Zhang Heng returned from the grocery store with a bag full of useful items. He walked through the lobby of the Gilman Hostel, backpack on his back. Although the rifle clearly protruded out of it, the surly-looking male staff didn’t say a word, pretending he hadn’t noticed it at all.
After that, Zhang Heng stepped on the broken stairs to get to his room located on the top floor. Every step he made creaked loudly, as though the old wood under his feet was protesting the sudden increase in burden.
The lights in the corridor were no better than the ones on the street. Although turned on, the distance the light could reach was sorely limited. The long shadows it cast on the walls made the whole place look even eerier.
Zhang Heng could clearly hear Fabericotte’s footsteps thumping around in his room. And he could tell from his pace how upset the young traveler was now. After a while, he sat down and took a book out of his luggage. Zhang Heng could hear the sound of flipping papers. Fabericotte was trying to calm himself down by reading a book.
Wasting no time in the corridor, Zhang Heng reached out and opened his room’s door.
Instead of resting upon returning to his room, he began to organize the things he brought back from the grocery store. He attempted to make a few Molotov cocktails using methods the Finnish guerrillas had taught him during the Soviet-Finnish war. However, there wasn’t enough alcohol in commercial whisky to be ignited. Hence Zhang Heng distilled some high-purity whiskey and added tinder as a fuse.
Once that was done, he loaded all three guns with bullets and tied the claws to the front of the rope. With the makeshift grappling hook, he would be able to use it to climb the wall. After that, Zhang Heng picked up the fishing lines strung them all over his room. Under the dim light, these threads were so thin that they were barely visible.
Only Zhang Heng knew where he had laid those lines.
WIth limited sharpness and toughness, Zhang Heng never expected fishing lines to kill his enemies. These, however, served as an effective method to block uninvited guests that might barge into his room. Since the enemies wouldn’t expect the trap, whatever they were about to do would be immediately put to a halt.
Zhang Heng paid particular attention to the positions of several doors and windows. After planning an escape route for himself, he blocked all the other places with the fishing lines.
Upon making sure that the room was secure, he put up a chair against the doorknob and finally laid himself on the bed. After a few tosses and turns, however, he was still denied sleep. First, he couldn’t tell if he was in a dream or reality, and second, he really didn’t feel very sleepy. So, with his mind unable to come to rest, Zhang Heng took out the Shadow-set items and gave them a once over.
After coming to this place, he could clearly feel that the power the Shadow-set items contained had recovered to a certain extent. However, they felt different when he used them. Pulling out his favorite Shadow Moment, he and started to think about the crow in his mind.
Unfortunately, he saw no crow in the dark. He then tried the Shadow Foot, but it yielded no result too. Just when Zhang Heng wanted to use the Shadow Key again, he heard something.
The floorboards under the stairs and corridors started creaking. Someone was coming upstairs, and it was no new guest nor employee. Whoever it was, though, the person had deliberately attempted to tread as lightly as possible.
In other words, the person did not want his presence to be known.
Earlier, Zhang Heng spent a long time distilling the whiskey and arranging the traps. It was past midnight, and most people should be asleep by now. Suddenly, the only source of light in the room cut-off, as if proving his speculations right. The room instantly plunged into complete darkness. Of course, it wasn’t because the lightbulb had exhausted its lifespan. Someone had cut off the power on purpose.
Zhang Heng knew that the show was about to begin.
The townsfolk kept mentioning a celebration in the evening, but the streets were still empty until now, and nobody was outside their houses. The residents had been so busy preparing for the celebration for such a long time, but instead of proceeding with it when the time came, they had all gone home to sleep.
But Zhang Heng was not in a hurry. He lay silently on the bed, waiting to see what the person in the corridor would do to him.
Unexpectedly, the person headed to Fabericotte’s room first. He stood in front of the door for a while as though listening to the movements inside the room. After that, Zhang Heng heard the sound of a key being inserted into a keyhole.
Fabericotte was not ready to face a circumstance like this. His increasing bouts of anxiety had forced him to do something about his safety. Although he disagreed with Zhang Heng’s plan to arm himself, he appeared to have made some preparations after returning to his room. To Zhang Heng’s surprise, the intruder failed to unlock Fabericotte’s room with the key. So, he went to the next room.
The rooms of Gilman Hostel were fascinating. Zhang Heng’s room, a single room, for instance, had a front door and two side doors. Fabericotte’s room should have a similar layout.
The intruder wanted to find another way to enter Fabericotte’s room after discovering that he could not open his room’s door. In the end, after spending a long time trying to unlock both of the side doors, his attempts were all but fruitless, and he still failed to find a way to enter Room 428.
Initially, Zhang Heng thought that the intruder would give up entering room 428 for now and try his room instead. To his surprise, the sound in the hallway disappeared, and the person appeared to have retreated downstairs.
After that, Zhang Heng heard footsteps in Room 428. Fabricotte was not asleep either. At this point, he should be terrified. He did not allow himself to be immersed in fear for too long, though. He knew that this was a rare opportunity. Since the other party was determined to harm him somehow, they would definitely not give up so quickly. Staying in the room any longer would prove unwise. This was the time to take advantage of the situation and attempt escape.
Fabericotte did not dare to open the door and run down the stairs. The intruder would be able to capture him if he did so. So the other thing that crossed his mind was to escape through the windows. Unlike Zhang Heng’s unit, there was a dilapidated impluvium outside the windows, and there were some short and abandoned masonry buildings surrounding it. Then, to the west was a swamp.
The window was too high from the ground. Fabericotte thought about jumping to the masonry building’s roof beneath his room, but after a visual inspection, he figured a successful jump from this distance wouldn’t be possible. It would work if he entered the room two rooms away from him. So, he first tried the door on the south but found something was stuck behind it. In the end, he could only try to open the door on the north side.
Suddenly, the creepy footsteps sound came from the stairs again. Goosebumps sprouted all over Fabericotte’s skin. Soon after that, the person began banging violently on his door. It seemed the intruder had given on concealing his presence.
As Fabericotte trembled in fear, a strange look appeared across Zhang Heng’s face. Because no one had come to him until now. It looked like they had forgotten about him.
