CH 418

When Bai Xian saw Han Fei pushed open the door with the pen, his eyes almost fell out from his face. ‘Why is he so professional at this? Has he done this before?’

“Don’t stay too far from me.” As Han Fei looked ahead, he didn’t forget about Bai Xian behind him. He always cared for his teammate, which was a habit he cultivated from the cryptic world.

“Sure.” Bai Xian nodded consecutively. Before this, he thought Han Fei was a great actor, but today he saw the new side to the criminal kryptonite. After pushing the door open, Han Fei didn’t walk in directly but observed the space carefully. The space was filled with dust. There was a man’s footprint on the ground.

“He has gone to the 2nd floor.” Han Fei slowly moved forward but he soon discovered something was wrong. He encountered more footprints on the dusty brick floor but they were all children’s footprints. Han Fei didn’t notify Bai Xian about this to spare him the fear. Han Fei only signaled him to stay close to the wall and do not approach the banister of the stairs. For this kind of old building, the banisters were often loose. If they were attacked, they might fall, breaking the banister.

Han Fei was familiar with the methods of killers due to the experience he collected in the cryptic world. He shared them generously with Bai Xian. This knowledge was priceless and Bai Xian almost cried hearing it. “How about… I go back to the car to wait for you?” Life was filled with choices. Bai Xian was now facing the choice of facing the ghost or the murderer.

“Are you sure you can go back on your own?” Han Fei had reached the stairs. He picked up a decomposing scent in the air, it was very familiar.

“You’re right, I better stick with you.” Bai Xian followed Han Fei obediently.

“Do you smell that? It’s like something decomposing. I smelled the same scent on Xia Yilan earlier.” Han Fei led Bai Xian up the stairs when a ray of light came from the front door. Han Fei reacted quickly and pulled Bai Xian into a crouch. Bai Xian and Han Fei hid on the staircase, a blind spot from the front door.

The ray of light swept around. A man wearing an old security guard uniform appeared at the door. He used the flashlight to scan the room and then as if to boost his own courage, he shouted at the empty room. “Is anyone here? I’m telling you, you are trespassing!” Since no one replied, the guard moved carefully forward. “Stop hiding! I can already see you! If you don’t come out, I’ll call the police!” The place was as silent as a tomb. The guard’s chest rose and fell. His hand that held the flashlight trembled. “I will give you the privacy to leave. I will turn around and give you 10 minutes to escape.” The guard sounded very afraid. He took one step into the room and then took half step back. It made Han Fei anxious.

Just as Han Fei thought about ignoring the guard and continued to head upstairs, Bai Xian’s phone suddenly rang. The melodious ringtone sounded so creepy in the silent plastic surgery hospital.

Bai Xian quickly reached for his phone, the guard was so scared that his flashlight fell to the ground. “When are you two coming back? I’ve already taken the stage twice already.” Bai Xian pressed the wrong button and accidentally connected the call. Director Zhang’s voice came out. Before Director Zhang finished, Bai Xian hung up but the security already saw them.

“Come out! Who is there!” The flashlight rolled very far away. The guard didn’t dare to move too suddenly. He only saw two black human-like shadows on the stairs. “People have died in this place before. This place is haunted so don’t say I didn’t warn you! You better come out now!” The guard gripped the jade pendant around his neck before he took 3 steps forward.

He stared at the two balls of shadows and he stopped. He couldn’t bring himself to move further, “You’re not coming out? Fine, I’ll call the police!” The guard then turned to run out the front door, without even picking up his flashlight. Bai Xian was worried once he heard the guard was going to call the police. After all he was a famous actor, if he was found at this place by the police, he would get on the hot searches.

“Don’t worry, that man won’t call the police, and he is not a real security guard.” Han Fei held Bai Xian’s wrist.

“How would you know that?”

“A security guard’s uniform normally has both their company’s English and Chinese logo. Their guard’s name and code would be sewn on the left chest to prevent copying. However the dark uniform he wore didn’t have any of those. Plus did you notice his cap? It didn’t match the rest of his uniform at all.” Han Fei was very familiar with the security guard profession and the uniform they wore.

“You even knew these things?” Bai Xian was shocked.

“I had a part time job working as a night security guard before.” Han Fei continued to move upstairs, “The man was very loud. Whether he meant it or not, he would have notified the people above us so we need to move faster.” As they arrived at the 2nd floor, there were more children's footprints on the ground. The man’s footprints became harder to follow.

“This place doesn’t look that big from outside but…” Bai Xian suddenly yelped. He touched his neck, something fell into his collar earlier.

“What’s wrong?”

“It was probably a bug.” Bai Xian was not certain. He kept shaking his shirt.

“Be careful.” Han Fei looked down the corridor. The corridor was luxuriously decorated. It didn’t look like a plastic surgery hospital, more like a private recovery centre for the rich and famous. Han Fei moved slowly forward. The door on the left had the name Permanent Youth, the door on the right was named Immortal Consciousness. Han Fei tried the doors, they were locked.

Han Fei didn’t stop to check all the doors since the imminent task was to find that man. Bai Xian and he walked down the corridor and stopped at the first fork.

“Why are we stopping?” Bai Xian stared down the empty and dark corridor, he was worried that a murderer would jump out from one of the doors.

