Chapter 1 The Bloody Apartment (1)
In the middle of the night, Shen Yu suddenly woke up.
He was awakened from his sleep by a pair of hands.
The hands that’d appeared inexplicably on his throat were cold and greasy, both about the size of a child’s palm, yet were far more powerful than those of an adult.
Because he was suddenly being attacked, Shen Yu’s eyes widened with great effort, feeling only how hard it was to breathe and that his vision was blurred. In a daze, he saw a mass of scarlet things, staring at him viciously.
It was from this scarlet monstrosity that a pair of shriveled, blood-colored arms had stretched out and were squeezing his neck tightly, as if they had a deep hatred with him, as if they were about to choke off his throat in the next moment.
Shen Yu got up and wanted to break those hands, but the hands were slippery, and the tip of his nose was filled with the strong smell of blood.
A child’s sharp and smug laughter sounded in his ears, almost piercing his eardrums.
“Story, begin.”
Suddenly, a faint voice, as well as the sound of pages turning, mixed with malicious laughter, was caught by Shen Yu keenly.
He turned in the direction of the sound, and he touched a thick book. The book was sealed with a heavy and cold shell, and it was heavy.
Before he could think about how this book had appeared, Shen Yu instinctively held it tightly and, trying his best, slammed the scarlet monster in front of him.
The hard cover of the book was splattered with scarlet dots.
The smug laughter in his ears suddenly turned into a scream, and the hands that’d held his throat tightly couldn’t help but let go.
Shen Yu, who finally got a chance to breathe, did not stop and, using the book in his hands as his only weapon, continued to smash it down one hit after another until he’d turned the monster in front of him into a bloody mess. The scarlet liquid kept splashing on the front of his clothes.
This body of a monster roared hoarse, yet was forced to take away its hands. It then turned away from the bed and slipped underneath it.
Finally getting rid of the restraints, Shen Yu took a deep breath and shook his head slightly. After getting rid of the dizziness caused by the lack of oxygen, he also turned over and got out of the bed, still holding the blood-stained book tightly in his hands, lifted the falling bedsheets and looked under the bed.
An inhuman thing was lying under the bed.
This monster was the size of a few-years old baby , but with the look of a skinned monkey, showing scarlet muscles and constantly oozing sticky plasma. Right now, it was shrinking in the corner in a weird posture.
Shen Yu looked at the monster’s bloody body, then lowered his head to glance at his own torso and the middle of his chest. After the fight just now, it was also covered with sticky blood.
Seeing him chasing after him reluctantly, the monster stared at him coldly and then bared his teeth grudgingly, the sharp and twisted teeth gradually fading in the darkness, and finally disappeared from under the bed just like that.
Shen Yu didn’t dare to relax his vigilance and stared after him for a long time, making sure that the monster would not rush out from under the bed again. Then he quietly breathed a sigh of relief and dropped to the ground in exhaustion, raising his head to look around him in a daze.
Only now did he notice that the room he was in at this time was not the bedroom he usually sleeps in.
Although his parents died unexpectedly when he was three years old, they’d left him a big house with four bedrooms and two halls as a legacy. It is in the best district in the city center. Even though twenty years have passed, the housing prices here are still high.
Last year, when Shen Yu’d just graduated from University, he’d deliberately redecorated his old house. The whole house should have been neat and modern.
But at this time, the room was dark and dilapidated, with yellow newspapers pasted on the old window panes, mildew 1 mildew : a thin whitish coating consisting of minute fungal hyphae, growing on plants or damp organic material such as paper. stains on the peeling walls, and the dim light bulb was flickering, so that the shadows under the light were sometimes bright and sometimes dim and sometimes blurred or clear.
Even the layout of the room has changed; this is definitely not his house.
Shen Yu’s handsome eyebrows suddenly became gloomy.
Even if he slept hard last night, it is impossible to not even know that he changed the room! And where did that monster emerge from? How did he lurch silently beside him, why did he wanted to strangle him…
This is definitely not a prank that can be explained.
