Episode 4

"How dare you, you shameless lot! Sitting in your car, with the air conditioning running, while we suffer! Huh?"

With a dull thud against the car door, a garbled shout erupted from the street, startling Lin Sanjiu. The figure she had seen was momentarily thrown off course, and she quickly slammed her foot on the brake, the car screeching in a painful, high-pitched cry, barely avoiding a collision with the guardrail.

Looking back, she saw a man, his bare chest slick with sweat, clutching a few bricks and furiously hurling them at the red Mazda from earlier, shouting as he did: "You scoundrels... Get out here, get out..." Before he could finish, his body lurched backward and he fainted.

It was clear that she had been caught in the crossfire of some misfortune.

Lin Sanjiu let out a relieved sigh, glancing nervously into the rearview mirror. Her heart was still racing from the shock. Frenzied behavior, fainting, and hallucinations were all signs of severe dehydration caused by extreme heat.

She took a deep breath and accelerated, heading straight for the residential complex where Zhu Mei lived.

She had visited Zhu Mei’s home many times before—twenty minutes later, when the headlights illuminated the sign that read "Rongjun Community," Lin Sanjiu slowly stopped the car and turned off the engine. She grabbed her keys, slung her bag over her shoulder, and switched on her flashlight as she walked toward the gates of the complex.

The complex was in a secluded area, usually devoid of people, and now it was eerily silent, like a dead city. But as she neared the large iron gate, a sudden chill ran through her spine, causing her to halt in her tracks.

After surveying the area, she found nothing unusual. Cautiously, she waited for another two minutes. When no change occurred, she let out a small sigh of relief.

It seemed that her "sharp intuition" wasn't always spot-on.

Rongjun Community was an old building from the 1990s, and like many such buildings, it had a guard post at the entrance. Because the area was considered unsafe, the gate was locked at midnight. However, if someone arrived late, they could knock, and the guard on duty would come to open the gate.

Checking her watch, it was now two-thirty in the morning. Lin Sanjiu approached and shook the locked gate, the heavy brass padlock clanging loudly. The sound echoed sharply, slowly fading away, but the surrounding area remained still, devoid of life.

"Guard, are you there? I'm here to visit Unit 2. Could you open the gate for me?" Her clear voice carried far in the quiet night. Despite the hopeful tone, there was no response from the guardhouse.

With a sigh, she had expected as much. Lin Sanjiu looked up at the iron bars atop the gate, designed to prevent climbing, her head beginning to throb. The gate, though old, had recently been reinforced, offering no hope of easily bypassing it.

Hesitating, she placed her hand on the gate.

"Dispel it!" she whispered. Once again, white light flared up from her palm. But this time, the light seemed weaker, flickering erratically several times before finally dissipating, leaving the gate unchanged. This was her first attempt to manipulate such a large, heavy object, and she felt her heartbeat quicken, her breath shallow, her muscles aching.

It felt as though her body was weighed down by thousands of pounds of iron, her arms trembling. Just as she was about to collapse, another flash of light burst forth, followed by the sound of a "snap."

The iron gate vanished, turning into a card that fell to the ground. The card, drawn in crude crayon strokes, depicted two iron gates, with a label in the corner:

【Iron Gate】

Rongjun Community installed two iron gates in 2012. They weigh approximately 300 kilograms.

Function: None particularly special, cannot stand if not installed in a wall.

Lin Sanjiu had almost grown accustomed to these useless, faulty cards. With a flick of her wrist, she stuffed it into her pocket and hurried toward Zhu Mei’s building.

Behind her, the guardhouse remained eerily silent.

When Lin Sanjiu arrived at the door of Unit 401, she was gasping for breath. The earlier attempt to dispel the gate had drained her of energy, and climbing four flights of stairs had left her winded. She could barely steady her voice as she called out, "Zhu... Zhu Mei! Are you there... open the door, it's... it's Xiao Jiu!"

