In the locked room that could never be opened, there was a person hidden—this thought made Yu Sheng's scalp tingle instantly, followed by an uncontrollable series of speculations.
Who was it? When did the owner of that voice hide in there? Did they sneak in while he was asleep, or had they been there since he had arrived two months ago?
If it was the latter, then he had spent a long time in this large house without leaving. He could confirm that during that time, the room on the second floor had never been opened. So had the person been hiding in there all along? Did the room have another passage, or…
Was the one who chuckled lightly really a "person"?
A mess of thoughts surged wildly in his mind, but Yu Sheng's expression gradually calmed down—it seemed that his previous encounter with the "frog" had brought about some changes, or perhaps the influence of "coming back from the dead" had made him feel... somewhat strange.
The voice bore neither goodwill nor malice, but a definite eeriness was audible. Yet, after the initial scalp-tingling sensation, all fear and hesitation vanished from his heart, leaving him with only a strong curiosity.
He wanted to find out what was exactly in that room.
He wanted to understand the secrets hidden within this large house he had chosen as his stronghold.
This was his safe house, his only "home" in this vast city—a safe house shouldn't have unsafe elements.
He slowly approached and pressed his ear against the door, hearing what might have been a quiet laugh, but it could also have been just an illusion, perhaps just the hollow sound of the wind spinning in his ears.
He curled his fingers and knocked on the door.
"Open up, I heard you."
Of course, the door didn't open, but the hollow laughter indeed stopped.
As expected, Yu Sheng didn't say anything, but turned away—he went to the neighboring room filled with various items and fetched an axe.
Returning to the locked room's door, he silently raised the axe high, wielding all his strength to chop down.
The sharp axe struck the thin wooden door, making a metallic collision sound, with sparks flying from the blade, yet the door, which seemed like it could be kicked open, didn't bear a single mark.
The light laughter vaguely transmitted again, but Yu Sheng paid it no mind. He calmly raised the axe again, treating it like a particularly serious, meticulous, and patience-requiring task, continuing to chop down one stroke after another.
He knew the door could not be opened; it wouldn't budge to an electric drill or a saw. Yet, even knowing this, he had almost daily attempted to open this door over the past two months—today, the eerie voice from inside the door had ignited an even stronger motivation to open it today.
As his attempts failed repeatedly, that motivation rose increasingly, and each axe stroke from Yu Sheng's hand grew more vigorous, more skilled, and even... more aligned with his own feelings.
His gradually blank mind even conjured some bizarre associations—he felt like Wu Gang, who chopped the tree on the moon; if only he could chop down the cursed Osmanthus Tree, Chang'e, Jade Rabbit, Logger Vick, and Sisyphus watching the scene would gather around to applaud him...
He didn't even know why Sisyphus appeared in his thoughts.
The light laughter from behind the door, however, became increasingly piercing, even becoming louder and closer, as if the voice's owner was stepping forward, standing right behind that wooden door, as if she fully knew the door was indestructible and brazenly mocked Yu Sheng, who was swinging the axe outside.
But suddenly, within that eerie, piercing laughter, another voice emerged, sounding tense and annoyed: "Can you stop laughing? If he really opens the door and comes in, the first one he'll chop down is me!"
Immediately, the laughter inside stopped.
Yu Sheng, who was just raising his axe to smash it down, also froze for a moment, then heard a cracking sound from his waist.
With that cracking sound, his uncontrollable axe also fell, hitting a place he hadn't intended.
A certain crisp sound, completely different from the previous grating collision, transmitted from the door; the axe in Yu Sheng's hands dropped to the ground, and immediately, he fiercely raised his hand... to support his waist.
His waist hurt, it was quite severe, a sharp and piercing pain.
He supported his waist and moved difficultly to the door, took a couple of seconds to focus his attention on the spot his last axe stroke had hit.
There was a "flash of light" lingering about two or three centimeters from the door panel, on the side near the door hinge. It seemed like the sparks from the axe strike, yet it appeared fixed in the air, lingering in the explosion of light.
Using this bit of light, Yu Sheng faintly saw something on the door panel nearby.
He reached out toward it.
