Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-PerpetualMreow, Proofreader-adjective
Fan Luming’s heart skipped a beat, his fingers trembled, almost dropping the flashlight.
But he immediately composed himself, casually tilting his head in the direction of the window. Sure enough, he spotted a small white shadow in the corner of the window glass, lingering for about three seconds before swiftly disappearing again.
Fan Luming silently took a deep breath, calming his racing emotions. Then, seemingly nonchalantly, he raised his head, turned around, and lightly said to Mr. Dagen and his sister:
“I’m done here. Let’s go, let’s go to the next exhibition hall.”
The tone of the younger brother was very normal, but both Mo Tiangen and Fan Hemian’s eyes widened in surprise.
Thankfully, the change in their expression only lasted for a second before they quickly suppressed the turmoil within them, and continued with their search in every exhibition hall just like before.
At 3:58 AM, Mo Tiangen and the Fan siblings finished inspecting all of the 12 exhibition halls on the fourth floor of the West building.
Everything was calm and normal, with no issues found.
“Ah, you know, what if we guessed wrong?”
Mr. Dagen, rubbing his cleanly shaved chin, called Ji Dong in the East building:
“Perhaps the things lurking in the museum are not hidden in any containers, so that’s why we can’t find them by searching the exhibition halls.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
Ji Dong’s crisp, youthful voice came through the phone.
Just that his voice seemed to carry a slight breath at the end, but it wasn’t obvious. Only Mr. Dagen, wearing the Bluetooth earphones, could discern it. “Since we haven’t found anything so far, let’s just meet up in the lobby on the first floor and discuss what to do next.”
Mo Tiangen and the Fan siblings also thought it was a good idea.
So the three of them left the exhibition hall on the far right of the fourth floor and headed towards the stairs.
They walked slowly down the “Z”-shaped staircase.
When they reached the second floor, Mo Tiangen at the front suddenly stopped without any warning.
“What’s going on?”
Fan Hemian, who was walking behind him, almost bumped into his back and was startled. She abruptly pulled herself to a stop and asked, “What’s wrong?”
She reached out and placed her hand on Mo Tiangen’s shoulder, leaning forward to see.
“Take a look at this, you guys.”
Mr. Dagen turned around and took a step to the side, his expression unusually serious. “I think we’ve found it.”
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.
As he said that, he shone his flashlight onto the floor, signaling the Fan siblings to pay attention.
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Mr. Dagen and the siblings were wearing the sports shoes that were kept in the villa, in the same style. Of course, even the footprints they left behind were the same, the only difference being the size.
However, at this moment, the three of them saw that there was an entirely different set of footprints on the stairs.
From the size of the footprints, it appeared to belong to a man. The pattern was neat, with a snug fit around the edges, resembling a type of leather shoe.
“Look, this person’s footprints overlap with ours.”
Fan Luming raised his flashlight, crouched down, and carefully examined it. “He went upstairs after us.”
Then he quickly flashed the light towards the side, illuminating the corridor’s depths. “He went that way.”
The three of them exchanged glances and chased after the direction where the footprints disappeared.
“Xiao’niao, Xiao’niao, we’ve found something here!”
Mo Tiangen said to Ji Dong on the phone,
“We’re heading there now, you guys come quickly too!”
“Okay!”
Ji Dong immediately replied on the other end of the phone, and added a reminder, “Stay safe!”
——————————
Teacher Dagen and the Fan siblings ran together, following the additional footprints in the corridor, and turned around the two exhibition halls.
Just when they thought the owner of the footprints was heading towards the third exhibition hall, they discovered that they had unexpectedly turned and entered a corner—the restroom!
The three of them exchanged glances, nodded at each other, and followed the footprints of the stranger, turning into the women’s restroom.
The museum’s restroom was quite spacious, divided into two levels with six stalls on each level.
As soon as they entered the restroom, they caught a strong, pungent smell of blood.
“Look…”
Fan Luming’s scalp tingled, and he swept his flashlight towards the last room in the second row. “There…”
His words got stuck in his throat, and he didn’t dare to say the second half of the sentence.
Because the three of them saw a pool of red-black blood seeping out from under the partially closed stall door.
To be honest, although the encounters of the past two nights were extremely horrifying, with specimens and riverbed skeletons, it tested everyone’s psychological endurance. But they couldn’t compare to the shock of this fresh bloodstain.
Because it was just too real.
This looked like a real crime scene, making these young people who grew up in a peaceful time instinctively feel uncomfortable.
If they weren’t aware that they were still in the “24-point” game, they would have had the urge to grab their phones and call the police.
“Well… I’ll go take a look…”
Teacher Dagen took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for about 30 seconds. Then, gathering his courage, he took two steps forward and kicked open the door of the stall.