“I can’t be sure which direction he had taken.”

“Hmm? Then how did you know he came to the 2nd floor earlier?” Bai Xian was confused.

“His footprint disappeared here.”

“Footprint?” Bai Xian looked down and with the glow from his phone, he saw the overlapping children's footprints on the ground! “What the fuck!” Bai Xian’s face blanched and he was petrified. “This place is really haunted!” Bai Xian’s eyes were filled with those shoe prints. Children who were here for their surgeries ran up and down the corridor and then they all stopped to stare at him… or at least that was the scene going on in his mind.

Bang! Without any warning, a window down the corridor was shattered, the sound startled the already afraid Bai Xian. They turned back to look and only saw shattered glass.

“Han Fei, we better leave this place. This place is just not right!” Bai Xian couldn’t even go back to the car on his own now. He was almost 40 but this place frightened him tremendously. Han Fei didn’t say anything. Bai Xian glanced at the man and noticed Han Fei’s expression didn’t change at all. “Not everyone can be a hero, I’m more suitable to be an actor.” Bai Xian’s voice was shaking. He grabbed Han Fei’s shirt with one hand and gripped the phone with another. These were his source of security.

“There is another possibility to explain his disappeared footprints. He retraced his steps and went backwards.” Han Fei looked at the broken glass and walked towards it. As he was about to reach the broken window, he stopped. “Most of the glasses are out on the corridor so the person smashed into the window from inside the room. However I remember there was no one in the corridor earlier. The only explanation is that they have been hiding inside the room!” Han Fei whipped his head around and saw a man covered in blood holding a sharp knife standing next to the broken window! The scary thing was this man looked exactly the same as the security guard who came earlier!

“Ghost! Ghost!” Bai Xian felt all the hairs on his body standing. He had never met something as scary as this. Chill crawled into his heart, he felt like his blood was freezing. His brain echoed with the guard’s warning. ‘Many people have died here, this place is haunted!’

Fear made Bai Xian unable to think clearly. He mumbled repeatedly, “The guard is a ghost, the guard is a ghost!”

“Calm down, if he’s a ghost, why would he break the window? This might be the guard’s twin.” Han Fei stared at the man’s bloody face and licked his lips. “If I bent down to examine the broken glass earlier, he would have jumped out from the dark to stab me.”

“He is that guard. The guard is dead, they are all dead!” Bai Xian was rambling from fear. At least he didn’t abandon Han Fei and run away on his own.

“When an actual ghost appears, the temperature will drop. If the temperature doesn’t change, then it means that even if there is a ghost, it’s just an Animated Regret.” Han Fei explained but Bai Xian clearly didn’t understand it.

“What do you mean?”

“It means there’s no need for us to be afraid.” Han Fei looked at the man standing at the window, “You probably haven’t seen a real ruined face before. Their faces would be split open and the flesh would mix with the skin. The muscle’s color is black and the smell of blood can be detected from far away.” Han Fei’s voice caused Bai Xian and the man’s expressions to change. Han Fei was like a gourmet, explaining the difference between imitation human meat and actual human meat.

The man inside the room tightened his grip on the knife. The blood on his face slid down his cheeks.

“What to do now?” Bai Xian was the most anxious. His clothes were soaked in cold blood. Han Fei didn’t answer Bai Xian but took out his phone and pressed the record button. When he took out the phone, the man inside the room thought Han Fei was about to call the police. He jumped out through the window without hesitation!

The bloody face, the large body and the glinting knife, they enlarged in Han Fei and Bai Xian’s eyes. The scary man possessed a terrifying presence. As he grinned cruelly, he walked towards Bai Xian and Han Fei.

“This is bad!” Bai Xian dragged Han Fei to slowly retreat. His heart was filled with regret, they should have escaped earlier. “We shouldn’t have waited for him to come out of the room!” Bai Xian’s legs were like noodles, he couldn’t run even if he wanted to. “Han Fei, you’ve helped the police so many times, did they tell you what to do in a situation like this?”

“Well, when we encounter a criminal with a knife, the first thing to do is not to fight but to run if possible.” He said as he undid the button on his suit. He then glanced at Bai Xian. “What are you waiting for? Run!”

The 3 of them ran at the same time but Bai Xian and Han Fei were running down different directions!

At that moment, Bai Xian and the murderer were confused. Han Fei moved so fast, he never thought to escape in the first place. Before the murderer thought to wave the knife, Han Fei was already close to him. This man had been trained by many ghosts. His action was quick and ruthless.

Han Fei landed a kick on the murderer’s knee. The sound of bone dislocation cracked. As the murderer lost his balance, Han Fei grabbed the murderer’s face with his hand. Han Fei borrowed the weight of the man and slammed his head against the wall!

Bang! The paint of the wall peeled and cracks appeared. A bloody flower remained at the spot where the man’s head kissed the wall. The body crumbled. The grinning murderer was now unconscious.

Kicking the knife to the side, Han Fei patted away the dust on his suit and then switched off the recording. The whole process lasted less than 3 seconds. When Bai Xian heard the noise and turned back, the terrifying murderer had already fainted.

“You…” Bai Xian looked at Han Fei in the western suit and black leather shoes. Staring at the polite and introverted man, he didn’t know what to say.