When there were only a few steps left, Lin Sanjiu raised her head.
Just as she had expected, a three-seater sofa that took up most of the corridor and a brownish-red panda appeared in front of her again.
Lin Sanjiu sighed softly.
This was the point from which she had begun her ascent, and, after climbing three stories, she found herself back where she had started.
It seemed that she couldn't get out of these three flights of stairs using normal means.
"You guys, this is really like a ghost wall," Lin Sanjiu hugged her wings and lay down. Lin Sanjiu hugged her wings and lay down. She didn't want to leave, "I've read ghost stories in the past. They say that the urine of a virgin can break the spell."
As she said that, she looked at the red panda.
"Don't look at me when you say it's a virgin," Qing Jiuliu bared his teeth at her, "Don't insult me."
"I don't think so," the blue floral sofa interrupted, "I think we have fallen into someone's trap."
"It's that old woman, right? We didn't provoke her, so why is she targeting us? "
Lin Sanjiu looked at the two of them and thought of an idea. She stood up and walked to the door marked with the word "EXIT". She used her large body to push the door open and ordered, "You guys follow behind me. I will think of a way from inside the building … If there's no other way, I will jump out of the window and see if I can break this trap."
Hearing this, the little panda nimbly jumped onto the sofa and squeezed through the door as Ji Shanqing gritted his teeth and inched forward.
There seemed to be nothing unusual on the 16th floor.
The carpet was soaked in blood and dried over time, making it crunch when one stepped on it. The corridor was filled with the stench of iron and moldy. Compared to the top floor, it was even more unbearable. The rooms on the 19th floor and above were too expensive. Before the apocalypse came, they were all empty and in good condition. Unlike the 16th floor, there were a few rooms whose doors were still ajar because they were blocked by the corpses of the guests who had been staying there for a long time.
Although they were called corpses, they didn't look like humans anymore.
It was as if they had been bitten and cut after death. Most of the skeletons were exposed. There were dried skin and torn clothes hanging from the skeletons. The skeletons swayed with Lin Sanjiu's footsteps.
"It's almost the same as what I saw last time," Lin Sanjiu quickly checked the corridor and walked back. She said to the other two, "Wait for me here. I will try to climb up from the balcony."
After that, she pushed open the door beside her. Her large wings swept the broken corpses out of the room like a broom. Then, she strode into the room.
Each of the guest rooms on this side had a small exquisite balcony. Even though it was difficult for Lin Sanjiu to climb up without her hands, she could still reach the edge of the balcony with her beak if she flapped her wings and jumped with all her might. The two people who followed her into the room watched as the two large chicken claws clawed in the air for a few times before they finally climbed up the balcony and disappeared through the window.
The room fell into silence for a while.
"What do you think?" the reddish-brown panda suddenly asked after some time.
"I don't think so," the blue sofa sighed.
"What if we go downstairs?"
"If we go downstairs now, we will return to the 18th floor."
Qing Jiuliu was stunned. He turned around and looked at the sofa behind him, "Have you already —"
"Look," Ji Shanqing interrupted him, "Look outside the window."
As if to prove his words, something flew up from the edge of the small balcony. Using the force of the wings, a familiar bird's beak latched onto the iron railing. Gradually, Lin Sanjiu's hen form popped its head out from under the balcony, fluttering its wings with all its might. The moment her round, black eyes met the two people in the room, she let out a series of grumbling sounds. She was probably cursing.
"What the hell!"
This was the first thing she said after she finally stabilized her body.
"What's wrong with this third floor? Why can't we get out? " As the disheveled old hen walked into the room, tiny feathers fluttered in the air, "Should I jump down and try? I can still see the ground — "
"Don't do that," Ji Shanqing said hurriedly, "I think if you jump from the 16th floor, you'll fall from the 18th floor. Then, you'll keep falling from the 16th, 17th, and 18th floors. You'll never stop."
Lin Sanjiu raised her head and looked at the sofa in front of her. She didn't know where Ji Shanqing's "face" was, so she could only look around suspiciously, "Have you guessed what's going on?"
"Yeah, I have an answer. It's not that hard to guess," Ji Shanqing said shyly when he saw Lin Sanjiu's eyes lit up. When he saw Lin Sanjiu's eyes lit up, there was a tinge of shyness in his voice, "Even though I don't know whose ability or Special Item this is, the distance from the 16th floor to the 18th floor has probably turned into a section of the Möbius strip."
The term sounded so familiar that Lin Sanjiu frowned. Just when she was trying to recall where she had heard this term before, Qing Jiuliu replied with an "Ah!", "Ah! The strip that connects the beginning and the end and loops endlessly!"
"Yes, if you walk on the surface of the Möbius strip, you can walk on it endlessly," Ji Shanqing said in a low voice. "Isn't that similar to our current situation?"
"I vaguely remember this thing. I think it has something to do with mathematics," Lin Sanjiu replied. "Now that we know this, what should we do next?"
Her question was very constructive, but no one answered her.
Just when she was about to ask again, she suddenly saw the red panda raise his head. The red panda's bright black eyes slowly moved upward and stared behind her. Qing Jiuliu also quietened down, just like a real sofa.
"There's something behind me!"
Lin Sanjiu spun around abruptly. When her gaze fell on that thing, she was shocked.
Above the balcony, there was a head of black hair dangling in the air. Just as Lin Sanjiu saw it, the head of black hair suddenly shrunk and disappeared from the balcony. It seemed like someone was hanging upside down just now, looking into the balcony.
"Wait for me here —!"
Before the two people behind her could speak, the old hen had already dashed out. With a flap of her wings, she grabbed the iron railing of the balcony with her mouth and pulled the chicken up. Then, she disappeared from the balcony as well.
Qing Jiuliu sat up straight and stared at the balcony. However, he wasn't staring above him. Instead, he was staring at the bottom of the balcony.
If the head of black hair continued to move upward, it would soon appear from the bottom of the balcony.
After waiting for a few minutes, the edge of the balcony was still painted white. There was no sign of the black head that Qing Jiuliu had imagined. As for Lin Sanjiu, she had no idea where she had gone.
At this moment, Ji Shanqing spoke from behind.
"Qing — Qing Jiuliu?" For some reason, his voice suddenly became softer and a little shaky.
"This guy is pretty smart, but he's a little timid …" This thought flashed across Qing Jiuliu's mind. Without turning his head, he asked, "What do you want?"
Even though there was no saliva or esophagus, the blue floral sofa made a clear gulping sound.
"Just now … Someone touched the back of my chair."
The red panda immediately turned his neck. The fur on his back was already standing on end.
The back of the sofa was empty. There was no one there. Since the sofa was parked diagonally at the entrance, other than a wall, there was only a wide open door and a small section of the stained corridor that was exposed from the door.
"What do you mean by touched?" Qing Jiuliu asked in a low voice.
"I can't see behind me, but I feel like someone brushed against me when they walked past me," Ji Shanqing's voice was so soft that it was almost inaudible. "Anyway, I was touched by something."
[Could it be the owner of that head of black hair?]
The red panda grabbed the back of the sofa with his front paws and stood up with his hind legs. He cautiously peeked his eyes out.
His black eyes moved from left to right. The luggage table, the carpet, the light switch, the door, and the pile of broken bones under the door …
It didn't look any different from before. There was no "person" as Ji Shanqing said.
"Wait a minute."
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