When Zhang Ning floated this suggestion, it was immediately met with unanimous opposition.

"Forget it then," Zhang Ning shook his head in disappointment, letting the majority rule. "I just thought we could check if that empty house was truly vacant and fully furnished. If it was, we could use it as our gathering spot from now on."

"Yeah, I heard it has water and electricity, fully equipped with furniture, a TV, a telephone, a computer... everything, but just no occupants."

"Is it really that good?" Everyone suddenly sounded interested.

"Exactly, that good. And it’s a two-story cottage, with a small garden—you could call it a villa."

"How could a house like that be empty?" they exclaimed in disbelief.

"Didn't I tell you? It’s haunted. The owners either died or fled. Of course, it’s empty," Zhang Ning said impatiently. "Enough talk. Let's go find somewhere else to hang out."

"It's a shame no one has come here to shoot a horror film—why haven't these houses been slated for demolition?" Gao Jiming sighed. "What a waste of prime land." His father was a real estate developer, and he had picked up quite a bit of insider knowledge.

Zhang Ning shook his head. "I heard they planned to tear it down long ago, but several owners are abroad, some are unreachable, and some can't come back to sign the papers. So, it just gets dragged out year after year."

Cai Che, lagging at the rear, shrugged. "Zhang Ning, you seem to know quite a bit about this place?"

The vegetation in the courtyard of the house before them was far more lush than in the other yards. Moreover, the yard itself was clean and tidy; a small flagstone path wound through the shade of the flowers and trees, leading to the entrance—not even a stray weed or fallen leaf was visible. Approaching the door, they saw bluestone steps and a slightly yellowed wooden door, from which a string of wind chimes hung, making a soft ding-dong-dong sound when the breeze touched them. Facing such a house, which showed no trace of eeriness, Yan Weixing suddenly shivered. He hesitated for a moment before turning to his companions, "This place... this place might truly be... let's go back?"

The other three looked at him simultaneously.

Yan Weixing had always claimed he could see or sense those "things," and his grandfather was rumored to have been a Daoist priest who trapped demons for a living (though he committed suicide during the Cultural Revolution). His maternal grandfather had been a monk (later leaving the order because he fell in love with Yan Weixing’s grandmother). His paternal aunt was some sort of part-time spirit medium. In short, his entire family was steeped in the mystical. His friends had always treated what he said with skepticism, just for fun, but now he sounded utterly serious.

Zhang Ning probed tentatively. "No way, you've already seen them?"

Yan Weixing shook his head. "I just suddenly felt a chill run through me."

"Slap!" Gao Jiming smacked him hard on the head. "You’re cold because you didn't wear enough! Stop playing spooky games. Come on, let's go inside."

"Didn't Zhang Ning say two people died here? Maybe that's why you're cold," Cai Che said with a mischievous, wicked grin. "But I’m a materialist; I don't believe in that stuff. I’ll go first." Saying this, he started looking for a way to open the door.

According to Zhang Ning's police cousin, the house was originally inhabited by a family of three. One day, the family went out to see a movie. When they returned late, the husband walked ahead to unlock the main door, while the wife secured the courtyard gate with their child behind her. The husband went inside first, but when the wife locked the gate and turned around, she noticed the lights were off inside the house. "Power outage?" she thought, unconcerned, walking toward the entrance while asking the question. As she stepped inside, she felt something soft underfoot. Looking down, she saw a person lying there. In the dim light, she recognized the figure as her husband and screamed in terror. She rushed to flip the light switch, and the room instantly flooded with light, prompting another piercing shriek from her.

Minutes later, neighbors, drawn by the screams, found the couple collapsed on the floor, the child wailing beside them. More horrifyingly, two other corpses lay in the living room—two men, mouths agape, eyes wide with an expression of witnessing something terrifying, and each had a hole burned through their chest where the heart should have been. The neighbors immediately called the police and rushed the couple to the hospital, taking care of the child. After the police investigated, they confirmed the husband was dead, with no discernible cause—no external trauma, no signs of heart attack or cerebral hemorrhage. The wife had merely fainted upon seeing the bodies in the living room after turning on the light; she had no idea what had happened or even that her husband was dead. Only the three-year-old child kept crying inconsolably, as if he had seen something the adults could not. Perhaps the husband had encountered some "thing" the very moment he opened the door, leading to his demise?

