Chapter 3: The Locked Room

His mind was groggy and heavy, and everything in his field of vision seemed to be covered by a thick, hazy veil. The sound of traffic drifting over from the main road in the distance was erratic, sometimes near, sometimes far, so unreal it felt like a dream.

He walked on in that miserable, dazed state for who knows how long before his mind finally recovered a little bit of clarity. Yu Sheng hesitated and stopped, turning to look back at the path he had taken.

The sky had almost completely darkened, and the streetlights along the way were already lit. He was walking down a narrow street near his home. The low, old residential buildings on both sides looked like two rows of beasts crouching in the night. Yet the ground-floor shops, which the residents had illegally converted from their homes, radiated warm light outward, driving away the chill that had settled in the depths of his heart.

Chill?

Suddenly, Yu Sheng seemed to feel that bone-piercing cold again, stabbing into his lungs and marrow. He felt the blade-like freezing rain landing on his skin, felt those two icy, slippery gazes—the frog staring at him.

He gasped for breath, choking for a moment, then after more than ten seconds, as if suddenly remembering how to breathe, he panted heavily and quickly lowered his head to look at his chest.

For an instant, he had the illusion that there was still a gaping hole in his chest, that his heart was gone, that his chest was as silent and cold as an extinguished furnace. But the next moment, he felt his heartbeat again, and even seemed to hear an especially clear "thump" by his ear... Right, living people have heartbeats.

He was still alive. The strange giant frog hadn't eaten his heart after all.

But those surging fragments of memory crashed against his mind like a tsunami, and no matter how hard he tried to ignore them, he couldn't push them out of his head. Yu Sheng remembered the rain, remembered the door painted on the wall, and that enormous frog... He tried to tell himself it was just an illusion, but that thought was rapidly weakening as the memories kept washing over him, growing clearer.

He had died once. But for some reason, he was still alive now, walking home—almost home, just two intersections away.

This was the most bizarre of all the bizarre things he had encountered since arriving at this uncanny city.

He sensed someone's gaze nearby. Yu Sheng realized that his unusual behavior had already attracted the attention of passersby. Someone nearby was hesitating, as if about to approach and ask if he needed help. He quickly waved his hand, didn't exchange any words with them, and quickened his pace to leave the area.

He didn't know what had happened to him, but it was obvious that stopping in the middle of the street to think wouldn't help solve the mystery.

He hurried through the small alley, left the last street near the old residential area, and headed toward his "home" in this city.

Even though it was only two intersections away, the surroundings had clearly become more desolate and lonely—as if he had stepped into a forgotten corner of the city. There were fewer and fewer pedestrians on the road. Eventually, the only thing accompanying Yu Sheng was the cold streetlight. After walking a bit further, he saw the old, large house standing in the night, seeming to maintain a certain distance from the buildings around it.

It was an unremarkable big house: a three-story old residence, peeling walls, a sloped roof. The old doors and windows were worn but still clean and intact—a house that looked like one of those "self-built small buildings" that had been illegally added to the urban village decades ago, when management was lax, and had now become a historical artifact stuck in the bug of urban construction management...

Yu Sheng didn't know much about the urban construction management system of this "Jiecheng," which was very different from the city in his memory. After all, he had only been here two months. Subtract the time he wasted at first, staying indoors out of caution, and he had just barely adapted to his new life and figured out the nearby area—but there was one thing he knew very well.

This big house was his only relatively safe haven in this dangerous, discordant city—at least inside the house, he hadn't seen any of those eerie shadows.

Even though this big house itself had many strange things about it, in his eyes.

Yu Sheng took a gentle breath, still holding the supermarket shopping bag in his hand, stepped through the cold light cast by the streetlamp, walked to the door, and fished out the keys to unlock it.

The old door creaked open. Yu Sheng entered and turned on the light—though this house was almost completely different from the "home" in his memory, at the moment the light came on, he still felt a certain... solidity.

He turned around and closed the door, shutting out the city's night.

Then he casually tossed the things he had bought from the supermarket onto the shelf next to the kitchen entrance just to the right, and hurriedly crossed the somewhat empty living room. He went to the bathroom mirror and pulled open the clothes on his chest.

