This place and the damp, flooded first floor from a moment ago no longer seemed to be the same location.
Gao Hai's cautious gaze slowly swept across the hallway before him.
He noticed that the floor of this corridor had no standing water, not even much dust; it was clear that it was cleaned regularly.
Although there were some cracks on the walls, they were similarly free of cobwebs and peeling paint.
He looked up at the lit chandelier in the hallway.
The bright, pale-yellow light brought a trace of warmth, and the new light bulb was completely spotless.
He stepped forward, passed a corner in the corridor, and then saw a photo album placed on a corner cabinet.
He opened the album. Inside were photos of a small child, blond and blue-eyed, as cute as a doll and full of life.
A tall, blond man often appeared in the photos. He was either holding the child, lifting her high and laughing heartily, or walking beside her, his gaze gentle as he watched her. At the very end of the album was a photo of a sleeping baby, with a line of English handwritten beside it: [You are my whole world].
Sanchez and his child?
He had been trapped when this apartment could still interact with the outside world, when the residents pulled inside could still leave. If the apartment's exit was in China, didn't that mean he would have to take a plane to see his daughter? No, just dealing with the paperwork for entry and exit would probably be a huge hassle. How could he possibly explain his sudden appearance to the local government?
In other words, it was basically impossible for him to ever see his daughter again?
Realizing this, Gao Hai could more or less understand why he had risked everything to probe Room 304, and why there were people who supported Sanchez and helped him commit such a violation.
But there was no point in discussing things that had already happened.
In any case, he should keep moving forward and see what secrets this Room 109 held.
With this in mind, Gao Hai subconsciously reached for his waist but felt nothing. A sudden realization hit him. He looked down and saw that the rope that was supposed to be tied around his waist was gone.
Did the rope break?! No, the rope had simply vanished.
If the rope had just snapped, the part wrapped around his waist should still be there. But the reality was that there was no trace of a rope on Gao Hai's body at all. Not only that, but his shoes and pants, which should have been soaked, were now completely dry. Only the chest badge was still pinned to him, still present on his body, and the black watch on his left wrist was also still there. Other than that, everything about him was no different from when he had just woken up in the apartment.
Gao Hai realized something.
He stepped forward, walked through the corridor, and arrived at the living room door.
Beside the living room door, at the end of the hallway, a wall clock was placed here, identical in style to the ones on the second floor. The difference was that this clock's hands were not moving; they were completely frozen, as if time itself had been paused.
Gao Hai leaned in closer to the clock.
He had no intention of turning its hands.
He was simply using the clock's slightly smooth, metallic surface to gaze at his own reflection.
The shattered face that had been crushed by a truck.
After entering this room, had his 'identity' changed from a living person to a corpse?
In other words, just like what he had seen in that dream-like scene before, was this place he had entered also a residual image from some point in the past?
Having confirmed this, Gao Hai turned without hesitation, twisted the living room doorknob, and stepped directly inside.
The first thing that met his eyes were strings of various photos, clipped newspaper and book page fragments, and notes with all kinds of writing hanging in mid-air.
The walls were densely plastered with all sorts of documents and information. Thick books and files were piled on the desk, and shredded papers were scattered across the floor. An old desktop computer sat on one side of the room, and the smell of ink hung thick in the air, still incredibly distinct even now.
Gao Hai reached out and took a slip of paper clipped from a book.
[Top of China's Ten Great Ghost Stories: The Mysterious Vanishing of an Old Apartment!]
[The Mysterious Apartment That Can Never Be Found. It is said its residents are cursed, unable to escape even in death.]
It looked like a rumor collected from some kind of paranormal novel.
Without hesitation, Gao Hai took another clipped newspaper fragment.
[The Vanished Apartment? The Bizarre Disappearance of a Rescue Team, What is the Truth?]
[All Parties Involved Claim No Memory of the Incident. Was it all just mass hysteria?]
He looked at one note after another, walking to the wall and finally to the documents plastered there, taking in every piece of information seriously and committing it to memory.
