Chapter 1

I was soaking in the bath when a message suddenly appeared on my phone.

【A serious murder has been reported in the city. The killer is still at large. Residents are advised to lock all doors and windows and remain indoors.】

Just then, someone knocked.

“Hello. Building management. We’re here to check your doors and windows.”

My hand trembled around the phone.

Our complex didn’t even have a management team.

“Hello. Building management. We’re here to check your doors and windows.”

The voice followed a burst of knocking.

Unfortunately, I was still in the bath.

I could hardly answer the door like this.

Without replying, I hurriedly got dressed.

I was about to open up when the news alert flashed through my mind.

To be safe, I put my eye to the peephole and quietly checked the corridor.

The man outside wore a security uniform, a cap, and a face mask. Holding a notebook and pen, he was looking down and writing something. I couldn’t tell what.

While I was still debating whether to open the door, the peephole suddenly went black.

Had the corridor light gone out?

But even if it had, I should still have been able to see the green glow of the exit sign.

Then I heard faint breathing through the door.

It slipped through the gap and into my ears, setting my skin crawling like the scrape of a cat’s claws.

My heart leaped into my throat.

The corridor light hadn’t gone out.

The man outside had pressed his face to my peephole.

I could picture him against the door, one eye wide open, staring through it.

Straight into mine.

I froze in terror. I didn’t even dare blink, let alone move.

I clamped a hand over my mouth to stop myself screaming.

I had just remembered: the residents had been feuding with management for ages.

The management staff had gone on strike long ago.

Why would someone suddenly come round tonight to inspect our doors and windows?

He peered through the peephole for a while, then pressed his ear to the door and listened for several minutes.

Only when he was satisfied there was no sound inside did he turn and knock on the apartment opposite.

“Hello. Building management. We’re here to check your doors and windows.”

His voice echoed through the empty stairwell.

I lived in 501.

Across from me was 502.

A single man of about thirty lived there. I didn’t know exactly what he did—IT, perhaps, or game streaming. He was withdrawn, rarely went out, and seemed rather anxious around people. An introvert, like me, probably.

We occasionally met in the lift.

He usually kept his head down and stood silently in the farthest corner.

But he was a decent person. Sometimes, if he saw a rubbish bag outside my door that I hadn’t had time to take down, he would take it for me.

After a few knocks, a man in pajamas opened the door, his hair a mess. They exchanged a few words in the doorway.

Then he invited the management worker inside.

The door slammed shut.

The corridor fell silent again.

Nothing about either of them seemed unusual.

Could he really be from management?

Then why had they come to inspect so late?

The more I thought about it, the less it made sense.

I opened the residents’ group chat on my phone to see whether I’d missed an announcement.

There was nothing.

I lived in a new complex, in the building farthest from the entrance. It had six floors, with two apartments on each floor.

The location was remote and transport inconvenient, so occupancy was low.

As far as I knew, only four or five apartments in my entire building were occupied.

Unable to find anything about management, I put my phone away in frustration.

Just then, a contact request arrived.

The sender’s name in the group was 0502—the man opposite.

His message read:

【Hello, I’m your neighbor across the hall. Did building management come to inspect your doors and windows tonight?】

The management worker had just gone into his apartment.

Why was he adding me to ask about it?

What was going on?

For a moment, I was at a loss.

I didn’t accept the request straightaway.

First, I decided to message the girl downstairs.

She was a university student. We’d had a misunderstanding over a parcel taken by mistake, then added each other on WeChat.

If management was inspecting the building, they would normally work their way up.

Of course, they might be starting at the top.

Still, it was safer to ask.

【Hi, I’m your neighbor directly upstairs. Has anyone from management come to inspect your doors and windows tonight?】

I waited a long time, phone in hand, but no reply came.

I checked the time. Nearly ten.

Was she asleep already?

0502 hadn’t sent anything else either.

Then it struck me that the management worker had been inside 0502 for quite a while.

Did it really take more than twenty minutes to check doors and windows?

I had stayed near my own front door the whole time. I hadn’t heard anyone come out of 0502.

I looked through the peephole again.

The corridor was dark.

Only the exit sign gave off a faint green glow.

The long, dark passage looked terrifying, like a black hole waiting to swallow me.

I pulled away.

My phone vibrated twice in my pocket.

The girl downstairs had replied.

【Yes, they just finished checking mine.】

I breathed a silent sigh of relief.

The news alert must have made me paranoid.

People really could scare you to death.

I shook my head, but my eyes drifted back to the message.

Something about it felt wrong.

I couldn’t put my finger on it.

The management worker had been in there for almost half an hour.

What sort of inspection could possibly take so long?

I sent the girl another message.

【Sorry to bother you again. About how long does it take them to check the doors and windows?】

【About half an hour】

Such a short reply.

Yet it sent a chill down my spine.

I had finally realized what was wrong.

I scrolled back through our chat history.

The girl downstairs was a university student.

Whenever we’d messaged before, she always added an emoji or a sticker, whatever she was saying.

Sometimes a puppy, sometimes a kitten.

But these two replies were curt and concise.

No stickers. Not even any punctuation.

While I was thinking about it, a door opened in the corridor.

I immediately pressed close to mine and looked out.

The management worker came out.

He closed the door, jotted a few lines in his notebook, then turned and left.

Soon, he disappeared from the peephole’s field of view.

I heard the lift doors open and close.

Then nothing.

I checked the time.

He had been inside for exactly thirty-one minutes.

Almost the same as the girl downstairs had said.

Was I really overthinking this?

The corridor light went out.

Everything sank into darkness again.

I watched for a little longer. Only after I was sure nothing was wrong did I turn back into my apartment.

The complex was quiet at night.

Now and then, I heard a cat mewing softly.

Thinking of that evening’s news alert, I felt no trace of sleepiness.

I stood by the window with a glass of milk.

At the entrance to our building was an iron gate. You needed a card to get in or out.

The gate made a loud noise when it opened or closed.

But I had been standing by the window for a long time and still hadn’t heard it shut.

Had the management worker not left yet?

But no one lived on the sixth floor.