At the same time.
In the villa's basement, the seventh person among the first batch of ten students was coming down.
"1... 2... 3... 4..."
The seventh student held onto the wall and slowly descended the steps.
The pace was very slow.
It took several seconds just to move down one step.
Standing before the final step of the pitch-black basement stairs, the students who had come down earlier were somewhat speechless.
"I say, Chen Chen, can't you walk a bit faster? Are you walking with your feet or shuffling with your butt cheeks?"
The Classmate with Glasses shouted.
The stairs ahead were pitch black; he couldn't see the seventh student at all and could only discern the other's position by the sounds on the steps.
However.
As one of the first to come down, perhaps because he had been in the dark for a long time.
He was gradually adapting to the dark environment. It was no longer pitch black before his eyes, and he could slightly see some outlines in the darkness.
This situation was very advantageous for him.
He was already impatient to join the search.
"Hurry up already," he urged again, wanting to show off in front of Jiang Xinyue sooner.
The other students also urged him on.
"Come down quickly, I want to start playing this game."
"I can't wait to show off my skills. Hurry up, I'm in a rush."
"Coming, coming, stop rushing me. 5... 6..."
The seventh student's voice came from the steps.
He wasn't as brave as the others; fearing he might fall down the stairs, he deliberately slowed his pace.
"..."
Hearing the seventh student slowly counting the steps, the student with glasses and the others were speechless.
The student with glasses said, "I say, Chen Chen, you say 'coming,' then you should at least dare to..."
Accompanied by the sound of the seventh student counting the steps.
"7..."
The moment the sound arose.
"Holy crap, it stinks!"
"What's that smell? It's stinking us to death."
"Damn, who's farting?"
A moldy, rotten stench filled the air around the student with glasses and the others like a mist.
They were so nauseated by the stench that they clutched their noses and gagged incessantly.
However, in the next second.
Before anyone could investigate the source of the smell.
"Ouch."
A slight thud, like someone falling, came from the stairs. In this basement so quiet that a pin drop could be heard, the sound was infinitely amplified.
"What's wrong, Chen Chen?"
Ignoring the stench, the student with glasses realized the cry came from the seventh student, Chen Chen, and thought he had fallen on the stairs.
The others thought so too.
But before they could express further concern.
On the stairs, Chen Chen's voice rang out first.
"So what if I'm walking a bit slow? You guys don't have to be so mean, blocking my way on the stairs and even farting at me."
Chen Chen sat slumped on the steps, clutching his nose.
Just a second ago, as he stepped onto the eighth step, he felt himself bump into a figure.
The figure was standing on the eighth step.
Like a wall.
The impact made his nose throb with pain, but that wasn't the worst part; he smelled a stench wafting directly from in front of him.
Needless to say.
The smell came from the figure blocking the eighth step.
"Huh? We're blocking the way?"
The student with glasses was stunned. He glanced into the darkness beside him and said dissatisfiedly, "Which of you is messing with Chen Chen? Don't fool around. This is on the stairs; if someone really falls, it could be serious."
He couldn't see his surroundings clearly but could vaguely see the outlines of the students beside him.
"Not me."
"Who is it? Stop messing with Chen Chen."
"Not me either."
..."Huh?" The student with glasses froze.
The students on both sides responded one after another, five in total.
That's not right.
Counting Chen Chen, seven people had come down so far. Excluding Chen Chen and himself, there should only be five left. But how could there be five people responding from beside him?
The others were also suspicious and alarmed at this moment.
They couldn't see clearly, but they weren't deaf; they could distinguish sounds. The sources of the voices were from both sides, not from the stairs.
The numbers didn't add up.
Counting the student with glasses, there were six of them in front of the stairs. Adding Chen Chen made exactly seven. So who was playing a prank on Chen Chen on the stairs?
"Is it Liu Yun and the others?" the student with glasses asked.
He thought of the ten people who had come down earlier to hide and prepare to scare them.
The thought hadn't even lasted half a second before it was rejected by everyone, including the student with glasses.
They were standing right at the base of the stairs.
If Liu Yun wanted to go up the stairs, he would have to pass them. In this pitch-black environment, trying to sneak past silently would not only be difficult, but it was also impossible for them not to feel Liu Yun passing by.
At that thought.
They felt an unexplainable chill down their spines.
If it wasn't Liu Yun's group and it wasn't them, then who was blocking the stairs between them and Chen Chen?
There's an extra person... This thought spread through everyone's minds.
"Hey! Liu Yun, stop playing for a second. Something's happened. Say something, quick!"
