This was obviously not a normal elevator speed. Someone had cranked a rapid-release. Sweat beaded on Da Mao's forehead. Their enemies had come prepared.
The thunderous crash made the entire underground passage shudder. Pebbles sprayed through the air. In her daze, Jing Shu took several cuts to her face and body. Blood slipped into her mouth. She licked it and was startled by how good it tasted.
"Wang Chuang? Where is Wang Chuang?"
"Wang Chuang didn't make it out!"
Breathing hard, Su Mali ran to the opening they had just escaped through. The elevator had slammed full force into the frame assembly. She leaned over the edge and saw nothing but a forearm jutting out, a Swiss watch on the wrist, the one she had given Wang Chuang.
The bearded man was crushed beneath the car, likely pulped.
The elevator itself was nearly scrap, and the car was empty. Someone had operated it on purpose. Did they already know the group had escaped?
Jing Shu staggered over, conscious of what was happening but unable to control her body, moving on instinct alone.
Su Mali clapped both hands over her mouth. Tears flooded her eyes. How could this be? He had just been talking to her. Why had he not gotten out?
Da Mao swallowed air and pressed his lips together. "Brother, rest easy. I will keep Miss safe." He had no time for grief. He checked his phone. Still no signal. "Miss, we need to find an exit. Someone is close by. Here, take this pistol. If anything feels wrong, shoot."
He grew even more cautious. Of the three, only he could still be relied on. He tossed stones ahead to sound the way. Thankfully, the end of the assembly should be the exit.
He put Jing Shu and Su Mali behind him and opened the final door himself.
A rusty creak answered. Inside was pitch-black. He dared not use a light and alert the enemy. He threw pebble after pebble in different directions, listening to the echoes to map the space.
Jing Shu still drifted in a fog. If she had been clear-headed now, there might not be a later.
"Move. Carefully. Keep to the wall," Da Mao said, entering first. Nothing happened. Su Mali pulled Jing Shu along and tiptoed in.
Just then the whole hall blazed with light.
"Back!" Da Mao shouted, but the burst of gunfire cut him off. With no time to think, he hurled Su Mali and Jing Shu back through the doorway.
Shots cracked for four or five seconds, then silence. It was over.
Da Mao, riddled like a sieve, sagged to the floor as blood flooded out beneath him. He lifted a shaking hand toward Su Mali. "Miss, run. Quick. If you make it out, look after Er Mao and San Mao for me." He got the words out with difficulty, then his head lolled and he was gone.
"Sob, all right. I know."
Shaking, Su Mali pushed herself up. The yellow open-shoulder dress was filthy and torn. Her carefully polished nails had split. She stared at the suddenly lit room, shocked, and pointed at the middle-aged man with the assault rifle cooling in his hands.
"You? You are the one? Uncle Gou, you? Impossible. It cannot be." By the end, her voice had ripped into a scream. For someone of her background, betrayal was the hardest blow to bear.
It was Uncle Gou.
Jing Shu had been shoved to the ground. That shove finally nudged some hidden threshold inside her. Cause and effect locked into place. The thin paper window in the Rubik's Cube Space finally tore. The upgrade had met every condition.
A surge of power roared through her mind. She could not withstand it. She blacked out.
Every upgrade of the Rubik's Cube Space was like a system update on a phone or computer. It had to shut down and restart. Jing Shu rebooted at the worst possible time, leaving her fate to the wind.
But this upgrade was unlike the ones before. She received the Rubik's Cube Space's information consciously, and even as it upgraded, she could still hear the outside world.
More incredible, she seemed to have hallucinations. The Rubik's Cube Space expanded before her eyes, one cubic meter at a time. Because the second form overlapped the real world, she could see it.
It felt like her soul left her body. She saw herself lying there, Da Mao on the ground, Su Mali sobbing, and the man across from them. She also saw the overlapping space reassembling, white motes of light growing like photons in a science fiction film. It was astonishing.
So that was how the Rubik's Cube Space had always upgraded.
Right now, Su Mali was truly alone. Jing Shu had fainted. Both bodyguards were dead. And the man she trusted most, Uncle Gou, was the mastermind. How could that be? She nearly broke in that instant.
"Uncle Gou? Oh, you mean that loyal dog of yours?" the middle-aged man said with a cold smile. "What a pity. He died miserably."
He pushed his hair back and began peeling a layer from his face.
"He stopped being your Uncle Gou two months ago. You never noticed?"
"What?" Su Mali was stunned. "Impossible. He was with me every day. How could that be?"
The skin came away to reveal a young man's face. In her out-of-body state, Jing Shu saw it clearly. It was Lin Yi, the one she watched daily.
Him. It was him.
Jing Shu was beyond words. How could it be him? How could one person play two roles? On the monitors, he had never once behaved strangely. No, that was the problem. He had been too normal, too plain. Did he know she watched him?
Right. No wonder Uncle Gou had seemed so tall. The silhouette had looked familiar. But Uncle Gou had always been burly, unlike the lanky Lin Yi she had seen before the New Year.
"Why not?" Lin Yi said mildly. "I started imitating him three months ago. Two months ago, I abducted him and brought him to my place. It took a lot of work to learn everything about him. Now, I can finally peel off this human-skin mask."
He hooked a finger under his neck and pulled. The skin came away.