46: Chapter 46 A Real-Life Parasite!

[Ding! Detecting target individual Chen Xinyi...]

[Name: Chen Xinyi]

[Age: 22]

[Occupation: Freelance Illustrator (Second-generation wealthy)]

[Recent Fortune: Extremely ominous! Impending disaster involving bloodshed! Life countdown: 2 hours and 15 minutes.]

[Past: From a well-off family, simple and kind-hearted. Three months ago, she moved alone into a hillside villa purchased by her parents. Her ex-boyfriend, Zhou Kai, used a loophole in the ventilation ducts to sneak into the attic. He has been lurking and living right above Chen Xinyi for a week, coming downstairs every night while she is sound asleep to eat and take a shower...]

[Future: If there is no external intervention, at 2:00 AM tonight, Zhou Kai will reach his limit, break into the bedroom with a knife, assault Chen Xinyi, and brutally murder her. He will then hide the body in the refrigerator and take over her home to continue living there, until the body is discovered half a month later due to decomposition...]

[Sin Value: 3]

[Detailed Crimes: None (Although she has a bit of a spoiled young lady's temper, she has never done evil. She has long funded stray animal shelters and is a law-abiding citizen).]

Su Yun's gaze swept across the system panel.

Then, his heart sank abruptly.

So that was it.

There was no malevolent ghost haunting the place at all.

The so-called marble sounds were just the person above accidentally bumping into something while moving around, or noises made on purpose.

And the cat's fur standing on end wasn't because it saw a ghost.

It was because the cat smelled a stranger!

This was far more terrifying than a ghost.

A ghost might only scare you.

But this person came with a Sin Value!

Su Yun took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the turmoil in his heart.

He couldn't tell Chen Xinyi directly that there was someone up there.

That would scare her into screaming, and might even provoke the pervert above, causing him to act desperately.

He had to keep things steady.

The expression on Su Yun's face became exceptionally serious.

He looked at Chen Xinyi and asked in a deep voice.

"Ms. Chen, please don't cry for a moment."

"I am going to ask you a few questions now. You must recall carefully and answer truthfully."

Chen Xinyi was startled by Su Yun's serious attitude; she quickly wiped her tears and nodded.

"Okay, Master, please ask."

Su Yun stared into her eyes and said, enunciating every word.

"You just said that you live alone."

"Have you noticed recently that the food in your house is being consumed very quickly?"

"For example, milk, bread, or some snacks in the refrigerator."

"Have there been times where you clearly remember having some, but when you wanted to eat it, you couldn't find it?"

This question was a bit out of the blue, and the netizens in the live stream were all stunned.

"What does this mean? Do ghosts steal food too?"

"A reincarnation of a starving ghost?"

"Master's focus is a bit unique."

Chen Xinyi was also stunned for a moment.

She frowned, trying hard to recall the details of her life over the past few days.

Suddenly, her expression changed.

It became even paler than before, one could even say it was completely devoid of color.

Her lips trembled, and her eyes were filled with disbelief.

"There... there was..."

"I remember now."

"The day before yesterday, I bought a case of milk. I intended to drink it for a week, but when I wanted to drink it yesterday, I found that only half was left."

"I thought I had misremembered, or that the cleaning lady had taken it."

"Also... also the biscuits I put on the coffee table often disappeared for no reason."

"And I also often found the toilet seat lifted, but I clearly always put it down after using it..."

At this point, Chen Xinyi's voice came to an abrupt halt.

She seemed to have realized something extremely terrifying.

She froze there, forgetting even to breathe.

A chill, known as 'thinking about it makes one terrified,' shot straight up her spine to the top of her skull.

If it were a ghost, would a ghost need to drink milk? Would a ghost need to eat biscuits?

Would a ghost... need to lift the toilet seat to use the bathroom?

The comments in the live stream also stopped.

Everyone realized what was going on.

What the hell, this isn't a ghost story!

This is clearly a real-life version of 'Parasite'!

Su Yun looked at Chen Xinyi's expression of extreme fear and knew she had guessed it.

He stopped playing coy and issued instructions with extreme speed and firmness.

"Chen Xinyi, listen to me."

"Now, immediately, right now."

"Pick up everything within reach that can be used for self-defense."

"Whether it's a desk lamp, a vase, or even an eyebrow razor."

"Then go lock your bedroom door and push all heavy objects against the door."

Chen Xinyi was trembling all over, her hands and feet went weak.

