Chapter 80 - The Mansion That Swallows People

“This guy has been following us around for two days,” Huang Junjie said as he stood at the KFC entrance, subtly glancing at the bespectacled young man who had pretended to be a passerby and circled them three or four times.

He was somewhat puzzled as he spoke, “What exactly does he want to do?”

In the past two days, that shadowy figure had harassed Xu Huo every night, not doing anything else, just disappearing upon contact.

They did not take the bait at the murder house, and thought the matter would just end there, but the person who seemed to be the instigator had no intention of letting them go.

Emerging from the computer at night and loitering around the neighborhood during the day, it was hard not to notice him.

Yuan Yao came out carrying a bag.

Seeing him pull down his mask to eat, he quickly said, “Eat it when we get back.”

The white flakes were falling off his face; when he had entered the store earlier, people thought he had a skin disease and gave him a wide berth.

Yuan Yao did not dare to get too close to him, fearing he’d be treated like the source of an infectious disease.

“When is that stuff on your face gonna clear up?

It looks pretty creepy,” Yuan Yao took a sip of the Feizhai Happy Water.

“In another couple of days,” Huang Junjie mumbled, glancing again towards the opposite street corner, where the bespectacled young man who had been trailing them had already disappeared.

He paused, then turned to scan Yuan Yao and Girl in the painting, “Where’s Xu Huo?”

Xu Huo had already followed the bespectacled young man onto the subway, maintaining a distance of more than ten meters from him.

With his eyesight, he could still clearly see the text on the other’s phone screen:

“Got a clear look at what they look like.

One’s a freak, one’s a big idiot, and there’s a pretty girl.

None of these three seem right; the remaining one should be it.”

After sending the message, he pocketed his phone and got off the subway.

Xu Huo followed behind him, not bothering to hide his tracks, all the way to the outside of the murder house they had visited two days before.

Seeing the young man climb over the fence to get inside, Xu Huo lit a cigarette and stopped on the roadside.

“Has he come in?” Wang Chaoqing hurriedly sent a message to the middle-aged man as soon as he entered the villa.

The middle-aged man, watching the figure standing on the roadside and smoking on the surveillance screen, with no intention of entering the murder house, picked up his phone and said, “Make some noise to see.”

Wang Chaoqing deliberately yelled inside the house and smashed a few bowls and dishes, but failed to lure Xu Huo inside.

He checked the time on his phone and whispered, “Brother Nian, it’s almost time, if I don’t get out soon I’ll be in danger!”

“Then get out,” Nian Hong’an said, “This kid is too crafty to fall for it; he’s probably not so easy to deal with.

Hurry and leave from the other side, and don’t worry about him…”

His words were cut off as he suddenly saw the person in the screen raise his head and glance in the direction of the camera, causing him to jolt in shock.

“What’s going on, Brother Nian?” Wang Chaoqing tensed up as well, but then he heard him say, “It’s nothing, just get out.”

Wang Chaoqing breathed a sigh of relief.

Just as he was climbing over the other side of the wall, someone suddenly spoke from behind, “Why the hurry to leave?”

Wang Chaoqing jumped in fright, turned around, and saw the man who had been tracking them for the past two days standing at the corner, staring at him.

“What do you want to do!” Wang Chaoqing immediately backed away, frightened.

“Weren’t you the one who lured me here?

These past couple days, deliberately moving around near my house, that shadow was also your masterpiece, wasn’t it?” Xu Huo dropped his cigarette butt, crushed it with his foot, “Thanks to you, I haven’t had a good night’s sleep these days.”

“Too bad that shadow isn’t enough to kill.”

“Thinking it over, if I can’t solve the problem, then I’ll just have to solve the person creating the problem.”

Seeing Xu Huo’s threatening approach, Wang Chaoqing didn’t hesitate to turn and run.

As he ran, a shadowy figure of the same build separated from him and pounced towards Xu Huo with claws bared!

Xu Huo dodged the shadow, hooked his toe around the shadow’s calf, and the shadow fell to the ground and dissipated into nothingness.