Thinking of this, his face had turned cold again. He lowered his eyes to look at the book he was still holding tightly in his hands.
The book that had saved his life at a critical moment had a dark cover, with gold inlaid on the four corners as decoration. One of the corners had just been used to smash the monster’s head, and the gold ornament was still stained with blood spatters.
There was no book title or an author’s signature, only a dark red handprint in the middle of the front cover, so gloomy that it looked like it might seep blood drops at any time, revealing a strange and terrifying sight.
He opened the book with suspicion and saw that the first page contained twisted handwriting, all small strokes in red ink.
Below the title of “Pink Apartment”, there was a simple introduction, the style very similar to the fairy tales that Shen Yu used to read when he was a child.
“Once upon a time, there was a dilapidated apartment complex. All residents lived in the apartments. No one could leave. Everyone was very unhappy.”
“Later, the dilapidated apartments were repainted by kind little craftsmen, and they were white and delightful. How cute! The residents of the apartments were all happy and moved in happily, but unexpectedly found that the apartments were not cleaned, and often found dirty things.”
“So, thirteen brave cleaners accepted the residents’ advice, stepping into this pink apartment complex…” The fairy tale came to an abrupt end here.
Shen Yu was puzzled, but he went through the entire book, and apart from the text on the first page, he couldn’t find any other words, only a blank space.
He frowned and remained silent for a while, and finally sighed slowly, then fumbled for a while and found a box of mint candies.
Shen Yu loves mints and never leaves without them. At this time, this box of candies is also the only thing brought in.
He threw a piece of candy into his mouth and bit it into pieces with a “Zizi”, and a cool and irritating sweetness spread in his mouth suddenly.
This candy seemed to give him great comfort. Shen Yu took a deep breath, took this weird book, opened the door of the room and prepared to face the current strange situation.
When one steps out, they will see a corridor that is narrower and more shabby than the bedroom.
On both sides of the corridor are two rows of identical doors, with different house numbers written on the old doors, and the layout of these resembles a school dormitory. But there are no windows at the end of the corridor, so the whole floor looks very dark and damp.
Finding the similarly dark and narrow stairs, Shen Yu fumbled down to the ground floor.
Unexpectedly, there was a rather spacious rotunda 2 rotunda : .
a round building or room, especially one with a dome. on the ground floor, with the lobby as the center. The apartment building had a narrow staircase for each the east and west sides of the building, and the only elevator was in the center of the hall and had its doors closed.
He’d just gotten down from the East Building’s apartment.
There were about a dozen people scattered around the rotunda at this time, both men and women of various ages and dressed differently.
Most people had an anxious and uncertain look on their faces, and some people were holding mobile phones while trying to contact the outside world, cursing in their mouths, as if they were about to jump up impatiently.
There were only a few people who were calm or even sullen, not wearing an expression of unexpectedness on their faces. Obviously this was not the first time that they have encountered such a thing.
As soon as Shen Yu walked downstairs, still wearing his clothes with blood splashes on them, he immediately caught the attention of everyone present.
A middle-aged bald man raised his head lazily, glanced at the blood-covered Shen Yu, and sneered: “Dude, this is the beginning of the game and you encountered an opening kill?”
He shook his hand and took out a cigarette to light for himself:” You met a monster at the beginning, it was really bad luck! But if you can survive the opening kill, you must be a master.”
“I have written a few horror stories, and I’m also a veteran. How about that? Would you consider forming a team for the test?” the bald man asked again, letting out a smoke ring.
Horror stories, plot killings, veterans, monsters, writing…
From the words of the bald man, Shen Yu quickly extracted a few key messages from it, and pondered it back and forth in his heart, but he did not take the olive branch thrown by the bald man for the time being.
He just glanced over it and found that, including himself, there were 13 people in the hall at this time.
It coincided with the “13 cleaners” mentioned in the story.
