ATFBETIBM Chapter 402

The overhead light suddenly flickered for an instant.

The once bright and cozy hall turned pitch black in that moment.

After a few seconds of darkness, the overhead light lit up again.

“Xiao Xin, you always make people worry so much.” Li Manyu’s voice sounded, her fair and slender fingers extended in front of Bai Lixin, pushing a few pills under his eyelids. “Quickly take the medicine.”

This was her third ultimatum.

There was a slight flash of surprise in Bai Lixin’s eyes when he raised his hand. He obediently took the pills, and with the water Li Manyu handed over, he swallowed them in one go.

His Adam’s apple rolled twice, and then Bai Lixin intentionally opened his mouth to show Li Manyu.

Li Manyu also observed carefully, confirming that the pills had indeed been swallowed before returning to her previous gentleness. “You are so good, go and rest well.”

“Oh, by the way.” Just after Bai Lixin had walked for a few steps, Li Manyu called him back, “Open the windows at night. The air outside is clean, and the breeze is cool. Don’t close the room tightly, poor air circulation is not good for your health.”

“…” Bai Lixin looked at Li Manyu, who had picturesque features and a gentle smile. “Okay.”

S419M: [Lord Host, what just happened…]

[It wasn’t me.] Bai Lixin lowered his head and staring at his toes, the dense eyelashes covering his eyes that were deep in thought. [My hand just raised up on its own.]

S419M: [A transitional plot?]

Bai Lixin: [Not sure, but I didn’t actually swallow the pills.]

S419M: [But I clearly saw you put them in your mouth.]

Bai Lixin: [While I was putting them in my mouth, I stashed them in my backpack. Li Manyu doesn’t know about the existence of our backpack space, so to outsiders, it looks like I swallowed them.]

[She kept insisting that I take the medicine; even a fool could tell the pills were suspicious.]

S419M: [And her advice contradicts Aunt Zhang, Aunt Zhang told you to close the doors and windows, while she suggests opening the windows. It seems the truth is gradually coming to light, and some people can no longer sit still.]

Bai Lixin: […]

In the pitch-black, silent night, the clock on the wall ticked rhythmically.

This was a soft and comfortable room.

The wind blew, making the curtains sway gracefully.

Moonlight filtered through the open window, casting a soft glow. In the middle of the room was a large, plush bed with the quilt slightly raised. A glimpse of black hair could be vaguely seen at the top of the quilt.

Time passed little by little.

Suddenly, there was a knocking sound outside the door.

Accompanying the loud knocking was the sound of the door being repeatedly shaken and pushed.

Yet, with such a loud noise, the person on the bed seemed to be sleeping like a log, unperturbed.

The person on the bed remained quietly tucked in the quilt, motionless.

After the knocking sound persisted for a while, it disappeared. A few minutes later, a creepy rustling sound emerged at the window.

If the owner of this room were awake at this moment, they would surely scream.

But there were no “ifs” in this world.

In the soft moonlight, a dark figure slowly appeared behind the curtains.

Through the curtains, a giant spider-like figure with long legs and long arms silently approached the window from the other side of the wall.

“Squeak—”

The window was gently pushed open, and heavy panting sounds entered the room from the window.

The ghostly black figure nonchalantly crawled into the room, hands and feet working together.

Like a gecko, its soft, boneless body slid down the window frame onto the carpet, then began advancing towards the nearby bed.

As it moved, a greedy and terrifying laughter continuously emanated from its mouth.

“Jie jie jie.”

“Are you asleep?”

“Are you sleeping, my dear child?”

The person on the bed remained motionless.

Seeing no movement on the bed, the shadow seemed to become bolder, crawling faster.

Now, it resembled a slippery eel, rapidly crawling to the side of the bed.

A hand slowly lifted the end of the quilt, and then the shadow silently slipped into the quilt as if entering an uninhabited territory.

A strange shape instantly protruded on the large bedsheet.

The protrusion kept sliding within the sheet, getting closer to the person sleeping soundly.

Just as the protrusion was about to reach the sleeping person, its body suddenly started shaking frantically within the quilt.

The quilt revealed the struggle of the shadow, and wailing sounds faintly came from under the quilt.

Under continuous wails, the shadow beneath the sheets gradually became still.

In the darkness, a long, fair hand extended from the quilt, and quickly flipped it open.

There was no sleeping person under the quilt, there was only a handsome young man with clear and bright eyes.

The young man was neatly dressed, one hand holding the quilt, and the other holding an extremely sharp dagger.

The bed surface was soaked with an unknown black liquid.

Bai Lixin turned on the light, and looked at the bed expressionlessly.

