The piercing scream lasted only a short while before everything fell completely silent.
Ning Qiushui was the first to rush upstairs, followed by Liu Chengfeng and the others.
But the moment they reached the second floor, they stopped dead.
Shock and disbelief spread across their faces.
"N-no way..."
Beidao's voice trembled, and his legs shook.
Before them, the blood that had covered the floor... had vanished completely. Not even a speck remained!
It was as though... everything that had happened that morning had been their imagination!
"Look!"
Just then, Yan Youping cried out urgently, pointing at the room at the end of the hallway.
Everyone looked over and saw a large pool of crimson blood slowly seeping out through the doorway, spreading into the hallway beyond...
Wind blew in through the open shuttered window at the far end, carrying the nauseating stench of blood!
"Fuck..."
Liu Chengfeng barely managed to force the word out, every hair on his body standing on end.
The others looked little better.
Ning Qiushui stared at the shuttered window and frowned.
He clearly remembered closing that window and locking it when he had gone upstairs to examine Wang Yuning's body that morning.
No matter how strong the wind outside was, it could never have pushed that window open.
Besides, the lock could only be operated from inside.
After coming downstairs, Ning Qiushui had kept his eyes on the old woman's doorway almost the entire time. She had never come out, so she couldn't have opened the window.
All of them had been searching for Yamo on the first floor at the time, so none of them could have opened it either.
In that case... who had opened that window?
Could it have been...
Wang Yuning, who was already dead?
As that thought crossed his mind, Ning Qiushui felt every hair on his body rise.
But unlike the others, he didn't shrink back. Despite his fear... he stepped forward, approaching the door where blood kept seeping out.
Seeing Ning Qiushui move, the people behind him opened their mouths, unsure what to say...
Fucking hell...
Why was this guy, Ning Qiushui, so fearless?
Wasn't he afraid... there might be something behind that door?
"Ning Qiushui, are you insane?"
Beidao shouted, but Ning Qiushui ignored him and continued toward the shuttered window at the end of the hallway.
Suddenly, another person pushed his way out of the group.
It was Liu Chengfeng.
He jogged after Ning Qiushui.
"Hey, buddy, wait for me..."
With Liu Chengfeng following Ning Qiushui, the other three finally managed to suppress their fear for the moment, gritted their teeth, and followed!
Upon reaching the end of the hallway, Ning Qiushui first closed the shuttered window and locked it again.
Once that was done, he slowly pulled open the door to the room at the end, while everyone watched in terror.
The moment the door opened, Yan Youping vomited!
"Urgh-"
The others recoiled half a step in fright!
Inside the room, Yamo's blood-soaked corpse hung in midair. Her abdomen had been hollowed out, her organs missing, leaving only her bloody spine...
Yamo's neck looked as though it had been forcibly broken, twisted at a ninety-degree angle. An eerie smile hung on her face as she stared straight at them...
No one dared meet her gaze.
Except Ning Qiushui.
He walked beneath Yamo's body and examined it closely, his gaze growing sharper.
"She died almost exactly the same way as Wang Yuning. The same person did this."
"Was it the old woman on the second floor?"
Ning Qiushui turned to glance at the old woman's room. Remembering the few words she had said earlier, his pupils suddenly contracted.
Could it be...
"Wait, have you noticed... Wang Yuning's body is gone!"
Beidao suddenly pointed at the bed behind Yamo's corpse and shouted in terror.
Everyone looked.
He was right.
Wang Yuning's body, which had been lying on the bed, had disappeared.
The bloodstains on the bed were completely gone too.
So... where had her body gone?
Bang!
Ning Qiushui suddenly pulled the door shut. He glanced at the blood on the floor and said slowly:
"Let's go downstairs first."
Beside him, Xue Guize stared wide-eyed.
"Downstairs?"
"But... Yamo's body in there..."
Ning Qiushui shook his head and said calmly:
"Leave it. It'll clean up."
Goosebumps rose all over them at his words.
As they followed Ning Qiushui downstairs, they asked:
"Ning, who do you mean by 'it'?"
Ning Qiushui answered without turning around:
"The thing killing people."
"Is it... the old woman on the second floor?"
Ning Qiushui didn't answer.
Back in the villa's main hall, everyone was frighteningly silent.
Fear... had engulfed them like a rising tide.
They remained that way until evening, when Liu Chengfeng finally couldn't bear the oppressive atmosphere any longer. He stood up and said in his deep, muffled voice:
"I'll go cook."
Ning Qiushui stood up too.
"I'll come along."
"For now... whatever you do, you'd better not go alone."
With that, he paid the others no further attention and followed Liu Chengfeng straight into the kitchen.
As for Yan Youping, after learning that the ghostly thing in the villa used the kitchen's knives and forks to kill people, she apparently refused to set even one foot in the kitchen, no matter what.
In the kitchen, Liu Chengfeng waited until he saw that no one else had followed them in before lowering his voice to ask:
"Buddy, tonight... you want to go up to the third floor?"
Ning Qiushui, who was taking meat out of the fridge, paused, then smiled without looking back.
"Looks like you're not as stupid as you act."
"Rough on the outside, sharp on the inside!"
At Ning Qiushui's praise, Liu Chengfeng scratched his head sheepishly.
"Buddy... there's something I don't get."
"Why don't we go to the third floor during the day? Why do we have to wait until night?"
"That place... should be pretty dangerous, right?"
Both the warning the mistress of the villa had given before leaving and their own instincts told them... the third floor was incredibly dangerous!
Besides, the large iron door leading to the third floor was secured with an iron padlock.
They had no key.
As Ning Qiushui searched for something in the fridge, he said:
"It is dangerous... especially during the day."
Liu Chengfeng froze.
With that hint from Ning Qiushui, he suddenly understood!
"Buddy, you mean... the ghostly thing killing people isn't the old woman on the second floor. It's... on the third floor!"
"During the day, it rests on the third floor, and at night, it comes out... to feed?!"
Ning Qiushui nodded slightly.
"Right."
"The old woman is probably a normal person. She's the bait... that ghostly thing in the villa uses to lure people in."
"And I have a very disturbing theory... but I won't be able to confirm it until tonight."
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