A suppressed sharp scream came from behind the door: "Ah—"
Yu Sheng suddenly opened his eyes. The bright living room light seemed somewhat glaring, lying on the sofa made him feel sore all over, and the wall clock nearby ticked, the time on its face showing that he had only slept for less than forty minutes.
Yu Sheng lay on the sofa for a while, and his somewhat numb memories finally gradually cleared up.
I fell asleep... Was it just a dream earlier?
He was in a daze, but suddenly, something felt off.
The "dream" felt too real, with too much clarity and completeness in its details; he could even vividly remember the tactile sensation of holding the axe, the stagnant firelight on the door, and more...
He suddenly sat up from the sofa, abruptly lifting his hand... to support his waist.
His waist hurt, severely strained, with a sharp, piercing pain.
"Damn...ow...fuck..." Yu Sheng couldn't help but curse under his breath, as the combination of the strained waist and the sudden movement coupled with the soreness from sleeping on the sofa created a compound effect, making him feel it might have been better to be stabbed in the heart by that frog; at least that would only hurt for two seconds—then he struggled to stand up while pressing on his waist, growing more convinced that it was definitely not a mere "dream."
The pain in his waist from the dream couldn't possibly affect reality—something sinister must have appeared.
That entity had invaded his "safe house."
He adjusted his posture and mindset, trying to prevent the pain in his waist from impeding his movement, then after some thought, he gritted his teeth and grimaced as he went upstairs by following the staircase.
Holding a bat in one hand, he arrived in the cluttered room, found the axe he had used in the dream, and grasped it in his right hand—the feeling of the axe handle in his hand was exactly the same as in the dream, the wooden handle seemingly still retaining the warmth of his own palm.
He approached the locked door; the door was still as intact as new, and the "Light Trace" left by chopping in the dream was nowhere to be seen.
Inside the door, all was quiet.
As if everything was normal, as if nothing had ever happened.
But Yu Sheng still clearly remembered where that Light Trace was.
He hung the bat on his waist, switched the axe to his left hand, and reached out with his right hand to the door, searching for the spot of the flash he had chopped out in the dream... he remembered it was near the door hinge; at that moment, he had seen a faint...
The next second, he touched a handle, a handle invisible to the naked eye.
But he clearly remembered, there had never been a handle there; from the first day he discovered this locked door, he had examined every inch of this door, felt every surface, he was certain that he had never felt any "non-existent handle"!
Why? Was it because he had observed it in his dream? Was it because he had "penetrated" some disguise with the axe? Because he had confirmed its existence, did it actually come into being?
Yu Sheng quickly went through all the movies, TV shows, games, and novels he had seen, instantly finding a bunch of possible explanations, but his hands didn't hesitate, already gripping the invisible handle, and then gently turned it.
The indestructible locked door thus easily swung open from one side of the hinges.
It was an empty room; peering through the gradually opening door gap, only the floor and walls were visible, illuminated bit by bit by the light thrown from the door, but even as he cautiously fully opened the door, Yu Sheng did not see the owner of the mocking laugh that had come from the room.
With one hand firmly holding the axe, he carefully inspected the room but found truly nothing inside, not even a bed or a chair.
Only the cold moonlight, filtering through the old curtain gaps, fell onto the floor in a mottled pattern.
But suddenly, something caught his peripheral vision.
There was "something" in the room, on the wall directly opposite the door hung a painting.
A beautifully framed painting, with edges adorned with intricate and classical vine patterns, at the center was a backdrop of a seat covered with a soft red carpet.
But beyond that, there was nothing else, no cursed ghost sitting in the painting mocking the intruder.
Yu Sheng furrowed his brows, staring intently at the roughly half-meter tall painting frame for a long time, maintaining his gaze while feeling for the light switch next to the door frame and turning on the room's light.
Under the illumination of the light, the details on the painting were even more visible.
He carefully approached the painting, observing it for a long time.
Then he saw something very, very subtle in the corner of the frame... a hem of a skirt.
"..."
He thought for a moment, then spoke with a strange expression, "Are you there?"
"I'm not!"
A guilty voice came from the painting.