Lan Jin nodded. This was not about guarding against Lao Gao. Everyone had already noticed his abnormal state, especially today.
He was wearing only thin long pants and a plain cotton short-sleeved T-shirt. Not only was he standing far away from the charcoal heater, but sweat was constantly rolling down from his forehead, and thin wisps of white steam rose from his body as if he were being roasted alive.
There was no way a normal person could be this hot in minus thirty degrees. Lan Jin felt something was wrong. She took Qiao Qiao's thermometer and pressed it to Lao Gao's forehead. Good grief. Forty-one point two degrees. A temperature high enough to kill.
"You don't feel uncomfortable at all? Your body's this hot, but it doesn't look like a fever. If you feel anything wrong, tell us right away. Don't try to tough it out," Lan Jin urged.
She had experienced high fever before. At thirty-nine point five degrees, her whole body had ached, she had shivered under the covers, and she could barely get out of bed. Forty-one point two was far beyond that.
"Maybe we should get some ice to cool you down. The body can't stay at this temperature. Something bad could happen," she said quickly.
"I do feel hot. Not right. But it doesn't seem like a fever." Lao Gao thought the ice idea sounded good. "I'll go up to the rooftop and cool off."
Ling Jiang handed him a fever-reducing pill. "Even if it's not a fever, this should help lower your temperature."
Lao Gao hesitated, but to put Ling Jiang at ease, he swallowed the pill.
The heat inside him only grew worse after drinking hot water with the medicine. His insides felt as if they were boiling, and even his breath carried an intense heat.
Yet that mouthful of hot water somehow made a shiver run through his whole body. He staggered toward the stairs, slowly hauling himself upward. Steam curled from him as he shook and hunched low, as if forcing himself to climb but with almost no strength left.
Ling Jiang, alarmed, stepped forward to support him. "Are you cold? Do you need another layer?"
He shook his head, unwilling to speak. But when Ling Jiang's hands touched his skin, pain flared where she pressed. He reflexively knocked her hands away. "I'll walk myself."
Ling Jiang thought he was just being stubborn and refused to leave him. But Lao Gao shoved her hard and gritted his teeth. "Don't come near me. Something's wrong. Really wrong. Stay away. Stay away!"
His last words came out in a near roar. Then, using all his strength, he moved toward the rooftop door. He only meant to get some cold air to clear his head.
But the rooftop door was locked tight with a heavy padlock. The key was in his own possession, though he seemed to have forgotten that entirely.
When the door wouldn't open, he yanked at the lock like a madman. His movements were so wild and violent that the onlookers couldn't help stepping back in fear.
Then, abruptly, he stopped. Bent over, one hand gripping the lock, he froze in place.
After a while, seeing that he hadn't moved, Ling Jiang crept up two steps and called carefully, "Lao Gao, are you feeling better?"
Huang Jinghe, who had been watching closely, sensed danger. He pulled Ling Jiang back and motioned for everyone near the stairs to retreat several steps.
Ling Jiang frowned in confusion, but before she could speak, Lao Gao moved again. He released the lock, straightened slowly, and then bent backward at an unnatural angle.
Then—
A howl split the air.
It was a sound like a wild beast's roar.
When it ended, he righted himself and began moving toward them. His face was flushed a deep red, as if it could bleed, but his eyes were an eerie uniform gray-white. Dark veins snaked across his cheeks, making the sight too terrifying for words.
…
The few people downstairs felt a chill run through their bones. But at such close range, there was nowhere to run.
The keys to both the rooftop and the thirty-first floor stairwell were with Lao Gao. The doors to the four unoccupied units had been removed by him and their wood stacked as firewood. This meant floors thirty-one through thirty-three were now sealed off.
Unless someone could hold him off and unlock their door, there was nowhere to hide. And no one knew if a locked door could even withstand a blow from him in this state.
The only relief was that Grandma Ling was in her own apartment with doors and windows tightly shut.
Qiao Qiao and Nana were also safe inside Lan Jin's storage space, her front door locked tight.
With the elderly, children, and the sick secure, the three remaining adults felt a small measure of comfort.
…
But instinct told them to stay silent. Even a small sound might trigger another frenzy.
Not that Lao Gao needed a trigger. As soon as he turned his body to face them, his whole posture shifted into that of a predator about to strike. He tilted his head to the left, then to the right, and in the next instant, he leapt from where he stood straight toward them.
They were only half a floor apart. For someone with Lao Gao's martial training, clearing the distance was easy.
Ling Jiang, also trained, reacted before she thought. As he came down, she lashed out with a kick.
But his muscles were like stone, his strength immense. She could not budge him and was instead caught in his grasp, unable to move at all.