Chapter 32

But the light wasn't very bright either, more like the flame of a single candle, wavering without stop.

Liu Zhiyi didn't go straight over; she narrowed her eyes for a closer look, and saw that where the nurses' station kept its computer, a two-faced Buddha statue had appeared.

There was a safe room here too?

Only then did she go closer.

Nearer now, Liu Zhiyi saw the people inside the nurses' station.

Liu Zhiyi: "Grandma!"

Her grandmother was sitting in a wheelchair, head drooping; at the sound of her voice her head came up at once.

"Zhizhi!"

But no sooner had she called out than her grandmother's head sank down again.

It gave Liu Zhiyi a fright; she rushed to her grandmother's side.

"She's worn out."

At the human voice Liu Zhiyi turned her head fast.

Big Sister Ma sat in a chair to one side, a hand pressed to her leg.

"Your grandma should be all right — she ran with me for a while just now, and she's tired."

Liu Zhiyi was surprised her grandmother had even been able to run.

"She could run?"

"That's right, your grandma could run." Big Sister Ma lowered her eyes. "My old man can't even run anymore."

Liu Zhiyi stopped short, not knowing what to say, and the edge of her gaze caught Big Sister Ma's thigh, still dripping blood.

Liu Zhiyi: "You're hurt?"

Big Sister Ma glanced at her own thigh, her face gone numb.

"…Got grabbed."

Liu Zhiyi took the Tang Monk Meat out of her bag and handed it to her.

"This can treat the wound on your leg."

Big Sister Ma didn't respond; only after Liu Zhiyi said it a few times over did she come to and give an "mm" — but once she'd taken it, she went on staring, without a single blink, at the two-faced Buddha before her.

Liu Zhiyi: "Big Sister Ma, eat it first."

"Would my dad get better if he ate this?" Big Sister Ma gave the Tang Monk Meat in her hand a shake.

Liu Zhiyi blanked — but at the suggestion, something in her stirred too.

"I don't know… the person who gave me this said it only works on physical injuries taken in the dungeon…"

"I know these props are no use on ordinary people."

Big Sister Ma raised one arm; on her forearm hung a blood-pressure monitor.

Big Sister Ma: "A cat suddenly ran out and told me to find the safe room, find the starting item, and mind the starting item…"

She pointed at the numbers on the monitor.

"The blood pressure can't go too high."

Liu Zhiyi noticed the monitor's screen was glowing red, the systolic number wavering around 139.

Liu Zhiyi: "Big Sister Ma, calm down a moment. Your blood pressure's a bit high — it might draw the ghosts over."

Big Sister Ma raised her head. "On your way here… did you see my dad?"

For a moment Liu Zhiyi was struck dumb. She understood the state Big Sister Ma was in and knew it was best not to talk of such things — but to lie, with the sight of Ma Qirong gasping for breath on the bed in her mind, she couldn't bring herself to.

"You saw him," Big Sister Ma said.

The light of the nurses' station flickered all of a sudden.

Liu Zhiyi: "No… I, calm down, if your feelings run too high it'll shorten how long the safe room lasts…"

Big Sister Ma reached out, hooked a finger at Liu Zhiyi's neck, and drew off a clear oxygen tube.

No wonder she'd suffocated near Ma Qirong — it had been the oxygen tube around her neck.

But how had she not noticed a tube on her neck? She hadn't seen any such tube at all…

Liu Zhiyi thought of the last dungeon, of how "mama" had hooked up her old memories in the safe room just like this…

Big Sister Ma cradled the oxygen tube in both hands. "You saw him."

The blood-pressure number broke past 140, and the light in the nurses' station dimmed all at once.

In the flickering light, Liu Zhiyi took Big Sister Ma's hand.

"Sister, hear me out first."

But Big Sister Ma had sunk into her own thoughts.

"How did it come to this? How did it come to this?"

She repeated it under her breath several times over, then dropped her head and covered her face.

Big Sister Ma: "At first I heard the cat crying, and then I heard Teacher Yang cursing."

She began to speak in fragments, without head or tail.

"Did you see that monster?"

Big Sister Ma gripped Liu Zhiyi's hand.

Liu Zhiyi said nothing; she knew Big Sister Ma couldn't take in a word right now.

"Its tongue's so long."

Big Sister Ma gestured, rising from the chair.

"And the voice in its mouth is Teacher Yang's."

Big Sister Ma: "Then the cat spoke, in human words, and told me to run."

She stopped for a few seconds.

Big Sister Ma: "So I ran, and I took my dad with me…"

Liu Zhiyi saw the flickering of the light quicken.

Big Sister Ma: "The bed got stuck; that oxygen mask only works plugged into the hole in the room, and I pulled and pulled…"

She made a pulling motion.

"So heavy — why was the bed so heavy? I finally got it out of the ward, and then it stuck in the doorway." Big Sister Ma put out her hands. "I couldn't run, I couldn't run."

The blood-pressure number jumped to 140, the red light flashing faster and faster.

Liu Zhiyi: "Big Sister Ma!"

Big Sister Ma: "And then I got grabbed — it hurt so much — and after that I heard my dad couldn't get his breath…"

She turned her head and stared, blankly, at Liu Zhiyi.

"You must have heard that sound…"

Big Sister Ma drew a breath, covered her own neck, and let out an air-sound.

"…Ho."

"Sister!" Liu Zhiyi pressed a hand to her shoulder. "Stop."

But up close, Liu Zhiyi found the air-sound wasn't coming out of Big Sister Ma's mouth.

It was coming from Big Sister Ma's chest.

