The ladder wasn't very long, and the two of them quickly climbed to the bottom.
This appears to be an underground warehouse, filled with various items. At the far end of the warehouse is a blue door. The warehouse is very clean, as if it's regularly maintained, so the footprints don't reveal where the previous group of people went.
The warehouse was surrounded by boxes of all sizes, but Yin Zhu had no interest in seeing what was inside.
Walking straight to the door, Yin Zhu gently pushed it, but the door didn't budge.
"Won't we need a key again?"
Seeing that the door wouldn't open, Mu Yunsheng was already thinking of pinching his philtrum. At this point, there were only about three minutes left before the thirty-minute limit expired, and time was ticking away second by second, and it seemed that danger could strike at any moment.
“No.” Yin Zhu shook her head, gripped the doorknob, turned it, and pulled it toward herself: “This door isn’t pushed, it’s pulled.”
Mu Yunsheng: "Ellipsis"
Yin Zhu didn't hear clearly: "What did you say?" She seemed to have heard something strange.
Mu Yunsheng nudged her, skipping the topic: "Let's hurry, it's almost time." With that, Mu Yunsheng stepped into the second area first.
The door doesn't lead to the outdoors; instead, it leads to a standard duplex villa.
Similar to the church, all the windows inside could not be opened. Through the glass in the windows, Yin Zhu could easily see the outside, which was blocked by red bricks and tightly sealed with cement.
The villa, like the church, was covered in dust. The messy footprints on the ground made it hard to tell what had happened here. The decorations on the ceiling were dilapidated, and the walls were covered with faded old wallpaper. The furniture was left untouched in its original place.
However, there is one obvious difference between the villa and the church: there is no blood or signs of a fight inside.
Yin Zhu looked around, then suddenly leaned close to Mu Yunsheng and said mysteriously, "They must have entered here and bumped into that clown. Later, they escaped back to the church through the secret passage, but unfortunately, they couldn't escape death."
"So, the clown will appear here too?"
Looking at the lifeless house, Mu Yunsheng felt a sense of panic. Her gaze kept scanning the dark corners of the villa, fearing that a clown might appear somewhere.
Sensing Mu Yunsheng's negative emotions, Yin Zhu took her hand and gently patted the back of her hand: "Don't be afraid, it's okay."
After a pause, Yin Zhu added, "You can go and look for a place to hide now, so you don't run out of time to hide later. I'm going to explore this villa first; I've never stayed in a villa before."
Strictly speaking, this statement is indeed true, but it doesn't mean that the person has never been to a villa.
During Yin Zhu's elementary school years, there was a classmate who seemed very wealthy to her. That classmate once invited the entire class to her family's mansion for her birthday, a scene straight out of a novel.
Although we were all elementary school students at the time, we still understood basic manners. No one dared to run around; we all followed that rich little girl to visit her house.
However, when recalling the scene now, Yin Zhu feels like Grandma Liu visiting the Grand View Garden.
Fortunately, she was older and less naive, so she didn't show any weakness. Yin Zhu's calm face showed no surprise at the large villa, and her mind immediately began to draw up the interior design drawings of the villa as she looked at it.
The church storeroom is connected to the main entrance of the villa's living room. Upon entering, a spiral staircase leads directly to the second floor. To the left are the living room, laundry room, and bedroom, all connected to the entrance hall. To the right are the kitchen, dining room, bathroom, and playroom. The building as a whole resembles a church, with its entire design in the Old World style, reflecting to some extent the owner's aesthetic and cultural tastes.
Yin Zhu went up the stairs to the second floor. The stairs creaked as she walked, but the entire villa remained quiet, with no sign of any clowns about to suddenly appear and attack.
Compared to the emptiness of the church, this place feels more "human." For example, newspapers are scattered on the ground, unfinished books are left face down on the table, and ties hang on coat racks. Every detail conveys to visitors the history that "someone once lived here."
Upon entering the second floor, you are greeted by a living room. A glass coffee table holds a cup of cold tea, and the sofa is somewhat dented, suggesting that someone may have been there recently.
Three bedrooms and a study occupy most of the second floor, with a bathroom next to the study.
There is a door on the second floor that seems to lead to the terrace, but it is also welded shut with bricks, making the whole villa feel very oppressive, as if people are imprisoned in a cage and unable to gain freedom.
On Earth, such a windowless house would be called a "dead man's house." The older generation would tell you it's unlucky, while the new generation of scholars would argue from a scientific perspective that windowless houses have poor lighting and that living in them for a long time can easily lead to depression.
Even without the clown appearing for the time being, Mu Yunsheng was still like a frightened little rabbit, trembling with fear: "Shall we look for the exit? We should go to the next area."
Yin Zhu agreed with this idea: "This house is so big, let alone finding clues about [Mr. Horror], it will probably take a lot of time just to find clues about the door."
As they were talking, the two of them had already reached the top of the stairs on the second floor.
Yin Zhu pointed to the stairs and asked Mu Yunsheng, "Then I'll go downstairs to look for it, and you can explore the second floor?"
"Am I alone?" Mu Yunsheng tugged at her sleeve. "Can't I explore with you? I'm afraid something might happen..."
"Don't worry, there shouldn't be any danger for a while. There's even a safe period when playing the horror game 'Phobia' where the ghosts never appear. If you really can't handle it, prepare a place to hide in advance. If you encounter danger, just hide inside and never open the door." Yin Zhu pried her hands off and went downstairs, looking back every few steps. When she reached the first floor, she waved and said, "Don't be afraid. The more afraid you are, the more likely something terrible will happen."
Mu Yunsheng took a deep breath, but still couldn't suppress his negative emotions. He could only look around in a panic, pick up an old newspaper from the ground, and try to distract himself.
"Beep-click—"
Before she could even start reading the newspaper, a piercing sound suddenly rang out from the television in the living room, startling her so much that she screamed and sat down on the floor, nearly tumbling down the stairs.
The television, which had been off, was now displaying static. Even without a signal, the noise was terrifying enough for the fragile Mu Yunsheng. She instinctively covered her head and trembled, not daring to look at anything around her. Then she heard hurried footsteps rush past her and a "click" as the television was turned off.
"Are you alright? The TV's off, you're fine now." Yin Zhu's gentle voice rang in her ear.
"I didn't—" Mu Yunsheng breathed a sigh of relief, but as soon as she raised her head, what came into view was a clown mask with a strange smile on its face.
"ah--"
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