Later, the wife was institutionalized due to the severe trauma, and the child was taken in by his paternal grandfather. The house remained empty, its furniture untouched. As for the two dead men, the police exhausted all means but couldn't identify them, leaving the case unsolved and filed away in the overcrowded cabinet reserved for cold cases.

After the incident, residents nearby frequently reported hearing crying, pleas for mercy, and ghostly wails from the house late at night. Eventually, even the residents of house number 4's neighbor moved away, and the rumor of the haunting solidified around this house.

Now, Zhang Ning, Yan Weixing, Cai Che, and Gao Jiming, four teenagers, were eager to explore it.

"I always felt my cousin was just trying to scare me with the ghost stories," Zhang Ning muttered, fiddling with a living room window until he finally managed to open it. He started to climb in, saying, "He always embellishes the cases he works on with ghosts to frighten me. So, there might not be ghosts here, but it’s almost certainly an empty house. He wouldn't lie about something so easily verifiable."

"I agree. Where are the ghosts in this world?" Cai Che climbed in right behind him.

Gao Jiming said excitedly, "I actually hope it's true. Imagine the thrill of 'seeing a ghost'!" As he spoke, he nudged Yan Weixing, urging him to go first, then followed him in and closed the window behind him.

The boys stood still for a moment, their eyes slowly adjusting to the dim light of the living room.

The living room was small, furnished with a complete set of rattan chairs and a large marble coffee table. Against one wall stood an étagère displaying a few small items like vases and bronze cranes, but conspicuously absent were a TV or stereo system.

"Where is that fully equipped setup with the TV and computer you mentioned?" Gao Jiming playfully hit Zhang Ning.

"It has so many rooms; they don't have to be in the living room," Zhang Ning retorted stubbornly, though he also felt the living room décor was surprisingly sparse. The first floor only contained a kitchen, the living room, and a small storage closet. After a brief discussion, the boys decided to check the second floor first. Gao Jiming illuminated the staircase with a small flashlight, followed by Zhang Ning and Yan Weixing, with Cai Che taking the rear guard. They ascended the stairs cautiously.

There were three rooms upstairs, all with closed doors.

Gao Jiming casually pushed open the door directly facing the staircase.

This room appeared to be the largest, with another door leading out to a balcony. For some reason, the owner had not used it as a bedroom but had converted it into a study. Except for the door and window positions, the walls were lined floor-to-ceiling with bookshelves, packed tightly with volumes. Under the window sat a large desk, furnished with items like ink stones and brushes; a brush rested on the ink stone, placed over a sheet of Xuan paper. They peered over it—it was an unfinished painting, only a few sparse lines outlining the posture of a hibiscus flower, seemingly the one in the courtyard.

"Be careful the ghost asks you for a book!" Yan Weixing nudged him, though he himself enjoyed reading (albeit with different interests than Gao Jiming). He shone his flashlight along the shelves, examining the titles. Cai Che and Zhang Ning, uninterested in books, browsed casually while waiting for them.

"'Records of the Strange and Wondrous'? 'Records of the Unusual'? 'Notes of Master Yuquan'? Even the titles of these thread-bound books are strange," Gao Jiming mumbled, looking at titles he'd never even heard of. "No Jin Yong? Hardly a proper collection!"

"There are some normal ones," Cai Che said, shining his light on a book as thick as a brick. "'Introduction to Modern Medicine,' and 'Complete Anatomy.' And here are the 'Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon' and the 'Plain Questions.' The owner was probably a doctor."

"Maybe a doctor who also enjoys music and chess," Zhang Ning noted after spotting several books on Go and qin music, along with some calligraphy texts. "A rather refined owner."

"I think he might have been a Taoist priest," Yan Weixing pulled out a copy of the 'Classic of Hidden Simplicity,' noticing a 'Book of Changes' nearby. "Otherwise, who reads things like this?"

"Because your family follows Taoism, you think everyone who reads it is a priest. Today’s priests and monks are just employees in temples; they might not read these things," Gao Jiming countered.

"How do you know there aren't hidden masters?" Yan Weixing, whose family practiced Taoism, felt challenged.

"Hidden masters? Brother, this is the heart of Lixin City; it’s hardly 'hidden'!"

"The true recluse hides in the market!"

"Don't speak classical prose to me; I don't understand it."

The two began to argue, and Zhang Ning quickly intervened. "Okay, how about a doctor who likes Taoism and calligraphy, chess, and painting? Having hobbies isn't against the law. We aren't here to debate that; let's check the other rooms."

