The Scent of Blood

　　After daybreak, the horror of the previous night dissipated somewhat.

　　Lin was about to head downstairs from the second floor corridor when he heard a commotion from the third floor, like a lot of people discussing something. 

　　He didn't intend to go, but then he heard a woman's wail, a heart-wrenching wail, as if she had encountered something extremely tragic.

　　Lin hesitated for a moment, then turned back towards the stairs on the third floor to see what had happened upstairs.

　　The building here was made of wood, and the planks on the stairs were old and creaky.

　　 Every step made a creaking sound, and some parts even swayed a little, as if they couldn't bear the weight of a human body.

　　Lin reached the third floor and saw several people standing in the corridor. 

　　But what caught his attention was the strong smell of blood in the air.

　　The smell of blood was so strong, it made his nostrils sting. 

　　Lin felt a sense of foreboding, he moved cautiously, getting behind the group.

　　"I knew it," Chi, the tall man who had brought Lin and the others here yesterday, said in a low voice, discussing something with others, "Something definitely happened yesterday..."

　　Xiao was also speaking, "I thought so too, I thought..."

　　 She paused, turning to look at Lin who was behind her, "Forget it."

　　Lin thought, what do you mean by that, who did you think it was? 

　　Did you think it was me and Ruan? 

　　He looked up and saw a door behind Xiao.

　　The door was half-closed, and a pool of blood flowed on the floor. 

　　Because the weather was too cold, the blood had solidified. 

　　But it was still clear that there was a lot of blood.

　　"What happened?" Lin asked.

　　"Someone died." Chi's tone was flat.

　　"Someone died?" 

　　If it had been yesterday, he would have thought it was unbelievable, why could these people say such a thing with such a calm tone. 

　　But after last night's experience, he had realized clearly that the place he was in now was no longer a world that could be explained by common sense.

　　"Yes," Chi said.

　　Lin changed his angle and took a look inside the door. 

　　This glimpse caused him to gasp involuntarily. 

　　The room was full of congealed blood, two corpses lay in a disarray on the floor, the flesh was so badly mangled that it was impossible to recognize their original form. 

　　They were more like two pieces of meat without skin, rather than human beings.

　　 The blood flowed down the floor of the room, out the door, from the floor to the walls, almost every inch of the third floor was stained.

　　Although Lin was mentally prepared, he was still disgusted by this scene. 

　　He covered his mouth and turned away, Xiao, understandingly, said, "There's a toilet in the room next door."

　　Lin rushed into the toilet and vomited.

　　After he finished vomiting, Xiao said, "I thought you wouldn't vomit."

　　Lin: "Ah?"

　　Xiao said calmly, "You and Ruan are already good newcomers, generally newcomers have a really bad first door state, survival rate is probably 20%."

　　Lin: "..."

　　Xiao said, "Let's go, let's go downstairs for breakfast."

　　Lin said, "What about the two corpses?"

　　Xiao's expression was strange when she heard this, "What do you want to do about them?"

　　Lin was speechless. 

　　He was following the others downstairs, and then he suddenly remembered something and asked in confusion:

　　"Wait, I heard a woman crying on the third floor when I was on the second floor..." 

　　He looked around, confirming that there was only Xiao, a girl, among them, and seeing her calm look, there was no way she would be wailing.

　　"A woman crying?" Xiao said, "We didn't hear anything, you must have heard wrong."

　　 "...Okay."

　　Breakfast on the first floor was ready, steaming hot on the table. 

　　The person who cooked the food was said to be a villager, they looked no different from normal people.

　　After eating breakfast, Lin borrowed some thick clothes from them and inquired about the village.

　　"Our village has nothing going on." The villager seemed unable to provide any useful information, "It's just that a few tourists come every winter."

　　Lin: "Oh... What about your daily necessities?"

　　The villager said, "We buy them outside the mountain, the mountain road is bad, but we have to find a way. But as soon as it snows, we can't go out, the mountain road is blocked, and we have to stay here for the whole winter."

　　Lin thought for a while and then suddenly asked, "Are all the wells in your village built in the middle of the courtyard?"

　　Lin was not sure if it was his imagination, but when he mentioned the word "well," the villager's expression seemed to become tense, but they didn't give any special information. 

　　They just nodded and said yes, then turned and left.

　　Lin thought about it for a while, but couldn't figure out anything, so he decided to give the clothes to Ruan first, and then talk about anything else.

