Under the Bed

After hearing that Jiang Cheng wouldn't sleep on the bed, Xie Yu shuffled his butt over to the bedside. He patted the quilt with one hand, finding the bed quite comfortable.

Unlike Jiang Cheng, his back wasn't good, so he couldn't sleep on the floor.

"What are you patting?" Fatty pointed at Xie Yu, shouting in a gruff voice, "Is that something you should be thinking about? Take your hand away and stand up straight!"

He was also quite disgusted by Xie Yu, who seemed like a fence-sitter.

"If you don't want to squeeze onto one bed, take turns sleeping," Jiang Cheng said indifferently, turning his head. "Fatty, you stay and keep watch with me. You take three hours, then I'll take over."

Jiang Cheng thought Xie Yu's watch was useless, so he took it.

"What do you need me to do?" Xie Yu asked, wrapped entirely in the quilt with only his head showing.

"I need you to shut up."

Having gotten nowhere, Xie Yu shrunk back. This time, he even pulled his head into the quilt, completely cocooning himself.

Although the villa had electricity, the voltage became unstable at night. The incandescent light overhead flickered incessantly, occasionally emitting a crackling sound.

With this environment and lighting, it was like a horror movie.

Jiang Cheng had no choice but to turn off the light.

By the moonlight filtering in from outside the window, they could still vaguely make out the surroundings.

Fatty leaned against the sofa. For the first hour, he was fine, but gradually his eyelids grew heavy. Although he knew it was dangerous, he strangely couldn't control himself. Finally, his head lolled, and he fell into a deep sleep.

He slept soundly, but it probably wasn't for long. At least when he groggily woke up, the room was still dark.

He rubbed his eyes, feeling a sense of lingering fear.

Someone was lying by the bed; it was Jiang Cheng. On the bed, Xie Yu had wrapped himself into a cocoon.

Everything seemed normal for now.

Although Fatty was sleepy, he didn't dare fall asleep again. Even more unexpectedly, he had drunk too much water and needed to use the restroom.

The bedroom had a bathroom, about 5 meters away from Fatty. It was small, with semi-transparent glass all around.

However, ever since the middle-aged man had died inexplicably in the bathroom, Fatty had developed a psychological, even physiological, aversion to it. He was unwilling to go.

He even resisted getting close.

He suddenly remembered Jiang Cheng's previous solution.

A mineral water bottle!

But he quickly fell into a new wave of despair.

Before sleeping, Jiang Cheng had thrown the water bottle into the trash can, and the trash can...

Fatty gulped. The trash can stood silently in front of the bathroom door.

Fatty had no choice but to inch his body forward, step by step, towards the bathroom, each movement feeling like a probe on the edge of danger.

He finally reached the trash can and quickly and successfully retrieved the empty mineral water bottle.

But before he could celebrate, his peripheral vision seemed to catch something unusual. He mechanically turned his head and saw an arm exposed behind the bathroom's glass door.

Second floor, master bedroom.

Fan Li suddenly sat up from the sofa, then quickly walked to the door and pressed his ear against it.

"What is it?"

Sister Nuan and Chen Xiaomeng, lying on the bed, also sat up. To prepare for any potential danger, they hadn't even taken off their clothes and didn't dare to sleep too deeply.

Fan Li placed his index finger to his lips, making a shushing gesture.

Seeing this, Sister Nuan and Chen Xiaomeng immediately fell silent, and the air seemed to freeze.

About a minute later, they heard an extremely faint creaking sound.

It sounded like a door suddenly opening.

A few seconds later, slow footsteps echoed from the corridor outside.

Pat-pat.

Each step sounded like it was landing in water.

At the same time, there was a strange scraping sound, like someone dragging a heavy object across the corridor floor.

The footsteps moved away in one direction, eventually disappearing.

Fan Li and the other two looked ashen, their faces so cold they could drip water. The direction the sound came from was the end of the corridor, where there was nothing but a locked room.

Something had happened.

Something had definitely happened!

Who was it this time?

The Fatty who could cook, the timid clerk named Xie Yu, or... that strange Hao Shuai?

In another room, inside the cramped bathroom.

Fatty's eyes were wide with terror, and his whole body trembled uncontrollably.

He didn't make a sound.

One hand was clamped tightly over his mouth.

Jiang Cheng crouched beside Fatty, the hand covering Fatty's mouth belonging to Jiang Cheng.

Both of their gazes were fixed intently on the doorway.

The room door was ajar, moonlight spilling in through the window.

The bed was already empty, even the quilt was gone. The thought of what he had just seen made Fatty's teeth chatter in fear.

The figure lying on the floor by the bed swayed to its feet, its movements bizarre, its posture contorted, and its build unnaturally bloated. It was clearly not Jiang Cheng.

Of course not.

Because Jiang Cheng was hiding behind the bathroom door, having dragged Fatty in and clamped his mouth shut.

The two of them squatted on the floor, not daring to breathe, staring out through the semi-transparent glass.

The bloated figure stared at the bathroom for a full ten seconds before turning around. It then crawled onto the bed, along a corner of the exposed quilt. Xie Yu, inside, was either asleep or something else. The figure moved with great amplitude, pressing the entire bed down with a creaking sound of strain, yet Xie Yu remained completely oblivious.

Until the quilt twitched violently a few times, and the room fell into sudden silence.

Jiang Cheng and Fatty didn't dare to move.

They remained still until the figure emerged from the quilt and then slowly walked towards the door, step by step. The sound of water kept coming, especially clear in the silent night.

In the dim moonlight, Jiang Cheng noticed the figure dragging a quilt behind it. And inside the quilt...

He turned his head to look at the bed. It was empty.

After the sound of water and the dragging of a heavy object disappeared at the end of the hallway, Jiang Cheng and Fatty still hadn't moved.

They maintained their position for an unknown amount of time, until the sound of the door opening was heard.

The first to appear was Fan Li, with Sister Nuan and Chen Xiaomeng following behind him. The three of them pressed against the wall, walking in cautiously.

Only then did Jiang Cheng release Fatty. The two of them emerged from the bathroom.

Fatty's lips were trembling, so Jiang Cheng had to recount what had just happened.

He had been sleeping, but was suddenly awakened by a chilling sensation. In a daze, he abruptly noticed a dark shadow beneath the bed where Xie Yu was sleeping.

The shadow's limbs were sprawled on the floor, its joints unnaturally bent, and it was slowly crawling outwards.