Feng Yu Lan was feeling thirsty, and this feeling of extreme thirst left him with an unbearable dryness in his throat, which eventually woke him up. The last memory he could recall was his staying overnight at the hospital. Since his condition improved, he no longer needed to remain in the single-occupancy room, and so a short, fat physician sent him to the multi-occupancy ward. For countless nights, Feng Yu Lan tossed and turned in his own bed because of the thundering snores coming from the slumbering uncle on the adjacent bed.

But this time, Feng Yu Lan felt himself nodding off, and without notice, he fell into a deep sleep. That older patient’s snores couldn’t stop him from dozing off, and before he knew it, Feng Yu Lan had the most absurd dream. In his dream, there was a colorful clown wearing exaggerated make-up and ridiculous clothes, dancing and laughing hysterically. The clown’s laughter was horrendous…rather, it was so eerie. It was similar to the earsplitting cackles of those evil witches from western mythology, the grinning witches who would shriek with laughter while stirring their cauldron. Feng Yu Lan’s bizarre dream was filled with those shrill giggles, and it was terrifying.

Then, Feng Yu Lan woke up to a dry mouth and parched throat.

It wasn’t long before he found there was something wrong with his current situation. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t in the hospital. There were no white beds, no snoring patients, no IV infusion pumps, and no get well flowers or gifts. Everything was unusual, gloomy, and alarming.

Feng Yu Lan found himself trapped in a dark, narrow place! Exactly how cramped was this place? To put it bluntly, it was as if someone just shoved him in a coffin, or more specifically, a coffin designed exclusively for children! It was only half the size of a grown man, so Feng Yu Lan had to huddle with his knees tucked in, back hunched forward, and head bowed, curling into fetal position.

Feng Yu Lan immediately thought he was still dreaming after gauging his surroundings. It couldn’t be anything other than a dream inside of a dream, except this dream was even more outrageous than the one with the silly clown. But Feng Yu Lan soon discovered it wasn’t a mere dream. He could clearly feel the stinging pain after pinching his own face.

“This must be someone playing a joke on me.” Feng Yu Lan conjectured. He raised his voice and yelled, “Hey! Whoever’s out there, quickly get me out of here! I’m still a wounded patient!”

There wasn’t a single response outside.

It was too quiet. Feng Yu Lan closed his mouth and didn’t emit the slightest of sounds. The dead silence was all but oppressive, pressing down on him from all sides. The only things he could hear in the lack of deafening noise were the sounds of his ragged breaths and his wildly beating heart.

Feng Yu Lan realized that panicking wouldn’t help, so he willed himself to take deep, steady breaths in order to regain his composure; he lowly chanted, “Calm down, Feng Yu Lan. Calm down. This isn’t the worst you’ve been through. This isn’t as bad as being stabbed with a knife. Yeah, this is definitely better than being stabbed. Because when you were stabbed, it hurt like h.e.l.l, and you also almost died…and…”

Feng Yu Lan abruptly stopped talking. He paused then awkwardly stretch his hand as much as he could in the confining darkness. With some difficulty, he managed to touch his waist, the place where the a.s.sailant stabbed him with a knife from behind, penetrating his skin and piercing his guts. This injury was the main reason he almost didn’t live to see the light of the next day.

The wound ached every day, and Feng Yu Lan could only rest leaning on one side or sleep sitting up because the racking agony would constantly torment him. Each time he relaxed, the excruciating pain would strike his nerves without a moment’s notice, and his body would instantly twinge.

But the injury seemed to be gone now!

Though he couldn’t actually see anything in the darkness, Feng Yu Lan still widened his eyes in incredulity. His fingertips lightly grazed his smooth, undamaged skin. The wound disappeared! Feng Yu Lan’s hand remained at his waist for quite a while. He was completely dumbfounded. He couldn’t seem to wrap his mind around it, and he puzzled over this for a long time. Just what was going on?

Even a couple of days healing in the hospital wouldn’t suffice, especially not when it came to a person with an injury of this degree. The doctors had informed him that he would need to stay in the hospital for at least half a month, but right now, the wound was gone, as if it never appeared on his body! There weren’t even any scars left!

“I must be dreaming still!” Feng Yu Lan was convinced by now. After all, something like that was impossible! He shut his eyes and urged himself to wake up, “Wake up! Wake up!”

But he couldn’t wake up from this nightmare. Feng Yu Lan couldn’t leave this dark, constricting place, which was so narrow that even slightly turning his head proved difficult.

“I haven’t died and been put into a coffin, right?” Feng Yu Lan was frightened by his own speculation, but that soon turned in indignation, and he angrily shouted in vexation, “To think that even in death there’s such thing as stinginess! Look at this! Reduced by half! Even a coffin gave me a 50% discount! It’s so small and cramped, I can’t even rest in peace! This is injustice, I say! Just what has the world come to! Such a sad loss of morality!1”

Feng Yu Lan was simply amusing himself; the corners of this happy-go-lucky person’s mouth curled in mirth. The only thing was that he was becoming quite irritated with this narrow place. He wiggled around, twisting and turning and repeatedly banging against the nearby boards with his elbows, when he finally felt something underneath him.

It was too dark to be seen, but Feng Yu Lan used his hands to feel the object. It was a long, thin item, similar to smooth stick, and it seemed flexible. The moment Feng Yu Lan touched the item, an idea flashed through his mind, and he briskly cracked the stick. Soon, this dark, narrow s.p.a.ce was brightened by a glimmering blue light.

