Nightmare Strikes

Translator: Cinder Translations

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He glanced out the window. The sunlight was a bit glaring, but he knew that according to his previous calculations, there were only three hours of daylight left, and now half of that time had already passed. 

Once night falls again, the world they were in would enter eternal darkness. 

"Time is running out. We'll split up to search," Jiang Cheng turned his head to look around. "Fan Li, you're on your own. Fatty, you're with me. Move as quickly as possible, and pay special attention to anything like keys. There might be clues behind that iron door on the third floor, but I've already tried. Without the key, we can't open it with the tools we have." 

"Alright." 

The two groups wasted no time and spread out. 

Jiang Cheng's group, having an extra person, was responsible for searching the larger first floor, while the second floor was left to Fan Li. 

It didn't take long for the search to yield results. Jiang Cheng found a rope in an inconspicuous corner beside the stairs. The rope was tied at a corner of the second-floor hallway near the stairs, with the other end dangling down to the ground. 

Jiang Cheng ran up the stairs and found the other end of the rope tied to a spot on the second floor—right where he and Fatty had hidden the night before. But there hadn't been any rope there at that time. 

Hearing the two of them coming upstairs, Fan Li came out of the study. "What's up?" 

Jiang Cheng pointed at the rope. 

After a moment, they returned downstairs and followed the rope's descent, heading towards the other side of the living room. The door to the small room where firewood was stored was ajar and opened with a push. 

Fan Li's expression suddenly changed. "Yesterday, I tied this door handle with a rope to the nail beside the door. How did the rope disappear?" 

Fatty, with his sharp eyes, walked into the room and found a piece of rope behind a stack of firewood. 

The rope had been cut into two pieces, with the cut edges clean and neat. 

Fan Li took the rope and felt it with his hands. Looking up, he confirmed, "It was cut with a knife or something similar." 

Behind the small firewood storage room, there was another door, but the firewood in front of it had been moved aside, leaving a clear space. 

Jiang Cheng walked over and gave the door a push, but it didn't budge. 

He peered through the glass window on the door, looking outside. It was the back of the villa. 

There weren't many fallen leaves on the ground, but since it had rained earlier, the water hadn't dried yet, and the ground was still damp with mud. 

Clear tire tracks were visible in the muddy ground. 

"It was left by that big bus," Fatty said in surprise. 

The strange thing was, there was no road around here where a bus could drive in—it was all forest. 

But that didn't matter anymore. What mattered was that they now knew how Sister Nuan and the others had left. 

Fatty, imitating Jiang Cheng, shook the door hard, but it didn't show any sign of opening. 

"Stop shaking it," Jiang Cheng said. "You won't get it open." 

Fatty stopped shaking the door but still asked, "If this door can't be opened, how did they leave?" 

Fan Li, standing behind them, suddenly spoke, "It's time." 

"Time?" 

"Yes," Fan Li looked at Fatty, who was confused, and nodded. "The timing isn't right. Only at a specific time does the bus appear, and then the door can be opened." 

"3:07 a.m.," Jiang Cheng said. 

Fan Li looked at him in surprise, then nodded. "You figured it out too." 

"What are you two talking about?" Fatty blinked. "What's 3:07?" 

"Remember when Xie Yu died?" Jiang Cheng said. "I checked my watch at that moment, and it showed 3:07 a.m."

The chubby man asked in surprise, "But in this world, isn't the time shown by the watches inaccurate?"

Fan Li continued, "It's inaccurate, but at a certain specific time, it becomes accurate again. On the night Xie Yu died, I heard a strange sound and glanced at the time," he took out a pocket watch from his pocket and waved it in front of the chubby man. "It also showed 3:07."

"But not long ago, I had just checked the time, and it showed exactly 6:00. This means that all timekeeping devices suddenly synchronized to 3:07 at a certain moment."

The chubby man's eyes suddenly widened, and as if something struck him, he looked toward Jiang Cheng. "So last night in the study, you were waiting for the watch to show 3:07! Because that's when the ghost would appear!"

Jiang Cheng's face showed no reaction, but the chubby man continued, "The ghost didn't come to us at that time, so you went to test and find Sister Nuan, and after you realized she was still alive at first glance, you told her that Fan Li was already..."

He suddenly stopped speaking.

After all, Fan Li was standing there, completely intact.

The rest of the events were simple. The three returned to the living room. Jiang Cheng sat on the sofa, Fan Li stayed by the fireplace warming up, while the chubby man was still deep in thought.

Fan Li mentioned that he had counted six tire tracks in the ground behind the villa, meaning the bus had come three times, and they had spent exactly three nights in the villa.

The sky had turned completely dark. Fan Li clutched the pocket watch, glancing at the time from time to time.

No one knew how long it had been when the chubby man, whose mind was swirling and who was on the verge of dozing off, suddenly heard Jiang Cheng say, "Time's up!"

Fan Li stood up at the same time and put the pocket watch back into his pocket.

They all headed toward the storage room in the corner of the living room. On the way, Jiang Cheng and Fan Li were very cautious; after all, it was the final moment of the mission, and no one knew if the ghost would suddenly appear.

As they entered the firewood storage room, a light suddenly flickered on the open ground behind the villa.

A large bus drove over from the distance and slowly came to a stop about 20 meters from the villa.

Fan Li took a deep breath, placed his hand on the door in front of him, and gently pushed it open.

The door opened.

The chubby man was so overwhelmed with emotion that he almost cried.

Fan Li was the first to walk out, followed by the chubby man, and then Jiang Cheng.

Having spent their time in the warm villa, they weren't accustomed to the cold outside.

Fan Li raised the collar of his leather jacket, Jiang Cheng tightened his coat, and the chubby man hugged himself to keep warm.

The bus door slowly opened, and the three of them walked toward it.

Onboard were the same people: the couple, and the mother and child, all sitting quietly in their seats.

The tour guide, who had introduced herself as Ms. Zheng, stood in the bus, just as enthusiastic as before. "Sorry to keep you waiting, passengers! Now, we're heading home."

Home—a word so enticing that the chubby man could barely resist jumping onto the bus, but a discordant voice stopped him.

"Step back!"

The chubby man turned to see Fan Li staring at them with a sinister look, the sharp boning knife in his hand gleaming under the moonlight.

"I said, step back!" Fan Li, his face full of menace, waved the knife at the couple, forcing them to step back and clear the bus door.

Fan Li was the first to run onto the bus.

Just as the chubby man was about to pull Jiang Cheng onto the bus, he noticed that Jiang Cheng hadn't moved.

The chubby man looked at him in confusion.

Jiang Cheng's gaze slowly swept across the bus before finally locking onto Ms. Zheng's face.

"Passenger, don't you want to go home?" Ms. Zheng smiled sweetly, slightly bowing, revealing a beautiful rose tattoo on her slender wrist. "If you're late, you won't be able to go back."

(End of the Chapter)

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