About six of them were holding black books exactly like him. The remaining seven people were empty handed.
He didn’t know if there were no books, or if they hid theirs.
Seeing that Shen Yu did not take his words seriously, the bald man looked unhappy and stamped out the cigarette butt, became cynical and said: “!! Well, it seems people are contemptuous, ah. They really do not know what the greatness of God is, vision is so high!”
A man with a black book in hand and a pair of gold glasses persuaded in a gentle manner: “Forget it, anyway, the personnel are all here, waiting for the following story to develop! You can figure it out then…” He didn’t say anything more. After finishing speaking, he glanced at Shen Yu intentionally.
Shen Yu knew in his heart that because his reaction just now had been too calm, he made these two veterans misunderstand and think that he was not a newcomer.
Just without waiting for his defense, among the people present, there was a brawny bald man with a cross-face and a flower tattoo on his arms. He jumped up and slammed the black book in his hand to the ground, shouting violently. “What the hell are you fighting about?”
“What the hell is this! Why is there a broken book in my hands! Who brought Lao Tzu 3 Lao Tzu : an arrogant way of referring to himself. here?”
He seemed to have a bad temper, so he started yelling and cursing. A young man with dyed yellow hair next to him, who looked like his sidekick, hurriedly stepped forward to persuade him, but the effect was not good.
Facing the yelling of the flower-arm man, who was obviously a novice, the spectacled man and the bald man were too lazy to respond to him; both of them were silent, but they were ready to watch the show.
There was only one girl in a black and white sportswear, with a lollipop in her mouth and looking like a middle school student with her short hair, who patiently explained: “You can’t get out for the time being.”
“We are trapped in a horror story. Only those who stay alive are eligible to go out after writing this horror story.”
She shook the black book in her hand: “The person selected by the story is a novelist and has his own book in hand. Those who do not have a book are the audience selected by the story.”
“The novelist can write his own horror novel; is more involved in the story; the dangers are higher and you need to enter the stories again and again.”
“The audience is more of a bystander, and is less involved in the story and are in less danger. They only need to experience the story once to return to real life… If they can live through the story.”
After listening to her kind explanation, not only did the flower-arm man not appreciate it, he was even more irritable and kicked his black book fiercely: “What is this mess, I don’t understand! I don’t want to write any novels, so hurry up and let me go out, otherwise you will not look good!”
With the flower-arm man as a role model, the rest of the people also shouted: “Which TV station are you hosting the reality show? When will we be released? I have to rush out to discuss business!”
“I’m just a driver, I don’t know anything. I came here with my boss somehow. I don’t want to participate in any activities.”
“I fell asleep well at home, and suddenly got here. I need a lawyer to sue you…”
Facing the exhilarating yelling of the crowd, the bald man took out another cigarette and looked at the eyes of these novices as if they were looking at a group of idiots.
But Shen Yu noticed that there was a quiet little boy in the crowd.
The boy looked to be only five or six years old, his face was pale and his eyes were jet-black; he was wearing a hoodie and a canvas school bag slung over his shoulder. He was avoiding everyone and sitting alone in the corner, silent, and looking very introverted.
The boy was too young, and Shen Yu couldn’t help but look at him twice, thinking that the boy might be scared.
But he didn’t expect that the little guy’s senses were quite sharp; he suddenly turned his head and looked in the direction where Shen Yu was. The two pairs of eyes met in the air.
Shen Yu didn’t dodge, but smiled gently at the child, trying to appease the lonely boy.
He has always been good-looking, like the sun, refreshing like the shining stars, and the warm smile at the corners of his mouth is like a beam of light spilling in from a dim apartment.
The little boy was slightly startled and, after facing him for a few seconds, he lowered his hood again, completely hiding his immature face in the shadow, and turned his head to stop looking at him.
On the other side, the grumpy man with the flower-tattoo couldn’t help it, and rushed towards the door of the apartment complex: “I don’t believe it, a broken door can’t stop me!”
