Chapter 6

After Old Gao finished washing his face, he wiped it off and left.

Zhu Ming caught some water in her palm and sniffed it. It carried an indescribable, strange odor. At first glance, the water looked as clear as tap water, but upon closer inspection, one could find some indistinct impurities floating within it.

Zhu Ming shook her hands dry, opened the cabinets to take a look, and wandered around the kitchen. At first glance, nothing seemed special.

Passing through the living room, Zhu Ming’s gaze paused on the trash can. The area beneath the sofas and coffee table was covered by a reddish-brown rug, with one patch of particularly dark color.

Zhu Ming dabbed at it with a tissue, which absorbed a hint of light brown moisture—a slightly sticky consistency.

“The stairs on the right lead to a basement. Can’t open it. Needs a key,” Yun Zouchuan said, having moved on to check other places.

Unlike the various modern, luxurious holiday villas, this place felt cramped and somewhat old.

The second floor had seven rooms and a large, leisure terrace. Perhaps to screen off the terrace, the right-side corridor had a wall built directly up to the ceiling, blocking the terrace and Room 2007 from view. The villa’s structure was relatively symmetrical. The two rooms on the left and Room 2007 and the terrace on the right all angled toward the back, not forming a neat, square arrangement.

On the first floor, the four locked rooms were the Butler’s Room, the Storage Room, and two Guest Rooms. There was also a kitchen, living room, public bathroom, games room, and a small dining room.

The dining room, kitchen, and games room were open, empty, and clean. The two first-floor guest rooms were next to each other on the right. The Butler’s Room and Storage Room were next to each other on the left, each adjacent to the respective staircases.

There were nine guest rooms, matching the number of players. All the rooms that couldn’t be opened, aside from the basement, had four-digit room numbers. From left to right, the first floor was Rooms 1001-1004, and the second floor was Rooms 2001-2007. Outside the villa, there was a large swimming pool, a row of outdoor dining tables, and a barbecue grill.

Zhu Ming was very curious about the Butler’s Room and the Storage Room. She tried to peer inside from the windows, but the Butler’s Room and Storage Room had no windows at all—like coffins. As for the guest rooms, one had its curtains drawn, and the other had the same layout as the other guest rooms. It seemed this dungeon didn’t discriminate; everyone’s room was the same.

The last place she checked was the public bathroom. The floor was clean, the air holding a hint of dampness. The faucet was old, rusted, and couldn’t be tightened properly, so it constantly dripped water.

Drip, drip, drip… Listening to it for too long, a chill crept up from the heels.

The space here wasn’t large: only three stalls, plus a sink, a mop basin, and a large mirror mounted on the wall. The stall doors were open, allowing a clear view to the back—clean. Underneath the sink was empty, nothing there.

Perhaps due to poor lighting, she couldn’t shake the feeling that in the shadows where door cracks met wall corners, something unsettling was hidden.

The mop basin had a thin layer of accumulated water. It looked somewhat filthy.

Xiao Xue used chopsticks she’d taken from the kitchen to pry the drain plug out of the mop basin. The moment she pulled it out, the water pooled in the basin began draining away, accompanied by a wave of indescribable, foul stench. Along with the drain plug, she pulled up a clump of soggy, black long hair.

She untangled the strands, laid them on the floor, and poked at them. “It’s probably female hair.”

Zhu Ming stared at it for a moment, then suddenly frowned. “Crap, A-Zou. We’ve got a problem.”

Yun Zouchuan: “Really? I don’t believe it.”

Zhu Ming: “There isn’t even a single mop. How am I supposed to get someone to clean? What a hassle.”

Immensely exasperated, Yun Zouchuan glared at Zhu Ming’s back as she drifted away, muttering irritably. She mimed punching her twice in the air. A wicked capitalist, no matter where they go, never forgets to squeeze their diligent employees. Such is the self-cultivation of a boss.

“Sooner or later, I’ll hang you from a streetlamp…”

She had taken a general look around the entire first floor. For the moment, there were no other discoveries. Zhu Ming was about to investigate the electrical circuits when she heard the sound of a fierce argument coming from the villa’s backyard.

The backyard. Past the glass door was a wooden deck area with several dining tables, a barbecue grill, and beyond that, a long, rectangular swimming pool.

