The air was filled with a faint, salty dampness.
Hua Qi’an felt like she had smelled it somewhere before, but she couldn’t remember.
She tried to get up, but her limbs felt as if they were filled with cement—so heavy she couldn’t move an inch.
She couldn’t even move a finger.
She seemed to recall seeing this kind of symptom before…
Was it called… Sleep Paralysis?
As this possibility crossed her mind, a faint sense of panic crept into her heart.
If it were under normal circumstances, she might not have felt this fear.
But right now, the place where she was lying was a “Haunted House”—
Being pressed down by a ghost in a Haunted House, it was hard not to think of something ominous.
“Ugh…”
A sense of suffocation overwhelmed her mind.
No matter how hard she tried to breathe, it was useless.
It felt like a heavy object was pressing on her chest, blocking the flow of air in her body.
Unable to breathe smoothly, her whole body felt terribly uncomfortable.
Her eyelids were heavy.
As if filled with a thousand catties of sand.
But Hua Qi’an still struggled to force them open.
Her vision was badly blurred—only a vague outline could be seen.
But she could still make out the general layout of the room…
It was exactly the same as the room she saw before going to bed.
She really was still in the bedroom of the Haunted House.
Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to look at her chest.
“Ah…!”
The sight before her shocked her so much that her strength gave out.
The head she had managed to lift a few centimeters crashed back onto the makeshift pillow made of folded clothes.
In that dazed moment, she saw something red and transparent—like a human figure—lying on her chest.
What was that?
Why was it pressing on her?
“……”
The damp, salty smell grew even stronger.
It seemed about to condense into substance in the air.
Maybe because of her earlier movement, that faint red in the corner of her vision began to stir as well.
It seemed to slowly move closer to her face.
Hua Qi’an had no strength left to move.
She could only close her eyes, refusing to see or think.
A blurry female voice whispered softly in her ear, as if sharing some secret meant for the two of them alone.
But she could never make out the words.
All she could hear was that light laughter, as if carried from far away—
Why—how had things turned out like this?
……
One day earlier, Hua Qi’an had taken a part-time job called “Vlog of the Haunted House”.
As the name implied, it involved filming vlogs in Haunted Houses.
Perhaps it was because the job was unusual that she was able to snag it.
Due to her poor health and the fact that she was searching for part-time work, most of her applications were rejected in the first round.
Even if she made it to the second interview, she couldn’t avoid being eliminated.
So when that strange Recruitment SMS arrived on her cell phone, she filled out the Application Form sent by the other party with a ‘why not’ attitude…
…The whispers and laughter by her ear seemed to stop.
But Hua Qi’an still didn’t dare move.
The pressure on her chest hadn’t disappeared.
The relief she had just begun to feel instantly snapped back into tension.
“Hiss…”
She sucked in a breath of cold air.
A cold, slippery sensation, like a wet, sticky tongue, wound its way slowly upward from the sole of Hua Qi’an’s foot, without warning.
When it touched her ankle, the icy feeling seeped into her fragile skin, making her shudder.
The chill crept up from her ankle, making her breathing heavier and more stifled.
The slippery coldness invaded Hua Qi’an’s senses constantly.
As if it had tasted something sweet.
That wet, clammy feeling continued to creep upward.
Wherever it passed, it left a winding trail of moisture.
A lingering, wet chill remained.
It made Hua Qi’an feel very uncomfortable.
Her voice, like her limbs, couldn’t function properly.
It was blocked firmly in her throat.
She wanted to scream or curse, but couldn’t utter a single word.
Her uneven, heavy breathing now sounded almost like suppressed gasping.
The dampness curled around her thigh.
With each tightening, each friction that felt like something wriggling, a shiver ran through her.
Hua Qi’an’s mind went completely blank.
She could only feel the cold, wet sensation still reaching for even more mysterious places—
“Ding-ling-ling—!”
Hua Qi’an’s eyes snapped open.
With a start, she sat up in bed.
The clothes covering her body slipped down with her movement.
Her pale, prominent collarbone was exposed.
Perhaps because of what she had just experienced, a fine layer of sweat coated her skin.
Her skin seemed faintly moist.
Hua Qi’an casually turned off the alarm clock and looked around the room.
It should be just after dawn, the sun barely risen.
Only a faint beam of sunlight shone through the gray curtains.
Enough to let her see the room clearly.
It looked exactly the same as before.
But the difference was, there was no strange Red Shadow.
She instinctively touched her smooth leg.
Straight and slender, the lingering sensation from earlier still seemed to remain.
But when she touched it now, there was nothing unusual.
No odd traces of water, either.
If anything, it was just a light sweat brought on by a nightmare.
Only then did Hua Qi’an’s tensed heart relax a little.
So it was just a nightmare.
Having such a bizarre dream in this kind of place was really uncomfortable.
Hua Qi’an shook her head, certain her face looked terrible.
“……”
She picked up the Outfit that had slipped to the floor when she sat up, shaking it out to smooth it.
Since who knew how long this house had been abandoned, there obviously weren’t any proper pillows or blankets.
Of course, Hua Qi’an hadn’t bothered to prepare any, either.
She’d simply used her Outfit as a blanket and grabbed a random piece of clothing for a pillow.
Now that she was awake, she felt a bit chilly.
So she pulled on her long-sleeved Outfit.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Hua Qi’an prepared to put on her socks and shoes and start the day’s filming.
“Hmm?”
She sensed something strange and looked at her ankle in confusion.
Her ankle was slender, blue veins crossing her pale skin.
A dark, thin, foreign object stood out clearly against it.
At some point, a piece of waterweed with a dull color had wrapped itself around her ankle.
The waterweed had dried out long ago and was no longer wet or slippery.
In fact, it was rough and lifeless from lack of water.
Now it just lay weakly against her skin like a withered vine.
Hua Qi’an hadn’t even noticed the waterweed before.
No wonder she’d had such a strange nightmare.
So the “culprit” was here.
She reached down and brushed the waterweed off her ankle onto the floor.
Her pale fingers flashed, and for an instant, Hua Qi’an had the illusion that the waterweed would curl around her hand.
But in the end, it was only a lifeless, dried-out piece of waterweed.
When had it gotten wrapped around her ankle…?
She really couldn’t remember.
After tidying up her clothes, Hua Qi’an picked up her cell phone and flashlight and walked out of the room.
The room returned to silence and gloom.
For a long time.
A streak of crimson slowly appeared in the center of the room.
A mournful, resentful voice rose from the depths like it echoed from the bottom of a well, wet and haunting.
[Qi’an… Qi’an… Qi’an…]
[You finally… came to find me… hehehehehe…]
Separated by a single wall, Hua Qi’an noticed nothing at all.