Who Was Breathing Behind Them

Qi Gu had sharp ears and heard what Sha Chuan said, but he could not be bothered to explain.

The yin energy here was dense. A disturbance was bound to follow, and facts would always speak louder than words.

"Do you guys smell something?" Mu Xingchen, who had a nose like a dog's, suddenly asked.

"It smells a little like something rotting. Maybe some small animal died in here?" said Vivian, who had some practical life experience.

Qi Gu sniffed along with them, but all he smelled was the yin energy, so dense it nearly overwhelmed him.

"It smells like blood?" Lin Hanzhi suddenly said.

His utterly serious tone made Mu Xingchen and Vivian shudder.

Sha Chuan, who had been playing the lone wolf, was also startled by his sudden remark and quietly moved closer to the others.

And there was the disturbance, wasn't it? Qi Gu thought serenely.

The pitch-black surroundings undoubtedly deepened that fear.

Everyone looked terrified, but they reassured themselves that this must have been arranged by the production team and began investigating the clinic's first-floor lobby, searching for the source of the bloody smell.

Everywhere they walked, they stirred up the thick dust on the floor.

With the keenest nose, Mu Xingchen found the source first. A small puddle of liquid had collected on a dust-covered patch of floor. The glow sticks made it impossible to tell its true color, but its bloody stench was overpowering and nauseating.

"It stinks. This stuff isn't really blood, is it?"

"B-but we've already been here. When we came in, there wasn't anything like this on the floor..."

At those words, the guests felt every hair on their bodies stand on end.

They immediately clustered toward the center of the group, standing packed together, all but throwing their arms around one another.

This place wasn't really haunted, was it?

The very thought gave them the creeps.

Lin Hanzhi disliked physical contact and deliberately kept a little distance from the others, his gaze following Qi Gu closely.

Qi Gu finally caught a scent other than the chill of yin energy. He bent closer, lightly brushed a fingertip over the floor, and brought it to his nose.

He wiped his hand clean with a wet wipe and said bluntly, "It should be pig's blood deliberately left to go bad. It's a prop arranged by the production team."

"H-how do you know?" Mu Xingchen stammered.

"I worked on props for a horror film crew last month. This was what they did to get a wooden actor to give them the performance they wanted."

Off camera, Old Ke, the props master whose trick had been exposed, was speechless. "..."

Sensing something, Qi Gu suddenly raised his head, making his fair neck look all the more slender. His lashes fluttered as he saw a drop of red liquid fall from the ceiling.

This drop of blood was different from the puddle of prop blood on the floor.

Qi Gu's expression sharpened. He grabbed the arm of Lin Hanzhi, who stood beneath that drop of blood, and pulled him a little closer.

With a patter, the blood splashed into the dust on the floor.

"What's wrong?" Lin Hanzhi asked.

"Nothing. The ceiling's still dripping blood. I didn't want it getting on your clothes."

This stuff was sinister. Presumably no one would touch it of their own accord, so things should be fine.

Just as Qi Gu thought that-

"It's not real anyway. What can happen if it gets on you?" As Sha Chuan spoke, he reached out and caught a drop of blood falling before his eyes.

It was not that Sha Chuan was unafraid. He simply did not want to follow Qi Gu's lead and become his supporting act.

This was his first variety show. He would not let anyone use him as a stepping stone.

With that thought, he even brought the drop of blood to his nose and sniffed it.

Strangely, it did not have the same intense, foul, bloody smell as the pig's blood on the floor.

What was going on... had the production team designed two little mechanisms to spray different kinds of blood?

[The production team's tricks run deep. They almost scared me.]

[Qi Gu worked on props for a horror film crew? So he picked up all this occult knowledge from his last crew, huh? And here I was starting to think a little better of him for being dedicated to his work.]

[Lmao, not a shred of dedication.]

[Am I the only one curious about who that wooden actor was?]

[Me too. A production last month, a horror film... could it be that supporting actor who blew up a while back?]

[Uh... fine, Qi Gu sniffed the blood to figure out what it was, but what is Sha Chuan doing???]

[Keep catching everything and you'll stink yourself to death.]

[Qi Gu might be no good, but this Sha Chuan is pretty gross too. He keeps trying to make himself stand out, but he's such a coward, jumping at every little thing. He reminds me of my former coworker who always showed off in front of the boss but had nothing to back it up.]

[Help, now that you've said that, I can picture it perfectly.]

[Sha Chuan is just being nice and scouting ahead for everyone. How can you say that about him!]

[Has the stink finally put Qi Gu off his food? By my rough count, he's almost finished an entire Want Want snack assortment this morning.]

[What an amazing thing to focus on.]

[You know... I'm actually a little disappointed he stopped eating. I can't keep making my snack list.]

Watching Sha Chuan's ridiculous antics, Qi Gu was genuinely rendered speechless this time. "..."

Seriously, were you in that much of a hurry to die?

Did you pick up an underworld food delivery order and need to rush it over?

Considering that if Sha Chuan really died on the show, the blame would still fall on him as its specially invited occult master.

Qi Gu looked resigned. "You haven't learned that hand seal and incantation yet. Why not learn them now while you have time? You'll be needing them any minute, after all."

"Haha, you're so funny." Hearing that familiar curse, Sha Chuan gave a dry laugh and said, seemingly out of great consideration for the viewers, "Let's hurry up and move the show along."

"Suit yourself," Qi Gu said heavily.

He only hoped Sha Chuan would keep his cries for help down later and spare his ears the torment.

Vivian took the initiative to smooth things over. "In that case, we've spent quite a while on the first floor already. Let's head up to the second floor."

The group crossed the waiting area and headed toward the stairs at the far left of the building.

There was no light at all on the staircase. It was so dark they could not see where it ended, as though that darkness could swallow the courage in their hearts. Even another glance sent a chill through them.

Everyone exchanged looks. Even Sha Chuan did not dare charge ahead now.

Seeing that none of them wanted to go first, Qi Gu, whom they had hailed as a master, took the lead himself, lighting the way with the faint glow stick in his hand.

In the pitch-black surroundings, every sound was amplified.

Vivian suddenly let out a brief cry, her voice trembling. "Aaaah! S-something grabbed my skirt!"

The guests all turned toward the sound, but the staircase was so dark that they could not make anything out.

By rights, Sha Chuan, who was behind Vivian, should have been the first to react. But being a coward, he deliberately slowed his steps and kept himself from looking up ahead, making it seem as though he was still two or three steps away from her.

What if... what if there really was something like that? He wouldn't dare look around!

The elders had said that those things would haunt everyone who saw them.

Unless that thing dissipated completely, it would never leave them alone for the rest of their lives!