Under the bed
Jiang Cheng felt Xie Yu didn't deserve the bed but still let him have it. Even Jiang Cheng himself wasn't granted that privilege the previous night in the master bedroom's double bed.
"You don't want to?" Jiang Cheng asked.
"No, no," Xie Yu replied, pleasantly surprised. "Thank you, handsome."
"Bro, where do I sleep then?" Fatty asked Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng was displeased that Fatty didn't call him "Hao Shuai" or "handsome" but still said, "You take the sofa. I'll sleep on the floor."
Fatty stood by the bed, resentfully staring at Xie Yu lying straight as a board.
Then he turned to Jiang Cheng. "I think I can sleep on the bed."
Jiang Cheng laid a blanket on the floor, lying down and wriggling. "No, you can't."
Keeping watch fell to Fatty and Jiang Cheng since none of them trusted the one in bed.
Jiang Cheng took Xie Yu's watch.
He and Fatty agreed that Fatty would watch the first three hours, then he'd take over.
"What do I need to do?" Xie Yu asked, wrapped in the blanket with only his head exposed.
"Sleep," Jiang Cheng replied.
Discouraged, Xie Yu retreated under the covers, head and all, curled up like a cocoon.
Although the villa had power, the voltage fluctuated at night. The incandescent bulb overhead flickered incessantly, occasionally buzzing.
This setting, with such lighting and sound effects, felt exactly like a horror movie.
Left with no choice, Jiang Cheng turned off the light.
The moonlight filtering through the window barely illuminated the room.
Fatty leaned against the sofa. Initially fine, his eyelids gradually grew heavy. Despite knowing the danger, he strangely couldn't control himself. Eventually, his head lolled and he fell fast asleep.
He slept deeply but likely not for long. At least the room was still pitch-black when he groggily woke.
He rubbed his eyes, seized by belated fear.
Someone lay on the floor by the bed - Jiang Cheng. Xie Yu was curled up like a cocoon on the bed.
Everything seemed normal for now.
Though sleepy, Fatty didn't dare doze off again. Worse, he suddenly needed to pee urgently.
The bedroom had a small en-suite bathroom about 5 meters from Fatty, enclosed by translucent glass.
But ever since the middle-aged man inexplicably died in a bathroom, Fatty developed a psychological and even physical aversion to bathrooms. He was unwilling to go, even resisting getting close.
He suddenly remembered Jiang Cheng's previous solution.
The water bottle!
But despair quickly set in.
Before bed, Jiang Cheng had tossed the bottle into the trash can, and the trash can...
Fatty swallowed. The trash can stood right in front of the bathroom door.
Fatty had no choice but to inch towards the bathroom, each step feeling like testing the edges of danger.
He finally neared the trash can and swiftly, successfully retrieved the empty water bottle.
But before he could rejoice, he noticed something odd in his peripheral vision. Mechanically, he turned his head and saw an arm clearly protruding from behind the bathroom's glass door.
...
In the master bedroom on the second floor.
Fan Li abruptly sat up from the sofa and strode to the door, pressing his ear against it.
"What is it?" Warm Sister and Chen Xiaomeng also sat up. To handle potential danger at any moment, they hadn't even undressed and slept lightly.
Fan Li raised a finger to his lips, signaling for silence.
Warm Sister and Chen Xiaomeng immediately closed their mouths. The air seemed to freeze.
About a minute later, they heard a faint creaking sound.
As if a door had suddenly opened.
A few seconds later, slow, plodding footsteps came from the corridor outside.
Thud, thud.
Each step sounded like wading through water.
Strange scraping noises also accompanied it, as if someone was dragging a heavy object across the corridor floor.
The footsteps gradually receded in one direction and finally vanished.
Fan Li and the other two had faces cold enough to drip water. The direction the sounds disappeared in was the end of the corridor, where there was nothing but a locked room.
Something happened...
Something definitely happened!
Who was it this time?
The cook Fatty, the timid clerk Xie Yu, or... that strange Hao Shuai?
In the other room, inside the cramped bathroom.
Fatty stared with terrified eyes, his entire body shaking uncontrollably.
He made no sound at all.
A hand tightly covered his mouth.
Jiang Cheng crouched beside Fatty, very close. The hand covering Fatty's mouth was his.
Their gazes were fixed on the door.
The bedroom door stood open. Moonlight spilled in through the window.
The bed was empty, even the blanket was gone. Remembering what he just saw, Fatty's teeth chattered in fear.
The figure lying on the floor by the bed wobbled to its feet. Its movements were eerie, posture twisted, and shape abnormally bloated. It was clearly not Jiang Cheng.
Of course not.
Because Jiang Cheng was hiding behind the bathroom door. He had yanked Fatty in with one hand while covering his mouth with the other.
The two crouched on the floor, not daring to breathe, staring out through the translucent glass.
The bloated figure climbed in through a corner of exposed blanket. Xie Yu inside, whether asleep or not, didn't react at all despite the figure's large movements compressing the bed with strained creaking.
Until the blanket quivered slightly and the room abruptly fell silent.
Jiang Cheng and Fatty didn't dare move.
Until the figure crawled out from under the covers and slowly stepped towards the door. The sound of water constantly arose, especially clear in the silent night.
In the faint moonlight, Jiang Cheng noticed the figure dragging a blanket behind it, and inside the blanket...
He turned to look at the bed. It was empty.
Fatty was terrified. His huge body shook uncontrollably. Jiang Cheng couldn't restrain him at all and could only fiercely pinch him with his fingertips.
Fatty's face flushed red but he stopped shaking.
After the sound of water and dragging disappeared down the hall, Jiang Cheng and Fatty still didn't move.
They maintained that posture for who knows how long until the sound of the door opening rang out.
Fan Li appeared first, Warm Sister and Chen Xiaomeng following behind him. The three stuck close to the wall, carefully walking in.
Only then did Jiang Cheng release Fatty. The two exited the bathroom.
Fatty's lips trembled. Jiang Cheng had to recount what just happened.
He had been asleep but was suddenly awakened by an icy chill. Blearily, he abruptly noticed a pitch-black shadow under Xie Yu's bed.
The shadow was on all fours, joints abnormally twisted, slowly crawling out.