Chapter 34: The Staircase That Cannot Be Escaped

“Xiaofan, do you know how to get out?” Su Qianqian asked nervously.

“No matter whether we go up or down, we always end up beside this same window. That’s impossible, because we’re moving, and the things around us are moving too. So why do we arrive at the same place every time? It’s simple: it’s all an illusion. We’re being deceived by ghosts,” Zhang Xiaofan surveyed their surroundings as he spoke.

“You mean that we’re actually upstairs, and all the mirrored surroundings are fake?”

“Exactly.” Zhang Xiaofan touched the scratches beside him. “The ghost must have clouded our eyes, making us believe we’re just going in circles, but the truth is, we’ve already ascended.”

“But how did Shen Fengxing and the others suddenly disappear?” Su Qianqian asked.

“A ghost can block our sight, and our hearing as well. So I suspect Shen Fengxing and the others are still around us—we just can’t perceive them because our senses are obscured.”

Though Zhang Xiaofan said this, he knew it was all just his own conjecture, and to be honest, he wasn’t very sure himself. Then he continued, “Let’s keep going. As long as we keep moving upward, even if the ghost clouds our senses, we’ll eventually reach the end.”

With that, Zhang Xiaofan took Su Qianqian’s hand and headed upward again. They climbed eight flights of stairs—stairs that shouldn’t be there, yet another step appeared before them. In that moment, Zhang Xiaofan’s expression changed. He tried stepping forward and felt a sinking feeling in his heart: it wasn’t a wall, but exactly the same staircase as before.

“Could my guess have been wrong?” Zhang Xiaofan glanced around. Once again, they returned to the spot where they had marked their position.

Both were exhausted now. Su Qianqian anxiously grabbed her phone, hoping to contact the outside world, but there was not a single bar of signal.

“We’re doomed, doomed! We’re going to end up like the woman in the surveillance video, trapped here for hours,” Su Qianqian shook her head, her voice tinged with sadness.

Zhang Xiaofan gritted his teeth. “So that’s why the two people in the surveillance video kept wandering back and forth on the stairs—they must have encountered the same thing as us, forever unable to escape.”

The memory of the video they watched in Su Qianqian’s dormitory was still vivid in Zhang Xiaofan’s mind. There were only two short clips: those two people paced the stairs for hours; finally, one slipped and fell to their death, and the other, unable to bear it any longer, jumped off the building. Both deaths were tragic.

“In the videos we watched, the two seemed to walk for a while, then suddenly turned back. I suspect the problem lies there,” Su Qianqian mused aloud.

Zhang Xiaofan recalled and found it true. It was like someone walking down a road, suddenly realizing it was the wrong way and turning back—except the wrong road was actually the right one.

“I understand now. In that case, let’s go in the wrong direction,” Zhang Xiaofan declared, taking Su Qianqian’s hand and heading upward once more. Before them appeared a staircase, and in their memory, going up would take them higher.

But suddenly, Zhang Xiaofan turned and started down instead. “The path before us feels right, but we’ll deliberately go the wrong way.”

Yet, to his shock, they again returned to their starting point.

They had been walking for a long time. Through the window, it was clear the sun was beginning to set. Once night came, it would bring nothing but trouble.

Su Qianqian’s legs had grown weak. She took out her golden scissors, trembling. “There must be so many ghosts at night. What should we do, Xiaofan? We can’t even find our way out.”

Zhang Xiaofan’s face looked grim. At night, the power of the ghosts would only grow stronger; they were already unable to escape, and it would be even worse after dark.

Su Qianqian stood on tiptoe, peering out the window. Suddenly, she exclaimed in delight, “I see it! We’re on the second floor, and there’s a pile of trash beneath. If we jump down from here, we won’t get hurt.”

“You mean, instead of taking the stairs, we jump out the window?” Zhang Xiaofan frowned. The idea seemed risky.

“Yes, see, it’s not high at all.” Su Qianqian looked down and, as she spoke, climbed onto the window ledge. Patting her chest, she said, “Staying here is pointless. Let’s jump down and figure something out afterward. I’ll go first.”

Just then, Zhang Xiaofan caught her around the waist, frowning. “Wait a moment.”

“What is it?” Su Qianqian was confused.

He lifted her down, his eyes flickering, then spoke heavily: “Don’t forget, the ghost has clouded our eyes. If we jump now, we might fall to our deaths.”

“That’s… impossible!” Su Qianqian was incredulous.

Zhang Xiaofan panted. “Remember the surveillance video? After wandering for ages, that person jumped out the window. But what was strange was how relaxed their expression was—not at all the face of someone about to commit suicide. Normally, someone who knows they’re about to die would look very grave.”

Su Qianqian recalled it too, her face turning pale. “They didn’t commit suicide!”

“Exactly. That person, just like you, looked out the window after failing to escape, and saw only two stories—but in reality, they were much higher up. They misjudged and fell to their death.”

Su Qianqian was no fool. With Zhang Xiaofan’s reminder, her face drained of color in an instant. “I get it. If we jump, we might end up just like them…”

“Right. We definitely can’t jump,” Zhang Xiaofan said, squatting on the ground and staring blankly ahead. He had thought through every possible solution, but none worked.

Night was falling fast. Su Qianqian clung tightly to Zhang Xiaofan’s arm, already accustomed to the darkness. She whispered, “Xiaofan, I’m sorry. You’re trapped here because you wanted to help me.”

“Don’t say such foolish things. Remember, you’re my girlfriend. If anything happens to you, what will I do?” Zhang Xiaofan comforted her, though his own heart was in turmoil.

“There must be a way, I just haven’t found it yet. Right now, going in the opposite direction doesn’t work—we still end up back where we started. But going the normal way doesn’t work either…”

Zhang Xiaofan felt his mind spinning.

“How strange, it’s nearly dark outside, yet the light here hasn’t changed at all,” Su Qianqian observed, gazing around.