Night fell, and everything grew deathly quiet.
“Since you like getting ahead so much, why don’t you go meet the King of Hell first!”
The ghostly chant ended, and a flash of cold light appeared. A small knife plunged into his chest.
A plea for life bubbled from his throat: “Urgh… save… save…”
“Save me… save me…”
The voice gradually faded into the night, only faint words drifting closer then farther away.
It felt like an insect had burrowed into her ear, its heavy shell scraping along the ear canal with each step, bringing stabbing pain. Her eardrum ruptured with a boom, exploding in her head with agony.
In the darkness, Lu Nan opened her eyes and met its gaze. A sinister, bloody stench assaulted her.
She turned back to see a massive abyssal maw about to swallow her whole, rotten teeth mixed with slime inching toward her body…
In the middle of the night, a shrill female scream echoed from downstairs. Lu Nan snapped her eyes open, and the woman’s cries continued, piercing the skies.
She glanced up casually at the clock on the wall. The fleeting image burned into her mind—11:58.
Lu Nan quickly pulled on her black cotton jacket.
That scream—if she wasn’t mistaken—meant someone had died…
She took the stairs two at a time. As Number One, Lu Nan’s room was right by the staircase. Out of habit, she rushed to the first-floor hall, with the others trailing behind her one by one.
The hall lights were dim, with only a small lamp on in the kitchen. Lu Nan flicked the main switch.
The moment the lights blazed on, even Lu Nan froze, holding her breath at the sight before her.
Under the harsh white light lay a male corpse. The number tag on his body was soaked in blood, unreadable, but Lu Nan recognized that purple shirt—it was Number Five’s.
Number Five was dead, and gruesomely so. His head was severed from his body, the corpse sprawled straight on the sofa.
His body was riddled with stab wounds, and the knife that killed him—a small curved knife—was plunged into his chest, staining the white sofa red.
His head sat on the table, a faint smile still on his face.
His eyes were half-closed, like a masked fox ready to strike at any moment.
In the dim light earlier, no one would have noticed anything off—just a man lying on the sofa with his head back, and something on the table mistaken for a lamp.
Lu Nan glanced at the floor, where two fried eggs and a bowl and chopsticks had fallen.
Number Seven must have gotten hungry in the middle of the night and come down to make a snack, only to stumble upon this horror.
The woman trembled all over, cowering terrified by the front door.
Lu Nan approached and soothed her. “Don’t be afraid. We’re here now.”
Her words acted like a sedative. The woman whipped around in panic, her gaze landing on the headless male corpse on the sofa. She grabbed Lu Nan’s hand in fear and hid behind her.
“I…” Number Seven’s voice shook. She couldn’t stand. Lu Nan supported her and helped her to a nearby chair. The others had arrived by then and helped steady her.
No wonder Number Seven was shaking—if you’d just made a midnight snack and set it on the table, only to look up and see a head grinning at you point-blank, then a stabbed corpse… it’d scar you for life.
The barrage exploded with furious curses—
[Holy crap, censor that on a late night!]
[Love it, keep it coming.]
[Number Seven channeling me—that creepy smile is unforgettable, what do I do…]
[WTF, point-blank kill!!]
[I’m eating a midnight snack downstairs, don’t do this.]
“What happened?”
It was Number Two who spoke. Tall and burly, he had just woken up groggy, rubbing his eyes and still half-asleep.
“A dead body…” Number Four clutched her fluffy vest, twirling her wavy hair as she looked at Number Two. “It’s Number Five?”
“What the hell?!”
At the mention of Number Five, Number Two’s drowsiness vanished. He focused and his sleepiness shattered at the horrific scene.
His eyes widened in disbelief. “Him! H-he!”
Number Six was clearly frightened too. Fear filled her sweet face as she sidled up to Lu Nan and crouched to her left. “Sis… I’m scared too…”
She clung like she’d found shelter. Lu Nan patted her hand reassuringly.
“How did he die?” Number Eight asked suspiciously. “Did he trigger some plot?”
