The group stared in stunned silence.What was happening?Why would the old woman reject beef congee but accept plain rice porridge?
After feeding her, Ning Qiushui handed the empty bowl to Liu Chengfeng and exited the room."What's going on?" Liu Chengfeng whispered.Ning Qiushui shook his head. "Too complicated. Later… Where's Ya Mo?"
The group froze. The terrified Ya Mo, who had fled downstairs earlier, had vanished."Ya Mo!" Liu Chengfeng bellowed.Only eerie silence answered.
Searching the villa, they found nothing until Ning Qiushui stood at the open front door, rain pelting outside. "Stop looking. She ran."
Liu Chengfeng shuddered. Everyone recalled the skinned fat man from the bus. Leaving the villa meant death.
As Ning Qiushui turned back, his gaze fell on the shoe cabinet. He crouched, rifling through it."What're you looking for?""No men's shoes," Ning Qiushui muttered. "The mistress mentioned her husband works away… but there's no trace of him here."
Liu Chengfeng paled. "You mean…""Two possibilities: He moved out… or never existed.""But her daughter—""Who said that child was her daughter?" Ning Qiushui's icy question hung in the air.
A chill swept through the group. No one could confirm the girl's identity—they'd blindly assumed.
Closing the door against the rain's watchful malice, they regrouped in the hall. Five survivors now.
"What did the old woman really say earlier?" Xue Guize pressed, his mortician's composure fraying."She said, 'The meat isn't cooked.'""Bullshit!" Liu Chengfeng slammed a fist. "I cooked it perfectly!"
Ning Qiushui raised a hand. "We misheard. Her slurred speech… What if it wasn't '肉没熟' (meat uncooked)?"
Bei Dao sneered. "Who cares what that monster says? She butchered Wang Yuning!""Maybe she ate the missing flesh…" His whisper made Yan Youping clutch Liu Chengfeng's arm.
"Enough!" Xue Guize snapped. "We're all trying to survive here!"
All eyes turned to Ning Qiushui, the group's anchor. "I have a theory," he said. "Tonight, I need someone brave to test it."
Silence fell. Night meant facing whatever slaughtered Wang Yuning.
Liu Chengfeng swallowed hard. "Why… why at night?""Necessary."Against his screaming instincts, Liu Chengfeng croaked: "I'll go."
As the words left his mouth, a bloodcurdling shriek tore from upstairs:"NO! PLEASE!! I KNOW—AAAAHHH!!!"
The voice froze their blood—It was Ya Mo.