Chapter 21: Not Finished Yet |
The "M8313" that Shen Mo had regarded as a common batch number on the construction log, and the twisted symbol representing the "thirteenth-step abyss" that Chen Jianguo repeatedly drew in his dreams—two seemingly parallel lines that would never intersect—finally found a bizarre point of convergence in his rapidly operating brain.
"M" rotated ninety degrees is "Σ," which represents "sum" in mathematics.
And 8313, if broken down, 8 turned on its side is the infinity symbol "∞," representing an endless cycle; 3 represents the three known deceased; and 13 is the fatal step.
A terrifying thought split the fog like lightning: this batch number was not a random code at all, but a curse, an epitaph written with numbers and letters—the sum of all the dead souls will infinitely repeat their deaths on the thirteenth step.
"Wanying," Shen Mo's voice became unusually hoarse due to this discovery. He suddenly grabbed Su Wanying's arm, the force of his grip startling her. "We might have been going in the wrong direction from the very beginning. The 'echo cluster' is not three, but more. What Old Xu said, 'more than three people were present,' didn't refer to bystanders, but to... victims."
Before he could finish his sentence, a piercing sound of metal scraping against metal rang out from the old street outside the window, as if countless rusty fingernails were scratching a blackboard.
The two rushed to the window. On both sides of the street below, the iron handrails attached to the outside of all the old-style residential buildings were "sweating" at a visible rate.
It was not ordinary water vapor, but a dark red, viscous liquid, carrying a thick, fishy smell mixed with rust and decaying wood.
It seeped out from the metal joints and welds, slowly trickling down, leaving shocking tear-like streaks on the gray concrete walls.
"The phenomenon is... synchronizing and expanding," Su Wanying's face turned deathly pale. It wasn't that she hadn't seen bizarre scenes before, but such a large-scale, infectious anomaly had already surpassed the scope of "information residue" and was more like... a viral spread.
Shen Mo's phone rang urgently. It was a colleague from the city bureau's data center, monitoring all related buildings in the city.
"Shen Mo! Something big has happened! All forty-seven registered M8313 batch staircases in the city showed varying degrees of structural stress anomalies three minutes ago! The accelerometer readings have all gone off the charts! It's like hundreds of people are jumping on them at the same time! They're... resonating!"
Resonating.
The word hit Shen Mo's heart like a heavy hammer.
He understood.
Their "information burial" of the stone tablet at the warehouse ruins had not pacified the echo. Instead, it was like throwing a huge stone into a pool of stagnant water.
After the three names were "heard," their echoes found peace and detached from the original cluster.
But this fragile balance was broken, leading to the complete activation of a deeper, more powerful core echo.
That new cry for help—"There are still us"—was the roar of this core being awakened.
"We must find Old Xu immediately!" Shen Mo made a decisive decision and hung up the phone. "Only he knows who the fourth voice is!"
He dialed the number for Old Xu that he had gotten from the teahouse owner. The receiver only gave a cold, busy tone.
A sense of foreboding enveloped him.
He and Su Wanying didn't even have time to pack their equipment. They rushed out of the "weeping" building and drove straight to Old Xu's residence in the north of the city.
As they sped along, the city seemed to be shrouded in an invisible haze.
When passing by those old residential areas, they could always see some residents pointing in horror at their own staircases. The dark red water stains had already spread from the handrails to the steps, like a network of blood vessels.
Old Xu's home was an old, single-story courtyard. When Shen Mo and Su Wanying arrived, the courtyard gate was ajar.
Pushing the gate open, a thick smell of panic rushed to meet them.
Old Xu was not in the house, but was curled up under the old locust tree in the center of the courtyard, his body trembling even more violently than the last time at the teahouse.
His eyes were wide open, staring intently at the empty ground in front of him, his mouth repeatedly muttering something in a hoarse, on the verge of collapse whisper.
"...Don't come over... don't step... it will collapse... Zhang Yuan! Come back! Don't go to the thirteenth step!"
Su Wanying immediately realized that Old Xu had fallen into some kind of strong hallucination, or rather, had been dragged back into the abyss of memory from thirty years ago by the enhanced "echo."
Shen Mo strode forward, crouched in front of him, and did not try to wake him up. Instead, he followed his words and asked in a very low voice, as if whispering, "Who is Zhang Yuan? Old Xu, tell me, who is Zhang Yuan?"
This name was like a key, instantly unlocking Old Xu's sealed fear.
He suddenly raised his head, his bloodshot eyes clearly reflecting Shen Mo's face for the first time.
He grabbed Shen Mo's collar, his strength surprisingly great, his fingernails almost digging into the fabric.
