...
After the villa's mistress left, the group returned to the living room. After a brief round of introductions, they began discussing how to care for the elderly woman.
Among them, the short, thin girl with twin ponytails, Yan Youping, timidly raised her hand.
"Um... how did all of you end up on that bus?"
"I was on a 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."
"Same here. I was working overtime at the company, and suddenly I felt really tired..."
As everyone spoke up, they realized that they had all ended up on the bus in the exact same way.
This eerie coincidence made their already anxious hearts grow even more fearful!
"Damn... this is some real supernatural stuff..."
The bearded Liu Chengfeng cursed under his breath.
Yan Youping fell silent for a moment, then timidly added:
"Do you think... maybe this is some kind of reality show? Like, a program crew brought us here for a show?"
"I mean, I've seen on TV..."
Before she could finish, Liu Chengfeng interrupted her with a cold laugh:
"Have you already forgotten about that fat guy?"
"Do TV shows kill people and skin them?"
Yan Youping's heart skipped a beat, but she retorted:
"What if... what if it was just a prop?"
"And the blood? Was that a prop too?"
"Who knows, maybe it was chicken or dog blood..."
Yan Youping was still trying to deceive herself, but Ning Qiu Shui's sudden remark shattered her last line of defense:
"It wasn't animal blood."
Everyone turned to look at Ning Qiu Shui.
He seemed to have accepted the situation, remaining unusually calm.
"I used to be a veterinarian, and I'm particularly sensitive to smells. The scent of blood from cats, dogs, pigs, sheep, cows, chickens, ducks, fish, geese, and pigeons is distinctly different from human blood."
"For example, sheep blood has a strong gamey smell, while human blood has a distinct metallic odor..."
"I can tell you with absolute certainty that the blood on that traffic light was 100% human blood."
"And it was... the freshest human blood!"
After Ning Qiu Shui finished speaking, Yan Youping shuddered and began to sob quietly, hugging her knees:
"Stop talking..."
"Please... stop..."
Seeing her like this, Ning Qiu Shui's tone softened slightly.
It wasn't her fault for being scared.
Any normal person in real life who had witnessed what they had would likely be haunted by it for a long time.
Only those who frequently dealt with corpses could handle it relatively better.
After all... the scene had been too gruesome!
"Let's focus on how to get through these five days..."
A man of average height, around 170 cm, with a gloomy expression, spoke up.
His name was Xue Guize.
"There are seven of us, and our task is to take care of the elderly woman in bed for five days. How should we divide the work?"
Everyone exchanged glances, and when no one spoke up, Ning Qiu Shui suggested:
"How about this: the three women handle cooking and laundry, while the four of us men take care of the elderly woman..."
As soon as he finished speaking, the beautiful woman with gold earrings, Wang Yuning, sneered sarcastically:
"Oh, so women should just cook and do laundry for you men, huh?"
"You guys are really good at slacking off. As soon as you heard the mistress say the old woman is bedridden, you volunteered to take care of her... Do you think we're stupid or something?"
"Taking care of her probably means doing nothing but lazing around, right?"
Liu Chengfeng couldn't hold back after hearing Wang Yuning's words. He tilted his head and said mockingly:
"Wow, it stinks... Such a pretty girl, but her mouth is full of crap."
Wang Yuning's face darkened:
"Who the hell are you calling crap?"
Liu Chengfeng was about to retort, but Ning Qiu Shui cut him off.
"If you don't want to cook or do laundry, I can switch with you. You can take care of the elderly woman from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. After 10, it'll probably be dark, and we'll all be resting."
Wang Yuning glanced at Ning Qiu Shui and snorted coldly.
"Then... thank you."
Although she said this, her tone was devoid of gratitude.
It was filled with nothing but mockery.
"By the way... it's past 5 now, and I'm hungry. Since you're cooking, why don't you get to it?"
Ning Qiu Shui gave Wang Yuning a deep look but didn't say anything more. He turned to the other two women:
"Do you want to switch?"
The girl who hadn't spoken yet, Ya Mo, raised her hand.
"I..."
"Sorry, I really don't know how to cook."
Compared to Wang Yuning's annoying demeanor, Ya Mo was much more sincere.
In today's society, there are plenty of spoiled children who can't cook, both men and women. It's not unusual.
"Any men here who can cook?"
The remaining three men hesitated for a moment. Liu Chengfeng, growing impatient, said:
"Ah, forget it, forget it. I'll go cook and do laundry with you!"
"What a bunch of useless people, can't even cook or do laundry!"
Wang Yuning coldly retorted:
"Watch your mouth, you brute!"
Liu Chengfeng glared at her and pointed:
"If I didn't have a rule against hitting women, you'd be dead today!"
Wang Yuning sneered and stomped up the stairs in her high heels.
The kitchen was on the first floor, while the elderly woman was on the second floor. The villa was large, and everyone went about their tasks separately.
Liu Chengfeng continued to grumble as he followed Ning Qiu Shui to the kitchen.
The sobbing Yan Youping also tagged along.
"Enough, stop complaining."
Once they entered the kitchen, Ning Qiu Shui, annoyed by Liu Chengfeng's constant griping, cut him off.
"Wait... you can really put up with this?"
Liu Chengfeng stared at him in disbelief.
Ning Qiu Shui opened the fridge and began taking out ingredients.
"Do you really think taking care of that elderly woman... is an easy job?"
Hearing this, Liu Chengfeng's breath hitched.
"Kid, what do you mean by that?"
Ning Qiu Shui slowly turned to look at Liu Chengfeng and Yan Youping.
"Do you remember what the man in the suit at the black villa told us?"
