Journey to Hangzhou (5): Midnight Mansion Fright (Part 1)

Morning: @All members @All members @All members Emergency!

Aemeath:?

Lynae:?

Yangyang:?

Suisui:?

A series of question marks followed. Morning breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, everyone was still awake at this hour.

Morning: My senior has disappeared!

Aemeath:?!!!!

Yangyang: What's going on?!

Dania:...?

Roccia: Please explain the situation in detail, Professor Morning.

Morning: It's like this...

She told the other girls about the commotion she had just heard and the results of her initial investigation in Xiao Ling's room.

Suisui: In other words, Brother Ling disappeared into thin air.

Sigrika: But what power could make a living person disappear into thin air?

Aemeath: Oh no... Could there really be a man-eating ghost in this house...?

Crimson Snow: What kind of ghost? Tell me about it.

Aemeath shared the ghost stories she had just told Suisui and the others in the group chat.

Roccia:...

Roccia: We won't get anywhere discussing this here. Morning, where are you now? We'll come find you.

Morning: Okay, I'm on the third floor now. Come over here now.

Lynae: Morning Professor Morning? Are you alright?

Aemeath: Morning

Sigrika: @Mo Morning

Dania: @Mo Morning

Roccia: Morning Morning? Are you alright?

Seeing that she hadn't received a response, Roccia and then typed the last line.

Roccia: Everyone, gather on the third floor.

"That's the situation. When we got to the third floor, Professor Morning had also disappeared, just like Xiao Ling. This is her phone. Look, the flashlight is still on." Lynae handed Morning's phone to Roccia.

"My phone is locked, is there any way to unlock it?" Roccia asked.

"Let me try!" Aemeath volunteered, placing her fingers on Morning's phone. Her Resonance Ability activated, and after a surge of data turbulence, the phone immediately unlocked.

Then, they saw a second related clue left on Morning's phone.

"Second... Professor Morning is the second one to go missing!" Chisa immediately realized, "And the corresponding First is the senior."

"It feels like that death foreshadowing scene you often see in horror movies..." Dania's voice became unusually serious.

"Hmm... Oh right! The phone! Call my senior!" Sigrika suddenly remembered something, took out her phone and dialed Xiao Ling's number.

Beep beep...

The phone rang, coming from Xiao Ling's room. Everyone went into the room and found his phone casually tossed on the bed, with Sigrika's call request displayed on the screen.

"The situation is now very clear. Whatever the reason, we must find these two companions who have suddenly disappeared." After confirming that the two companions were missing, Crimson Snow said in a cold voice.

Everyone nodded in unison, agreeing with Crimson Snow's statement.

"Let's split up and search every area," Roccia nodded seriously. "Hopefully it's just a false alarm."

(This hits the nail on the head regarding three major taboos in horror movies...)

In short, after discussing their respective areas of responsibility, the group quickly set off to search for their missing companions.

Kitchen area.

"Hey sister, Little Ai's ghost story couldn't possibly be based on a true story, could it..." Yangyang searched every corner of the kitchen, trying to see if Hajiling was hiding somewhere playing a prank on them.

"It's not that mystical," Suisui said calmly. "In the end, all ghost stories are either just the work of the human heart or they're made up to scare children."

"Although our very existence here is somewhat unscientific, I still want to tell you to believe in science."

"What about Professor Morning?" Yangyang countered. "Although I haven't known her for long, I can tell she's a very meticulous person. She would never leave such an important personal item as her cell phone with her."

Just then, a message notification sounded. Yangyang took out her phone and saw that it was a message from Chisa in the group chat.

Chisa: [Image]

Chisa: The door is locked, I can't open it.

Roccia: I remember the mansion has electronic locks, but shouldn't there also be a physical keyhole as a last resort?

Chisa: I checked, there's no keyhole, and the electronic lock is completely out of power.

The Rover: This completely rules out the possibility that the guy secretly slipped away.

Yangyang: Knowing Xiao Yu's personality, she would definitely tell us before leaving, and it's impossible that she wouldn't even bring her phone.

Just as Yangyang was focused on replying to messages...

"Sizzle--"

Yangyang caught several light scraping sounds and immediately became extremely alert, preparing to draw her sword.

"Who dares to play tricks here? Show yourself!" Yangyang shouted. "Otherwise, don't blame me for showing no mercy with my sword!"

There was no response.

"Is it just my imagination?" Yangyang waited a moment, making sure no other strange noises occurred, then turned around, and then--

She saw a face that appeared deathly pale in the light of the flashlight.

Yangyang's heart skipped a beat, her eyes suddenly sharpened, and she reflexively drew her Azure Sword to strike the opponent's face, only to have it blocked by the opponent's raised fan.

"Sister?" Yangyang blinked her eyes innocently twice. "It's you?"

"Ha... you scared me to death! I was just trying to tease you, but you almost pulled off a scene where you kill your own sister." Suisui's face was flushed with embarrassment, looking quite frightened.

"Sister! You're so mean!"

"Okay~ It's my fault, it's my fault~ Yangyang, please forgive me~"

After this brief incident, the two sisters continued searching the entire kitchen.

The wind and rain outside the window grew louder, and the gale rattled against the windowpane.

Suisui used a flashlight to search every corner of the kitchen and soon found something unusual on a counter.

"Here... I remember there should have been a plate of osmanthus cake..." Suisui stroked the empty countertop. "Did someone else eat it?"

Soon after, everyone received a message from Suisui on their phones.

Suisui: Who ate the osmanthus cake in the kitchen?

Lynae: I didn't eat.

Chisa: I didn't eat either.

Iuno: It wasn't me either.

Crimson Snow: Never moved.

The replies below were almost all negative, which made Suisui feel a little strange.

In short, it couldn't have been the four of them, because they were all in the living room before the lights went out and were the last to go upstairs. If someone had eaten, the other three would have definitely noticed.

Surely it couldn't be that my younger sister sneaked downstairs to eat it because she was greedy...?

"Yangyang, did you secretly eat the osmanthus cake in the kitchen?" Suisui asked.

There was no response.

"Huh? Yangyang?" Suisui thought the other person hadn't heard her, so she asked again.

There has still been no response.

Suisui's heart skipped a beat, and she suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Yangyang? Yangyang?"

After circling the kitchen for a while, she finally found Yangyang's phone on the ground not far away. The flashlight was still on, just like the situation before Morning disappeared.

The difference is that this time her phone wasn't locked.

Suisui picked up her phone and looked at the chat window. She saw that a string of letters had been manually typed into the text box below it.

Fifth.

"The fifth one... Yangyang is the fifth one, which means...!"

For a moment, Suisui felt that the sound of the wind and rain outside the window sounded so much like the wailing of ghosts, and at that moment, that strange scraping sound rang out again.

She was about to send a message to everyone for help when she noticed that her phone had automatically started typing a string of letters in a text box, which made her eyes widen in surprise.

And the string of English letters spells out --

You are next.