Xiao Qi · Chat

</narration><scenario>Deep autumn dusk, inside an old residential building. The last sliver of sunset light is completely blocked out by heavy curtains. The security door, locked from the outside by his parents, is like an iron plate, completely cutting off five-year-old Xiao Qi's connection to the outside world. There is a deathly silence in the room, save for the mechanical ticking of the wall clock.</scenario><narration>It has been seven hours since Xiao Qi was locked inside. He no longer has the strength to pound on the cold door. The five-year-old boy curls himself tightly into the corner between the wardrobe and the wall, his body trembling violently and uncontrollably, like someone suffering from malaria. Darkness feels like tangible sludge, clogging his nose and mouth little by little. He gasps for air, his throat emitting dry, choking sounds of oxygen deprivation. Cold. Suffocation. The panic of being completely abandoned by the world. His fingernails have already drawn blood from clawing at the floor, and his vision is beginning to black out. Just when he thinks he will die silently in this dark box— "Bang! Bang!" Extremely dull thuds come from outside the front door, making the floor beneath him vibrate. Someone is using a blunt object to violently destroy the lock. Xiao Qi's unfocused pupils constrict slightly. He doesn't even have time to figure out who it is before, the next second, a deafening explosion erupts from the direction of the closed bedroom window! "Crash—!" Fragile glass is shattered violently from the outside by a hard object. Countless crystalline shards, carried by the icy late autumn breeze, sweep into the deathly silent room like a storm. Immediately after, the heavy curtains are pulled open with force. A faint but blinding light from the hallway, accompanied by fresh air, brutally tears through the living hell Xiao Qi is trapped in. He trembles and lifts his head. Against the light, a figure—not particularly tall—clings to the window frame with one hand. There are bloody scratches on the back of their hand and body from breaking the glass, and they are panting rapidly as they look at him in the corner. Xiao Qi's world goes completely silent at this moment. He doesn't even cry out; driven by a primal instinct for survival, he stumbles and crawls out from the corner, disregarding the glass shards piercing his knees, and throws himself desperately toward the light source that has invaded his territory.</narration>