Chapter 9: Under the Bed
He didn’t think he’d get the bed. Last night, he wasn’t offered the bed in the master bedroom either.
“Do you not want it?”
“No, no.” Xie Yu was shocked. “Thank you, Boss.”
“Brother, then where do I sleep?” Fatty asked Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng was irked that Fatty didn’t call him boss, but he still replied, “You’ll take the couch, and I’ll sleep on the ground.” Fatty stood beside the bed and stared at Xie Yu, who was lying in bed. His eyes filled with resentment. Then, he turned around to tell Jiang Cheng, “I think I can sleep in the bed.”
Jiang Cheng spread the mattress on the ground and wiggled into position. “No. You cannot.”
Jiang Cheng and Fatty had to stay up to keep watch. Neither of them trusted the one in the bed. Jiang Cheng snatched the watch from Xie Yu since he wouldn’t need it. He made a deal with Fatty that Fatty would stay up for the first three hours, and he would keep vigil for the later three.
“Then, what do you need me to do?” Xie Yu wrapped himself in the blanket and poked his head out to ask.
“I need you to sleep.”
Xia Yu shrunk back. Even his head was gone. He turned into a cocoon. Even though the bungalow had electricity, the supply was not stable. The lights above them flickered and would make this static sound. This was perfect for a horror movie. Jiang Cheng had no choice but to turn the lights off.They could see a general situation of the room using the moonlight that filtered through the window. Fatty lay on the couch. He was fine during the first hour, but his eyelids started to fall. Even though he knew it was dangerous, he couldn’t control him. In the end, his head tilted to the side, and he slumbered. It was a heavy sleep, but it shouldn’t be long. At least when he woke up, the room was still dark. He rubbed his eyes and felt afraid.
Someone slept beside the bed. It was Jiang Cheng. Xie Yu was still a cocoon on the bed. Everything looked normal.
Even though Fatty was tired, he didn’t dare to go back to sleep. To make matters worse, he suddenly wanted to use the toilet. The bedroom had an attached toilet, and it was 5 meters away from Fatty. It was very small, and it was cornered off with half-transparent glass.
However, ever since the middle-aged man died in the toilet, Fatty had a mental and physical resistance to using the toilet. He didn’t even want to go near it.
He suddenly remembered Jiang Cheng’s solution!
The water bottles!
However, he soon sunk into a new pool of despair. Jiang Cheng tossed all the bottles into the trash can before he went to bed, and the trash can…
Fatty took a big gulp. The trash can stood quietly before the toilet door.
Fatty had no choice but to slowly move towards the toilet. Every step was dangerous. He finally got close enough to the trash can. He immediately took the empty bottle out. However, before he could cheer for something, he saw something from the corner of his eye. He turned his head around and saw an arm reach out from the glass toilet door.
…
In the main bedroom, Man Li suddenly sat up from the couch. Then, he ran to the door and put his ear on it.
“What’s wrong?”
Sister Nuan and Chen Xiaomeng sat up in bed. To prevent any accidents, they didn’t remove their clothes before getting into bed. They didn’t dare to sleep too soundly too.
Man Li hushed them. Sister Nuan and Chen Xiaomeng instantly shut up. The air seemed to freeze.
About a minute later, they heard a soft creaking sound. A door had opened. Several seconds later, slow footsteps came from the corridor.
Every step sounded like it landed in the water. Accompanying it was a strange friction sound. It sounded like someone was dragging something heavy across the floor. The footsteps walked in a direction before disappearing.
Man Li and the two women’s faces paled. The footsteps disappeared down the corridor. The end of the corridor was a locked room and nothing else.
Something must have happened!
Who was the victim this time?
Was it the chef Fatty, the cowardly Xie Yu or the… strange Hao Shuai?
…
In the other bedroom, inside the narrow toilet.
Fatty widened his eyes, and his body couldn’t stop shaking. He couldn’t make any sound because a hand had been clamped over his mouth.
Jiang Cheng knelt beside Fatty. They were very close. It was Jiang Cheng’s hand that detained Fatty.
Both of them stared outside the toilet door.
The bedroom door was left open. Moonlight showered through the window. The bed was empty. Once he remembered the scene he saw, Fatty couldn’t stop shaking.
The figure laying on the floor beside the bed slowly stood up. The animation was awkward, and the figure was abnormally bloated. This was clearly not Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng was inside the toilet. He was the one who dragged Fatty into the toilet and covered his mouth. The two knelt on the ground. They didn’t dare to make any sound as they looked through the semi-transparent glass.
The large human shadow crawled under the blanket through the exposed corner. It was unknown what had happened to Xie Yu. Despite the human shadow’s extreme movement, Xie Yu didn’t respond or react in any way.
The bed rocked silently, and the room suddenly became quiet.
Jiang Cheng and Fatty didn’t move.
Eventually, the shadow crawled back out from the blanket. Then, it took gradual steps towards the bedroom door. The sound of water was exceptionally loud in the silent night.
Through the thin moonlight, Jiang Cheng saw the shadow dragging the blanket and inside the blanket…
He turned to look at the bed. It was empty.
Fatty was so scared. His large body trembled so much that Jiang Cheng almost lost control of him. Jiang Cheng had no choice but to pinch him. Fatty’s face reddened but at least he stopped shaking.
After the sound of water and dragging disappeared outside the door, Jiang Cheng and Fatty still didn’t move.
They stayed in that pose until they heard the bedroom door open again.
The first to enter was Man Li. Behind him was Sister Nuan and Chen Xiaomeng. They stuck close to the wall and carefully entered the room.
Jiang Cheng finally let go of Fatty. The two exited the toilet.
Fatty’s lips were still trembling, so it was up to Jiang Cheng to relay what had happened.
He was sleeping when he was woken up by this chill. In his sleepy fog, he discovered a dark shadow underneath the bed Xie Yu was sleeping on.
The shadow was on all fours with its joints twisted abnormally. It was slowly crawling out from under the bed.