CH 41

Ruan Yiyi threw herself to the door and kept banging on it. “Help, help! Open the door!” 

She could hear footsteps in the room and the footsteps were approaching the door. Ruan Yiyi didn’t care anymore if it was No. 9 who was supposed to open the door for her next.

She just wanted to get in right now.

The thing next to her was startled by Ruan Yiyi’s movement. It made to leave but the motionless door made it dispel any thoughts of running away. It looked evilly at Ruan Yiyi instead.

Ruan Yiyi pounded against the door even harder but the pounding sound couldn’t cover the sounds of conversation in the room. 

“Don’t! Don’t open it!”

“It must be to scare us.”

“Linlin, did you see or hear anything outside just now?”

Linlin froze for a moment. “No…no…I didn’t see or hear anything.”

“Look, I’m telling you, she’s just trying to scare us. How could there be any such things as ghosts? She’s the only one who keeps harping on about it like some weirdo. I’m calling it now, she’s just scaring us.

“What if… what if? What if something really has happened?”

There was silence in the room.

“Let’s go open the door. When have you ever seen Ruan Yiyi make such a fuss? Maybe it’s…” 

“No!” Linlin yelled. “We can’t open the door! If it’s a real ghost, we can’t open it!”

“…Ruan Yiyi said that as long as we work together to blow away the ghost behind her, everything will be fine.”

“What if we can’t!” Linlin said in fear, “Ruan Yiyi also said not to look back and not to talk. She’s violated it now, can we still blow the ghost away! If we can’t blow it away, aren’t we all going to die with her!”

Ruan Yiyi was still knocking on the door. She had heard the discussion in the room. Afraid that she wouldn’t have time to convince her friends in the room not to abandon her, she didn’t dare to look at the things next to her and she just kept knocking on the door tremblingly, calling for help, “It’s not a ghost, open the door. It’s not a ghost, it’s…” 

A person.

A vagrant had broken into the villa and was now even eating the apple that Ruan Yiyi used to treat friends.

Ruan Yiyi knew of this vagrant. Around this time, he could be found wandering outside the villa. Ruan Yiyi had seen it with her own eyes. He smashed good cars with stones in retaliation and attacked women who were on their way home alone. What scared Ruan Yiyi was that she had locked eyes with this vagrant when he’d committed those crimes.

Ruan Yiyi has always been very vigilant. She would always make sure that the doors and windows in the villa were locked. Only today, only today, Linlin was the last one to enter the villa! 

She had asked Linlin if she’d closed the door properly and Linlin said yes. Linlin also said, even if the door wasn’t closed, with so many people in the villa, who would dare to break in? Even if someone did, was it possible that all of them wouldn’t be able to subdue one person?

But now, someone really had broken in!

Linlin hadn’t locked the door at all!

Ruan Yiyi shouted for help: “Linlin, it’s him! He broke in!” 

Among this group of friends, she was closest to Linlin. When taking photos, she could restrain her instinct to move away and allow Linlin to approach. She really considered Linlin as a friend so Ruan Yiyi chose to address Linlin.

She looked at the door expectantly. The vagrant next to her also heard how many people there were in the room and turned around to leave.

Vevvfcis, Olcilc lcrlvf atf gbbw rjlv, “Gbc’a bqfc la! Vtf’r islcu!”

Olcilc tfjgv la ktfc rtf kjr bearlvf. Vtf vlvc’a atlcx atja atja gerailcu rbecv kjr wjvf ys j qfgrbc. Pa wera yf j utbra. Eejc Tlsl wera tjnf rewwbcfv atf utbra. Eejc Tlsl wera yf erlcu atlr gfjrbc ags ab mbcnlcmf atfw ab bqfc atf vbbg. 

It couldn’t be a person. If someone had broken into the villa, how do you explain the sudden extinguishing of the lights and the sudden turning on of the lights?

The more Linlin thought about it, the more she felt that her guess was correct. She couldn’t allow anyone to open the door. In fact, after hearing Linlin’s analysis, no one else planned to open the door for Ruan Yiyi.

Outside the door, Ruan Yiyi’s eyes dimmed a little.

