Through the thick fog, a shabby bus slowly trundled along an endless highway.
There were 7 people on the bus in total: 3 women and 4 men. They sat inside, staring out at the dense fog beyond the windows, their expressions a mix of confusion, bewilderment, and fear... Beyond that, though, all their faces were equally pale—as if they had gone through something terrifying on the way.
The bus drove on until it finally stopped outside an old, dilapidated villa. Shrouded in the surrounding fog, the villa was entirely black, exuding an air of mystery and eeriness.
The bus door swung open, as if telling the passengers inside... it was time to get off.
The 7 people stepped off slowly. They glanced back, a indescribable fear in their eyes—because the driver's seat, where a driver should have been... was empty. Yes, this bus... had no driver.
As the last passenger got off, the bus door closed automatically. Then the bus drove away again, vanishing into the depths of the mist.
The 7 people standing outside the black villa stared at each other, seeing the hideous expressions on one another's faces.
"Let's go..."
"I think we have no other choice."
At this critical moment, a thin man in the crowd spoke. He wore a pair of dark brown square wooden-framed glasses, and his delicate face held a calmness that set him apart from the rest.
"Do we... really have to go in?" A beautiful woman with gold earrings asked, her voice trembling. She was wearing very little, so she felt cold, clutching her arms with both hands and rubbing them nonstop. "What if... it's not safe inside?"
The others fell silent. Originally, they had thought this was some kind of prank, or that someone had specially invited them to take part in a show... But when they realized there was no driver on the bus at all, they were plunged into deep fear!
Though they had all been firm materialists before, the things that had happened earlier... were simply too bizarre to comprehend!
"So you're going to walk into the fog instead?" Ning Qiushui took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. In reality, his heart was racing. Less than an hour had passed since he received that mysterious letter and arrived here—but that one hour had shaken his worldview to its core!
"Have you forgotten? The fat guy who jumped off the bus at that crossroads earlier?"
At the mention of the fat man, overwhelming fear instantly filled the woman's beautiful eyes! Her legs gave way, and she almost collapsed!
Earlier, there had been 8 people on the bus. Everyone had woken up to find themselves suddenly on this bus. Among them was a fat man who had ranted nonstop the whole way, saying it must be some unethical show producer tricking them into a reality show. Impatiently, he claimed their phones must have been swapped out, that the driver was actually operating the bus from under their feet, and that the fog was just dry ice set up for effect, and so on...
Finally, when the bus stopped at a crossroads, the fat man threw open the window, jumped off, and walked alone into the fog... Up to that point, everything still seemed somewhat normal.
However, when they reached the next crossroads, they noticed something floating on the fog-shrouded traffic light... As the bus inched closer, they saw clearly—what was fluttering on that traffic light was the fat man's bloodied skin, peeled off intact! They could even make out his face, twisted in extreme terror, as if he had seen something unspeakably horrifying before he died! And thick streams of scarlet blood kept dripping down the traffic light pole!
This sight had frozen everyone on the bus with fear! Some refused to believe it and pulled open the window—then that sickening smell of blood filled the entire bus...
...
At the mention of the fat man, everyone's face turned grim, and some even began retching.
"...Since no one dares to step into that fog, we have no choice but to go into this black villa..." Ning Qiushui took another deep breath. He was scared too, but for some reason, his reaction had been far calmer than the others'—whether it was seeing the fat man's bloodied skin on the traffic light or smelling that strong stench of blood.
Moreover, he was curious about that mysterious letter he had received earlier. What on earth did the sender want to tell him?
With Ning Qiushui leading the way, the others followed. They pushed open the black villa's iron gate and entered the garden outside.
It was eerily quiet—so quiet it was terrifying. The group huddled closely together. The beautiful woman with the gold earrings felt someone groping her, but she only frowned and said nothing. Being groped was better... than being skinned for no reason!
In this way, they reached the front door of the black villa. Ning Qiushui knocked.
Knock, knock, knock—
As soon as he knocked, footsteps could be heard from inside. The people behind him all stepped back involuntarily, staring at the door warily, their nerves on edge!
Squeak—
The door opened. But the terrifying scene everyone had anticipated did not appear. The one who opened the door was a delicate, beautiful girl who looked to be around 15 or 16 years old.
"Here already?"
"Come in."
When the "girl" spoke, everyone realized—he was actually... a boy. An extraordinarily beautiful boy. But his voice was cold, lacking any warmth.
The group watched as Ning Qiushui followed the boy inside, exchanging confused glances, unsure whether to follow.
"You'd better come in quickly..." Just as they hesitated, the boy's voice came again from inside the house. "That fog... isn't safe."
At the mention of the fog, everyone remembered the fat man's gruesome death, shuddered with fear, and scrambled into the house.
