If It’s Wrong, Then It’s Wrong - Chapter 16
Chapter 16: The Fifth Day
4:00 am, Wenxing Residential Complex.
Outside, the rain had stopped, even the rustling of leaves in the wind had ceased. All was silent.
Ji Chaozhou suddenly woke up.
He sat up, the thin blanket sliding down, the collar of his black pajamas slightly askew.
Ji Chaozhou got out of bed without hesitation, grabbed his phone from the nightstand, and hurried out of the room.
His sense of smell was extremely acute. Without pausing, he went straight downstairs.
The stairwell lights turned on automatically. Ji Chaozhou reached the landing. The electric scooter that was charging looked normal, no flames, but he could smell a faint burning odor emanating from it.
Ji Chaozhou unplugged the charger and looked up at the extension cord hanging down. It belonged to a resident on the fourth floor.
He didn’t know any of the residents in this building, only that a retired man in his sixties lived on the third floor. He had occasionally run into him in the stairwell since the man didn’t work.
The elderly man was friendly and would chat endlessly whenever he saw him. As for the others, he didn’t know them at all.
Ji Chaozhou turned to go back to his apartment, then suddenly looked back downstairs.
—The burning smell hadn’t diminished; it was getting stronger.
Ji Chaozhou’s knuckles turned white as he gripped the doorknob. After a moment, he let go and slowly walked up to the fourth floor, keeping close to the wall.
He walked slowly, almost pausing on every step, as if holding something back.
The higher he climbed, the paler his face became.
By the time he reached the fourth floor, Ji Chaozhou’s back was drenched in sweat. His expression grim, he slowly approached the door of the fourth-floor apartment.
The extension cord ran from under the door, along the stair railing, and down to the third floor.
Ji Chaozhou knocked.
At this hour, everyone was sound asleep.
The fourth-floor resident, awakened by the knocking, cursed loudly, the sound of shuffling slippers approaching.
A middle-aged man flung open the door, his face contorted in anger: “What do you…”
His furious words died in his throat as his eyes fell on Ji Chaozhou’s face.
The man’s eyes widened, then narrowed, his expression turning fearful.
Seeing someone like this in the dead of night wouldn’t evoke admiration, only instinctive fear, bringing to mind ghost stories and strange tales.
“The charger for the scooter downstairs has been unplugged,” Ji Chaozhou said, his hand clenched tightly behind his back. His vision was blurring; he was struggling to maintain control.
Hearing this, the man snapped back to reality, shouting angrily, “Why did you unplug my charger? I need to go to work tomorrow!”
“Your scooter is probably malfunctioning. There’s…” Before Ji Chaozhou could finish, a loud explosion came from downstairs.
—Extremely loud.
The entire building shook.
“Holy shit!” The man yelled instinctively, his face pale as he rushed back inside to wake his family.
Ji Chaozhou pressed himself against the wall and called 119, struggling to give them the address. After hanging up, he slowly slid down the wall.
He didn’t realize that as he put his phone back in his pocket, his hand had brushed against another number, nor did he realize that a few seconds later, the call connected.
“Hurry! Hurry!” The man rushed out with his wife and children, ignoring Ji Chaozhou sitting against the wall, and scrambled downstairs.
Residents from the fifth and sixth floors also came down, wrapped in blankets: “What happened? What happened?”
Suddenly, all the lights in the stairwell were on, a strange kind of “liveliness” filling the air.
However, a few minutes later, the family, along with the retired man from the third floor and the residents from the fifth and sixth floors who had gone down to check, all rushed back upstairs.
“It’s blocked! The stairwell is blocked by fire!”
“Call the fire department! Hurry!”
The residents shouted at the top of their lungs, rushing towards the rooftop.
The retired man from the third floor, passing by the fourth floor, saw Ji Chaozhou sitting against the wall and stopped in surprise. He rushed over to him, saying anxiously, “Young man, you can’t stay here! There’s a fire downstairs! It’s almost reached the second floor!”
Ji Chaozhou couldn’t hear anything. His vision was filled with a bloody red, even when he closed his eyes, the familiar red remained.
“What are you still doing here? Hurry upstairs! Don’t dawdle!” A man in his thirties from the sixth floor saw them, bent down, pulled Ji Chaozhou up, and half-carried him upstairs, saying to the retired man, “You go up to the rooftop first, ma’am.”
…
Cheng Liu woke up at the second ring of her phone, sitting up straight and grabbing it.
She instinctively assumed it was a work call, but she paused when she saw the caller ID. It was her boyfriend.
Before Cheng Liu could speak, she heard a cacophony of noise in the background.
It was strange to hear so much noise at this hour. She listened intently.