The entrance and exit of the apartment complex was locked by a rusty iron gate, and there was a thick, white fog outside the door of the building, and nothing could be seen.
At this time, the flower-arm man kicked up violently and the iron door was suddenly hit. The sound of metal rubbing was hoarse and harsh, and the thick fog outside the door also surged.
Upon seeing this, the short-haired girl, who’d explained to them kindly before, changed her face suddenly and shouted: “Stop, get away from that door!”
“What do you put in your little lady…” The flower-arm man removed the iron, yelling with an unclean mouth, but the next second, his yelling stopped abruptly.
An ape-like palm with sharp nails and thick black hair, as if attracted by the sound, suddenly stretched out from the thick fog, passed through the cracks in the rusty iron door and grabbed the flower-arm man, who stood next to the door, and yanked him outwards abruptly.
“Mother! What the hell…” The flower-arm man suddenly let out a sorrowful scream, and the wrist held by the black claw turned into blue-purple in the blink of an eye.
He wailed and wanted to flee back, but the black claw’s arm seemed to extend infinitely. It had been pulled for more than two meters, but he still dragged his prey, seemingly waiting for the prey to be exhausted…
Seeing this scene, the people who had been still yelling indiscriminately before, suddenly screamed and retreated.
The yellow-haired boy following the flower-arm man originally wanted to go up and help, but when he saw that there were a few more looming black hands hovering outside the iron gate, he couldn’t help but back down silently.
“Ah!”
At this time, the man with a flower tattoo was weakened, and he staggered and fell to the ground. He was immediately dragged by the black claws and quickly pulled closer to the door.
Shen Yu, the nearest to him, couldn’t bear it and stretched out his hand to try his best to prevent him from being dragged away.
“Hold him well.” The short-haired girl, who had just given the warning, said in a low voice and then came to the two of them, only for them to see the bright light of a knife flashing and then blood gushing out.
Holding a knife that appeared out of nowhere in her hand and making it look like cutting tofu, she cut off the wrist of the flower tattoo man.
The black, hairy claws dragged the bloody palm and quickly retracted outside the door. Then, in the thick fog outside, there was the creepy and clear sound of chewing.
The man with a flower-arm, who had lost a hand, screamed louder after he was taken aback for a moment, crying with tears and snot, and he didn’t have the previous prestige at all.
The rest of the people all stared in shock at the short-haired girl who had cut off the wrist of a living person at random.
“Looking for trouble!” The short-haired girl didn’t care about other people’s strange gazes at all, just cursed in a low voice, then took out some first-aid supplies, leaned over and neatly bandaged the wound for the man with the flower-arm to stop the bleeding.
She said with a cold face: “If you want to leave here like this, it’s a violation of the rules; it is fortunate to be able to take a life back. If you don’t give up a bit of flesh and blood to the outside, those things in the thick fog will not be satisfied.”
“In the story, there are some rules. Those must not be violated, remember?” After saving the man with the flower arm’s life, the short-haired girl turned her head and glanced solemnly at the newcomers behind her.
Frightened by the bloody scene that’d happened just now, the newcomers did not dare to have any more opinions at this time, they all shrank to the side as if scared and did not dare to shout again.
Only Shen Yu, who’d just stepped forward to help, had noticed before how the girl with short hair seemed to touch the cover of the black book with her hand both before pulling out the knife and then the first aid supplies.
“Interesting.” He thought, and slowly stroked his book with his palm.
The touch was delicate, almost like touching a piece of human skin.
“Ahem…Welcome to the pink apartment.”
Just as the tragic farce had just come to an end, many newcomers were still immersed in horror and failed to recover, and a cough sounded behind everyone, followed by a welcome speech in a weird tone.
When everyone turned their heads, they saw an old man with a short stature, crouching and coughing towards them.
The old man’s complexion was withered and his eyes were covered with a grayish-white cloud, which made people wonder whether he could see clearly.
