An eyeball.
An eyeball bloodshot with red veins.
Zhang Shutong held his breath, staring dead at the image on his phone screen.
At the final moment, he hadn't run after all, but had used the violent racket made by the window to hide under the office desk.
Zhang Shutong rapidly calculated in his mind: if he ran, it would be equivalent to completely exposing himself. What the man would do next wouldn't be confirming, but breaking down the door directly.
But how much time could that room door buy him?
Less than half a minute.
This was a man capable of reclaiming clay figurines, whose agility was highly likely on par with Lu Qinglian's. Even if it bought half a minute, he had already consumed a portion of his stamina before coming to the dormitory, and wouldn't necessarily outrun the other party.
Therefore, he had to gamble. Squeezing under the office desk, Zhang Shutong stared at the door panel behind the iron frame bed. To avoid making a sound earlier, he had only pushed open a gap wide enough to fit through; one could only discover that the position of the iron frame bed was slightly tilted upon close inspection.
Moreover, the other party was separated by a window, darkness had fallen, and the window could only be pushed open a tiny crack, so he wouldn't necessarily discover that it had been moved.
So all he could do next was wait. He tensed every muscle in his body, prepared to run without hesitation the instant he heard the other party make the next move. But the air seemed to freeze, and the dim interior was quiet enough to be suffocating. Currently positioned in the man's blind spot, Zhang Shutong extended his phone forward, and the screen instantly displayed the image captured by the front-facing camera.
An eyeball.
Or rather, the light was too dim, so only an eyeball could be seen. But before Zhang Shutong could discern anything further, the eyeball vanished as well.
Next came another grating sound as the window was slammed shut with a bang.
Half of Zhang Shutong's heart settled down.
He had won the gamble.
His palms were already coated in sweat.
But next, he still had to confirm the man's destination. Zhang Shutong remained holding his breath, not in a hurry to stand up.
He listened intently to the footsteps in the corridor through the room door. Those footsteps grew further and further away, sounding as though they were heading toward the stairs in the center of the dormitory building, and then the sound of footsteps disappeared.
Go back, or keep pursuing?
A question surfaced in Zhang Shutong's mind.
He had managed to get a rare opportunity to see the other party's face clearly.
The time left for him to choose was very short.
Zhang Shutong calculated the time in his mind. This was a corridor-style building, with a continuous corridor running along the front.
If he waited until the man reached downstairs, emerging from the room would very likely get him spotted. The only timing to act was right now—
While the man was still in the stairwell!
Zhang Shutong gently unlocked the room door. He first pushed it open a crack, and upon hearing the faint footsteps in the stairwell, Zhang Shutong hesitated no longer, quickly slipping out of the door before carefully closing it. Then, he leaned against the retaining wall of the corridor, lowered his head, and stared fixedly at the entrance of the dormitory building.
...Five seconds, seven seconds, eight seconds—
A brown hat appeared in his line of sight!
The other party was wearing a hat, with a metal ornament on the brim.
But before Zhang Shutong could see more, the man turned his direction the moment he stepped out of the dormitory building, turning along the side of the structure.
The night was thick, and his vision was completely empty. Zhang Shutong stood on tiptoe, ultimately abandoning the plan to lean his body out of the corridor.
He waited patiently for a moment, confirming that nothing could be seen from this angle, and then quickly walked toward the stairs.
The other party was about to go around to the back of the dormitory building. He could completely tail the man quietly to find out his destination, or even his hiding place.
At this thought, Zhang Shutong clenched his fists tightly, his palms already soaked in sweat. He hadn't expected to reap such a massive harvest right off the bat either.
The next step was to keep his composure, be careful and cautious over again; a single misstep would mean the abyss... But before he could walk down the stairs, the sound of a car engine starting reached his ears—
Zhang Shutong cursed inwardly. The other party had indeed come by car. He hurriedly ran down the stairs and quickly rushed toward the back of the building, but just as he turned the corner, the car had already started moving.
Zhang Shutong held his knees, panting heavily. Only a red taillight could be seen rapidly shrinking in the darkness. Under the reflection of the light, aside from being able to confirm it was a sedan, the model, color, and license plate were completely impossible to see clearly!
He froze for a moment, punched the wall forcefully, and ran back upstairs without stopping for a single second.
The direction that car was driving toward was precisely the hospital!
Therefore, he had to rush to Lu Qinglian's position right now. The most ideal scenario would naturally have been for the man to walk over while he quietly followed behind; upon reaching the old house, he and Lu Qinglian could subdue the other party together.