The ones arguing were Old Gao, who had seemed to have a decent temper, and the muscular Brother Teng. From the way Old Gao was soaking wet from head to toe, he looked like he’d just climbed out of the pool.

As for Xiao Song, he was sarcastically trying to mediate. “Stop fighting. That key looks really important. Retrieving it would benefit all of us. Can’t you just contribute a little to the group? I can’t swim, otherwise I’d definitely go down.”

Brother Teng had a vicious look on his face. “Whoever wants to go can go. I’m not doing it. How about letting your girlfriend go down and fish it out!”

It turned out Xiao Song had spotted an old-fashioned key at the bottom of the pool, matching the style of the lock hanging on the basement door. They’d tried to retrieve it with tools and failed. The tools here were too few, the key small and slippery, making it incredibly difficult to grab in the water. They needed someone to go in manually.

But honestly, no one wanted to go into that swimming pool.

The pool had water. It was clear enough to see the bottom, but the surface was covered in trash: beer bottles, drink bottles, snack wrappers, disposable chopsticks… all sorts of junk, disgusting to look at. Apart from that, there were even a few pieces of clothing tangled with the garbage, soaked in the water and forming large patches of dark, shadowy shapes.

The more one knew ghosts existed in this world, the more that filthy, murky underwater realm easily inspired terror.

Fortunately, the shadowy shapes were toward the back, and the key was near the front, in a less trash-filled area, making it look easier to retrieve.

The few people present hadn’t yet encountered a life-or-death crisis, so they couldn’t quite bring themselves to force the women to do this dirty work—especially with Zhu Ming, whose condition was unclear. But there were plenty of men here, and everyone wanted someone else to do it.

Old Man Xu and Xiao Cheng were checking if there were problems underground in the garden. One was old, the other young, both experienced dungeon veterans. Brother Teng didn’t dare provoke them, so he targeted Xiao Song and Old Gao.

Xiao Song said he couldn’t swim. Didn’t that leave only himself and Old Gao as candidates? Following the principle of “strike first to gain the advantage, strike later and suffer the consequences,” just as Xiao Song’s suggestion to ask the two to retrieve the key left his mouth, Brother Teng kicked Old Gao into the pool.

Old Gao was scared out of his mind. He scrambled frantically to climb back up, completely forgetting about the key. Although he hadn’t encountered any danger, this threat made his own ferocity show.

The two began arguing like this.

Old Gao was indignant. “No way! Why should I be the only one taking the risk! Are you a man or not? If we’re gonna go in, we go together!”

Brother Teng, relying on his size and strength, didn’t take this soft, overweight middle-aged man seriously at all. “Fish it out or don’t. The mission is everyone’s problem anyway.”

Brother Teng walked into the villa. As he passed Zhu Ming, he glanced at her. That strange woman was leaning against the doorframe, watching the spectacle with great relish, just missing a plate of sunflower seeds.

So damn weird. Wearing all black in the summer was one thing, but it was long sleeves and long pants too. The temperature here was especially odd; standing in the sun for just a moment left you drenched in sweat. How she tolerated it was a mystery.

By the poolside, Old Gao complained to Xiao Song: “People like him who grew up on the streets are just low-class!”

Xiao Song drawled lazily, “Yeah, I find him hard to get along with too. Ah, better to let things slide. Look, you fell in just now and were fine, and your clothes are already wet. Why not try one more time? You’re a grown man, surely you wouldn’t make a girl go into the water?”

Old Gao looked down at his clothes and hesitated a bit. “But what if there’s danger?”

Xiao Song goaded him, “What danger could there be in a lousy swimming pool? We haven’t run into a single ghost this whole time, which means ghosts don’t come out during broad daylight. How can you be so timid? If it really bothers you, we’ll tie a rope to you and pull you up if there’s danger.”

Old Gao felt a bit ashamed after being told this and complained, “Easy for you to say! You’re not the one going in.”

Still, after talking a bit more, Old Gao agreed to go into the water again. After all, he hadn’t encountered danger before. Maybe this place wasn’t as terrifying as he imagined.

Of course, Old Gao had one condition: just as Xiao Song said, they needed to tie something to him to prevent an accident.

