In the eyes of others, Lin Qiu Shi being able to live in the same room with such a beautiful girl like Ruan Nan Zhu was truly something fortunate. But Lin Qiu Shi himself knew very clearly that Ruan Nan Zhu was not as gentle and lovely in this world as she appeared.
"Let's go check out the other rooms first," Ruan Nan Zhu said. "Make sure where everyone is staying."
The others nodded in agreement.
The lady owner of the house had given them a total of four keys, corresponding to the four households on the 14th floor. Ruan Nan Zhu took a turn around the upstairs area, opening all the doors that could be opened. She discovered that the room layouts were basically all the same - one door, one window, one bed. The rooms were as small as coffins, with very low ceilings, giving one the feeling of truly lying in a coffin when on the bed.
"I want to take a bath," the middle-aged man who had been in an extremely irritable mood earlier suddenly spoke up. "There's not even a bathroom here?" His face was still covered in blood, and there was a lingering panic in his eyes. But at least he had calmed down from his emotional state earlier, no longer naively believing this was just some kind of prank.
"There is one, it seems to be at the end of the hallway," Lin Qiu Shi said. "I saw a public bathroom when I came upstairs earlier. Shall we go take a look later?" It still felt somewhat uncomfortable standing next to someone covered in blood, plus there was a nauseating bloody smell.
"Okay," the middle-aged man nodded and introduced himself, saying his name was Zeng Ruguo and that he was in the jewelry business. His words carried some arrogance, clearly a man who thought highly of himself in the real world. Unfortunately for him, the ghosts and monsters here in the door would not go easy on him just because he had money.
"Let's divide up the rooms," Ruan Nan Zhu said. "I'm pairing up with Yu Linlin. The rest of you figure it out amongst yourselves."
The others looked at each other, eventually finding roommates after some discussion. Xiao Cheng and Yao Yao, while the other two guys decided to share a room. Zeng Ruguo was naturally shunned by everyone. His face turned ashen, rendered speechless by anger for quite a while, but no one here would give him any face or special treatment.
Ruan Nan Zhu's attitude towards him was not too unkind either, even gently persuading him to quickly wash the blood off his body.
"So I have to stay alone?" Zeng Ruguo's voice trembled, vaguely sensing something amidst his bewilderment. "What if something happens?"
Yao Yao's attitude towards this middle-aged man was blunt. "Don't worry, those who are going to die will die sooner or later, regardless of who you room with."
Zeng Ruguo wanted to say something more but seeing that everyone was ignoring him, he could only let it go.
After dividing up the rooms, Ruan Nan Zhu suggested they go up to the rooftop to see if there was anything unusual.
Yao Yao voiced her agreement.
On the 14th floor was the top level, with the rooftop patio above that. The door to the rooftop had on it a large, rusty lock that looked like it hadn't been used in a very long time.
Lin Qiu Shi peered through the cracks of the door to look inside but did not see anything in particular. "Let's go downstairs and take a look. There doesn't seem to be anything on the roof."
"Let's come back and look tomorrow after sunrise," Yao Yao suggested. "It's going to be dark soon. We should hurry and wash up then get to bed after."
"Can't we gather together and take turns keeping watch?" The young boy who had entered the door first brought up something Lin Qiu Shi had agonized over earlier. "Safety in numbers. If we split up like this and something happens at night, we won't even know."
"No," Ruan Nan Zhu replied. "If everyone gathered together, you would inevitably all fall asleep at a certain point in time. As an elder, my advice is - the earlier you sleep, the safer it is. No matter what accidents happen at night, don't come out to see."
Hearing this, the boy could only nod to show he understood.
"Let's go get washed up first while we still have time," Ruan Nan Zhu said.
The current time was 6pm, still considered the afternoon, but the dark clouds at the horizon had already completely covered up the entire sky, as if the world would fall into darkness the next moment.
The four men in the group went to the common bathroom first. Zeng Ruguo had found a change of clothes in the room he was staying in alone and seemed to want to take a bath to wash himself.
Lin Qiu Shi felt taking a full bath would be too troublesome and planned to just quickly wash up before heading back.
The others did not seem to plan on lingering in the bathroom either, movements hurried.
While washing his face, Lin Qiu Shi observed the bathroom. It made him feel very uncomfortable - the floor was covered in slippery stains, and everything from the walls to the squat toilets gave off a filthy feeling. As it was starting to get dark out, the lights on the ceiling came on. The dim yellow lights made everything in the bathroom look like an old photograph that had filters added to it.