As the light came on, this dim room finally brightened up.

The vague black shadow on the bed could now be clearly seen.

However, there was only a pool of somewhat viscous black liquid on the bed, continuously being absorbed by the bed surface at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Bai Lixin rushed to the window, and saw a black shadow quickly climbing up the wall in the night, moving agilely towards the distance.

In the blink of an eye, it reached a room and swiftly crawled in through the window.

If he was not mistaken, that should be Big Zhuang’s room.

Bai Lixin coldly glanced at the black liquid on the bed, quickly opened the door, and arrived at Big Zhuang’s door.

“Bang, bang, bang” he knocked hard a few times, and soon, Big Zhuang’s sleepy voice came from inside, “Who is it!”

Bai Lixin: “It’s me, open the door.”

After a long pause, Bug Zhuang’s voice sounded again, “Ah, is something wrong ? I’ve already gone to bed. Can we talk about it tomorrow?”

“Are you okay? Is there anything strange in your room?” Bai Lixin approached the door, faintly hearing the rustling sound of fabric being groped, followed by the sound of “pat, pat, pat” footsteps.

At this moment, Big Zhuang’s voice seemed to be just on the other side of the door, but he didn’t seem to have the intention to open the door. He answered Bai Lixin from the other side of the door, “No, there’s nothing strange in my room. I’m the only one in my room, no one else.”

Bai Lixin glanced down at the gap under the door, the light passing through revealed two shadows blocking part of the brightness in the corridor.

Bai Lixin, “Were you really asleep just now?”

“It’s, it’s so late, I had dozed off.” Big Zhuang’s voice sounded somewhat guilty, and he stuttered.

Bai Lixin, “Did you see something crawl into the window just now?”

Big Zhuang: “What thing? Can you stop pretending to be mysterious? It’s really annoying. It’s so late, let me sleep peacefully, okay? Please.”

Bai Lixin lowered his chin slightly and his eyes fell on the two black figures.

One of the shadows slowly moved toward the other, and soon the two shadows overlapped into one.

The sound of smacking emerged, and Big Zhuang’s slightly heavy breathing came through the door crack into Bai Lixin’s ears. “I really have nothing here. I’m fine. Thanks for your concern. Please go back to sleep.”

…

Inside the room, two figures were entangled against the door.

The woman’s arms, like two soft and boneless snakes, freely roamed on the man’s body.

From outside came the sound of gradually fading footsteps, and only then did Big Zhuang breathe a sigh of relief and looked at the woman in front of him with some fear.

“Sister Manyu, did Bai Lixin discover something, so he came over on purpose?”

Li Manyu pressed her body against Big Zhuang, “This is my house. I’m not afraid. What are you afraid of? You’re really useless, tall as you are, you’re just a coward. If the sky falls, I’ll cover you. Hurry up and serve me well. Don’t you want the investment sponsorship?”

Big Zhuang took a sharp breath, his face instantly turning red.

Li Manyu’s hands seemed to have some magic power, igniting a blazing fire wherever they went.

He knew Bai Lixin and considered him a friend.

Now, the mother of a friend was seducing him.

Just now, Bai Lixin suddenly came over and almost discovered their affair.

In this moment, a sense of forbidden pleasure instantly surged to his head.

Big Zhuang immediately embraced Li Manyu.

Bai Lixin returned to his room, standing silently at the bedside.

He did catch that shadow just now and wounded it.

But in the final moments, the strength in his hands suddenly disappeared, and it escaped from his grasp.

Following the escape route of that shadow, he coincidentally stumbled upon Li Manyu and Big Zhuang’s affair.

The black liquid had been completely absorbed by the bed surface, and now half of the bedsheet had turned black, looking eerie and strange.

It was already one in the morning, and he didn’t hear the cries from yesterday, but the knocking at the door still came.

Since he couldn’t sleep, he decided to take advantage of the night and explore to see what supernatural things were there in this house.

The surveillance camera overhead lit up with a faint red light.

Bai Lixin put on a coat and opened the door.

The first stop was the supposedly empty room next door.

The lock on this room was the traditional round doorknob with an inset lock. Although Aunt Zhang said the key was with Fei Yino, who said unlocking had to be done with a key?

He might not be able to crack a password lock, but this most traditional lock, the most primitive black technology, could be dealt with.

Bai Lixin calmly took out an iron wire from his backpack, bent it a few times, inserted it into the lock, and in just a few seconds, there was a “click”, and the locked door opened.

The room was pitch-black, so Bai Lixin took out a flashlight from his backpack and turned it on. As the flashlight lit up, his body involuntarily froze for a moment.

