Chapter 11
Chapter 11
A series of uncontrollable shivers began from Song Qingxiao’s back and slowly spread across her body as soon as the voice of the office lady—number two—rang out. The feeling of impending death that she felt when her assailant stabbed her throat had returned. She lifted her neck subconsciously and took a deep breath in.
The tank was cramped inside. However, with the heavy lid blocking out most of the light and the sewage water covering her lower half, it felt like the air inside the tank was very thin.
As soon as she raised her neck, she froze and exhaled very slowly. She moved to touch her throat with the back of her hand stiffly as she tried to force herself to calm down and keep a lid on her fear of death.
“Number nine?”
Number two continued to call out for Song Qingxiao. Her voice seemed to get closer. Based on the sound of her footsteps, it seemed like she had already entered the part of the factory where Song Qingxiao hid. Her soft, feminine voice sounded eerie in the strange environment.
It was even worse because the office woman had deliberately lowered her voice to make it sound more warm and gentle. Her voice echoed against the old, tattered walls of the factory and gave off a terrifying feeling of suppressed resentment. It was enough to send another wave of shivers down Song Qingxiao’s back.
As her voice drew closer, the sound of grass rustling could be heard. Occasionally, her footsteps would stop. Song Qingxiao was in such a state of heightened anxiety that she felt like she had an out-of-body experience.
It felt like her soul had left her body, and she could ‘see’ herself crouched in the water tank. She did not dare to move, and her face was as pale as a sheet. She looked like a corpse, just like when she was stabbed in the alley.
She felt like she could ‘see’ the office lady walk towards the tanks cautiously as she lowered her head to examine Song Qingxiao’s tracks when she entered previously. The office lady tried to figure out where Song Qingxiao hid.
“You should just come out.”
Number two’s voice seemed to come from different places. It was clear that she was moving around the factory. Apart from that, Song Qingxiao could not hear any other sounds. Based on the prompt in her mind, she knew that the doctor was still alive since three unopened cards were left. It was likely that he was standing in a corner observing the scene quietly.
Song Qingxiao’s heart began to pound faster. The office lady’s footsteps began to draw closer. She stopped calling out for Song Qingxiao, so the only sounds that could be heard were the sound of her clothes brushing against the tank and her footsteps on the grass. The strange silence made her even more panicked.
After a few minutes, the footsteps sounded very close to the tank Song Qingxiao hid in. In her state of heightened anxiety, she was highly susceptible to the sound and seemed to hear something that sounded like a loud knocking on the side of the water tank.
The office lady spoke in a low voice that carried the hint of a smile.
“I’ve found you…”
Her words and tone nearly caused Song Qingxiao to scream out in terror. However, she felt like something was wrong. She bit her tongue as soon as she realized that something was off and resisted the urge to scream. She was worried that she would be found instantly if she made a sound.
Even though she did not scream, she began to sweat all over while in a state of extreme terror. Beads of cold sweat appeared all over her body, and her body temperature began to drop. She began to shiver without noticing.
Thankfully, the office lady continued to knock against the tank after she had finished talking. When she did not hear any sound coming from inside the tank, she quickly left.
She walked to another tank and seemed to knock against it softly. She lowered her voice and said, “I can see you…”
As soon as Song Qingxiao heard that, her stiff body seemed to relax. She understood that the office lady had not truly discovered her. She was merely acting to force Song Qingxiao out of hiding. It proved that the doctor was very likely to be nearby, watching over the situation. He would pounce in to kill her as soon as the office lady found her.
Her heart began to beat faster. Her heart raced so quickly that she felt as though she was about to faint.
That was not the time to faint!
Hence, she bit down hard on her tongue once again until she could taste blood in her mouth. However, her actions made her recall the blood that dripped into her mouth when she killed number six. She suddenly felt a strong urge to vomit.
All she could feel was a faint, dull pain despite having bitten through her tongue. It might be due to how terrified and nervous she was at the moment. She chewed on her tongue a few more times because the pain seemed to help her calm down.
After the office lady had completely explored the whole area and discovered nothing strange, she became a little impatient and screamed loudly. She no longer pretended to be warm and friendly.
“Maybe she’s not here?”
As soon as she said that, Song Qingxiao was certain that the doctor was close by. The doctor must have realized that the office lady had blown their cover. He stopped in his tracks and sighed. It was a long while before he spoke.
“That’s not possible.”
He was the person she had trusted earlier in the space, yet, she got goosebumps when she heard his voice.
“Number one’s corpse is close by, but number six’s body has disappeared.”
He was methodical in his analysis.
“This area is covered in tracks. Number nine is extremely clever. She deliberately covered her tracks so that it would interfere with our judgment.”
Song Qingxiao heard the doctor’s words through the tank. It felt odd to be complimented. After all, she was not from a noble lineage, and she had a low societal status. Not to mention her father’s criminal record and her mother’s drinking problem. She gently moved her finger to touch her dagger. She felt a little safer after that.
The doctor continued to say, “However, she missed something.”
His tone was casual and light, but it made Song Qingxiao’s heart nearly leap out of her chest.
“If I’m not mistaken, she must have dragged number six’s body here to dispose of it.” The doctor paused for a moment before he continued to say, “Since everyone has different body weights, the depths of our footsteps are different as well. She must have supported number six on her back, which explains why the footprints here are deeper, and the grass here appears crushed from being trampled over.”
Song Qingxiao raised her chin and pursed her lips as she desperately took small breaths. The doctor seemed to take a few steps, drawing closer to where Song Qingxiao hid.