They moved to the adjacent room, which was the master bedroom. Like the others, it was simply furnished: a bed and a wardrobe against the wall, and a small table by the window holding a Guqin. It seemed Zhang Ning was right; the owner enjoyed the four arts. Yan Weixing and Gao Jiming immediately started arguing whether the instrument was a Guzheng or a Yaoqin. Zhang Ning and Cai Che again played mediators, though neither of them knew the correct name either; they just enjoyed contradicting each other, and eventually, the argument subsided.

Looking around casually, Zhang Ning picked up a piece of unfinished embroidery from the bedside table, remarking curiously, "Hand-stitched. That’s rare these days."

The embroidery showed the faint outline of a landscape scene, with a line of poetry stitched in the upper corner. The craftsmanship was exquisite, but the boys had little interest in this type of domestic art. After a few cursory compliments, they put it down. They searched the bedroom briefly but found nothing else of interest. The room's owner had kept the décor excessively minimalist, lacking even the usual cosmetics or common household appliances used by women.

"But..." Cai Che suddenly spoke up. "Zhang Ning, how long ago did your cousin mention that case?"

"I don't know. But he told me about it over half a month ago." Zhang Ning hadn't yet grasped the implication.

"Then, according to him, this house should have been vacant for at least two weeks. But look..." Cai Che wiped his white handkerchief across the tabletop and showed it to them. "There isn't a speck of dust. It looks like it was just cleaned."

"Could it be..." Yan Weixing's voice began to tremble. "Could it really be... are there..."

"Let's get out of here, quick! If we get caught, it’s over," Cai Che said nervously. "This is trespassing, right? Zhang Ning, your cousin is a cop—how many years would we get if we were caught?"

"Years in prison? If my dad doesn't beat me to death for not coming home in a year, it’ll be a miracle!" Gao Jiming bolted toward the stairs first. The other three quickly followed, hoping to escape before the owner noticed them.

Just reaching the head of the stairs, Yan Weixing suddenly grabbed Gao Jiming, who was leading the way, and held up a finger to his lips, signaling silence.

"What is it?" Zhang Ning mouthed the question.

Yan Weixing pointed downstairs, silently mouthing, "Someone."

All four strained their ears and distinctly heard soft footsteps downstairs.

"The owner is back! What do we do? We’re going to be caught!" Cai Che was on the verge of tears and spoke aloud, prompting Gao Jiming to quickly clamp a hand over his mouth.

The footsteps moved downstairs, seeming to ascend toward them momentarily.

"Hide!" Zhang Ning decisively gestured. He looked around desperately. Where could they hide? They certainly couldn't hide in the bedroom. At that moment, Yan Weixing pulled open the door to the last room they hadn't entered, and the four slipped inside quietly, gently closing the door.

The footsteps did indeed come up the stairs and paused in the master bedroom, but after a moment, they receded and went back downstairs.

The four boys, who had been holding their breath, let out a small sigh of relief.

"But," Yan Weixing whispered close to their ears, "why didn't he turn on the lights? He prefers to walk around in the dark?"

"Never mind that now! Maybe the power is out!" Cai Che said impatiently. "Quick, figure out how to sneak out!"

Yan Weixing had a strong feeling something was wrong, but escaping seemed the priority. He suggested to his companions, "See if there’s a window in this room."

The four boys turned to examine their hiding spot: a very small room. The north-facing window was completely obscured by thick curtains. "We’ll climb out this way," Zhang Ning said, yanking the curtain aside. He immediately clapped a hand over his mouth, stifling a scream, and after a moment, asked his friends in a trembling voice, "W-what is this..."

Although it was dark, the other three’s faces were no better. They stared blankly at the sight before them. After a long pause, Gao Jiming managed to say, "Memorial tablets... there are so many memorial tablets..."

"Never mind those; let's figure out how to leave!" Yan Weixing vaguely saw that not just the topmost tablet bore a 'Taoist title.' Could the resident truly be a priest? A sudden anxiety gripped him, urging his friends to hurry.

"There's no window here—what do we do?"

"Go downstairs and look. If the owner is in the living room, I remember the kitchen and living room share a wall. We can slip out through the kitchen window."

"Sounds good. Let's go down."

"Quietly, quietly. Someone’s downstairs."

After conferring, the four tiptoed out of the room, closed the door softly, and started down the stairs.

