The Man Hiding in the Attic

Du Yuwei's body really had opened her eyes just now.

I had even held her gaze for a few seconds.

But after those few seconds, she closed her eyes again.

It was as though she was consciously opening and closing them.

Meng Yifan was badly startled by my reaction and hurriedly looked at Du Yuwei's body.

"Her eyes aren't open. What do you mean, she opened them?"

"Are you sure you didn't imagine it?"

The Seventh Master doubted me too.

I couldn't speak. It took me a long while to recover before I said, "She really did open her eyes just now. I'm absolutely sure! But then she closed them again!"

The Seventh Master stared hard at Du Yuwei's body, his brow furrowing.

Meng Yifan asked in a trembling voice, "Seventh Master... is something wrong with her body? Could she have turned into a walking corpse?"

The Seventh Master shook his head. "She's already become a ghost, which means that last breath has left her body. There's no way she can turn into a walking corpse now. That's even less likely than becoming a vengeful ghost."

"If she really opened her eyes just now, it was probably because her ghost sensed we were here."

I was a little frightened. "Is she inside this villa?"

"No," the Seventh Master said. "If she were here, I would have sensed her when I entered the villa. There's just a lot of yin energy here. Don't get too close to her body, or she'll open her eyes again."

Meng Yifan refused to believe it. He insisted on going over to test it himself.

But the moment he came within ten paces of the body, her tightly shut eyes suddenly opened again.

The corpse looked alive, her eyes glaring fixedly at us.

If that face had looked normal-even like a normal dead person's face-I wouldn't have been so frightened.

But her face looked as though she had been poisoned. When those eyes snapped open, I nearly passed out from fright.

Meng Yifan let out a strange yelp too and hurriedly backed away.

The Seventh Master shot him a fierce glare. "Having fun? Get back to work!"

Then we continued searching for Du Yuwei's birth date and time.

I hadn't held out much hope to begin with. I had only wanted to give myself some peace of mind.

But to my surprise, I actually found it.

It was a Marriage Contract, and it listed not only Du Yuwei's birth date and time, but Du Ruhai's as well.

Unable to contain my excitement, I hurriedly shouted to the Seventh Master and Meng Yifan.

"I found it!"

The contents of the Marriage Contract gave me goosebumps.

"With this Marriage Contract, we petition the Heavenly Court above and proclaim our union to the Underworld below. Let it be presented to the Nine Heavens, with all gods and Buddhas as witnesses. Should I betray my beloved, I shall have deceived Heaven. For the sin of deceiving Heaven, may I perish in body and spirit, never to reincarnate."

Every line overflowed with love. It truly made one marvel at the groom's sincerity.

But when I thought about who the groom was, the wording struck me as rather twisted.

"Look, their birth dates and times are right here at the bottom. Du Ruhai's too."

Perhaps Meng Yifan and I really weren't meant to die yet.

We were destined to survive, and that was why I had found this Marriage Contract.

"Great! Neither of us has to die now!"

Meng Yifan was just as excited. "Now that we have her birth date and time, we can help Du Yuwei pass on. Then we tell Li Xiumei where Lü Zhengxian is, and everything will be settled."

I asked the Seventh Master whether we could help Du Yuwei pass on now that we had her birth date and time.

I needed to confirm it with him one more time.

"It looks like you two really aren't meant to die yet," the Seventh Master said. "Now we just need to take Du Yuwei's body away and find somewhere to burn it. Then I'll use her birth date and time to help her pass on, and she won't be able to bother you anymore..."

His words made me breathe a sigh of relief.

But before he finished speaking, a shadow suddenly appeared on the opposite wall...

The candlelight stretched the shadow out, and it quickly caught my attention.

I suddenly remembered a detail-something we should have noticed as soon as we came in.

If Du Ruhai wasn't home, why were there candles burning in this room?

Who had lit them?

"Watch out!"

I shouted and kicked Meng Yifan, who was beside me.

My kick caught him squarely, sending him crashing into the Seventh Master and knocking them both to the floor.

A large cleaver came chopping down, almost brushing my nose. I could even feel the cold metal against my skin.

Scared out of my wits, I fell to the floor and scrambled backward, putting distance between myself and the man holding the blade.

Only then did I get a clear look at his face. He was a man in his thirties, with a vicious expression and bulging muscles.

But he wasn't Du Ruhai. He was probably someone Du Ruhai had stationed here, and he must have been hiding in the attic.

His eyes gleamed with murderous intent. Clearly, he had no intention of letting us go easily. He raised his blade and slashed at me again.

I was backed into a corner with nowhere to dodge.

Fortunately, Meng Yifan rushed over at the crucial moment. He grabbed the man around the waist from behind and slammed him to the floor.

An ordinary person would have been unable to get up after a throw like that, even if it didn't break any bones.

But this man clearly wasn't ordinary. He must have had training. He braced his hands against the floor to absorb some of the impact, almost simultaneously clamping his legs around Meng Yifan's head. In an instant, he reversed their positions and straddled Meng Yifan.

He picked up the blade from the floor and prepared to bring it down on Meng Yifan's head.

If that blow landed, Meng Yifan was certain to die.

I didn't dare hesitate. I grabbed a nearby chair to smash into him.

But before I could throw it, another chair flew toward him.

The Seventh Master had thrown it, and it struck home. As the man raised his arm to block it, the Seventh Master rushed over like lightning, hooked an arm around his neck, and hauled him off Meng Yifan.

The Seventh Master was a northeasterner through and through. I had never seen an old man so tall and imposing.

I had thought he merely had a bad temper. I never expected him to be such a good fighter too.

He wasn't simply brawling. He was trading trained moves with the man.

After several exchanges, the man had gained no advantage at all. He glanced back at us, then suddenly ran out of the room.

But shortly after he left, an alarm blared throughout the villa. It was so damn loud that I figured the entire residential complex could hear it.

"Damn it! He's triggered the security system!"

The Seventh Master's expression changed drastically. "Leave, now! If we don't get out before someone catches us, we'll end up in prison!"

Meng Yifan and I were reluctant to give up. We pointed at Du Yuwei's body. "What about her? We won't get another chance."

"Who gives a damn about that now?" the Seventh Master snapped. "You really won't get another chance if you go to prison! Move! Take those two urns!"

I hurried over and stuffed the two urns into my backpack. There was no time to worry about Du Yuwei's body now. If we took her with us, we definitely wouldn't get far.

We rushed downstairs, abandoning everything else. Whatever happened, we couldn't let anyone catch us.

But after we ran out of the villa and climbed over the perimeter wall, we found more than a dozen security guards waiting outside, all holding stun batons.

Seeing so many people surrounding us made my scalp prickle.

These men seemed to have known all along that we had gone inside. They had deliberately waited here for us.