Ning Qiushui had noticed it too.
He reached out and felt around.
In the darkness, his fingers found a book.
He picked it up. In the dust on its cover, desperate fingerprints still lingered.
He opened it.
By the pale moonlight through the window, the two of them read what was recorded inside—
***
【2037.6.1, overcast】
【...Grandpa called. He said Grandma is not going to make it, and asked Mom to come home...】
【But for some reason, Mom—who has always cared so much about Grandma—refused, and refused firmly】
***
【2037.6.9, overcast】
【Mom didn't go to work】
【She looks terribly frightened】
【What is Mom afraid of?】
***
【2037.6.12, overcast】
【These past few days I've seen Mom crying in secret. I asked her why, but she wouldn't speak—she only held me】
【She held me so hard I could barely breathe】
***
【2037.6.21, light rain】
【Grandma passed away. Grandpa called Mom, and after she hung up, her face was ghostly pale】
【She suddenly went out and didn't come back until deep in the night. She handed me a blood-red piece of jade and told me to hang it in the window—no matter what happened, I was never to take it down】
***
【2037.6.22, rainstorm】
【Mom packed her bags and left home with Dad, leaving only me and Granny Wang, the housekeeper who has looked after this home for years】
【Before they left, they told me and Granny Wang: if we saw them come home, we must not open the door】
***
【2037.7.12, rainstorm】
【Mom came back】
【I remembered what Mom and Dad told me. But I opened the door anyway】
【I... I just missed them so much】
***
【2037.8.1, rainstorm】
【Something's wrong...】
【It... isn't Mom!】
***
【2037.8.15, rainstorm】
【I'm not a good girl. I didn't listen to Mom and Dad, and I let that terrible thing inside...】
【It's right outside now...】
【I'm so thirsty, and so hungry, but I don't dare go out...】
【Am I... going to die?】
【What do I do?】
***
There, the diary ended for good.
What it recorded was harrowing.
The two of them stared at the pages, unable to speak for a long, long time.
"So... the old woman on the second floor isn't the mistress's mother. She's... the villa's housekeeper."
Liu Chengfeng's throat bobbed.
"Then—then that monster..."
Ning Qiushui closed the diary and said to Liu Chengfeng behind him:
"The shoe cabinet by the front door is packed with neat rows of newly bought women's shoes. I've been thinking—a woman who loves shoes that much, if she were really going traveling, would surely bring at least a few pairs, no?"
Liu Chengfeng went blank.
Every one of them had walked past that shoe cabinet several times, and not one of them had noticed.
This Ning Qiushui's powers of observation... were downright terrifying, weren't they?
"Also—didn't you want to know what those three words the old lady on the second floor keeps repeating actually are?"
At that, Liu Chengfeng came back to himself somewhat and looked at Ning Qiushui.
"Wh-what are they?"
Under the pallid moonlight, Ning Qiushui met Liu Chengfeng's eyes and pronounced, word by word, the truth that turned his whole body cold:
"The old lady on the second floor was never saying 'the meat's not cooked.'"
"She was trying to tell us... 'the madam's not gone'!"
Liu Chengfeng's breathing turned ragged; his eyes bulged:
"Bro, you're saying the mistress in the red dress we saw on the first day... never actually left?!"
Ning Qiushui nodded slowly.
"Right."
"It never left at all."
"It must have found some hidden spot nearby... and eaten that little girl."
Tap!
Liu Chengfeng's legs buckled; he staggered and nearly fell.
"Holy hell..."
He'd gone numb.
Numb from head to toe.
Ning Qiushui stood by the window and reached out to touch the blood jade hanging there.
Whatever this thing was, whatever it was made of... none of that mattered anymore.
What mattered was...
This blood jade could hold back that horrifying woman in the villa—whatever she really was!
Suddenly, something occurred to him, and he said to Liu Chengfeng:
"Big Beard, quick!"
"We split up. You go down to the first-floor kitchen and bag up food—filling, ready-to-eat stuff first!"
Liu Chengfeng blinked.
"Then—then what about you, bro?"
Ning Qiushui replied:
"I'm going to the second floor to carry the old lady up!"
Liu Chengfeng understood at once what Ning Qiushui meant to do.
"Won't we run straight into that... ghost-thing?"
Ning Qiushui's gaze was razor-sharp, his tone certain and resolute.
"We have to risk it!"
"There aren't many of us left—and only while it's out feeding at night can anyone get onto the third floor!"
"After tonight, getting the old lady and the food up here won't be anywhere near this easy!"
Liu Chengfeng heard him out and gritted his teeth.
"Fine!"
Once the bow was drawn, there was no calling the arrow back.
By now, his trust in Ning Qiushui was absolute.
