Inside the safety door, a desperate arm reached toward them. Without hesitation, Lan Jin pulled out her stun baton and jabbed it hard against the outstretched limb.
At first, it hardly did anything. The shock was only hitting the arm, and the man barely reacted.
But after Lan Jin kept jolting him on and off for two or three minutes, something finally changed.
His already stiff body went rigid, then trembled violently for a while before collapsing backward onto the ground.
The four people inside the door exchanged glances.
"Think that did it?" Ling Jiang asked.
Huang Jinghe frowned. "Did it? Well, Lao Gao was like this just now… then he snapped out of it."
Lao Gao's eyes widened. "So you're saying he's fine now?"
Lan Jin leaned toward the shattered window and looked outside. The man was stirring, moving in a strange, awkward way. Then came the groans.
"Ah…"
"Ah…"
He writhed on the ground, twisting and shuddering, his cries echoing in the cold air. But it wasn't just pain running through him — the deep, marrow-freezing chill was worse.
The four of them instinctively stepped back, but when they saw no sign of aggression, Lao Gao stepped forward.
"Yeah, looks about like me earlier," Lao Gao said calmly. "Every part of me hurt. If I hadn't grit my teeth, I'd have passed out for sure."
Ling Jiang gave a dry chuckle. "What, you writing your own recovery report now?"
That wasn't the point. The point was, the man was conscious again.
Ling Jiang called through the door. "Hey, are you awake?"
The man turned toward the sound. Through the broken glass, he spotted Ling Jiang. His voice wavered with a hint of a sob. "What's wrong with me? It hurts… so cold, so cold…"
"It's almost minus thirty out here. You're in just a T-shirt and shorts, of course you're freezing. You even smashed this glass earlier — that cut on your hand is from sticking your arm through and getting caught on the shards. Do you remember that?"
Ling Jiang had heard the temperature from the radio that morning. But with twenty-four floors of ice beneath them and the corridor lined with icicles from the freezing rain, it felt much colder than minus thirty.
The man glanced at the blood-covered arm and shook his head.
She hadn't expected him to remember. In his crazed state, he was no different from Lao Gao earlier. Having any memory at all would be strange.
"So cold… so cold," he shivered.
"Go back inside and get more clothes. Lie here any longer and you'll turn into an icicle," Ling Jiang urged. She didn't want him dying right outside the safety door. The man was wearing even less than Lao Gao had, and if he froze to death here, his skin would stick to the ice — she'd have a hard time even cleaning up.
But in the short time he'd been lying there, his bare arms and legs had already frozen to the ice. Even if he wanted to leave, he couldn't. He tugged at the skin stuck to the ground, but nothing budged. His voice cracked. "Ah… I can't move."
"Hold on, I'll get some hot water."
Lan Jin ran upstairs. When she came back, she was holding a large kettle.
Lao Gao took it and crouched beside the man, starting with his left arm, pouring slowly so the skin separated from the ice with as little damage as possible.
But one kettle was only enough to free an arm. Lan Jin was about to go fetch more when the man suddenly went still. His head hung low, unmoving.
The stillness was too familiar — they had just seen the same thing happen with Lao Gao earlier. Instantly, all three of them tensed.
Ling Jiang kept signaling with her eyes for Lao Gao to step back, but he didn't seem to notice.
With no other choice, Lan Jin edged forward, planning to try pulling him back to awareness.
She didn't get the chance. The man's head snapped up, and he plunged straight into madness again, lunging at the nearest person — Lao Gao.
It took Lao Gao only a second to realize what was happening. The man slammed into him, snarling. Lao Gao ripped him off and flung him aside without hesitation.
But the man felt no pain. The moment he hit the ground, he charged again.
This time, Lao Gao kicked him square in the stomach.
He hadn't realized just how strong he'd become — the kick sent the man straight through the corridor wall. Staring at the hole, then at Lan Jin, Lao Gao looked stunned. He hadn't expected his strength to be this extreme.
Lan Jin thought back to earlier and realized just how much she had held back with him. She had assumed that kind of blow would end it, but the man soon crawled back out of the broken wall and rushed at Lao Gao again.
Dodging, Lao Gao muttered, "Guess we're not done yet."
Ling Jiang called out, "You weren't any better earlier. Instead of fighting, just draw him away. This place is covered in blood already, and I don't want to clean it up later."
The man's arms and legs had all been frozen to the ground earlier. Even after they freed one arm, in his crazed state he'd ripped the rest of his skin free without caring about the pain. Blood now streaked the corridor, the smell heavy in the air.
With a grimace at the half-bloody figure, Lao Gao kicked him again, sending him tumbling from the thirty-first floor corridor down to the level below.
The heavy thud made them all exhale in relief.
But the relief didn't last. Even after falling seven floors, the man — bones twisted and all — clawed his way upright again. His head turned, searching for another target.
Finding no one on the ice, he began screaming into the air.
Lan Jin frowned. "How do you think he even got here?"
Before anyone could answer, more howls echoed from every direction. The sound rolled through the building like a signal being passed along.
When the cries died down, the man below snapped his head toward them. His legs moved in a strange, jerking gait, but fast — too fast — as he charged straight for them.