The butler's call for dinner shattered the tense atmosphere. At the dining table, silence hung heavy like a thick fog. Amidst the forced sounds of chewing and swallowing, Tu Qinghe shot me a subtle glance and signaled:
-"Back then... the photo I found was right under the very table we're sitting at."
As she spoke, she discreetly reached down to the table leg, pointing at a specific spot. I didn't reply verbally to avoid drawing attention, merely offering a faint nod to show I understood.
Once dinner ended, the group scattered, pretending to wander around the villa while waiting for a chance to break into Butler Li's room. However, our hopes were quickly extinguished when we saw his silhouette standing guard right in front of the door like a stone statue, refusing to budge an inch.
Before long, darkness swallowed the house, signaling that a horrific nightmare was about to begin. Before retreating to our rooms, Li Junjie and Hoang Nhat Tan carefully scanned every corner one last time to ensure nothing unusual was lying in wait.
Tonight, the room was so silent that I could clearly hear my own heartbeat. None of us dared to sleep, lying awake and staring into the darkness.
Suddenly, Xi Yong'an, lying beside me, spoke up in a voice as faint as a breath:
-"If we manage to make it out alive... how about I invite you all to my house? What do you think?"
-"Not a bad idea. But I'll probably have to check my schedule first," I replied. My answer sounded calm, but my heart suddenly tightened for a moment as I thought of Manager Ming and the coffee shop.
Yashu, lying on the adjacent bed, couldn't sleep either. She spoke up, her voice pensive: "I've been thinking this whole time... That demon takes the form of an old woman, so it's very likely that it is-..."
AAAAHHHH!!!
Before Yashu could finish her sentence, a blood-curdling scream tore through the silent night. The three of us bolted upright in bed, startled. That was Li Junjie's voice!
Before I could process what was happening, I felt my ankle tighten under something cold and coarse. I looked down at the edge of the bed in horror: a vine bristling with sharp thorns was coiling around my leg. Without us noticing, these freakish vines had silently slithered through the cracks of the door, crawling across the floor and onto the bed. I used all my strength to kick it off. The sharp thorns dug deep into my flesh; the stinging pain pierced straight to my heart, instantly jolting me out of my daze.
These vines seemed to possess a soul of their own, frantically swarming our limbs like hungry snakes. I struggled with all my might, breaking free from the encirclement of thorns. Xi Yong'an also gnashed his teeth against the pain, shucking off the cords tightening around him.
But Yashu wasn't as lucky. Her situation was far worse as she was tightly entwined by a dense thicket of vines. I rushed to support her, while Xi Yong'an quickly lunged toward the window, his hand already on the latch to find an escape route.
The moment Yashu broke free from the vines, a dry, rhythmic sound echoed from the main door: "Click... Click... Click..."
Following that was the eerie, wheezing cackle of the demon. That hunchbacked creature was back!
Crashes and bangs echoed from the other rooms as well; it seemed they weren't faring any better than us.
In a panic, I used every ounce of my strength to drag the heavy bed over to barricade the door. However, just as I turned back to urge the group to run, I froze. Xi Yong'an was standing rooted to the spot, then he recoiled in pure terror.
-"What are you doing? Run!!" Yashu shouted.
But when we both saw clearly what was on the other side of the window, we froze instantly, the blood in our veins turning to ice. Outside the window... wasn't an exit, but another demon. It took the form of a young girl, her soulless eyes staring intensely inside, clutching a tattered, old stuffed rabbit.
What kind of madness was this? Were we caught in a "meat sandwich"?
Every exit was blocked: opening the main door meant facing the hunchbacked demon; jumping out the window meant encountering the demon girl; and if we stayed rooted in the room, those thorny vines would strangle us to death in an instant.
In this life-or-death moment, Yashu had no time for hesitation. She decisively pulled the Gem ( Nine Heavens Cold Dew ) - which only had a single use left - from her bag. Xi Yong'an immediately understood her intent and used all his strength to fling the window open. Regardless, based on what we had seen the previous night, the hunchbacked demon was a much more direct and brutal threat.
But contrary to the bloody attack I had envisioned, the demon girl remained motionless. She didn't lunge, nor did she interfere; she simply stood there clutching her stuffed rabbit, her innocent-looking eyes watching us as we fled for our lives through the window frame. That gaze was so strange it made my skin crawl. Even as her small figure faded behind us, she made no move to pursue.
We risked everything jumping down into the rose garden below. The briars scratched our skin, but no one dared to stop; we just ran blindly as fast as we could to escape.
-"Is... is she not following us?" Xi Yong'an gasped as he ran, his voice breaking from exhaustion.
I stole a quick glance back, but didn't dare turn my head completely. The demon girl was still there, silently tilting her head as she watched the three of us running for our lives. The moment our room door above was smashed open, she abruptly vanished like a wisp of smoke. Almost instantly, the furious, demonic roar of the hunchbacked creature erupted from inside the room, tearing through the garden's stillness.
It seemed "that thing" had lost its prey right before its very eyes.