been forcibly scattered across different timelines?
His thoughts fragmented and focus slipping like sand through fingers. Only the pounding in his chest remained, and growing ever more violent until even his gun hand trembled.
This place felt intimately familiar—he knew with bone-deep certainty it held profound personal significance.
Instinct screamed that something unspeakable lurked beyond that door. Don't open it. Don't look. Don't...
He pushed the hospital door open.
The door yielded effortlessly, barely ajar as if awaiting him. Xu Rongchuan heard his own frantic heartbeat, gritted his teeth, and looked up—
One glance.
His body turned to ice. Petrified in the doorway, the famously unflappable operative nearly lost all composure as decades-old wounds tore open afresh, as his most deeply buried trauma laid bare before his own eyes.
Inside the room, Xu Wanghai leaned weakly against the hospital bed, with IV drip in arm. The heart monitor displayed a flatline, its insistent beeps piercing the air. And in his left chest gaped a yawning black hole, revealing stark white ribs and the horrifying emptiness where a heart should have been.
Blood was gushing from the heart that had lost its core, soaking his sheets and pooling into a stream that trickled softly all the way to Xu Rongchuan’s feet.
Xu Wanghai was just as frail and gaunt as he remembered. He smiled gently at his brother standing by the door, but his words were like razor blades: "Brother, why didn’t you save me?"
"Why were you not home on the very day I fell ill?"
"Why wouldn’t you answer my calls?"
"Why didn’t you even see me one last time?"
"I’ve seen Mom and Dad. They all blame you for not taking care of me."
"All these years, you haven’t even dared to dream of me. What are you so afraid of?"
It’s a trap…
It’s not real…
Xu Rongchuan involuntarily took half a step back as he taste blood in his mouth but felt no pain. It was as if a giant hand had seized his throat, choking him under Xu Wanghai’s accusations, cutting him off from air, and suffocating him.
The emotions that had never erupted over all these years now spiraled completely out of control. Xu Rongchuan could clearly feel himself becoming something other than himself—a more terrifying force was trying to find his cracks, to fully "descend" upon him. Gritting his teeth, he struggled to raise his gun and aim it at Xu Wanghai on the bed.
Xu Wanghai smiled. "Do you want to kill me again?"
Xu Rongchuan’s palms were slick with sweat and his fingers too weak to pull the trigger. He sucked in a sharp breath, closed his eyes, and turned the gun around—
Bang!
The bullet tore through his left arm, leaving behind a charred, bloody hole.
Agony surged through him, scattering the violent emotions. The force failed to fully take hold of him and retreated into hiding. Xu Rongchuan finally regained a shred of rationality. When he opened his eyes again, Xu Wanghai was gone from the bed, and the world around him began to crumble.
Then he heard a voice: "Brother!"
It belonged to Xu Dan.
…I really need to break him of this habit of calling people randomly. Xu Rongchuan thought weakly. His PTSD might just make him shoot Xu Dan again.
"Brother, what’s wrong?" Xu Dan had already run up to him and grab his injured hand. "Does it hurt?"
Xu Rongchuan forced a smile uglier than a grimace and was about to crack a joke to lighten the mood, when he saw Xu Dan staring blankly at the gunshot wound. Soon, liquid pooled in those pale amber eyes, then dripped down—plop, plop—in tears.
The tears fell onto the back of his hand, wet and warm.
Xu Rongchuan’s words caught in his throat. He watched the crying little monster before him and, for some reason, slowly felt his emotions settle.
He knew Xu Dan wasn’t using any abilities.
"Blow on it, and it won’t hurt," Xu Dan sobbed while blowing on the wound. "No pain, no pain."
Xu Rongchuan reached out with his other arm and pulled the weeping little monster into an embrace. He sighed before patting his back, and said, "Don’t cry. I’m not in pain. This injury is nothing. Now’s not the time for tears."
In his voice was a gentleness he himself hadn’t noticed.
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