An eerie, deathly silence filled the room.
Together with the foul smell lingering around their noses, it sent chills through both men.
Drip-
A drop of liquid fell beside them and struck the floor.
The sound was faint, but in the utterly silent room, it seemed endlessly amplified...
Ning Qiushui could even feel Liu Chengfeng give a violent shudder beside him as that drop of unknown liquid fell.
"B-buddy..."
Liu Chengfeng's voice trembled. He slowly raised a hand, as though reaching for something.
Ning Qiushui drew a deep breath and said:
"Don't turn on the light."
"Not if you want to live."
Liu Chengfeng froze.
"W-why?"
Ning Qiushui shook his head.
"I can't explain yet."
"...Just remember, wherever there's a draft, it's best not to turn on the light."
"If the light's already on, stay away."
Only then did Liu Chengfeng suddenly remember that whenever Ning Qiushui had passed a window earlier, he had always ended up closing it tight!
An inexplicable chill spread through his entire body!
Then Liu Chengfeng looked at the gap beneath the door and silently cursed.
Which bastard came into the room last and didn't turn off the hallway light?
After what had happened, neither of them could sleep. They no longer cared about their aversion to sharing a bed with another man and squeezed onto one bed, as though each other's warmth could offer some comfort.
They drifted in a daze for who knew how long before it gradually grew lighter outside, and the rain eased.
Liu Chengfeng checked the time. It was already eight in the morning.
Dim light filtered through the window. Although everything outside remained gray, at least they could see now.
His gaze fell on the floor to his left.
That was where the constant dripping had come from last night.
Liu Chengfeng got out of bed, examined the stain on the floor, then crouched down to sniff it.
"Urgh-"
The pungent stench nearly made him vomit.
Ning Qiushui noticed his strange reaction and came over to take a look.
Ning Qiushui crouched down and sniffed it. His expression shifted slightly.
"This is..."
Liu Chengfeng leaned closer.
"What is it?"
Ning Qiushui fell silent for a while before slowly saying:
"Decomposition fluid...or corpse oil."
"When an animal is in an advanced state of decay, its fat generally seeps out as an oily liquid..."
Liu Chengfeng couldn't take any more and hurriedly cut him off.
"All right, all right, buddy, stop! I...I get it."
Looking sick, he raised his head toward the ceiling above the stain.
The patch of wooden ceiling soaked with corpse oil had actually grown from the size of a fist to the size of a human head!
God only knew...what was upstairs above them.
As Liu Chengfeng pondered this, two piercing screams from women suddenly rang out beyond the door!
"Aah!!!"
The two men exchanged a look.
Something had happened!
"Let's take a look!"
Ning Qiushui opened the door first and led Liu Chengfeng out of the room.
The moment he stepped outside, Ning Qiushui frowned.
The smell of blood was so strong!
A crimson trail of blood ran along the corridor, stretching from the doorway at its far end all the way to the stairs...
The screams had come from near the louvered window at the end of the corridor.
A crowd had gathered there.
Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng walked over and pushed through the crowd. Yamo and Yan Youping were slumped on the floor outside the door, shaking like leaves, their faces drained of color.
Besides the large pools of blood, there was vomit...
"What happened?"
Ning Qiushui asked gravely.
The two women looked at him, their eyes filled with intense terror, as though they had experienced something utterly horrific!
Their lips trembled, and neither could form a complete sentence. They pointed into their room, tears streaming down their faces.
Ning Qiushui looked toward their room and was about to open the door when Xue Guize stopped him.
His expression was grim.
"It's...not a pretty sight in there."
Ning Qiushui glanced at him and brushed his hand aside. He first closed the drafty louvered window nearby, then opened the door.
When they saw what lay inside, everyone outside stopped breathing!
On the bed closest to the door lay a corpse soaked in blood!
The corpse...was none other than Wang Yuning, the woman with the gold earrings!
Someone had died!
Enduring the nauseating smell of blood, Ning Qiushui entered the room. Only after moving farther inside did he get a clear look at the mangled corpse!
The sight nearly made even Ning Qiushui vomit!
The corpse's head remained intact, its neck pale and slender, but below the neck, the skin had been mercilessly torn open. Crimson muscle bulged out everywhere, and savage wounds covered the body!
The internal organs were gone, and large amounts of muscle had been ripped apart, with pieces missing or scattered around...
More horrifying still was Wang Yuning's expression...
Her eyes were closed, and there wasn't a trace of pain on her face. Instead...a strange smile lingered there.
"Motherfucker..."
Liu Chengfeng, who had followed him inside, stared with his eyes wide. His legs buckled, and if he hadn't clenched hard, he probably would have pissed himself on the spot!
"Th-this..."
Only now did he finally understand why the two girls outside had ended up like that!
Forget women-even he probably wouldn't have fared any better than either of them!
Forcing down his revulsion, Ning Qiushui walked toward the corpse.
Everyone else stayed outside, unwilling to take even one step into the room.
It was...simply too horrifying inside!
After examining the corpse for a while, Ning Qiushui suddenly remembered something. His expression changed sharply, and he turned and ran out the door!
"Buddy, what's wrong?"
Once Liu Chengfeng saw Ning Qiushui run, how could he dare remain in the room?
The others didn't dare stay on the second floor either. They followed Ning Qiushui all the way down to the first floor and into the kitchen.