But the man just happened to have a car. How long would it take to drive from the dormitory building to the hospital? Only four or five minutes. How could he possibly catch up to a car?!
Moreover, a dark premonition lingered in Zhang Shutong's heart. He still didn't know what the man was waiting for; Zhang Shutong only knew that the original plan was completely derailed, and he couldn't gamble this time.
He pushed open the dormitory door with a bang, his feet never stopping, though he didn't forget to lock the door securely. Right now, the only active advantage was that he had seen the distinct features on the man, whereas the other party hadn't discovered he had been to the dormitory.
Zhang Shutong squeezed into the secret door, unleashing every ounce of his strength to sprint forward. Who knew how much time had passed, but he felt as though his lungs were about to burst. When he finally saw that short-haired figure clearly, the breath he had been holding in his chest suddenly rushed out.
"What happened to you?" Lu Qinglian's calm voice came through the darkness.
Zhang Shutong briefly recounted his encounter just now, then said out of breath:
"He... driving should be faster than me running. He's highly likely ambushing up there... Now there are two choices. First... go out immediately, or..."
"Or go to the dormitory building, and flank the other party from the surface once more?" Lu Qinglian picked up his words.
Zhang Shutong nodded, using this time to recover his stamina.
"Then choose the first one," she made the judgment instantly. "Go up immediately."
"But I think the second..."
"Running from here to the basement, then running from the dormitory building back to the hospital—Zhang Shutong, the plan is good, but even the most perfect plan requires you to be capable of executing it." Lu Qinglian hit the nail on the head. "With your current stamina, it isn't enough to carry out this option."
"Also," a faint flashlight flickered in front of him, and Lu Qinglian knit her brows. "I remember your illness has flared up underground before. You'd better go up quickly."
Only upon hearing this did Zhang Shutong realize that he had been panting for quite a while, yet his breathing showed no signs of stabilizing. Even if it wasn't a recurrence of some anxiety disorder, the air underground was too foul, completely unsuited for strenuous exercise.
Zhang Shutong made an effort to adjust his breathing, falling silent for a moment.
Lu Qinglian had already pulled out her phone:
"Are you certain the direction that car left toward was the hospital?"
"Eighty percent."
"Three minutes to recover." She closed her phone with a snap, turned her body around, her short hair tossing with the movement. "Remember to hide well behind me."
In truth, why would it take three minutes? After counting to less than a minute in his mind, Zhang Shutong nodded to Lu Qinglian.
The two walked toward the stairs one after the other. They hadn't closed that iron door when they came down, so they could directly walk back to the surface now. Even if the man launched a sudden attack, it would leave room to react.
One step, two steps, three steps, four steps... their footsteps had been quieted to the absolute minimum. Zhang Shutong followed behind Lu Qinglian, but specifically left a one-meter gap. This was to prevent sudden complications, leaving the other party no room to dodge.
Just as Lu Qinglian was about to step out of the stairwell entrance, Zhang Shutong pulled her coat hem. The young girl's steps paused, and Zhang Shutong shook the coat he had crumpled up long ago. Seeing this, she sidestepped, and Zhang Shutong threw it forcefully, repeating his old trick.
The sound of the clothes hitting the ground reached their ears. They listened quietly for a few seconds, then Lu Qinglian flicked her expandable baton, the tip tapping against the stone wall. Simultaneously, her toes suddenly exerted force—
This was the signal to act. Zhang Shutong also charged up the stairs along with her. In an instant, the two shifted from absolute stillness to absolute motion. By the time Zhang Shutong reached the surface in a few steps, Lu Qinglian had already rushed out of the old house.
—Regardless of what they encountered next, setting the location outdoors rather than inside an old house that could collapse at any moment was also something they had agreed upon long ago. But the moment Zhang Shutong's rear foot exited the house, her faint voice already rang out by his ear:
"Clear."
Turning his head to look, Lu Qinglian had circled around the back of the house. She retracted her expandable baton, her expression calm:
"There is no one near here."
"How is that possible?" Zhang Shutong said instinctively.
"Your judgment was flawed," she said. "There is another possibility: that person was the man seen on the rooftop of the building back then, and not the same one we are looking for."
Zhang Shutong furrowed his brows. Refusing to believe in bad luck, he switched on his flashlight and shone it around, but this was originally a patch of wasteland with an unobstructed field of view; where could any figure be seen?
But that car had clearly driven off in the direction of the hospital.
Could it be that the other party hadn't arrived yet? Had some situation occurred on the road?
A false alarm?
But this could no longer be counted as a "false" alarm; at least that man truly existed around them. But what exactly was the other party thinking?