There was a large bunch of keys hanging around his waist, and it rattled every time he took a step. He’s wearing a red armband on his left arm with the words “corridor management” written on it.
The short, old man stopped and looked at the crowd with his cloudy eyes. He said solemnly, his voice hoarse and unpleasant: “I am the corridor manager of the pink apartment complex. How come you, thirteen hired cleaners, find here?”
These thirteen people’s identity in the story really was that of cleaners, so it was consistent with the text written in the book.
Shen Yu’s eyes moved, his fingers rested on the bloody palm print of the black book and he became thoughtful in his heart.
The corridor manager was still talking about: “You are too slow. Starting from today, you only have five days to clean the apartments. If the cleaning is not good, we don’t need to pay for the work!”
He said this, then took a few keys from his waist:” The pink apartment complex is responsible for your board and lodging issues. There are seven keys that can open seven rooms for people to rest, two persons per room.”
“These six pink keys can only open the doors corresponding to the west building apartments; this red key can open all the doors of the east building and one can move in as they please.”
“Every morning, before you go to work, remember to return the key to me. I will then redistribute the keys to you.”
He spread out all the seven keys in front of everyone. As expected, six of them were pink with the house numbers engraved on them. Only on the red key, there was nothing on it.
Upon seeing this, a newcomer had the courage and asked tremblingly: “All these are rooms for two, yet we are thirteen people, so then one person…” The administrator stared at her with muddy eyes and grinned.
He showed the sparse and yellow teeth in his mouth: “You assign them by yourselves, I won’t interfere.” After that, he scanned the people again and said gloomily: “Recently, the law and order has not been very good. Be careful at night, and remember to lock the doors and windows.”
“The lights in the apartments are turned off at 11 o’clock every night, and you are not allowed to go out after the lights are turned off. The seven floors of the pink apartment complex must be cleaned up during the day, and no one is allowed to be lazy. When you meet the residents of our apartments, you should be polite.”
After explaining the apartment building’s regulations, he glanced at the tightly closed doors of the elevator in the central hall, then proceeded to tell in an off-handed manner:” In addition, recently our apartment elevator was broken, so you must take the stairs to go up and down.”
After finishing, the administrator crouched his back and left.
Everyone was left facing the seven keys and looking at each other.
Suddenly, the man with glasses and a thoughtful expression, shot out his hand first and grabbed a pink key.
Everyone looked at him as he stroked his forehead and then between his eyes, down to the bridge of his nose, and explained: “Thirteen people, seven keys, each room for two; there must be one person left over, and they will live in a room on their own.”
“Six pink keys, one red key; the administrator asked us to distribute them by ourselves. The meaning is very clear. The remaining person lives in the room with the red key.”
He looked around at the solemn expressions of the people, and a smug smile appeared at the corners of his mouth: “Obviously, the person who is alone will be in danger at night.” As soon as his voice fell, some people with a quick response had already snatched up the remaining pink keys in an instant.
The rest of them took a slack, crying without tears while facing the only key left over; the red key. All they could do was to turn their pitiful gazes on the persons who got the pink keys.
No one wants to be alone in their lives.
Among them, there was a young couple who’d come in together. The man grabbed a pink key and naturally shared a room with his girlfriend, and others couldn’t get in at all.
Although the flower arm man had lost a palm, his yellow-haired sidekick was a pickpocket, with the fastest hand speed, too. He’d successfully grabbed a pink key in the chaos and helped his elder brother to the West Building apartment.
As a result, other people put their courteous eyes on the man with glasses who had obtained a pink key first.
There was a pair of twins among the new people. Among them, the elder sister had a hot personality. She leaned directly next to the man in glasses, begged softly and rubbed her chest against the back of the man in glasses, either intentionally or unintentionally.