This information consisted of various documents, as well as someone's handwritten thoughts and investigation records.
There was no doubt that this was all the work of the man named Sanchez. During his time in Room 109, he had been trying every possible means to gather information related to the Shirakawa Apartments, preparing for his final act.
[Reporter Investigating Street House Numbers Discovers a Mysteriously Vanished, Unnamed Apartment Building Number. Official in charge claims it was just a data error.]
[Inquiries with residents of Qingquan Apartments yielded no results. They remember the catastrophic flood they experienced but have no memory of a place called Shirakawa Apartments ever existing across from them. Everyone has forgotten this place.]
[New Commercial Street Completed! Our city's new district is about to welcome a large number of businesses!]
[What was once the city outskirts years ago has now become a bustling urban center. However, the vacant lot where Shirakawa Apartments once stood remains unused to this day, even as the surrounding area has turned into a lively commercial street. Why does everyone subconsciously avoid developing that empty land?]
[Restructuring of the City Rescue Team is largely complete. We will do our utmost to protect the safety of our citizens.]
[Infiltrated the rescue team archives. Could not find any information on the rescue team number responsible for Shirakawa Apartments. Were their files erased? Or, because they are dead, has everything about them been devoured by the apartment, making it impossible for anyone to remember them?]
[Residents trapped in the apartment, while still alive, can temporarily leave and meet people they know. But aside from close family and very good friends, ordinary friends, as well as superiors and colleagues, all become indifferent to that person's affairs and gradually begin to forget things related to them.]
[But as long as that person is still alive, traces of their existence can still be found in the real world, and information related to them can be looked up.]
[Xusheng... if you are really still alive, why is it impossible to find any information about you? Why are you hiding a rescue team uniform in your wardrobe? How many other things are you hiding from us? Are you really doing this for everyone's good, are you really helping us?]
[The Shirakawa Apartments' building number still exists; the information about this apartment hasn't been completely erased. There should be something else to find. Perhaps I should change my approach.]
[Infiltrated the city police department and found the original resident registration ledger for the Shirakawa Apartments. The information for the occupants of Room 304 was damaged and could not be restored. Only the move-in date could be found.]
[The investigation into all former residents of the Shirakawa Apartments is complete. No living residents were found. All residents who moved in at the same time as or after the occupants of Room 304 are deceased, and all died within a year of the flood. Their relatives possess no valuable information.]
[Perhaps this approach is wrong. If the police department was able to preserve some documents, maybe something else can be found?]
[Investigated the old police archives. Found a dispute mediation record between the residents of Room 304 and Room 309. The original mediation document has been lost. It can only be speculated upon based on the incident report, which suggests a domestic dispute, but no more useful information can be found.]
[Why Room 309?]
[Discovered that the occupant information for Room 309 has been changed once. There was a move-out that was not recorded in the files. The information of the original resident could not be found.]
[Further investigation into the dispute mediation record has yielded a new result. A recording of the mediation was preserved, saved on a cassette tape. I have obtained the tape. Now I need to get a tape player. These things have been out of production for a long time; I don't know where I can buy one.]
Record after record outlined the step-by-step process of how the man named Sanchez had explored the past of the Shirakawa Apartments.
It had to be said, the guy was quite capable, managing to infiltrate all sorts of places to find useful information and actually succeeding in obtaining quite a lot.
However, there wasn't much effective information left here; the vast majority of his investigations had ended in failure. In Gao Hai's view, the most noteworthy piece was the information regarding Room 309.
Room 309 was the room Xusheng mentioned as his own on the rule sheet.
Previously, everyone's focus had been on rooms 109 and 304, but Room 309 hadn't received enough attention. After all, to Gao Hai and the others, it was just the place where the organizer of the previous team of survivors had lived.
But now, with the discovery of Sanchez's investigation, Gao Hai had no choice but to add Room 309 to the list of key targets for attention.
