The two figures combed every room on the fifth floor. The usual cacophony of disturbed minds and the ceaseless wails that once echoed through these halls had vanished since their arrival. It seemed Lai Xiaohao had secured this wing for Xing Er entirely. Yet life demanded proof - where could all these people have disappeared to? Mei Shu tried to call him on her phone, only to find the signal gone dead.

A second attempt brought sudden darkness as a shadow lunged from nowhere. She barely glimpsed the glint of steel before tossing aside her phone and arching backward in time to dodge the fatal strike. Xiaoyu moved just as swiftly, intercepting the attacker mid-lunge and pinning it beneath his weight.

"Finally got you," Mei Shu muttered, tearing away the black veil covering the figure's face. "Of course it's you, Li Bingyu." She crouched beside her captive. "I've done nothing to deserve your repeated attempts on my life. What have I ever taken from you?"

Bingyu remained silent, and something about the way she lay beneath Xiaoyu's weight felt... wrong. No shallow breaths. No struggle.

"Would you stop stalling?" Xiaoyu's patience frayed as he pinched her jaw to force an answer. His fingers met only half a tongue inside her mouth.

The two men exchanged glances, the absurdity of their predicament hanging heavy between them. They released their mute prisoner, binding her wrists with rope before dragging her through the abandoned rooms. The entire fifth floor had become a hollow mausoleum. No trace of human presence remained, only the living - Mei Shu - and the two undead entities in her wake.

Mei Shu hauled Bingyu to a nearby chair, untying her hands with deliberate gentleness. "We met on Jin Ji Street when you were still hunting the greedy. You stood behind me as Xiaohao dragged me away from Lai Tailin, yet I felt no threat - only your silent support. From there through the prison, you became my friend in every sense except words. Then everything changed. First the silence. Then the innocent victims. Where is that red coat now? Was it really you who killed her?" Her voice softened as she leaned closer, eyes searching Bingyu's face. "If words fail you, write or gesture - just let me understand what happened. We'll help you become whole again."

A single tear slipped down Bingyu's cheek, not the torrent of grief that might have accompanied Mei Shu's own mother, but a quiet devastation from an ice queen whose sorrow carried its own elegance.

Xiaoyu and Mei Shu knelt on either side as silence stretched between them. The tear hit the marble floor with a soft plop, evaporating almost instantly beneath the sterile hospital air. Just as their eyes locked onto that vanished droplet, Bingyu sprang up like a phantom, vanishing down the corridor before launching herself through an open window to the streets below. By the time they reached it, only wind howled through the empty space where she'd disappeared.