Meat with Hair

As Ning Qiushui spoke, he suddenly noticed something. After rummaging around, he took several chunks of meat out of the refrigerator.

The meat was vacuum-packed, without any labels.

Inside... every single package contained something black.

But there were too many ice crystals for them to make out what it was.

Ning Qiushui handed a chunk to Liu Chengfeng beside him.

"Cut it open and take a look."

Liu Chengfeng took out a knife and slit the vacuum-sealed plastic bag, only to freeze abruptly.

"Holy shit..."

He stared at the meat inside the bag and couldn't help swearing.

The vacuum-sealed bag actually contained a chunk of meat covered in thick hair!

Judging by where the hair grew, it must have come from a leg... a human leg!

"Is this fucking bag full of... human meat?!"

Liu Chengfeng was so frightened that he flung the meat away.

The frozen-solid chunk hit the floor with a sharp clack.

He suddenly remembered the meat they had eaten earlier and began to dry-heave.

Liu Chengfeng knew that what he had eaten was beef, but he still felt sick.

Ning Qiushui picked the meat up off the floor and examined it carefully before putting it back into the bag.

"I think I know why the old woman upstairs won't eat meat..."

Beside him, Liu Chengfeng finally managed to suppress his retching and asked, his face pale:

"Why?"

Ning Qiushui spoke slowly:

"Because someone fed her this meat before we arrived. It left her with severe psychological trauma associated with meat..."

"And don't you think something's strange?"

Liu Chengfeng frowned.

"What is?"

After wrapping the meat back up, Ning Qiushui stuffed it into the refrigerator.

"That old woman is clearly paralyzed, but they've nailed all those steel bars over her window, as if they're terrified she'll escape..."

Liu Chengfeng thought it over. That really was true.

Then a chill ran through his entire body, as though something horrifying had occurred to him...

"You mean her paralysis..."

Ning Qiushui nodded, his gaze sharp.

"It's very possible."

"But that isn't the frightening part. The truly frightening part... is still to come."

As he spoke, he selected a piece of lean lamb from the refrigerator and tossed it to Liu Chengfeng.

"There's something even worse?"

Liu Chengfeng caught the lamb, looking utterly sick.

Ning Qiushui's brows knitted tightly.

"Haven't you noticed... this family doesn't have a single photograph?"

Liu Chengfeng briefly paused in the middle of cutting the meat.

It was true.

The little girl whose hand the villa's hostess had been holding earlier looked at least eight or nine. After all those years, even if the husband and wife had divorced, there should at least have been a few photos of the woman and her daughter left in the house...

But in fact, there wasn't a single photograph of the woman, the little girl, or the old woman upstairs anywhere on the first or second floor!

Why... was that?

"And if I saw correctly, those women's shoes in the shoe cabinet by the front door..."

Ning Qiushui suddenly stopped speaking, then shook his head.

"Never mind..."

"Let's cook first."

"A lot of these questions... should be answered tonight."

Seeing that Ning Qiushui didn't want to elaborate, Liu Chengfeng had the sense not to press him.

But he secretly studied Ning Qiushui.

This man... was far too strange.

Whether it was the fat man's flayed skin they had seen earlier or the series of bizarre incidents they had encountered in the world beyond the Blood Gate, he had never shown much panic.

In fact... he was eerily calm!

In his thirty-odd years of life, Liu Chengfeng had never seen anyone with such terrifying mental fortitude!

Was he really a veterinarian in the outside world?

Liu Chengfeng began to grow intensely curious about Ning Qiushui.

Dinner.

Everyone sat at the dining table without a word.

"Liu Chengfeng, why aren't you eating any of the dishes?"

Xue Guize had noticed that their cook, Liu Chengfeng, had served himself only a little plain rice porridge and hadn't touched any of the dishes.

Tonight's lamb smelled delicious.

Yet Liu Chengfeng hadn't taken a single bite.

He had even placed it in the corner farthest from him.

"Huh? The dishes?"

"Oh, right, the dishes... My, my stomach's a little upset..."

Liu Chengfeng gave a vague answer, looking ill.

Neither he nor Ning Qiushui had told the others about the human meat in the refrigerator.

After all, two of them had already died.

Everyone was already on edge. Revealing this would only add to their fear.

Besides, knowing about it wouldn't help them survive.

Their task required them to care for the elderly woman in the villa district for five days, so they had to stay here for the full five days.

After dinner, they faced another problem-

Where should Yan Youping sleep?

With both of the other girls dead, Yan Youping was the only girl left in the group.

Were they... going to make her sleep in a room alone?

"I... I don't want to sleep alone!"

Sensing the strange atmosphere, Yan Youping grew so anxious that she nearly cried.

Were they kidding?

They wanted her to sleep alone in a place this terrifying?

How was that any different from killing her outright?

Compared with life and death, propriety between men and women meant nothing to Yan Youping!

"Then how about this... You can sleep in our room tonight. We'll take the sofa, and you can have the bed."

Beidao offered.

Xue Guize had no objections either.

After all... their group was getting smaller and smaller.

The more people died, the greater the danger for those who remained!

Yan Youping nodded and gave them both a grateful look.

Watching this, Ning Qiushui shook his head slightly.

Ning Qiushui knew that if the ghost lurking somewhere in the villa wanted to kill someone, gathering a hundred people together wouldn't help.

Once the others looked a little more at ease, he said:

"It's getting late. Everyone should get some rest... Also, remember to check the doors and windows. Make sure they're shut properly."

"After today, we'll only have three days left before we can leave."

Everyone nodded.

After switching off the lights in the first-floor hall, Ning Qiushui went upstairs with the others. Only after watching everyone enter their rooms did he turn off the corridor light.

The switch was at the top of the stairs.

Normally, lights in places like this had two-way or even multiway switches, so they could be turned on in one place and off in another for convenience.

But for some reason, the light in the villa's second-floor corridor had been fitted with only a single switch.

As the corridor light went out, the entire villa plunged into pitch-black darkness in an instant!

Ning Qiushui felt his skin prickle. He was about to head toward his room when he suddenly heard a faint sound a short distance behind him.

It wasn't loud, but in the deathly still darkness, it sounded startlingly clear!

It was... the sound of the lock on the iron door leading to the third floor being opened!

Ning Qiushui went rigid.

Upstairs...

Something seemed to have come down!

And... it was right behind him!