Searching around the villa revealed that tool-like objects were extremely scarce. The tools Old Man Xu and Xiao Cheng were using to probe the soil were just long metal skewers taken from the barbecue grill. Xiao Song’s group of three went to find Old Man Xu and Xiao Cheng, intending to link their belts together to form a rope.

Zhu Ming had watched the excitement to her satisfaction and then unhurriedly stepped out of the shade under the awning. She walked a circle around the row of tables and the barbecue grill, silently counting, and picked up a metal skewer.

After finishing her circle, she strolled back to the villa’s back door. The metal skewers in the skewer holder next to the barbecue at the doorway were newer and sharper than the others, so Zhu Ming swapped hers out.

She crouched at the edge of the wooden deck. One step forward, down a stair, was the tiled ground. Because it hadn’t been cleaned in a long time, weeds grew thickly from the cracks between the tiles. Right in front of where Zhu Ming crouched was a small tuft. She jabbed the metal skewer back and forth at the seams where the tiles met the wooden deck, completely absorbed.

In the afternoon, the air grew increasingly stiflingly hot. The sunlight wasn’t as harsh as at noon, but it was still dazzlingly bright, shining on Zhu Ming and casting a small shadow on the deck.

“What are you doing?” Xiao Xue walked over and stood behind her, asking curiously.

Zhu Ming ignored her.

Yun Zouchuan came over and leaned close to Zhu Ming’s ear. “Boss!”

“Whoa—!” Zhu Ming jumped, instinctively jabbing her elbow backward. Yun Zouchuan dodged it expertly. Recovering, Zhu Ming clutched her skewer and glared at her crossly. “What? You scared me to death.”

Yun Zouchuan shrugged and said to Xiao Xue, “She’s hard of hearing. You need to be loud and clear for her to hear at your previous volume. Speak up next time.”

Xiao Xue: “…” Hard of hearing at such a young age? She found it a bit pitiful, but also a little funny.

Zhu Ming flared up in embarrassment. “Slandering your boss to her face! Crime upon crime! Your bonus for this month—gone!”

Yun Zouchuan was speechless. “Can’t you change your threat for once?” Of course, she couldn’t.

The commotion here attracted attention from over there. Miss Zhao and Xiao Song were busy using their painfully assembled “rope” to tie it to the belt loop of Old Gao’s pants, testing the knot’s strength. When Zhu Ming looked up, she happened to see Xiao Song peering inquisitively in her direction, seemingly curious about what she was doing.

Yun Zouchuan and Xiao Xue were also quite curious about that. Zhu Ming had nothing to hide. She raised the metal skewer. In the sunlight, the metal reflected a sharp, cold gleam, further highlighting the dark grime on the skewer’s tip and a frantically struggling ant conspicuous against it.

“Look, so many ants here!” Zhu Ming was quite enthusiastic, seemingly trying to skewer a whole line of them.

Xiao Xue hadn’t expected someone this old to be so childish. For a moment, she couldn’t figure out what this person’s deal was.

Zhu Ming said, “Looks like they’re about to go into the water. Let’s go watch the show… pfft, I mean, let’s go help.”

Given the lack of proper tools, with only that flimsy makeshift rope tied to Old Gao’s pants, there wasn’t much room to help out.

When they went over, Xiao Song and Miss Zhao were a bit nervous. “What do you want?” Xiao Song eyed the sharp metal skewer in Zhu Ming’s hand, highly suspicious that she still bore a grudge over them accusing her of being a ghost earlier.

Zhu Ming unhurriedly crouched down by the pool’s tiled edge and said, “Women’s business. Little boys like you shouldn’t pry.”

Xiao Song: “You—!”

Zhu Ming glanced at him lightly.

For some reason, even standing under the scorching sun, Xiao Song couldn’t suppress a shiver.

Zhu Ming’s attention had already shifted away from him, focusing instead on the water.

With a real task at hand, Xiao Song swallowed his anger and pushed the more pliable Old Gao: “Hurry up, get it done while it’s light out.”

Because of Old Gao’s big spectacle, everyone present except Brother Teng had gathered around. Old Gao didn’t expect any of them to go into the water with him, only hoping they could pull him out if something went wrong.

As it turned out, something did go wrong.

Old Gao, with his heart in his throat, went into the water, retrieved the key, and began swimming back. Just as he was about to leave the water, he suddenly felt something cold, slick, and slippery touch his neck.