eerie bedroom
A cell phone that has lost its ability to communicate can only serve as a poor-quality flashlight. The light from the transparent material in the middle can only illuminate the edges, and it is impossible to get any light into the room.
With a distance of nearly ten meters, even if Wen Dai wanted to type on her phone to communicate with Chen Sizhe, she was helpless, since she didn't have the ability to see far.
Without the dust, the mask was temporarily useless, and even became a hindrance. Wen Dai pulled off the mask that had been covering her for so long, letting it rest on her chin.
"Sigh." Glancing at Lai Wenyi, who was lying on the transparent material and looking longingly at Lai Yuan on the other side, Wen Dai patted her back, then raised her arm and waved it, trying to make her movements as large as possible so that Chen Sizhe on the other side could understand her meaning. She pointed to the space behind her, made a searching motion, then ran back to her original position and made a gesture of exchanging information.
I just hope Chen Sizhe doesn't think she's crazy.
In short, Lai Wenyi's gaze towards her was filled with panic.
Fortunately, Chen Sizhe nodded twice—Wen Dai scoffed unhappily, took two steps back, and muttered, "What's wrong with him? He's just sitting there acting like a smart person, making me feel like I was possessed by a ghost."
"Hey! So you weren't possessed by a ghost just now?" Lai Wenyi, who had unintentionally stabbed Wen Dai in the heart, turned around and stared at Wen Dai with wide eyes. She patted her chest and said, "I was so scared. You suddenly started doing those strange movements. I was wondering if you were communicating with Mr. Chen or if you were actually possessed by a ghost. It looked really funny."
"..." Wen Dai glanced at her out of the corner of her eye, her lips twitched, and she gave a dry laugh to change the subject: "Let's hurry up and look for clues. Since they split us into two groups, they must have their reasons. Maybe they want to see our different reactions."
Lai Wenyi, who was following closely behind her, asked in confusion, "But they only assigned two rooms, not four. How can you explain our different reactions?"
The light from the phone's flashlight shone on the floor, casting a rustic glow on the walnut wood. Unfortunately, the tiny specks of blood transformed this rustic feel into something eerie. She stopped, pretending not to have seen it, and turned to explain to Lai Wenyi:
"You didn't notice the room number when we entered, did you? The room numbers on the doors here are a bit blurry, it must have been intentionally blurred. The room number that Chen Sizhe and the others entered only had the last digit 3 clearly visible. In some foreign languages, 3 represents male. The room number we entered has the middle digit 2. 2 itself contains the meaning of cooperation and duality, and it is also associated with the Gemini goddess, so we can interpret this 2 as female."
“There are two doors separating us from them, dividing us into two groups, with two people in each group. This can actually symbolize a kind of balance. Believe it or not, if Uncle Lai had been with me and you had gone to Chen Sizhe’s side, we wouldn’t have been able to open the door in the first place.”
Confused by Wen Dai's words, Lai Wenyi nodded blankly, muttering, "I didn't expect that I had to use my brain in supernatural events..."
“There’s nothing you can do without using your brain. Even when we’re learning magic, we have to use our brains. The stupid ones can only suffer through hardship. You stay close to me for a bit. Hmm… if you’re scared, don’t look at the floor. Something unusual might pop up.” Wen Dai carefully chose her words, and there was a hint of pity in her eyes as she glanced at Lai Wenyi.
She glanced briefly at Lai Wenyi's ankles, which were being held by two bloody hands, then slowly looked away, her eyelids fluttering twice to deflect the bewilderment Lai Wenyi was looking at—it was better not to tell her.
Blood seeped from the cracks in the floor, dark ochre streaks spreading upwards, forming veins. Suppressing her shock, Wen Dai maintained a composed demeanor and continued her investigation. This appeared to be the owner's living room. She raised her phone, using the dim light to survey the surroundings.
The walls are adorned with Western oil paintings that were popular in the early 20th century, and various new artworks are displayed in showcases against the wall. Even the telephone exudes an air of extravagance. The coffee table is probably made of some kind of jade, and it holds an intricately patterned vase with red roses inside that are the same color as the blood seeping from the cracks in the floor.