The entire house was pitch black; the owner hadn't turned on a single light, which conveniently aided their movement. They reached the ground floor without incident. The new problem was how to slip through the half-ajar hallway door into the kitchen without being noticed by the person in the living room.

The four boys peered through a crack in the door at the living room. They clearly saw the owner sitting near the window: a young woman in a long black dress, her dark hair cascading over her shoulders, making her face and fingers look unnaturally white. She sat there, stitching intently. Since there were no lights, the faint glow from the streetlights filtering through the window lent the scene an indescribable strangeness.

"Is she blind?"

"Can't you see she's embroidering?"

"But how can she see what she's working on without any light?"

"Stop talking; she'll hear us."

The boys exchanged whispers in barely audible tones. The woman outside paused her needlework and looked toward them. She possessed eyes that were strikingly clear, black and white, and bright. The boys instantly clamped their hands over their mouths, daring not to breathe. The woman seemed not to have heard anything and resumed her stitching after a moment. She sat there, sewing tirelessly and patiently. The four inside dared not move or speak, holding their breath carefully, yet fearing she might suddenly decide to come upstairs and catch them, mistaking them for thieves. It was a terrible feeling. Zhang Ning secretly checked his watch; it was already past ten.

The woman finally stirred. She stood up, picked up a cup from the table, poured some water, and simultaneously walked over to open the window.

The boys seized the moment she turned her back and slipped into the kitchen.

Zhang Ning was last. As he entered, he glanced back out, hoping to see if the woman had noticed them. Instead, he saw her lower the cup, and a drop of deep crimson liquid was slowly dripping from the corner of her mouth, which she lightly wiped away. Zhang Ning was pulled by a tug on his sleeve and quickly entered the kitchen, but a lingering feeling took root in his mind—he didn't know why, but he felt that the liquid the woman drank was blood.

The kitchen lacked everything normally found in a domestic cooking space: no pots, pans, dishes, or stove. It was bare except for a refrigerator. Directly across from it was a window facing the street. The owner seemed utterly unconcerned with security; such a simple, old wooden window facing the public street had no protective netting. A thief could likely enter without effort, which meant the four boys could easily leave now, provided they didn't alert the woman outside.

Gao Jiming went first, slowly and gently unlatching the sash lock, inching the window open. The other three stood guard at the kitchen doorway, anxiously watching the outside.

"Done," Gao Jiming signaled to the others.

It should have only taken a few steps to safety. At that moment, Yan Weixing suddenly looked behind Cai Che, his eyes wide, and uttered a single word: "Blood!"

The boys all looked where he was pointing, toward the only piece of furniture in the kitchen: the refrigerator. From the crack in the freezer door, a deep crimson fluid was seeping out.

"Blood," Yan Weixing confirmed again.

A wave of cold dread washed over the teenagers. What on earth was kept in that freezer that it was bleeding? Zhang Ning said in a panic, "Don't care about it, let's go!" He remembered what the woman had been drinking moments before.

Yan Weixing bit his lip and strode toward the refrigerator. As his hand grasped the handle, Zhang Ning pulled him back, practically pleading, "No! Let's leave."

Yan Weixing shook his head and yanked the refrigerator door open.

"Ah..."

A scream tore through the air.

A pair of lifeless eyes stared coldly at the four boys from inside the refrigerator. After Zhang Ning and Cai Che clearly saw what was inside, they rolled their eyes and promptly fainted. Gao Jiming, whose courage was slightly stronger, shakily grabbed Yan Weixing's arm, his teeth chattering. "It's a person? A murder..."

Inside the refrigerator was a dismembered "person." The head faced outward, revealing unclosed eyes and teeth. A hand reached out from the other side, its long claws curled, and beside it were stuffed what looked like internal organs.

Yan Weixing swallowed hard and whispered with a dry throat, "Not a person. It’s a monster."

"A monster... there's no such thing in this world?" Gao Jiming forced a smile that looked more like crying.

"We’ve stumbled into something terrible..." Yan Weixing glanced at the unconscious Zhang Ning and Cai Che. He couldn't worry about them now. He pushed Gao Jiming. "You run! I'll try to save them."

"What did you say?"

"Go! Flee while you can!" Yan Weixing suddenly stepped in front of Gao Jiming because the woman had entered the kitchen and was now standing in the doorway, watching them. Now that she was closer, they could see she was a beautiful woman, perhaps in her early twenties, but her complexion was utterly devoid of color—a paleness that seemed unnatural for a human. She glanced at the open refrigerator and frowned slightly.

