The blood-curdling scream lasted only a short while before everything fell silent again.
Ning Qiu Shui was the first to rush upstairs, followed by Liu Chengfeng and the others.
But when they reached the second floor, they suddenly stopped in their tracks.
Shock and disbelief spread across their faces.
"No... this can't be..."
Beidao's voice trembled, his legs shaking.
In front of them, the bloodstains that had been splattered across the floor earlier... had completely vanished, without a single trace left!
It was as if... everything that had happened that morning was just their imagination!
"Look over there!"
At that moment, Yan Youping let out a sharp cry, pointing toward the room at the end of the hallway.
Everyone turned to look and saw a large pool of dark red blood slowly seeping out from under the door, spreading across the hallway...
The wind blew in through the open blinds at the end of the hallway, carrying with it the nauseating stench of blood!
"Holy crap..."
Liu Chengfeng managed to squeeze out two words, his hair standing on end.
The others didn't look much better.
Ning Qiu Shui stared at the blinds, his brow furrowed.
He clearly remembered closing and locking those blinds earlier when he went to check Wang Yuning's corpse.
No matter how strong the wind was outside, it couldn't have opened those blinds.
And the lock could only be opened from the inside.
After coming downstairs, Ning Qiu Shui had been keeping an eye on the old woman's room, and she hadn't come out, so it couldn't have been her who opened the blinds.
At the time, they had all been downstairs searching for Ya Mo, so none of them could have opened the blinds either.
If that was the case... then who had opened the blinds?
Could it have been... Wang Yuning, who was already dead?
The thought crossed Ning Qiu Shui's mind, sending a chill down his spine.
But unlike the others, who were frozen in fear, Ning Qiu Shui took a step forward, walking toward the door from which blood was still seeping.
Seeing Ning Qiu Shui's actions, the others opened their mouths but couldn't find the words to stop him...
What the hell...
Why was this guy, Ning Qiu Shui, so fearless?
Wasn't he afraid that something might be behind that door?
"Ning Qiu Shui, are you crazy?"
Beidao called out, but Ning Qiu Shui ignored him, continuing to walk toward the blinds at the end of the hallway.
Suddenly, someone else pushed through the crowd.
It was Liu Chengfeng.
He jogged to catch up with Ning Qiu Shui.
"Kid, wait for me..."
With Liu Chengfeng following Ning Qiu Shui, the other three finally managed to suppress their fear and gritted their teeth as they followed!
When they reached the end of the hallway, Ning Qiu Shui's first action was to close the blinds and lock them again.
After doing this, he slowly opened the door to the room at the end of the hallway, under the terrified gazes of the others.
As the door opened, Yan Youping immediately vomited!
"Ugh—"
The others were so frightened that they took a step back!
Inside the room, Ya Mo's blood-soaked body was hanging in the air, her stomach hollowed out, her internal organs missing, leaving only a bloody spine...
Ya Mo's neck appeared to have been snapped by some external force, twisted at a 90-degree angle, her face frozen in an eerie smile as she stared directly at the group...
No one dared to meet her gaze.
Except for Ning Qiu Shui.
He walked beneath Ya Mo's body, carefully observing it, his eyes growing sharper.
"Her cause of death is almost identical to Wang Yuning's. It was done by the same person."
"Was it the old woman on the second floor?"
Ning Qiu Shui glanced back at the old woman's room, recalling the three words she had said earlier, and his pupils suddenly contracted.
Could it be...
"Wait, have you noticed... Wang Yuning's body is gone!!"
Beidao suddenly pointed at the bed behind Ya Mo's body, screaming in terror.
Everyone looked.
It was true.
Wang Yuning's body, which had been lying on the bed earlier, had disappeared.
The bloodstains on the bed were also completely gone.
So... where had her body gone?
Bang!
Ning Qiu Shui suddenly closed the door, glanced at the blood on the floor, and said calmly:
"Let's go downstairs first."
Xue Guize stared at him:
"Downstairs?"
"What about... Ya Mo's body in there..."
Ning Qiu Shui shook his head, his voice calm:
"Don't worry about it. It will take care of it."
Hearing this, everyone's skin crawled.
As they followed Ning Qiu Shui downstairs, they asked:
"Kid, who are you talking about when you say 'it'?"
Ning Qiu Shui didn't turn around as he replied:
"The thing that's killing people."
"Is it... the old woman on the second floor?"
Ning Qiu Shui didn't answer.
Back in the villa's living room, everyone was eerily silent.
Fear... had completely engulfed them.
This continued until evening, when Liu Chengfeng finally couldn't stand the oppressive atmosphere anymore and stood up, saying gruffly:
"I'll go cook."
Ning Qiu Shui also stood up.
"I'll go with you."
"From now on... no one should act alone, no matter what you're doing."
After saying this, he didn't wait for a response and followed Liu Chengfeng into the kitchen.
As for Yan Youping, after learning that the thing in the villa had used the kitchen knives and forks to kill, she refused to set foot in the kitchen.
In the kitchen, Liu Chengfeng, seeing that no one else had come in, lowered his voice and asked:
"Kid, are you planning to go to the third floor tonight?"
Ning Qiu Shui, who was taking meat out of the fridge, paused for a moment, then smiled without turning around:
"Looks like you're not as dumb as you seem."
"Rough on the outside, sharp on the inside!"
Praise from Ning Qiu Shui made Liu Chengfeng scratch his head sheepishly.
"Kid... there's one thing I don't understand."
"Why can't we go to the third floor during the day? Why wait until night?"
"That place... must be dangerous, right?"
Whether it was the mistress's warning before she left or their own instincts, everyone knew... the third floor was extremely dangerous!
Moreover, the large iron door leading to the third floor was locked with a heavy padlock.
They didn't have the key.
Ning Qiu Shui, still rummaging through the fridge, said:
"It is dangerous... especially during the day."
Liu Chengfeng was stunned.
With Ning Qiu Shui's hint, he suddenly understood!
"Kid, are you saying... the thing that's killing people isn't the old woman on the second floor, but... something on the third floor!"
"During the day, it rests on the third floor, and at night, it comes out... to hunt?!"
Ning Qiu Shui nodded slightly.
"Exactly."
"The old woman is probably just a normal person, used as bait by the thing in the villa... to lure us in."
"And I have a very bad suspicion... but I'll need tonight to confirm it."