The images in his memory were too vivid and deep-seated; he couldn't help wanting to confirm again and again.

There were no wounds on his chest, no bloodstains. It was as if "death" had never happened.

Yu Sheng frowned, checked his clothes for integrity, and pressed on the spot where the frog had dug out his heart in his memory. Only then did he truly confirm that he was not, at present, a "open-minded" person.

"This is freaking weird..."

He muttered softly, left the bathroom, and turned back to the living room.

Behind him, cracks silently split the mirror surface above the sink, then quickly and noiselessly closed again...

Sitting on the living room sofa, Yu Sheng sorted out his tangled thoughts. After who knows how long, his exhausted mind finally settled into a drowsy quietness.

Sleep enveloped him.

The feeling of grogginess lasted a long, long time, until a sudden thud exploded in his mind. It sounded like someone was striking stone with a shovel on top of his head, jolting Yu Sheng awake from his slumber.

He opened his eyes in the darkness, stunned for a moment before realizing—the living room light had turned off sometime.

He clearly remembered leaving it on before falling asleep!

Alarm bells rang in his heart. Yu Sheng instinctively reached for the telescopic baton beside him—when he had first arrived in this strange, eerie city, the first thing he did was prepare this self-defense tool. Although it hadn't been useful so far, as a terrifying upright ape, having a stick in his hand at least brought some psychological comfort. Then he cautiously rose slowly, while paying attention to every sound in the darkness.

In such a desolate, remote place, having a burglar in the house didn't seem impossible. In fact, at this moment, Yu Sheng almost wished it were a burglar. At least a burglar could be beaten to death with the baton. A frog over a meter tall? Not so much.

But the living room was dead silent. There was no sign of an intruder, nor any sound of a thief.

Good news: there was also no sound of a frog.

Using the faint streetlight filtering through the window, Yu Sheng hunched low and moved, scanning his surroundings as he felt his way toward the light switch on the wall. He raised his hand and flipped it on.

His eyes instantly emitted a bright light, sweeping across the living room in the darkness.

Yu Sheng blinked. He felt something strange in his field of vision, but couldn't quite pinpoint what was off. Regardless, at least the area was now lit, and he could see the living room clearly.

Slightly hunched, he gripped the baton and began checking every corner of the house.

The first floor consisted only of the living room, kitchen, dining room, and one unused empty room—everything normal.

He hesitated at the foot of the stairs leading to the second floor, then stepped up.

The second floor had three rooms. One was his current bedroom, one was a storage room for clutter, and the last room at the end of the hallway was locked.

When Yu Sheng had first arrived, that room was already locked. He had searched this big house thoroughly and never found the key.

He checked his bedroom and the storage room across the hall first, then came to the locked room.

As always, the door was tightly shut.

In fact, Yu Sheng had tried to overcome this lock with some technical means, including but not limited to a hammer drill and a handheld electric saw. But all attempts had failed—when the hammer drill and saw bit into that seemingly fragile wooden door, sparks flew, and the drill bit and saw teeth were ground down without leaving even a scratch.

Of course, he had also tried to seek more advanced technical solutions, like calling locksmiths. He called three in succession. The first two got lost in the old town, wandering for ages without finding No. 66 Wutong Road. The third got hit by a motorcycle as soon as he crossed the intersection and was just discharged from the hospital last week...

It seemed some mysterious force was preventing Yu Sheng from opening this locked room in his own home.

Yes, although this big house was his only relatively safe haven in this city, even this big house itself had many... "off" things.

Yu Sheng reached out and grasped the doorknob in front of him, trying to turn it. As expected, it didn't budge.

No "accident" like expected occurred. It was still locked.

But whether it was an illusion or not, as he futilely twisted the handle... he seemed to hear a faint, barely perceptible chuckle.

The laugh came from the other side of the door. It sounded like a young woman's voice, as if mocking his helplessness before a locked door.

Yu Sheng's hair stood on end!

His only safe haven in this city, the house he had lived in for two months, right in his own home, this room that had always been locked... There was someone hiding inside!

...How hadn't she starved to death?