### Chapter 13: The Bleeding Walls
Scraping off the putty at this frequency, the beam from her flashlight revealed varying thicknesses—one side was deep, the other shallow, like someone had just slopped it on without care. She was working at the wall’s base, precisely where it was thicker.
Underneath the ghostly white putty was a black wall, and Zhao Mingyue immediately recognized it as scorch marks from a fire.
What was creepy was this: she scraped a bit of the black carbon ash away with her finger, and when she twisted it between her fingers, this clumpy, earthy substance surprisingly shimmered a dark red!
Bringing her fingers to her nose, a stench wafted into the air, pungent and somewhat rancid, reminiscent of that awful smell when a fridge full of bl**d-thawing in the summer goes kaput, combined with a hint of earthy rot and disinfectant.
“What on earth is this…”
In her mind, Zhao Mingyue was screaming for Bai Yu, desperate to know what this stuff was. bl**d? Something else? If it was bl**d, was it… human bl**d?
“Don’t ask, it’s bl**d—human bl**d,” Bai Yu quickly answered.
“Human…bl**d?” Zhao Mingyue’s pupils dilated. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t terrified; even with her tough mental game, this was her first mission.
“W-what do I do? Should I call the cops?”
Upon hearing that there was human bl**d in the walls, Zhao Mingyue’s initial instinct was to dial 911.
“Calm down, steady now. Here’s what you need to do—take a few steps forward, and every step, make a scratch on the wall.”
“Okay!”
Afraid or not, Zhao Mingyue gripped her staff for dear life, crouching down. With each tentative step forward, she made a mark on the wall. After six steps, Bai Yu finally told her to stop.
“Is this all… bl**d?” She swallowed hard; the flashlight revealed each scratch was equivalent to the first—blackened burn marks tinged with dark red.
“This bl**d has been here for a long time. To put it another way, the corpse that produced this bl**d has been lying here for ages. And it’s not just bl**d; there’s other stuff mixed in.”
Bai Yu’s voice echoed ominously in her mind, making her shiver.
“If I’m not mistaken, there’s a corpse soaked in bl**d in one of the rooms in this building, and it’s highly likely the victim of a fire—probably that woman from the fifth floor.”
“C-corpse bl**d? But how did that bl**d end up in the walls?!”
“bl**d isn’t just going to show up out of nowhere! I can tell you this bl**d was definitely not smeared there by the female ghost; someone did it on purpose.”
Zhao Mingyue froze, “Are you saying a living person intentionally smeared this bl**d on the walls?”
“Exactly.”
“W-why on earth?”
“Unclear for now.”
“Could that disinfectant be to mask the smell?” Zhao Mingyue thought aloud, connecting the dots. “But why only the fourth and fifth floors? I haven’t seen anything on the first through third!”
“Not certain, but you’ll find out tonight. Keep moving.”
They hadn’t even started the game yet, and Zhao Mingyue was already hit with a lead weight. Sticking close to the wall, she jumped back suddenly after Bai Yu’s revelation, hesitant to walk near it anymore.
Toughing it out, she approached Room 405, but it was empty. It wasn’t until she reached the end at Room 408 that she caught a glimmer of someone living there.
She attempted to knock, the sound echoing strikingly in the silent dark hallway.
When no one answered, Zhao Mingyue garnered her courage and knocked again. Just then, the iron security door swung open, revealing a face so weathered it looked like it had survived several tornadoes—the face of a middle-aged man.
The man reached for her wrist, but Zhao Mingyue was quick and dodged.
“What do you want? Spit it out!” he said, irritated.
“N-nothing! I’m a resident here and just wanted to ask when the power might come back on?” She discreetly stepped back while her hand tightened on her staff.
This guy had been standing behind the door when she first knocked, peeking through the peephole on her second attempt and lunging for her hand as soon as she knocked again.
“Need something? Come in, we can talk. I can lend you a candle or flashlight.” His attitude flipped a complete 180 as he put on a not-so-reassuring smile that made Zhao Mingyue’s skin crawl.
The mess behind him looked like a tornado had hit a recycling center—empty liquor bottles, takeout boxes, and nasty, long-haired instant noodle containers littered the tiny room with barely any foot space.
“No, no, no, it’s fine. I have candles at home.”
Just as Zhao Mingyue turned to leave, he slammed the door shut, but she could see it crack open slightly as she was walking away, those beady eyes lurking in the gap, watching her every move.
Confirming the fourth-floor resident, Zhao Mingyue headed for the stairwell.
As of now, she hadn’t found much on the fourth floor, and she’d never even set foot on the fifth floor.
She felt a chill; based on her quest’s sub-quests, things definitely weren’t that simple. Maybe the truly scary stuff was waiting for her upstairs!
“There’s only one tenant on the fourth floor, and they’re not exactly chatty. Are there any residents on the fifth?”
The staircase to the fifth floor seemed swallowed by darkness. Inside that darkness, were there unseen eyes peeking out at her?
Just as Zhao Mingyue stepped onto the stairs, footsteps echoed from below.
Those footfalls sounded familiar—like someone was slogging around in soggy shoes down the hallway, each step squishing out a soft splash.
Wasn’t that the new tenant?
Zhao Mingyue took a step back, but now there were knocks resonating through the corridor—this guy was methodically knocking at every door!
Now she faced two options: she could retreat to her room and wait for him to knock his way up, which would be a serious time waste—it was already eleven-thirty-five! Opening and closing doors might land her face-to-face with this creepy dude.
Or she could bolt for the fifth floor now! If the man followed her, they could play a delightful game of cat-and-mouse. If he didn’t, even better!
The knocks downstairs were intense, like the guy had somewhere urgent to be. But the weird part? He was hammering away without uttering a single word!
Oh, and he was already on his third door without a soul willing to check on him.
“Not waiting around! The game is about to start, and I need to be on the thirteenth step of the fifth floor by midnight!”