"Devils... you are devils... you woke it up!" he screamed. "Thirty years! It was sleeping soundly! Why did you have to wake it up!"
"We buried Li Zhizhong, Wang Haisheng, and Zhao Dequan," Shen Mo looked directly into his eyes and said, word by word, "But there is still a voice crying for help. Is that voice Zhang Yuan? If you don't say it, the entire city will be dragged down with it!"
"Buried?" Old Xu let out a shrill laugh like an owl. "You think that was rest? No! That was a sacrifice! You used the names of those three people to feed the guard dogs at the gate, and now... the gates of hell are open!"
He suddenly let go, collapsing to the ground, cloudy tears welling up from the corners of his wrinkled eyes.
"Zhang Yuan... he was Manager Zhang's only son," Old Xu's voice trembled, as if every word was tinged with blood. "Zhang Hongyuan... our manager in the quality inspection department. That kid had just graduated from the architecture academy, with a kind of bookish foolishness. He came to the construction site for an internship, to supervise his father's project."
Shen Mo and Su Wanying exchanged a look, their hearts shaking violently.
The person they had always thought was responsible had such an unknown relationship.
"When that batch of damp wood arrived, everyone turned a blind eye. Only that kid... only Zhang Yuan, holding a humidity detector, measured it over and over again, then rushed into his father's office and had a huge fight, saying that this batch of wood absolutely could not be used, that it would kill people."
Old Xu closed his eyes in pain, as if unwilling to recall anymore.
"Manager Zhang was forced into a corner. In front of everyone, he slapped his son, cursed him for not understanding the ways of the world, and locked him in the office. Then... then he called me over and signed that quality inspection report."
"When the accident happened," Old Xu's voice was as low as a mosquito's buzz, "Li Zhizhong and the other two were installing handrails on the thirteenth step. No one expected that Zhang Yuan, who had been locked up, would climb out of the window of the second-floor office. He wanted to go to the scene to stop the construction... He rushed up the stairs, shouting 'Come down quickly.' The moment he stepped on the thirteenth step, trying to pull the workers... the stairs collapsed."
The air seemed to freeze.
A truth far darker and heavier than dereliction of duty and disregard for human life had surfaced.
"Four people," Su Wanying murmured, her voice filled with an incredible compassion. "Four people fell to their deaths."
"No!" Old Xu suddenly opened his eyes, his eyes filled with endless despair. "Three died! The one who survived was a madman! Manager Zhang held his son's mangled body and sat in the ruins all night. The next day, he was like a different person. He burned all of Zhang Yuan's internship records and files and used a large sum of money to silence all of us. To the public, he only claimed that three workers had fallen due to drunkenness. He didn't even... he didn't even erect a tombstone for his own son. He said that Zhang Yuan shouldn't have died, so he 'never died,' he just 'went missing'."
Shen Mo finally understood. He completely understood.
Li Zhizhong, Wang Haisheng, and Zhao Dequan, their resentment was "not finished, the stairs can't stop," their demand was "to be heard," because they had died unjustly.
And Zhang Yuan, the young man whose existence had been erased by his own father, what was his echo?
Not injustice, but a deeper obsession.
His last words before he died were "Come down quickly," his last action was "to prevent the tragedy."
His echo was forcibly suppressed and buried by his father in an extreme way, buried in the deepest part of the entire M8313 batch project.
That batch number, M8313, was not an epitaph at all.
M was for Manager Zhang Hongyuan.
8 was a homophone for his surname "Zhang."
3 was for the three workers.
13 was for the thirteenth step.
This was not a curse, but a father's twisted monument and confession: I, Zhang Hongyuan, on the thirteenth step, along with three workers, buried my son.
"We buried the names of three people, like moving three small tombstones from a huge grave," Shen Mo stood up and looked towards the city center, where tall buildings stood, but also where the most M8313 staircases were hidden. "We disturbed the soul in the main tomb. Zhang Yuan's echo, after being suppressed for thirty years, has finally been awakened. His obsession is to 'prevent,' so he wants to prevent all M8313 staircases from being used, in the most extreme way."
Those bleeding handrails, those steps on the verge of collapse, were all Zhang Yuan's warnings.
"Then... that new cry for help, 'not finished yet'..." Su Wanying asked in a trembling voice.
"It's not Li Zhizhong and the others," Shen Mo's voice was low and grave. "It's Zhang Yuan. He didn't finish the road he wanted to walk—a road to prevent tragedy and reveal the truth. Now, he wants to drag the entire city along with him to finish it."
(End of Chapter)