Horror Movie Set: This extra is too good at playing the tricks.

Chapter 49 The Vanishing Red

Zhang Min's tearful scream injected a dose of excitement into the otherwise lifeless morning.

The door to the east wing was flung open instantly, and Ye Jianguo darted out like a cheetah, with Da Lu close behind. His fat body seemed to create a gust of wind as he ran.

Lu Dan wanted to follow suit, but his knees felt like the cartilage had been removed, and they were incredibly weak, as if he hadn't been sleeping last night, but had instead run a cross-country marathon carrying a hundred-pound sandbag.

"Damn it, why am I so weak?"

Lu Dan gritted his teeth, gripped the door frame and forced himself to move, staggering behind the two men as he rushed into the west wing.

Chen Hua's bed was empty, the quilt hung to one side, the sheets were crumpled and cold to the touch, long since lost their warmth.

The person didn't just leave.

"Sister Chen! Sister Chen!" Zhang Min was still calling out in a sobbing voice, her voice echoing and sounding particularly mournful.

"Stop shouting!" Ye Jianguo interrupted her with a gloomy face, his eyes quickly scanning the room. "The shoes are still here, the coat is still here. No one can go out for a walk barefoot in this cold weather."

Da Lu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "Could they have gotten lost while going to the toilet?"

That's such a lame excuse that nobody wants to believe it.

"Find them, alive or dead." Ye Jianguo made a decisive decision, turned around and strode out.

Lu Dan dragged his heavy legs and followed at the back. When he passed the threshold of the main room, he subconsciously looked down at the road and his gaze froze.

In the cracks of the bluestone slabs outside the threshold, there was a small, dark red stain, the trace of dried liquid that had been splashed there.

His heart skipped a beat, and just as he was about to squat down to take a closer look, a foot wearing a black cloth shoe stepped on him very naturally, just covering the dark red mark.

"Hey, gentlemen, what's wrong? Why do you all look so lost this early in the morning?"

The village chief appeared at the doorway at some point, puffing on a pipe, his cloudy old eyes smiling as he looked at everyone.

Lu Dan looked up at the village chief.

"Village chief, one of my colleagues is missing." Ye Jianguo stepped forward, his tone somewhat sharp. "He was fine last night, but he's gone this morning. Is there any place in the village that outsiders shouldn't go?"

"Gone?" The village chief's surprise was exaggerated. "This is terrible! How could a living person just disappear in the village? Quick, quick! Er Gou, get a few people to help the leaders look for him."

At the village chief's shout, all the doors in the vicinity opened, and more than a dozen villagers immediately gathered around.

Their expressions, while seemingly enthusiastic, were more like those of someone watching a show, tinged with a subtle excitement. Their eyes swept over Zhang Min, as if appraising the next piece of meat to be served.

Lu Dan took a step back imperceptibly, while the village chief's black cloth shoes remained firmly planted on the bluestone slab.

"Since there are so many people, let's split up and search." Although Ye Jianguo felt that the villagers' eyes were unfriendly, he had no other choice at the moment.

The group dispersed and began a thorough search of the village.

Lu Dan mingled in the middle of the group. He felt that he was not in a good state. His whole body ached, especially his neck and shoulders.

Furthermore, given the deliberately concealed traces at the entrance, Chen Hua's disappearance was definitely not as simple as just getting lost.

The search lasted for more than half an hour.

Apart from the increasingly irritating barking of dogs, not a single hair could be found in the entire village.

"No, this place is too eerie!" Zhang Min's face turned pale, and she suddenly grabbed Ye Jianguo's arm. "Team leader, the car! There's a radio in the car. We just got it this time. We can call the county."

Ye Jianguo's eyes lit up: "Let's go, to the car."

The group rushed toward the Santana parked at the village entrance.

Ye Jianguo climbed into the driver's seat, somewhat awkwardly turned on the car radio, and adjusted the frequency.

"Sizzle sizzle—"

No other sound came through the radio.

"How can there be no signal? This is an imported product!" Da Lu said anxiously, pounding on the dial.

Lu Dan stood outside the car door, looking at the rolling mountains in the distance, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

This is a horror movie set. If you could call the police with one phone call, what would be the point of ghosts?

"Let's keep looking, maybe it's in the back mountain." Lu Dan casually replied, and while the others were busy looking around the car, he quietly slipped into the alley next to him.

He turned back and headed straight for his home.

We must confirm that touch of red.

Back in the courtyard, all was quiet. Lu Dan strode to the entrance of the main room and looked down at the bluestone slabs outside the threshold.

Gone; the dark red mark vanished without a trace.

"They disposed of the body quickly enough." Lu Dan's suspicions were now largely confirmed.

Now that the outside has been cleared, what about the inside of the house, which was the primary crime scene?

He slipped into the west wing, where the room remained as messy as it had been that morning.

Lu Dan lay on the ground, searching the corners and cracks in the bed bit by bit.

If someone is forcibly taken away, there will always be traces of struggle left behind.

His gaze was fixed on the corner where the bedside table met the wall, where there was a slight reflection.

Lu Dan reached out and, with some effort, pried something out of the gap—a small piece of fingernail, its edges jagged.

With torn flesh and blood along the edges, it was clear that the person had desperately clung to something in extreme despair, breaking their fingernail in the process.

Chen Hua was attacked in this room and there was a fierce struggle.

Strangely, neither she nor Zhang Min, who was sleeping in the main room, heard anything.

Lu Dan pinched his bloodied fingernails, a chill creeping up his spine.

"Brother Dan, what are you doing?"

Two childish voices suddenly rang out behind him without warning.

Lu Dan's palm tightened, and with lightning speed, he tucked his fingernails into his sleeve while adjusting his expression and turning around.

There were two children standing at the door, the same two who had called him out yesterday. They were chubby-faced and wearing open-crotch pants.

However, at this moment, their two pairs of dark eyes were staring straight at Lu Dan, which was somewhat eerie.

"Oh, it's you two." Lu Dan dusted off his knees and stood up casually. "I dropped something, so I was just looking for it. What are you doing here?"

He tried to bluff his way through.

The child on the left tilted his head, and his neck cracked: "Brother Dan, you used to love us the most."

The child on the right took a step forward: "Yes, they used to call us by our childhood nicknames and pat our heads when they saw us."

The two spoke in unison, their tone aggressive: "Brother Dan, why don't you call us by our childhood names?"

The air froze instantly.

Who knows if those two little brats are called Gou Dan or Tie Zhu?

Seeing Lu Dan remain silent, the two children's originally rosy complexions turned somewhat bluish, and dark veins were faintly visible under their skin.

They approached step by step, their fingernails growing longer and turning black.

Lu Dan reached into his robes and grasped the Reaper Revolver, disguised as a slingshot.

If they were to take action, the commotion would be enormous. And wouldn't killing those two children attract the ire of the entire village?

Just as his sharp fingernails were centimeters away from Lu Dan, and he was about to pull the trigger—

"Adan, you bastard!"

A loud shout came from the courtyard, and Ye Jianguo rushed in, his righteous aura dispelling some of the gloom in the room.

He rushed straight up to Lu Dan, grabbed him by the collar, and spat in his face.

"Everyone's panicking and searching for him, and you're just hiding at home slacking off? Chen Hua went missing from your house, don't you have any sense of responsibility?!"

Ye Jianguo yanked Lu Dan out of the circle of two children.

"Follow me to the back of the mountain to look for it."

Without saying a word, he dragged Lu Dan outside.

Lu Dan let him drag him along, and the two children stood in the dark west wing without chasing after them.