Chapter 208 – Nightmare from Ten Thousand Years Ago – Scene Reenactment (04)
With Bai Tang leading the way, they quickly returned to the room they had been in earlier.
They had already searched the cabinet drawers and all the obvious places, but found nothing. Mu Quyan looked around—there had to be somewhere they had missed.
In his mind, Bai Tang called out to Xiao A. Just as Xiao A turned off the signal jammer, Qiu’er’s high-pitched scream seemed like it could pierce through Bai Tang’s skull.
Xiao A immediately covered its mouth. In front of Qiu’er was a display screen; its eyes were red and swollen, filled with tears.
“Tang Tang, are you okay? I was so worried about you, wuwuwu~~~”
Once Qiu’er stopped screaming, Xiao A let it go.
Though Qiu’er was scared itself, it was even more worried about Bai Tang. When Xiao A turned off the jammer, it grew anxious and started watching the outside world through the screen. It had just seen the part where Bai Tang climbed the water pipe to get the key, and the sight had frightened it into screaming.
“I’m fine. Qiu’er, quickly help me check—is there any hidden clue in this room?” Bai Tang asked.
“Y-Yes…” Qiu’er stumbled around the room, scanning everything, before finally stopping at a landscape painting on the wall.
“B-Behind the painting,” Qiu’er said, curling up in Little A’s arms.
At the same time, Mu Quyan realized something was missing from the room.
A clock. There was no clock in the room—how were the occupants supposed to tell time?
“Look for a clock,” Mu Quyan said.
Wei Kexin and Qi Jiu went into the other room to search. Bai Tang and Mu Quyan stayed in the living room.
“I want to take a look at that painting,” Bai Tang said, pointing at the picture hanging on the wall.
The painting did seem out of place. Judging from the furnishings, the owner of the house clearly wasn’t well-off, but the painting was noticeably more valuable than anything else in the room.
It was hung quite high, out of Bai Tang’s reach.
Mu Quyan reached up and took the painting down, revealing a clock hidden behind it.
The old, worn-out clock was broken. Both the hour and minute hands were frozen at 4:30.
Mu Quyan had a feeling this was some kind of clue. He memorized the time on the clock face and called everyone back to the breaker room.
“When that woman shows up later, we’ll all run in different directions,” Mu Quyan said, holding Bai Tang’s hand tightly.
When the final wire was connected and the switch flipped, the breaker door slowly rose.
The woman in the red dress stood not far behind them, holding a spring-loaded knife in her hand, watching.
“Ahhh—!” the woman screamed as she charged at them.
“Run!”
Mu Quyan and Qi Jiu each grabbed the person they cared about most and dashed through the breaker door. Qi Jiu pulled Wei Kexin upstairs, while Mu Quyan led Bai Tang forward.
The woman in red didn’t go upstairs—she only followed Mu Quyan and Bai Tang.
Their path ahead was blocked by furniture. Mu Quyan pushed Bai Tang to crouch and move ahead while he stayed behind to cover her. Just as he was about to make it through, the woman in red caught up, lunging with her knife toward Mu Quyan’s back.
Bai Tang looked back and saw what was happening. Heart pounding, he turned and threw himself at the woman in red, taking the blow in Mu Quyan’s place.
All three tumbled into the pile of furniture. The long-decayed floor couldn’t withstand the weight any longer and collapsed, creating a gaping hole. Bai Tang and the woman, along with a heap of furniture, fell through.
“Tang Tang…”
Below the hole was pitch-black, and the sound of howling wind could faintly be heard.
Mu Quyan turned on his flashlight and looked down—it seemed to be a drainage tunnel.
He jumped down. Amid the broken arms and legs of chairs and sofas, Bai Tang was nowhere to be seen.
“Tang Tang… Tang Tang…”
His voice echoed through the vast drainage tunnel.
No, I can’t panic. Stay calm.
Mu Quyan forced himself to stay composed. Bai Tang had been taken—he must be scared. He had to find him, fast.
In truth, Bai Tang’s situation wasn’t nearly as dangerous as Mu Quyan feared.
Because they had entered this dimension through brainwave transmission, the moment Bai Tang began falling, Qiu’er pulled him into the little white room. The woman in red lost her target and soon vanished into the drainage tunnel.
“Tang Tang, you scared me to death—wuwuwu~~”
Before Bai Tang could even steady himself, a little husky came rushing toward him and dove into his arms.
“Thanks so much just now, Qiu’er.”
Thankfully, Qiu’er had pulled him into the space in time—if he’d come face-to-face with that woman in red, he might’ve died of fright.
Xiao A watched the affectionate scene between the person and the dog and couldn’t help feeling a bit left out.
Ungrateful brat, he thought silently. When there’s trouble, it’s always ‘Xiao A’; when there’s not, it’s all ‘Tang Tang’.
“Host, because of the emergency, I temporarily pulled you in here. But you can’t stay for long—you’ll have to go back out,” Xiao A reported dutifully.
“That woman in red is way too much… She appears out of nowhere. If this keeps happening, she’s going to scare me to death sooner or later,” Bai Tang said, still shaken.
In the meantime, Xiao A had been scanning the storyline of this dimension. A rough outline was starting to take shape.
Then Xiao A said, “I’ve found a key location. I’ll send you there in a moment—be careful, Host.”
Bai Tang took several deep breaths, trying to suppress his fear.
“Okay. Send me back.”
As soon as Bai Tang left the little white room, Mu Quyan—who had just climbed out of the drainage tunnel—seemed to sense something. He turned and sprinted madly in a certain direction.
