Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The four of them approached the front door. Lin Hao entered the passcode into the smart lock, but instead of opening, it let out a shrill series of beeps.

“What’s going on?!” Lin Hao began to panic. Making noise at a time like this was practically suicide.

Qingshui frowned. “Stay calm. There shouldn’t be any maniacs here.”

Lin Hao forced himself to settle down and tried several other passcodes, but every one of them came back incorrect. He began to wonder if his memory was playing tricks on him. Could this be the wrong villa after all?!

Li Wei’an pointed at the smart lock’s screen. “Can’t you unlock it with facial recognition? Why don’t you try that?”

This time, the door finally opened.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Qingshui entered first, with Li Wei’an close behind her. Lin Hao stayed in the middle, while Ji Feifan brought up the rear. The villa was enormous, and the first floor alone felt cavernous. Qingshui’s keen eyes immediately picked out signs of a struggle downstairs.

“Careful.”

Her instincts told her something was wrong.

“Stay together and follow me upstairs,” Qingshui whispered as she carefully climbed the thickly carpeted spiral staircase.

The second-floor hallway was even darker. Qingshui signaled for Ji Feifan and Li Wei’an to watch opposite ends of the corridor, then pressed herself against the wall beside the first door. She gently turned the handle and pushed it open a crack.

It was a neat guest room. No one was inside.

The second room appeared to be a study. It was just as empty.

They checked several rooms in succession without finding anything unusual. Then a half-open door caught their attention.

Qingshui exchanged a glance with Ji Feifan. He gave a slight nod, nocked an arrow, and aimed at the doorway. Qingshui took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

The lights were off, but the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows let in enough light for them to make out the scene inside.

Two bodies lay face-up in the middle of the room on an expensive rug, surrounded by pools of dried blood.

One was a middle-aged woman. Her skull had been smashed in, but they could just make out her eyes, stretched impossibly wide. Her features were twisted, and the corners of her mouth were curled into an almost ecstatic grin.

It was the corpse of a maniac.

The other body belonged to a child who looked only six or seven years old. It was drenched in blood, its insides completely hollowed out.

“…An… An?!”

Lin Hao sucked in a sharp breath and rushed over. The sight of his niece’s corpse nearly made him vomit. Li Wei’an went deathly pale and silently turned away.

Bang!

A heavy thud suddenly came from the far end of the hallway behind them, and everyone scattered at once.

Ji Feifan was already grappling with a dark figure. Qingshui swiftly snatched up the bow he had dropped and shouted, “Stop!”

The figure was a tall man with a wild, crazed look in his eyes. He was gripping a machete and bringing it down on Ji Feifan!

“Stop!” Lin Hao stumbled back in fright. When he turned and saw what was happening, his eyes fell on the crazed man’s profile. He froze as if struck by lightning and cried out, “Stop! That’s my older cousin! He’s my older cousin!!”

The shout made the man pause in the middle of wildly swinging his machete.

Ji Feifan seized that split-second opening and drove a vicious elbow into the man’s ribs, then twisted free.

The man Lin Hao had called his older cousin grunted from the blow and fell backward onto the floor. He lifted his head, revealing a haggard but still handsome face beneath his disheveled hair. He stared fixedly at Lin Hao, his eyes filled with shock.

“Xiao… Xiaohao?” The man’s voice was hoarse as a broken bellows and trembled violently. “Is… is that really you? You’re still alive?”

“It’s me! I’m Xiaohao!” Lin Hao hurried two steps forward, his voice choked with tears and joy. “How… Why are you here? And why… why did you attack us?”

The man did not answer immediately. As though all his strength had deserted him, he slumped on the floor. His gaze shifted from Lin Hao’s face to the two corpses behind the group. His entire body began to shake violently, and the madness in his eyes was swiftly drowned beneath overwhelming grief and terror.
“Shuyao hasn’t been in very good health lately…” he muttered. “I brought her and Ping’an here for a vacation… But then… when we went down the mountain to enjoy the scenery… they came… Aunt Wang turned into a monster… and ate An’an. I… I had no choice but to…”

His words were disjointed, and it was obvious that he had suffered a tremendous shock. The “Aunt Wang” he mentioned was most likely the dead lunatic in the room.