"Ma, Master, that is..."

Su Yun interrupted her, his voice as cold as ice shards, each word like a nail hammered into the ground.

"Don't ask."

"That is not a ghost at all."

"That is a person."

...

Clang!

The phone slammed heavily onto the carpet, making a dull sound.

The camera spun dizzily, finally focusing on the luxurious crystal chandelier on the ceiling.

Chen Xinyi looked as if her soul had been sucked away; she collapsed on the floor, covering her mouth tightly with both hands, tears falling like beads from a broken string.

A person?

This is ten thousand times more terrifying than a ghost!

If it were a ghost, maybe one could hire a master to perform a ritual and send it away.

But in the middle of the night, in this villa where she was alone, there was actually a living human being hiding!

And this person had been living right above her head for a whole week!

Just thinking about how, every night while she was sound asleep, a pair of eyes were staring at her through the cracks in the ceiling...

And even climbing down from the attic after she fell asleep, walking around this room at will, eating her food, using her toilet...

Ugh!

An intense feeling of nausea and fear intertwined, making Chen Xinyi tremble uncontrollably.

"Chen Xinyi! Pick up the phone!"

Su Yun's voice came through the phone speaker, carrying an unquestionable authority.

"Don't panic! Panicking won't solve anything right now!"

This sharp shout finally helped Chen Xinyi regain a shred of sanity.

With trembling hands, she picked up the phone from the floor and aimed it back at her own face, which was as pale as paper.

"Ma, Master..."

Her teeth were chattering; she couldn't even say a complete sentence.

The netizens in the live stream were also terrified, and the comments were scrolling by rapidly.

"Holy crap! Is it really a person?"

"Don't scare me! I'm home alone right now!"

"Thinking about it is terrifying! I told you that marble sound wasn't right!"

Su Yun looked at the girl in the camera who was on the verge of a breakdown and explained rapidly:

"First, I want to correct a common misconception you have."

"That so-called marble sound is not some ghost playing with eyeballs."

"That is the sound of the steel bars in the floor slabs deforming under stress, or small objects falling on the ground."

"Under normal circumstances, this sound only occurs frequently when someone is walking around upstairs or when there is some heavy object pressing down on it."

"Especially as you said just now, it sounds promptly at twelve o'clock every midnight."

Su Yun sneered.

"That's because that fellow upstairs has woken up and started moving around."

"He stretches, walks a few steps, or even accidentally kicks something up there, and what reaches your ears is that 'da-da-da' sound."

Listening to Su Yun's explanation, Chen Xinyi only felt her scalp tingle.

Every word was verifying that terrifying conjecture.

"But... but how is this possible?"

Chen Xinyi shook her head desperately, trying to find some logical loophole to comfort herself.

"Master, my house is equipped with the latest fingerprint locks, and the windows all have security grilles."

"And the security in this villa area is very good; outsiders simply cannot get in!"

"Even if it were a thief, it would be impossible to hide in my house for so long without being discovered, right?"

Su Yun sighed as he watched her still trying to deceive herself.

"Who said it was an outsider?"

"What if it were someone you know?"

Chen Xinyi was stunned.

Someone she knows?

Su Yun continued: "Go look at the central air conditioning vent above your bedroom wardrobe."

"Look carefully at the screws on the edge. Are there signs of them having been turned?"

"And the surrounding wallpaper, is there slight damage?"

Chen Xinyi subconsciously looked up at the vent.

Although it was some distance away, after Su Yun's reminder, she did indeed notice that the edges of the wallpaper there were peeling, and the louvers of the vent did not seem to be closed tightly.

"That, that connects directly to the attic..."

Chen Xinyi's voice was trembling.

"That's right."

Su Yun nodded and threw out the most cruel truth.

"That person was moving back and forth between the attic and your floor through the ventilation ducts."

"As for how he got in..."

Su Yun paused, his eyes becoming sharp.

"Ms. Chen, think carefully."

"Have you ever lost a spare mechanical key?"

"Or, is there anyone who knows the layout of your home like the back of their hand, and even knows your daily routine and security code?"

These two questions were like two sharp swords, piercing directly through Chen Xinyi's last line of psychological defense.

A spare key...

A security code...

A name, like a ghost, suddenly floated into her mind.

"Zhou... Zhou Kai?"

Chen Xinyi widened her eyes, her face full of disbelief.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

"We broke up half a month ago!"

"And... and when we broke up, he clearly returned the key to me!"