Tian Chengyun was an ordinary security guard at Jade Water Bay Manor.
After graduating from a standard four-year university, he struggled to find satisfying work. Positions with decent pay required degrees from prestigious 211 universities at minimum, while jobs willing to hire him offered salaries barely better than what vocational school graduates earned. Some paid even less.
Unable to aim high or settle low, Tian Chengyun returned to his hometown to lie flat. Armed with his bachelor's degree, he took a security job at a garment factory for 1,800 yuan a month. Each day he smiled and laughed.
This continued until a few years ago, when a wealthy boss invested heavily in Jade Water Bay outside Gubei Town, planning to build a vacation manor. Many unemployed local youths found work through this major project. Tian Chengyun was one of them.
The manor's investors had deep pockets. Their security recruitment required at minimum a bachelor's degree, fluent command of three languages, and preference for graduate students or doctorate holders with overseas study experience.
Many local vocational school graduates were filtered out. Only Tian Chengyun and a handful of others became Jade Water Bay security guards, earning 8,000 yuan monthly plus full benefits and four days off per month that could be self-scheduled with advance notice.
The moment he received his security uniform, Tian Chengyun felt immense gratitude toward his younger self who had studied so hard through cold nights.
But this well-paid job lasted less than two years before disaster struck.
As the sky became shrouded, communications cut off, and that "ghost" appeared in the manor.
Tian Chengyun watched the usually polished social elites run frantically across the lawn like livestock in a slaughterhouse, dying one by one. An invisible, intangible killer roamed the castle, methodically harvesting each person's soul.
Amid the despair of death, Tian Chengyun accidentally discovered that most people killed by the ghost shared one commonality: their corpses lay under lamplight, as if the light source itself had caused their deaths.
Thinking quickly, Tian Chengyun gathered his security colleague and two waitstaff who happened to flee in the same direction. Together they ran to a first-floor changing room, shut off the lights, and gambled on that possible thread of survival in the darkness.
It turned out he had bet correctly.
Outside, people died one after another, screams and wails endless. The ghost systematically killed everyone, yet never entered this pitch-black changing room, as if those hiding here did not exist.
Tian Chengyun counted his companions.
Four people occupied the changing room: himself, his security colleague Old Li, and manor waitstaff Liu Yunzhi and Xie Yaoan. Both young women were emotionally unstable, their suppressed sobbing audible in the darkness. Old Li was slightly better off but still nervously tense.
"Listen, we can't just sit here waiting to die," Tian Chengyun said. "The manor is haunted. Everyone outside might already be dead, but we're lucky. I've discovered this ghost's killing pattern—it only kills people illuminated by light."
"We can't hide here forever, understand?" Tian Chengyun continued. "The phone won't connect, the network shows no signal, but we must leave this haunted place. So we have to go outside and turn off the lights. Then we might escape safely..."
"No!" A scream pierced the darkness—impossible to tell if it came from Liu Yunzhi or Xie Yaoan. Then came sobbing: "I won't go out! There's a ghost outside! I won't go, I won't go, I won't go..."
Tian Chengyun gritted his teeth, then heard Old Li say, "I know where the breaker is. We can go there and shut off all the castle lights at once."
"Xiao Liu, Xiao Xie, if you're scared, wait here for us to return. When you see the outside lights go out, we've succeeded," Old Li proposed.
"No, no... you can't leave! I won't let you leave!" This time it was clearly Xie Yaoan's voice. She clutched Tian Chengyun's shirt in the darkness, crying out, "What if the ghost comes?! You can't leave! You have to stay and protect me... I'm scared..."
Tian Chengyun's anger flared. "You're not my girlfriend. Why should I protect you? Do I owe you something?"
"I don't care!" Xie Yaoan still wouldn't release his shirt. "Aren't men supposed to protect women? If the ghost comes, you have to— Ah!"
Before finishing, Xie Yaoan shrieked as Tian Chengyun shoved her against the wall.
"You don't seem to understand the situation!" Tian Chengyun roared. "The ghost doesn't care if you're male or female! To the ghost, there are only the living and the dead! I saved you earlier because you happened to be close, not because I owe you anything! If only one of us can survive, then you're the one who has to die! Bitch!"
After Tian Chengyun's tirade, Xie Yaoan leaned against the wall sobbing. "How can you yell at me... I'm a girl, you're a grown man..."
"Forget her. Brother Li, let's go," Tian Chengyun walked to the door and cracked it open slightly.
"You handle the outdoor grid breaker. I'll take care of the indoor one," Old Li suggested. "We'll split up. It'll be faster."
"All right." Tian Chengyun nodded.
Old Li then pulled out a handgun and fired two shots at the lamppost outside the window, shattering the bulb.
Jade Water Bay Manor's security personnel held the same rank as bank armored car guards, legally permitted to carry firearms. However, their magazines could only be loaded with non-lethal rubber bullets. Live ammunition was strictly prohibited.
Even with rubber-bullet riot pistols, only squad leader Old Li was authorized to carry one. Rank-and-file security like Tian Chengyun only had batons.
"All right, let's go." As soon as the words left his mouth, Old Li stepped out first, carefully pressing against the wall as he left the changing room.
Tian Chengyun followed. The two passed through the dim corridor and parted ways at the main entrance.
Old Li proceeded along the castle's outer wall, searching for the indoor grid main breaker hidden in a small compartment.
Tian Chengyun crossed the corpse-strewn welcome avenue, heading for the outdoor grid main breaker installed in the transformer room.
In the castle changing room, Xie Yaoan crouched on the floor crying loudly, cursing between sobs about what kind of men Tian Chengyun and Old Li were. Liu Yunzhi sat beside her in silence, lost in thought.
After walking for some time, squad leader Old Li discovered something strange. Along his route, he found that the lighting had either been switched off or outright destroyed. The castle hall was also dim, its ceiling chandelier somehow shattered at some point.
"Did someone else also discover the ghost's killing pattern? Was it that person who turned off the lights along the way?" Old Li grew grave, lightening his steps as he continued forward, jogging toward the hidden compartment.
He hadn't run far before his steps suddenly halted, shock appearing on his face.
Under a lamppost, he saw a lifeless corpse standing upright, its face still bearing the terrified expression from before death, features unnaturally twisted.
In front of the corpse, a handsome youth crouched on the ground, using a beautiful parasol to conceal his entire body, like a turtle hiding in its shell.
Chapters in advance there: patreon.com/Thaniel_a_goodchild