As they sat back on the driverless bus, Ning and Liu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“We… we survived, right?”
Liu, with his thick beard, panted heavily, staring out of the window at the terrifying, tall woman in red entering the villa before realizing that his legs were as weak as jelly.
“Yes.”
Ning replied.
Then, neither of them spoke again.
Five days had passed, and out of the seven people originally on this bus, only two remained.
Liu felt a strange sense of emptiness.
He didn’t have much affection for the others, but seeing them die so miserably in front of him, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of sadness.
Because, he had also been so close to death.
If it hadn’t been for Ning, his fate would have been the same as the others.
Shortly after getting on the bus, the door closed, and the bus slowly started moving.
Soon, they were back in the fog, once again traveling through the rain.
The two of them drifted off to sleep on the bus.
When they woke up again, it was the next morning.
Ning twisted his stiff body and looked out the window.
They had already reached the black villa’s courtyard.
“Hey, Big Beard, wake up.”
Ning nudged Liu, who jumped up with a start, yelling,
“Ghost! Ghost!”
“Run!”
Ning looked at Liu, who was flailing his arms, and thought to himself, this guy is really unlucky, he’s being chased by ghosts in the blood door mission, and now he’s having nightmares about it too.
After confirming that the person next to him was Ning, Liu wiped the sweat off his face and panted,
“Bro, you scared the life out of me!”
Ning pointed to the black courtyard outside and said,
“Get off, we’re here.”
One after the other, they got off the bus and entered the black villa.
When they entered the hall again, they saw that only one person remained.
It was that particularly handsome boy.
He was like a porcelain doll, with fair, rosy skin and a small, frail figure.
If he didn’t speak, almost no one would think he was a boy.
“Why are you the only one here?”
Liu frowned.
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Seeing the two of them return alive from behind the blood door, the boy’s attitude warmed considerably compared to before.
“Uncle Liang has something to deal with, he went back to the world before. Sister Bai went to bring new people through the blood door, and another one is cooking in the kitchen.”
Ning’s eyes flickered.
“Can we go back to the world before?”
The boy poked the charcoal in the brazier.
“Why not?”
“If you can take the bus here, you can naturally take the bus back.”
“Sigh…”
He sighed and rubbed his long hair with his hand.
“I hate this part the most. Every time new people come, I have to explain so many things, it makes my mouth dry… what’s even worse is that sometimes I just tell them the rules today, and next week they die.”
“But at least you guys made it out of the blood door alive, if you have any questions, ask now.”
The two looked at each other and thought for a moment before Ning asked,
“What’s the deal with the blood door and the fog?”
The boy said,
“It’s a curse.”
“We are all cursed people. The fog is a separate world, separated from the outside world. You can only enter and leave by taking the bus in the world of fog.”
“The courtyard we’re in is called the Villa. There are many Villas like this in the world of fog. Likewise, there are many blood doors.”
“Every so often, we have to enter the terrifying world behind the blood door and complete the task on the blood door. We have to survive with all our might and try to collect as many puzzle pieces as possible.”
“When we collect 12 puzzle pieces, we can take the complete puzzle and take the bus to the end of the fog world.”
As he spoke, he pointed to a picture frame above the hall.
The two looked at it.
The picture frame was half-filled with a puzzle.
The painting depicted a rotten human head.
There was a blood hole on the forehead, resembling an eye, which was bleeding, making it look very hideous!
“What’s at the end of the fog world?”
Ning asked.
The boy shrugged.
“I have no idea.”
“After all, none of us have been there.”
“Also, don’t blame us for being too cold before... you know, in this world, death is commonplace. If you make a close friend, and he dies in the world behind the blood door, you’ll be incredibly heartbroken.”
The boy’s expression became subdued as he spoke.
“Before, was the Villa…”
Ning seemed to understand something, but before he could finish, he saw the boy nod.
“About half a month before you came, Uncle Liang’s best friend, Uncle Mang… died in the world behind the blood door.”
“And Sister Xiao’s best friend, Zhizi… also committed suicide with him.”
“So actually, everyone isn’t in a good mood.”
Thinking back to the heavy atmosphere in the hall when they first entered the Villa, they could understand now.
“Alright, it’s almost time for dinner. After dinner, if you don’t want to stay here, you can wait for the bus at the bus stop outside the villa.”
“When it’s time for your second blood door mission in a week, the bus will come to pick you up in advance…”
At the dinner table, the four sat opposite each other in silence, eating quietly.
“Honestly, your cooking skills are terrible…”
Liu ate a few bites and couldn’t help but complain.
Jun, who was cooking, looked up and gave Liu a cold glance,
“If you don’t like it, you can throw it away, or you can cook it yourself.”
Liu was a boisterous man with a bad temper, and he was about to retort, but when he met Jun’s gaze, he shrank his neck.
Jun’s eyes were terrifying.
At that moment, Liu even felt like a knife was being held to his neck!
He could almost be certain that this man named Jun... had killed people!
However, Liu was not a man who would swallow his pride.
He stiffened his neck and said,
“I’ll cook it myself then!”
“I’m putting it out there, starting today, I, Liu, am the head chef here. From now on, as long as I’m here, you’re not allowed to enter the kitchen. Want to eat something? I’ll cook it for you!”
He said the most cowardly words with a tough tone.
Ning couldn’t help but chuckle.
During the meal, he learned that there were four other older people left in this Villa.
Liang was the head of the house and was also the first person to enter the Villa.
The boy was called Tian and was an orphan who depended on his sister.
Jun was Liang’s best friend in the outside world and was a soldier who had fought on the border.
The only beautiful woman, Bai, was very mysterious.
Everyone didn’t know her background, only that she was… very powerful in the outside world.
During the conversation, Ning brought up the matter of the woman in red from their first blood door.
However, Jun and Tian remained silent after hearing it.
“What… why aren’t you guys saying anything?”
Seeing the two of them silent, Liu couldn’t help but shout.
As soon as he finished speaking, Jun picked up his plate and walked towards the kitchen.
“I’m full.”
He said calmly.
But both of them could sense a change in Jun’s attitude towards them.
This change was very abrupt...
As if spring, which had just warmed up, suddenly plunged into winter.