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She saw herself wearing her favorite bright red silk nightgown, hanging high on the ceiling in front of the bed. A wisp of black hair hung down, obscuring her face, and above her was her favorite orchid chandelier.

She had already hanged herself? She actually witnessed the scene of her violent death!

Li Hui was somewhat confused about herself on and off screen; she felt as if she had already entered into a certain role.

To confirm what she was seeing, she flicked the lighter in her right hand back on. The same candles were scattered throughout the bedroom, with a few extra placed on the computer desk.

She lit the candles one by one, and immediately the room became filled with ghostly figures.

She saw her "body" hanging from the ceiling, casting many shadows on the wall. The long sash of her nightgown dragged on the floor, and the dark, snake-like shadows cast on the wall looked like the long other end of the rope that was suspending her.

A sheet of white paper of the same size was also displayed on the computer screen, with today's email content printed on it:

"The final day of the death timeline: A special gift for you!"

Li Hui suddenly realized: she was still alive!

All of this was specially prepared for her by the murderer, to drive her insane...

She sat on the edge of the bed, staring blankly at her "hanged" self. She wanted to go up and pull the overly realistic "actor" down, but she didn't have the courage.

"Hanged ghost," a word came to her mind.

She was hanging from the ceiling! Did someone else hang her there, or did she commit suicide? If it was suicide, she swore she would never choose this way to die! If this is the grotesque way she would die, she would rather jump off a building.

Her hands groped around the bed unconsciously, like a drowning person trying to find something to hold onto to keep from sinking.

She suddenly grabbed a cool, hard object and looked at it closely. It was a shiny short knife, the copper-handled dagger that Wang Yang loved most and that his friend had brought back from Xinjiang! It had always been displayed in the crafts cabinet.

As if branded with a red-hot iron, Li Hui screamed and flung the terrifying thing against the wall, where it crashed to the ground with a thud.

She sprang from the bed and fell to the floor, the "hanging ghost" hovering above her head, swaying slightly in the dim candlelight.

Terrified, Li Hui scrambled out of the bedroom, but dared not return to the living room.

She rushed into the bathroom, but tripped over something. When she instinctively grabbed the object, she realized it was a slipknot hanging on the door frame. With a pull, it shrank to the size of her head.

She imagined putting this thing around her neck, and then pulling it, and she would really become a hanged ghost like in the bedroom.

She subconsciously placed the noose around her neck and gestured at it, but instinct made her slowly stop.

Li Hui retreated into the hall, picked up a candle in each hand, and circled the entire room, illuminating it carefully. Then, gritting her teeth, she lit the skull paintings on the wall, one after another, until finally she lit the one on the dressing table mirror.

The flames flickered, dancing and crawling on the wall. She saw her teeth turn black and crumble off the wall piece by piece.

The smoke forced her into the bedroom.

The "hanging ghost" in the bedroom soon caught fire, flames shooting up the ceiling along the bright red nightgown, the glass of the chandelier crackling, and she smelled the stench of burnt hair.

A narrow escape from death

Li Hui dreamt that she was trekking through the desert.

The sun, like a fireball, shone brightly overhead. All around were withered tree stumps, pale skeletons of people and animals, and the yellow sand beneath one's feet was burning hot.

She felt incredibly thirsty.

Suddenly, she saw a shimmering, emerald-green lake in the distance. She mustered all her strength and rushed over, just as she was about to plunge in and drink her fill, when the lake vanished.

Just as she was about to give up, the lake reappeared, even closer than before, so she chased after it again...

After this repeated ordeal, she finally exhausted her last bit of strength and collapsed in the sand, facing the scorching sun in the sky, waiting to die.

It was so painful! She desperately wanted to detach herself from her body and stand aside, watching the disaster unfold like a bystander.

Then she saw her body gradually dry out, until only a skeleton remained, skin and bones, with her two feet pointing upwards like ten small wooden stakes. She watched without blinking as green sprouts slowly grew on her toes, pondering what kind of plant it was, something she seemed to have never seen before.

Grow up quickly!

She planned that once these buds grew into big trees, she could enjoy the shade beneath them.

In her anxiety, Li Hui heard a series of noisy sounds.

"She's awake!" someone said. The noisy sounds immediately fell silent.

"That was close!"

Everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

Li Hui was quite lucky; the thick smoke nearly killed her, but the fire only burned one of her hands. Of course, her beautiful hair was also destroyed. Fortunately, hair can grow back.

Police investigations revealed that the fire in the dormitory was accidentally started by the female homeowner while lighting candles. In addition, they found numerous burnt paper items and textiles in the room.

What surprised them most was the baby specimen, which clearly belonged to a hospital or medical school. Some of the medical staff questioned at the hospital believed that Li Hui had recently developed a mental disorder, and that she might have taken the specimen home from the hospital herself.

As for its specific use, no one can say for sure.

Fortunately, the fire did not spread further, and the main furniture was not severely damaged.

When asked about the specific cause of the fire, Li Hui felt she had no way of knowing.

She tried to describe everything she saw at home that night, but the expressions of the people listening to her gradually changed, forcing her to stop talking at the right moment.

She mentioned a "timeline of death," but the police couldn't find the A computer printout in her dresser drawer.

Li Hui was so shocked by this situation that she couldn't utter a single word.

That's right! The daily emails are proof. They're all still saved in my inbox!

Several people hurriedly turned on the computer and clicked on the shortcut "Outlook". Li Hui was stunned: the mailbox had been completely cleared!

