An hour later, inside the Zhiye Mall.
Shen Kui avoided the security guards all the way, reaching the top floor of the mall via the fire escape.
Zhiye Mall was one of the older shopping centers in City A. Built early, it only had five floors and was located less than two hundred meters from the hotpot restaurant where her classmates had gathered. It was the very place where Tian Ke had fallen to her death the night before.
After listening to the recording and sensing something unusual, Shen Kui spent a long time thinking at home before finally deciding to visit the scene of the fall.
Perhaps it was intuition, or perhaps a subtle connection to Tian Ke, but she felt that she might be able to uncover some clues here.
It was now afternoon. The glaring sun had baked the rooftop floor to a scorching temperature. As soon as Shen Kui stepped out of the stairwell, a wave of heat hit her face.
The sunlight beat down on her. Within just a few minutes, her fair skin had taken on a flushed, pinkish hue.
She found the spot where Tian Ke had fallen. Traces of the police investigation from the night before still remained. Shreds of yellow tape printed with the black character for “police” lay scattered on the ground.
Most likely, Tian Ke had been standing right here when she made that phone call last night.
Shen Kui couldn’t help but wonder: if Tian Ke had wanted to tell her something, and the call had been disrupted, could she have left some kind of clue here?
She scanned her surroundings. The rooftop was mostly empty, bordered by a row of half-meter-high, weathered walls. Moss covered half the surface, and there were many chalk-drawn children’s stick figures, most of them quite old.
Shen Kui carefully examined every possible place where a message might have been left, but found nothing. The scorching sun felt like a pair of burning hands pressing against her exposed skin. Her skin was hot, but her heart felt icy cold.
Had Tian Ke really left nothing behind?
Just then, Shen Kui’s peripheral vision caught the faint stick figures on the wall again. Suddenly, a long-forgotten memory surfaced from the depths of her mind.
It was back when she was in elementary school. City A had been shaken by a series of kidnappings that shocked the entire city. Most of the victims were children between six and ten years old. Within just three days, six or seven children had gone missing.
To prevent further incidents, all primary and middle schools in the city were on high alert. Every day before class, students were repeatedly warned, and parents set up emergency codes with their children. Among classmates, secret codes and signals became a popular trend. Although the case was eventually left unresolved, these codes and signals remained popular in schools for quite some time.
Shen Kui remembered that she had been deeply immersed in the shadow of her parents’ deaths back then. To comfort her, the young Tian Ke would often draw cute stick figures to cheer her up.
Tian Ke had a natural talent for drawing. Despite her young age, her sketches were surprisingly well-structured.
She always drew herself as a little duckling with sparse feathers, while Shen Kui was a gray kitten with mandarin duck eyes. During that time, she created many simple, childlike drawings to lift Shen Kui’s spirits.
After the kidnappings, Tian Ke’s drawings evolved. Like everyone else, she and Shen Kui established their own secret code. But unlike other children, Tian Ke’s messages were often conveyed through her stick figures.
She had used various forms of little ducks and gray kittens to subtly illustrate the potential crises they might encounter, forcing Shen Kui to firmly grasp the methods of drawing them.
Now, seeing these simple sketches on the wall, Shen Kui naturally recalled the memories associated with them.
She crouched down, carefully examining these faded and mottled sketches, her heartbeat unconsciously quickening.
She followed the wall, looking at each drawing one by one. Suddenly, at a corner, she spotted the familiar little duck from her memory!
Simple strokes outlined a fluffy little duck with a bald head, its beak wide open, running swiftly forward, with a faint shadow trailing behind it.
Though it was an extremely warm and adorable image, the moment she saw it, Shen Kui felt as if all the blood in her body had frozen. Even the scorching sunlight overhead couldn’t dispel the overwhelming chill that flooded her heart!
She knew what this was!
This simple sketch was the most unique and least likely to be used in the entire series of escape codes!
It represented four words:
Save me. There’s a ghost.
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Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152