As a small expert in finding things, Dr. Lu found a key in a secret compartment of the desk drawer, which was probably the one needed to open the basement. So the three people hurried downstairs and went to the first floor. It was already 3:40 in the morning. They would return to the outer world in 20 minutes, and they had to solve the problem in 20 minutes, otherwise they would have to wait another hour. Who knew what would happen in the outer world?
Qi Leren and Dr. Lu talked about the task in low voices, and they had to be careful not to let Nan Lu hear about skills - he wasn’t sure how an NPC would react to this.
“Although Nina’s words are full of flaws, let’s listen to her, otherwise it’s easy to have an accident.” Dr. Lu seriously warned Qi Leren, who was eager to move. “Don’t mess around, let’s kill the crazy lady so we can go home.”
“Oh… My warning skill is cooling, and the cooling time is too long. I can’t count on this skill. The S/L skill has cooled down, so I can fight with it,” Qi Leren said.
“My lucky skill was activated at 1:30. After 90 minutes, it’s expired by now. The cooling time is three hours. That is to say, the next time I can use it is after six o'clock, I basically can’t count on it … Take care of yourself, as long as you climb out of the cellar alive, I will treat you and cure you.” Dr. Lu’s tone was filled with a faint sense of pity, and it seemed that Qi Leren was going to suffer misfortune.
“…What if you die inside?” Qi Leren asked sullenly.
“You little devil, don’t talk nonsense! Go fight the boss well! Don’t set up any Flags!” Dr. Lu slapped Qi Leren on the back of his head, giving full play to the majesty of a doctor.
“…Oh.” Qi Leren responded stupidly, remembered something again, and quietly reminded Dr. Lu, “Be careful of Nan Lu.”
Dr. Lu nodded his head.
The deepest part of the corridor was a large kitchen. There were cabinets everywhere in the area of more than 10 square meters. The ceiling directly above the generous prep counter was covered with various nameless kitchen utensils. There were also many pots and pans and some unpacked ingredients on the counter.
“Look at the corner, there’s a dark box on the ground,” Dr. Lu warned.
Qi Leren inspected the kitchen along the wall. The ground was covered with a layer of ceramic tiles with a white background. They reflected his own figure vaguely under the light. He squatted down and knocked on the ground with his fingers. He didn’t feel that any tiles were hollow. Where was the hidden compartment?
“I can’t find it… I wish I had asked a little more clearly.” Dr. Lu murmured, “Should we go ask Nina? Time is running out.”
Qi Leren also stood up from the ground. After squatting for too long, his brain was short on blood. He was dizzy briefly, and the image in front of him was covered with a black shadow. He blinked hard and then suddenly froze.
The cupboard door in front him was made of glass, and the transparent glass reflected the image behind him - a well-dressed blonde woman was sitting on a wooden chair not far from Nan Lu, holding a baby in her arms. She lowered her head and looked at the baby in her arms gently, as if humming a gentle lullaby. And at her feet, the ground was covered with bloody remains, a head wearing a chef’s hat was cut into two pieces, and a maid holding kitchen utensils was beyond recognition… The blood rolled like it was boiling, while the woman holding the baby turned a blind eye to the bloody scene, and was strangely serene.
Qi Leren quickly turned his body, and the wooden chair against the wall behind him was empty.
Was it an illusion? Or…
“What’s the matter?” Dr. Lu looked at Qi Leren striding toward the chair behind him and asked.
Qi Leren forgot to answer him. He dragged away the wooden chair and knocked on the tile under the chair with his finger. It was hollow.
“This is it.” Qi Leren stuck his dagger into the gap between the ceramic tiles and pried it open. Several adjacent ceramic tiles were loose. After they were removed, there was a square iron grate below, like a cellar entrance.
“How did you find it?” Dr. Lu asked curiously.
“I saw her,” Qi Leren whispered, staring at the slightly rusty iron grate underground, and the heavy iron lock that firmly locked it, together with all the evil inside.
“What did you see?” Nan Lu said sharply.
Qi Leren didn’t answer. He said coldly, “Back up and I’ll open the basement. If something is wrong later, you should get out of here…” He didn’t expect Dr. Lu and Nan Lu to help, and the seed of slaughter in him might accidentally injure his teammates, so he would rather face the crazy lady alone.
The heavy iron lock was opened with the key, and Qi Leren’s heartbeat quickened. The cellar door to the basement was opened with a dull sound, revealing a vertical iron ladder and the deep darkness below. There was a stale smell in the darkness, as if it had been sealed for a long time.
