"So be it. Another step closer to the truth," Fang Xiu murmured to himself. He had never intended to leave—his true aim was to explore Qing Shan Psychiatric Hospital.
As they ventured forward, they soon stumbled upon two massive pools of blood just ahead in the corridor.
The sheer volume of blood was staggering. Splashes marred the walls, and amidst the crimson stains lay fragmented scraps of flesh and bone, along with the shredded remains of a sales office uniform and a security guard's attire.
The scattered remains resembled the leftovers of a ravenous feast—gnawed, torn, and marked with deep bite wounds.
Fang Xiu recognized the tattered clothing at a glance. He knew precisely to whom they belonged.
The colleagues who had gone to check the power supply. The security guard who had accompanied them.
They had all been devoured by the entity.
In that instant, clarity struck Fang Xiu—he finally understood why the entity reappeared three minutes after a man vanished, but only two minutes after a woman.
The time intervals weren't random.
They were determined by the amount of flesh consumed.
The female employees in the sales office, by the nature of their profession, were all at least presentable in appearance—slender, elegant, fitting the industry's standards. Compared to the men, their flesh was significantly less in volume.
The entity required approximately three minutes to consume a male colleague, but only two for a female.
"Brother Xiu! T-They... they've all been eaten?!" Zhao Hao trembled, his face ashen.
Fang Xiu paid him no mind. His gaze was fixed on the bloodied remnants of clothing, his mind processing every detail. The cuts were unnervingly precise, too clean to be the work of teeth alone. It had to be a blade—a sharp one.
His thoughts instinctively turned to the figure he had seen earlier within Qing Shan Psychiatric Hospital.
A female doctor.
A scalpel in her grasp.
Just then, a series of hurried footsteps echoed from behind them.
Turning around, they saw Wang Zitong and his group emerging from the darkness of the corridor.
"My God! What is this place? Isn't this supposed to be the sales office?"
"This... this looks like a hospital!"
Horrified gasps filled the air as fear and disbelief gripped the newcomers.
And rightfully so. No one could have imagined that stepping through the corridor of the sales office would lead them into what appeared to be a hospital.
"Fang Xiu, Zhao Hao—you two arrived first. What did you find? Have you seen Xiao Zhao and Xiao Li?" Manager Wu Dahai's voice trembled.
Zhao Hao could only point toward the pools of blood on the floor, his hand shaking uncontrollably.
The others followed his gaze.
Their pupils shrank in terror.
"Blood! So much blood!" Li Feifei shrieked, unable to contain herself.
"T-This is... this is Xiao Zhao and Xiao Li's clothing!" Wang Zitong's face drained of all color, cold sweat trickling down his temples as dread seized him.
"They were eaten…"
At those words, an icy shiver ran through the group, fear tightening around their throats.
"Wang Shao! We have to leave! Now! I want to go home! I don't want to be here!" Li Feifei sobbed uncontrollably, clutching Wang Zitong's arm, pleading desperately.
Wang Zitong snapped out of his daze. "Y-Yes! Let's go! Now!"
He turned to lead the group forward but hesitated.
The corridor ahead was unfamiliar. Vast. Desolate.
Who knew where it would lead?
What if they were walking straight into the lair of the entity?
The weight of leadership pressed down on him like a vice. It was like leading a group into a haunted house—whoever was at the front bore the brunt of the fear.
Yet, the others relied on him, shrinking behind his presence.
Fortunately, Fang Xiu spared him the burden.
Because Fang Xiu had finished observing. And now, he was moving.
With an eerie calm, he strode deeper into the corridor.
Zhao Hao followed closely behind, his steps hesitant yet unwavering.
Seeing someone take the lead, Wang Zitong hesitated no longer and stepped forward as well.
But unlike Zhao Hao, he maintained a three-meter distance from Fang Xiu—not too close, not too far. Whether it was out of pride or something else, he chose to keep his space.
Tap. Tap. Tap...
The narrow hallway resounded with a symphony of footsteps, hushed yet urgent, as though each person feared attracting the attention of the entity.
Then—
Silence.
The footsteps ceased abruptly.
Because Fang Xiu had stopped walking.
Like a leader halting in his tracks, his stillness rippled through the group. Zhao Hao stopped. Then Wang Zitong. Then the rest.
Wang Zitong wanted to ask why he had stopped, but his pride held him back.
Speaking up would be an admission of fear—an admission that without Fang Xiu leading the way, he dared not move.
"Fang Xiu... why did you stop?" Li Feifei's voice quivered with unease.
Fear had long stripped her of her usual composed, professional demeanor. Desperate to escape, she blurted out the question without a second thought.
Fang Xiu didn't answer immediately. He glanced at his phone. Paused. Then spoke.
"It's time."
"Time for what?" Li Feifei blurted out, her confusion mirroring the others'.
Only Wang Zitong reacted with chilling realization.
His face paled. His breath hitched.
Frantically, he lifted his left wrist, eyes locking onto the expensive watch wrapped around it.
"Three minutes!"
The realization struck the group like a bolt of lightning.
Then—
A sound.
A crisp, rhythmic crackling echoed behind them.
Like joints shifting. Bones twisting.
They turned.
Their breath caught in their throats.
There—hanging upside down from the ceiling—was a woman clad in a doctor's coat, her long, disheveled hair cascading like a curtain.
Her limbs stretched unnaturally long, like those of a spider.
Her eyes—devoid of pupils, pure white—bored into them with an unrelenting stare.
Crack. Crack.
The sound came from her neck, twisting, rotating—until her head turned a full one hundred eighty degrees, aligning her face with theirs.
A wordless, suffocating terror spread through the air, drowning them.
The entity, before appearing, had merely been a dreadful thought—an unseen fear.
But now, standing before them in the flesh, it was no longer an abstract nightmare.
It was death incarnate.
The female doctor fixated on them.
Then—
She moved.
With unnatural speed, her limbs scuttled like an arachnid's, launching her forward in a blur of motion.
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
Li Feifei's shrill scream shattered the silence like a starting pistol.
Panic erupted.
The group bolted, scrambling for their lives, no longer needing anyone to lead the way.
Now, they only feared being left behind.
The corridor was narrow. Too narrow.
In their frenzied desperation, they shoved and yanked at those in front of them, clawing for survival.
Some—those weaker, slower—were trampled beneath the stampede.
Li Feifei was one of them.
She had clung to Wang Zitong, pleading for protection.
But when terror struck—when it truly became a matter of life or death—he was the first to throw her aside.
The first to run.
The fastest among them all.
But just as he charged ahead, he saw two figures blocking his escape.
Fang Xiu and Zhao Hao.
Yet, neither of them ran.
Zhao Hao was petrified, frozen in place.
But Fang Xiu—he was watching.
Watching the entity.
And just as he had suspected—
The one who had slaughtered them all was indeed the female doctor of Qing Shan Psychiatric Hospital.
She was not a patient.
She had never been locked away.
She was the one holding the scalpel.