This sudden scream shattered the deathly silence of the villa. Everyone immediately looked towards the second floor.
"What happened?"
"I... I don't know!"
"Let's go and check!"
Everyone quickly rushed towards the second floor and arrived at the place where the sound came from. It was the room where the paralyzed old woman was.
Wang Yuning, who had been carrying the food earlier, was now sitting slumped on the ground, huddled against the corner, hugging her knees and shivering. The steaming hot food was spilled all over the floor.
"What's going on?" Ning Qiushui asked.
In front of everyone, Wang Yuning slowly stretched out a finger, pointing at the old woman lying on the bed, and said in a trembling voice, "She... she... just now... spoke!"
Following the direction of her finger, everyone looked at the old woman who was lying motionless on the bed, staring blankly out of the window.
Liu Chengfeng sneered, "Thought it was something serious... Didn't you hear the hostess say? Her mother is just paralyzed."
"Paralyzed doesn't mean she's a vegetable. Why can't she talk?"
"Thought you were so capable?"
"A paralyzed old woman scared you like this?" Liu Chengfeng finally got the chance and his mouth was like a machine gun, chattering non - stop.
But Wang Yuning in the corner seemed to be extremely frightened. She was trembling and couldn't even retort.
Ning Qiushui glanced at the old woman on the bed, then motioned for Liu Chengfeng to help clean up the floor, and then pulled Wang Yuning up from the ground.
"She spilled it herself, yet I have to clean it up. What the... " Liu Chengfeng muttered, but surprisingly, he was obedient. He quickly went to the toilet to get a towel and started wiping the floor.
This scene seemed a bit out of place. Liu Chengfeng, who seemed so tough, was so obedient to Ning Qiushui. But no one asked about it.
After cleaning the room, Ning Qiushui came to the old woman's bedside. He carefully looked at the old woman's kind face, tucked the quilt in for her, then turned around and left the room with everyone.
Back on the first floor, the sky outside had completely darkened. The pale light illuminated the hall. But for some reason, everyone felt as if they were still in the darkness. The silent atmosphere made people uneasy.
"Alright, Wang Yuning, you can tell us now... What did the old lady say to you up there?" Ning Qiushui sat on the sofa opposite Wang Yuning and poured himself a cup of hot tea.
As soon as the incident upstairs was mentioned, Wang Yuning's face, which had just looked a bit better, turned deathly pale again. Her fingertips tightly grasped the corner of her clothes.
"Just now... I was feeding her, right? She took a bite of the beef fillet and then spat it out right away!"
Liu Chengfeng's eyes widened, "Damn it, she spat it out? Is my cooking that bad?"
Ning Qiushui frowned, "Liu Chengfeng, let her finish."
Liu Chengfeng smacked his lips, mumbled a few words in a low voice, and then stopped talking.
Wang Yuning's eyes were filled with fear. Her expression was one of revulsion, as if she really didn't want to recall what had happened just now. "I thought it was too hot, so I tasted it myself. But the food wasn't hot. So I fed her a second bite, but she spat it out again... And this time, after she spat it out, she actually turned her head and stared at me, saying... saying..." She couldn't get a complete sentence out for a long time. Xue Guize's eyebrows were knitted so tightly that a mosquito could be pinched to death. He said anxiously, "What did she say? Hurry up and say it!"
Urged by Xue Guize, Wang Yuning finally summoned up her courage and gritted her teeth, "Her voice was very low. I didn't hear clearly. It seemed like she said... the meat has no... the meat has no taste!"
"Yes... that's what she should have said, the meat has no taste!"
As soon as these words were spoken, a terrifying bolt of lightning flashed outside the window, followed by a deafening thunderclap! Everyone was startled by the thunder.
"Fuck, this thunder..."
Ning Qiushui looked at the dark sky outside, suddenly walked to the window and opened it. The cold wind blew in with the rain mist.
"It's raining... a heavy rain, strong wind..." He closed the window again, his face becoming much more solemn. "These are starting to come true... That letter... it really wasn't a prank?"
Unlike the others, before getting on the bus, Ning Qiushui had received a mysterious letter. He had never told anyone about this.
Just as everyone was whispering and discussing the matter of "the meat has no taste", Ning Qiushui suddenly closed the window tightly, not letting even a wisp of wind in.
