Disappear

"This isn't a vacation."

Fatty turned pale as a thought struck him. "So you're saying the Warm Sister just now...was a ghost?"

"I'm afraid so," Jiang Cheng nodded.

"Then doesn't that mean the real Warm Sister and that girl Chen Xiaomeng in the room..." 

"Alright," Jiang Cheng interrupted. After a few seconds, he said, "Let's go to the living room."

To avoid arousing unnecessary suspicion, Jiang Cheng didn't deliberately lighten his footsteps when descending the stairs. But when he and Fatty reached the bottom, only the vigorously burning logs in the fireplace remained. 

Fan Li, who should have been by the fireplace, was nowhere to be seen.

Fatty was a little scared. "Could something have happened to him too?"

Jiang Cheng's gaze swept around. "Come out, we're human, not ghosts."

As soon as he finished speaking, a figure as strong as a bear stood up from behind the sofa. Fan Li stared at them warily, a sharp knife reflecting cold light in his hand.

"Why did you come down?" He quickly glanced at the stairs, then focused on Jiang Cheng's face. "Where are the other two?"

"Something happened to them."

Fan Li eyed them suspiciously. Based on previous deductions, the women should have been safe in this mission. How could this happen?

Fatty quickly recounted their recent encounter to Fan Li. 

Fan Li's expression changed slightly. He sighed, "From what you've said, I'm afraid their chances of survival are slim."

Slim? Fatty thought. Let's just hope they don't die as gruesomely as Xie Yu.

Now that the ghost had appeared tonight, Jiang Cheng and the others were relatively safer. But after what just happened, even Fatty was no longer sleepy.

"Still, get some rest," Jiang Cheng said. "I won't sleep. I'll wake you up in two hours."

Perhaps used to such situations, Fan Li lay down, not on the sofa but in front of the fireplace. No one knew if he was really asleep. That sharp kitchen knife was hidden away, likely concealed somewhere on his person.

Lulled by the warm fire, Fatty's willpower began to waver. It had been a long time since he'd had a good, complete night's sleep. Only a shred of consciousness still persisted. 

Sitting on the sofa, his vision gradually blurred.

When he opened his eyes again, it was already dawn. Jiang Cheng and Fan Li were huddled together, quietly discussing something. Jiang Cheng's complexion seemed normal, but Fan Li appeared agitated from time to time.

As Fatty stirred, the sofa emitted a slight squeak under the pressure.

Jiang Cheng turned his head. "Awake?" 

"Yeah," Fatty said sheepishly, rubbing his face. "It's light out. Shouldn't we go upstairs and check?"

"No rush. Wait until it's fully bright."

So they waited about another half hour. During this time, the three ate some bread to barely fill their stomachs. 

When it was completely light, Jiang Cheng stood up. "About time." The three grabbed their makeshift weapons and began ascending the stairs.

Fan Li still clutched last night's sharp knife. Jiang Cheng now held a rolling pin. Seeing nothing useful in the kitchen, Fatty took a cutting board, holding it against his chest as a shield.

They slowly approached the second-floor corridor, inching towards the main bedroom. 

By now, they were certain something had happened to Warm Sister and the others.

The bedroom door was open a third of the way. No sound came from inside.

Jiang Cheng reached out and pushed the door wide open. 

Fatty immediately raised the cutting board.

They had been prepared to see two corpses, or even a ghost lunging at them. But when the door opened, there was nothing inside.

No bodies, no ghost, no blood. 

Not even signs of a struggle.

The room's bedding was neatly folded, items on the tables and chairs orderly. A silk nightgown draped over the sofa as if the lady of the house had just stepped out.

"Where are they?" Fatty asked, wide-eyed.

Jiang Cheng checked under the bed while Fan Li grimly searched the wardrobe, then the bathroom, behind the sofa... Finally, they even scoured the nearby rooms, including where Xie Yu's body had been found.

Nothing. 

The two living, breathing women - Warm Sister and Chen Xiaomeng - had vanished into thin air. 

After some thought, Jiang Cheng suddenly asked Fan Li, "Is it possible they didn't die and successfully escaped from here?"

"You mean they completed the mission?" Fan Li's expression was dark and uncertain, but after a moment, he replied, "The possibility is small, but it can't be ruled out."

Fatty interjected, "In that case, how do you explain the ghost we encountered last night?"

Jiang Cheng knew what Fatty meant. Since the ghost had taken Warm Sister's form and appeared in the main bedroom where she and Chen Xiaomeng were, they must have already had an encounter. 

Before meeting the ghost, Jiang Cheng had been on the second floor. He hadn't heard anyone moving in the corridor, meaning the two women hadn't left the room.

The villa's windows couldn't be opened either, so escaping through a window was impossible. 

Thus, either Warm Sister and Chen Xiaomeng had been killed by the ghost and their bodies hidden, or they had finished the mission and left the dream world, returning to reality before the ghost appeared.

Regarding the method of leaving the mission, Fan Li shared his experience. He said that generally, after gathering all the clues, a black iron door would appear. 

Passing through that door allowed one to return to the real world.

But he also emphasized that the black iron door could appear anywhere, though usually not too remote. Most were connected to important clues in the mission. 

"Like the iron door we opened to enter the dream?" Jiang Cheng asked.

Fan Li nodded. "Yes, you can think of it as a passageway linking the dream world and reality."

Back in the first-floor living room, Jiang Cheng sat on the thick carpet, with Fan Li and Fatty sitting across from him. 

The situation they faced was a bit complicated.

"Alright," Jiang Cheng looked up. "Let's assume Warm Sister and the others found a way to leave. How might they have done it?"

Fatty mumbled, "But why do I feel like the ghost killed them?"

Jiang Cheng stared at him coldly. "That question is pointless. If you insist they were killed by the ghost, then let's just wait to die."

Startled by Jiang Cheng's attitude, Fatty didn't dare speak further.

Fan Li immediately nodded in agreement. "You're right. Warm Sister and the others must have found an escape method!"

"So...it's our turn now." Jiang Cheng patted his pant legs and stood up.