“A…glow stick.” Feng Yu Lan looked at the stick in his hand. The glow stick was a bit bigger than most, and the light was also brighter than usual. He held the glow stick up, illuminating his surroundings. Although he didn’t know whether he was truly in a coffin, the place he was confined in was unquestionably small. It appeared to be some sort of thick wooden box.

There didn’t seem to be anything else besides the glow stick, but it wasn’t long before Feng Yu Lan ended up discovering something else in this place.

A note was nailed to the plank directly in front of Feng Yu Lan’s face. He was easily able to read it once he s.h.i.+ned the light from the glow stick at it. It was a slip of paper with a purple pattern, and the following sentences were written in neat cursive:

【Dear Mr. Feng Yu Lan】

【You are very fortunate to have received my invitation. Welcome to the hidden chamber.】

【You must be feeling unsettled or perhaps very afraid given the new environment you are in, but I’m afraid there’s no time to feel scared. As of the moment, there are more important things waiting for you. Please escape from the small area you are currently confined in within an hour. It is entirely sealed, meaning the oxygen will gradually deplete as you breathe, which means you do not have much oxygen to consume, which also means you might suffocate to death.】

【Of course, you can also choose to do nothing at all. Your partner may save you, but there is also the chance that he will not come. 】

【In order not to create a new homicide in this chamber, I shall give you a couple of hints:】

【First: In the absence of tools, human beings tend to use both hands to create miracles.】

【Second: Right now, the box you are trapped in is placed at the very bottom of countless boxes.】

【Third: This is not a joke.】

【The aforementioned hints are over. I wish you the best of luck!】

After reading the note, Feng Yu Lan’s first reaction was to curse. To be specific, he wanted to unsparingly curse the man who wrote this note…him and his ancestors to the eighteenth generation2!  But Feng Yu Lan restrained himself from such irrational thoughts. He knew it was meaningless. It didn’t matter who the person was or the reason the person decided to trap him in here. If the words on the note were true, the most important thing he had to do right now was leave the d.a.m.ned box!

But how could he get out?

Feng Yu Lan haphazardly felt around the box, searching through any crevice he could reach. Alas, there was only a glow stick…Yes, just that sole glow stick.

The box was very st.u.r.dy. Feng Yu Lan vigorously hammered against the boards, generating weak vibrations. Once again, he thought of the hints on the note. The box he was trapped in was currently placed at the very bottom of numerous boxes. In other words, there were several boxes, either of the same kind or of a different kind, piled on top of this box. He could only imagine the horrid disaster that would fall upon him if he opened it from above, but below him was the floor, so escaping through there was impossible. The last option he had was to try to find a way to open it from the sides.

He had to open the box from inside without any tools. Feng Yu Lan’s only solution was to use his own body, that is, to press his back against one side and push his feet against the opposite side, forcing the box to break.

However, staying in this box was pure torture for Feng Yu Lan. It was a small rectangle, and the boards flanked all of his sides, practically leaving no gaps in between. So as Feng Yu Lan remained lying down, he couldn’t s.h.i.+ft his body; there was no way he could move well in this tight s.p.a.ce. The distance between the board at his feet and the board at his head was exceedingly small, and if not all, the sides were too narrow. He couldn’t properly straighten his legs, and he couldn’t even bend his knees much. That being the case, there wasn’t sufficient room provided to carry out his plan. In the end, he didn’t have enough strength or leverage to break the box open.

“This is the worst!” exclaimed Feng Yu Lan as he painfully struggled in the box.

In another area, Luo Jian was also caught in a dilemma. The moment he opened the strange door, the thing that kept banging on the other side suddenly threw itself at him! Luo Jian didn’t have enough time to prepare himself, and the dim light in his hand certainly had no time to s.h.i.+ne on what that thing was. He just knew the black shadow was rus.h.i.+ng towards him; danger was approaching, and it was approaching him fast!

Luo Jian’s survival instincts set in. He reflexively lifted his leg and he gave a fierce kick to the thing that was coming at him, flinging it away! The shadow issued a sharp cry in pain, then fled, vanis.h.i.+ng into the darkness once again. Luo Jian took a deep breath. He immediately removed the knife that was held between his clenched teeth and warily leaned his back against the wall, carefully retreating. He cautiously raised the oil lamp in his hand and vigilantly observing his surroundings.

Luo Jian had a hunch that the thing was still lurking about. He sensed that the creature was silently watching him in the dark. Though it seemed like it wouldn’t make its move yet, it definitely wasn’t going to give up. It was looking for the exact moment when Luo Jian lowered his guard to pounce on him again. Luo Jian honestly didn’t want to think about what kind of creature this was. The Boss had previously mentioned that the types of monsters that appeared in the chamber so far haven’t been all that surprising. So, perhaps it was one of those Resident Evil zombies? A Jiangs.h.i.+3? Possibly one of those monsters from sci-fi films, the ones with weird shapes? Or maybe even Sadako4?

“It’d be terrible if Sadako appeared.” Luo Jian shook his head, stating, “But well, luckily, there aren’t any televisions here.”

Nevertheless, since this was a ghost s.h.i.+p, ghosts would most likely appear. And if there weren’t any ghosts, then there would certainly be other creatures of darkness, such as a zombies, that would emerge. Luo Jian kept his guard up as he reflected. He was well aware that his hands were trembling and that he couldn’t properly grip the knife in his hand. Luo Jian knew it. There was nothing worse than this in his entire life.