The pine trees were like giants in the winter snow. They extended their branches to form a giant cradle so the baby developed in the dark could slumber peacefully. Gao Ming walked through the forest. He was isolated from the noise of the world. Occasionally, snow would fall on his clothes. Gao Ming picked up the used medkit and came to the spot where he met the little girl. The tree hole was empty. The rotten cotton and the doll were gone.
Gao Ming turned to the east lake. The sky had darkened. The seeds in his pocket echoed. They wanted Gao Ming to drop them into the east lake. The walkie-talkie crackled. Gao Ming tried to decipher it, but he could barely hear a ‘you’.
“What is it trying to tell me? What about me?”
“Who are you talking to?” A suppressed voice suddenly echoed in the dark. The branches swayed. A giant shadow enveloped Gao Ming. Gao Ming looked up and saw a giant ugly face. The tattered cloth was stitched together. The two giant buttons were her eyes. The body stuffed with smelly cotton stood up. Her body was covered in fallen leaves and snow. It looked like she had just crawled out of the ground.
“I thought you would stand me up tonight.” Gao Ming smiled, “Your brother’s memory is in my brain. I need your cooperation tonight. That is the only way to save your family and seal the thing behind the door.”
“I don’t want it to be sealed. I want it to suffer. It needs to experience the pain I’ve suffered several hundred times over!” A girl’s soul lived inside the doll, but her voice was vengeful.
“Sure. As long as you don’t harm the innocent.” Gao Ming held the doll’s hand and looked at the manor in the dark. “When the dawn comes, the nightmare will end.”
Zhi Ge saw Bai Feng toss something onto the fourth floor, but he was too late to stop her. Their situation was very dangerous. The hunting rifle was missing, and the hiker zombies were already inside the manor. The snowman was still unaccounted for. The manor owner was hiding in one of them. Zhi Ge was flustered. He wanted to get Qian Jin to help, but he didn’t want to expose Qian Jin’s location. If the manor owner discovered Qian Jin, they’d lose another trump card.
“Why was the owner’s unconscious body in the second-floor corridor? Why did he run out of Room 2009? What did he see?” Zhi Ge might have developed muscles, but he was not dumb. He felt like they had missed something. Zhi Ge turned to Room 2009 and thought back to the unconscious owner. “He appeared desperate to leave the room to go somewhere. However, he fainted not long after he left his room.” The cunning manor owner’s brain buzzed halfway through the ritual. It was like he changed into a different person.
“I feel better being chased by ghosts than to have to do this.” Zhi Ge cursed internally.
In the corridor between the third and fourth floors, Bai Feng wore the mother’s bloody dress and tossed the scaly fish meat through the iron bars. The corridor reeked of the stench that came from the east lake.
“What the fuck! Have you lost your mind?” Zhi Ge’s legs trembled. He thought he was brave but even he didn’t dare to openly taunt the ghost.
“If we don’t borrow the power of the ghost, how do you expect us to break down these bars?” Bai Feng’s tone was as cold as before. Zhi Ge finally believed Bai Feng was not swapped by the manor owner. The owner wouldn’t do this. The fish meat was scattered on the fourth-floor corridor. The stench seemed to carry some kind of power. The darkness moved. Something was gathering.
“I’m sure you’re hungry, right? This is your favourite fish meat. I got them from the east lake.” Bai Feng rubbed her bloody hands on the bars. “Do you wish to grow old? Don’t you want to see your children again?”
Raspy breaths came from a corner on the fourth floor. Zhi Ge’s heart dropped. Under the flickering light, he saw a pair of rotten legs appear in the dark. The black hair covered the face. A woman in red crawled from the depths of the fourth floor. Her bones cracked and popped. She slowly stood up until her head almost touched the ceiling.
“She is coming!” As Bai Feng said that, she signalled to Zhi Ge and Xu Deyi. However, the two were too stunned by the ghost. Bai Feng took a step back and whispered to them, “My body is covered in the fish blood. The ghost will chase after me. After I lure her away, you two will unlock the last room and complete the ritual!”
“No buts!” Bai Feng took out the boy’s family portrait. Once that portrait appeared, the woman trapped on the fourth floor reacted instantly. Blood floated off her thin body. She picked up speed! Her humanity was gone. She crawled on all fours. Her eyes moved around like a fish’s. Her face was covered in fish scales!
The ghost moved fast and reached the iron bars in an instant. The dry hands reached through the bars. The sharp nails tried to stab Bai Feng in the eyes.
Xu Deyi and Zhi Ge were shocked, but Bai Feng noticed something. The iron bars couldn’t stop the woman. The woman hadn’t left because of something else. The woman promised her family something before she completely lost her mind. She had the ability to leave the fourth floor whenever she wanted, but she used her constitution to control herself.
However, lured by the fish and the picture, the woman’s self-control started to fray. She licked the fish blood on the bars. Her eyes turned red. She rammed into the bars until they were bent out of shape. The testers started to move away. When they reached the corner of the second floor, there was a loud boom coming from behind them. The woman had crawled through the bars. She pounced at Bai Feng like a hungry beast.
“I’ll lead her away!”
Bai Feng led the woman out of the manor. Zhi Ge quickly hurried back to the fourth floor. The bars were gone. The fourth hidden room was somewhere in the dark.