Chapter 137: A Suffocating Silence

Li Tianque gazed at Ah Chu’s back. Hesitating for a moment, he ultimately decided to follow her.

Ah Chu maintained a bizarre walking posture, her body jerking upward with every step in a floating motion, somewhat resembling a puppet in a shadow play.

Yet, in reality, she was the one truly holding the control strings.

Li Tianque silently trailed behind this silent sculpture, feeling somewhat stealthy, much like a stalker tailing a young girl in the dead of night.

During the ascent, Li Tianque noticed that the stairs on this level were far more spacious than the side stairs on the first floor, measuring roughly two meters in width.

Ah Chu drifted upward leisurely and steadily, while Li Tianque followed closely behind, trying to maintain a certain distance from her.

Li Tianque had not yet figured out the exact method this terrifying woman used to control those metallic threads, but he no longer dared to attempt any resistance against her.

At least, not while the timing was still not right.

Mindful of the metallic threads, Li Tianque kept his distance and slowed his pace.

The dark space felt utterly oppressive, and Li Tianque broke the silence first:

"What on earth happened to Brother Bi?"

Ah Chu ignored him completely, continuing to drag her feet slowly as she floated upward.

This eerie silence annoyed Li Tianque deeply, yet he spoke up once more:

"What was going on with that corpse just now? Judging by its condition, it seemed to have died only recently..."

This time, Ah Chu came to a halt. She turned her head slowly, casting a cold glance at Li Tianque through her long hair, still maintaining her silence.

Although Li Tianque could not see the expression hidden beneath her curtain of hair, a chill still ran through his heart, and he wisely shut his mouth.

The journey was not long, yet Li Tianque felt as though it lasted an eternity, especially with a bizarre stone-like entity leading the way, making him feel as though a heavy stone weighed upon his chest.

The appearance of this woman was simply too bizarre. She had inexplicably shown up in this abandoned building in the wilderness, inexplicably manipulated a terrifying living corpse, and even inexplicably wielded a strange kind of metallic thread as a weapon.

Where on earth did she come from, and what was her goal?

None of these mysteries could be answered; Li Tianque could only mechanically follow her as she continued upward.

Every step Ah Chu took on the stairs appeared weak and lifeless, mechanically climbing onward as though she might stumble, tumble, and roll down the staircase at any second.

"You should know where we come from. Reinforcements will arrive very soon, and furthermore..."

Li Tianque had intended to say that Ling Chi was also inside this building, but he realized this might not serve as an effective threat, and ultimately decided to keep his true trump card hidden.

"Moreover, you must have been caught on the surveillance cameras just now; they will find you very soon," Li Tianque changed the subject.

Unexpectedly, this time Ah Chu actually replied to him:

"I am not forcing you; you are free to leave whenever you wish."

Ah Chu paused for a moment before continuing:

"However, after you leave, your fat friend might remain here forever."

In truth, upon hearing the first half of the sentence, Li Tianque had indeed felt a strong urge to seize the opportunity and slip away.

And upon hearing the second half, he wanted nothing more than to declare that he would just leave by himself—after all, he and Fatty Bi were not that close to begin with.

Yet this was merely a passing thought. Li Tianque knew very well that if he actually said and did such a thing, what awaited him would likely be decapitation by those metallic threads.

Li Tianque frowned, seizing the opportunity of Ah Chu speaking to ask further:

"Then at least you can tell me where we are going right now?"

"The second floor," Ah Chu’s voice was neither warm nor cold, sounding completely devoid of emotion.

Li Tianque was slightly dazed upon hearing this, failing to realize immediately where the issue lay, and instead asked reflexively:

"Why are we going to the second floor?"

"To watch a recording," Ah Chu replied with another unfathomable answer.

Li Tianque felt a buzzing in his head, utterly bewildered by both of these answers.

Hadn't they just come up the stairs from the second floor? Why did they need to go back to the second floor?

Furthermore, had this creature gone through all the trouble of kidnapping him simply to have him accompany her to watch a movie?

That truly carried a rather morbidly romantic vibe...

"Didn't we just come up from the second floor? Why do you keep saying we are going to the second floor?"

"The lobby where you entered is located on the basement level," Ah Chu explained.

Li Tianque experienced a sudden epiphany, quickly grasping Ah Chu's meaning.

The reason Li Tianque had previously found the structure of the building's "first floor" and "second floor" so strange was because the place he and Fatty Bi had entered was not the first floor at all, but the basement level!

The lobby accessed through the main entrance sat on an incline, rather than the building itself being tilted, which had been his initial guess.

In other words, the lobby they had walked into upon entering was a structure obliquely embedded into the ground, whereas the place where Li Tianque had just encountered the living corpse was the true first floor of the sanitarium.

Li Tianque also finally understood why he had seen such strange sights outside the window.

Following Ah Chu to the true second floor, Li Tianque found its layout similar to the level below, yet even darker—pitch black and utterly devoid of light.

Sweeping the flashlight beam around, Li Tianque noted that the western side still featured five adjacent rooms, though their doors remained shut, obscuring what lay inside.

Across from the central staircase, the large room had been divided into three separate spaces, one of which appeared to be a conference room, while the other two resembled archival storage rooms.

Standing at the top of the stairs, the two of them swept the area with their flashlights. Ah Chu did not press forward; instead, she stopped, observing the surrounding environment with extreme caution, as though something terrifying lurked within the darkness, instilling fear in her.

After observing for roughly five full minutes, Ah Chu began to extend her arms forward, her ten fingers curving and writhing as she struck another peculiar posture.

"Step back, hide by the stairs," Ah Chu suddenly raised her voice.

Her outburst came so abruptly that Li Tianque immediately obeyed, stepping back swiftly while keeping a vigilant eye on Ah Chu's position.

It was precisely at that moment that Li Tianque sensed an ineffable threat emanating from the darkness.

It felt as though some terrifying force lay dormant within the shadows, watching them with a predatory gaze.

Ironically, with someone inherently dangerous accompanying him by his side, this unknown peril suddenly seemed somewhat trivial.

He never would have imagined that he could actually derive an unprecedented sense of security from a woman in white as terrifying as Aunt Sadako!

However, this sense of security did not last long.

From the pitch-black corridor, a series of hoarse, muffled breathing sounds echoed forth.

This eerie noise resembled the death rattle of a bronchitis patient confined to a bed, sending shudders of discomfort through anyone who heard it.

Ah Chu evidently heard the sound as well, yet she showed no reaction whatsoever.

She remained frozen in that bizarre posture from start to finish. Li Tianque gripped his flashlight tightly, aiming the beam toward her location while his other hand steadied the tranquilization gun, which now held only a single remaining dart.

In the dim, yellowish light, Li Tianque finally saw Ah Chu's weapon clearly:

Each of her fingers gently hooked a small coil of metallic thread, fitted onto her hands like ten tiny rings.

The sound of breathing stopped right at the edge of the flashlight's beam.

Li Tianque held his breath as he stared in that direction. At the very edge of the illumination, something seemed to be faintly lurking and spying upon them.

Yet Li Tianque remained extremely cautious, refusing to shine the flashlight directly at that spot, knowing that doing so might provoke whatever lay in the distance, or worse, cause it to instantly charge at them.

After roughly another three minutes, Ah Chu finally moved. Her pale, slender hands curved slightly, and then she yanked them apart abruptly.

The sound of tearing fabric tore through the darkness!