At the top of the staircase, a gray iron door blocked the view of the rooftop landscape.
Jiang Shuyao tried to push it open, and to her surprise, she saw the door wasn't locked; it was just tied shut with a thin piece of wire.
Her wrist was slender, perfectly able to reach through the crack to touch the wire outside.
It took her a few minutes, as the wire was tightly wound and at a tricky angle.
By the time she got to the final loop, she simply couldn't untangle it any further.
Jiang Shuyao's fingers were rubbed raw, and just as she was about to pull back to realign herself, a pair of eyes suddenly appeared through the crack.
She almost cried out in shock, then abruptly held her breath.
Zhong Yuan?
With a clang, the iron door opened.
Zhong Yuan looked at her impassively, slinging his guitar over his shoulder as he squeezed past her to head downstairs.
"Hey, wait a moment."