Just then, Lu Qinglian said again:
"If it were me, I wouldn't have run back immediately, but would have followed that car. Even if I couldn't catch up, I could at least judge a clearer destination."
"I was a bit too hasty," Zhang Shutong sighed. "I was worried something would happen to you."
"...How is your illness?"
"Fine, it shouldn't have flared up." Zhang Shutong felt it carefully. Fresh air surged into his lungs, and aside from his heart thumping wildly, there wasn't that familiar sense of suffocation.
"Let's go," Lu Qinglian said without turning her head. "That's all for today. Tell me the detailed situation on the way."
As she spoke, she walked toward the old house again to close the iron door of the tunnel securely.
"I didn't see anything else, only the opponent's eyes. Honestly, it's completely impossible to judge anything from that." As Zhang Shutong spoke, he opened his photo album and walked up to Lu Qinglian's side in a few steps. "Look, it's like this..."
Lu Qinglian glanced at it. Perhaps she didn't discover anything further either, and retracted her gaze.
Zhang Shutong muttered:
"First time doing this kind of thing, didn't manage the angle well. If I had tilted the phone up a bit more then, never mind capturing his face, I could at least have captured the hat..."
"Speak clearly."
"That man wore a brown hat and drove a sedan, that's all." Zhang Shutong opened the front-facing camera and flipped his phone up and down. "I estimate this angle would do..."
As he spoke, he pressed the capture button, and a photo was frozen.
Zhang Shutong stared at the top of the photo, deep in thought:
"Yeah, roughly forty or fifty degrees is just right..."
A hand, however, snatched his phone away.
"How do I delete it?"
Lu Qinglian asked expressionlessly.
Only then did Zhang Shutong realize he had inadvertently left a selfie of the two of them on the phone:
"Sorry, there's a navigation bar below the photo. Click the delete button."
The moment the words left his mouth, Lu Qinglian handed the phone back to him.
Zhang Shutong looked at the album. A few seconds ago, a "group photo" had been right there. He looked at Lu Qinglian's retreating figure again, thinking to himself, actually, there's also a recycling bin, but you don't know that.
It might be that she inherently didn't like taking photos, or perhaps it was because she had changed her outfit today, or it could be that she disliked appearing in the same photo with another male, let alone a selfie.
But keeping this kind of photo was of no use to Zhang Shutong either—it wasn't like the one he took of Gu Qiumian back then. He was too lazy to play tricks, so he tapped open the recycling bin again.
The moment his finger tapped the screen, a sudden whim struck Zhang Shutong. Perhaps the photo Ruoping had begged him to take was exactly this kind, but given that Lu Qinglian didn't allow it, he certainly wouldn't take it upon himself to act arbitrarily, so it was better to delete it.
This was perhaps Lu Qinglian's first selfie.
Except because he had been studying the shooting angle at the time, the camera was pointing upward. Generally, in selfies, this was a death angle, but the young girl in the frame had a sharp face, which didn't detract from her beauty in the slightest.
And right between Lu Qinglian's head and his own, there was a tiny flash of light, resembling a beautiful star gleam.
Zhang Shutong stared absently at the photo.
"You really did it on purpose." Lu Qinglian had returned to his side at some unknown point. She slowly uttered a few words, yet the temperature around her seemed to drop below freezing.
The hairs on Zhang Shutong's neck stood on end.
"Wait..." He turned his head abruptly, looking toward the position of that flash of light. When the two took this photo, they were facing the old house, and the old house was located behind the hospital. In other words, the background of this photo was precisely the back wall of the hospital.
Zhang Shutong looked toward the back wall of the hospital. In the window on the second floor, the entire corridor was lit with a dim yellow light. But the way the light reflected in the photo didn't look like a star gleam, let alone that this bit of star gleam seemed to be stamped directly onto the window.
Zhang Shutong shifted his gaze rapidly, and immediately following that:
A brown hat appeared in his field of vision.
Not long ago, while staring at the photo, he had suddenly spotted a familiar shade of brown beneath the star gleam.
At this moment, Zhang Shutong finally confirmed his hypothesis—that wasn't any star gleam at all!
It was the metal ornament on the man's hat!
A wave of coldness swept through his entire body. That man had indeed come to the hospital after all. The other party hadn't rushed directly to the old house, but was silently observing them from the hospital corridor!
But why on earth?
Zhang Shutong still couldn't figure it out. Since that man was searching for "Ruoping," why didn't he ambush them directly, but instead kept observing the two from a distance that was neither too close nor too far?