Just like the shadow that crawled out from the computer, it had no fighting power at all.

His index finger crossed with his middle finger, and as he hovered beside Wang Chaoqing, the piano string came forward and wrapped around his neck, dragging him back!

“Brother Nian, save me!” Wang Chaoqing cried out in terror.

Xu Huo lifted him into the air, took his cellphone from his pocket, found Brother Nian’s number and called, “The one hiding behind the surveillance cameras must be you, right?

Come out, or I’ll come find you.”

Nian Hong’an, seeing Wang Chaoqing being hoisted up, was also scared.

He stammered, “Bro, don’t do anything rash, killing is against the law!”

Wang Chaoqing was almost choked to the point of rolling his eyes, but Xu Huo’s face didn’t change at all.

“What?

Weren’t you the ones who proposed the trade?”

Nian Hong’an suddenly remembered that he had replied to someone on the forum.

He immediately responded, “It was us, it was us.

Look, this is a misunderstanding.

I just wanted to trade props for a ticket.

I was worried about being scammed so I checked things out in advance.

Please, don’t take it the wrong way.”

Wang Chaoqing, hanging beside them with a keen sense of hearing, become frantic upon hearing Nian Hong’an’s words, kicking his legs anxiously.

Exchange props for what?

This man clearly came to kill; the trade was merely a ploy to lure people out.

Unfortunately, Nian Hong’an didn’t catch on to his hints and quickly left the security room after hanging up the phone.

It didn’t take long for Xu Huo to see a middle-aged security guard running across the street.

He let Wang Chaoqing down a bit, giving him some room to breathe.

Seeing his willingness to release the hostage, Nian Hong’an pulled a red-colored corner from his pocket.

“This is it.

How about we move somewhere else to make the trade?

It’s not safe doing business out here on the main road in sight of everyone.”

Xu Huo raised an eyebrow, “Into the haunted house?”

“How could that be?” With Wang Chaoqing in the other’s grasp, Nian Hong’an didn’t dare to play any tricks.

He just wanted to quickly finish the trade.

After all, the glove wasn’t of any use and it would be good to send away the bad luck.

Xu Huo pointed to an alley on the side, “Shall we talk over there?”

Nian Hong’an nodded repeatedly, and the three walked into it together.

Three minutes later, Nian Hong’an and Wang Chaoqing were kneeling on the ground with bruised faces, while Xu Huo stood in front of them, playing with the colorful glove.

“Now tell me, what exactly is in that haunted house?”

Nian Hong’an dared not speak his anger, hemming and hawing, while Wang Chaoqing stubbornly said, “What’s there to tell, man, I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

Xu Huo pocketed the glove, grabbed Wang Chaoqing’s head, and leaned in, with one hand detaching his jaw, “If you don’t want to talk, then don’t.”

Leaving him aside, he turned to Nian Hong’an, “What about you?”

Nian Hong’an shivered, “I’ll talk, I’ll talk…

The haunted house is strange, people go missing a few minutes after entering, and after a few days, items inexplicably appear.”

“What kind of items?”

“Personal belongings, like wallets, keys, and props…” Nian Hong’an said, his voice becoming softer with guilt, “We didn’t do anything else, just picked up some items.”

“You got the glove this way too?”

“Yes…

but only this glove works, the rest are useless.”

“How many people have you lured here so far?”

“Just…

just a few…” Nian Hong’an nervously said, “We just wanted to get our hands on some props; we didn’t mean to harm anyone.

They just lost their belongings, they might have left safely already.”

“Do you believe that?” Xu Huo countered, then added, “How big is the area?

Any special changes these last few days?”

“It’s just this villa, doesn’t seem like there’s been any changes…” Nian Hong’an hadn’t finished speaking when Wang Chaoqing started to whimper, seemingly wanting to say something.

Xu Huo put his jaw back in place, and he hurriedly said, “It’s grown larger, the area has grown larger, it started inside the villa, but these last couple of days, the front and back yards have been swallowing people too!”