“She might be hiding here.”
What the doctor said was true. The tracks that she left behind as she was carrying someone else’s weight would be deeper. Even if Song Qingxiao put more effort into covering her tracks, it was unlikely that she could trick such an intelligent person like the doctor.
Knock knock knock.
The sound of knocking rang out. It seemed like the doctor had curled a finger and was tapping lightly on different tanks as he walked.
“Is she here, or here? Perhaps she’s somewhere over there?”
As soon as the office lady heard his words, she seemed to take a few steps back. The tone in her voice seemed to become warier.
“Is she here or not?”
“I’m not sure. Perhaps she’s hiding on her own, but she might be hiding with number six’s corpse as well.” The doctor went deep into thought.
The office lady mustered some courage and suggested, “Should we… Should we lift the lids of the tanks?”
As soon as she said that, the doctor paused and smiled.
“You should go ahead to find some dried leaves and twigs so that we can light a fire here.”
As he spoke, he seemed to be shaking something in his hand since Song Qingxiao could hear a clicking sound. It sounded like a lighter. She could even hear the tiny ‘whoosh’ it made when the flame was ignited.
“It’s the perfect time to use the lighter left behind by number seven.”
The doctor’s suggestion was extremely vicious in that situation. Song Qingxiao shivered, and the hand that she used to hold the phone moved subconsciously to lift up the lid covering the tank.
However, she suddenly remembered the trick where the woman pretended to know which tank Song Qingxiao was in. The doctor must be using a similar mind game to get the woman to leave so that he could lure Song Qingxiao out.
‘What should I do?’ wondered Song Qingxiao.
Her heart was racing, and it felt like it was about to jump out of her chest. The odds were against her in that situation. The three of them had blood on their hands, which proved that their desire to live was extremely strong. The office lady and the doctor seemed to have formed an alliance. Hence, things would be very dangerous for her if she was discovered.
“I’m going to count to three. You should show yourself by then…”
The doctor spoke as his gaze swept over all the large water tanks in the factory.
“One…”
“Two…”
He drawled out each word. However, before he could count to three, the office woman spoke. It turned out that she was still here.
“Why don’t we move some of these tanks so that we can get a better look?”
The doctor seemed to silently agree with her suggestion as their footsteps began to draw closer to where Song Qingxiao hid. The doctor pointed out several large tanks that appeared more suspicious, including the one that Song Qingxiao was hiding in.
Amid her terror, she was keenly aware of the doctor’s fingertips scratching against the body of the tank she was in. His fingernails grazed across the tank, making an unpleasant noise. The screech made her feel helpless, like her life was entirely in the hands of those two people.
In the next moment, the doctor removed his finger from the tank she hid in and pointed towards another. “Open that one,” he ordered.
As soon as the lid was removed, a shrill screech could be heard. The doctor seemed to be out of luck. The office lady said disappointedly, “It’s empty.”
The doctor selected three large tanks. The first one that he picked was empty. There were still two left. If the tank that Song Qingxiao hid in was chosen next, she would be in tremendous danger.
On the other hand, if the tank containing number six’s corpse was discovered first, she might be able to fool the doctor and the office lady, giving Song Qingxiao a chance to escape.
Luck seemed to be on Song Qingxiao’s side. Once the doctor made his second choice, the two of them pushed aside the lid together, and the office lady inhaled sharply. Number six’s body lay inside with his head down and his legs up!
“He’s in here!” The office lady’s voice wavered when she saw number six’s dead body. Song Qingxiao could not tell if she was relieved or terrified.
The tank was huge. They could not see the middle-aged man’s face from their angle. All they could see were his legs floating upwards. The doctor frowned and ordered the office lady, “Climb into the tank to have a look at his body.”
He wanted to know how Song Qingxiao killed the middle-aged man. He also wanted to see if she might be hiding under the corpse. The office lady was evidently respectful of the doctor and heeded his instructions obediently. However, at that moment, she hesitated. In the end, she climbed into the tank, trembling as she did so.
The middle-aged man was short and fat. After Song Qingxiao had tossed him into the tank, his corpse was snug inside the tank. His head was tilted at an angle that no living person could have made.
His face loomed inside the sewage water. The office lady got a fright when she saw it.
“No, number nine isn’t here!”
She got out of the tank and landed on the ground with a plonk. The doctor looked a little disappointed as he said, “Is she really not there? I guess we’ll have to search somewhere else…”
As soon as they said that, Song Qingxiao closed her eyes tightly as she sat in the tank. Her tense body began to relax slightly. The doctor and the office woman’s footsteps could be heard leaving the area. Song Qingxiao felt her heart settle to its original position instead of being stuck in her throat.
Previously, when the doctor and the office lady stood extremely close to her tank, she did not dare to breathe. She held her breath for such a long time that the lack of oxygen made her go limp as soon as she relaxed her body.
Those two people had formed an alliance and were working together. Since they had joined forces, their chances of survival were far greater than someone working alone. Number seven was a great example of it.
Once the two of them had left and discovered that they could not find Song Qingxiao, their fragile alliance was bound to fail over time. If the office lady and the doctor’s alliance began to break down due to infighting, they would start to turn on each other and slaughter the other. Only then would Song Qingxiao have a glimmer of hope at survival.
She had just begun to relax and was preparing to check the prompt in her mind when out of nowhere, the tank she was in was forcefully hit by someone. The tank had been left alone for ages to the extent that its bottom had sunk into the ground. Hence, the first blow had merely caused the tank to sway but not topple.
However, the first hit was swiftly followed by the second!