When she heard someone say that the stairwell was blocked by fire, Cheng Liu immediately jumped out of bed, grabbed her jacket, hesitated for a moment, then grabbed her wallet, rushed downstairs, and drove towards the Wenxing Residential Complex.
Cheng Liu kept the call connected, listening to the commotion. Halfway there, she heard faint sirens in the background and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
But she hadn't heard her boyfriend's voice at all.
Fortunately, the voices of the residents were loud enough for Cheng Liu to hear them talking to the firefighters, about evacuating from the rooftop using ladders, and someone urging her boyfriend to hurry.
After a period of chaos, the voices on the phone grew fainter. If Cheng Liu hadn't still been able to hear the occasional ambulance siren, she would have thought the call had been disconnected.
Half an hour later, Cheng Liu finally arrived at the Wenxing Residential Complex.
Almost all the lights in the building were on, and many residents had come outside, standing around watching. Security guards were holding back the crowd.
Cheng Liu couldn’t drive in, so she parked her car and walked towards the building.
“Stay back, everyone,” the security guard shouted, holding up a cordon. “Go back to sleep. It’s under control.”
The security guard was stopping people from approaching Building Five, and Cheng Liu was also stopped. However, a property manager came over, spoke to the security guard, and then let her through.
“How did the fire start in Building Five?” Cheng Liu asked the property manager before heading towards the building.
The property manager averted his gaze, looking guilty: “…An electric scooter exploded.”
He had spoken to the residents yesterday afternoon, but they had all been dismissive, simply giving him perfunctory responses.
The only fortunate thing was that the fire lane had been cleared, and the fire trucks had arrived in time. None of the residents in Building Five had been seriously injured.
Cheng Liu understood. The property management clearly hadn't enforced the rule against charging scooters in the stairwell.
The property manager quickly changed the subject: “I think I saw your boyfriend being taken away in an ambulance.”
Cheng Liu frowned, ignoring the property manager's attempt to distract her, and quickly walked towards Building Five.
The fire on the lower floors had been extinguished, but the exterior walls from the first to the fourth floor were completely blackened, and the entrance door was warped from the explosion.
The residents of Building Five were standing outside, talking excitedly.
Cheng Liu scanned the crowd and finally saw her boyfriend near the ambulance. He was wearing black pajamas that clung to his thin frame, his face pale, his eyes lowered as he stood there quietly, as if detached from the world.
Two nurses were standing beside him, seemingly trying to persuade him about something.
Perhaps sensing something, Ji Chaozhou suddenly looked up in Cheng Liu’s direction and paused slightly upon seeing her.
With his feet firmly on the ground, the bloody red that had filled his vision was slowly receding. Ji Chaozhou unclenched his sweat-covered palms, refused the nurses’ offer to take him to the hospital for a checkup, and walked towards Number Six.
Cheng Liu hung up the phone and watched her boyfriend approach.
Apart from his still pale face, he seemed no different than usual.
Ji Chaozhou looked at her and said slowly, “Book me a hotel room.”
“Okay.” Cheng Liu swallowed her invitation to stay at her place.
…
Twenty minutes later, at the Dongchu Five-Star Hotel.
Cheng Liu stood at the front desk and handed her ID card to the receptionist: “A suite, please.”
“Certainly, please wait a moment.”
Cheng Liu glanced back at her boyfriend, who was sitting on a sofa in the lobby. After a moment, she turned back and added, “On the second floor, please.”
From the noisy phone call earlier, she had a feeling that something was wrong with her boyfriend. Did he have a fear of heights?
“Certainly, one moment.”
The receptionist handed Cheng Liu the room key and, looking hesitantly at the striking young man sitting on the sofa, asked, “Are you two staying together? We require ID registration for all guests.”
“Just a moment.”
Cheng Liu walked over to her boyfriend and asked, “Did you bring your ID? Your phone is fine too.”
Ji Chaozhou reached into his pocket but couldn't find his phone. He couldn't remember what had happened back at the building, or where his phone was.
Cheng Liu understood the situation and guessed that he must have left his phone on the rooftop.
Ji Chaozhou looked up at her: “I lost my phone.” He didn't know that he had called Cheng Liu earlier.
“It’s okay. I’ll explain to them.” Cheng Liu smiled reassuringly at her boyfriend.
She returned to the front desk and explained the situation.
The receptionist looked troubled: “Hotel policy requires ID registration for all guests.”
Moreover, neither of them showed any signs of being injured in the fire. What if this was just an excuse? She couldn’t take the responsibility if something happened.
Cheng Liu frowned. Her eyes fell on a brochure on the counter, an idea sparking in her mind. She took out her phone and made a call.
A minute later, the call connected.
“CEO Cheng, are you doing this on purpose?” Li Dong’s angry voice came through the phone. “A message at 6 am yesterday, a call at 5 am today? Are you planning to knock on my door at 4 am tomorrow?!”