Qi Leren’s flashlight had already been lost in the outer world, so he had to use the light of his mobile phone below. The light spread down the iron ladder, illuminating the concrete floor, and there was nothing.
There must be danger down there, which Qi Leren could feel, but he still had to take the risk. After weighing it, he decided to suspend his use of the S/L skill until he found the danger. With his mouth biting his mobile phone, he continued to light the way, holding a dagger inlaid with holy runes in one hand and climbing the iron ladder in the other hand, ready to climb down to the basement.
His foot stepped on the rail of the iron ladder, which was very strong. Qi Leren felt like walking alone into the fog full of monsters, knowing that there was danger lurking in the darkness of the basement, but he forced himself to go on.
Most of his body had descended into the cellar, with only his shoulders above it. Qi Leren nodded to Dr. Lu, beckoning him to pay more attention to Nan Lu. Unfortunately, the tacit understanding between them was insufficient. Dr. Lu waved to him with mirth, and Qi Leren was tired and went to climb the ladder.
A cold wind blew up from bottom to top in the basement, and the lighting range of the mobile phone was narrow, only seeing his own shadow in the beam, surrounded by vast darkness. Climbing down, Qi Leren suddenly stepped on air, and the rung of the ladder was missing. He fell down, but fortunately, his hand gripped the ladder tightly, so he didn’t fall far. This little accident made Qi Leren, who was originally in a calm mood, feel flustered, and there seemed to be a terrible monster lurking in the deep darkness at his feet.
Before he could calm his heartbeat, the foot that stepped on empty air in the dark was suddenly entangled in something, and the something that grabbed his ankle was surprisingly strong. It pulled him down from the ladder and he fell to the ground.
Once again, he fell dizzily, but this time it was much better than falling into the studio from the second floor. At least Qi Leren still had the strength to roll several times, holding up his awkward arm and clenching his dagger.
The mobile phone had fallen to the ground, illuminating a small area. In the dark, it seemed that there was a gentle singing, a faint candle lit up, then a second, more and more… Two rows of candlelight, lit up close to the wall, illuminated this dark and dead basement. At the end of the candlelight, there was a rocking chair with its back to him. The woman sitting in the rocking chair had long golden hair, which fell down like a waterfall.
She gently hummed a lullaby and sang softly in this cold basement.
Qi Leren’s line of sight swept around, but he didn’t see what had pulled him into the basement just now. It was so weird… He even thought of running away, but when he looked up, the open cellar door seemed to be pushed by an invisible hand, and was closed with a loud bang, and the light over his head disappeared, which also cut off his retreat.
With the cellar door closed, the rocking chair slowly turned, like being placed on a turntable, and slowly turned around. The blonde woman in the rocking chair was humming softly with her eyes closed and her baby in her arms.
The rocking chair stopped, facing him, and the crazy lady in the chair slowly opened her eyes - her left eye was exactly the same as the portrait, but her right eye had been gouged out, leaving only a bleeding hole, with blood seeping from her eye to her neck.
This rare and ominous scene made Qi Leren dare not spit out a sigh of relief. He was still, and his muscles were tight to the point of stiffness.
“Are you here to get back at me?” The lullaby stopped, and the crazy lady asked softly.
“…” Revenge? Who wants revenge? Qi Leren’s brain was blank.
“You have taken away my child, what else do you want to take away? His love?” The mad lady’s voice became cold. She looked ahead with empty eyes. She said in a self-deprecating way, “I hate you… Hate you… Envy you… Go back to the grave and keep company with dirty maggots. That’s where you belong. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…”
Her crazy laughter grew crazier and crazier, piercing his eardrums.
She stood up and gently put the baby in her arms on the rocking chair. In the flickering candlelight, the intact half of her face was like the Virgin of Vladimir, but when she was walking towards Qi Leren, the blood and tears flowing from her bloody right eye made her look like the evil spirit from a horror movie.
Two rows of lit candles shook, casting criss-crossing shadows on the ground, shaking, trembling…
There was something creepy, climbing slowly from his feet, stroking his ankles and knees, and climbing inch by inch. Qi Leren slashed the dagger in his hand at the invisible things, and the dagger waved a sharp wind in the air, but it didn’t touch anything. What were these things? What on earth was it?
The crazy lady walked towards him with a strange smile on her face. She walked slowly, but every step was like a stuck video tape, jumping forward frame by frame. This was definitely not what human beings should look like! Candlelight in all directions made her shadow tremble and distort, projecting a strange chaos on the ground.
At this moment, Qi Leren suddenly realized something.
He lowered his head and looked at the shadows climbing his trouser legs, which had no form and no quality, yet still existed…