After the villa's hostess left, everyone returned to the hall. After a brief round of introductions, they began discussing how to care for the elderly.
Among them, Yan Youping, a petite girl with twin ponytails, timidly raised her hand.
"Um... by the way, how did you all get on the bus?"
"I, I was originally on the high-speed train, playing on my phone until I got sleepy, then... I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I was on the bus."
"Me too, I was working overtime at the office, suddenly felt very sleepy..."
Everyone spoke up, and to their surprise, they all realized they had boarded the bus in the exact same way.
This eerie coincidence made their already fearful hearts even more terrified!
"Damn it... it's like we're cursed..."
Liu Chengfeng, the bearded man, cursed.
Yan Youping was silent for a moment before timidly speaking again:
"Do you think... this might be some TV crew inviting us to a reality show in this way?"
"After all, I saw on TV before..."
Before she could finish, Liu Chengfeng interrupted her with a cold laugh:
"Already forgot about that fat guy?"
"Would a TV show kill someone and skin them?"
Yan Youping's heart skipped a beat, her eyes wide:
"What if... what if it was just a prop?"
"Is the blood a prop too?"
"Who knows, maybe it's chicken blood or dog blood..."
Yan Youping wanted to deceive herself, but Ning Qiushui's abrupt words shattered her last line of defense:
"It's not animal blood."
Everyone turned to look at Ning Qiushui.
He seemed to have accepted everything, appearing exceptionally calm.
"I used to be a veterinarian, and I'm particularly sensitive to smells. The scent of cat, dog, pig, sheep, cow, chicken, duck, fish, goose, and pigeon blood is distinctly different from human blood."
"For instance, sheep blood is very gamey, while human blood has a distinct iron smell..."
"I can tell you very clearly, the blood on that traffic light was one hundred percent human blood."
"And it was... the freshest human blood!"
After Ning Qiushui finished speaking, Yan Youping shivered in fear, hugging her knees and sobbing softly:
"Stop talking..."
"Please... stop talking..."
Seeing her like this, Ning Qiushui's tone softened a little.
You couldn't blame the girl for being scared.
In real life, anyone who witnessed that scene would likely be haunted by it for a long time.
Only those who often dealt with corpses could handle it better.
After all... the scene was just too gruesome!
"We should focus on getting through these five days first..."
A man of average appearance, about 170 cm tall, with a gloomy look in his eyes, spoke.
His name was Xue Guize.
"There are seven of us, and the task is to care for the bedridden elderly for five days. How do you all plan to divide the work?"
Everyone looked at each other, and seeing no one else speaking, Ning Qiushui said:
"How about this, the three women can handle cooking and laundry, while the four of us men take care of the elderly..."
Before he finished, the pretty woman with gold earrings, Wang Yuning, spoke sarcastically:
"Oh, so women should cook and do laundry for you stinky men?"
"You guys sure know how to slack off. You heard the hostess say that old woman can't even move, and you volunteered to take care of her... Do you think we're stupid?"
"Saying you'll take care of that old woman, but probably doing nothing and just lazing around?"
Liu Chengfeng couldn't hold back when he heard Wang Yuning, raising his chin and saying leisurely:
"Such a foul mouth... What a fine lady, yet you talk like you've got a mouthful of filth."
Wang Yuning's face darkened:
"Who the hell are you cursing?"
Liu Chengfeng wanted to say more, but Ning Qiushui interrupted.
"If you don't want to do laundry and cook, I can switch with you. You can take care of the elderly from 9 AM to 10 PM. After 10, it'll probably be dark, and we can wash up and rest."
Wang Yuning glanced at Ning Qiushui, snorted coldly.
"Well... thank you."
Though she said this, her tone lacked any gratitude.
It was full of mockery.
"By the way... it's past five now, and I'm hungry. Aren't you going to cook? Go on."
Ning Qiushui gave Wang Yuning a deep look, said nothing more, and turned to the two other women:
"Do you want to switch?"
The girl who hadn't spoken, Yamo, raised her hand.
"I..."
"Sorry, I really can't cook."
Compared to Wang Yuning's annoying demeanor, Yamo was much more sincere.
In this society, there are many spoiled kids who can't cook, both men and women, so it's not surprising.
"Any guys who can cook?"
The remaining three men were silent for a moment, and Liu Chengfeng impatiently said:
"Fine, fine, I'll go cook and do laundry with you!"
"What a bunch of useless people, can't even cook or do laundry!"
Wang Yuning said coldly:
"Crude man, watch your mouth!"
Liu Chengfeng glared, pointing at Wang Yuning:
"If I didn't have a rule against hitting women, you'd be dead today!"
Wang Yuning sneered, stomped her way upstairs in her high heels.
The kitchen was on the first floor, the elderly on the second. The villa was large, and everyone was busy with their tasks, so they went their separate ways.
Liu Chengfeng grumbled as he followed Ning Qiushui to the kitchen.
Accompanying them was the constantly sobbing little girl, Yan Youping.
"Alright, stop cursing."
Entering the kitchen, Ning Qiushui, annoyed by his noise, interrupted Liu Chengfeng.
"What... you can put up with that?"
Liu Chengfeng glared.
Ning Qiushui opened the fridge, starting to take out ingredients.
"Do you really think taking care of that elderly person... is an easy job?"
Hearing this, Liu Chengfeng's breath suddenly paused.
"Brother, what do you mean?"
Ning Qiushui slowly turned his head, looking at Liu Chengfeng and Yan Youping beside him.
