Once they reached the relatively open underground space, the moonlight filtering in through a ventilation shaft restored their visibility slightly.
As if possessed, Su Xiao looked back toward Wang Qiang. She watched him desperately fighting off the swarm of insects, the purplish-blue bruises on his arms multiplying as his movements gradually slowed. Fear wrapped around her heart like tightening vines, and her instinct to survive overrode everything else.
Run! She had to run!
That was the only thought left in her mind.
Su Xiao turned and scrambled up the steps, her footsteps frantic as she practically crawled her way up.
She didn't dare look back again. She didn't dare think about Wang Qiang's plight. Her mind was entirely consumed by the single urge to escape this dark, bug-infested space.
She knew she was being selfish. She knew Wang Qiang had only fallen into danger to protect her. But her terror made it impossible to turn back, and her survival instinct crushed her rising guilt deep down.
Reaching the entrance of the passage, she caught sight of the seemingly dilapidated wooden door. Beneath its wooden disguise, she felt a layer of cold metal.
Acting almost entirely on instinct, she slammed the wooden door shut with all her might, grabbed an abandoned steel pipe lying nearby, and wedged it tightly against the back of the door to bar it shut.
“Xiao Su! Don't close the door!” Wang Qiang screamed, his voice thick with shock and betrayal. But in that brief moment of distraction, several insects seized the chance to crawl onto his neck, their sharp mouthparts piercing his skin.
“I'll give you items! I have life-saving items! Just open the door and save me, and I'll give them all to you!” His voice was filled with a desperate will to live, expressing absolute terror and pleading. “I don't want to die! I still have my wife and daughter waiting for me! Xiao Su, Su Xiao! I'm begging you, open the door!”
On the other side of the wooden door, Wang Qiang's voice warped from pleading into curses. Mixed with the buzzing of the insect swarm, his cries filtered through the door, growing fainter and fainter.
Slumping against the back of the door, Su Xiao collapsed onto the floor, gasping for air as tears streamed uncontrollably down her face.
She curled up, hugging her knees as her body trembled violently, her heart a chaotic mess of guilt and terror.
She knew she had trapped Wang Qiang inside. She knew he would likely be eaten alive by those bugs. But she didn't dare open the door, nor did she dare listen to the sounds on the other side for even a second longer.
“I'm sorry... Brother Wang, I'm sorry...” Su Xiao choked out her apology, her voice barely a whisper.
She hadn't intended to betray Wang Qiang. It was just that in a life-or-death situation, she had been too terrified—terrified of dying alongside him in that swarm. She hadn't lived long enough yet, and she hadn't found a way to escape this game. She had to choose self-preservation.
The sounds behind the wooden door slowly quieted, and the sound of the waves faded away. Su Xiao curled up on the ground, her tears flowing faster as guilt washed over her like a tide. Yet, she never found the courage to remove the steel pipe wedging the door shut.
She hated herself for her cowardice and selfishness, yet she felt a quiet relief that she had survived.
She knew that from the moment she closed that wooden door, she was no longer the timid little girl who only knew how to hide behind others. To survive, she had killed the person who once abused her with her own hands, and now, she had pushed the person who once protected her into the abyss.
Once again, she had killed her father.
After curling there for who knew how long, Su Xiao slowly pushed herself up. Her swollen eyes were bloodshot, and wet tear tracks still stained her cheeks, but deep in her eyes, a cold resolve had quietly taken root.
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
Wang Qiang was dead, killed by her betrayal. Bai Ci and Lin Wenyu must never find out about this. If the truth were exposed, she would be completely isolated. In this crisis-ridden instance, being alone was a death sentence.
She had to concoct a perfect lie, framing herself as a victim and attributing Wang Qiang's death to unavoidable circumstances.
Su Xiao smoothed down her messy hair but intentionally left her eyes swollen and her cheeks tear-stained. She repeatedly rehearsed her tone and expression until she felt confident she could deceive anyone, before finally heading back to the hallway at the rear of the apartments.
When she returned to the first-floor hallway, the Bureau of Investigation personnel were still busy at the crime scene. The yellow caution tape was still up, and several investigators with solemn expressions moved in and out of the room.
Su Xiao intentionally slowed her pace and regulated her breathing. Then, keeping her head down to look shaken and traumatized, she walked up toward the fourth floor.
Just as she reached the landing between the third and fourth floors, she saw Bai Ci and Lin Wenyu standing by the railing, clearly waiting for them to return. Zhao Lei was nowhere to be seen; there was no telling where he had gone.
“Su Xiao? What happened? Where's Wang Qiang?” Bai Ci spoke first. Her gaze swept over Su Xiao's swollen eyes and disheveled clothes, her tone tinged with wariness and suspicion.
Lin Wenyu stood with her hands in her pockets, sweeping a cold glance over her.
At the mention of "Wang Qiang," Su Xiao seemed to find an outlet for her emotions. Her legs buckled, and she stumbled forward, throwing herself directly into Bai Ci's arms and sobbing uncontrollably.
“Sister Bai... Sister Lin... Brother Wang... Brother Wang is gone...” Su Xiao choked out between sobs, her tears wetting Bai Ci's sleeve.
“Let's go back to the room first. The investigators are still here,” Bai Ci calmly reminded them. Though Wang Qiang's death surprised her, she hadn't forgotten their surroundings. Flanking Su Xiao, she and Lin Wenyu ushered her into the nearest room, which belonged to Lin Wenyu.
Once inside with the door locked, Bai Ci asked, “What exactly happened? Weren't you two going to look for Old Man Li? How did you run into danger?”
Su Xiao slowly raised her head, her face tear-stained, her eyes filled with terror and grief. Her voice trembled so much she could barely string a sentence together: “We... we couldn't find Old Man Li, so Brother Wang took me to the underground passage to look for clues. It was pitch black inside. Not long after we started walking, we ran into a bunch of monsters... they were these tiny black bugs, swarming in dense packs like a tide...”
“It wasn't the sound of waves; it was the buzzing of the bugs' wings.” As she spoke, she instinctively shrank back, as if reliving the moment of being chased by the swarm, her terror completely genuine. “Brother Wang shielded me behind him and told me to run, while he stayed behind to hold off the bugs... I wanted to pull him along, but he gave me a push and told me to get out of there and not worry about him.”
“I looked back once while running, and Brother Wang was completely surrounded by those bugs... At the very end, he was still shouting for me to survive. He said if I ever managed to escape, to take care of his wife and daughter... He said he was sorry he couldn't make it back to them...”
She had even managed to lose yourself in the act. Recalling Wang Qiang's promise to make her his goddaughter, the wave of guilt and grief surged in her chest. Her crying grew more violent, and her body shook uncontrollably. Even she could no longer tell where the acting ended and the truth began.
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