Chapter 80: The Man-Eating Villa
"This guy has been following us around for two days." Huang Junjie stood at the entrance of KFC, discreetly eyeing the bespectacled young man who had been pretending to be a passerby while circling them three or four times, and said with some confusion, "What exactly does he want?"
For the past two nights, that black shadow had come to harass Xu Huo every night, doing nothing else—it would disappear the moment it touched him.
They hadn't taken the bait at the haunted house, and they thought the matter would just blow over. But this person, who seemed to be the instigator, wasn't planning to let them off. At night, he crawled out of the computer, and during the day, he loitered around the neighborhood, making it hard not to notice him.
Yuan Yao came out carrying a bag and saw him pull down his mask to eat. He quickly said, "Eat it when we get back."
The white shell on his face was peeling off. When he had entered the store earlier, others thought he had a skin disease and actively kept their distance. Yuan Yao didn't dare get too close to him either, afraid of being mistaken for a source of infection.
"When will that thing on your face heal? It looks pretty creepy." Yuan Yao took a sip of his soda.
"In another two days." Huang Junjie said vaguely, then glanced again at the intersection across the street. The bespectacled young man who had been following them was already gone.
He paused, turned back to look at Yuan Yao and the Painting Woman, "Where's Xu Huo?"
Xu Huo had already followed the bespectacled young man onto the subway, maintaining a distance of over ten meters.
At this distance, with his eyesight, he could still clearly see the words on the other person's phone screen:
"I've seen what they look like. One ugly freak, one big idiot, and a woman who's pretty good-looking. None of those three fit the bill. The remaining one should be the one."
After sending the message, he put his phone in his pocket and got off the subway.
Xu Huo followed behind, not bothering to hide his tracks, and followed him all the way to the haunted house they had visited two days ago. Seeing him climb over the wall and go inside, Xu Huo lit a cigarette and stopped by the roadside.
"Did he come in?" Wang Chaoqing, once inside the villa, hurriedly sent a message to the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man, seeing that the person on the surveillance footage was just standing by the roadside smoking, with no intention of entering the haunted house, dialed his phone and said, "Make some noise and see what happens."
Wang Chaoqing deliberately shouted inside the house and smashed a few dishes, but still failed to lure Xu Huo in. He checked the time on his phone and lowered his voice, "Brother Nian, time is almost up. If I don't get out, I'll be in danger!"
"Then come out first." Nian Hong'an said, "This kid is sly and won't take the bait. He might not be easy to deal with. Hurry up and leave from the other side. Don't worry about him..."
Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly saw the person on the screen look up directly at the camera, and he flinched.
"What's wrong, Brother Nian?" Wang Chaoqing tensed up as well, then heard him say, "Nothing. Come on out."
Wang Chaoqing breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he climbed over the wall on the other side, a voice suddenly spoke from behind him, "Leaving in such a hurry?"
Wang Chaoqing was startled. Turning around, he saw the man he had been following for the past two days standing at the corner, staring at him.
"What do you want!" Wang Chaoqing immediately cowered and backed away.
"Weren't you the one who lured me here? You've been hanging around my place for the past two days, and that shadow was your handiwork too, right?" Xu Huo dropped his cigarette butt and crushed it under his foot. "Thanks to you, I haven't slept well in days."
"Too bad that shadow can't be killed."
"After thinking it over, if I can't solve the problem, then I'll just have to solve the person who created it."
Seeing Xu Huo's aggressive approach, Wang Chaoqing didn't say a word and turned to run. As he ran, a shadow of the same size separated from behind him, lunging at Xu Huo with claws bared!
Xu Huo dodged the shadow, hooked his toe against the shadow's calf, and the shadow fell to the ground and vanished into nothing.
Just like the shadow that had crawled out of the computer, it had no attack power whatsoever.
He crossed his index and middle fingers, and the strings hovering around Wang Chaoqing shot forward, wrapping around his neck and dragging him back!
"Brother Nian, save me!" Wang Chaoqing shouted in terror.
Xu Huo lifted him into the air, took the phone from his pocket, found the number for "Brother Nian," and called it. "You're the one hiding behind the surveillance camera, aren't you? Come out, or I'll come find you."
Nian Hong'an was also scared when he saw Wang Chaoqing hanging in the air. He stammered, "Brother, don't be impulsive. Killing someone is against the law!"
Wang Chaoqing was being choked so hard his eyes were rolling back, but Xu Huo's expression didn't change. "What's the matter? Weren't you the ones who proposed the trade?"
Nian Hong'an suddenly remembered that he had replied to someone on the forum, and quickly said, "It was us, it was us. Look, this is all a misunderstanding. I wanted to trade a prop for a ticket, and I was just scoping things out beforehand to avoid being cheated. Please don't take offense."
Wang Chaoqing, hanging nearby, had sharp ears. Hearing Nian Hong'an's words, he kicked his legs frantically in panic. What trading for props? This guy had clearly come to kill people; proposing the trade was just a trick to lure him out.
Unfortunately, Nian Hong'an didn't catch his hint. He hung up the phone and hurried out of the security booth.
Xu Huo quickly saw a middle-aged security guard running across the street. He lowered Wang Chaoqing a bit, giving him room to breathe.
Seeing that Xu Huo seemed willing to let him go, Nian Hong'an pulled a corner of a red object from his pocket. "This is it. How about we trade somewhere else? It's not safe to be seen on the main road."
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. "Go into the haunted house?"
"How could that be?" With Wang Chaoqing in the other's hands, Nian Hong'an didn't dare play any tricks. He just wanted to finish the trade quickly. After all, this glove was useless anyway, and it would be best to send this troublemaker on his way.
Xu Huo pointed to the alley on the side. "Talk there?"
Nian Hong'an nodded repeatedly, and the three of them walked in together.
Three minutes later, Nian Hong'an and Wang Chaoqing were kneeling on the ground, their faces bruised and swollen. Xu Huo stood in front of them, playing with the colorful glove. "Now, tell me. What's really in that haunted house?"
Nian Hong'an stammered, too afraid to speak, but Wang Chaoqing was stubborn. "What's in it? Bro, I don't know what you're talking about."
Xu Huo put away the glove, grabbed Wang Chaoqing's head, leaned down, and dislocated his jaw with his other hand. "If you don't want to talk, then don't."
Dropping the man, he looked at Nian Hong'an. "What about you?"
Nian Hong'an shivered. "I'll talk, I'll talk... This haunted house is very strange. People go in and disappear after a few minutes, and then a few days later, things will inexplicably appear."
"What kind of things?"
"Personal belongings, like wallets, keys, and props..." Nian Hong'an's voice grew quieter with guilt. "We didn't do anything else. We just picked up a few things."
"Is that how you got the glove?"
"Yes... but this is the only prop that works. The others are all useless."
"How many people have you tricked into coming here so far?"
"Just... just a few..." Nian Hong'an said nervously. "We just wanted to get some props. We didn't mean to hurt anyone. They only lost their things. They've probably already left safely."
"Do you believe that yourself?" Xu Huo countered, then continued, "How big is the area? Have there been any special changes recently?"
"Only this villa. It doesn't seem to have changed..." Before Nian Hong'an could finish, Wang Chaoqing started making muffled sounds, as if he wanted to say something. Xu Huo popped his jaw back into place, and he blurted out, "It's gotten bigger! The area has gotten bigger! At first, it was only inside the villa, but in the last couple of days, the front and back yards can swallow people too!"