"That’s not something that can be explained in a few words. Just trust me on this. That little thing, aside from being a bit willful, won't do anything truly bad—unless someone tries to kill him," Xiao Shu said to me as she closed the corridor door.

With a creak, the door sealed shut, and the last sliver of sunlight vanished from my sight. The corridor was once again plunged into an impenetrable darkness.

I recalled all the fragmented memories concerning the Ghost Infant; Hou Dayong was the first person to die by its hand, and a wave of sorrow still washed over me.

"The Ghost Infant has killed before," I said in a low voice. Thinking about everything Hou Dayong had done to Wang Jue and me, it was genuinely hard for my heart to accept this little demon who killed, let alone treat him well.

"Sigh, what you’re experiencing is Stockholm Syndrome, where a hostage falls for their captor. Think about it: wasn't it Hou Dayong who lured you to the villa? Didn't he use your sister's life as leverage to force you and Wang Jue to seek the Blood Kin Compass in the Sea of the Departed? Wasn't he the one who once wanted to kill the Ghost Infant and throw him into that same sea?" As Xiao Shu spoke, she turned sharply and walked toward the crime scene, and I followed her silently.

Everything she said was true; Hou Dayong had done many things to hurt me, yet he had also saved both me and Wang Jue. Fine, humans are emotional creatures; logic and feeling often pull in opposite directions. I conceded that I was being sentimental.

Dropping the subject, we retraced our steps back to the room, shut the door, and left the scene of the tragedy.

Upon returning to Wang Jue’s residential complex, the area was buzzing with noise. A large crowd was crammed near the main entrance, craning their necks to peer inside. Several police cars were parked nearby. It looked like a major incident had occurred.

Xiao Shu and I took a long time just to push our way to the front of the crowd. We watched as the police loaded a body, shrouded in a body bag, onto an ambulance. A chorus of murmurs rippled through the onlookers: "No use saving them, someone died..."

"What happened?" I asked the auntie standing to my right.

The auntie replied with a trace of fear in her voice, "It seems like a doctor living in Building No. 2 went berserk. He suddenly grabbed a knife and charged into the security booth, stabbing several people. The living ones were just taken away by the ambulance; now they’re moving the dead ones."

Hearing this, my stomach lurched. I immediately worried that something had happened to Wang Jue.

Xiao Shu also had a bad feeling. He pointed toward the yellow caution tape. "Isn't that the building where Wang Jue lives?"

It’s over, I thought, this is catastrophic!

"Auntie, the doctor who did the killing—was he caught?" Xiao Shu leaned over and asked the woman who had answered before.

"I don't think so. I heard that after the stabbing, the murderer ran off like a madman. The police just called over the manager from the property management company to review the surveillance footage to see which way he fled. They said they might issue an APB soon."

She stressed the words "wanted bulletin" with distinct clarity. Others nearby leaned in, chiming in with their own two cents: "How cruel! If they catch someone like that, they should definitely execute him!" "Exactly! That poor security guard was just doing his job, and suddenly this guy runs up and starts stabbing people. Where is the justice?" "He probably had mental issues long ago." "I heard he was a psychiatrist." "Did his workplace send anyone over?" "They were contacted earlier; the office said he'd been AWOL for a long time and they fired him a few days ago." "He probably couldn't handle the blow and snapped." ...

As I pondered the bystanders' words, a thick fog descended upon my mind. Wang Jue had absolutely no idea he’d been fired. What on earth happened that made him run to the security booth to stab people?