Screams

After the mistress of the villa left, everyone returned to the living room. They briefly introduced themselves, then began discussing how to care for the elderly woman.

Among them, Yan Youping, a short, skinny girl with twin ponytails, timidly raised her small hand.

"Um... how did you all end up on the bus?"

"I-I was on a high-speed train. I got sleepy while playing on my phone, so... I took a nap. When I woke up, I was on the bus."

"Same here. I was working overtime at the office, and suddenly I felt really sleepy..."

Everyone chimed in. After comparing their experiences, they discovered that they had all arrived on the bus in exactly the same way.

This eerie revelation made their already frightened hearts tremble even more!

"Fuck... this has to be some supernatural shit..."

Liu Chengfeng, the man with the full beard, cursed.

Yan Youping fell silent for a while, then timidly spoke again:

"Do you think... maybe some TV production crew brought us here this way to take part in a reality show?"

"After all, I've seen shows on TV before..."

Before she could finish, Liu Chengfeng cut her off with a sneer:

"Already forgotten about that fat guy?"

"Would a TV show kill someone and skin him?"

Yan Youping's heart jolted, but she stared back with wide eyes:

"What if... what if that was just a prop?"

"The blood was a prop too?"

"Who knows? Maybe it was chicken blood or dog blood..."

Yan Youping still wanted to cling to her denial, but Ning Qiushui's sudden remark shattered her last line of defense:

"It wasn't animal blood."

Everyone turned to Ning Qiushui.

He seemed to have accepted everything already and looked exceptionally calm.

"I used to be a veterinarian, and I'm especially sensitive to smells. The blood of cats, dogs, pigs, sheep, cattle, chickens, ducks, fish, geese, and pigeons smells distinctly different from human blood."

"Sheep's blood, for example, has a strong gamey smell, while human blood has a distinct rusty odor..."

"I can tell you with absolute certainty that the blood on that traffic light was human blood."

"And it was... extremely fresh!"

When Ning Qiushui finished, Yan Youping shuddered in fear, hugged her knees, and began sobbing quietly:

"Stop..."

"Please... stop..."

Seeing her like this, Ning Qiushui softened his tone a little.

He couldn't blame the girl for being terrified.

Any ordinary person who had witnessed that earlier scene would probably be haunted by it for a long time.

Only people who regularly dealt with corpses would have an easier time coping.

After all... the scene had been far too bloody!

"Let's focus on getting through these five days first..."

The speaker was an ordinary-looking man, about 170 centimeters tall, with a brooding gaze.

His name was Xue Guize.

"There are seven of us. Our task this time is to take care of the bedridden elderly woman for five days. How should we divide the work?"

Everyone exchanged glances. When no one spoke, Ning Qiushui offered:

"How about this? The three women can handle cooking and laundry, and the four of us men will take care of the elderly woman..."

He had barely finished when Wang Yuning, the pretty woman wearing gold earrings, said sarcastically:

"Oh, so women are supposed to cook and wash clothes for you stinking men?"

"You certainly know how to slack off. The moment you heard the mistress say that old thing couldn't even move in bed, you volunteered to look after her... do you think we're idiots?"

"You call it taking care of that old thing, but I bet you won't have to do anything. You'll just sit there slacking off, right?"

Liu Chengfeng couldn't hold back after hearing that. He raised his chin and drawled:

"What a stink... such a pretty girl, but why does every word out of her mouth smell like shit?"

Wang Yuning's face darkened too:

"Who the fuck are you insulting?"

Liu Chengfeng was about to say more, but Ning Qiushui interrupted him.

"If you don't want to cook or do laundry, I can switch with you. You can look after the elderly woman, from nine in the morning until ten at night. It'll probably be dark after ten, so we'll wash up and go to bed."

Wang Yuning glanced at Ning Qiushui and snorted.

"Well... thanks."

Despite her words, there wasn't a trace of gratitude in her voice.