She stepped closer to the old-fashioned telephone on the cabinet, picked it up with curiosity, and weighed it in her hand. Before Lai Wenyi, who had followed her by pulling on her clothes, could ask any questions, she heard Dai mutter to herself, "Pure gold... They must be really rich. I wonder if I can steal it."
Lai Wenyi closed her mouth, which had only opened slightly, and glanced at Wen Dai a few more times before quietly turning her face away. This fortune teller, who seemed so reliable, didn't seem so reliable after all.
After receiving a warning from the immortal behind her, Wen Dai reluctantly withdrew her hand. The black mist on her wrist twitched strangely a few times, but Wen Dai didn't seem to care. She even patted it off, turned her face away, and said dismissively, "Stop fooling around, I'm already looking into it."
"Huh? I wasn't making a fuss." Lai Wenyi tilted her head, clutching Wen Dai's clothes.
However, Wen Dai, who was standing in front of her, continued walking forward without even turning her head, saying in a nonchalant tone, "Oh, I wasn't talking about you."
Lai Wenyi, who hadn't quite caught on for a moment, frowned. "If you didn't mean me, then it was..." She started to ask but then suddenly fell silent, goosebumps creeping up her arms and up to her head. She was drenched in a cold sweat, realizing what had happened belatedly.
Wen Dai stopped again in front of the oil paintings hanging on the wall. She looked up at the paintings and clicked her tongue, saying, "What tacky taste."
She couldn't identify which artist created these "masterpieces," but Wen Dai's intuition told her that they must have been portraits painted by Western artists commissioned by the villa's first owner.
The first painting depicts a fat, pale man oppressing a beautiful woman. The woman in the painting is completely unadorned, without any external coverings. Perhaps the painting represents animalistic instincts, but Wen Dai only found it vulgar and disgusting.
The second painting is a self-portrait of the same fat man in the first painting. Even though he is wearing a suit, he still gives people the impression of being a hypocrite, and the hypocrite is even a kind of beautification.
The third painting depicts the woman from the first painting, her self-respect almost completely erased. She is described as "a single red flower amidst a sea of green," but rather "a single beauty amidst a sea of ugliness." The painting shows a large group of about ten men, who, judging from their appearance, likely belonged to the wealthy class of that period, specifically the older generation. Even the artist himself was probably disgusted; the suppressed pleasure of decadence is conveyed through the colors, with joy only evident on the faces of the men in positions of power, while the woman caught in the middle displays only pain.
The more you look at her, the more her brow furrows.
Aside from the hand holding the phone, Wen Dai's other hand was clenched into a fist that had turned white. She gritted her teeth and after a long while, she finally pulled at her lip and spat coldly, "What a bunch of beasts."
The meaning conveyed by the image was too clear. As Lai Wenyi examined it, she forgot her fear, and her horror at her situation turned into anger. "They're not human! Did these things really happen in this villa? I don't want to live here anymore. They've deprived women of their human rights. What do they take women for? Sometimes I really wonder if these things even have mothers. How could they draw these things and hang them on the wall!"
Wen Dai unconsciously lowered her head, only to find that the bloodied hand that had been gripping Lai Wenyi's ankle had somehow moved away. She turned and walked towards the sofa, but as soon as she reached the back of the sofa, she saw a woman appear out of thin air on the otherwise empty sofa—the woman from the painting.
Her clothes were made of very little fabric, and even by today's standards they would be considered revealing, let alone back then. Sitting next to her was the fat man from the second picture on the wall. In reality, he was even more greasy and obese than in the painting, with one arm thicker than the woman's thigh, which was wrapped around her shoulder.
"Xiuya, tell me, wouldn't it be better to just obediently give me a few children? Why do you have to go against me? Those people you serve are all praising you, and quite a few have asked me if there will be another chance. Hmph—" The man, holding a cigar, reached out and pinched the woman's chin. Her delicate face was lifeless; she had a pair of beautiful almond-shaped eyes, but they were dead.
The man rubbed his thumb against the woman's cheek, then lowered his face closer to her. His face was almost twice the size of hers, and his bulging eyes made his eyelids arch. "Oh dear, you're a used slut now, do you think I'd still want you? You should move to the basement. Xiuya, you know my status. How can I allow a woman who's no longer pure to be my wife? Being a concubine is barely acceptable, but you're too disobedient."
