Drip, drip.
The dripping sound passed through the thin door panel, echoed in the darkness, and travelled unhurriedly into his ears.
Drip, drip.
Mo Yi seemed to hear something mixed in with the distinct dripping sound…
That thin, soft, rhythmic dripping sound.
Mo Yi held his breath and moved closer, pressing his ear against the cold and hard door panel. A stinging cold seeped into his skin, bringing along with it a slight tremor from the point of contact.
And as he moved, the voice grew much clearer.
It sounded like…
Crying.
The faint sobbing sounded in the dense darkness which was so dense that it almost seemed solid, echoing in the air like a slender vibrating thread of silk which slowly penetrated into his ears and climbed up along his spine.
An icy chill rose in Mo Yi’s heart. Goosebumps instantly formed on his exposed skin. His back was soaked in cold sweat.
Drip, drip.
The strange and soft crying sound was mixed with the dripping sound, echoing like an eerie whisper all along the dark and narrow corridor.
Mo Yi didn’t know if this was merely an illusion… but he felt as though the sobbing was slowly moving closer to him.
Then—suddenly, it became crystal clear.
Mo Yi couldn’t help being startled by the thoughts in his mind and reflexively backed several steps away from the tightly closed door.
He stood rooted in the dark, desperately suppressing the panting in his throat. The layer of cold sweat on his back glued his thin clothes to his body like a second skin. The ever-present chill in this gloomy corridor grew even colder. Mo Yi fixed his eyes on the door.
The faint crying sound penetrated through the door panel and the wall, piercing into his eardrum like a thin needle making it completely impossible to ignore the sobs.
Mo Yi’s scalp exploded in a bout of tingles.
—It wasn’t his illusion!
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The crying sound that he had to get so close to even hear earlier has grown so clear now. Even though he’d backed away, he could still hear it loud and clear…
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It was too difficult to proceed or retreat.
He could only gamble.
Mo Yi’s breathing grew rapid. He tightened his stiff fingers and subconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva, yet the burning pain in his dry throat instantly felt like swallowing a blade.
Then, with his waist bent, he quickly and quietly stalked towards the depths of the corridor.
Mo Yi supported himself against the wall, and groped his way forward in the darkness cautiously. He tried the ground with his feet several times before he dared to take a step forward, for fear of stepping on something and making a sound which would expose him.
Fortunately, the corridor on the -2F was not full of debris like the one on the -3F, but was so clean that it was almost empty. Mo Yi didn’t encounter any obstacles along the way, and he walked smoothly.
The weeping behind him became clearer.
The thin chokes penetrated his ears, covering the dripping sounds and leaving only the cries echoing in the dark and empty corridor.
At this moment, Mo Yi heard the metallic sound of the rusty doorknob being twisted behind him.
It was followed by a creak, which was very distinct in the oppressive and dark silence.
Mo Yi’s breathing became chaotic. His heart nearly leapt up to his throat. There was a sudden lightheadedness which overwhelmed him, as if he was walking on the edge of a cliff, and the thin air of the high altitude nearly suffocated him.
Suddenly, the area before his palm was a void.
Mo Yi’s eyes lit up. A bright light ignited in his dark pupils—how fortunate!
As he’d expected, it was impossible that there would be only one room in this whole corridor!
In the dark, he gripped the hard and cold corner of the wall with his fingers and rounded the corner at a faster speed.
Immediately afterwards, the sound of the doorknob being turned open came from behind him, followed by the groan of the opening door as it scraped along the ground.
…The door was pushed open.
Mo Yi dodged to the side and hid behind the side wall.
The thin weeping sound slowly moved through the air like a snake. Each sound was clearly transmitted into Mo Yi’s ears, penetrated into every single pore like a stream of flowing slime.
Goosebumps rose on his back.
Footsteps sounded along with the weeping, progressing down the corridor step by step, each sound landing right on Mo Yi’s heart.
At the same time, there seemed to be a slight rustling, as if there was fabric being dragged on the ground too.
Mo Yi’s back was pressed snugly against the cold wall behind him. He furrowed his brows, staring at a corner in the darkness while deep in contemplation, his eyes slightly out of focus.
