Chapter 13 : Chapter 13
Chapter 13: The Bleeding Wall
With the putty scraped at such intervals, the beam of the flashlight clearly revealed that the putty varied in thickness. One patch was thick while another was thin, as if it had been smeared on carelessly. The spot Zhao Mingyue had scraped happened to be near the base of the wall, right where the putty layer was thicker.
Beneath the frighteningly pale putty was the black surface of the wall. Zhao Mingyue recognized it at a glance—these were traces left by burning.
The strange part lay here. She used her fingers to scrape off a bit of the black charcoal dust. When she gently rubbed the coarse, soil-like black ash between her fingers, it revealed a dark red tint.
She brought her fingers close to her nose and sniffed lightly. A sharp smell carrying a hint of rot drifted up. It resembled the odor that comes when a refrigerator loses power in summer and the frozen blood inside spoils in the heat, mixed with a faint earthy smell and the scent of disinfectant.
“What exactly is this…?”
In her mind, Zhao Mingyue frantically called Bai Yu’s name. She desperately wanted to know what was on her fingers—was it blood, or something else? And if it was blood, was it human blood?
“Don’t ask. It’s blood. Human blood,” Bai Yu replied quickly.
“Hu… human blood?” Zhao Mingyue’s pupils shrank. Saying she was not afraid would be a lie. No matter how strong her mental fortitude was, this was still her first mission.
“I… I… what should I do? Should I call the police?”
Hearing that there was human blood inside the wall, Zhao Mingyue’s first instinct was to report it.
“Don’t panic. Stay calm and listen to me. Walk forward a few steps. Every step you take, cut another mark into the wall.”
“Okay!”
Fear was fear, but Zhao Mingyue still gripped the magic staff tightly with both hands. Half crouching, she carved another mark into the wall each time she moved forward. After six steps, Bai Yu finally told her to stop.
“It’s all blood?” Zhao Mingyue swallowed unconsciously. By the light of the flashlight she could clearly see every scratch she had made. They were exactly the same as the first one—black burn marks with dark red blood showing through.
“This blood has been here for a very long time. In other words, the corpse that produced this blood has also been dead for a long time. And inside here, it’s not just blood. There are other things mixed in as well.”
Bai Yu’s voice echoed in Zhao Mingyue’s mind. The content of her words made Zhao Mingyue’s scalp crawl.
“If I’m not mistaken, there must be a room in this building where a corpse is soaking. Most likely it belongs to someone who died in the fire. The greatest possibility is the woman who used to live on the fifth floor.”
“A c-corpse’s blood? Th-then how could that blood appear inside the wall?”
“Blood does not appear here out of thin air. I can also tell you this—these bloodstains were definitely not caused by that female ghost. Someone did this deliberately.”
Zhao Mingyue was stunned.
“You mean a living person deliberately smeared this blood on the wall?”
“Yes.”
“B-but… why?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Then the disinfectant… could it be used to cover up the smell?” Zhao Mingyue suddenly grasped the key point. “But why only the fourth and fifth floors? I never saw it on the first through third floors.”
“I don’t know. But you’ll find out tonight. Continue.”
The game had not even officially started yet. This was still the preparation phase, yet Zhao Mingyue had already been struck with a heavy blow. She had originally been walking close to the wall, but after hearing Bai Yu’s explanation she immediately jumped away. Now she did not dare to walk next to the wall anymore.
Gritting her teeth, she reached Room 405. No one lived there. Only when she reached the end—Room 408—did she finally see signs of someone living inside.
She knocked on the door. In the silent darkness of the corridor, the knocking sounded especially loud.
When no one answered, Zhao Mingyue mustered her courage and knocked again. At that moment, the inner apartment door behind the iron grille suddenly opened. A worn face with deeply sunken eyes appeared abruptly. It was a middle-aged man.
The man immediately reached out, trying to grab Zhao Mingyue’s wrist. Fortunately she reacted quickly and dodged.
“What do you want? Speak quickly,” the man said impatiently.
“N-no… nothing. I live here too. I just wanted to ask if you know when the power might come back,” Zhao Mingyue said, taking a subtle step backward while gripping the handle of her magic staff behind her back.
The man had already been standing behind the door when she knocked the first time. The second time she knocked, he had been watching her through the peephole. The moment she knocked again, he suddenly opened the door and tried to grab her wrist.
“Do you need something? You can come inside and talk. I can lend you a candle or a flashlight,” the man said. His attitude suddenly changed completely. He forced a smile, but the sight of that smile terrified Zhao Mingyue even more.
Behind him, the room was a complete mess. Empty beer bottles, takeaway boxes, and moldy instant noodle containers covered with long strands of hair were scattered everywhere. The cramped rented room barely had space to step.
“N-no, that’s okay. I have candles at home.”
Just as Zhao Mingyue was about to leave, the man slammed the door shut with a bang. But when Zhao Mingyue’s footsteps faded away, the door opened again slightly. A pair of eyes peered through the crack, secretly watching her retreating figure.
After confirming the situation on the fourth floor, Zhao Mingyue returned to the stairwell.
Nothing else had been discovered on the fourth floor. As for the fifth floor… she had never gone there even once.
A chill rose in her heart. Judging from the mission’s subtask, things would definitely not be that simple. Perhaps the truly terrifying things were all on the fifth floor.
“Right now there’s only one resident on the fourth floor, and he’s not easy to deal with. But will anyone live on the fifth floor?”
The staircase leading upward seemed completely swallowed by darkness. Somewhere within that darkness, perhaps a pair of eyes was secretly watching her.
Just as Zhao Mingyue stepped onto the stairs, footsteps suddenly sounded from downstairs.
She recognized the footsteps immediately. They sounded like someone walking in water-filled rain boots, each step producing a faint sloshing sound.
Wasn’t that the tenant who had just arrived?
Zhao Mingyue stepped back.
Soon, knocking echoed through the corridor. The man was knocking on doors one by one.
Now there were two choices.
One option was to return to her room immediately and wait while the man knocked on every door floor by floor. But that would be a waste of time. It was already eleven thirty-five.
When opening or closing her door, she might run into this strange man.
The other option was to go up to the fifth floor right now. If the man followed her, she could circle around to avoid him. If he did not follow, even better.
The knocking downstairs was extremely loud and impatient, as if the man truly had something urgent to deal with.
But something strange stood out. Despite knocking so urgently, he did not say a single word the entire time.
Another suspicious detail was that he had already knocked on three doors, yet not a single resident had opened their door to check.
“I can’t wait any longer. The game is about to start. Before midnight, I need to reach the thirteenth step on the fifth floor.”