"Remember what the man in the suit in the black villa told us?"
"They'll only answer our questions after we return alive from the Blood Door."
"This means that the world beyond the Blood Door... holds unimaginable dangers!"
After he finished speaking, Yan Youping's small body shivered again!
She stammered:
"Wha... what danger?"
Ning Qiushui shook his head.
"It's not clear yet... but since the task on the Blood Door is to care for the elderly, the danger is likely related to that elderly person."
"In any case... be careful."
Hearing Ning Qiushui's warning, Liu Chengfeng's eyes darted around, and he slyly grinned:
"Brother, I think you're right, I'll stick with you."
Ning Qiushui looked at Liu Chengfeng in surprise, shook his head, but said nothing more.
He took out the vegetables from the fridge, then looked at the freezer.
As the villa's hostess had said, there was a lot of meat.
The hostess had cut it into pieces, packed it into different bags.
Ning Qiushui took out a bag labeled "Beef Tenderloin," tossed it into the pot, and started defrosting it on low heat.
As he closed the fridge, Ning Qiushui's peripheral vision caught something. He took out a rock-hard piece of meat from the depths of the fridge.
Inside the meat bag were many black, unidentified substances.
But the ice obscured too much, and the meat bags were all vacuum-sealed, making it impossible to see what those black substances were.
This bag had no label, likely forgotten by the hostess.
Ning Qiushui stared at the meat for a while, when Liu Chengfeng, the bearded rough man, came over curiously.
"Why is this meat black?"
He asked curiously.
Ning Qiushui shook his head, putting the meat back in the fridge.
"Don't know, maybe it's been frozen too long and went bad."
The three of them busied themselves in the kitchen, and to Ning Qiushui's surprise, Liu Chengfeng, who looked like an old rogue, was actually a great cook!
His actions of washing, cutting, and frying were those of an experienced hand.
"Dinner's ready!"
Liu Chengfeng placed the cooked meat and vegetables on the table, shouting upstairs.
Then, without waiting for the people upstairs, he grabbed a steaming bowl of rice and started eating heartily.
Yan Youping, watching Liu Chengfeng eat like a starving ghost, couldn't help but ask:
"Aren't you going to wait for them?"
Liu Chengfeng replied irritably:
"Wait for what?"
"Eat!"
With that, he continued to wolf down his food.
Tap, tap, tap—
Four footsteps came from upstairs, and Wang Yuning, still on the stairs, saw Liu Chengfeng devouring his food and couldn't help but mock:
"Look at you eat, like a starving ghost reincarnated..."
If it were before, Liu Chengfeng would have retorted harshly.
But he seemed particularly focused while eating, treating Wang Yuning's mockery as nothing more than background noise.
Wang Yuning assumed he had chickened out and started eating herself.
At the table, everyone was silent.
Not knowing what to say.
They just felt it getting darker, to the point where they could barely see the beef in their bowls.
Until Ning Qiushui stood up and turned on the light, they finally realized... it was dark.
"Damn!"
"Why did it get dark so fast?"
"It's not even 7 yet!"
The man named Bei Dao exclaimed, his startled manner making everyone uncomfortable.
"What are you yelling about?"
Xue Guize, already in a bad mood, frowned deeply.
"Didn't the villa owner say before she left that the rainy season is coming?"
"It's normal for it to get dark... stop making a fuss."
He scolded Bei Dao, his tone overly agitated, but everyone knew why, and tacitly kept silent.
The atmosphere in the villa... was just too oppressive.
"Hey, hey, hey, is this how you take care of the elderly?"
"Stuffing yourselves and leaving a paralyzed old person upstairs to starve, is that right?"
"Does anyone really think taking care of the elderly means doing nothing?"
After eating, Liu Chengfeng put down his chopsticks, picking his teeth, and sarcastically addressed Wang Yuning across the table.
She clenched her fists, her gaze growing colder.
"Hmph, do you think everyone is a crude glutton like you?"
"Disgusting, like a maggot of a man."
She disdainfully tapped her high heel, grabbed a bowl of rice, and haphazardly scooped some leftovers, stomping upstairs.
The others watched her figure disappear into the dark hallway, and for some reason, their hearts inexplicably raced...
"Were you all on the second floor just now?"
At this point, Ning Qiushui also put down his chopsticks, asking the three responsible for caring for the paralyzed elderly.
Xue Guize grunted in affirmation.
"We checked the second floor thoroughly, besides the paralyzed elderly, there was no one else."
"Our rooms are all opposite the elderly's room, along the same corridor."
Ning Qiushui asked:
"Didn't notice anything unusual?"
Xue Guize shook his head, hesitated for a moment, then replied:
"Our rooms have a... very strange smell, I can't describe it, but it's unpleasant."
"All seven rooms?"
"Yes, all of them."
At this point, the girl named Yamo softly added:
"There's something else strange..."
"The hostess prepared rooms for us, all with en-suite bathrooms."
Bei Dao snorted:
"What's so strange about that? They're rich, don't want to run around just to use the bathroom..."
Ning Qiushui frowned.
"No... it is strange."
"This villa, clearly only the hostess's family lives here, even if the husband is home, that's just four people, why prepare so many bedrooms and bathrooms?"
"What's so strange about that, maybe they're very hospitable?"
"Often invite friends over for parties, don't rich people love that?"
Bei Dao's tone was slightly panicked.
No one responded to him.
The group fell into an eerie silence again.
Until...
A piercing scream from the second floor shattered the dreadful silence—
"Ah!!!"