So close.
That was too damn close.
Ning Qiu Shui would be dead now—ripped apart by the thing in the red dress—if Liu Chengfeng hadn't lunged with the crimson stone.
"Thanks…" Ning Qiu Shui rasped, slumped on the floor, one arm braced on his knee as he fought for air. That final stretch had scraped the edge of annihilation.
Liu Chengfeng smacked his own trembling legs, shaking his head. "Should be me thanking you, Brother. If you hadn't dragged my ass up here tonight... I'd have been next on her menu." A shaky, disbelieving laugh burst from him—pure, giddy relief. He sprawled on the dusty floorboards, laughing like a lunatic, the sound raw and slightly unhinged.
When the hysterics finally subsided, he pushed himself up. "Brother... what about the others? Downstairs?" He adjusted the unconscious old woman carefully.
Ning Qiu Shui's gaze flickered in the dim light. "We can't go out there now. It's suicide. Tomorrow... we'll try signaling them from up here. If we can't reach them…" He shrugged, the gesture devoid of warmth. "We tried."
His indifference was chilling. He wasn't against saving them, especially those who hadn't crossed him. But not at the cost of his own neck. They'd had their chance to join this risky gambit. None had taken it. Why bleed for those who hid while you fought? He was no saint.
"One more thing, Brother," Liu Chengfeng asked, his voice steadier now. "How... how did you know its rules? The 'Wind, no lighting lamps' stuff?"
Silence stretched in the dark study. Thick. Heavy.
"Before I boarded the bus," Ning Qiu Shui finally said, his voice low, "I got a letter. Anonymous."
"A letter?"
"Yeah. Inside was a photo... and four lines of text." He recited them, the words hanging like cold iron in the air:
"Wind, no lighting lamps
Rain, no burning candles
Day, no climbing towers
Night, no closing eyes…"
Liu Chengfeng's jaw dropped. "Holy shit! It all lines up! Brother, you've got a guardian angel!" He leaned forward, eyes wide. "What about the photo? What was it?"
Ning Qiu Shui studied him for a long moment. "You want to see it?"
Liu Chengfeng blinked. "Is it... private? If it's—"
Ning Qiu Shui was already moving. He reached into his dark plaid shirt and pulled out a single, creased, yellowing photograph. He held it out, face towards Liu Chengfeng.
Liu Chengfeng squinted in the moonlight. His breath hitched. His pupils constricted to pinpricks.
"No fucking way…"
The face staring back from the worn photo… was his own. Liu Chengfeng.
Time froze. The two men locked eyes across the small space, separated only by the fragile rectangle of paper. Liu Chengfeng stared at his own image, oblivious to the words scrawled in stark black ink on the back:
[A Friend Worth Having... But Asks Too Many Damn Questions]
Liu Chengfeng reached out, wanting to take the photo for a closer look, but Ning Qiu Shui smoothly withdrew it, a faint, unsettling smile touching his lips.
"Shocking, right?" he said quietly. "It shocked me too. At first, I thought it was a prank, a misdelivered letter... But when I woke up on that bus and saw you sitting there..." His gaze sharpened. "I knew it was something else entirely. The driverless bus. That unnatural fog. The Blood Gate... and us. None of it is random. There's an invisible hand dealing the cards."
Liu Chengfeng gave a hollow laugh. "Brother... with all respect, no one in the real world could pull this off. You saw what's out there." He gestured vaguely towards the door. "That's not human power. It's... something else."
Ning Qiu Shui fell silent. He didn't argue further. Yet the chilling accuracy of the anonymous letter gnawed at him. The Blood Gate. The kill conditions... and this "friend" he'd never met, who'd just saved his life at mortal risk. It was terrifying. It felt like... eyes watching him from the shadows.
The night passed without incident. Exhausted from their previous sleepless night and the adrenaline crash, sleep claimed them both.
Dawn broke, shattered not by light, but by piercing shrieks from the second floor.
Someone else had died.
And worse: three people were missing. Not just any three – Ning Qiu Shui, their de facto leader, and the very old woman they were supposed to care for! Panic erupted downstairs. How do you care for a patient who's vanished? The task was broken before day five.
Through the floorboards, they heard the aftermath. The victim was Bei Dao. Eaten.
"W-where are they?!" Yan Youping's voice, fractured by sobs, drifted up. "H-have they all been...? I can't... I don't want to die here...!"
Liu Chengfeng rushed to the window, yelling down towards the second floor, desperate to be heard. "HEY! DOWN THERE! WE'RE UP HERE! ON THE THIRD—" His voice strained, raw. But the sound seemed trapped within the third floor, swallowed by the villa's unnatural silence. No one responded.
"Enough," Ning Qiu Shui said flatly, watching Liu Chengfeng's futile efforts. "Save your breath."
Liu Chengfeng turned, discomfort twisting his features. "Brother... you're a doctor. Vet or not. Those are living people down there. Just... abandoning them? Isn't that a bit...?" He couldn't find the right word for the coldness of it.
Ning Qiu Shui closed his eyes, leaning back against the dusty bookshelf. "I am a veterinarian. And veterinarians have Three Rules for Treatment."
Liu Chengfeng stared, baffled. "Three Rules? What three rules?"