Ning Qiushui stared at the utensils hanging on the wall for a long time before murmuring:
"A pair is missing..."
Beidao, who was already scared witless, hurriedly asked:
"A pair of what?"
Ning Qiushui slowly uttered a few words:
"A steak knife and fork."
Liu Chengfeng was the first to be horrified by this.
When he had heard the metallic scraping in the hallway outside their room last night, he had thought it sounded like a knife and fork scraping together!
Could it be...
As though he had thought of something terrifying, Liu Chengfeng began trembling all over!
"Does the missing knife and fork have anything to do with the corpse upstairs?"
Beidao kept pressing him.
Most of them still hadn't understood.
Ning Qiushui slowly turned to look at them and spoke, word by word, sending chills through their bodies:
"The wounds on Wang Yuning's corpse...were made by a knife and fork!"
As his words fell, several faces turned deathly pale.
"Ning Qiushui, w-what did you say?"
"Are you sure?"
Rather than answer Beidao, Ning Qiushui turned to the two girls and asked:
"Did either of you hear Wang Yuning calling for help last night?"
Both women shook their heads, fear lingering in their eyes.
"No, we were so tired last night. We both fell asleep quickly..."
Just then, Xue Guize suddenly gritted his teeth, a strange expression on his face.
"I...I heard it last night..."
"Heard what?"
"...The metallic scraping. Thinking back now, it sounded a lot like a knife and fork!"
Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng exchanged a look, and Ning Qiushui said to him:
"Go make the porridge first."
"Put in plenty of meat."
"I'll go check on...the old woman upstairs."
Liu Chengfeng nodded.
"Be careful, buddy!"
"What about us?"
"Come with me."
Yan Youping and Liu Chengfeng stayed in the kitchen to make porridge, while Ning Qiushui hurried upstairs with the others and went to the paralyzed old woman's room.
The moment they entered, everyone froze.
Because on the table beside the paralyzed old woman...lay a gleaming knife and fork!
They were the very pair missing from the kitchen!
As though sensing their arrival, the old woman lying in bed slowly turned her head and gave them a kindly smile.
"Aah!!"
Yamo screamed in fright and scrambled downstairs.
Beidao and Xue Guize weren't much better off. Their faces looked terrible, and if Ning Qiushui hadn't stood beside them, steady as a rock, they probably would have fled after Yamo immediately!
After witnessing something so horrific, Ning Qiushui not only showed no fear when facing the old woman before him, he even...walked farther into the room!
"Fuck! Ning Qiushui, are you out of your mind?!"
Xue Guize looked grim.
Anyone with eyes could tell that the old woman lying in bed was the one who had killed Wang Yuning!
And...she probably wasn't human!
Ignoring Xue Guize, Ning Qiushui walked straight to the old woman's side and picked up the knife and fork to examine them closely.
They were very clean.
He held them beneath his nose.
There was no unusual smell.
Ning Qiushui frowned.
He looked thoughtfully at the old woman in bed.
Ning Qiushui bent down beside her ear and asked softly:
"Ma'am...are you usually the only person in this house?"
The old woman's lips quivered.
"Meat..."
"Meat...no..."
There seemed to be something wrong with her mentally. She kept repeating herself.
Ning Qiushui narrowed his eyes.
Meat...no?
No what?
No flavor?
He listened carefully for a long time, but never heard the old woman finish the phrase.
Just then, Liu Chengfeng came up with the bowl of porridge.
"I cooled it in water. It's not hot-you can drink it right away."
There was no denying that the porridge smelled delicious.
It carried the aroma of beef.
And was garnished with chopped scallions.
Ning Qiushui personally held the bowl to the old woman's lips, scooped up a little meat porridge, and brought the spoon to her mouth.
Everyone watched nervously from the side, their breathing growing much softer, as though afraid the old woman might suddenly open a gaping, blood-red maw and swallow Ning Qiushui whole.
But the horrific scene they had imagined never happened.
The old woman quietly took the porridge into her mouth.
But when she bit into something, her brows suddenly furrowed, and she spat it out in disgust.
It was a piece of beef.
Then the old woman kept spitting until she had expelled every bit of meat porridge from her mouth. Only then did she settle down.
"Meat... meat not..."
She began repeating those two words again.
Ning Qiushui leaned in, bringing his ear close to the old woman's mouth.
To everyone watching, this was an extremely risky move!
Because if the old woman really was the one who had killed Wang Yuning last night, then what Ning Qiushui was doing now... was nothing short of courting death!
Fortunately, the old woman did not bite off Ning Qiushui's ear.
And it was precisely this risky move that gave Ning Qiushui a piece of... crucial information!
"Meat... not... cooked..."
The third word wasn't "flavor." It was "cooked"!
But... why was she saying the meat wasn't cooked?
Ning Qiushui took a bite of the beef porridge himself.
It was cooked.
Definitely cooked.
After standing there thinking for quite a while, Ning Qiushui suddenly realized something and said to Liu Chengfeng:
"Big Beard, hurry! Go make a bowl of porridge without any meat!"
Standing outside, Liu Chengfeng found the request a little strange, but he still did as Ning Qiushui asked.
Soon, he came in carrying a bowl of plain rice porridge.
This time... the old woman ate it.
She did not spit it out again.
Before you continue