Back on Bai Tang’s side, he was transported to the center of a cross-shaped apartment complex.
Before he could even check the map to see where he was, a loud noise suddenly came from outside.
Startled, he instinctively ducked into an empty room and cautiously peeked out the window.
Dang dang dang—
The chime of a bell rang from somewhere unknown, and the building’s main door creaked open.
The woman in the red dress entered, dragging a heavy burlap sack behind her, a crazed look flickering across her face.
Her red dress was clean this time—nothing like the disheveled mess he’d seen earlier.
Bai Tang held his breath as he watched the woman pull a long-haired girl out of the sack.
She tied the girl to a post in the central courtyard and splashed a bucket of water on her to wake her up.
The girl woke up and shouted hoarsely at the woman in the red dress, “Let me go! Attacking me from behind? That’s not fair! If you’ve got the guts, fight me one-on-one!”
The woman let out a cold laugh, grabbed the girl’s hair and yanked her head back viciously.
“Fair? Did you ever talk about fairness when it came to Xiaohui?”
She slapped the girl hard across the face—twice—then spat on her.
The girl’s face quickly swelled and turned red. She continued cursing, so the woman stuffed a wad of dirty cloth into her mouth and turned to the well, sharpening her spring-loaded knife on the stone edge.
But the girl wasn’t idle either—she slowly scooted to the side and began using the stone steps to rub against the ropes on her wrists.
Before long, she broke free. Grabbing a large stone, she smashed it toward the back of the woman’s head.
Don’t assume only men can fight fiercely—women can be just as ruthless. Especially when the hatred between them is already beyond reconciliation. The two brawled violently, grappling from one end of the courtyard to the other.
In the end, the woman gained the upper hand in strength and stamina. She brought the girl down with her spring knife and shoved her into the well.
Blood covered the woman’s red dress. Her expression was deranged, and one side of her face had been battered into a bloody mess by the girl’s stone strike. She leaned over the edge of the well and burst into wild laughter.
Bai Tang wanted to see if the girl might still get up—but in doing so, he accidentally knocked a loose stone from the windowsill.
“Who’s there?!”
The woman’s voice was hoarse as she narrowed her eyes in the direction the stone had fallen.
The moment the stone hit the ground, Bai Tang ducked down. Cold sweat soaked his back as the sound of footsteps drew nearer.
He squeezed his eyes shut and resorted to the childish trick: If I can’t see her, she can’t see me.
In his mind, he chanted over and over, You can’t see me, you can’t see me, you can’t see me…
The thick smell of blood filled Bai Tang’s nostrils. The woman passed right outside the window where he was hiding. Because of the angle, although they were separated only by a wall, she didn’t see him.
After a rustling sound, everything went quiet again. Only the lingering stench of blood in the air reminded him that a brutal killing had just taken place.
Suddenly, the door creaked open.
Bai Tang’s internal alarm blared—terror surged through him. A thousand silent screams of “you can’t see me” raced through his mind.
A hand landed on Bai Tang’s shoulder. In his mind, the string labeled “rationality” snapped with a twang. In a panic, he heard a thump—his clothes fell to the ground, and out scurried a little squirrel.
The squirrel squeaked frantically as it ran to the corner of the room, burying its head against the wall with its butt sticking out.
Mu Quyan looked at the round, fluffy little squirrel in the corner. He wasn’t shocked by the transformation—in fact, he thought it was kind of cute.
Tang Tang turned into a squirrel?!
Actually, that worked out just fine. He had finally found Tang Tang, and now that he was in squirrel form, Mu Quyan could just tuck him into his pocket.
“Tang Tang~”
Mu Quyan’s voice was gentle and affectionate as he scooped up the squirrel, who was frantically trying to dig into the corner.
“Tang Tang, it’s me.”
Hearing the familiar voice, Bai Tang lifted his head—it really was Mu Quyan.
“Squeak squeak squeak—” He scurried up Mu Quyan’s arm and perched on his shoulder. “Squeak squeak squeak—” There was this crazy woman—she scared me to death!
His lover’s embrace and the crook of his neck were Bai Tang’s favorite places to curl up, whether in human or squirrel form. They made him feel safe.
“Don’t be scared, Tang Tang. I’m back now. I’ve found you,” Mu Quyan soothed him.
Before long, Bai Tang changed back into his human form, with a big fluffy tail still dragging behind him.
“Ah Yan~”
The boy’s eyes were filled with tears as he threw himself into Mu Quyan’s arms.
Then, all in a rush, he recounted everything he had just seen.
Mu Quyan’s heart ached for the terrified Bai Tang. After listening to the story, he had already pieced together most of what had happened.
Along the way—after climbing out of the drainage tunnel and searching for Bai Tang—he had made quite a few discoveries himself.
“Don’t be afraid, Tang Tang. This is a scene reenactment—it’s showing us why the woman in red ended up like that.”
Just then, a sound came from the well—as if something had been thrown into the water.
Mu Quyan picked up a watch he’d found earlier and checked the time. It was exactly 4:30.
“That girl… is she still alive? Should we try to save her?” Bai Tang asked timidly.
Mu Quyan gently patted his head.
“We can’t save her.”
They really couldn’t. What Bai Tang had witnessed was something that had happened a long time ago. The girl in the well had long since become a pile of bones. But because of the deep resentment she had carried in death, the last 30 minutes of her life replayed over and over again.
Anyone who entered the nightmare space and made it all the way to the old city would be able to witness the reenactment between 4:00 and 4:30.
Author’s Note:
I probably won’t focus too much on the horror parts moving forward… because I’m scared too, 23333.