The apartment remained quiet. Lin Sanjiu's heart sank—what if Zhu Mei had collapsed inside? She had already transformed three objects tonight: Ren Nan's corpse, his hair, and the iron gate. She only had one transformation left, but Zhu Mei's home had two doors.

Desperately, she continued knocking, growing more anxious by the second. As she had noticed when she got out of the car, the temperature seemed to be rising steadily, and judging by how hot she felt, it was definitely well above 59°C. Could Zhu Mei, an ordinary person, endure this heat?

After some time, Lin Sanjiu’s throat felt like it was burning, and she had to pause to drink water. As she returned the bottle to her bag and was about to knock again, the door to Unit 401 creaked open just slightly.

"Zhu Mei, are you okay—" Lin Sanjiu let out a sigh of relief and quickly shone the flashlight inside.

However, the person who opened the door wasn’t Zhu Mei. It was a woman in her fifties, with an oval face. She instinctively shielded her eyes from the light, but the brief moment was enough for Lin Sanjiu to recognize her.

"Bang!" Lin Sanjiu's phone slipped from her hand and crashed to the floor. She stared, wide-eyed, at the woman in the doorway, her hand fumbling to pick up her phone. The trembling light of the flashlight once again illuminated the door as Lin Sanjiu finally found her voice. "…Mom?"

Her mind went blank. "Mom, how... how are you here? Are you okay... what’s going on?"

"Xiao Jiu!" The middle-aged woman’s voice trembled, almost in tears. She hurriedly opened the door. "Thank goodness you're alright! I've been so worried..."

Lin Sanjiu, in a daze, was pulled inside by her mother and stood in the hallway. Her thoughts were in turmoil, but she couldn’t find the words to speak. As she stood frozen, her gaze drifted to the white shoe cabinet next to her. She recognized it instantly—it was the one she had bought with Zhu Mei when they went shopping together.

"Mom, how are you here? Where’s Zhu Mei?"

Lin's mother wiped her tears, pulled out a chair, and gestured for Lin Sanjiu to sit. Once she did, she spoke through choked sobs, "Since the weather became so strange, I've been worried sick about you. When I heard the power grid had collapsed here, I rushed over... I tried calling you, but couldn't get through. So I came to Zhu Mei's place, hoping to wait for you. But... it seems Zhu Mei... isn’t well."

Lin’s mother broke into sobs. "She’s a good girl... I know you two are close. Please, don’t be too sad."

Lin Sanjiu sat motionless for a while, her phone flashlight now turned off, plunging the room into darkness.

"I was prepared for this... If fate has claimed her, there's nothing to be done. But at least you're okay, Mom. That's all that matters..." Lin Sanjiu murmured into the darkness.

Lin's mother nodded, though she knew her daughter couldn’t see. Wiping her face, she smiled and said, "Your dad’s fine too, he's resting in the room. I'll go get him."

"I’ll go too." Lin Sanjiu quickly rose to her feet. Her mother nodded as she walked towards the bedroom, pushing open the door. "Old man..."

But just as she spoke, a rush of wind swept from behind. Lin’s mother was caught off guard, a heavy blow striking her head with a loud "clank." She collapsed to the ground, revealing Lin Sanjiu’s figure standing behind her.

Lin Sanjiu, her arms trembling from holding the chair aloft, slowly lowered it. But she didn’t release her grip; instead, she clenched the handle tightly, her gaze fixed warily on the bedroom door. In the stillness of the room, the only sound was her heavy breathing.

Soon after, footsteps sounded behind the bedroom door, and it was thrown open with force. A tall, broad-shouldered man stood in the doorway, his face filled with shock and anger as he stared at the scene. In the dim light, he bore a striking resemblance to Lin Sanjiu.

"Xiao Jiu, what is this?! That’s your mother!" he bellowed.

The face opposite him, bearing an almost identical expression, was cold and unblinking.

"Let’s cut the nonsense," Lin Sanjiu inhaled deeply, feeling the fatigue in her muscles intensify. "My parents died in a car crash ten years ago. I handled everything from identifying their bodies to their burial... Who are you two, really? And where is my friend?"

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