"I won't support someone who just wants to freeload, so you can stay in the basement. From now on, you'll be in charge of receiving any important guests who come to our house."
The executioner's whispers made even Wen Dai and Lai Wenyi, who were watching from the sidelines, hold their breath.
Unlike Wen Dai, Lai Wenyi knew nothing about the two people who suddenly appeared, nor did she know if they actually existed. So without hesitation, she turned around, picked up the phone on the cabinet, strode over to the sofa, and smashed the phone down on the man, yelling, "I'll smash your father's lungs, you beast!"
She was horrified, otherwise her body wouldn't be trembling uncontrollably. But she was brave.
Just as the phone slammed down, the two "people" on the sofa vanished. Lai Wenyi's phone missed its target, and she slowly squatted down, the phone landing on the sofa. Her fists sank deep into the sofa, and she lowered her head, letting out muffled sobs.
The only sound in the now quiet room was her crying.
Wen Dai, who had been standing silently not far away, slowly approached. She squatted down next to Lai Wenyi, raising her hand to avoid Lai Wenyi's head and shoulders, only stroking the girl's back to comfort her. "You've had similar experiences, so you can empathize, right? The feeling of being forced and powerless in sexual matters."
Tears welled up in the gaps of her mask, and Lai Wenyi, her face streaked with tears, trembled as she pulled the mask down behind her chin, sobbing, "That's why it's even more painful, I feel so sorry for her. I know all too well what it feels like to be controlled and forced to endure, so painful that even my brain knows to automatically hide that memory. I can't imagine how much pain she must be in—not just physically, it's a complete mental breakdown."
When you can't offer comfort, remaining silent and leaving room for venting is a form of politeness.
As she crouched down, leaning close to the floor, Wen Dai glanced at the blood seeping from the cracks in the floor. The blood seemed diluted, appearing murky and semi-transparent at the edges. Judging from the direction of its flow, the overflowing liquid was all heading towards the bedroom—not from the bedroom, but flowing towards it.
After Lai Wenyi composed herself, Wen Dai walked with her to the bedroom door. The sound of their footsteps on the floor gave off an inexplicable sense of distance, a distance that seemed to span many years.
The doorknob's color shifted dramatically before them, from initially sparkling to dull, occasionally stained with bloodstains.
Hesitant to act, Lai Wenyi rubbed her eyes a couple of times. She looked again, her eyelashes fluttering, and asked hesitantly, "Should we... still go in? This thing keeps changing, or should we time it right?"
Meeting Lai Wenyi's hesitant gaze, Wen Dai smiled at her, her tone relaxed: "Not bad, you've gotten smarter. We really need to time it right. We're not sure what the being here wants us to know, or what it wants to see us do; the only thing we're sure of is that it doesn't intend to harm us right now. So... if we're going in, we should go into the most dangerous one."
Just as the bloodstains appeared on the doorknob, Wen Dai turned the doorknob in Lai Wenyi's astonished gaze. A crisp "click" rang out in the room as she pushed the door open.
Before they even entered the bedroom, the fishy smell wafted out and assaulted their senses. The stench was a mixture of many odors, unbearable to their noses and making their stomachs churn; they felt as if they were about to vomit.
Wen Dai clicked her tongue, frowned, and pulled her mask up again, but even with the mask on, she couldn't stop the unpleasant smell from getting into her nose.
The flashlight beam still illuminated the ground nearby. Wen Dai raised her hand, and as the dark bedroom was lit up, the broken woman lying on the bed was also illuminated—even a doll probably couldn't bear what she had gone through; in that position, even a doll would break. The scars on her body were shocking from the eyes to the heart; the bloodstains from whipping were interspersed on the white background, the bluish-purple hues were fresh, and the handprints and teeth marks seemed to be mixed in with the design.
I could guess what kind of disaster she had endured, but I dared not think about it. I didn't even dare to breathe.
Her weak legs were able to support her only because of the stimulation from her nails digging into her palms. When Wen Dai was first shocked by this scene, she almost knelt down. Even after she recovered, her eyes couldn't help but lock onto the woman's body on the bed. She murmured, "The most vicious thing is still a human being. They are worse than pigs and dogs."
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