　　When he entered the room, Ruan was lying in bed playing with her phone.

　　 When she saw him enter, she hummed softly, "You're so slow."

　　Lin handed the borrowed clothes to the bed, "Get up, there's breakfast on the first floor."

　　Ruan hummed in response.

　　Lin said, "I'll go out and wait for you."

　　"Wait." Ruan suddenly called out, "What's on your head?"

　　"What?" Lin was confused.

　　Ruan beckoned him over, so Lin went closer.

　　"It's all red..." Ruan reached out to touch Lin's head, then turned her palm over, "What's this?"

　　Lin felt bad when he saw what Ruan was holding, because what Ruan was holding looked like frozen blood.

　　"I'll go take a look." Lin quickly went to the toilet. 

　　As Ruan said, he noticed that his hair was covered in small pieces of ice, the ice was dark red, hidden in the hair, it was hard to see at a glance.

　　 He didn't know when it got on his head.

　　"Damn it," Lin muttered, wiping his head with a towel. 

　　The more he wiped, the more shocking it became, almost a whole hot towel was dyed red, and his hair hadn't even been wiped clean.

　　Ruan, who had changed into thick clothes, walked over and said , "Is this blood?"

　　Lin sighed and briefly explained what happened on the third floor. 

　　When he said that someone had died, Ruan started crying softly again, saying, "Lin, I'm so scared, are we going to be next?"

　　She was such a beautiful girl, crying so miserably, it was heartbreaking.

　　Lin turned around, cleaning his hair while thinking about where all this blood came from. 

　　Finally, he had a terrifying idea... 

　　Could it be from the ceiling of the third floor... dripping down?

　　"I want to go to the third floor and take a look." Lin said, "You go downstairs to eat first."

　　"Are you going alone?" Ruan said, "Let's go together."

　　"Aren't you scared?" Lin asked suspiciously, Ruan was still crying her eyes out just now.

　　"Isn't that because you're here?" Ruan flipped her hair, smiling softly, "With you here, what am I afraid of?"

　　Lin thought, that's right, you were running faster than me last night, after all.

　　So the two of them went back to the third floor along the corridor.

　　The blood was still all over the floor, and the bodies were still uncleaned, but this time, Lin focused on the ceiling. 

　　He looked up, and sure enough, he saw traces of blood on the ceiling, but these traces made people feel very uncomfortable, it looked like something was sticking to the ceiling and slowly crawling.

　　 Perhaps because of the long time, the bloodstains on the ceiling were also frozen, but the bloodstains that dripped onto the floor were still visible.

　　Lin's scalp tingled, he really didn't want to think about what was hanging from the ceiling when he first appeared on the third floor... and they still hadn't noticed it all this time.

　　Ruan looked at the ceiling for a long time.

　　Lin asked what she saw.

　　"I saw the ceiling," Ruan said, "What else could I see, the stars and dreams?"

　　Lin: "..."

　　She was really bold, after looking at the ceiling, she also went to take a look at the two bloody and mangled corpses.

　　 She didn't show any discomfort at all, she even seemed a little excited.

　　Until Lin looked at her suspiciously, "Aren't you scared?" 

　　Then she looked as if she had remembered something, and started to whine.

　　"Stop whining, are you going to eat breakfast or not?"

　　"I'm going to eat." Ruan said, "I'm hungry too."

　　The two of them went downstairs, and saw that everyone had already finished breakfast and seemed to be waiting for them.

　　"Where did you two go?" Chi said, "We've been waiting for you."

　　Ruan didn't seem nervous in the face of everyone's gaze, she gracefully sat down at the table and picked up her bowl, ready to eat breakfast.

　　Lin talked about the blood on his hair and the strange traces he saw on the ceiling of the third floor.

　　Everyone's faces were not good-looking after hearing this, and some people reflexively looked up at the ceiling.

　　They were still discussing the person who died last night and those strange traces, when a middle-aged man in his forties walked in from outside. 

　　The man was wearing a thick army-green padded jacket, carrying an oil lamp in his hand, and he slowly walked into the hall.

　　"Hello," the man said, "I'm the headman of this village, you must be the people I invited to help, right?"

　　As soon as he spoke, everyone in the room became quiet.

　　"It's getting cold, our village wants to build some coffins for next year," the man said in a hoarse voice, "We asked you to help the carpenter."

　　No one answered the headman, and he didn't seem to expect an answer from them either.