He walked over to the desk where various documents were placed.
Gao Hai pulled out a chair and sat down, then reached out and opened the diary lying on the desk.
[I secretly made a copy of the key to 309 and entered his room on a Sunday when Xusheng was away.]
[Found nothing.]
[There was nothing unusual in that room; it was exactly the same as every other room in the Shirakawa Apartments.]
[Perhaps I need to come at night to see if there are any anomalies?]
[I've decided to take a risk and stay in this room until night. The 'problems' inside the Shirakawa Apartments are mostly inactive now. Although someone like me who has changed rooms once is more likely to encounter danger, I have to find a useful clue this time, no matter what.]
[Found nothing.]
[Day or night, Room 309 has no anomalies whatsoever.]
[Was my line of thinking wrong?]
[Perhaps I still have to go back to 304. Despite the extreme danger, it might be the only place to find a useful clue.]
[However, the last time I explored 304, I made a bit too much noise and was discovered. I'll have to be more careful next time.]
So this guy even made a key to 309 and snuck in for a whole day...
Gao Hai frowned and continued to flip through the pages.
Many pages of the diary were either torn out or completely blank, so he had to flip through several before finding another written page.
[Exploration Record of Room 304, Attempt #6]
[No matter how many times I come in, it's still hard to get used to this environment. The entire room seems completely chaotic, with all sorts of things mixed together to form a maze-like world.]
[It's too difficult to get through this area under the eyes of 'those things'. Luckily, just making a sound is enough to draw their attention away.]
[This time, I have to at least investigate the living room situation clearly.]
Attempt #6?!
Could you just enter and exit Room 304 so freely?
[Exploration Record of Room 304, Attempt #11]
[Confirmed three individuals who are distinctly different from the other corpses: one adult male, one adult female, and one young male child.]
[Why are there four sets of bowls and chopsticks for three people?]
[Exploration Record of Room 304, Attempt #14]
[They are repeating their actions from when they were alive. The male beats the female after drinking. It's the first time I've seen such brutal... abuse.]
[I stole a few IOU slips. This family had a lot of them.]
[The man's name is Li Youcai, his wife is Xu Jiazhen. Just the few IOUs I took add up to over one hundred thousand yuan. How could people living in a place like this manage to owe so much money?]
[Exploration Record of Room 304, Attempt #19]
[Today, the two adults called the boy's name, Li Meng. The name really doesn't suit the boy.]
[So far, I have observed six different repeated behaviors from them. Each time, only these three are present. But whenever a meal is involved, they set out four sets of bowls and chopsticks. Could there be a fourth person in this room that I just haven't found yet?]
[Speaking of which, the boy's voice is quite distinctive. But according to the descriptions from the residents who experienced the knocking incident, the knocker's cry was muffled but had a somewhat sharp quality, almost like the cry of a little girl.]
[There must be a place I haven't found yet.]
[There must be a hidden room in 304, a hidden place. Finding that place is the only way to find the truth of it all.]
[Exploration Record of Room 304, Attempt #21]
[I know her name now. Her name is—]
Gao Hai closed his eyes.
He didn't read any further, didn't continue reading the words in the notebook.
The thick stench of alcohol spread from behind him, accompanied by the heavy breathing of a man.
A woman's cough sounded in the room, along with the slow footsteps of someone moving behind Gao Hai.
And a boy's suppressed laughter. He could even feel fingers gently poking his back, again and again.
"..."
Gao Hai remained silent, remained still, sitting motionless in his seat.
The voices of the three sounded behind him, one after another.
It was as if this was actually their house, and they were living here.
These sounds continued for several minutes before they gradually grew fainter and returned to silence.
Gao Hai waited until the stench of alcohol had completely vanished before opening his eyes again and looking at the notebook in his hands.
He flipped directly to the next page, without looking at the previous entry again.
[Exploration Record of Room 304, Attempt #22—]
But the records starting from this page had all been torn out, making them impossible to read.
________________________________________
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