—When he was on the previous -3F, he’d also heard footsteps and that metallic sound.
Was there any connection between these?
The sobbing sound approached. It was so close that it seemed to be right by his ear. Mo Yi couldn’t help but stop his wild thoughts. He tensed all the muscles in his body and even subconsciously held his breath.
Drip, drip. The origin of the dripping sounds was unfathomable.
However the weeping and footsteps were drawing closer and closer, echoing softly in the silent corridor, echoing right by his ears.
Mo Yi’s fingers tightened unconsciously. A cold and numb pain came from his previously injured thumb which shot all the way up the nerve and twisted in his throat.
The pain sharpened his senses.
So did the darkness.
The sound of crying and footsteps passed by the room where he was hiding in without pausing and continued down towards the depths of the corridor.
It seemed to turn a corner. The sound gradually became smaller, then gradually went away.
The crying sound became as soft and indistinct as before when it slowly pulled away into the distance—
Now, the dripping sound was the main noise again, rhythmically and relentlessly sounding in the darkness, slowly falling drop by drop, seeming nearly calming in Mo Yi’s ears.
He slowly let out the long breath he was holding. The suppressed feeling of suffocation lifted off him, as if the boulder pressing on his chest was suddenly removed.
But Mo Yi didn’t dare to take it lightly.
If the footsteps on this floor were similar to those on the previous floor, it would head back in this direction sooner or later. Time was very tight now, and he could not afford to waste a single minute or second.
He listened intently in the dark for a while, and after making sure that the sound was far away, he groped out in the dark.
Mo Yi raised his head. The light at the other end of the corridor was flickering weakly. Although it couldn’t illuminate the road in front of him, it was still a psychological comfort.
He tiptoed back to the door he hadn’t opened just now.
The door had already been opened at this moment, revealing a narrow gap in the darkness. That rhythmic dripping sound came from the gap, clearly resounding in the darkness.
Using his fingers, Mo Yi carefully pushed the door wider until there was a gap large enough for one person to pass through.
The rusty sound ‘creak’ of the door resounded in the silence, and it was particularly loud in Mo Yi’s ears.
His breathing stagnated, his movements stilled, and his nerves were tensed to the extreme—
Mo Yi listened silently in the dark without moving for a moment, and only after making sure that the sound he’d made didn’t startle anything, did he turn sideways and slip in through the gap.
Once inside, he noticed that the smell of blood was more intense. This sweet scent of rust slid down his nasal cavity into his lungs, accompanied by a slight pain caused by the coldness of the air.
This room was very large.
There was a small lamp at the far end of the room, which cast a faint light that was barely of any use.
Mo Yi squinted his eyes. His vision had already adapted to the darkness so he could distinguish the blurred outlines of the things in the room.
This room was likely the bathing area for the mentally ill patients. The whole space was lined with two rows of dirty and old bathtubs, extending one after another from one end of the room to the other.
Drip, drip.
The dripping sounds echoed in the darkness.
Mo Yi tentatively took a step forward. However, his movements jerked to a standstill as his eyes slowly fell on a bathtub at the other end of the room.
In this deep and dense darkness, there was a vague undulating shadow.
Mo Yi’s heart thundered.
—That bathtub… did not seem to be empty.
T/N: WHO? WHO IS IT???
Thanks for the update
Thank you for the update. This is the scariest arc so far!
Same question! But I’m not confident that I want to know an answer…
Thank you for your translation 💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛
Thank you for the chapter!
It’s probably too much to hope for, that he can get some hot water and sneak in Mist. But I’ll hope anyway!
Huummmm…is this water dripping or blood? Time to read the next chapter to find out! Thank you for your hard work <3
….besides elevators, bathrooms, shower rooms, BATHING AREAS in general, also now are the less likely places you’d find me in a horror instance EVER that and locker rooms 🤔
I LITERALLY SHIVERED SO BAD READING THIS CHAPTER- OMG!! How is Mo Yi so calm I would have went crazy right then and there. sob sob
Thank you Reina-qianbei! heart heart