Only pure mockery.

"By the way... it's past five now, and I'm hungry. Aren't you supposed to cook? Get to it."

Ning Qiushui gave Wang Yuning a long look without saying anything else, then turned to the other two girls:

"Do either of you want to switch?"

Yamo, who hadn't spoken yet, raised her hand.

"I..."

"Sorry, I really don't know how to cook."

Compared with Wang Yuning's obnoxious attitude, Yamo was much more sincere.

There were plenty of spoiled children in society, and plenty of men and women who couldn't cook. It wasn't unusual.

"Any of you guys know how to cook?"

The other three men fell silent for a moment before Liu Chengfeng said impatiently:

"Ah, forget it. I'll cook and do laundry with you!"

"What a bunch of useless people. Can't even cook or wash clothes!"

Wang Yuning said coldly:

"You lout, watch your mouth!"

Liu Chengfeng glared and pointed at Wang Yuning:

"If I didn't have a rule against hitting women, you'd be dead today!"

Wang Yuning sneered, then stomped upstairs in her high heels.

The kitchen was on the first floor, and the elderly woman was on the second. The villa was large, so everyone split up to get on with their respective tasks.

Still cursing, Liu Chengfeng followed Ning Qiushui into the kitchen.

Yan Youping, the young girl who was still sniffling, went with them.

"All right, enough swearing."

Once they entered the kitchen, Ning Qiushui finally grew tired of the noise and interrupted Liu Chengfeng.

"Seriously... you're just going to put up with that?"

Liu Chengfeng stared at him.

Ning Qiushui opened the refrigerator and began taking out ingredients.

"Do you really think taking care of that elderly woman... is a cushy job?"

At those words, Liu Chengfeng's breath suddenly caught.

"What do you mean, buddy?"

Ning Qiushui slowly turned to look at Liu Chengfeng and Yan Youping beside him.

"Remember what the man in the suit at the Black Villa told us?"

"They'd only answer our questions after we came back alive from the Blood Gate."

"That means the world beyond the Blood Gate... holds dangers we can't even imagine!"

As soon as he finished, Yan Youping's small, thin body shuddered again!

She asked in a trembling voice:

"Wh-what dangers?"

Ning Qiushui shook his head.

"I don't know yet... but since the task on the Blood Gate is to take care of the elderly woman, the danger probably has something to do with her."

"In any case... be careful."

After hearing Ning Qiushui's warning, Liu Chengfeng's eyes shifted. He secretly counted on his fingers, and his earlier gloom vanished as he chuckled:

"Buddy, I reckon you've got a point. I'll stick with you."

Ning Qiushui gave Liu Chengfeng a slightly surprised look and shook his head, but said nothing more.

He first took the vegetables out of the refrigerator, then checked the freezer.

Just as the mistress of the villa had said, there was plenty of meat inside.

She had cut it into portions and packed it in separate bags.

Ning Qiushui took out a bag labeled [Beef tenderloin], tossed it into a pan, and thawed it over low heat.

As he was closing the refrigerator, something suddenly caught his eye. He pulled a rock-hard piece of frozen meat from deep inside.

There was a lot of unidentified black material inside the bag holding the meat.

But ice crystals obscured too much of it, and all the bags of meat were vacuum-sealed, making it impossible to see what the black material was.

This bag had no label identifying the meat. Presumably, the mistress had forgotten.

Ning Qiushui stared at it for a while, only for Liu Chengfeng, the rough, heavily bearded man, to lean over again.

"Why is this meat black?"

He sounded curious.

Ning Qiushui shook his head and put the meat back in the refrigerator.

"No idea. Maybe it's been frozen too long and gone bad."

The three of them worked in the kitchen. To Ning Qiushui's surprise, Liu Chengfeng, who looked like some aging thug, turned out to be an excellent cook!

The way he washed, chopped, and stir-fried the vegetables made it clear he was an old hand.