She turned to look stiffly to her side. The vagrant who had turned to run away had stopped at some point and had even turned back around to look at Ruan Yiyi. After seeing Ruan Yiyi’s gaze, the vagrant gave her a malicious smile. 

“Aaaaaahhhhhh—”

Ruan Yiyi’s screams resounded throughout the villa.

The people in the room looked at each other and no one spoke, let alone opened the door to see what was going on outside. When Ruan Yiyi’s screams gradually subsided and finally stopped, a panic-stricken silence fell outside the room.

It took a while for the rustling sound to fade away before someone nervously asked, “Did the ghost… leave?” 

“It should…it should have.”

“Was that thing outside really a ghost? Why was there such loud movement? It sounded like something was being hit with a stick…”

Linlin grabbed her skirt in panic and shouted, “No! It must have been a ghost outside! It must have been! It must have!”

Everyone stopped talking again and after a long, long time, someone asked again, “The ghost should have already left, do you want to… open the door and have a look?” 

No one could guarantee that the ghost was really gone. What if it wasn’t? Was the sound of its leaving footsteps just a ruse to get them to open the door? Or could its body be gone, but its head was still waiting at the door?

“Then, let’s wait a little longer.” Someone suggested: “It should be fine at dawn.”

The people in the room had no choice but to wait. They’d started this horror game at 12:00 midnight. In summer, the days are long and the nights are short. Waiting until dawn wasn’t too difficult.

The passage of time seemed to slow down amidst everyone’s silence; every minute and every second seemed to stretch. 

No one knew how long it took but someone finally looked at the time and said, “It’s six o’clock, it’s dawn.”

So, everyone looked tiredly at the door of the room.

Who was going to open the door had become a new problem. They dawdled for so long without making a decision and no one was willing to take the risk to open the door.

In the end, there was no reason for the dispute. In the end, all twelve people in the room unanimously decided to go together! 

They touched the door. Their plan was to have one of the boys among them hold the doorknob. If there really was something outside, the boy in front could shove the door open.

But before the boy who’d been entrusted with this heavy responsibility could push down the door hand, Linlin stretched out her hand tremblingly,

‘kachak—‘

The sound of the door lock giving way resounded. 

A narrow gap appeared between the door and the door frame and through this gap, the stench of blood rushed into the room, turning the faces of the people in the room even uglier. But it was when they smelled this blood, that they remembered that Ruan Yiyi had been behind this door.

They had been too scared. Their only thoughts had been whether the ghost outside would break in and kill them, they hadn’t thought of Ruan Yiyi at all.

After the door was opened, a gurgle of blood flowed in from under the bottom of the door, filling the grooves in the gap between the floor tiles, flowing all the way to their feet.

Someone screamed and jumped to avoid stepping on the blood. The room was thrown into chaos because of the blood and no one paid any more attention to the door. 

So the door, that had already been ajar, slowly opened. By the time they noticed, the door was already fully open.

Everyone stared at the scene outside and fell silent. There was blood everywhere but there was no sign of Ruan Yiyi.

“Was she… eaten by the ghost…?” Someone asked in a low voice.

Although he’d said it very quietly, the shock of these words was no less than a tsunami caused by the movement of the earth’s crust. 

“Aaaaaahhhhhh—”

“Help, aaaaahhhhh!”

“Run!”

Twelve people rushed to get out of the room. The size of the door frame as fixed and it was impossible for everyone to squeeze out instantly. Those who managed to get out first rushed to the main doors of the villa. But they found that the doors of the villa had been locked from the inside. Whether they smashed the lock or kicked the door, the doors firmly blocked their escape. 

Those who reacted faster looked to the windows after seeing that the main doors were locked. But the windows on the first floor were all installed with guardrails and they couldn’t get out through the gap between the rails.

The person who failed to get out of the room at the first instance was knocked to the ground. Her hands were covered with blood and the wax from the candles that had burned to nothing during the night.

But she couldn’t spare a thought to the sticky feeling on her hands as she just felt a shadow cast over her head. She looked up blankly. She was so scared that she couldn’t even scream…

Ruan Yiyi. 

Ruan Yiyi’s white skirt was stained red with blood, making it look like she was wearing a red skirt.

