"He said a lot to me that day, things he never said normally."
"The person you are talking about, is he still in this building now?" Chen Ge could hear the voice around him trembling.
"He moved out and hasn't been back for a long time."
"Then do you want to see him again?" Chen Ge gently tugged on the corner of his clothes: "I think you should have a lot of things to say to him. After all, he is the one who makes your whole body cold and you can't feel any warmth."
"I……"
"It's okay, I will help you, I will definitely help you." Chen Ge stood up slowly while holding on to the wall: "If he has not left Hanjiang, I will bring him within a week. When you see him
After that, I can take you to a warmer place."
The woman did not answer, and Chen Ge was not in a hurry: "Now I have another reason to live. You can keep your coat, I will come back."
Taking steps forward, Chen Ge was about to walk up when the woman's voice sounded from behind again: "Don't go any further, you can't come back."
"Can't come back? Why?"
"Because there is a fourteenth floor above the thirteenth floor."
A coat was stuffed into Singer Chen, and the cold and damp feeling slowly dissipated.
"What did she want to tell me?" Chen Ge grasped the coat in his hand: "The residential building in Jiangyuan Community does not have a fourteenth floor. There should be a fifteenth floor above the thirteenth floor, but she said that there is a fourteenth floor above the thirteenth floor? That's right.
Does that mean the fourteenth floor actually exists?"
Having come this far, Chen Ge will not retreat. He knows that he is very close to the truth.
Counting the steps in his mind, Chen Ge arrived at the thirteenth floor. This floor was very quiet, just like an ordinary residential corridor. There was nothing unusual.
Stepping towards the fourteenth floor, Chen Ge was halfway there when the tip of his nose moved slightly and he smelled the aroma of rice.
I don’t know what it is made of, or what kind of dish it is, but my brain seems to have judged in an instant that it is the smell of rice, as if it is imprinted deep in my memory.
"It came from the fourteenth floor. Someone is cooking?"
Step by step, Chen Ge felt that there were a lot of steps between the 13th and 14th floors, whether it was due to excessive physical exertion or mental exhaustion.
Obviously the number is the same as other floors, and the number of leg lifts is the same, but it takes more time.
When his fingertips fell, dry cracks appeared on the originally smooth wall, and there seemed to be a lot of debris in the corridor.
Everything around him gave Chen Ge a feeling that was both familiar and unfamiliar.
He mechanically repeated the movements of raising his legs and lowering them, smelling the aroma of rice, and finally reached the fourteenth floor.
Just when he stood firm, the door shaft in the corridor turned and made a clattering sound. An iron door was opened, and then a man's voice came from deep in the corridor: "Chen Ge, are you home?"
The moment he heard this voice, Chen Ge's mind went blank, and he suddenly turned around to face the corridor.
He had listened to this man's voice for more than twenty years, and this sentence came home to him. He didn't know how many times he had heard it since he was a child.
He has memorized this voice in his heart and engraved it on his bones.
"The meal is ready. As soon as you went upstairs, your mother heard your footsteps."
With his nails digging into his flesh, Chen Ge slowly raised his arm and grabbed the black cloth covering his eyes.
He wanted to take a look. He had never wanted to open his eyes so much.
The hand holding the black cloth became harder and harder, and blue and black blood vessels appeared on the back of his hand.
"How does it feel to go to school alone for the first time?"
“Are the other children picked up and dropped off by someone?!”
"No one bullies you, right?"
"Have you made friends? Your personality is so similar to mine, shouldn't you be unpopular?"
"Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands, don't run around..."
A sentence was heard from deep in the corridor, until the door shaft turned again and the iron door was closed.
The man's voice disappeared, and the voices of other people sounded in the corridor one after another, including men and women, old and young.
"What's wrong with the newly moved family? They wait for their children to fall asleep every night before going out. No wonder their children have nightmares every day."
"Have you heard that his house is filled with laughter during the day and crying at night? Aren't the children afraid of being alone in the house?"
"It's strange. I saw a family of three going out during the day today. Why is there a child crying in the house at night?"
"Brothers! I discovered one thing. The problem with the newly moved family is not the adults, but the child! I saw with my own eyes a doctor from a hospital in Xinhai came to treat the child! Don't let your children suffer
Play with him!"
"Why do you feel that after being treated by a doctor, the child became more seriously ill? Do you know? The child told his parents about his nightmares during the day. When his parents were not at home at night, he told those nightmares to his shadow, which scared him to death.
!”
"That's not right. He didn't sleep day and night. When did he have the nightmare? Is what the kid said really a dream?"
"Don't scare me, forget it, they are moving out soon anyway, just give it a few more days."
"Move away?"
"Well, I heard that we are going to the western suburbs, and the children's parents are going to work in a paradise."
The sound in his ears slowly dissipated, and Chen Ge still stood there, his hand still holding the black cloth that covered his eyes.
After a while, Chen Ge took a deep breath: "I only remember those beautiful things. I have forgotten most of what the neighbors said, but there are a few key points that need to be paid attention to."
"When I was very young, I came into contact with a doctor from Xinhai Hospital. That is, after being treated by him, I began to tell nightmares to my shadow."
"My shadow should have become strange since that time. The key to everything is that doctor."
"The doctor came from Xinhai, and the cursed hospital is right between Xinhai and Hanjiang. Is this a coincidence?"
Standing on the fourteenth floor, Chen Ge turned around silently, turning his back to the corridor that made various noises.
He grasped the black cloth with his hand and slowly exerted force, and finally took off the slightly wet black cloth. At this time, his eyes were still closed tightly.
"I really want to open my eyes and see you, but I know this is impossible." Chen Ge did not look back, holding on to the wall and continuing to walk up: "You once gave me everything you have, and now I will use my
Everything, to find you."
In the dark corridor, Chen Ge's back was a little different from before.
Counting the steps in his mind, Chen Ge knew that he was now on the seventeenth floor, which was theoretically the top floor of the building, but he did not open his eyes in a hurry.
"The fourteenth floor does not exist, but the girl with a cold body said that there is a fourteenth floor above the thirteenth floor. This building originally had seventeen floors. If the extra fourteen floors are added, there should be a total of eighteen floors.
It’s like eighteen levels of hell.”
After Chen Ge finished speaking, he touched the wall and moved his steps. Soon the toe of his shoe touched the steps going up.