Blood Mark

  "Is this an apple core?" Lin thought he had read it wrong at first, but after walking over there, he was sure that it was indeed an apple, although the apple looked thin and small, and it didn't look appetizing at all.

  "It really is." Xu whispered, "Someone lives on this floor?"

  The floor they were on was the fourth floor, and at first glance, it was no different from the other floors. 

  But the apple core exposed its uniqueness.

  Nan immediately decided to knock on the door of every household to see if anyone lived here.

  So Lin knocked on the doors all the way, and when he knocked on a house near the window, he heard the sound of movement inside.

  It was also fortunate that the old building had poor sound insulation, if it was a new building, Lin would definitely have missed it.

  "It seems like someone is here." Lin stopped and said, "I heard a noise in the house."

  Hearing this, everyone gathered around, Yao raised her hand and knocked on the door: 

  "Is anyone inside?"

  There was silence inside, as if the sound Lin heard was just an illusion.

  "Is anyone inside?" Yao asked loudly, "We are new residents here, and we would like to ask you something-" 

  she knocked for a long time, but no one answered, "Yu Lin, are you sure you heard correctly?"

  "I don't know." Lin said, "This is the last household. Could the sound be coming from outside the window?"

  There was nothing blocking the outside, only a dark fog.

  Nan studied the lock: "It's an old lock, it's easy to open."

  Lin was surprised: 

  "You have this skill?"

  Nan said: "Life forced me to."

  Lin: "…" 

  What has life done to you?

  After he finished speaking, he casually took out a hairpin from his hair and began to fiddle with the lock while squatting down. 

  But before he could get any results, the door creaked open, and a terrified face appeared behind the door: 

  "What are you doing?"

  Caught red-handed, Nan didn't panic at all. 

  He stood up and smiled sweetly, "Hello, sir, we just moved in and wanted to ask you something, is that okay?"

  It was a young man behind the door, his hair was messy, and his eyes were full of vigilance and fear at first, but after seeing Nan's deceptive face, he relaxed, "I don't know anything, you don't need to ask me. ."

  "Sir." Nan looked pitiful, "Can't you even help us with such a small favor?"

  The man hesitated for a moment:

  "What do you want to know?"

  Nan said: 

  "Why is there no one in this building?"

  The man whispered: 

  "Are you new here? Move out quickly, this building is cursed, and the people who live here don't live long..."

  Nan: 

  "What about the household on the top floor?"

  They don't know which point of this sentence touched the man, he suddenly became hysterical:

  "I told you to move out, there are ghosts here!! There are ghosts!!" 

  He gasped, trying to close the door, but The two men in the team stopped him.

  "What kind of ghost?" Nan continued to ask.

  "Don't you know?" the man said, "The family on the top floor are ghosts!!!"

  Everyone was a little surprised when they heard this, but the man took advantage of their daze and slammed the door shut.

  "What does he mean?" Yao said in surprise, "Could it be that the one who gave us the task this time is not human?"

  Nan shook his head without speaking.

  However, Lin suddenly noticed something: 

  "What did he sprinkle at his door...? Is it blood?"

  Everyone looked down and found that there seemed to be a layer of black stuff at the door of this man, like dried blood, sticking to the black ground stickyly, if you don't look carefully, you really can't see it.

  "It really is blood." After squatting down and observing carefully, Yao concluded, "But I don't know if it's human blood or some other kind of blood. It's been a while..."

  Lin: "This blood was sprinkled on purpose, right?"

  Yao: "How do you say that?"

  "If it wasn't sprinkled on purpose, it would have been cleaned up long ago. Look, there are no small advertisements next to it." Lin said his opinion, "The owner must love cleanliness."

  "That's right." Yao said, "Then what's the use of this blood? To ward off evil spirits?"

  Lin didn't speak, in fact, he immediately thought of the fairy tale on the note after seeing the blood-Philthea.

  Then they went downstairs and found that there was actually another resident on the first floor. 

  This resident was an elderly grandmother who had severe hearing problems. 

  They knocked on the door for a long time before the grandmother came to open it, and then a group of people communicated with each other like chickens talking to ducks for a long time, and finally everyone chose to give up.

  After all, the content of the conversation on both sides was similar to them asking "Grandma, do you know why there is no one in the building? ", and then the old grandma replied: "I have eaten."

  After so many conversations like this, everyone showed helplessness.

  There are a total of fourteen floors in this building, but there are only two households, one on the fourth floor and one on the first floor. 

  But they still gained something, that is, there were traces of blood sprayed outside the doors of these two families.

  "I think this is a hint for us." Yao whispered to everyone while eating lunch, "Should we try sprinkling some blood at the door?"

  "Where are you going to get the blood?" Nan asked suddenly.

  Yao: "Find any animal or something."

  Nan: "Then whose door do you want to sprinkle it on? Your door?"

  Faced with Nan's aggressiveness, Yao stopped talking. 

  Obviously, she didn't dare to sprinkle blood on her own door, after all, no one knew whether it was to ward off evil spirits or the trigger for death.

  "You don't have to be so fierce if you don't agree." Yao was a little unhappy, "Or do you have any good ideas?"

  Nan said in a neither salty nor bland tone, "No."

  Yao gritted her teeth angrily.

  Sitting there doing nothing made people feel extra at ease. 

  "Then what should we do now?" Yao asked.

  Nan said: "Wait."

  Yao said: "Wait for what?"

  Nan said: "Naturally, I am waiting for something to happen." She said, "Of course, if you are willing to try first to see if it works, I don't mind."

  Yao stopped talking and expressed her refusal with silence.

  Xu looked like she wanted to cry again, but in the end, she met Nan's gaze, held back her tears abruptly, and said weakly: 

  "Are the triplets really human? They look so scary. "

  "I don't know." Nan said, "I'm not sure yet."

  Just as they were discussing the triplets, the three girls appeared behind them like ghosts. 

  Lin was the first to see them, and seeing the three of them standing by the door hand in hand, he was startled: "When did you come?"

  The three girls didn't speak, Lin asked again, one of them spoke, but instead of answering Lin's question, she asked: "Do you know who I am?"

  "What?" Lin didn't react for a while.

  "Do you know who I am?" Another girl also said the same.

  The atmosphere fell silent for a moment, and everyone obviously felt something was wrong. 

  Yao smiled reluctantly and said, "Little sister, we are discussing matters, don't make trouble."

  "Don't you know who I am?" the last little girl said.

  "I know." Nan's voice broke the silence.

  He stood up, walked up to the little girls, squatted down, and pinched one of their cheeks: 

  "You are Yi."