"Hey, what's gotten into you two?"
"Did we say something taboo?"
The shift in their attitude struck Liu Chengfeng as deeply strange—as if he'd said something he shouldn't have.
Tian Xun's face flickered through several shades before he finally blew out a long, turbid breath.
"You two... have truly rotten luck!"
The pair exchanged a glance, and Ning Qiushui frowned:
"Meaning?"
Tian Xun began explaining the mechanics of the horror worlds behind the Blood Door:
"The ghosts inside a Blood Door come in two kinds... The first are native-born. Those are all earthbound spirits—however powerful, however deep their resentment, once we finish the task and leave the Blood Door, our business with them is closed for good."
"The other kind... is special."
"They're still bound by the Blood Door's rules, but they aren't confined to one area. Once they've slaughtered all the local NPCs, they move on to make trouble elsewhere."
"That kind of ghost... carries resentment beyond all reason!"
"Usually, if you run into one of them in one Blood Door, your next Blood Door will be tied to its story!"
"And that ghost's Blood Door story is always more horrifying than an ordinary door—with a far higher death rate!"
Tian Xun paused, an indescribable sympathy creeping into his voice.
"I don't know what sins you two committed... running into that kind of ghost on your very first Blood Door. No wonder only two of you made it out."
"But odds are this is as far as you go. Not that I'm cursing you or anything... go home, write your wills, put your affairs in order!"
"Say your goodbyes properly to your family and friends."
With a long sigh, Tian Xun gathered up their bowls and chopsticks and carried them to the kitchen.
Only now did the two understand why the others' attitude had swung so violently.
Because in their eyes, the two of them were already dead men!
"Seriously? They look down on us that much?"
"We survived that ghost-thing once—we can do it a second time, and a third!"
"They think we won't live through the next Blood Door? Then we'll live, and make them watch!"
Liu Chengfeng grumbled and cursed, and though he was doing his utmost to look disdainful, Ning Qiushui could hear the barely perceptible tremor in his voice.
After the dishes were done, Tian Xun still took the two of them to their rooms in the lodge.
Unexpectedly, these people didn't live in the villa itself.
They lived in the single-story houses in the garden behind the courtyard.
It was a lovely spot—lonely and quiet, but frankly far more inviting than that pitch-black villa.
Tian Xun handed them their keys, gave them a few instructions, and went off to the villa to watch television.
There was a TV in their room too, but the screen in the villa was much bigger.
Since Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng both had things weighing on their minds, they didn't take the bus back to their original world; they wanted to wait for Liang Yan, the lodge head, to return, and ask him about the next blood door.
But night fell, and still no one came back to the villa.
Resigned, the two decided to wait one more day.
Around midnight, Ning Qiushui couldn't sleep, so he went out to the courtyard to clear his head—and heard hushed voices coming from the villa.
He raised an eyebrow and went to the back door to eavesdrop.
From inside came the voices of a woman and a steady-toned man.
The man's voice Ning Qiushui knew: Meng Jun.
But the woman's... he had never heard.
It had to be Bai Xiaoxiao's.
"Bai Xiaoxiao... you're certain you're not mistaken?"
"What, you don't trust me?"
"You know what Yan and Mang were to each other. If he learns Mang's death was deliberate—man-made—Yan will not let it rest!"
Bai Xiaoxiao was about to say something when she suddenly turned her head, staring toward Ning Qiushui's position, and said coldly:
"Who's there?"
"Come out!"
Ning Qiushui stepped out of the darkness.
Seeing that it was one of her own lodge's newcomers, the ice on Bai Xiaoxiao's exquisite face receded a little.
She wore lip rouge.
Very red.
Like a phoenix in a sea of flame—nothing at all like the soft murmur of her name.
"It's late. Why aren't you asleep?"
Ning Qiushui took no offense at the wariness. He only said:
"You two aren't asleep either, are you?"
He sat down on the sofa, open and unhurried, and looked at the brazier in the center.
With him there, the two of them abruptly dropped their topic.
"What's your name?"
In the end, it was Bai Xiaoxiao who spoke first.
"Ning Qiushui."
"Mm. How was your first Blood Door?"
Ning Qiushui opened an untouched bottle of cold beer from the table and helped himself to a swig.
"Honestly? Not great."
"Nearly died."
Bai Xiaoxiao gave an absent "mm" and offered consolation in the most perfunctory tone imaginable:
"That's how the world behind the Blood Door is—one slip and your life is gone. But once you're past the first door, the ones after get quite a bit easier..."
Before she could finish, Meng Jun said coldly from the side:
"There are no doors after, for them."
Bai Xiaoxiao came back to herself, somewhat taken aback:
"Meng Jun, what's that supposed to mean?"
Meng Jun rose.
"Ask him yourself. I'm going to bed."
And he left without a backward glance.
Bai Xiaoxiao looked at Ning Qiushui, and he gave her a detailed account of the first Blood Door's story.
Naturally, Ning Qiushui left out part of the truth.
