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Chapter 154. Sunny Doll
"Hiss..."

Jiang Jianxin tentatively squeezed out two muffled sobs from deep in his throat, his voice as dry as a rusty door hinge turning.

A warm, humid breath came from behind her, and the stench of decay almost seeped into her clothes.

She could sense that the monster was scrutinizing her with some kind of inhuman sense.

After a long few seconds, accompanied by the clicking sound of bones dislocating, the thing finally slowly turned around and dragged its heavy steps downstairs.

"Da da……"

The sound of footsteps gradually faded into the darkness.

Jiang Jianxin exhaled the stale air that had been trapped in his lungs, forcing himself to maintain the hunched posture of an old woman, and moved upstairs step by step.

The stairwell looked as if it had been splashed with ink, with only a few sparse lights seeping through the cracks in the doors of a few apartments.

Her limbs mechanically repeated the climbing motion until she bumped into the second "resident" at the corner.

It was a little girl standing on tiptoe, her scarlet eyes bulging from their sockets, her long, bluish-purple tongue curled around a rotting finger and licking it repeatedly, the sound of the sap dripping down being particularly clear in the deathly silence.

The girl didn't even glance at her, focusing intently on licking her fingers, as Jiang Jianxin slowly walked past her.

Because the stairwell was narrow, at the closest point she was standing, she was only a thumb's width apart from the girl.

At this extreme distance, Jiang Jianxin remained composed, revealing no weakness, and her intuition reassured her:
It's okay, it's okay, you imitated it so well.

Those years in the cultivation world were truly a test of character; my comprehension and imitation skills far surpassed those of ordinary people.

Intuition revealed her past in a single sentence.

Jiang Jianxin wasn't particularly surprised.

The purpose of this basic ability is to bypass logical reasoning and directly see through the truth.

Her current comprehension is astonishing; the fundamental truth behind her ability to do anything properly is the skills she has accumulated over several years of honing her craft in the cultivation world.

She replied helplessly:

The cultivation world isn't much different from this brutal apocalyptic environment, so I definitely need to know a little bit about everything.

Intuition stopped talking, probably because the signal was bad again, or because she understood things very quickly and didn't need much instruction, so I just wanted to lie down.

Jiang Jianxin bypassed the little girl and continued climbing in the posture of an old woman. Finally, she reached the top floor.

There are no residents here, only an empty space swallowed by darkness.

In the corner, there were clusters of blurry outlines. They were so black they seemed to swallow even the light.

Unable to see clearly what it was from the entrance, and out of caution, Jiang Jianxin first relied on his intuition:
[Intuition, are you there? Help me identify those black things.]

His mind was quiet, accompanied by the deathly silence of the rooftop and a chilling wind blowing from who-knows-where, making Jiang Jianxin's heart tremble.

She tried to hypnotize herself into believing she was a terrifying old woman, because only by playing the role of an old woman could she ensure her safety in the darkness of this building at night.

Just as she mustered her courage and tried to get closer to those dark things, she suddenly heard—

"Boom!"

A muffled thud came from downstairs, like a heavy object hitting the wall, and the whole building shook. Jiang Jianxin's first thought was that something had happened downstairs.

—She played the role of a terrifying old woman, but the door to Yin Qingyue's house downstairs was wide open and no one was there.

Although according to her speculation, with Yin Qingyue's shop open and the old lady out of the room, even if the door was open, no monster would go in—but what if?
Jiang Jianxin had only been in this instance for one day, and all the information she had was provided by the fifth-generation Yin Qingyue. She had not yet found the Dream Pavilion Elder in Xingfuli Community, so she dared not gamble.

Upon hearing the sound, Jiang Jianxin immediately turned around and walked downstairs.

Because she had to maintain the old lady's walking posture, her steps were very slow, and there were constant noises coming from downstairs.

"boom--"

"Boom-"

"boom--"

Jiang Jianxin became increasingly alarmed as she descended, because the sound grew louder and louder... and it seemed to be coming from her floor.
Jiang Jianxin's intuition failed him again. He knew it was unreliable, so he could only calm himself down and think of a solution as he walked.

—The house downstairs belonging to Yin Qingyue has been discovered… She’s currently playing the role of an old woman. What should she do if she goes downstairs and encounters a bunch of monsters attacking her?
— Shall we fight our way out?
Jiang Jianxin frowned slightly, a cold glint in his eyes.

The terrifying old woman, Jiang Jianxin, finally hunched over and took small steps to reach her floor.

She expected to see a huge group of monsters blocking her doorway.

To everyone's surprise, Yin Qingyue's door was wide open, the dark interior was deathly silent, and there was no one in front of the door.

Meanwhile, the door to Chi Lichuan's residence across the street was tightly shut, and muffled thuds could be heard coming from inside, as if someone was desperately banging on the door.

Jiang Jianxin moved silently to his front door, just as he was pondering what was going on—

"boom!"

The door to Chi Lichuan's house suddenly flew open!

A blood-stained figure lunged forward, her blue dress torn to shreds, the girl's pale fingers gripping her sleeve tightly. Crimson pupils flashed with a frenzied light in the darkness, and a piercing scream escaped her throat:
"Grandma—help me!!!"

No...who are you calling grandma?
Jiang Jianxin felt the old woman's coat he was wearing being suddenly pulled.

Despair churned in the girl's crimson eyes; her nails dug deeply into her sleeve, and her voice was hoarse, as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper.

"Grandma, please help me! Please—"

Before the words were finished, a white shadow suddenly darted out of the darkness.

The plain white linen wrapped around the girl's head like a living thing, making a teeth-grinding "creak" as it tightened. Jiang Jianxin could even see the terrified, distorted face beneath the cloth, its final struggle outlined against the white fabric—

"Crack."

After a soft thud, the headless body collapsed to the ground. Blood gushed from the neck cavity, meandering into a dark red stream on the concrete floor, gradually overflowing the soles of Jiang Jianxin's cloth shoes.

The white cloth had already taken shape—a rounded head outline, a strange smiling face stained with blood, a teru teru bozu (a Japanese doll that sways gently in the darkness).

A young man's smiling voice called from inside the house, a voice so gentle it sent chills down your spine:
"It's sunny, time to go home."

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