“You…you…” She watched in horror and could only make this one syllable from her throat.

She wanted to ask, are you a human or a ghost?

Ruan Yiyi said, “I’m…a ghost now and I’m here to kill you. Are you afraid?” 

As soon as her voice fell, another shadow was cast down on her. The vagrant raised the kitchen knife in his hand and slashed fiercely at the girl.

Ruan Yiyi looked at the girl lying in the pool of blood and the corners of her lips slowly curled up, revealing a knowing and vindictive smile.

The violence amped up the vagrant’s excitement. He said, inarticulately, “Want to play more, I want to play more…”

Ruan Yiyi withdrew her gaze, she looked at the vagrant. This person was sociopath with a violent streak but Ruan Yiyi was no longer afraid. She had reached a consensus with vagrant. She could make him happy and he could help Ruan Yiyi kill these friends who betrayed her. 

Ruan Yiyi pointed at the frightened Linlin at the end of the corridor. Linlin had wanted to escape from the window of the room on the second floor only to bear witness to this scene.

“Kill her.” Ruan Yiyi said indifferently.

The vagrant rushed towards Linlin, brimming with excitement. Screams rang out in the villa one after another. It went on from dawn to dark before the screams stopped.

Once silence reigned, every corner of the three-story villa seemed to be covered in blood. 

The vagrant dragged the corpses to the kitchen and said vaguely to Ruan Yiyi, “Hungry, hungry, I want meat.”

Ruan Yiyi said, “Let’s eat.”

She looked on indifferently as the homeless man cooked the corpses, as her best friend was thrown into the pot. Sitting at the dining table, she watched the vagrant feast. The vagrant looked up at her. “Eat, you eat.”

Ruan Yiyi tried a mouthful and quickly spat it out. She stood up, “I’ll open the door. You can leave after you eat.” 

After saying so, regardless of the vagrant’s reaction or whether he understood her words, she went back to her room, picked up the group photo from the bedside table. She reached out to touch Linlin on the photo. “Linlin…”

It was a pity she hadn’t done it herself.

‘Bam——’

Angrily, she threw the group photo into the trash can. 

…

The people who died in the villa appeared during the second night. On the way to the kitchen to find tools, Lin Yi had paid special attention and had confirmed that there were indeed twelve people plus Luo Yi, Gao Xu, He Mei, and Zeng Jing.

But there was no sign of the ‘more ferocious ghost’ that he woman in red had mentioned.

Lin Yi thought, dazed, that the more ferocious ghost must have left the villa. He hadn’t died in the villa but was executed for his crime. 

This could prove his entire logical speculation.

Lin Yi took a deep breath. He gathered all his remaining strength into his throat and raised his voice, “I’m Linlin…”

On the back of the photo, there had been one sentence that read——Happy birthday, darling! Love you! — Linlin.”

Lin Yi in the refrigerator had yelled with all his strength but it was a very weak sound that rang out. The sound of the woman’s pacing almost covered up Lin Yi’s voice. 

But the woman in red stopped in her tracks and suddenly stared at the refrigerator.

Linlin.

Linlin.

This name hasn’t been mentioned for a long time, so long that the woman in red thought she was going to forget it. But this single mention was like a lightning strike, precisely hitting the memories the woman had locked away for a long time. 

Betrayed and abandoned by her friends, failing to personally take revenge…

The woman in red rushed madly towards the refrigerator and yanked open the door.

Translator’s note:

In summary, they were all very unlikable kids, all thirteen of them, but they didn’t deserve for that to happen to them. I blame Linlin and Yiyi for not checking the locks and I blame all the adults in their life. Like, what kinds of parents are you that you’re fine with letting your kids spend the night unsupervised? And it’s a mixed group of girls and boys on top of that? My parents would have scolded me for even asking. And Yiyi’s parents, where the f*ck are you? You are shit parents. And the cops, like hello, this is an upscale neighborhood, didn’t some Karen-type person call the authorities on this violent vagrant? Policemen, why did you not lock this man away for the harassments of bystanders and the vandalism of private property??? 

This is why I never went to any sleepovers as a child. Also, because my introverted ass would rather do homework all night than do that.