“I need a favor, Mr. Li,” Cheng Liu said seriously.
“You better have a good reason!” Li Dong lowered his voice.
As soon as Cheng Liu explained the situation, Li Dong sat up excitedly in bed, then, glancing at his wife who was stirring awake, quietly slipped out to the living room.
“Your boyfriend? Oh, why didn't you say so, CEO Cheng!” Li Dong's eyes gleamed with curiosity, his face lighting up. “He can stay as long as he needs. I’ll give you a 50% discount.”
“Thank you so much, Mr. Li,” Cheng Liu said.
“No problem at all!” Li Dong said immediately. “Feel free to contact me for this kind of thing!”
In a couple of days, he would find an excuse to “inspect” the hotel and meet CEO Cheng’s boyfriend! He had to see who this mysterious person was that had managed to capture Cheng Liu's heart!
Shortly after Cheng Liu hung up, the receptionist received a call. After a brief conversation, she handed Cheng Liu two room keys and offered to personally escort them to their room.
“No need, we can go up ourselves,” Cheng Liu said, turning to walk towards her boyfriend in the lobby.
Ji Chaozhou didn't take the elevator; he took the stairs.
Cheng Liu noticed he was walking very slowly, but she didn't ask, simply following quietly behind him.
When they reached the second floor, she opened the door with her key card and handed him the other one, not entering herself: “Get some rest.”
Ji Chaozhou nodded and closed the door.
He sat quietly on the bed for a long time, then suddenly stood up and stumbled towards the bathroom, where the sound of uncontrollable retching could be heard.
Ji Chaozhou couldn't bring himself to vomit; it was just a physical reflex.
Cheng Liu stood in the corridor for a moment. The suite’s soundproofing was excellent; she hadn't heard anything. She turned and drove back to the Wenxing Residential Complex.
Dawn was breaking.
A few residents and their families were still standing near Building Five.
“Can we go in now? We have a lot of belongings inside!”
“We’re still inspecting. You can go in once it’s safe,” the property manager shouted from behind the cordon.
They waited for another hour. Once the all-clear was given, they were allowed inside, but they couldn’t stay long and had to leave immediately after retrieving their belongings.
The explosion had warped the first floor, though thankfully, no one lived on that floor.
Cheng Liu went to the rooftop first and, as expected, found a phone on the ground.
She didn't look at it, simply putting it in her pocket before returning to the second floor.
The door to Ji Chaozhou's apartment was ajar and warped.
Cheng Liu walked in and saw that the previously empty living room was now blackened by smoke, with scorch marks everywhere. A melted card holder lay on the coffee table, crumbling into black pieces when she touched it. There was an ID card and other cards inside, but they were mostly illegible.
The first and second floors had suffered the most damage. The fire had spread quickly after the explosion.
Cheng Liu abandoned the idea of retrieving any clothes for her boyfriend. She walked towards the flower-filled balcony, which was also mostly burned.
“Don’t stay too long! Come out quickly!” the property manager shouted from outside.
Just as Cheng Liu was about to leave, her eyes fell on a darkened corner, and she paused.
There was a small pot of lily-of-the-valley that hadn’t been burned.
She bent down and picked up the smoke-stained pot.
Cheng Liu left Building Five, went to a convenience store to buy a bottle of water, squatted down outside, wet a tissue, and carefully wiped the soot off the lily-of-the-valley, revealing the original delicate white of the blossoms.
She wondered if they would survive.
She would take them to the hotel for her boyfriend.
…
When Cheng Liu returned to the hotel, it was already broad daylight. She was carrying the pot of lily-of-the-valley in one hand and several bags of new clothes in the other.
She swiped her card and entered the room.
Ji Chaozhou was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking the same as before, his aura cold and distant, though there was a faint, almost imperceptible redness around his eyes.
“The second floor was badly damaged, but these flowers should survive.” Cheng Liu walked in and placed the pot of lily-of-the-valley on the table, then put the bags of clothes on the sofa. “New clothes. They’ve been dry-cleaned.”
She didn’t know her boyfriend’s size, so she had bought a few different ones.
“Oh, and this.” Cheng Liu took out the phone from her pocket. “Your phone. I found it on the rooftop.”
Ji Chaozhou took the phone. It didn't show any signs of fire damage. He couldn’t remember anything after calling the fire department.
“Rest today. Don’t worry about anything. There’s no rush with work,” Cheng Liu said, sensing that he was in a bad state.
Ji Chaozhou turned on his phone. There were a few missed calls, from Ji Mushan and Aunt Yun.
Then he noticed that he had called Number Six earlier, the call lasting for over forty minutes.
Ji Chaozhou looked up at Cheng Liu: “Did I…call you last night?”
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