The End

Ning Qiushui said:

"I won't save an animal doomed to die. It wastes my energy."

"I won't save a dying animal. It shortens my lifespan."

"I won't save a sick animal. It infects me with chronic illness."

Liu Chengfeng nearly burst out laughing when he heard that.

"You're pulling my leg, buddy. You're a vet. If you won't save this or that, aren't you going to starve?"

Ning Qiushui answered with the hint of a smile:

"I'm a vet, but that's not all I am... Who told you I make my living treating pets?"

Liu Chengfeng spread his hands.

"All right... Then what sort of animal would you save, buddy?"

Ning Qiushui answered casually:

"If I take a liking to it, I'll save it."

"...Even if I know I can't save it, I'll still give it everything I've got."

"Even if it costs me."

Liu Chengfeng gave Ning Qiushui a surprised look, then laughed.

This guy... What an interesting character.

After he stopped laughing, something else occurred to Liu Chengfeng. He hurriedly wrote and sketched in a notebook in the study, then tied a curtain around it and repeatedly swung it against the window downstairs!

Since his voice couldn't reach the second floor, surely a sound coming from the second floor itself could get their attention?

Yet after barely two knocks, the sturdy curtain snapped!

Liu Chengfeng pulled the remaining half of the curtain back up and gave it a few hard tugs, muttering:

"That's not right... It's so sturdy. How could it snap that easily...?"

He tried a few more times, with the same result every time.

The eerie phenomenon sent a chill down Liu Chengfeng's back. He vaguely sensed something ominous watching him, so he abandoned his attempts to send a message downstairs.

"What's wrong?"

Seeing that he had finally settled down, Ning Qiushui asked casually.

Cold sweat beaded on Liu Chengfeng's forehead.

"I feel like something's watching me. If I keep doing this..."

He didn't finish.

But Ning Qiushui already understood.

Clearly, under the villa's rules, the third floor was cut off from the other floors.

If they insisted on sending a message from the third floor to the second or first... they would be breaking the rules of the world beyond the blood gate, and something terribly ominous would befall them!

"Ah, now they really are at the mercy of fate..."

With a sigh, he sat down beside the skeletal remains by the window, took the diary from its hand again, and flipped through it for a while before speaking:

"Buddy... What do you think that monster outside actually is?"

Ning Qiushui thought for a moment.

"Judging by the diary entries, that terrifying woman outside probably has something to do with the little girl's grandmother. And the girl's parents definitely knew something."

"But we have no way of finding out exactly what happened now."

"Maybe once this is over, we can ask that man in the suit when we get back."

Liu Chengfeng nodded.

For the next three days, they ate, drank, and relieved themselves in that room.

Fortunately, they had plenty of food and water, so staying alive wasn't a problem.

The two survivors downstairs, however, ultimately failed to make it through those final three days.

On the third night, after Xue Guize was also killed and eaten by the female ghost in the villa, the last remaining survivor, Yan Youping, broke down under the overwhelming terror.

She ran out of the villa and fled into the rain. Her fate went without saying.

Liu Chengfeng felt distressed.

After all, they had spent some time together, and they weren't bad people.

But that distress soon faded with time.

In the middle of the fifth night, the two sleeping men were startled awake by the sudden blare of a bus horn outside the window.

They quickly got up, stood at the window, and peered out through the curtain of rain.

A bus had stopped outside the villa and was honking its horn.

Both men knew that bus well.

It was the very one that had carried them into the fog that day!

"Hey! The bus is here! It's here!"

"But... how are we supposed to get out, buddy?!"

Looking at the battered bus parked outside the villa, Liu Chengfeng had barely let out two delighted cries before he turned around, and a wave of cold extinguished his joy!

He saw the terrifying, gaunt woman in red standing in their doorway, staring at them hungrily!

It seemed the woman in red also knew they wanted to leave.

"We have to come up with something fast!"

"That bus definitely won't wait for us very long!"

Ning Qiushui's eyes darted around as he searched for tools.

Just as he was considering dismantling the iron bars over the window, the old woman who had been lying beside them spoke.

Her voice was faint, but they were close enough to hear what she said.

"Young men... push me out there..."

They slowly lowered their heads to look at her.

The old woman's expression was unexpectedly calm, and her eyes had briefly regained their clarity.

It seemed that after such prolonged torment, she wanted to bring it all to an end.

"She... can't do anything else... while she's eating..."

"Push me out... while she's eating me... leave as fast as you can... and never come back..."

Liu Chengfeng's eyes widened.

"We can't do that... Holy shit, buddy, you're really going to push her out there?!"

Ning Qiushui replied:

"If we do, one person dies."

"If we don't, three people die."

The old woman smiled too.

"He's right..."

"I... won't... blame you either... Being alive... is simply too painful... for me..."

"Think of it as a good deed... Help me... find release..."

Hearing that, Liu Chengfeng abandoned his softhearted objections. Gritting his teeth, he helped Ning Qiushui push the old woman out in front of the Red-Clothed Female Ghost!

The Red-Clothed Female Ghost hadn't intended to eat the old woman, since she still needed to keep her as bait.

But after two days without food... she simply couldn't resist the fresh meat delivered right to her mouth!

She plunged the knife and fork in her hands viciously into the old woman's chest and abdomen. What followed was so brutal that Liu Chengfeng's stomach churned...

"Go!"

Ning Qiushui snatched the Blood Jade from the windowsill, and he and Liu Chengfeng rushed past the feasting ghost!

A bone-piercing chill radiated from the ghost's venomous gaze, making their legs weak!

Fortunately, the old woman hadn't lied to them.

The ghost couldn't do anything else while she was eating!

"Hurry!"

Ning Qiushui glanced back and shouted.

"She's eating fast!"

Running ahead of him, Liu Chengfeng broke out in cold sweat. He gritted his teeth and raced downstairs!

Bang!

He practically crashed through the villa's front door!

The bus's yellow headlights ahead seemed like lifesaving rays from heaven, drawing the two men toward them.

As Ning Qiushui ran out of the villa as well, a horrifying roar rang out from the third floor, followed by a series of heavy thuds from inside!

The Red-Clothed Female Ghost... was coming after them!

"Buddy, hurry!"

"Hurry!!"

Liu Chengfeng didn't immediately board the bus. Instead, he stood in the doorway, bellowing at Ning Qiushui.

As Ning Qiushui reached the door, Liu Chengfeng thrust out his hand and hauled him onto the bus!

Behind him, the terrifying ghost crawled across the ground like a spider, her body contorted. She was only three to five steps away from Ning Qiushui!

But the instant Ning Qiushui boarded the bus, the ghost abruptly stopped chasing them and roared furiously at the two men inside, unwilling to give up!

Yet all she could do was roar a few times. She didn't dare actually approach the bus.

It seemed the vicious Red-Clothed Female Ghost was deeply wary of the bus they were on.

In the end, she could only turn around slowly and disappear into the villa beyond the curtain of rain...