"Run!" Yan Weixing commanded Gao Jiming. He himself was terrified to the core, but he absolutely could not abandon his friends. He desperately dredged up the demon-subduing incantations his father had taught him, snatching the amulet from his neck and thrusting it toward the woman, hoping it might have some effect.

Gao Jiming understood the gravity of the situation, yet he refused to flee alone. He hoisted Zhang Ning up and dragged him toward the window, while simultaneously threatening the woman, "Don't come closer, don't come closer! My friend's family has been hunting demons for three generations; he is incredibly formidable. If you approach, you'll be the one to suffer. Don't come any closer, I'm warning you." He placed Zhang Ning below the window and turned back to drag Cai Che.

"Why don't you just leave? Why are you messing with the refrigerator?" The woman sighed, taking a few steps forward until she stood before Yan Weixing, extending a hand.

"Nanyu, Nanyu? Are you home? Oh dear," Gui'er exclaimed, looking around as she walked, only to crash squarely into the corner of a table, crying out in pain.

The light flickered on, and Nanyu approached, taking the large bag from Gui'er's hands, asking with concern, "Did you hit yourself? Does it hurt?"

Gui'er pouted, "Why didn't you turn on the light?"

"I like to think in the dark." Nanyu gently massaged the spot for her, then asked, "Did you come to retrieve that demon for Huo'er?"

"Yes. It told the fox it was going to beat up Liu Diyi, so I had to get it." Gui'er's pout deepened. The skirmishes between Huo'er, the Lin Rui alliance, and Liu Diyi erupted once or twice every month, often resulting in the fight spilling all the way home, turning the house upside down. And it was always she who ended up cleaning up the mess.

Nanyu shook her head silently, offering no comment on such disputes. She said, "I put it in the refrigerator. I'll go get it out now; wait a moment."

Nanyu walked into the kitchen to bag the demon. Gui'er looked around. This was her first time at Nanyu's place, and she was astonished by its austerity. Her eyes immediately caught sight of an embroidery piece, and she brightened up instantly. "Nanyu, when you finish this embroidery, can you give it to me?" Gui'er, clutching the embroidery, chased Nanyu into the kitchen, only to let out a piercing scream when she saw the four men sprawled on the floor. She pointed at her chest, gasping for breath, "How did four people suddenly appear? You startled me—are these for Huo'er too? I don't think I can carry them all myself."

"I think they were aiming for Number Ten, weren't they? This is Number Four. They must have gotten the wrong address."

Gui'er asked curiously, "What happened at Number Ten? Was there a... ghost..." She made a terrifying gesture with her hands.

Nanyu laughed, "A few months ago, two burglars broke into that place. For some reason, they ended up stabbing each other to death. The bodies weren't found for three or four days—the owner of that house was away studying and hadn't returned. His relatives discovered them while cleaning up. Then, inexplicably, people nearby started saying the place was haunted. They say the owner was even eaten, and no one dares to go in." She shook her head with a wry smile, only to see Gui'er’s face changing from red to yellow, and then from yellow to white, prompting her to ask in confusion, "Gui'er?"

"Number Ten..." Gui'er whispered, trembling, "I just walked past that doorway..."

"Ah, so what about it?" Nanyu didn't grasp the point of her words.

"I saw a light inside..." Gui'er was on the verge of tears.

"Maybe the owner is back?" Nanyu still hadn't realized the crux of the matter.

"It wasn't an electric light. It was a ball of yellow light flickering in the window."

"Maybe it was headlights from the street behind us?"

"It must have been a will-o'-the-wisp..." Gui'er's eyes instantly reddened. "That's terrifying. I have to walk past there to get back. What should I do..."

"A will-o'-the-wisp?" Nanyu finally understood what Gui'er meant. "You're mistaken, there are no ghosts there."

"What if there is one..." Gui'er said with a cry in her voice. "I don't want to walk past there again. I need to call Zhou Ying to pick me up..." As she spoke, tears finally fell uncontrollably. "Where is your phone? Waaah, it’s so scary, I just saw a ghost..."

"Gui'er, I don't have a phone here. Shall I walk you back?"

"Really, Nanyu, you're so kind!"

"I need to move these few boys along anyway."

"..."