There was a long row of sofas at the end of the flashlight. From the back of the sofa, it seemed like there was a head standing there.

Bai Lixin held his breath, and carefully observed that head.

The head stood there motionless, showing no reaction.

After pondering for two seconds, Bai Lixin quietly walked towards the sofa.

He slowly circled around the back of the sofa, and came to the front.

He finally saw the face of the owner of this head.

[Ahhhh!!! A ghost!!!] s419M suddenly screamed in his mind, [That was scary, Lord Host!]

Bai Lixin: […]

‘I wasn’t scared by this head, my soul was almost scared out by your scream.’

The light accurately fell on the face of the head, revealing a skull into Bai Lixin’s line of sight.

This was someone who had been dead for who knows how long.

He sat steadily on the sofa, the already skeletal body still wearing tattered clothes.

His skin was long gone, leaving only stark white bones, with messy hair still covering the top.

The skeleton sat very upright, with pitch-black eyes staring straight ahead.

Bai Lixin rotated the flashlight around, landing on the direction the skeleton was looking.

It wasn’t a wall but a glass pane.

In the illuminated light, the scene on the other side of the glass was revealed.

White tiles.

A clean bathtub.

A neat showerhead holder.

On the other side of the glass was his bathroom.

Bai Lixin glanced at the bathroom, then turned to look at this dilapidated long sofa and the unidentified skeleton on it, then back to the bathroom.

He still didn’t know the identity of this skeleton.

But from the current situation, there was at least one person harboring some perverted thoughts, sitting on this sofa and watching the original owner on the other side of the glass.

The posture of the skeleton was comfortable, legs crossed, arms relaxed at the sides.

At this moment, the audience seemed like the superior outside the beast cage, with the glass being the railing that enclosed the beast, and the original owner in the bathroom was the beast locked inside.

The audience watched the original owner’s actions in the bathroom, with an indescribable arrogance and pleasure.

But who is this skeleton?

Originally, he thought there were only three strange people in this house, but unexpectedly, there was also a skeleton here.

From the level of decay of this skeleton, the wear on the sofa, and the dustiness of this room, the skeleton had been here for a very long time. If an ordinary person knew there was a skeleton next to the room where they sleep, they would probably have screamed in fear long ago. But Bai Lixin only glanced casually and then shifted his attention elsewhere.

The room was very empty.

Except for this long sofa, there was nothing else.

But it wasn’t originally this empty; the sofa was somewhat tilted. Judging from the placement of the sofa, there should have been other things in this room.

In such a large room, the sofa shouldn’t be placed at such an angle.

In addition, there was a conspicuous long mark on the floor, near the sofa. It’s a trace left by the sofa after it had been in one place for a long time and was later dragged.

Apart from this mark, there were many others on the room’s floor. However, he didn’t know what those dragged things were at the moment.

Bai Lixin looked at the floor around him and saw many hair-raising marks inching into his view.

In addition to crisscrossing drag marks, there were numerous handprints on the floor.

They were clear human handprints pressed onto the floor, some with long, thin lines drawn out, others with scratch marks.

The handprints were everywhere, scattered across this dusty room.

S419M: [Ahhhh! Save me, save me, Lord Host, turn on the light quickly, turn on the light!]

The windows in the room were sealed tightly, not letting in any light.

He raised the flashlight and quickly found the light switch on the wall. He flicked the switch, and the gas current made a sizzling sound. The light bulb overhead flickered briefly and then extinguished in an uncooperative manner.

The abrupt light suddenly brightened and then abruptly extinguished, as if it had never lit up from the beginning.

Bai Lixin glanced at the incandescent bulb above and, left with no choice, continued observing the room with the dim light of the flashlight.

He started by examining the sofa and the area around the glass.

There were handprints on the floor, and the wall wasn’t much better. There were patches of black marks on the wall, and in some places, Bai Lixin could see some straight marks.

Unlike temporary scratches, these looked more like permanent marks left by something leaning here for a long time.

Even if Bai Lixin were a god, he couldn’t deduce what was placed here from these flat, blurry marks.

Moving slowly through the room, Bai Lixin noticed several holes in the wall, and there were pieces of mottled wall peeled off from around the openings, revealing a grayish limestone wall.

Bai Lixin touched one of the holes with his fingertip. The hole wasn’t deep or large; it seemed like something had been nailed there before.

As he continued walking, he arrived at the window.

The curtains on the window were removed, and thick wooden boards covered the window, firmly nailed there. Bai Lixin tried to find the gap in the window but ended in failure.

The window was tightly sealed.

Let alone an ant, even a ray of light could not penetrate through.

There were also traces of objects being placed in the room, but regardless of how many things were in this room before, now there was only the sofa and the unidentified skeleton.