“That’s enough!” Lin Hao suddenly cut him off. His expression was strained, but he still forced a smile and hugged his cousin. “It’s okay. Those people were lunatics! You didn’t murder anyone. You were protecting Sister Shuyao. I understand!”

Qingshui patted Lin Hao on the shoulder and said quietly, “Stay here and help calm him down. We’ll keep checking the place. We can talk afterward.”

Lin Hao nodded.

Qingshui, Li Wei’an, and Ji Feifan slowly backed out of the room. The moment they turned around, they saw a woman holding a child.

She looked to be around thirty and had a gentle, refined air about her. At that moment, however, she was staring warily at Qingshui and the others, brandishing a fruit knife in warning.

Neither side spoke. Qingshui’s gaze fell on the girl, who appeared to be only seven or eight years old. After a moment, she took a step back. “We’re Lin Hao’s friends. He’s in that room with his cousin.”

Li Wei’an and Ji Feifan also stepped back, leaving the woman room to pass.

The woman remained on guard, but her concern for her husband ultimately won out. With reddened eyes, she hurried toward the room, pulling the child along with her.

……..

With Lin Hao’s reassurance, his cousin, Zhou Shaocheng, finally calmed down. He gave a bitter smile. “I can’t believe a grown man like me needs a kid to comfort him.”

“Come on! What are you talking about?” Lin Hao exclaimed. “When I ran into those lunatics, I was scared out of my mind too! If it hadn’t been for… my junior and her roommate… I would’ve died back at the university…”

As if something had suddenly occurred to him, he hurriedly asked, “Where’s Sister Shuyao? And… what about Pingping?”

The moment the words left his mouth, the door behind Zhou Shaocheng was flung open. Lin Hao’s cousin-in-law, Fang Shuyao, walked in with one hand covering the child’s eyes.

A flash of delight crossed her eyes when she saw Lin Hao. “Haohao?”

“Sister Shuyao? Pingping?”

Before Lin Hao could excitedly step forward, anger flashed across Zhou Shaocheng’s face. “Didn’t I tell you two to stay hidden? Why did you come out?”

Fang Shuyao looked at him anxiously, her eyes reddening. “Because I was worried about you! If you die… what am I supposed to do?”

“I…”

Seeing that they were about to start arguing, Lin Hao hurriedly interjected, “No one’s going to die! None of us will! Qingshui is incredible! We only made it this far because of her!”

“Listen, both of you. This place is a long way from the city, so those lunatics won’t be able to get here anytime soon. We can wait for word from the government or for rescuers to arrive! At the very least, it’s safer here than outside. We have walls and shelter! We can figure something out together!”

“And if all else fails, we can head north! We’ll go somewhere freezing. Let’s see those bastards survive the cold!”

Zhou Shaocheng looked at Lin Hao’s anxious, earnest face, then at the frightened and bewildered faces of his wife and daughter. His arms dropped limply to his sides. “I hope you’re right…”

Knock, knock, knock.

Someone knocked on the door behind them, and Qingshui’s voice came from outside.

“Lin Hao, it’s me.”

Lin Hao glanced at his cousin and Fang Shuyao. When neither of them reacted, he went over and opened the door. “Qingshui.”

Qingshui was not alone. Li Wei’an and Ji Feifan were with her, while An Xiaolin and Chen Yuhui also stood outside the door.

“We’ve finished checking the place. There aren’t any major problems,” Qingshui told Lin Hao. She glanced at the room, which reeked of rot. “How about we find somewhere clean to talk?”

Zhou Shaocheng did not object. He led his wife and daughter out of the room.