The photograph

So close.

So very close.

Ning Qiushui had almost died at the hands of that terrifying woman!

If Liu Chengfeng hadn't rushed out with the Blood Jade at the crucial moment, risking his life to help, Ning Qiushui would certainly have died!

"Thank you..."

Ning Qiushui sat cross-legged on the floor, one hand braced against his knee as he panted.

That had been... an incredibly close call!

Liu Chengfeng slapped his trembling legs and shook his head.

"I should be thanking you, buddy..."

"If you hadn't brought me here, that terrifying woman would've eaten me sooner or later!"

With that, he started laughing again.

It was the unmistakable joy of escaping death.

Like a man who had lost his mind, Liu Chengfeng sprawled on the floor and roared with laughter.

It took a long time before he returned to normal.

"Oh, right, buddy... what about the others?"

Liu Chengfeng helped the old woman into a proper position and made sure she was all right before asking Ning Qiushui.

Ning Qiushui's gaze flickered slightly.

"We absolutely can't go out right now..."

"It's too dangerous outside. Tomorrow, we'll see if we can contact them from the third floor. If we really can't, then we've done all we can."

Ning Qiushui seemed quite indifferent to the deaths of strangers.

Of course, he didn't mind lending them a hand, especially since he had nothing against them.

But only if... it didn't put him in danger.

After all, when he had asked whether anyone was willing to come with him and risk searching for the truth, not a single one of them had stepped forward.

He had taken the risks while the others reaped the rewards. No one would be happy with that arrangement.

He was no saintly monk, full of boundless compassion and determined to save everyone.

"By the way, buddy... I've got another question."

Once Liu Chengfeng had mostly recovered, he seemed to remember something.

"Ask."

"How... did you know the killing rules of that thing in the villa?"

At that question, Ning Qiushui fell silent in the darkness for a long while.

"Because I received an anonymous letter before I got on the bus."

"A letter?"

"Yes. It contained a photograph and a few lines."

Then Ning Qiushui slowly recited those lines:

"In wind, light no lamp; in rain, light no candle."

"By day, climb no stairs; by night, close no eyes."

Hearing those four phrases, Liu Chengfeng gaped in disbelief.

"Holy shit... it all matches!"

"Buddy, that's incredible! You've got some expert helping you behind the scenes!"

"Then what about the photograph?"

Ning Qiushui glanced at him, his gaze shifting slightly.

"You want to know?"

Liu Chengfeng looked taken aback.

"What, is it private?"

"If it is..."

Before he could finish, Ning Qiushui reached inside his black plaid shirt and pulled out a slightly yellowed photograph, turning its front toward him.

Liu Chengfeng's pupils suddenly contracted as he looked at it!

"No way..."

By the moonlight, Liu Chengfeng saw that it was a photograph of a person.

And that person was none other than... Liu Chengfeng himself!

Their eyes met across the thin photograph, and neither spoke for a long time.

Liu Chengfeng saw the photograph of himself, but not the writing on its back.

Yes, on the back of that old, yellowed photograph was a line written in black-

[A friend worth making... but a hundred thousand questions.]

Liu Chengfeng reached out, wanting to take it for a closer look, but Ning Qiushui withdrew the photograph and smiled at him.

"Surprised, right?"

"So was I."

"At first, I thought it was just a prank, or someone had put down the wrong recipient..."

"But when I woke up on that bus and saw you, I realized things weren't as simple as I'd thought."

"That driverless bus, that mysterious thick fog, that eerie blood gate... and all of us on the bus."

"There has to be an unseen hand controlling all of this!"

Liu Chengfeng gave a bitter laugh.

"Buddy... forgive me for being blunt, but I doubt anyone in the real world could pull all this off."

"You saw what it was like outside."

"That's simply beyond human capability."

Ning Qiushui fell silent.

He didn't argue the point any further.

But so far, everything in that mysterious letter had come true.

The eerie blood gate, the strange killing rules... and a friend he hadn't even known, who had risked his life to save him.

That was a terrifying thought.

It was as though... someone had been watching him all along from somewhere he couldn't see!

The rest of the night passed without conversation.

Neither of them had slept much on the first night, and after enduring such tension, drowsiness washed over them like a tide once they relaxed.

Only when morning arrived did a piercing scream from the second floor shatter the villa's silence.

Clearly, someone else had died.

But what terrified the survivors on the second floor even more was that they hadn't merely woken to another death-three people had also disappeared!

Among them were not only Ning Qiushui, whom everyone had come to rely on, but also someone crucial to their task!

After all, the task the blood gate had given them was to care for the bedridden old woman for five days.

Now the damn old woman was gone. How the hell were they supposed to look after her?

Listening to the voices from the second floor, Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng learned that the man named Beidao had died last night.

He had been eaten.

"Sniff... sob..."

"They... why are they all gone..."

"Have they already been..."

"Sob..."

"I'm so scared! I don't want to die here..."

Yan Youping's broken sobs drifted up from downstairs.

Liu Chengfeng shouted through the window, trying to get word to the people below, but their voices seemed trapped on the third floor. No matter how loudly he yelled, no one came to save them... er, no one heard him.

"Enough. Stop yelling."

Watching Liu Chengfeng refuse to give up, Ning Qiushui shook his head slightly.

Ning Qiushui's indifference made Liu Chengfeng uncomfortable.

"Buddy, aren't you a doctor? There are two living people down there. Isn't it a bit too... to just give up on them?"

Ning Qiushui closed his eyes and said:

"I'm a vet, but there are three kinds of patients I won't save."

Liu Chengfeng froze.

"Three kinds? Which three?"