This real tactile sensation told him he wasn't dreaming or hallucinating—everything before him was real.
Gazing at his blurry face reflected on the water's surface, Su Li felt his mind grow hazy. Alone in this deathly still place, with no trace of life or hope in sight, a sense of despair and loneliness crept into his heart, as if the entire world had abandoned him.
Suddenly, a splash broke the water's surface before him, and a faint sound seemed to echo. Startled out of his daze, Su Li shot to his feet.
"Who's there?" He sensed something in the water ahead, instinctively stepping back. Staring at the surface for a full dozen seconds, he noticed the plastic basin floating on the water trembling slightly, but nothing else stirred.
After about a minute or two, certain there was no further movement, Su Li slowly approached the water's edge by the stairs again, leaning in for a closer look. This time, he spotted a dark mass submerged in the water at the turn of the stairs leading to the next floor. But with the stairs blocking his view, he couldn't make out what it was.
Su Li fixed his gaze on the dark shape, his heart beginning to pound wildly. From the angle he could see, the exposed part of the shadow increasingly resembled a human head. He was sure he hadn't noticed it before—whether he'd missed it earlier or it had just drifted in.
"That... that looks like a head... those spreading strands, like long hair... could it be a woman's head..."
The more he thought about it, the more his scalp tingled, a chill creeping up his spine. Unable to contain his fear, he stumbled back, retreating in a panic.
He fled all the way back to his apartment, slamming the door shut. Back in familiar surroundings, his fear and unease eased slightly, and he calmed down enough to reconsider what he'd seen.
"Right, it really could be a woman's head—maybe someone who drowned. Most likely a resident from the 29th floor. If that's true, it means not everyone evacuated; plenty of people didn't make it out in time and drowned in the sudden flood. I'm a survivor of the flood. Maybe there are others like me, trapped too—I'm not alone."
With that thought, Su Li steadied himself. After a moment's consideration, he decided to go back to the stairwell for a clearer look, wanting to confirm whether it was indeed a corpse submerged in the water.
He rummaged through drawers and cabinets, finding an old flashlight he hadn't used in ages. Testing it, he found it still worked. He grabbed the flashlight and a drying pole, then opened the door and stepped out again.
The hallway was still eerily quiet. Su Li walked to the end, pushed open the two doors leading to the stairwell, and entered. Reaching the stairs going down, he turned on the flashlight and shone it into the water below.
Though it was daytime, the stairwell's small windows let in limited light. Earlier, flustered and panicked, he hadn't looked carefully. Now, with the flashlight, he examined the water thoroughly.
Finally, Su Li could be almost certain that the dark mass at the stairwell's corner was a human head protruding from a corpse. Submerged in water, the long hair on the head floated loose, giving it a grotesque, unsettling appearance that was terrifying at first glance.
Prepared this time, Su Li didn't panic as much. He took a deep breath to steady himself, put away the flashlight, and gripped the drying pole with both hands, dipping it into the water to try to fish out the submerged body.
Facing a corpse alone, Su Li felt sweat on his palms and a dryness in his throat. Gritting his teeth, he mustered his courage and extended the pole into the water.
Soon, he realized the pole wasn't long enough to reach the head. Frowning, he stepped into the water, descending one stair. His shoes got wet, and he felt a chill.
Having made up his mind, Su Li didn't overthink it. His only focus now was retrieving the corpse to examine it. Holding the pole, he followed the flooded stairs down several steps until the water reached his knees, and the pole finally touched the submerged body.
Su Li gently poked the head with the pole. The floating head swayed slightly, ripples spreading across the water. The corpse's head was visible at the stairwell's turn, but due to the water level, it was wedged against the wall above, preventing it from drifting.
He nudged it a few more times with the pole. Thanks to the water's buoyancy, he didn't need much force—just a few prods, and the body slowly floated toward him.
Seeing a real corpse drifting in the water, Su Li took a deep breath and quickly retreated back up the stairs. Though he knew it was just a body, an uncontrollable chill surged through him, along with a flicker of curiosity: who was this corpse? Could it be someone he knew?
Of course, the most likely answer was a resident from the 29th floor. After all, even if people from other floors had drowned, their bodies drifting to this level was far less probable than from the 29th.
Switching the pole to his left hand, Su Li turned on the flashlight again to examine the corpse closely. The beam illuminated the floating body, and Su Li shuddered, fear flickering in his eyes.
Perhaps due to prolonged submersion, the corpse appeared bloated and swollen. Su Li couldn't recognize who it was; only the long, flowing hair indicated it was a woman. What terrified him, though, was that the female corpse was incomplete. Its swollen surface was a mess of flesh and blood, with bare white bones exposed on the thigh, chest, and abdomen—signs of gnawing that were utterly horrifying.
At twenty-seven years old, Su Li had never witnessed such a gruesome, bloody scene. His heart jolted, and he stumbled back two steps. The murky water before him now seemed sinister and eerie.
"What could have gnawed on it? Fish or some other animal in the water..."
He dared not dwell on it. His scalp tingled, and a strong sense of unease surged within him, driving him to flee. He quickly retreated to the hallway with the pole, tightly closing the door to the stairwell, his heart pounding violently.