The younger sister had a shy personality, she’s just dragging her elder sister by the corners of her clothes uncomfortably and whispered: “Sister, it is not safe to live in the same room with a strange man…”
The impatient sister directly cursed back: “Now it’s not the time. You may not be able to save your life. What are you going to care about? You want to die, but don’t pull me!” The sister let go of her elder sister’s clothes.
There was a reserved smile on the face of the man in glasses, his critical eyes circling between the sisters, and finally he chose the sister who had come up with the initiative.
The left-behind sister stayed where she was, staring at her toes nervously.
The short-haired girl who had taken action before, looked at this poor little girl and couldn’t help sighing, then beckoned to call her over and share a room.
And the bald man who was also a veteran, yet for some unknown reason he was a step slower this time and didn’t manage to grab a pink key, thus his face was gloomy and dripping.
On the contrary, there was a stout man with a simple face, and he’d successfully grabbed a pink key.
He was a driver. This time he’d accompanied his boss to talk about business and was accidentally involved in the story.
Seeing that he succeeded in grabbing the key, his boss was also overjoyed, holding the driver’s hand and saying repeatedly, “Da Zhuang, if the two of us can live and get out of this situation, the arrears of wages will be given to you! I will also give you a promotion and a salary increase…”
The driver named Da Zhuang still smiled honestly, then turned his head and chose the gloomy bald male as a teammate.
The boss who was left behind was immediately stunned and shouted: “Da Zhuang, how many years have we known each other, you can’t do this kind of thing at this time! Do you think the salary is too low? After you go out, you, I’ll give you as much as you want!”
Da Zhuang scratched his head and said sincerely: “Boss Qian, if you want to live, I also want to. You are the same as me. You just came in and didn’t know anything, so I got a veteran’s hand to cover me, so that the chances of surviving will be greater.”
“Boss Qian, I’m sorry!” The rejected Boss Qian was anxious and quickly shook the black book in his hand, stammering. He said, “Da Zhuang, I also have a book, and I am what they said… Novelist, but he is not good enough.”
Da Zhuang shook his head and followed the proud bald man.
“Da Zhuang, you son of a bitch! You, you are fired, and after we go out, you just walk away…” he watched his driver go away with the other man, and felt like a betrayed boss. He couldn’t help but yell.
But his scolding and threats were of no use here.
At this time, there were only three people left in the hall; Shen Yu, Boss Qian and the little boy still hiding in the corner.
Shen Yu held the last pink key in his hand.
Therefore, Boss Qian turned his gaze to Shen Yu again and begged: “This little brother, choose me to team up with you! I am rich, and I am especially rich. As long as we are alive, I will give you two hundred thousand…no, two million!”
“As long as I can get out, I will never cut corners to do constructions, will not default on the wages of migrant workers, will not deduct salaries, and will not carry my wife behind my back to raise a concubine … I will definitely donate to charity every day, and then I won’t lack morals…”
A big boss of a company was crying with his nose running and tears streaming at this moment, and he had completely lost all his face.
Shen Yu looked down at him, then turned to look at the little boy in the corner.
The little boy was still so silent and quiet, hiding himself in the shadow in the corner, as if forgotten by everyone.
The red key, which was despised by others, was rolling down at his feet, covered with a layer of dust, as if it were of the same fate as the little boy.
Shen Yu pondered for a moment, then slightly shook his head in apology to Boss Qian, and turned and walked towards the little boy.
Suddenly losing all hope, Boss Qian sat on the ground with weak legs and screamed with a trembling voice: “Don’t choose him, choose me, choose me! He has no money, I have…how much money do you want, I’ll give it to you!”
Leaving the desperate roar behind him, Shen Yu walked to the child and reached out to him.
The little boy raised his dark eyes and stared at the palm of his hand. He was silent for a long time, and suddenly a slight smile appeared.
He asked: “Are you sure you want to choose me?”
Editor : Black.cat
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T/N: Thank you for reading (~˘▾˘)~
Let me know if you find any mistakes and I’ll correct it. You can also ‘buy me a coffee’ if you like it…..