"Dinner's ready!"

Liu Chengfeng carried the cooked meat and vegetables to the table and shouted upstairs.

Then, without waiting for the people upstairs to arrive, he picked up a bowl of steaming rice and started shoveling it into his mouth.

Watching Liu Chengfeng eat as though he were a starving ghost reborn, Yan Youping couldn't help asking:

"Aren't we waiting for them?"

Liu Chengfeng snapped:

"Wait for what?"

"Eat!"

With that, he went back to wolfing down his food.

Tap, tap, tap-

Four sets of footsteps came from upstairs. Wang Yuning was still on the staircase when she spotted Liu Chengfeng hunched over his food and couldn't resist mocking him:

"Look at the way you eat. Like a starving ghost reborn..."

Earlier, Liu Chengfeng would definitely have fired back viciously.

But he seemed particularly focused while eating and paid no attention whatsoever to Wang Yuning's mockery.

Wang Yuning took his silence as backing down and began eating herself.

Everyone remained silent throughout the meal.

They didn't know what to say.

They only noticed that it was growing darker and darker around them. Eventually, they could barely even make out the beef in their bowls.

Only when Ning Qiushui stood up and switched on the lights did they finally realize... night had fallen.

"Shit!"

"How did it get dark so fast?"

"It's not even seven yet!"

The man named Beidao cried out in surprise. His jumpiness made everyone uncomfortable.

"What are you yelling about?"

Xue Guize, who already looked unhappy, furrowed his brow deeply.

"Didn't you hear the owner say the rainy season was coming before she left?"

"It's perfectly normal for it to get dark... stop making a fuss."

He scolded Beidao with a little too much agitation, but everyone knew why. By unspoken agreement, no one said anything.

The atmosphere inside the villa... was far too oppressive.

"Hey, hey, hey. Is this how you take care of an elderly woman?"

"You've all filled your stomachs while leaving a paralyzed old woman upstairs to starve. Is that right?"

"Surely no one actually thought taking care of her meant doing nothing?"

Having eaten his fill, Liu Chengfeng put down his bowl and chopsticks. Picking his teeth, he directed those sarcastic remarks at Wang Yuning across the table.

She clenched her fists, her gaze growing colder.

"Hmph. Do you think everyone's a crude glutton like you?"

"You're a man as disgusting as a maggot."

She kicked her heels in irritation, served a bowl of rice, then carelessly added some of the dishes everyone had left over and stomped upstairs.

As everyone watched her disappear into the pitch-black stairwell, their hearts inexplicably began beating a little faster...

"Were you all on the second floor just now?"

Ning Qiushui set down his bowl and chopsticks and asked the three people responsible for caring for the paralyzed old man.

Xue Guize gave a nod of acknowledgment.

"We checked the entire second floor. There was no one else there besides the paralyzed old man."

"Our rooms are all across from his, along the same hallway."

Ning Qiushui asked:

"Did you notice anything unusual?"

Xue Guize shook his head, hesitated for a moment, then replied:

"There's a... very strange smell in our rooms. I can't really describe it, but it definitely isn't pleasant."

"In all seven rooms?"

"Yes, all of them."

At that moment, the girl beside him, Yamo, added quietly:

"There's something else that's strange..."

"All the rooms the lady of the house prepared for us have their own bathrooms."

Beidao scoffed:

"What's so strange about that? They're rich. They don't want to go trekking around just to use the toilet..."

Ning Qiushui frowned.

"No... it really is strange."

"Only the lady of the house and her family live in this villa. Even with her husband home, there would only be four of them. Why would they need so many bedrooms and bathrooms?"

"W-what's so strange about that? Maybe they like having guests?"

"Maybe they often invite friends over for parties. Don't rich people all love doing that?"

Beidao sounded slightly flustered.

No one responded.

An eerie silence fell over them again.

Until...

A piercing scream from the second floor shattered the dreadful silence-

"Aah!!!"