Chapter 12: The Cry Beneath the Floor

The realization sent a chill running through their entire bodies.

Their brains couldn’t help but conjure images: a pale, mangled hand tearing through the floor, the ghost infant crawling out like a mass of raw flesh, its pitch-black eyes fixed on them while it let out a sharp, eerie wail.

They imagined it gripping their legs with force, slowly climbing upward, the cold biting into their bones, the skin and flesh on their legs seemingly being torn away.

They wanted to flee, but a soul-crushing fear left them unable to move.

The ghost hadn’t even appeared yet, but they were already terrified by their own imagination.

Wu Kai, possessing good physical fitness and quick reflexes, immediately jumped aside, fearful that the ghost infant might crawl out from the ground beneath his feet.

But after running a distance away, he found the wailing sound remained directly under his feet, following him like a shadow, clinging to him no matter where he went.

And so… he began to hop back and forth, spontaneously performing a disco dance on the spot.

Pei Liu looked at him with a complex expression: “…Brother Kai, what are you doing?”

Wu Kai was busy, only managing to find a moment to turn his head and reply, “Dodging the ghost.”

Only after he spoke did he realize how ridiculous he looked, and he stopped sheepishly.

Pei Liu curled the corner of his lips and said: “The crying is coming from downstairs; it might be the first floor. But there’s a place even more classic—the basement.”

It was a common trope in horror films—a place for imprisonment, murder, and hiding corpses, where ghosts wandered.

The dark, damp environment was oppressive to the extreme, as if something unknown lay hidden in the shadows.

At the mention of the basement, Tong Jiaqi instantly imagined a multitude of horrific scenes.

“Let’s go.” Pei Liu walked toward the stairs, secretly yawning. The sooner the task was done, the sooner he could rest.

Tong Jiaqi and the others exchanged glances and followed after him.

They traced the crying, getting closer and closer until it settled in the dining room.

“It wouldn’t be on the dining table, would it? If it is, I won’t dare to eat here anymore,” Tong Jiaqi blurted out.

Pei Liu continued forward and eventually stopped right in front of the dining table. However, there was no bloody ghost infant on the table.

“The sound is coming from underneath.”

Pei Liu pulled aside a chair, crouched down, and felt the floorboards beneath the table until he found a hidden trapdoor. He lifted it up, revealing a staircase leading into a dark basement.

“Fvck!” Wu Kai’s complexion changed instantly.

He wasn’t the only one; the others fared no better. After all, they had been eating here for the past few days without knowing there was a basement hiding right under their feet.

A ghost hand could crawl out at any moment to grab their feet—just thinking about it made their scalps tingle.

They would never dare to sit here and eat again.

If they had to, they would probably have to sit cross-legged on the chairs while keeping a constant eye on the basement entrance, terrified a ghost might emerge without them knowing.

Pei Liu, however, only cared about finishing the job early. Once the hatch was open, he didn’t hesitate for a second and prepared to walk down the stairs.

“Wait, you’re just going down like that?” Zhao Hai quickly grabbed his arm.

Pei Liu looked back, feeling confused: “But the infant is down there; aren’t we looking for him?”

That might be true, but the basement was pitch black, they couldn’t see what was at the bottom of the stairs, and it was filled with the sounds of shrill infant wailing and gusts of icy wind… they were far too terrified to go down!

An ordinary person would have hesitated or backed away. Pei Liu was simply too reckless—he went for it without a second thought.

“At least find a flashlight; it’s very dark down there.”

Pei Liu shook the rattle in his hand: “I have one.”

He pressed a button, and a beam of light shot forward—pale with a hint of ghostly blue. The brightness was mediocre, but it was just enough to illuminate the path ahead.

There was no reason not to go. Since the youngest guest had taken the lead, they had no choice but to bite the bullet and follow him in.

Jian Yongge volunteered to take the front, so he followed right behind Pei Liu down the stairs.

He stared at Pei Liu’s slender back, a glint flashing in his eyes.

‘Push him down, push him down. Don’t you hate him? Just push him down, and you’ll get your wish; he won’t be able to stand in your way ever again…’

A blurred voice echoed in his ears, luring him on.

Finally, he slowly reached out his hand, about to touch Pei Liu’s back…

“We’re at the bottom.”

The basement stairs weren’t long—only ten steps—and they were done in a moment.

Jian Yongge’s hand paused in mid-air; he slowly curled it into a fist and pulled it back in frustration.

Pei Liu found a light switch on the wall and flipped it. A dim yellow light came on, providing just enough illumination to be better than nothing.

The basement was spacious, not cramped at all, and filled with wine racks containing various bottles, making it look more like a wine cellar.

Tong Jiaqi rubbed her arms and couldn’t help but say: “Let’s make this quick.”

Pei Liu agreed. But because this was a basement, the sound echoed, and the wailing came from all directions, making it difficult to pinpoint the location. They could only listen and guess.

They bypassed the wine racks and walked deeper, feeling colder with every step, their bodies shivering uncontrollably.

Pei Liu shook the rattle in his hand, calling the infant’s nickname, hoping he would be sensible enough to crawl out on his own.

The rattle drummed out a dull beat, the thudding sound mixing with the wailing, making it all the more eerie.

Wu Kai constantly shook his head left and right, looking around with vigilance, wishing he had chameleon eyes that could rotate and provide a 360-degree field of vision so he wouldn’t miss a thing.

Suddenly, his breath hitched, and his heart tightened.

There was a figure to his left and back!

Wu Kai immediately grabbed Pei Liu’s hand and pointed in that direction, forgetting how to even speak.

No matter the situation, Pei Liu remained calm, reliable, and reassuring; if his male pride hadn’t forbidden it, he would have wanted to cling to Pei Liu like a damsel in distress.

“What’s wrong?”

Pei Liu looked over and discovered it was a statue. It was in a Greek style, a majestic and sturdy man with distinct features, wearing a robe and holding a wooden wine barrel in his hands.

Wu Kai saw it too, breathed a sigh of relief, and continued forward.

Finally, they found the cradle in the center of the basement, with the infant wailing inside.

Its complexion was blueish-white, its eyes large and black, and its body no bigger than two adult palms.

It was incredibly realistic, with fine fetal hair and limbs that moved—though it was undoubtedly a fake infant; the production team wasn’t insane enough to throw a real newborn down here, or they would be shredded by public outrage.

Although it resembled an eerie corpse, compared to the blood-and-flesh mass they had conjured in their imaginations, this one felt comparatively easier to accept.

Wu Kai wanted to show off his manliness and summoned the courage to pick up the infant; the cold, clammy touch made it difficult for him to keep from shrieking out loud.

Beside the cradle stood a bizarrely placed full-length mirror, casting a cold light that clearly reflected the scene around them.

Tong Jiaqi took an accidental glance, only to discover with horror—

“Is the statue moving toward us?!”

Her sudden exclamation startled Wu Kai so much he nearly threw the infant out of his hands.

They all turned to look at their surroundings in unison.

They didn’t want to admit it, but it was exactly as Tong Jiaqi had said: the statue that had originally been in the corner by the wall had moved silently when they weren’t looking and was now much closer to them.

The five statues of men holding wine barrels were subtly beginning to surround them.