After circling the room, Bai Lixin quietly walked backward, gently closed the door, and locked it.

Just as he turned around, a pair of pitch-black eyes appeared in front of him without warning.

Bai Lixin’s heart skipped a beat, and the fingers holding the flashlight turned slightly pale.

He gulped, staring at the man who appeared silently behind him and spoke, “Dad, why are you still up so late?”

The man’s eyes were warm and gentle during the day, showing no ripples. But in the late night, those eyes turned lifeless, resembling a lifeless puppet.

Father Fei didn’t blink. He slowly moved his eyeballs, and his neck didn’t make the slightest movement. Only the black pupils swayed left and right in the eye sockets.

In that swaying moment, it resembled a cursed puppet that usually appears in the dark in horror movies.

In Bai Lixin’s mind, S419m was screaming frantically. Bai Lixin hid one hand behind him, already silently taking out the dagger from his backpack.

After a long time, Father Fei turned around, and his body moved stiffly towards the stairs.

As he walked, his body swayed, looking like a drunk person, yet also resembling someone who wasn’t fully awake.

Bai Lixin was stunned for a second before quickly coming back to his senses and silently followed behind Father Fei.

S419M was going crazy, [Lord Host, what are you doing? He’s so scary! Why are you still following him? Ahhh, please, spare me, give me a break!]

Bai Lixin had a headache due to S419M’s noise. He rubbed his head and said, [He’s sleepwalking.]

S419M: [Ah? I see, no wonder it seemed like he didn’t see you. So where is he going?]

Bai Lixin: [I don’t know, that’s why I’m following him, to see what he’s up to.]

Bai Lixin followed Father Fei quietly, and saw Father Fei slowly walking down the stairs little by little.

Because he was sleepwalking, Father Fei moved very slowly.

Following him to the garden, Bai Lixin watched as Father Fei reached a corner, then stopped. His head swayed left and right, as if searching for something.

Soon, he walked towards the direction of the rose bushes.

Bai Lixin didn’t know what he was up to but still followed.

Father Fei reached the rose bushes, bent down, grabbed a rose stem with thorns with one hand, and the other hand reached into the air, as of holding something, and swayed it at the rose stem.

The hand holding the rose stem was already bleeding, but Father Fei seemed oblivious, continuing the same motion with an expressionless face.

S419M was puzzled: [Lord Host, what is he doing?]

Bai Lixin: [It seems like he’s picking flowers. The gesture of his other hand looks like holding scissors.]

S419M: [Now that you mention it, it does look like that.]

After spending more than ten minutes in the garden, Father Fei stood up. When he did, he put one hand on his chest, still maintaining the imaginary grip, as if he had picked a sizable bunch of roses.

Father Fei even lowered his head to gently smell the non-existent roses before returning to the hall.

Bai Lixin glanced at the roses in the garden and continued to follow Father Fei.

Father Fei went to the flower pots where Li Manyu watered the flowers, mimicked the action of taking a vase and inserting flowers, then placed the “vase” among the flower pots with a satisfied expression.

S419M clicked his tongue, [Surprisingly, Father Fei is a romantic guy. Even when sleepwalking, he picks flowers for Li Manyu. He’s bleeding, but he shows no sign of stopping. What kind of love brain is this? Father Fei is like this but Li Manyu can still have an affair in Fei Fu’s house. Li Manyu is impressive.]

[But Li Manyu is also skilled, not only taming Father Fei but also captivating Big Zhuang. But let’s not say much about it, in terms of human aesthetics, Li Manyu does look good and has a charming personality. With such conditions, if she really wants to do something, it’s effortless.]

Bai Lixin: [Sometimes, what captivates people isn’t just appearance, it may also be true love.]

S419M: [I get it. Big Zhuang is captivated by appearances, and Father Fei is true love. I don’t believe Father Fei can’t see Li Manyu and Big Zhuang flirting in front of him. If Li Manyu is so blatant, and Father Fei can endure, then it’s really true love.]

While they spoke, Father Fei started moving again.

Bai Lixin quickly followed and saw Father Fei heading towards the stairs.

Father Fei reached the second floor, stopped at the staircase, stretched his neck, and looked towards the dark corridor at the end of the second floor.

Bai Lixin also stopped.

Just when he thought Father Fei was returning to his room, Father Fei suddenly turned around, and his face almost stuck to Bai Lixin’s face.

Those pitch-black eyes unexpectedly crashed into Bai Lixin’s gaze without warning.

The gloomy gaze stared intensely, and in that moment, Bai Lixin felt as if he were prey haunted by a vengeful ghost.