“We don’t even know the script’s theme without the script. Would a plot trigger like this?”
Lu Nan suddenly paused. She scanned the people in front of her and asked—
“Where are Number Three and Number Nine?”
As her words landed, the door clicked, and the warm wooden door was pushed open from outside.
It was the missing pair, standing extremely close, whispering conspiratorially. They hadn’t noticed the group in the hall, lost in their own world.
Lu Nan even spotted Number Nine’s flushed face, and Number Three’s belt still crooked.
Combined with sneaking out in the dead of night…
No way, right? Couldn’t be…
Talk about “lust leads to death.” Outdoor hookups? Respect.
They shut the door and turned to see the gathered crowd.
“Why’s everyone sitting here…”
Before Number Two finished, Number Nine spotted the corpse and screamed, throwing himself into Number Three’s arms.
Lu Nan heard it clearly—a man’s voice. So… Number Nine was a cross-dressing dude.
“What were you two doing out there in the middle of the night?” Number Two asked, puzzled. He eyed their embrace, confused, then plucked some pale pink petals off them.
Number Eight’s expression turned subtle. He got what they’d been up to. Everyone did—except dense Number Two.
He gave Number Two a sympathetic glance.
Number Nine ignored the question, calming down to ask, “How did someone die?”
“We don’t know either. What were you two doing? How long were you gone?” Number Two wouldn’t drop it. “What time did you leave?”
“Was anyone in the hall when you went out?” Number Eight asked.
Number Three shook his head. “No one. We went… outside, um… around just after midnight. Don’t remember exactly.”
“Doing what?” Number Two pressed, annoyed by the hesitations. “Why the stuttering?”
“Wait, you…” Number Two pointed at Number Three’s pants, lowering his voice considerately. “Your belt’s crooked.”
Number Nine’s face turned beet red at that. Number Three brushed it off, saying he’d just used the bathroom sloppily. Number Two let it go.
Number Ten grabbed a white cloth from the kitchen to cover the corpse’s head but thought better of it and used a huge pot instead—having a head staring was sanity-draining enough.
“Look at this.” Number Ten held up some medicine and an envelope she’d found nearby.
Everyone had been distracted by the body and missed the items on the box.
Number Ten placed the medicine and envelope on the table. She unscrewed the jar and poured out pills for all to see.
“What’s this medicine?”
Number Seven spoke up at the familiar sight. “I know it. It’s for mental illness—my cousin takes it.”
So the medicine treated mental illness, meaning Number Five was mentally ill.
Or maybe he’d come down for his meds and gotten slaughtered.
“Let’s all read the letter together. I’ll open the envelope,” Number Ten said.
At that voice, Lu Nan’s heart skipped a beat. Her blood froze for an instant, then flowed again.
Like a movie heroine in slow motion, she looked up at the woman before her—a stranger’s face.
Even so, she understood. The body was just a vessel for the soul. The still waters of her mind began to churn.
She even felt grateful for coming on this trip.
“Sis, you okay?” Number Six noticed her odd expression and asked curiously.
That drew Number Seven’s gaze too. Her emotions had steadied; she was calmer than her earlier panic.
Lu Nan shook her head with a smile. “Nothing.”
No one noticed her brief daze. Everyone focused on the letter.
It was blank—no words, just a sheet of white paper.
An unknown wind had opened the windows, stirring the hall’s fireplace with faint crackles.
The breeze carried wilted flowers to their feet. The pale pink petals were bruised brown.
“Petals?” Number Two leaned in, picking up a fragile one. After inspecting it, he stood and eyed the pair.
“You two had petals on you too.”
Suspicion instantly turned to the ones who’d been out.
“I don’t buy that you two were just doing private business,” Number Eight said, breaking the silence with a stern face. “You could’ve done that in your rooms. Why go outside? Thrill-seeking? Doubtful.”
“Plus, two adults have the strength to kill a young man, and you come back right then with petals from the corpse. Too coincidental.”
Number Eight had a point. If they’d killed him, hooking up outside was a clever alibi to dodge suspicion.
