After Xiao Q finished pouring his heart out to them, he suddenly realized his palms felt very sticky.
Like having cola on his hands, that leftover tacky feeling.
Gooey.
But it wasn’t cola—this was sweat.
His right hand reached up to his forehead again.
In the air-conditioned space, a wipe across his brow revealed it was soaked with sweat.
At this mont Xiao Peng was down to only his underwear.
He hurriedly said, “Xiao Q, are you sure that chainsaw murderer is the sa one from Alice Apartnt? Could it be soone else? After all, who knows how many people in the world have seen The Texas Chainsaw Massacre?!”
Muscles at Xiao Q’s eye twitching, he said, “I wouldn’t mistake him. That chainsaw murderer chased Ke Bei and once at the welco party back then. Afterwards, the three of us were rescued by Mike and chased again. I absolutely would not mistake him—even if he turned to ash, I still wouldn’t mistake him!”
Xiao Peng scoffed, “What a brag. If he really turned to ash, I don’t believe you’d still recognize him.”
Xiao Q: …
Seeing the panic on Xiao Q’s face, Ke Bei had only heard about it and hadn’t experienced it personally.
But he still said, “That was close. If you hadn’t been unable to sleep that night and gone out for hot milk, and had stayed in your room—awake or not—you’d be dead.”
Xiao Q nodded. If the chainsaw murderer had entered his room while he was still there, he couldn’t imagine any way he could’ve beaten a deranged serial killer wielding an oversized chainsaw.
Xiao Peng finally put his clothes back on and anxiously asked, “So what do we do now? Where do we go? God, I’m really scared that bastard might be blocking my door right now!”
Xiao Q shook his head. “He probably won’t. My room is the lowest floor, then Ke Bei’s, then yours. If he can’t find in my room, he’ll definitely first go to the nearest one—Ke Bei—then to you.”
“That’s why I said we should et up at your place first.”
With that said,
the three of them moved in sync.
They left Xiao Peng’s hotel room.
Outside, they took the stairs and went up five floors above Xiao Peng’s level to wait.
They stayed in the stairwell.
Leaning against the wall, Xiao Q sighed, “I’m lucky, and you two are lucky too.”
“Xiao Peng, you often stay up late chatting with girls online.”
“Ke Bei, you also stay up late a lot, watching all kinds of ghost and horror stuff.”
“If any one of the three of us had been an early sleeper, we’d probably be done for.”
Hearing the sigh, Xiao Peng felt Xiao Q’s remark implied he was lecherous.
He couldn’t imdiately co up with a retort.
He steered back to the point: “Where do we go now? We can’t just stay here forever, right? Can we even go back to our hotel rooms?”
Ke Bei said, “This isn’t about whether we can go back. The problem is that guy has his sights on the three of us. Even if we get away this ti, there’ll be a next ti. Can you guarantee we’ll always be this lucky?”
“If this ti he didn’t go to Xiao Q first but ca to and you, if the two of us t him, we’d definitely be cut down by his chainsaw.”
At this mont, a rare hard glint flashed in Xiao Q’s eyes. “Why don’t we just…”
He made a throat-slitting gesture.
Ke Bei thought for a mont and agreed.
After all, they weren’t innocent of killing before — the three of them had already learned from the incident when they killed the Dog Man.
So the two of them turned and looked at Xiao Peng in unison.
Xiao Peng let out a deep, ragged breath from his throat.
That breath sounded filthy.
He slumped down weakly to the floor.
Complaining nonstop, “Damn it, if you’d asked ten years ago, when I was a kid, I would never have thought I’d end up killing people in the future!!!”
“But there’s no other way!!!”
Thus, the three of them all agreed.
Xiao Q then said, “Besides the three of us, we need to find backup.”
Ke Bei gave a strange look. “Su Yang and them?”
Xiao Q shook his head. “It’s Jiang Ran.”
…
It was now 1:09 a.m. on the third day.
A man with an Asian face appeared outside Jiang Ran’s room 3003.
On surveillance, the man took a room card from his right pocket.
A close look showed the skin on his right hand was delicate, not like a typical man’s hand.
He held the room card in his right hand and swiped it.
The card made a beep;
under normal circumstances the door would have opened.
But the door didn’t open when pushed.
The man tried again once and then stopped.
He muttered, “Sa as the A San guy Mark killed? (Korean)”
Then,
the Asian-faced man vanished from there.
When he reappeared, he was at 3103,
the room directly above 3003.
That room was empty.
The Asian man switched on the light.
Once the light ca on, one could see he now had a black backpack on his back.
He set down the black backpack, took out a thick orange safety rope from it, secured it around his waist, and anchored the other end to the bathroom door pillar in that room.
He then put the backpack back on.
He went to the room’s balcony.
With a roll, he climbed out onto the balcony.
Using the drop, he nimbly descended to the open-air balcony outside Jiang Ran’s room 3003.
When he reached the balcony,
he noticed that from this vantage looking into the room it was pitch black.
Jiang Ran must have already fallen asleep inside.
He stepped forward.
Following mory, he felt for the two glass doors,
and tried to pull them open to enter the room.
After a few attempts, he found they wouldn’t budge.
“Really the sa as that A San Amir? (Korean)”
He sneered coldly.
Without hesitation he set down his backpack,
pulled out a hamr with a black iron head and a wooden handle.
Gripping the hamr, he didn’t hesitate and brought it down hard on the glass.
Instantly, a hole shattered in the glass.
The sound of the glass smashing imdiately woke Jiang Ran.
“What’s happening?!”
Awakened, Jiang Ran found it completely dark around him.
He groped for the lamp on the bedside table and turned it on.
Visibility improved.
He looked around and saw a dark figure by the balcony.
As he focused on the silhouette,
there ca another bang!
Jiang Ran quickly took out his phone and used the flashlight.
He saw a young Asian man with a backpack, face cold and sinister,
swinging a hamr at the glass of his locked balcony door.
“Cao nima?! Again?! Never stops?!”
Watching the scene, Jiang Ran imdiately rembered the young man in a purple Lightning Delivery jacket from outside the window at Alice Apartnt.
How similar the situation now was to that mont!
“Am I made of clay? One after another coming to bully ? If I hadn’t been cautious and habitually deadbolted like at Alice Apartnt, would you have already crept to the bedside and killed ?!”
“Fine, you forced my hand!!!”
“Don’t bla for being rciless!!!”
Angry, Jiang Ran got out of bed, leaving his slippers behind.
He reached under the bed.
His hands groped several tis but found nothing.
“Fuck! I forgot this isn’t the apartnt—my own place!!!”
Not finding the fire axe, Jiang Ran felt his confidence evaporate.
He grabbed his phone and bolted toward the room door.
“A brave man doesn’t suffer the loss in front of him! Of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, retreat is the best!!!”
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