Someone had already tampered with her computer.

Even if she had mouths all over her body, she still couldn't explain herself.

She remembered the laptop Zhang Lili had lent her, but when she found Zhang Lili, she said it belonged to a friend and she had returned it long ago. The police found the computer at Mr. Yang's place that night, but the mailbox was still empty.

Li Hui felt as if an invisible giant hand was tightly gripping her neck.

The deadly ropes hanging from her bed and the bathroom door finally bound her in another way!

Dadun'er is finally back.

Li Hui is confined to her room, afraid to step outside. Now, without checking emails every day, her life seems to have lost its normal rhythm.

The walls of the room were charred and blackened, revealing patches of filthy, yellowed stains, and the air reeked of burning. All the soft furnishings were burned away; the curtains were gone, the bedspread was gone, and the Simmons mattress and bed were reduced to a pile of springs and an iron frame.

When Dadun rang the doorbell, Li Hui was sitting blankly on the dark sofa, staring at the clock on the wall. She was counting how many times the minute hand had gone around, but she couldn't remember after counting for a long time, so she had to find a pen and a piece of paper and start counting as she went.

"Uh!" Li Hui was startled by the doorbell and involuntarily gasped.

Then she hid her head inside the collar of her pajamas.

The doorbell rang for a while, and then Da Dun'er's voice came through: "Dr. Li! It's me, Da Dun'er! Open the door!"

"Huh? It's him?" Li Hui trembled and was stunned for a few seconds.

When the familiar voice came again, she stood up and opened the door without hesitation.

Da Dun stood at the door, carrying a large bag. When he saw Li Hui, he had a slight smile on his face, but then his expression immediately changed.

"What happened?"

Li Hui neither agreed to his request nor moved aside. She blocked the doorway, scrutinized Da Dun'er from head to toe several times, then tilted her head as if struggling to consider what to do.

"How did the house burn down?" Da Dun'er asked anxiously, pushing her aside with one hand and walking into the room. "How could you be so careless?" He glanced around the hall, then looked back at Li Hui, who was standing at the door, ready to run away at any moment.

Da Dun put his things on the ground, took out his phone, and made a call:

"...Send me a few people to renovate the house, right now, immediately! I'm waiting for you here!"

As soon as Dadun finished speaking, two strangers were already standing behind him.

Seeing Da Dun'er's shocked expression, Li Hui knew, only she knew, that they were two plainclothes officers not wearing police uniforms.

She turned her head away and closed her eyes; she couldn't bear to watch how the two men grabbed Dadun and dragged him downstairs.

But after a few seconds, she didn't hear any loud noises.

Footsteps slowly passed by her, heading towards the stairwell.

She heard Da Dun'er's calm voice: "Dr. Li Hui, a few people are coming to renovate the house soon. Explain your requirements to them clearly. Call me if anything happens."

A few days later, Li Hui's room was completely transformed.

During the inspection, Dadun suddenly appeared at the door.

"May I come in?"

"..." Li Hui was speechless. This morning she already knew that Da Dun'er had indeed just returned from Shenzhen, and he had an alibi. This actually aligned with her intuition, but she didn't know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. As long as the murderer who was secretly targeting her didn't show up, she wouldn't be able to have a peaceful day.

"Why won't you let me call the police?" Li Hui couldn't understand this question.

"Losing things is a small matter, but don't let it affect your normal life in the future." Da Dun'er spoke as if he were talking about being robbed.

Now she's starting to realize that the call to Shenzhen was a misunderstanding. What he said on the phone was completely different from what she meant by "calling the police"!

Li Hui sat on her newly bought sofa and heard Da Dun'er whisper in her ear, "Tell me, what exactly happened after I left?"

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she choked up, unable to utter a single word. She utterly rejected those horrific scenes; to recount them again would be tantamount to reliving them all over again.

However, Da Dun'er's reminder made Li Hui think back to everything that had happened over the past month, starting from the day she received the "death schedule."

She still clearly remembers what each cell on that "death timetable" showed.

Li Hui seemed to be muttering these contents and the bloody warnings in the emails to herself. "Wait!" Da Dun'er found a piece of paper and hastily drew a table: filling in each item Li Hui had mentioned. Adding the preceding and following warning text, a "death timetable" was completed.

"This looks like something a doctor would do!"

Da Dun'er's words suddenly reminded Li Hui. Why hadn't she noticed this special point?

"Go on..." Da Dun urged her, "And then?"

Then came the endless, ever-changing emails! What she didn't expect was that the content of each email would be etched deeply into her memory. Each notification tormented her, leaving her emaciated and forever unforgettable.

Li Hui recalled the large cardboard box containing bookshelves that fell from the sky in the shopping mall; the scene of learning to drive late at night in the suburbs and that winding downhill slope full of stones; her experience in the leprosy village of Maowu Township; the two near-death experiences from infrared radiation, and the stillborn baby in the hospital...

As she spoke, Li Hui would occasionally burst into tears, acting erratically.

She didn't know how she had become so useless. Scenes that she hadn't found so terrifying when she was experiencing them now filled her with dread when she thought about them. She had repeatedly experienced the thrill of climbing back from the edge of a cliff and escaping death.

She now understands what "lingering fear" means. This repeated reliving of terror afterward is more terrifying and harrowing than anything else.

Li Hui's story was so long that she got tired of telling it, so she went from sitting to leaning to crooked, and then to lying down.

Da Dun'er sat on the sofa opposite her, looking at her encouragingly.