The two guys rooming together had finished up and were preparing to leave. They called out to Lin Qiu Shi, "Yu Linlin, we're heading back first."
Lin Qiu Shi nodded. He was just about done too and was going to head out with them after grabbing his towel.
"Yu Linlin," Zeng Ruguo, who was still in the shower stall, suddenly called out to stop him. "You're leaving?"
Lin Qiu Shi replied, "Mm-hmm." He knew Zeng Ruguo must be afraid and offered, "You need much longer? I can wait here for you."
Zeng Ruguo thanked him profusely.
So Lin Qiu Shi stood by the bathroom entrance waiting for Zeng Ruguo to finish.
Each shower stall had a small curtain in front for privacy. Behind the curtain was the shower head. The bathroom was very quiet, with only the sound of water hitting the floor.
"Why can't I wash it clean?" After a while, Zeng Ruguo in the stall suddenly said, "I can't seem to wash the blood off me."
Lin Qiu Shi asked, "What's wrong?"
Zeng Ruguo said, "Can't wash clean..." His voice was filled with immense panic and fear. "It's all blood."
Lin Qiu Shi looked towards Zeng Ruguo's shower stall. Although the lighting was dim, he could clearly see blood continuously flowing from under Zeng Ruguo's feet, streaming into the drain. No matter how long he had been washing, it was too bizarre that he still couldn't wash himself clean.
Zeng Ruguo grew increasingly fearful. "Still can't wash clean—"
Sensing something off, Lin Qiu Shi said, "Then don't wash anymore. Come on out."
Zeng Ruguo suddenly fell silent.
Just as Lin Qiu Shi was about to ask further, the thin shower curtain was abruptly pulled open by a pair of hands. Lin Qiu Shi saw the Zeng Ruguo standing behind the curtain—he also understood now why Zeng Ruguo was unable to wash the blood off himself.
Draped over the shower head was a lump of mangled, bloody flesh that looked like an infant's corpse, with blood continuously streaming down, flowing onto Zeng Ruguo's body from the shower head—with that, no wonder he couldn't wash himself clean.
Lin Qiu Shi urged, "Stop washing. Come on out, quick!"
Seeing Lin Qiu Shi's extremely ugly expression, Zeng Ruguo hurriedly grabbed a towel and ran out without even taking his clothes.
As Zeng Ruguo rushed out, the lump of flesh draped over the shower pipe slowly lifted its head too. Lin Qiu Shi did not dare look more, quickly turning to leave the bathroom.
The two of them hurried out, coincidentally running into Ruan Nan Zhu standing in the hallway.
At this point, Zeng Ruguo was still naked with blood all over his body. Ruan Nan Zhu commented, "You two were in the toilet for so long doing what exactly?"
Lin Qiu Shi: "I was watching him shower!"
Ruan Nan Zhu's expression was a little strange. "Your tastes are quite unique."
Lin Qiu Shi: "What are you thinking!?" He was helpless. He explained to Ruan Nan Zhu what had happened in the bathroom. After listening, Ruan Nan Zhu glanced at the still shivering Zeng Ruguo and said, "Hurry back and change into clothes. Don't catch a cold."
Zeng Ruguo nodded and awkwardly went back.
Watching his retreating figure, Ruan Nan Zhu's expression was solemn. Seeing this, Lin Qiu Shi thought he must be pondering some serious issue and was about to ask when Ruan Nan Zhu suddenly commented, "Quite short huh."
Lin Qiu Shi: "Huh?"
Ruan Nan Zhu: "Nothing. Let's go back to sleep."
It took Lin Qiu Shi a few seconds before realizing what Ruan Nan Zhu meant by "quite short". His expression twisted: "You're a young lady yet staring down there—"
Ruan Nan Zhu: "Yes I did." She lowered her voice. "As a girl, I'm bigger than you down there. Aren't you ashamed?"
Lin Qiu Shi: "..." He had to admit, hearing such words from Ruan Nan Zhu's pretty face did deliver quite the devastating blow to his fragile male ego.
Ruan Nan Zhu on the other hand seemed quite shameless about it, saying let's hurry back since it was getting late and time to sleep.
The two returned to their room one after the other, lying down on the wooden bed.
The room was truly too narrow, so narrow it was somewhat suffocating. With one turn, Lin Qiu Shi could see the gray wall. The not-so-clean ceiling also seemed like it could come crashing down any moment. Ruan Nan Zhu still fell asleep as easily as always. In her own words, closing her eyes meant the world went dark.
Lin Qiu Shi also closed his eyes, slowly entering deep slumber.