"His smile is a bit unsettling, but I heard he’s just sick; he’s a good man."
Wu Ming glanced at his brother and remained silent for a moment. "Just do as I say."
Wu Gang scratched his head. "Oh."
"So, brother, are we still going out to scout the place tonight as usual?"
Wu Ming looked at him. "You’ve only been working at Oasis Community for a few days. Get familiar with the people there first."
Wu Gang obediently agreed.
In another room, everything was laid out with perfect neatness. The room was like a snow cave; the walls were a stark, dazzling white, and aside from a long wooden bench, the outer room was entirely empty.
The mute sat on the bench, his hands resting on his knees as he sat in absolute silence.
After a while, he stood up. A mirror hung on his wall; he walked over and stared at his own eerie face in the reflection for a long time.
He twitched the nerves in his face, pulling the corners of his mouth into an even more exaggerated smile before letting it settle back to its previous curve.
He turned off the light and went to rest.
One floor up, Granny Li knelt before a shrine lit with red candles. The deity inside was covered with a red cloth, and the air was thick with the smoke of cheap incense.
She was muttering incessantly under her breath while a medicine pot simmered on the stove in the inner room, making a bubbling sound.
Across from her, Su Xiaoxi and the other girl were removing their makeup and washing up. They had been hired as property managers for the community across the street, a job that required them to wear full makeup all day.
Only after the makeup was gone were their younger faces revealed.
"Those two new girls seem easy to get along with, much more so than Granny Li."
Mu Qing was a slightly chubby girl who had a very approachable air.
"Yeah, and it doesn't feel as eerie now that people are living next door. That old lady and that doctor who’s always sizing people up really give me the creeps."
The two of them chatted for a bit before heading to bed; their daily workload was heavy, and they needed plenty of rest.
Aside from them, Nan Yue and her group also lay down after a quick wash.
Usually, something would happen at night, whether it was danger or information; for them, it was the key to breaking the situation.
The environment of this dilapidated building was indeed poor; the soundproofing was practically nonexistent, and one could even hear the movements from the building next door.
All sorts of people lived here. Some returned in the early hours of the morning, closing doors with heavy thuds and walking with heavy footsteps.
Nan Yue lay on the sofa bed, listening to the clattering sounds—it seemed someone was dragging something...
Trash.
The scavengers had returned, dragging their haul of bottles and cans.
There were also women in the sex trade next door; the sounds of them soliciting customers lasted until very late. There were also drunks howling like wolves and people pushing open windows to shout curses.
Nan Yue understood why the residents of Oasis Community were so eager to have this place demolished. For those with stable lives, the people here were indeed far too unstable an existence.
Nan Yue closed her eyes. As long as she willed it, nothing could affect her sleep.
In the bedroom, Zhu Xi Ning was not sleeping soundly; she was dreaming.
It was this very room, but it was filled with what looked like countless dense spiderwebs, making the entire space appear grey and gloomy, as if shrouded in a thick fog.
There was medicine everywhere in the room, along with bloodstains, though it didn't look like a crime scene.
The bloodstains were in droplets, not sprays; it didn't look like someone had been murdered, but rather... like the body was leaking.
There was blood on the sofa as well, as if it had seeped out of a person’s body after they sat down.
Zhu Xi Ning felt as though the occupant of this room was like a sponge soaked in blood; they leaked wherever they went, and any pressure made the leaking even worse.
Dreams usually have no scent, but Zhu Xi Ning felt she could smell a scent of decay.
It was somewhat abstract, but that was exactly what she thought at that moment.
It was the scent of germs.
Those fine, dense threads that resembled spiderwebs entered her body as she breathed.
She endured the discomfort and searched the room, finally finding someone beside the cabinet.
Calling them a person was a stretch, as the figure was as thin as a wooden board. The skin was a deep purplish-crimson, almost bordering on brown.
At first, Zhu Xi Ning thought it was some kind of ornament.
That was until she saw the hair, which hung behind the figure like withered branches.
Zhu Xi Ning reached out to touch the person; it felt like touching wood. She didn't dare use too much force, fearing the figure might fall apart.
The person slowly turned their head—incredibly slowly, as if the movement exhausted all their strength.
Zhu Xi Ning saw a face that could no longer be called human.
There was only a thin layer of skin clinging to the skull, covered in countless large and small hemorrhaging points that had turned a terrifying dark brown.
The eye sockets were deeply sunken, making it easy to miss them amidst the dense cluster of blood spots.
Zhu Xi Ning froze.
That inhuman face was her own.
...
Nan Yue slept until six-thirty in the morning, eventually woken by the shouts of the breakfast stalls downstairs.
She got up and stretched before heading in to wash up.
When she came out, she felt something was off. She hadn't been quiet, and Zhu Xi Ning was a light sleeper, so why hadn't she gotten up yet?
Sensing something was wrong, Nan Yue left the bathroom and went to check on Zhu Xi Ning in the bedroom.
Zhu Xi Ning was indeed still asleep, her brow furrowed in a deep frown, looking as though she were plagued by a nightmare.
Nan Yue shook her gently; she seemed trapped in sleep paralysis and struggled for a long while before finally jolting awake.
"Are you okay?"
Nan Yue saw that Zhu Xi Ning’s face looked pale. Zhu Xi Ning took a moment to compose herself before speaking.
"I think... I had a very uncomfortable dream. I was caught in a nightmare."
"My head hurts a bit, but I'm fine."
Zhu Xi Ning got up and moved around, quickly recovering her composure.
"Do you still remember the dream from last night?"
In a mission, Zhu Xi Ning’s dreams were usually a projection of her abilities, representing some kind of crisis.
"I can't remember. It was all white... was it fog?"
"Fog?"
Could it be that the danger wasn't inside the room, but outside?
Zhu Xi Ning said, "I'll have Old Jiang check my head later. The headache is probably why I can't remember."
Nan Yue could only keep a close watch.
"Knock, knock."
There was a knock at the door. Nan Yue checked the peephole and opened it to find Jiang Siyan standing there, holding two egg-stuffed pancakes.
"I thought you’d be hungry when you woke up."
Zhu Xi Ning cheered. "Thanks, Old Jiang!"
As Nan Yue ate her pancake, Jiang Siyan heard about Zhu Xi Ning’s headache. A wisp of white mist drifted toward her head.
"Huh?"
Dr. Jiang narrowed his eyes. "There’s nothing abnormal."
Zhu Xi Ning chewed her food. "Nothing? It really hurts. Maybe it's just psychological."
Everyone gets headaches or fevers occasionally; they usually didn't ask Jiang Siyan to heal them unless they were on a mission, preferring to treat normal illnesses with medicine.
Therefore, it was hard to conclude anything based on a minor physical reaction alone.
Jiang Siyan remained silent for a moment. "Let's observe for a while. That dream you had last night was also very strange."
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