Ning Qiushui was speaking when he suddenly noticed something. After rummaging around, he pulled out several pieces of meat from the refrigerator.
These pieces were vacuum-sealed, without any labels.
Inside... without exception, there were some blackish things.
But due to the amount of frost, they couldn't tell what it was.
So, Ning Qiushui handed the meat to Liu Chengfeng beside him.
"Cut it open and see."
Liu Chengfeng took out a knife and sliced open the vacuum-sealed plastic bag, but suddenly froze.
"Fing Hell..."
He looked at the meat inside the vacuum bag and couldn't help but curse.
Inside the vacuum-sealed bag was a piece of meat covered in thick hair!
Judging by the hair's position, it should be a leg... and it belonged to a human!
"This Fing bag contains... human meat?!"
Liu Chengfeng was so frightened that he dropped the piece of meat.
The frozen, stiff meat hit the ground with a crisp thud.
He suddenly recalled the meat they had eaten earlier and couldn't help but retch.
Liu Chengfeng knew he had indeed eaten beef, but he still felt a wave of nausea.
Ning Qiushui picked up the meat from the floor, examined it carefully, and then put it back into the bag.
"I think I know why the old lady on the second floor doesn't eat meat..."
Liu Chengfeng, barely suppressing his urge to retch, spoke with a pale face:
"Why?"
Ning Qiushui slowly said:
"Because before us, someone fed the old lady this meat, causing her to have a severe psychological aversion to it..."
"And don't you find it strange?"
Liu Chengfeng frowned:
"What's strange?"
After wrapping the meat, Ning Qiushui put it back in the fridge.
"The old lady is clearly paralyzed, yet the windows in her room are nailed with steel bars, as if they're afraid she'll escape..."
Liu Chengfeng thought carefully and realized it was true.
But then, he felt a chill run through his body, as if he had thought of something terrifying...
"Do you mean the old lady's paralysis..."
Ning Qiushui's gaze was sharp, and he nodded.
"Very likely."
"But that's not the scary part. The truly frightening thing... is yet to come."
As he spoke, he picked out a piece of lean lamb from the fridge and tossed it to Liu Chengfeng.
"There's something scarier?"
Liu Chengfeng caught the lamb, his face looking extremely grim. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
Ning Qiushui's brows knitted into a small knot.
"Haven't you noticed... this family doesn't have a single photo?"
Liu Chengfeng paused slightly in his meat-cutting.
Indeed.
The little girl the villa's hostess led was at least 8-9 years old. Even if the husband and wife divorced over the years, there should still be some photos of the woman and her daughter left at home...
But in fact, there were no photos of the woman, the little girl, or the old lady on the second floor on either the first or second floor!
Why... is that?
"And if I'm not mistaken, those women's shoes in the shoe cabinet by the door..."
Ning Qiushui said, suddenly pausing, then shook his head.
"Forget it..."
"Let's cook first."
"Many doubts... should be answered tonight."
Seeing Ning Qiushui unwilling to say more, Liu Chengfeng wisely refrained from asking further.
But he was secretly observing Ning Qiushui.
This man... was too strange.
Whether it was the human skin of the fat man they saw before or the series of bizarre events in the world behind the Blood Door, he never showed excessive panic.
He was even... eerily calm!
Such a terrifying mental fortitude, Liu Chengfeng had never encountered in his past thirty years!
Was he really a veterinarian in the outside world?
Liu Chengfeng began to develop a strong curiosity about Ning Qiushui.
...
Dinner.
Everyone sat at the dining table, silent.
"Liu Chengfeng, why aren't you eating?"
Xue Guize noticed that the cook, Liu Chengfeng, had only served himself a small bowl of plain rice porridge and wasn't eating any dishes.
Tonight's lamb smelled delicious.
But Liu Chengfeng hadn't touched it with his chopsticks.
He even placed the lamb as far away from himself as possible.
"Huh? The dishes?"
"Oh right, the dishes... I, my stomach doesn't feel well..."
Liu Chengfeng mumbled, his face looking grim.
He and Ning Qiushui hadn't told the others about the human meat in the fridge.
After all, two people had already died among them.
Everyone was like a startled bird; revealing this information would only add to their fear.
Moreover, even if everyone knew, it wouldn't help their survival.
After dinner, they faced a new problem—
How to accommodate Yan Youping.
With the two girls dead, Yan Youping was the only girl left in the group.
Would she have to sleep alone in a room?
"I... I don't want to sleep alone!"
Yan Youping, sensing the strange atmosphere, was on the verge of tears.
Are you kidding?
Having her sleep alone in such a terrifying place?
That would be no different from killing her directly!
Compared to life and death, issues like propriety between men and women were nothing to Yan Youping!
"Then how about this... tonight, you sleep with us. We'll sleep on the sofa, and you can have the bed."
Bei Dao suggested.
Xue Guize had no objections either.
After all... the team was getting smaller.
The more people died, the more dangerous it was for those who remained!
Yan Youping nodded, casting a grateful glance at the two.
Ning Qiushui watched this scene and shook his head slightly.
Ning Qiushui knew that if the ghost hiding in the villa wanted to kill, even a hundred people gathered together wouldn't help.
Seeing that the others looked slightly better, he said:
"It's getting late, everyone should rest early... Also, remember to check the doors and windows, make sure they're closed."
"Once today is over, there are only three days left before we can leave."
Everyone nodded.
After turning off the lights in the first-floor hall, Ning Qiushui went up to the second floor with them. After watching everyone enter their respective rooms, he turned off the corridor lights.
The switch for this light was at the top of the stairs.
Generally, such places have dual or even multi-way switches, allowing one to turn the light on in one place and off in another for convenience.
But for some reason, the corridor lights on the second floor of the villa were designed as a single switch.
As the corridor lights went out, the entire villa was plunged into pitch-black darkness!
Ning Qiushui felt a chill on his skin. He was about to head to his room when he suddenly heard a faint sound not far behind him.
The sound wasn't loud, but in the dead silence of the dark, it was so clear!
It was... the sound of the iron door leading to the third floor being unlocked!
Ning Qiushui's body stiffened.
Upstairs...
Something seemed to be coming down!
And... it was right behind him!