Ai Shiping looked at the short, thin, bespectacled man standing in front of him and asked tentatively, "Xiao—Xiao Li?"

He didn't even know why he recognized Xiao Li—but Ai Shiping felt like he simply ought to know him.

"Yeah, boss. What's wrong, are you still half-asleep?"

Xiao Li looked at him in confusion. "Didn't you ask me to come over and set up the mechanisms?"

Hearing those words, Ai Shiping jumped.

"Shh! I'm—"

He was about to say,I'm livestreaming.

But when he raised his phone, he realized he wasn't streaming at all.

The screen was locked. When he unlocked it with his fingerprint, it opened straight to the home screen.

Yet for some reason, Ai Shiping felt a deep sense of wrongness.

It was as if he had overlooked some critical detail.

"Boss, why are you still carrying that thing around?"

Xiao Li glanced at the doll in Ai Shiping's arms and teased, "Where did you buy that?"

Where did he buy it?

Ai Shiping looked down at the doll, hesitating.

Where exactly had he bought it?

"I forgot," he replied.

"Let me hold it for you."

As Xiao Li spoke, he took both the hammer and the doll from Ai Shiping's hands.

His tone was strange. "Why do you have a hammer?"

Ai Shiping stammered, unable to answer.

Yeah, why did he have a hammer?

Why was he holding a hammer, a doll, and his phone all at once?

Ai Shiping felt that uncanny sense of wrongness grow stronger.

But it was like a blackout; he couldn't remember what had just happened to him at all.

"Oh, right. I need to call Ah Po—"

Suddenly, Ai Shiping remembered—he had come here with Ming Po.

But right now, he was all alone. He wondered if Ming Po had gotten lost—

But right at that moment, Xiao Li snatched Ai Shiping's phone away too.

He smiled. "I'll help you contact him."

"No!"

Ai Shiping's chest tightened. He reached out and snatched the phone back.

"Why not?"

Xiao Li didn't make any other moves. He just stood in place and asked again, "Why not?"

The question left Ai Shiping stumped.

Yeah... why not?

"Just no."

He was incredibly stubborn. "Forget about that. I need to call Ah Po—"

"Who are you trying to contact? Didn't you come here alone?" Xiao Li pressed.

Ai Shiping's eyes grew even more vacant.

Right, I came here alone.

Who am I trying to contact?

"So—"

Xiao Li reached out to take Ai Shiping's phone again.

But Ai Shiping's gaze suddenly flared with ferocity. Without a second thought, he shoved Xiao Li away.

"Enough!" Ai Shiping snapped. "Am I the boss, or are you?"

Shoved backward, Xiao Li collided with the wall and looked at Ai Shiping in surprise.

"Heh—"

He let out an eerie chuckle. Pushing up his glasses, he lowered his head and muttered, "Interesting."

What?

Right then, Ai Shiping felt the world spin violently.

He was still on the stairs, a few steps away from the second-floor door.

By the time Ai Shiping regained his senses, he was entirely off balance—after all, just a moment ago his feet had been firmly planted on flat ground, and now he was walking up the stairs.

When clarity returned, his body was instinctively moving forward. His center of gravity shifted instantly, nearly sending him tumbling back down the stairs.

He wobbled on the steps before barely steadying himself. The cost was a twisted left ankle—

But it wasn't a major issue.

Only then did Ai Shiping realize that the doll and the hammer in his arms had completely vanished!

Right now, his left hand held his phone, and his right hand was empty.

The instant he recognized the terrifying discrepancy, the memories of what had just happened flooded his mind.

A wave of lingering dread washed over him.

If he hadn't snatched his phone back just now, then...

If even the streamer's phone had been taken away, could the quest to complete the livestream even continue?

No, that wasn't it.

Ai Shiping realized something far more terrifying—

If his phone, hammer, and doll were all taken, would Ming Po assume that the other person was the real Ai Shiping?

The terror of having his memories casually overwritten and altered made his heart hammer violently.

Nothing frightened Ai Shiping more than losing his very sense of self.

It was even more terrifying than ghosts or monsters.

Ai Shiping opened his mouth and gasped for air, his ragged breaths trembling. The playful smile that usually graced his face was entirely gone, leaving only a grim expression and shaking eyes.

After steadying himself for a few seconds, Ai Shiping looked down at his phone—

He found that he was still streaming.

But the bullet comments weren't like before, when the screen had been flooded with [Go check it out]. Instead, they looked entirely normal:

[Why did he suddenly stop moving?]

[Breathing that heavily, is he having an asthma attack?]

[He wasn't looking where he was going and almost fell down, it scared him.]

"I—"

Ai Shiping opened his mouth to speak but immediately pressed his lips tight.

Could it be that the viewers were actually normal?

And only what just happened was the anomaly?

Or rather... was he not allowed to notice that the audience was abnormal?

Regardless of the truth, he decided to bury his real thoughts deep inside.

But when Ai Shiping looked up, he discovered that light was still spilling out from the second-floor door!

The sound of a music box still drifted from beyond the door—

He could vaguely make out the tune; it should be "Dream of Wedding". Ming Po knew how to play this piece—he had mentioned before that it wasn't particularly difficult.

Back then, Ming Po had even shared some music theory about the song with him—something about a circle of fifths and G minor. Could the puzzle be related to "5" and "G"?

Was he supposed to walk five steps at a time? Or did he need to walk through the room in a spiral following the shape of a G?

Pondering this, Ai Shiping cautiously stepped forward again.

This time, he pushed the door open again.

He was fully prepared to see Xiao Li a second time. Even though his hammer had been taken, he still had his fists!

Ai Shiping was an adult male standing just over 1.8 meters tall. Though he didn't work out regularly like Ming Po and barely ever left the house, if he caught the enemy off guard—

A solid punch to the cheek should give him the chance to escape!

"Screw this..."

Ai Shiping cursed under his breath, his body tense, already prepared to throw a heavy punch!

Having his memories tampered with just now had genuinely angered him.

But the moment he pushed the door open this time, the light outside suddenly flickered.

It wasn't nearly as bright outside the door as it had been before.

There was only a single flashlight sitting outside the door, pointing straight up. The light leaking out was the faint glow he had seen from the stairwell. When Ai Shiping pushed the door open, he accidentally knocked the flashlight over, sending the beam instantly tilting away.

As the light tipped over, the highly strung Ai Shiping caught a fleeting glimpse of a silhouette. No, that wasn't a "person."

Cold sweat instantly drenched Ai Shiping—

That was—a corpse.

A man was hanging by the neck right at the doorway. The moment he pushed the door open, the faint beam of the falling flashlight swept across him.

Because he hadn't caught a clear look, Ai Shiping instinctively shone his phone's flashlight over.

The man's eyes were wide open, staring right at Ai Shiping, completely motionless.

He had been dead for quite some time.

It was none other than the "Xiao Li" Ai Shiping had just seen!