The part about the mysterious anonymous letter.
He said only that they had discovered the death rules by chance.
When Bai Xiaoxiao had heard him out, her eyes changed, and changed again.
It was a very complicated look.
There was appreciation in it, and sympathy... and even a trace of regret.
"Meng Jun and Tian Xun are right. The woman in red behind your first Blood Door is no ordinary earthbound spirit—she's a vengeful ghost of the truly vicious kind... Your saving grace was that this was your first instance: her powers and killing rules were heavily restricted by the Blood Door. That, plus you two being bold and careful enough to find the path to survival in time—otherwise there is no way you'd have come back alive!"
"And your next Blood Door's story will almost certainly be tied to that ghost-woman."
"If you can settle it cleanly, you might even bring a ghost artifact back out of that door."
Ning Qiushui paused.
"A ghost artifact?"
Bai Xiaoxiao turned her palm over, and a wooden comb stained with blood appeared in her fair, dainty hand.
"Something like this."
"As a rule, nothing inside a Blood Door can be brought out. But certain high-difficulty doors hold powerful items—exceedingly precious, each with its own effect."
"Take my comb: one stroke through the hair, and for a full minute no ghost can lock onto the person combed."
"These ghost artifacts can raise our survival rate behind the Blood Doors enormously!"
Ning Qiushui thought of the blood jade he had carried out of the first Blood Door, and turned it over in his mind.
Nothing inside a Blood Door could be brought out.
Except a ghost artifact.
So... that blood jade was a ghost artifact too.
Seeing his expression, Bai Xiaoxiao assumed the next Blood Door had frightened him, and after a moment's hesitation said:
"Oh, fine. Our lodge is short on people anyway, and the last several batches of newcomers were hopeless—all wiped out inside their first three doors..."
"Next week, when you two enter your second Blood Door, I'll carry you through once. Free of charge."
"Besides... you two do have potential worth cultivating."
Only as her voice fell did Ning Qiushui suddenly remember: Tian Xun had told them Bai Xiaoxiao was out carrying newcomers through Blood Doors.
"You can... carry people through these things?"
Ning Qiushui was somewhat taken aback.
Bai Xiaoxiao nodded.
"A newcomer's first six Blood Doors can be run with a veteran carrying them."
"There are even dedicated 'studios' in the business."
"But veteran-carries-newbie almost always commands an enormous fee. We're all only human—however deep your experience, even a low-difficulty Blood Door can still go wrong on you..."
Ning Qiushui nodded his understanding.
When the wage is your life, charging a steep price is only fair.
Money, after all, is a thing outside the body; weighed against a life, it doesn't count for much.
With all that clear, Ning Qiushui rested one more night at the lodge, then boarded the bus and returned to the world outside the fog.
The moment he got home, he switched on his computer.
A friend by the handle "Mole" had sent him a message.
It was brief—
【Can't trace it. The post office has no record whatsoever of that anonymous letter】
【The post office told me the anonymous letter I was asking about is... a letter that does not exist】
【Don't worry though. I'll keep an eye out for you】
Ning Qiushui's eyes narrowed.
Mole was a friend of his.
A man... exceptionally good at finding things.
"Even you can't find it..."
Ning Qiushui murmured to himself.
Ding-dong—
While he sat lost in thought, the doorbell suddenly rang.
Startled out of it, he rose, went to the door, and opened it.
It was a neighbor—a plump auntie in her fifties named Mu Cui.
She wore a flowered blouse and looked fresh from a shopping trip, a sheen of sweat still on her forehead, as she beamed and held out a letter to him.
"Qiushui, dear—a letter for you."
Ning Qiushui took the letter, and his expression changed on the spot.
"Auntie Mu... where did you get this letter?"
Mu Cui fished out her keys to open her door, answering carelessly:
"The mailbox downstairs, of course..."
"You careless child. Remember to check your mailbox every time you come home..."
With that, she opened her door and went inside.
Ning Qiushui closed his own door, letter in hand.
He sat down on the living-room sofa, staring at the letter on the tea table, his breathing quickening.
The second letter.
He tore it open.
Sure enough—anonymous again.
Only this time, there was no hint. Just a single photograph.
And that one photograph froze Ning Qiushui where he sat!
It was... a photograph of Bai Xiaoxiao!
Old and yellowed, just like the last one—clearly many years old.
Yet the Bai Xiaoxiao in the photo looked exactly the same age as the Bai Xiaoxiao he had met!
The smile on her face was vivid as life, and the red of her lips, untouched by the years, was just that striking.
"Holy shit..."
This time, even the ever-calm Ning Qiushui couldn't keep the curse in.
This... was simply too uncanny!
He slowly turned the photograph over.
His fingers trembled faintly.
On the back of the photo, there was once again a single line—
【She must not die in your second door】
"So it's true..."
Ice spread up Ning Qiushui's back.
Whoever was sending these... was watching him from somewhere!
Only...
Why did this person have these photographs? Why give him hints?
What in the world... was he after?