Chapter 4

Chapter 4

After a peaceful night, I slept wonderfully.

When I got up early and put on my hearing aids, I heard a miserable scream coming from the hall.

Huaichen and I walked out and saw a woman collapsed on the floor in terror.

A thick stench of blood hung in the hall.

Everyone had gathered beneath the sculpture in the center of the hall, their expressions grim.

I looked up and saw that the Siren Sculpture, which had previously had only a rib cage for a chest, now had a fresh lung stuffed inside it. The blood on the lung had already dried, and black streaks of blood ran down from above, showing just how fresh it had been when it was first placed there.

The woman sprawled on the floor had been sharing a room with the dead man.

Lao San pressed her, demanding to know what had happened last night.

Through her sobs, the woman said, “Neither of us found earplugs yesterday, so we went to bed early. In the middle of the night, I heard singing outside, but I clamped my hands over my ears and buried my head under the blanket. But he got up, opened the door, and walked out. After that, he never came back.”

Someone else said, “I got earplugs yesterday, but I didn’t sleep. I wanted to see what the Siren looked like. I saw him jump into the sea on his own. There was something in the water, and it tore him apart and devoured him right away.”

He had been lured by the Siren.

After that, everyone’s mood turned heavy.

Just then, someone cried out in alarm.

“Why are my earplugs gone?”

Everyone’s earplugs had disappeared.

But the veterans seemed used to it and immediately began searching for new items.

It seemed the items had a time limit.

The first floor had more or less been searched already. Yesterday, the second floor had been inaccessible, but today it was open.

I followed the others upstairs. The first thing I saw was a huge mural.

The mural told a story:

The beautiful Siren Queen fell in love with a Captain and bore him a pair of children.

However, the Captain missed the wife he had left behind in his hometown. Urged on by his crew, he drugged the Siren Queen unconscious and took their children away.

When the Siren Queen woke, she discovered that both her lover and her children had left. Unable to catch up to the ship, she offered up her own organs as a sacrifice, summoning violent winds and rain in an attempt to capsize it.

Left with no choice, the Captain put one of the children into the sea, hoping to quell the Siren Queen’s fury.

At last, the storm subsided. But the Siren Queen was dead, and she had lost one of her children forever.

The mural ended there.

Suddenly, a gentle female voice sounded beside me. “It’s rare to see someone interested in the mural. Why aren’t you looking for a lifesaving item?”

It was Hualing, the woman who had teamed up with the refined middle-aged man and Lao San.

I pointed at my ears, indicating that I didn’t need to look for one.

Hualing paused for a moment, then smiled. “You should still be careful. See this mural? Sometimes the most terrifying thing isn’t the monster, but the human heart.”

Huaichen walked over to my side.

Hualing said nothing more. She gave me a slight nod, then turned and left.

Huaichen said softly to me, “I think I know what the Siren’s wish is.”