The villa's hall was spacious, decorated in a very classic style. There was a neat row of bookshelves on the left, a wooden staircase leading upstairs on the right, and three large sofas in the resting area in the middle. In the center of the sofas was a burning fire pit.
Four people were sitting around the fire pit, staring blankly at the flames, saying nothing. The atmosphere grew colder and colder in this silence...
"Excuse me... where is this place?"
"Why are we here?"
"What's with the fog and the bus outside?"
"..."
Finally, after a moment of thought, Ning Qiushui asked these three questions. But no one answered him—even the four people by the fire didn't so much as glance at him.
At this point, a bearded man named Liu Chengfeng, who was standing behind Ning Qiushui, lost his patience: "We're talking to you!" "Are you all mute?" His voice was so loud that it boomed through the room, making people's eardrums ache.
Finally, a man in a suit, who was sitting on the sofa directly opposite Ning Qiushui by the fire, spoke: "I know you have a lot of questions..." "If you can survive and come back from the first Blood Door, I'll tell you the answers to these questions."
At these words, a sense of foreboding instantly settled over everyone.
"The Blood Door? What is that?" Ning Qiushui's heart skipped a beat—he thought of the mysterious letter he had received earlier, and asked.
The man in the suit didn't look up; he just pointed toward the third floor of the villa. "You don't have much time. The Blood Door will open in less than 5 minutes. When it does, you'll enter the terrifying world behind it and complete the task written on the Blood Door." "Once you finish the task, the bus will come to pick you up."
After he spoke, a short, thin woman with pigtails named Yan Youping in the crowd asked weakly: "What if... we don't finish the task?"
The man in the suit slowly looked up and met Yan Youping's gaze. His calm yet cold eyes made her heart tremble. "You'll die. And it will be... a very painful death."
On hearing this, everyone's legs went weak. They desperately wanted to believe this was just a joke. But the man in the suit's serious expression shattered the last sliver of hope in their hearts.
"Can we... no, is it possible to not go?" Another young man with dyed blonde hair asked, swallowing hard.
The man in the suit glanced at him. "Yes. But... you'd better never sleep again."
The blonde man froze. "W-why?"
The man in the suit forced a smile that didn't reach his eyes: "Because if you don't go into the Blood Door to finish the task, then... 'things' from behind the Blood Door will come for you. No matter where you run, they'll find you. And then..."
He didn't finish his sentence, but everyone already knew what the end would be.
Ning Qiushui glanced at the third floor, then turned to the man in the suit and asked: "Before we go in, do you have any advice for us?"
The man in the suit was slightly stunned. He then turned his gaze to Ning Qiushui, and when he saw Ning Qiushui's calmness—so different from the others'—a faint, imperceptible look of admiration flashed in his eyes. "Advice... yes. The stories behind the Blood Door are extremely dangerous, but there's more than one way out of each. As long as you find the way to survive, it won't be hard to finish the task and live."
Ning Qiushui nodded. "Thank you."
After saying that, he was the first to step forward and head upstairs. Seeing Ning Qiushui's resolve, Liu Chengfeng, the bearded man, struggled with himself for a moment, then gritted his teeth and followed.
"Damn, buddy... you've got some guts!" Liu Chengfeng whispered as he walked behind Ning Qiushui. He had already noticed Ning Qiushui on the bus—it was hard not to. Whether it was the sight of the fat man's skin or the strong smell of blood, Ning Qiushui had barely reacted.
"Guts?" Ning Qiushui let out a self-deprecating laugh. "Do you think we have a choice?"
Liu Chengfeng was very tall, so even though he was one step below Ning Qiushui, he was only a little shorter. "When we saw the fat man's skin earlier, you didn't even blink. Were you... in that line of work before?"
"What line of work?"
"A hitman."
"You've read too many novels. There aren't that many hitmen in real life."
"Uh... then..."
"I'm a doctor."
"Oh~ No wonder. A forensic doctor?"
"Sort of. A veterinarian."
Liu Chengfeng: "..."
As they talked, they reached the third floor. The moment they stepped up, they fell silent. A strong smell of blood mixed with the stench of rotting wood filled the air.
There was nothing on the third floor except a wooden door—soaked red with blood. Scarlet characters written in blood were scrawled on the door:
[Take care of the paralyzed old lady in the bed for five days]
"Taking care of an old lady... that's our task this time." Ning Qiushui's eyes flickered.
The others climbed up one after another. When they saw the blood-red words on the door, they all froze. "Is it... really that simple?" Wang Yuning, the woman with the gold earrings, said in disbelief.
The group whispered among themselves. Suddenly, they all fell quiet, as if sensing something at the same time. They turned their eyes to the door in unison.
Creak—
It sounded like something was pushing the door from the inside. Soon, a pair of pale hands pushed the door open! As the blood-stained wooden door slowly swung open, everyone's vision suddenly went black, and they lost consciousness.