The oil lamp didn't flicker before it died. It simply ran out of fuel, the small blue flame shrinking into a pinprick of light before vanishing entirely. The room was instantly plunged into a darkness so thick it felt like a solid weight. For a few seconds, the afterimage of the wick burned in Liu Er’s retinas, a ghostly orange line that eventually faded into the void. With the light gone, the temperature in the room seemed to drop another ten degrees. The air was stagnant, smelling of old dust, dried sweat, and the sharp, metallic tang of the blood Tie Dan had smeared across the floor.
Tie Dan was no longer a source of noise. After his frantic "swimming" and the subsequent breakdown of his mind, he had collapsed into a heap in the center of the room. His breathing was shallow and erratic
