Disappearance

"This isn't a vacation."

Fatty's face turned pale as if he'd thought of something. "So you mean the Sister Nuan from just now... was a ghost?"

"I'm afraid so," Jiang Cheng nodded.

"Then the real Sister Nuan, and that girl Chen Xiaomeng in the room..."

"Enough," Jiang Cheng interrupted him, and after a few seconds, said, "Let's go to the living room."

To avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, Jiang Cheng didn't deliberately lighten his footsteps as he descended the stairs. But when he and Fatty reached the bottom, only the crackling firewood in the fireplace remained.

Fan Li, who should have been by the fireplace, was gone.

Fatty was a little scared and asked, "Could he have run into trouble too?"

Jiang Cheng scanned the surroundings and then said, "Come out. We're humans, not ghosts."

As soon as he spoke, a figure as strong as a bear stood up from behind the sofa. Fan Li stared at them vigilantly, a sharp knife in his hand reflecting a cold glint.

"Why did you come down?" He quickly glanced at the stairs before focusing his gaze on Jiang Cheng's face. "Where are the other two?"

"Something happened to them."

Fan Li stared at them suspiciously. According to their previous deductions, the women should have been safe in this mission. How could something like this have happened?

Fatty quickly recounted their recent encounter to Fan Li.

Fan Li's expression changed slightly, and then he sighed. "If what you say is true, then they're likely beyond saving."

Far beyond saving, Fatty thought. He just hoped they hadn't died as gruesomely as Xie Yu.

Since the ghost had appeared tonight, Jiang Cheng and the other two were relatively safer. But after what had just happened, even Fatty had lost all desire to sleep.

"Let's get some rest," Jiang Cheng said. "I won't sleep. I'll wake you up in two hours."

Fan Li, perhaps having experienced such things many times, seemed accustomed to it. He lay down, but not on the sofa. He lay down in front of the fireplace.

No one knew if he was truly asleep. The sharp knife he'd found in the kitchen was put away, likely hidden somewhere on his person.

With the warmth of the hearth, Fatty's nerves began to fray. He hadn't had a good night's sleep in a long time, and only his residual consciousness was holding on.

He sat on the sofa, the scene before his eyes gradually blurring.

When he opened his eyes again, it was already dawn. Jiang Cheng and Fan Li were huddled together, discussing something in hushed tones. Jiang Cheng's expression looked much the same as usual, but Fan Li was occasionally agitated.

Fatty moved, and the sofa let out a slight creak.

Jiang Cheng turned his head and looked at him. "Awake?"

"Yeah." Fatty rubbed his face sheepishly. "It's morning. Should we go upstairs and check?"

"No rush. Let's wait until it's fully light."

And so, they waited for another half hour. During this time, the three of them ate some small bread-like items, barely filling their stomachs.

When it was fully light, Jiang Cheng stood up and said it was time. The three of them picked up their belongings and started up the stairs.

Fan Li still clutched the sharp knife from last night. Jiang Cheng now held a rolling pin. Fatty, seeing nothing else in the kitchen, slung the cutting board over his shoulder, holding it against his chest like a shield.

The three of them slowly reached the second-floor corridor and gradually approached the master bedroom.

By now, they were certain that something had happened to Sister Nuan and the others.

The master bedroom door was ajar by a third, and there was no sound from within.

Jiang Cheng reached out and pushed the door open.

Fatty immediately raised the cutting board.

They had already prepared themselves to see two corpses, or even a ghost lunging at them. But when the door opened, there was nothing inside.

No corpses, no ghosts, no bloodstains.

Not even a trace of a struggle.

The quilt in the room was neatly folded, the items on the tables and chairs were orderly, and a silk robe was draped over the sofa, as if the mistress had just left.

"Where are they?" Fatty asked, his eyes wide.

Jiang Cheng checked under the bed. Fan Li, with a grim expression, checked the closet, then the bathroom, behind the sofa. Finally, they even searched several nearby rooms, including the one where Xie Yu's body had been found.

Nothing.

They were gone.

Sister Nuan and Chen Xiaomeng, two living people, had vanished as if into thin air.

Jiang Cheng pondered for a moment, then suddenly said to Fan Li, "Is there a possibility that they didn't die and have successfully left this place?"

"You mean they've completed the mission?" Fan Li's expression was uncertain, but after a moment, he replied, "The possibility is very small, but not impossible."

Fatty chimed in, "If that's the case, how do we explain the ghost we encountered last night?"

Jiang Cheng knew what Fatty was implying. Since the ghost had taken the form of Sister Nuan and appeared in the master bedroom where Sister Nuan and Chen Xiaomeng were, they must have encountered it.

Last night, before encountering the ghost, Jiang Cheng had been on the second floor. He hadn't heard anyone walking in the corridor, meaning Sister Nuan and the other woman hadn't left their room.

The windows in the villa couldn't be opened either, so there was no possibility of leaving through them.

So, either Sister Nuan and Sister Nuan were already killed by the ghost, and their bodies were just hidden, or they finished the mission and returned to the real world before the ghost even appeared.

Regarding the method of leaving the mission, Fan Li shared his experience. He said that a door usually appears after all the clues have been found.

Through that door, one can return to the real world.

However, he also emphasized that the door could appear anywhere, but it generally wouldn't be in a too remote location, and most of them were related to important clues within the mission.

"Like the iron door we pushed open in the dream?" Jiang Cheng asked.

Fan Li nodded. "Yes, you can think of it as a passage connecting the dream world and the real world."

Back in the living room on the first floor, Jiang Cheng sat on the thick carpet, with Fan Li and Fatty also sitting down, directly opposite Jiang Cheng.

The situation they were facing was a bit complicated.

"Alright," Jiang Cheng said, looking up. "Let's assume Sister Nuan and Sister Nuan have successfully left here. Let's think about how they managed it."

Fatty shrunk his neck and stammered, "But why do I feel like the two of them were killed by the ghost?"

Jiang Cheng looked at him and said coldly, "This question is meaningless. If you insist they were killed by the ghost, then we might as well wait for death."

Fatty was startled by Jiang Cheng's attitude and didn't dare to speak for a moment.

Fan Li immediately nodded and said, "You're right, Sister Nuan and Sister Nuan must have found a way to leave!"

"So, it's our turn now." Jiang Cheng stood up, patting his pant legs.