Translator: Cinder Translations
--------
Pei Qian's eyes widened in terror as he suddenly realized that, given his strength, he couldn't escape from Zhou Rong. The latter's arm was like an iron clamp.
He quickly thought of Jiang Cheng, who had excused himself earlier, and a look of uncontrollable fear appeared in his eyes.
"Mr. Zhou..." he almost pleaded, his body trembling uncontrollably. "Why don't we go find Mr. Yin? He should be outside, and he's already found a clue."
At this point, Zhou Rong was standing in the corner of the room, which was unusually dark. Beside him was a large and oddly shaped water tank.
The surface of the tank was rough, with a black iron pot inverted on top.
"There's no hurry," Zhou Rong said. "Let's look at the clue I found first, then we can go look for Mr. Yin."
His voice was mixed with a strange whooshing sound, like a wheezing wind or a throat that had been slit, leaking air.
Zhou Rong lifted the heavy iron pot with one hand, and trembling with fear, Pei Qian dared to peer inside. The tank was pitch dark, and it seemed filled with some liquid that occasionally glinted in the light.
Just as he frowned, tightening his lips, a series of small bubbles suddenly appeared from the dark water.
Then, a pale human face emerged from the black liquid.
The eyes were wide open, almost splitting, and the mouth was terrifyingly gaping. From the expression, it was clear that the person had died in fear, likely drowned or possibly scared to death.
But for Pei Qian, none of that mattered anymore because… that face was Zhou Rong's.
And Zhou Rong was standing right in front of him.
Just as Pei Qian couldn't hold back and opened his mouth to scream, a flash of cold light appeared in front of his eyes.
In the next moment, his world turned upside down.
At the very last second, he saw a distorted figure, holding a huge knife in its hand.
After leaving the kitchen, Jiang Cheng immediately lightened his steps and went straight to the door, gripping the doorknob and gently testing it. There was a feeling of resistance, the door was locked.
He immediately gave up on trying to leave through the door and glanced back at the pitch-black staircase. Without hesitation, he turned around and quickly walked toward the stairs.
As he carefully chose where to place his foot, climbing the wooden stairs with caution, he suddenly heard a heavy object fall in the kitchen behind him.
"Bang!"
"Rolling…"
The object that fell seemed round and rolled a couple of times before bumping into something and stopping.
Jiang Cheng immediately sped up.
The windows and doors on the first floor were sealed by some force. He planned to try his luck on the second floor. After all, in a nightmare, no situation is guaranteed to be deadly. If the second floor was inaccessible, he planned to set a fire to try and create an opportunity to escape.
He had already discovered the issue with Zhou Rong.
His movements were very strange, and what was even stranger were the footprints left when he retreated. The footprints were only on the tips of his toes.
It was as if he was constantly walking on tiptoe.
This was clearly wrong.
The layout of the second floor was very different from the first. The entire second floor was one large room, with no partitions, offering a wide and unobstructed view.
Thanks to better lighting, it was much brighter than the first floor.
A bright window was about ten meters away, and with a running start, Jiang Cheng could reach it.
But he first turned around to observe the surroundings.
Although the second floor was not high and wouldn't normally pose a danger, this was a nightmare. No one knew whether something might suddenly push him if he jumped.
Or whether a broken tree might appear below, like with Jiang Zhongyi, skewering him in a horrific death.
He slowly scanned the surroundings. The second floor was simply decorated, resembling a study room. There was a wooden screen, an old-style armchair, and a traditional desk with brushes, inkstones, paperweights, and tools for calligraphy and painting.
The brush holder was finely crafted, with several brushes of varying sizes hanging from it.
In the corner was a dusty rocking chair.
A few oddly shaped stones were tossed near the stairs, looking out of place.
His gaze didn't linger much on these items until he saw a large wardrobe.
The wardrobe's design was somewhat modern but built with sturdier materials. It was the most modern item in the entire building.
However, the wardrobe was also quite unsettling, as it was covered in countless deep scratch marks.
The scratches were of different lengths, but all were very deep.
As soon as Jiang Cheng saw these marks, an image of despair flashed in his mind.
"Screech—"
Suddenly, a door opened downstairs.
The environment wasn't exactly silent, but the sound of a door opening downstairs was far too clear, as if it was done intentionally.
Without a doubt, it was the ghost.
The kitchen door had been opened.
Then came a slow but long dragging sound. Jiang Cheng's heart skipped a beat. He could almost imagine the ghost's boneless, limp body writhing on the floor.
It seemed Pei Qian hadn't delayed the ghost for long.
"Bang!"
The ghost was already on the stairs, heading straight for his location.
Now, there were only two options.
One was to rush to the window and jump out.
The other was to immediately hide in the wardrobe, hold his breath, and wait for whatever would happen.
A normal person would undoubtedly choose the first option. After all, jumping out the window would mean leaving the building, and the ghost probably wouldn't chase him out into the sunlight.
The scratch-marked wardrobe looked so uncomfortable that it seemed like something terrifying had happened inside.
The worst-case scenario was that there were actually two ghosts in the building, and one of them was hiding in the wardrobe. Opening the wardrobe would trigger a deadly trap.
Time was tight. The ghost's footsteps had reached the corner of the stairs, accompanied by a sharp scraping sound.
It sounded like a sharp knife slowly scraping against the rough, plastered wall.
It was the ghost!
She was dragging her mangled body, holding the huge knife, its blade scraping against the wall as she slowly walked toward him, like a seasoned hunter playing with her trapped prey.
(End of the Chapter)
---
Read (NS) ahead on (pa treon . com / CinderTL) – Chapter 224. (+4)
Early access starts at $1. Your support keeps this going!
Use Code CINDER2025 to get 50% first month discount on TUR and TUP Tiers. Valid Till 15Jan2025. \(^O^)/
$1 for this novel, or two novels for just $5, RDC/FF/MF Tiers. ;)
Translated 4 Series, 1.5K+ Chapters and 1.78M+ Words.