"He couldn't breathe, the bed was so heavy, my leg hurt so much." Big Sister Ma covered her face. "I heard a voice, saying to me, over and over —

"Let go…"

But this voice, too, wasn't coming from Big Sister Ma's mouth; Liu Zhiyi turned her head.

Still Big Sister Ma's chest.

"Let go — he loves his son more anyway."

Two lines of tears ran down Big Sister Ma's face.

"And somehow… I let go."

Liu Zhiyi's watch buzzed; the task-bar description for Teacher Yang updated.

[Saying One Thing, Meaning Another: always saying the nice thing aloud — why not listen to what your own heart wants to say?]

Big Sister Ma: "How could I do that?"

Her chest: "You old undying thing — why do you keep dragging me down, why won't you let me be!"

Big Sister Ma: "No, no, no — I didn't think that!"

Her chest: "Why, dying of your sickness, are you still calling your son's name — die, die, die!"

—Crack.

Liu Zhiyi heard the sound of something splitting.

At that sound she thought at once of the two-faced Buddha statue.

Liu Zhiyi said quickly, "Your dad's still alive!"

She could see Big Sister Ma's guilt, but not knowing how to comfort her, could only dryly hold back part of the truth to make her feel a little better.

And hearing it, Big Sister Ma lowered the hands over her face.

"…Really?"

Though that changed, mutated state was hard to call being properly alive.

Liu Zhiyi answered vaguely, "Mm."

She was a little afraid Big Sister Ma would press for details, and her mind worked at how to explain Ma Qirong's mutated state.

"Good… good."

Big Sister Ma nodded in a daze, but pressed no further.

Seeing the light of the nurses' station stop flickering, Liu Zhiyi let out a breath.

She told Big Sister Ma a few things to watch for in the game, but Big Sister Ma seemed distracted, and there was no telling whether any of it had gone in.

Liu Zhiyi understood a little now how the cat must have felt, seeing a novice like her in the last dungeon.

But some people, meeting an upheaval in their lives, really are easily laid low, and need time to work through the feeling.

So after a few words, seeing Big Sister Ma in such poor spirits, she said no more.

She went to check on her grandmother again.

Her grandmother was sleeping deeply; Liu Zhiyi called a few times, and her grandmother's eyes opened a little, her mouth muttering a few muddled sounds.

Liu Zhiyi listened closely and found her grandmother was calling her mother's name.

This was bad, she thought.

Her grandmother wasn't clear-headed now; she was going muddled.

All at once she began to doubt whether she could clear the dungeon at all.

But there was no sense in thinking so far ahead now; Liu Zhiyi took off the coat and draped it over her grandmother.

Teacher Yang had mutated; Big Sister Ma's father had mutated too.

She looked at her muddled grandmother. Being trapped in the dungeon herself was one thing, but her grandmother couldn't be — and her mother still wasn't buried.

Without meaning to, Liu Zhiyi touched the fruit knife in her pocket.

If it really came to killing… it would be helping people find release, after all…

The thought had barely started before she crushed it down.

And at that same moment, her own chest gave off a short air-sound.

"…Kill."

Liu Zhiyi closed her eyes and drew a deep breath.

So Teacher Yang's sound wave, besides locating people, could also make the chest speak the heart's true words.

What was she to do…

Teacher Yang's son hadn't come in either.

Liu Zhiyi found a chair and sat down, her mind in a tangle.

"Meow~"

At the meow Liu Zhiyi stood up at once, and saw a black shape walk out of the dark not far off.

It was the cat.

But it walked up to the outside of the nurses' station and didn't come straight in.

Cat: "Lead the way."

Liu Zhiyi listened, at a loss — but then saw Big Sister Ma walk out of the nurses' station, and the cat follow behind her back in.

Once inside, the cat looked at her, gave its tail a shake, and jumped onto the table in front of her.

"You're back."

Liu Zhiyi was rather embarrassed; her mind had been wholly on Big Sister Ma and her grandmother just now, and she hadn't even thought of the cat.

The cat lifted its head and looked her over carefully, up and down.

"Wounds healed — you went out?"

Liu Zhiyi nodded and quickly ran through how she'd left the dungeon and how she'd come back.

Cat: "You shouldn't have come back. A prop that can get you out of a dungeon is bound to limit the number of uses."

It had it exactly right; later, checking the hanger a few times over, Liu Zhiyi found the get-out mechanic could be used only once per same dungeon.

"Never mind — with a temperament like yours, no amount of talking will help."

The cat sighed.

"Why don't you tell me what you ran into on your way back into the dungeon?"

Liu Zhiyi stole a glance at Big Sister Ma.

The cat paused, then jumped onto her shoulder.

Cat: "Mutated?"

Hearing the cat's voice sound in her head, Liu Zhiyi nodded again and again, and described Ma Qirong's mutated state to the cat in her mind.

Cat: "Faster than I thought. He was probably spurred by his daughter abandoning him — mutating this fast, it won't be long before he comes looking for you. My guess is that leaving the oxygen tube on you was deliberate."

Liu Zhiyi startled and touched her own neck.

"To break down Big Sister Ma's nerve?"

"Worked out the boss's aim that quickly, did you?" The cat gave her a word of praise. "That'll be it — because this safe room is Big Sister Ma's."

Liu Zhiyi had noticed it too: whenever Big Sister Ma's blood pressure changed, the safe-room lights would flicker.

"Not long after you led Teacher Yang away, her safe room — the tea room — collapsed; she must have given in to the dungeon completely." The cat went on, "Then I led your grandma and Big Sister Ma to find a new safe room. Lucky the new one turned up fast."

Liu Zhiyi: "There's more than one safe room? Will I get a safe room in this dungeon too?"