After the villa's mistress left, everyone returned to the hall. They briefly introduced themselves, then began discussing how to take care of the elderly woman.
Among them, Yan Youping—the short, thin girl with pigtails—timidly raised her hand. "Um... by the way, how did all of you end up on that bus? I was on a high-speed train, got sleepy from playing on my phone, so I... took a nap. When I woke up, I was on the bus."
"Me too. I was working overtime at the company, then suddenly felt so tired."
Everyone chimed in, and to their shock, they all realized they had ended up on the bus in exactly the same way. This eerie coincidence made their already anxious hearts even more terrified!
"Damn it... this is so cursed..." Liu Chengfeng, the bearded man, cursed under his breath.
Yan Youping fell silent for a moment, then spoke again softly: "Do you think... maybe this is some kind of reality show, and the crew invited us this way? After all, I've seen on TV before that."
Before she could finish, Liu Chengfeng cut her off with a cold laugh: "Did you forget about that fat guy so quickly? Do TV shows kill people and skin them alive?"
Yan Youping's heart jolted, but she stared back defiantly: "What if... what if that was just a prop?"
"Was the blood also a prop?"
"Who knows? Maybe it was chicken or dog blood."
Yan Youping tried to deceive herself, but Ning Qiushui's sudden words shattered the last line of defense in her heart: "It wasn't animal blood."
Everyone turned to Ning Qiushui. He seemed to have accepted everything, appearing unusually calm.
"I used to be a veterinarian, so I'm especially sensitive to scents. The smell of blood from cats, dogs, pigs, sheep, cattle, chickens, ducks, fish, geese, and pigeons is clearly different from human blood. For example, sheep's blood is very muttony, while human blood has a distinct metallic smell..."
"I can tell you for sure—the blood on that traffic light was 100% human blood. And it was... the freshest kind!"
After Ning Qiushui finished speaking, Yan Youping trembled with fear, hugged her knees, and whimpered softly: "Stop talking... Please... stop talking..."
Seeing her state, Ning Qiushui softened his tone slightly. He didn't blame the girl for being frightened. A normal person in real life, if they had seen that scene, would likely be haunted by it as a psychological shadow for a long time. Only those who dealt with corpses regularly could handle it relatively better. After all... that scene was far too gory!
"Let's first figure out how to get through these 5 days." said a man with an ordinary appearance, about 170cm tall, with a gloomy look in his eyes. His name was Xue Guize. "There are 7 of us, and our task is to take care of the elderly woman in bed for 5 days. How do you plan to divide the work?"
The group exchanged glances. Seeing no one spoke, Ning Qiushui said: "How about this— the three women take charge of cooking and doing laundry, and us four men take care of the elderly woman."
As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Yuning—the beautiful woman with gold earrings—spoke in a sarcastic tone: "Oh, so women are just supposed to wash clothes and cook for you smelly men? You really know how to slack off. You heard the mistress say that old thing can't even move in bed, so you volunteered to take care of her... Do you think we're stupid? You say you'll take care of her, but you're probably just gonna laze around and do nothing, right?"
Liu Chengfeng couldn't hold back when he heard Wang Yuning's words. He tilted his chin and said slowly: "What a terrible stench... Such a pretty girl, but your mouth reeks like dung."
Wang Yuning's face darkened too: "Who the hell are you calling that?"
Before Liu Chengfeng could say more, Ning Qiushui cut him off. "If you don't want to wash clothes or cook, I can swap with you. You take care of the elderly woman—from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. After 10 p.m., it'll probably be dark, and we'll just wash up and rest."
Wang Yuning glanced at Ning Qiushui and snorted. "Then... thanks." Though she said that, her tone was full of mockery, with no hint of gratitude.
"Oh, right... It's already past 5 o'clock, and I'm hungry. Didn't you say you'd cook? Go on then."
Ning Qiushui gave Wang Yuning a deep look, said nothing more, and turned to the other two women: "Do you want to swap?"
Ya Mo, the girl who had been silent all this time, raised her hand. "I... I'm sorry, I really don't know how to cook."
Compared to Wang Yuning's annoying attitude, Ya Mo was much more sincere. In this society, there were many spoiled children—men and women who couldn't cook were common, so this wasn't surprising.
"Any guys here who can cook?"
The remaining three men fell silent for a moment. Liu Chengfeng said impatiently: "Ugh, fine, fine! I'll go cook and do laundry with you! What a bunch of useless people—can't even cook or wash clothes!"
Wang Yuning said coldly: "You rude oaf, watch your mouth!"
Liu Chengfeng glared at her and pointed a finger: "If I didn't hold back from hitting women, you'd be in trouble today!"
Wang Yuning sneered, then clicked her high heels and went upstairs.
The kitchen was on the first floor, and the elderly woman was on the second. The villa was large, so everyone split up to do their own tasks. Liu Chengfeng grumbled under his breath as he followed Ning Qiushui to the kitchen. Yan Youping, the girl who was still sniffling, went with them too.
"Alright, stop complaining so much," Ning Qiushui said, finally annoyed by the noise, and cut Liu Chengfeng off once they entered the kitchen.
"What? You can just let her get away with that?" Liu Chengfeng stared.
Ning Qiushui opened the refrigerator and started taking out ingredients. "Do you really think taking care of that elderly woman... is an easy job?"
Hearing this, Liu Chengfeng's breath hitched. "Buddy, what do you mean by that?"
Ning Qiushui slowly turned around to look at Liu Chengfeng and Yan Youping beside him.
"Remember what that man in the suit at the black villa told us? He said he'd answer our questions only after we survive and come back from the Blood Door. That means the world behind the Blood Door... holds unimaginable danger!"
