The soundproofing effect of asbestos is very strong; I can’t hear anything.
To be honest, when I stood in front of the door, my sense of time collapsed. What might have only been a few minutes of hesitation felt like a long time, to the point where I felt dazed, and I even felt my pores tighten, feeling a bit cold.
I rummaged through that LV bag, which was a signature bag for young girls, containing cosmetics, sunscreen, a cardholder, a coin purse, keys, tissues, and sanitary pads. The bag was a counterfeit; you could tell just by the feel of the leather. Besides these items, there was also a wrench and a set of lock-picking tools. And a pack of Marlboro cigarettes and a lighter.
I almost reflexively lit one up; the first puff brought my senses back to reality.
A long time ago, I realized what the essence of luck is: most of the luck in this world originates from one’s own state. I had two instances when I was rushing for a bus and a train, forgetting to zip up my backpack, causing my laptop to fall out and break its screen.
At that time, I wasn’t particularly wealthy, and I was quite frustrated both times, but those incidents happened because I was in a hurry and in a bad state of mind, leading to a series of unfortunate events. While packing up the broken screen, I accidentally took out my train ticket from my bag, which fell into the gap between the train and the platform. Overall, it felt like God was pushing me to the bottom.
But if you think about it carefully, you will realize that my state was already problematic when I left home. Later, when I encountered such situations again, I would stop my actions and not even step out the door. If I had to face it, I would calm myself down temporarily and carefully think through the specific steps of the situation. Then, under strong self-reflection and self-awareness, I would complete things one by one.
So although I wasn’t particularly lucky, the number of unfortunate events clearly decreased a lot.
At this moment, my instincts also told me that I couldn’t let my instincts drive me to act without being aware of the situation; I needed to organize and reflect on myself. So before I opened that door, I took a small part from the drawer in the living room and hid it in the sole of my shoe. That part is the key component for opening the door from the inside.
I opened the steel door very carefully, little by little, and the light inside was on. Immediately, a foul smell of feces and urine wafted through the air.
I peeked inside; at first glance, I didn’t see anyone in there. Without hesitation, I walked in and locked the door behind me.
The cigar room had three sets of lights; one set was on now, casting a soft yellow light. I turned on all three sets, illuminating the room thoroughly. I then saw my prey; she stood in the corner of the room, in the shadow of the light, like a ghost.
She was standing; was she still alive?
I took a puff of my cigarette and looked at her. She remained motionless, and I could see that all the furnishings in the room had been moved. Two sofas had been stacked up and moved under the ventilation duct. She must have tried to escape through the duct but failed; many parts of the floor had been pried open. She had also looked for opportunities under the floor.
I felt a bit reassured, but as I approached her, she still didn’t move, and I noticed her standing posture was somewhat strange. I began to feel scared again.
“You can go; I won’t call the police,” I said to her in the darkness.
She remained motionless. I picked up the ashtray from the table and threw it at the person in the shadow. She didn’t dodge; the ashtray hit her, and she slowly fell down, out of the shadow.
It was a girl with glasses, somewhat tall, who hadn’t eaten for seven days and looked a bit emaciated. She wasn’t particularly outstanding in appearance, but she wasn’t unattractive either. What surprised me was that she was very young, probably not even 20.
She was dressed lightly, with her pants rolled up to reveal her ankles, and her wrists were very noticeable, with a rough tattoo of an electrocardiogram on her wrist.
Seven days without food won’t kill a person; usually, one dies of thirst after seven days. I saw her chest still rising and falling, and I heard a dripping sound coming from where she had been standing.
I walked over and found that she had smashed open the wall and discovered the air conditioning drainage pipe of the fresh air system; the pipe was dripping water.
This water was from the air, although it wasn’t much, but it had kept her alive until now.
Suddenly, I felt a sense of respect; in despair, human creativity is truly boundless. How did she find this pipe? How did she manage to smash open the wall bit by bit? Only she knows.
I used the part to open the door from the inside, brought in some water from outside, and poured it into her. I placed her on the sofa. I knew she should be fine now, and I felt a bit relieved. I sat on the sofa opposite her, initially savoring the quick relief of anxiety in my body, when suddenly the girl opened her eyes and looked at me.
Then she immediately looked at the door and shouted, “The door! The door will close!” Saying this, she fearfully jumped off the sofa, crawled to the door, and pulled it hard; the door didn’t budge.
She started crying, banging her head against the door. I rushed over to grab her; she cried and kicked the door. After a while, she suddenly quieted down, turned to look at me, and asked, “Who are you? Are you trapped too?”