The blood-curdling scream lasted only a short moment before everything fell completely silent again.
Ning Qiushui was the first to rush upstairs, followed closely by Liu Chengfeng and the others.
But as they stepped onto the second floor, they suddenly came to a halt.
Shock and disbelief were written all over their faces.
“No… no way…”
Beidao’s voice trembled, and his legs were shaking.
Before them, the blood that had previously been splattered across the floor… had completely vanished—
not even the tiniest speck of blood could be seen!
It was as if… everything that had happened that morning was just a figment of their imagination.
“Look over there!”
Just then, Yan Youping cried out urgently, pointing toward the room at the end of the hallway.
Everyone turned to look—and saw thick, dark red blood slowly seeping out from under the door, stretching all the way into the hallway outside…
A gust of wind blew in through the open blinds at the far end, carrying with it the nauseating stench of blood!
“Holy sh*t…”
Liu Chengfeng barely managed to squeeze the words out, every hair on his body standing on end.
Everyone else looked equally horrified.
Ning Qiushui narrowed his eyes, staring at the louvered window.
He distinctly remembered that when he had gone to check on Wang Yuning’s body earlier that morning, he had closed and locked that very window.
No matter how strong the wind outside was, it shouldn’t have been able to push it open.
What’s more, the lock could only be opened from the inside.
After they had come back downstairs, Ning Qiushui had been keeping an eye on the old woman’s bedroom door—she had never come out, so she couldn’t have opened the window.
And all of them had been downstairs searching for Yamo, so it couldn’t have been any of them either.
If that’s the case… who opened the window?
Could it be…
Wang Yuning, who was already dead?
As that thought floated through his mind, Ning Qiushui felt his skin crawl and his hair stand on end.
But unlike the others, who were frozen in fear, he took a step forward—toward the door from which the blood was still slowly oozing.
Seeing Ning Qiushui move, the others opened their mouths… but didn’t know what to say.
What the hell…
Why is this Ning Qiushui guy so fearless?
Isn’t he afraid of what might be waiting behind that door?
“Ning Qiushui, are you crazy?!”
Beidao shouted, but Ning Qiushui didn’t respond at all and kept walking toward the end of the corridor and the window.
Suddenly, someone else stepped forward from the group.
It was Liu Chengfeng.
He jogged up to catch up with Ning Qiushui.
“Bro, wait up for me…”
As Liu Chengfeng caught up with Ning Qiushui, the other three finally managed to push down their fear for the time being and gritted their teeth as they followed along!
When they reached the end of the corridor, the first thing Ning Qiushui did was pull the blinds shut and lock the window again.
Once that was done, under the nervous, terrified gazes of the others, he slowly opened the door to the room at the very end.
As the door creaked open, Yan Youping immediately threw up on the spot!
“Ugh—”
The others were also so shocked they instinctively stepped back!
Inside the room, Yamo’s blood-soaked corpse was suspended in the air. Her stomach had been hollowed out, her internal organs completely missing—only a bloody spine remained…
Yamo’s neck appeared to have been violently snapped, twisted at a gruesome 90-degree angle. A bizarre smile was frozen on her face as she stared directly at the group…
No one dared to meet her gaze.
Except Ning Qiushui.
He walked under her hanging body and examined her carefully, his gaze growing sharper and more intense.
“The way she died is almost identical to Wang Yuning. It was done by the same person.”
“Was it the old lady on the second floor?”
Ning Qiushui turned his head to glance at the old woman’s room. Recalling the three words she’d said earlier, his pupils suddenly contracted.
Could it be…
“Wait a second—did you guys notice… Wang Yuning’s body is gone!!”
Beidao suddenly pointed at the bed behind Yamo’s hanging corpse and shouted in terror.
Everyone looked over.
Sure enough.
The body of Wang Yuning, which had originally been lying on the bed, had vanished completely.
Even the bloodstains on the bed were gone.
So… where did her body go?
Bang!
Ning Qiushui suddenly slammed the door shut, glanced at the blood on the floor, and said calmly:
“Let’s go downstairs first.”
Xue Guize’s eyes widened:
“Downstairs?”
“But… but Yamo’s body in there…”
Ning Qiushui shook his head and replied calmly:
“Don’t worry about it. It will take care of it.”
Hearing this, everyone felt chills crawl up their spines.
As they followed Ning Qiushui down the stairs, someone nervously asked:
“Ning bro, who is the ‘it’ you’re talking about?”
Without turning his head, Ning Qiushui replied:
“The thing that did the killing.”
“You mean… the old woman on the second floor?”
Ning Qiushui gave no answer.
Back in the villa’s main hall, everyone fell into an eerie, heavy silence.
Fear… had already engulfed them like a rising tide.
It stayed that way until evening, when Liu Chengfeng finally couldn’t bear the stifling atmosphere any longer. He stood up and muttered gruffly:
“I’ll go cook.”
Ning Qiushui stood up as well.
“I’ll come with you.”
“From now on… no matter what you’re doing, it’s best not to act alone.”
With that, he didn’t bother waiting for a response from the others and followed Liu Chengfeng into the kitchen.
As for Yan Youping, ever since learning that the ghostly thing in the villa used the kitchen knives and forks to kill people, he outright refused to step foot into the kitchen again.
Inside the kitchen, once Liu Chengfeng saw no one else had followed them in, he lowered his voice and asked:
“Bro, tonight… you’re planning to go to the third floor?”
Ning Qiushui, who was taking meat from the fridge, paused for a moment, then chuckled without turning around:
“Looks like you’re not as dumb as you act.”
“Rough on the outside, delicate on the inside.”
Being praised like that, Liu Chengfeng scratched his head a little shyly.
“Bro… there’s something I don’t quite understand.”
“Why don’t we go to the third floor during the day? Why wait until night?”
“That place… seems really dangerous, right?”
Whether it was the villa owner’s warning before she left, or everyone’s gut feeling, everything pointed to one thing—the third floor was incredibly dangerous.
And to top it off, the iron door leading to the third floor was locked with a heavy iron padlock.
They didn’t have the key.
While rummaging through the fridge, Ning Qiushui replied:
“It is very dangerous… especially during the day.”
Liu Chengfeng was startled.
With that hint from Ning Qiushui, it suddenly clicked for him!
“Bro, you mean… the ghost that’s been killing people isn’t the old lady on the second floor, but rather… something on the third floor?!”
“During the day, it’s resting on the third floor, and at night, it comes out… to hunt?!”
Ning Qiushui nodded slightly.
“That’s right.”
“The old lady is probably just a normal human being… used by that ghostly thing in the villa as bait. A lure.”
“And I have a very bad suspicion… but it can only be confirmed tonight.”
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