After he spoke, Yan Youping's thin body trembled again!
She stammered: "W-what kind of danger?"
Ning Qiushui shook his head. "We don't know yet... but since the task on the Blood Door is to take care of the elderly woman, the danger is probably related to her. In short... be extra careful."
After hearing Ning Qiushui's warning, Liu Chengfeng's eyes darted around. He secretly counted on his fingers, and the gloomy look on his face disappeared completely. He grinned and said: "Buddy, I think you're right. I'll stick with you."
Ning Qiushui gave Liu Chengfeng a slightly surprised look, shook his head, and said nothing more. He first took out the vegetables from the refrigerator, then looked at the freezer. As the villa's mistress had said, there was a lot of meat inside—cut into pieces and packed into different bags.
Ning Qiushui took out a bag labeled "Beef Tenderloin," threw it into a pot, and turned on a low heat to thaw it. When he was closing the refrigerator, something caught his eye from the corner of his vision. He pulled out a piece of rock-hard frozen meat from the depths of the fridge. Inside the meat bag, there were many unknown black substances. But the crushed ice covered most of them, and the meat bags were all vacuum-sealed—making it impossible to see clearly what those black substances were.
There was no label on this bag indicating what kind of meat it was; presumably, the mistress had forgotten to put one on. Ning Qiushui stared at the meat for a moment, but then Liu Chengfeng—this rough, bearded man—sidled up again. "Why is this meat black?" he asked curiously.
Ning Qiushui shook his head and stuffed the meat back into the refrigerator. "I don't know. Maybe it's been frozen for too long and gone bad."
The three of them busied themselves in the kitchen. To Ning Qiushui's surprise, Liu Chengfeng—who looked like a rough old hoodlum—was actually a great cook! His movements of washing, chopping, and stir-frying vegetables showed he was an experienced hand.
"Dinner's ready!" Liu Chengfeng carried the cooked meat and vegetables to the table, then shouted upstairs. Without waiting for the others to come down, he picked up a bowl of steaming rice and started eating greedily.
Yan Youping looked at Liu Chengfeng's ravenous appearance and couldn't help but ask: "Shouldn't we wait for them?"
Liu Chengfeng snapped: "Wait for what? Eat!" With that, he stuffed more food into his mouth.
Tap, tap, tap— Four sets of footsteps came from upstairs. Before Wang Yuning even reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw Liu Chengfeng wolfing down his food and couldn't help but sneer: "Look at you eating like a starving ghost..."
Normally, Liu Chengfeng would have shot back fiercely. But he seemed extremely focused on eating, completely ignoring Wang Yuning's taunt as if it were just wind in his ears. Wang Yuning took this as a sign that he had backed down, so she sat down and started eating too.
No one spoke during the meal. No one knew what to say. They just felt the room growing darker and darker; by the end, they could barely see the beef in their bowls. It wasn't until Ning Qiushui stood up and turned on the lights that they finally realized... it was dark outside.
"Fuck! Why did it get dark so fast? It's not even 7 o'clock yet!" Beidao—the man who had spoken—yelled in surprise. His jumpy reaction made everyone feel uncomfortable.
"What are you yelling about?" Xue Guize, who already had a grim expression, frowned deeply. "Didn't the villa's mistress say the rainy season is coming soon? It's normal for it to get dark early... Stop overreacting."
He snapped at Beidao, his tone a little too sharp. But everyone knew why—they just didn't say anything. The atmosphere in the villa... was far too oppressive.
"Hey, is this how you take care of the elderly woman?" Liu Chengfeng put down his bowl and chopsticks after eating his fill. He picked his teeth and spoke to Wang Yuning, who was sitting across from him, in a sarcastic tone. "You're all full, but you're leaving that paralyzed old woman upstairs to starve. Is that right? Surely no one actually thinks taking care of her means doing nothing, right?"
Wang Yuning clenched her fists, her gaze turning even colder. "Hmph, do you think everyone's a rude glutton like you? You're as disgusting as a maggot, man."
She kicked her high heels in disgust, fetched a bowl of rice, randomly scooped up some leftover dishes from everyone, then clicked her heels and went upstairs.
The group watched her figure disappear into the dark corridor. For some reason, their hearts all started beating faster for no reason.
"Were all of you on the second floor just now?" Ning Qiushui put down his bowl and chopsticks too, then asked the three people in charge of taking care of the paralyzed elderly woman.
Xue Guize grunted in response. "We checked the entire second floor. Besides that paralyzed old woman, there's no one else there. Our rooms are all across from hers, along the same corridor."
Ning Qiushui asked: "Did you notice anything unusual?"
Xue Guize shook his head, hesitated for a moment, then replied: "There's a... strange smell in our rooms. I can't say exactly what it is, but it's not nice."
"All seven rooms have it?"
"Yeah, all of them."
At this point, Ya Mo—the girl beside them—added softly: "There's another weird thing... All the rooms the mistress prepared for us have private bathrooms."
Beidao scoffed: "What's so weird about that? She's rich and doesn't want to walk around just to use the toilet..."
Ning Qiushui frowned. "No... it is weird. This villa only has the mistress's family living here. Even if her husband were home, that's only four people. Why prepare so many bedrooms and bathrooms?"
"What... what's so weird about that? Maybe they're just very hospitable?" Beidao's tone sounded a little flustered. "They often invite friends over for parties—isn't that what rich people like to do?"
No one responded to his words. The group fell into another eerie silence.
Until...
A shrill scream from the second floor cut through the terrifying quiet—
"Ah!!!"