Come Upstairs

Bishuiwan Manor was brightly lit. From the ornate crystal lamp on the ceiling of the grand hall to the dim, intimate ambient lights in the dining room, and even every street lamp along the edges of the garden and the architecture, not a single one was off. The dazzling light was so intense it was almost blinding.

Horror movies often use dark and enclosed spaces to build a sense of danger, but Feng Yushu was currently walking through a bright, spacious hall; with a single turn of her head, she could see the stone pillars and statues outside through the floor-to-ceiling window.

Empty, bright, and deathly silent.

Every so often, a corpse would be leaning against a wall or lying on the ground. The deceased bore no blood or signs of a struggle, appearing like puppets that had lost their power, their limbs twisted into strange shapes, motionless.

Feng Yushu leaned against the wall, carefully navigating around the scattered bodies, and followed the stairs up to the second floor.

Some of the bodies sprawled across the hall and corridors wore work uniforms—gardeners and cleaners responsible for the manor's daily maintenance—while others were the renovation master and the civil engineering brother who had been left behind to make final adjustments before the manor's official opening.

Other corpses were dressed in pajamas; they were executives and employees of the New Homeland Group who had come here on a company trip, becoming the first guests of Bishuiwan Manor alongside the family of Bai Fugui before it had even officially opened to the public.

Now, they were all dead here.

In the silent night, muffled sobs and hysterical screams occasionally echoed. Each life lost meant the time left for Feng Yushu was growing tighter, like a death knell chasing her footsteps, urging her to hurry, to hurry even faster.

Feng Yushu ran barefoot across the soft wine-red carpet and quickly ascended to the second floor of the manor.

"Hmm?" Ning Zhe stood on her shoulder and tilted his head.

Bishuiwan Manor was vast, and this European-style castle contained many rooms. Yet, among the bright rooms emitting light, one room with its lights turned off stood out with striking prominence.

In the midst of the magnificent, brightly lit manor, this single patch of darkness was the most conspicuous thing of all.

"It's... Azhi, that's her room." Feng Yushu suddenly grew agitated, her strides quickening involuntarily.

Ning Zhe frowned, shielding Feng Yushu behind him as he approached the only room with the lights off.

"Azhi? Are you in there? It's Mother..." Feng Yushu pounded on the door, her face full of anxiety. "Did you fall asleep? Wake up, we have to leave!"

After knocking for several minutes without receiving any response, a frantic Feng Yushu suddenly remembered she had a spare key. She scrambled to pull it from her small leather purse, her hands trembling as she inserted it into the keyhole.

A rustling sound came from the door panel. Feng Yushu twisted the key left and right, but the door refused to budge.

She turned around, looking at Ning Zhe, who stood on the windowsill beside her, with a pleading gaze. "What do I do, Ning Zhe? I can't open the door..."

Ning Zhe looked up. The construction quality of Bishuiwan Manor was truly impressive; marble slabs were attached to the exterior walls as insulation, and the door to every individual room was made of heavy solid wood—it looked like a hardwood such as maple. For an unarmed human to force their way in was, if not impossible, then at least a tall order.

Even a War Wolf wouldn't be able to do it.

But Ning Zhe could.

Ning Zhe landed on his feet, grabbed a vase from the windowsill, and smashed it directly against the closed window. With a loud crash, the glass shattered, and a muffled scream of terror came from the dark room.

"Azhi!" Feng Yushu's concern deepened.

Even with the glass broken, the window's security bars prevented an adult from passing through. Ning Zhe braced himself with one hand, transformed into a small bird, and slipped through the gap, entering the room with fluid grace before landing steadily on his feet.

But the moment his feet touched the floor, Ning Zhe sensed a rustling movement in the pitch-black darkness. He instinctively dodged to the side, hearing the clanging sound of metal striking the stone wall.

"Young lady, are you trying to star in Biographies of Assassins?" Ning Zhe turned to the side, felt for the light switch by the door, and the moment the lights flickered on, he quickly stomped his foot, pinning the assassin who had lunged at him in the dark to the floor.

Once the lights were on, it was clear that the person sprawled on the ground was a young girl in a loose pajama robe. Her hair was disheveled, her face pale. The Martin boots on Ning Zhe's feet were pressed right against the girl's delicate neck. With her vital point captured, she still struggled violently, reaching out to grab the dagger that had fallen to the floor after striking the marble wall...

"Hmm?" Ning Zhe looked closer and realized it wasn't a dagger, but a sharp metal hairpin.

"Stay still. Don't move." Ning Zhe crouched down, pinned the girl's hands behind her back, and locked them firmly with his arm, while his other hand reached for the doorknob to open the door.

After a few twists, he realized it wouldn't turn; the girl had filled the gaps in the handle and the keyhole with wood glue.

"Wood glue? Do you play with wooden block models?" Ning Zhe asked casually.

The girl ignored him completely. Even with her hands locked by Ning Zhe, she continued to struggle violently, trying to slam her head against the wall.

No, to be precise, she was trying to slam it against the light switch on the wall.

"You want to turn off the lights?" Ning Zhe asked again.

This time, she finally stopped struggling and nodded slightly, letting out a barely audible "mm."

"If you have something to say, just say it. If you don't tell me, how am I supposed to understand?" Ning Zhe shook his head and turned off the lights, plunging the room back into total darkness.

Once the lights were off, the girl's mental state improved significantly. She stopped trying to attack people like a madwoman, but Ning Zhe could still feel her heart pounding in her chest through his arm; it seemed she had been subjected to extreme terror.

"Are you Baizhi?" Ning Zhe carefully loosened his grip and asked.

"How do you know?" The girl's weak voice was exceptionally clear in the darkness.

"I came with your mother. Didn't you hear her calling you just now?" Ning Zhe said with a sigh. "Or did you think she was a ghost?"

"Yes, I thought it was a ghost trying to lure me into opening the door... Wait." Baizhi's tone suddenly became excited. "You know about the existence of ghosts?!"

"I know of them, but first you have to tell me why you were hiding in this room with the lights off." Ning Zhe countered. "A lot of people have died in this manor—really, a lot, a lot, a lot of people. Since you've managed to survive until now, I believe you might know something."

Something about that vicious evil ghost in the manor.

"It's the light. The ghost needs light to kill," Baizhi said without hesitation. "Contrary to common sense, within the range of this ghost's activity, light means danger, and darkness means safety. As long as you hide in the dark, it won't find or kill you."

Her tone was full of anticipation, as if she were terrified that Ning Zhe wouldn't believe her.

"Alright then..." Ning Zhe tentatively accepted this explanation; after all, the fact that Baizhi had survived until now was the best evidence.

So the problem now was: how to open this door with the damaged lock and get Baizhi out?

As he pondered, a muffled sob suddenly drifted in from the corridor outside. It was Feng Yushu's voice:

"Ning Zhe, the ghost... the ghost has come upstairs..."

As her voice faded, a crisp sound, like a porcelain bottle striking marble, echoed quietly through the silent manor.

Clink, clink.