"Alright, if she doesn't want to eat, forget it. It's getting late. We'd better go to rest early... Tomorrow morning, get up early and cook some meat porridge for the old lady. Have you chosen your rooms?"
The people who were discussing suddenly fell silent.
"Are we really going to sleep in separate rooms?" At this time, Ya Mo, who seldom spoke, said with a cowardly expression, seemingly frightened by what had happened just now.
Xue Guize said, "We took a brief look at the rooms before. They're big, with double beds. Two people can sleep in one room just fine."
Yan Youping's eyes were still a bit swollen. When she heard that they would sleep two in a room, she said anxiously, "But... but there are three of us girls!"
Xue Guize sighed, "The rooms are big. You girls are relatively petite. You can squeeze in together."
The three girls looked at each other, but no one spoke. No one liked the idea of sharing a bed with a stranger. But they actually already knew that this villa was not safe. Everyone felt as if there was something in the shadows, staring at them...
After turning off the lights, they all went to the second floor. After some discussion, Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng entered the same room first. The three girls chose the room at the end of the corridor on the right side of the second floor, the farthest from the old woman they were supposed to take care of. The remaining two boys chose the room next to Ning Qiushui's. For some reason, Ning Qiushui seemed to have a magical power. When people were near him, they would feel safer.
The last girl to go to the room was Wang Yuning. She was still in a daze because of what happened during the day. By the time she realized, everyone had already entered their rooms. For a moment, there was only her left in the corridor.
The light switch in the corridor was at the top of the stairs, and it was a single switch. But the room they chose was at the very end, at least twenty meters away. If she wanted to turn off the light, it meant she had to walk these twenty meters in the dark.
Her eyes fell on the open shutter at the end of the corridor. The trees outside were growing like demons, twisted and hideous. With the cold wind, it seemed as if they would come in at any moment and devour Wang Yuning. She couldn't help but shiver. She didn't dare to turn off the light anymore. She quickly entered the innermost room and locked the door tightly.
Bang!
In the room, Ning Qiushui took off his shirt, revealing a well - defined, muscular body full of explosive power. Liu Chengfeng, who was brushing his teeth, glanced at him in surprise.
"Brother Ning... I didn't expect this! With these abs and V - line, if you went to a nightclub... wouldn't those rich ladies fight over you?" Liu Chengfeng grinned and winked at Ning Qiushui.
Ning Qiushui rolled his eyes, "So why do you keep following me?"
Hearing this, Liu Chengfeng spat out the toothpaste foam in his mouth, put away his joking expression, and said seriously, "You're really observant, brother. But I can't tell you now. After we leave the Blood Gate alive this time, I'll tell you..."
Hearing Liu Chengfeng's answer, Ning Qiushui was stunned for a moment, then smiled, "You're quite mysterious."
Liu Chengfeng shook his head and changed the topic, "By the way, brother, don't you think... that old woman is a bit strange?"
Ning Qiushui was silent for a while. "It's not just the old woman. This whole family, even the villa complex, is strange!"
Liu Chengfeng was stunned, "What's wrong with the villa complex?"
Ning Qiushui said, "The hostess of the villa said that only their family lives in this area. But actually, I passed by quite a few villas, and there were signs of people living in them. And these signs were left in the last one or two months. Just the eight houses I saw were like this, not to mention the many others I didn't see... This shows that this area was inhabited not long ago."
Listening to Ning Qiushui's words, Liu Chengfeng's back gradually broke out in cold sweat. If Ning Qiushui's observation was correct, then... where did these people go?
Ning Qiushui walked to the window, his expression solemn, his hands in his pockets, and continued, "Moreover, generally, a single person wouldn't buy such a large garden villa. So the people who moved in basically had family or friends. Even if they went out to work, there wouldn't be no one at home... But in fact, it seems that only we are left in this villa area."
He pointed his finger. Following the direction he pointed, Liu Chengfeng was shocked to see that the dozen or so houses in front of their window were all pitch - black! There wasn't a single light on!
"This... How could this be?!" His face turned extremely ugly.
Ning Qiushui said slowly, "Something must have happened here. Something... very terrifying."
He carefully checked the window to make sure it was locked tightly and not a single wisp of wind could get in. Then he drew the curtains and returned to the bed.
Without the wind, both of them lying on the bed smelled a strange smell.
"What's that smell?" Liu Chengfeng asked.
The smell wasn't strong, but it lingered all the time, like something was rotting and mildewing. The two of them reme