"He said he'd answer our questions only after we survived the Blood Door."
"That means the world beyond the Blood Door... is unimaginably dangerous!"
After he finished speaking, Yan Youping's small frame trembled again!
She stammered:
"Wh-what kind of danger?"
Ning Qiu Shui shook his head.
"I'm not sure yet... but since the task on the Blood Door is to take care of the elderly woman, the danger is likely related to her."
"Anyway... be careful."
After hearing Ning Qiu Shui's warning, Liu Chengfeng's eyes darted around. He secretly pinched his fingers, and the gloomy expression on his face vanished, replaced by a grin:
"Kid, I think you're right. I'll stick with you."
Ning Qiu Shui gave Liu Chengfeng a surprised look but didn't say anything more.
He first took out the vegetables from the fridge, then turned his attention to the freezer.
As the mistress had said, there was plenty of meat inside.
It had been cut into pieces and packed into different bags.
Ning Qiu Shui grabbed a bag labeled "Beef Tenderloin" and tossed it into a pot to thaw over low heat.
As he closed the fridge, something caught his eye. He pulled out a piece of frozen meat from the back of the freezer.
The bag containing the meat had some black, unidentified substances inside.
However, the ice shards obscured most of it, and the vacuum-sealed bag made it impossible to see what the black substances were.
This bag didn't have a label, likely because the mistress had forgotten to mark it.
Ning Qiu Shui stared at the meat for a while, but then Liu Chengfeng, the rough, bearded man, leaned in again.
"Why is this meat black?"
He asked curiously.
Ning Qiu Shui shook his head and put the meat back in the fridge.
"Not sure. Maybe it's gone bad from being frozen too long."
The three of them worked in the kitchen. To Ning Qiu Shui's surprise, Liu Chengfeng, who looked like a rough, thuggish guy, turned out to be an excellent cook!
His skills in washing, chopping, and stir-frying vegetables showed he was a seasoned hand.
"Food's ready!"
Liu Chengfeng brought the cooked dishes to the table and shouted upstairs.
Without waiting for the others to come down, he grabbed a bowl of steaming rice and began eating voraciously.
Yan Youping, watching Liu Chengfeng's ravenous eating, couldn't help but ask:
"Aren't we going to wait for them?"
Liu Chengfeng snapped:
"Wait for what? Let's eat!"
With that, he continued devouring his food.
Tap, tap, tap—
Footsteps came from upstairs. Wang Yuning, still on the stairs, saw Liu Chengfeng wolfing down his food and couldn't resist mocking:
"Look at you, eating like a starving ghost..."
If it had been earlier, Liu Chengfeng would have fired back.
But while eating, he seemed unusually focused, completely ignoring Wang Yuning's taunts.
Wang Yuning took his silence as surrender and began eating as well.
The meal was eaten in silence.
No one knew what to say.
But as they ate, the room grew darker, until they could barely see the beef in their bowls.
It wasn't until Ning Qiu Shui stood up and turned on the lights that they realized... it was already night.
"Damn!"
"How did it get so dark so fast?"
"It's not even 7 yet!"
A man named Beidao exclaimed, his startled tone making everyone uncomfortable.
"What are you yelling for?"
Xue Guize, who already looked displeased, frowned deeply.
"Didn't you hear the mistress say before she left that the rainy season is coming?"
"It's normal for it to get dark early... Stop overreacting."
He scolded Beidao, his tone overly agitated, but everyone understood why and chose not to comment.
The atmosphere in the villa... was just too oppressive.
"Hey, hey, hey, is this how you take care of an elderly woman?"
"You've all eaten, but you're leaving a bedridden old woman upstairs to starve. Is that appropriate?"
"Did anyone really think taking care of her meant doing nothing?"
After finishing his meal, Liu Chengfeng put down his chopsticks, picked his teeth, and sneered at Wang Yuning, who was sitting across from him.
Wang Yuning clenched her fists, her gaze growing even colder.
"Hmph, do you think everyone is as crude as you, you gluttonous pig?"
"You're as disgusting as a maggot."
She disdainfully tapped her high heels, grabbed a bowl of rice, haphazardly scooped up some leftovers, and stomped upstairs.
As everyone watched her disappear into the dark staircase, their hearts inexplicably began to race...
"Were you all on the second floor earlier?"
Ning Qiu Shui also put down his chopsticks and asked the three who were responsible for caring for the elderly woman.
Xue Guize nodded.
"Yeah, we checked the entire second floor. Besides the bedridden old woman, there's no one else."
"Our rooms are across from hers, all along the same hallway."
Ning Qiu Shui asked:
"Did you notice anything unusual?"
Xue Guize shook his head, then hesitated and added:
"Our rooms have a... strange smell. I can't quite describe it, but it's not pleasant."
"All seven rooms?"
"Yeah, all of them."
At this point, the girl named Ya Mo softly added:
"There's something else that's strange..."
"The rooms the mistress prepared for us all have private bathrooms."
Beidao scoffed:
"What's so strange about that? She's rich and doesn't want to run around to use the bathroom..."
Ning Qiu Shui frowned.
"No... it is strange."
"This villa only has the mistress's family living here. Even if the husband were home, that's only four people. Why would they need so many bedrooms and bathrooms?"
"Wh-what's so strange about that? Maybe they're very hospitable?"
"Maybe they often host parties for friends. Don't rich people love throwing parties?"
Beidao's tone was slightly panicked.
No one responded to him.
The group fell into an eerie silence once more.
Until...
A piercing scream from the second floor shattered the dreadful quiet—
"Ah!!!"