Ignoring everything else, the student with glasses felt his heart tremble and hurriedly shouted to the people hiding in the three rooms within the basement.
The students beside him were also somewhat panicked.
They were just kids.
In such a dark environment, faced with a sudden eerie situation, no matter how brave they were, they couldn't remain calm.
"Class Monitor! Did you let someone else come down?"
Someone beside the student with glasses shouted toward the basement Entrance door at the top of the steps.
At the same time.
In the living room, at the basement Entrance.
The Birthday girl, who was called the 'Class Monitor', was stunned for a moment.
"No," she asked subconsciously. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"
It wasn't that she was particularly sharp.
It was because just now, something unusual was also happening in the living room.
Half a minute ago.
She, Jiang Xinyue, and the others were waiting for Chen Chen to reach the basement so they could call the next person down, but before long.
Changes occurred in the living room.
First the lights near the basement, then the lights around the living room.
All the lights, from near to far relative to the basement, suddenly flickered as if they were short-circuiting.
The sudden change.
Everyone was startled. In the next second, before the shock had worn off, the lights changed again. Like candles in the wind, still from near to far, the lights emitted a final, faint glow, as if they were about to go out at any moment.
The bright living room now became dim.
Then, they heard the shouts from the student with glasses and the others in the basement.
"Huh? Chen Chen, what's wrong with you guys? Say something!" the Class Monitor said. "Did something happen?"
One second, two seconds... five seconds... Still, not a single sound came from the basement.
At this moment.
Inside the basement.
The student with glasses received the Class Monitor's response and also got a reply from Liu Yuan and the others hiding inside.
"No, did something happen?" the ten people in hiding said one after another.
Dead silence.
Surrounded by darkness, they couldn't see the expressions of those beside them, yet at this moment, the expressions of the student with glasses and the others were surprisingly identical.
That look.
Their faces were practically screaming with terror.
"It wasn't someone sent by the Class Monitor, it wasn't us, and it wasn't Liu Yuan's group. Then who is it?"
With a trembling voice, the student with glasses looked up at the stairs ahead.
Having stayed in the dark for a long time, they had gradually adapted. They could vaguely see that, besides Chen Chen's figure, a tall humanoid outline had appeared on the stairs at some point.
Moreover.
Perhaps it was because they were too afraid; the more scared one is, the easier it is for the mind to wander.
They suddenly realized two things.
First, it seemed to have gotten colder—cold enough to give them goosebumps, with the temperature dropping by at least several degrees.
Second, the nauseating stench hadn't dissipated; on the contrary, it had grown stronger.
Taking a careful breath to sniff.
The smell wasn't that of a fart; it was more like rotting meat. Its source was almost certainly wafting from that outline on the stairs.
For a moment.
The thought of 'an extra person' shifted.
Now, it wasn't just an extra person; it was a tall person emitting the stench of rotting meat.
"Have you noticed?" the student with glasses broke the dead silence.
Then, without giving the others a chance to ask.
He spoke first, "Chen Chen... why hasn't he said anything for a while?"
His words hit their hearts like a thunderbolt.
That's right.
Why wasn't Chen Chen speaking? As the person involved, why hadn't he made a single sound?
"Chen Chen, what are you doing?"
"Say something, Chen Chen. What's wrong with you?"
They didn't dare to think too deeply. In such a dark environment, one's wild thoughts rarely boded well, so they hurriedly questioned the person involved.
It was terrifyingly quiet on the stairs.
Not a single response came.
In the darkness.
Chen Chen was tightly covering his mouth, not letting himself make a sound, even holding his breath as he stared in terror at the tall figure before him.
He desperately wanted to reply to the student with glasses and the others.
But the tall figure on the eighth step made it impossible for him to respond.
A few seconds ago.
After complaining about being pranked and wanting to save face, Chen Chen reached out, intending to scare the person blocking his way.
But when his hand touched the other's skin...
Chen Chen discovered something terrifying.
Cold!
The figure before him was so cold. Its body temperature was as low as dead pork in a freezer, already covered in frost.
Setting aside that it was midsummer, a human's body temperature could never be that low, no matter how much it dropped.
In that instant.
Chen Chen jerked his hand back in fright, a memory surfacing in his mind.
It was from last summer when his grandmother died. He remembered accidentally touching her body; she had been just as cold. To prevent decomposition, ice had been placed beneath her, making her body temperature that icy.
Then, as if remembering something.
Chen Chen curled up in fear, no longer daring to make any sound.
It dawned on him.
Not only was the person before him freezing, but that stench was also very familiar—it was almost identical to the smell of his grandmother's body when it began to rot...