Nightmare Assault

Man Li’s face dropped as if he had thought of something. He picked up the sports shoes and ran out. He rushed down the stairs. Everyone followed. Fatty and Jiang Cheng stayed at the back of the room. When they passed the boy’s bedroom, Fatty was dragged into it by Jiang Cheng.

“What are you doing?” Fatty covered his body in fear.

“I want to inspect something.”

“Why did you bring me with you then?”

Jiang Cheng opened all the drawers in the room. Then, he knelt down beside the bed and pulled out a pair of slippers from under the bed. He looked up at Fatty and said, “Because I’ll be scared if I’m alone.”

Fatty, “…”

After that, Jiang Cheng and Fatty returned to the living room. The group was gathered around the shoe closet. All the shoes had been taken out and arranged neatly on the floor. Hearing their footsteps down the stairs, Man Li put down the pair of female casual shoes he was holding. Fatty noticed that everyone didn’t look that great.

Just as Chen Xiaomeng was about to say something, Jiang Cheng cut in, “Did you figure out there are not only two boys but also two girls in this bungalow?”

Man Li’s pupils trembled. He was about to say something, but he held himself. After some time, he asked darkly, “Newbie, who are you?”

“Don’t waste time on these things. Tell us what you have found.” Jiang Cheng put down the things and looked at him calmly.

Man Li showed Jiang Cheng the two pairs of shoes. They were both female casual shoes. They were the same sizes, which was why they believed that both shoes belonged to the same woman.

Man Li turned the shoes over. “This pair on the left has severe wear on the outer left while this pair on the right has its wear focused in the middle.” He looked up and into Jiang Cheng’s eyes. “Shoe wear is related to one’s gait and this habit can’t be corrected overnight. Therefore, these have to belong to two girls. There were two girls here.”

“But why is there only one girl’s bedroom on the second floor?” Chen Xiaomeng asked, “And that bedroom only has a single bed.”

Jiang Cheng shook his head. “The smaller bedrooms were both girl’s bedrooms, so naturally they each have one bed.”

“What do you mean?”

“I found this in the bedroom with all the military posters.” Jiang Cheng took out the slippers he found under the bed. “The size is rather small. You can compare it to the casual shoes.”

Man Li accepted the slippers and placed them beside the casual shoes. Everyone could see clearly that these two pairs belonged to the same person.

“But isn’t it a stretch to say that room belongs to a girl based on a pair of slippers? Perhaps the girl accidentally left her slippers there.”

“Plus, based on the room decoration, it should be a boy who lived there.”

“But a boy wouldn’t use these.” Jiang Cheng took out a bag from his pocket and handed it to Chen Xiaomeng. The girl lifted her brow once she saw the content. It was a pack of woman sanitary pad.

“I found that in the bedroom drawer. There’s more than one.” Jiang Cheng explained.

Sister Nuan looked at Jiang Cheng, “So both of the bedrooms upstairs belonged to girls, and one of them was more tomboyish?”

Jiang Cheng nodded.

Chen Xiaomeng’s eyes were unfocused. “Then, where did the two boys stay? We only found three bedrooms in this bungalow.” The main bedroom and the two smaller bedrooms.

“Could it be on the third floor?” Fatty whispered, “We haven’t been there.”

Sister Nuan shook her head. “That shouldn’t be. I looked around when we arrived. This bungalow only has windows on the first and second floors. It should be an attic on the third floor.” Normally, no one would design a bedroom in a windowless room, especially considering how rich the owner of this bungalow was.

Chen Xiaomeng seemed to realise something, and she said nervously, “So… those two boys were not part of this family. They were visitors!”

Man Li glanced at her and corrected her, “More like intruders.”

Jiang Cheng also added, “And they were not boys but two adult men.”

Chen Xiaomeng shivered.

Indeed, after the hypothesis was overruled, based on the two pairs of sports shoes that were left behind, one of them was closer in size to Jiang Cheng, and the other was bigger than Man Li.

Jiang Cheng looked at the two pairs of sports shoes on the ground. “When I first saw them, I was confused. They were so cheap and old. They were clearly different from the other shoes in the shoe closet. The people living here didn’t seem like people who’d buy cheap shoes.”

Silence reigned in the living room. The story turned from a family tragedy to a home invasion.

Then, Fatty looked left and right and announced softly, “So, two guys trespassed into this bungalow, killed the father and mother, imprisoned their two daughters and then killed them?”

“Do you remember the water trail left behind by the ghost? There’s also a lot of long hair in the first-floor bathroom.” Sister Nuan said, “That means the ghost probably died from drowning.

“Xie Yu was frightened to death and then tortured. This would explain why the ghost would put the sports shoes on him. The ghost treated Xie Yu as one of the men who tortured and killed her.”

After they finished their analysis, it was already dawn. No one urged Fatty to cook. They ate some simple food, like bread. It was not that they felt sorry for Fatty, but they didn’t have much time left. Jiang Cheng noticed that days were getting shorter in this world. Based on his calculations, after two more nights, the sun would never rise in this world again.

“What would happen after the day fully disappears?” Fatty asked with his widened eyes.

Jiang Cheng turned around and patted Fatty in consolation, “Don’t worry…”

Fatty’s pale face reddened slightly.

Jiang Cheng finished, “At most, the ghosts will start killing indiscriminately.”

Fatty, “???”

The group walked down the second-floor corridor. They wanted to do a second search of the bungalow while there was still daylight.