Everyone saw a young man in his 30s, half sitting and half lying on the floor.
He leaned against the wall, one hand drooping on the water tank, the other hanging by his side. His thigh was covered in numerous wounds, with at least a palm-sized piece of flesh missing. The fresh blood flowing from the wound had stained his lower body red, and the bloodstains even dripped down his pants onto the floor, and even outside the stall door.
The scene was better than he had imagined. Mo Tiangen breathed a sigh of relief and bent down to check the man’s breathing.
“Great, he’s still alive.”
Teacher Dagen said, turning to the siblings.
Fan Hemian and Fan Luming also approached at this time.
The three of them observed the situation in the stall and finally understood what was going on.
They never expected that, even though they spent a full three hours carefully searching every container in each exhibition hall, the museum monster this time did not hide inside any bottles or jars, but instead concealed itself in the toilet water tank.
It seemed that this sacrificial victim tonight arrived at the museum after their group came.
Whether he was lured or controlled by the monster, he entered the restroom stall, cut off the flesh from his thigh, and fed it to the creature hidden in the water tank.
Then, like the previous victims, he intended to move the water tank and smash it, but the tank was too heavy for him to lift. So, he ended up lying on the ground in such a strange half-sitting, half-lying position, unconscious.
“So…”
The three of them exchanged glances once again, then focused their gaze on the water tank behind the toilet. “Who knows, maybe that thing… is still inside?”
Although they searched all night and finally found a clue, it would still take a lot of courage to stick their head in and check the water tank.
At this critical moment, Teacher Dagen stepped forward once again.
He first dragged the unconscious man out of the restroom stall and set him aside. Then, he took out the folding stool hanging from his waist and positioned it in front of him, ready to defend against any possible attacks. He cautiously moved closer to the water tank, taking small steps, and bent down to take a look inside–
The water tank was empty.
Inside, there was neither water nor chunks of meat thrown in by the victim. Only some dark liquid was adhered to the cement on the tank wall, which appeared to be dried bloodstains.
Mo Tiangen: “…”
It was like opening a closet door, expecting to find a pale and miserable Toshio Saeki crouching inside, but it turned out to be empty. The heart that was hanging in his throat thumped down, but it didn’t bring any comfort—because, usually, it meant that Toshio’s younger brother would suddenly appear in another unexpected place when you least expected it!
T/N- Toshio Saeki (佐伯 俊雄, Saeki Toshio) is a fictional character from the Ju-on franchise.
“Wait, look at this!” Fan Luming exclaimed.
Mo Tiangen turned around and saw the younger brother crouching next to the stall door, using the flashlight’s beam as a guide, shining it on the edge of the door frame. “Here, there’s a row of small footprints!”
He quickly leaned in for a closer look and indeed saw a line of tiny plum blossom-shaped prints.
Judging from the direction of the footprints, that little thing must have come out from the stall, skirting along the base of the wall. On the first few prints, there were even some reddish-brown blood stains.
“Is this… a cat?”
Fan Hemian’s throat tightened.
Mo Tiangen nodded, “Yes, it’s indeed a cat!”
———————
“What?”
On the other end of the phone, Ji Dong’s voice sounded extremely shocked, “Are you saying that tonight, we’re dealing with a cat?!”
This time, the breathlessness in his words was even more evident, clearly running at high speed.
According to Ji Xiao’niao, he and Ren Jianmo were currently on their way, having already left the East building and reached the lobby on the first floor. They would be arriving soon.
“That’s right!”
Teacher Dagen, Fan Luming, and Fan Hemian were also running at this moment.
They followed the cat’s paw prints and returned to the fourth floor.
“We’re chasing it, already on the fourth floor. Hopefully, it hasn’t escaped outside the museum!”
In just a few words, Fan Luming keenly spotted the target.
“Look!”
Her younger brother exclaimed loudly, “There, there’s a cat!”
Mo Tiangen and Fan Hemian quickly turned their heads, but only saw a fluffy yellow-brown tail swiftly disappearing around the corner of the corridor.
“Split up and chase!”
Teacher Dagen opened his hands, making a “V” gesture, then swiftly turned around and sprinted towards the direction where the cat’s tail disappeared.
Fan Luming and Fan Hemian understood his intention and quickly turned their heads, taking a different staircase to intercept the escaping cat.
Luckily, when they checked the exhibition hall earlier, they confirmed that all the windows on that floor were securely closed. As long as the cat wouldn’t escape from the stairs, it would be like catching a turtle in a jar. They would be able to catch it.
I’m confused by the beginning of the chapter why they didn’t discuss the shadow?