If not for him, he would likely have died the very first night.
Now, it was time to stake everything on one throw!
The two of them carefully withdrew from the room, and once they had confirmed the ghost-thing hadn't returned, they hurried downstairs. Liu Chengfeng went straight to the first-floor kitchen and, without turning on any light, grabbed the kitchen bags and started packing food!
The place was pitch black, and Liu Chengfeng kept Ning Qiushui's warning firmly in mind and left the lights off—but thankfully, he'd worked this kitchen in the daytime, and he had a rough map in his head of where every ingredient was.
Even so, his hands were shaking badly.
In the darkness, countless eyes seemed to be watching him.
From every pitch-black corner, from behind every door, some hideous phantom might come lunging out at any second to devour him!
"Faster... faster..."
He drew a deep breath, forcing himself to stay calm.
Sweat fell from his forehead in fat drops.
Soon, Liu Chengfeng had filled three heavy bags with food.
He hauled the three bags and rushed for the stairs—and saw Ning Qiushui heading toward the stairwell too, with the old lady on his back.
The old lady was broad and heavyset, a good hundred and fifty, hundred sixty jin; if not for Ning Qiushui's freakish physical conditioning, he honestly couldn't have carried her!
"Go up first!"
Seeing Liu Chengfeng hesitate on the stairs, Ning Qiushui gave the order outright.
Liu Chengfeng nodded and ran for the third floor with the food.
Ning Qiushui made for the third floor as well, but the floor up there was one great slick of sticky slime—he couldn't move too fast or he'd fall.
The old lady's body was frail; if she took a real fall, who knew what might happen!
"Almost there, almost there..."
Reaching the third floor, Ning Qiushui strode fast toward the study at the far end. Liu Chengfeng was already standing inside the doorway, half his body leaning out to watch.
He stared toward Ning Qiushui, his face all vigilance.
Suddenly, he seemed to see something—and enormous terror flooded his eyes!
Liu Chengfeng waved frantically at Ning Qiushui, crying out in horror:
"Hurry! Bro!"
"It—it's coming after you!!"
At those words, Ning Qiushui, with the old woman on his back, went cold from head to toe!
Screech—
Screech—
Screech—
The dreadful scrape of knife on fork rose behind him once more. Ning Qiushui clenched his teeth and ran for his life!
At this point, he couldn't afford to worry about falling!
Ning Qiushui knew: if he dawdled even a moment longer, he was dead beyond all doubt!
Icy killing intent spread toward him along the pallid moonlight, wrapping around his whole body. He didn't dare glance back—couldn't look back!
Faster...
Faster!!
Ning Qiushui roared inside, teeth clamped tight, running for all he was worth!
But even at his absolute limit, he could hear that horrible scraping of knife and fork drawing closer and closer behind him...
No good!
Carrying a person, he could never outrun the thing behind him!
The doorway was barely five steps away when a cold, deathly pale hand suddenly reached out from behind and seized Ning Qiushui by the neck!
"And where... do you think you're going?!"
At his ear sounded a woman's voice, venomous beyond words, and cold.
Ning Qiushui went icy all over, the strength draining out of him at a visible rate.
He had been... too slow after all.
And then, just as Ning Qiushui waited for death to descend, a figure burst from behind the study door and slammed a hand down on that pale arm!
"AAAAH!!!"
The woman's shrill scream rang out. With a burst of white smoke, she let go—and another hand, big and warm, caught hold of Ning Qiushui and hauled him into the study!
The moment they were inside, Liu Chengfeng scrambled to the window in blind panic and hung the blood jade back up!
Only when that was done did he drop hard onto his backside, both legs shaking like sieves...
"AAAH!!!"
Outside, the woman in the red dress screamed in mad fury. Her body contorted, she came right up to the study doorway, glaring at the two of them with venomous eyes!
Only now, by the moonlight, did they finally see clearly what the red-dressed woman looked like...
What kind of horror... was that face?
An enormous mouth split back to her ears, packed full of dense, needle-sharp teeth—and within it they could faintly see hair, and scraps of flesh...
The skin around her eyes was a mass of cracks, as if rotting away.
Her limbs were twice the length of a normal person's, and she clung coiled against the wall like a spider!
And clenched dead-tight in one of her hands was the sharpened knife and fork, long since crusted over with bloody filth!
"Holy fuck... what the hell is this thing supposed to be?!"
Liu Chengfeng felt his breathing about to stop, and the curse burst out of him unbidden!
Outside the door, the red-clothed woman paced back and forth in furious agitation, seeming to want in, yet seeming to dread something. In the end she could only give it up—she roared her rage at the two inside the study a few times, then turned and left...