The World Below Surface

ved that the group intentionally or unintentionally listened to a young, tall, and thin man named He Lou (贺楼).
He introduced himself as an ordinary office worker.

But looking at his cold air and how people were convinced by him, it was obvious that he was not just an office worker.

Lu Yan didn't know if he believed them or not.
Still, he had made a preliminary acquaintance and asked with some curiosity, “You guys have formed a group.
Do you have any solutions for these…
things?”

When he said the word “things,” his expression was clearly scornful, and his voice was unconsciously lowered.
You can tell that he must have been tortured by certain events.

The crowd exchanged glances, shook their heads and lowered their voices to speak.

“Ghosts, spirits, curses and other ……
things are not humanly possible to eliminate, and we have, up to now, only been able to find escape routes in the face of these spirits, without any hard-core methods.”

“Trying to solve it ourselves is impossible.
We can only keep running away.
Of course, most events have hints.
Survival is still elementary if we find a way to escape.”

“It's no use asking God and worshipping Buddha, church or Buddhist temple.
There's no place where you can get away with it once and for all.
You can only rely on yourself to find the pattern.”

“It's risky, but as long as you find the pattern, you can survive.”

Hearing their words, the sorrow between Lu Yan's brows deepened.

He was handsome, even with his hat and mask on, and when the somewhat cold eyes he revealed were tinged with sorrow, he could quickly draw the hearts of young girls to him.

“Then would I not ……” The words had just left his mouth when he swallowed them back as if realizing that something was wrong.

“Is it convenient for Mr Lu to tell us what difficult things he has encountered recently? Perhaps we can help you.” He Lou asked.

He Lou didn't say much and gave off a cold-faced, warm-hearted feeling.

Lu Yan frowned more tightly, sighed, wanted to say something, opened his mouth, and held back.
He was a little suspicious again, glanced at everyone, and slowly began speaking up.

“I recently ……
how to say it, the apartment upstairs, someone bizarre moved in.
Since he moved in, strange things are happening more and more ……”

Lu Yan was saying when He Lou suddenly raised his hand and interrupted his narrative: “Wait first.”

The latter gazed coldly at the carriage overhead light: “Have you noticed that the light has dimmed a bit?”

He did not use the word “seemed” but was confident that the lights had dimmed and that the change must have been caused by some unusual reason.

The group was immediately alerted.

He Lou's words were soon confirmed as the light dimmed—not wholly, but to more dark red.

It was like a thin veil of blood was covered over them.

Immediately afterwards, they heard a toothsome sound that came from nowhere and was indescribable, thin, and overwhelming.
Yet, it was so tiny that they would have thought it was just ringing in their ears if they hadn't listened closely.

What was it exactly..?

“Everyone, be ready to flee.” He Lou glanced at Lu Yan and added, “Don't leave the carriage; walk backwards.”

The subway station arrived just in time.
After a ring, several passengers waiting on the side stood up and prepared to go out.

“Why?” Lu Yan asked.

Li Fang Yu whispered softly, “Look out the window.”

Lu Yan glanced out of the window, and his expression changed dramatically.

His face was covered by a mask, but the crowd could still detect the shock in his eyes.

It was no wonder that he was surprised.
A layer of blood mist had drifted up outside the window at some point, and it was getting closer and closer, thicker and thicker.
Still, in an instant, it had already gathered around the subway.

It looked like it was coming for them.

The lights that had just dimmed, also because of the blood mist, gradually gathered next to the lamps.
The light and faint dark red in the air then became denser and denser, to the point where it was no longer visible to the naked eye.

“Ah! What's going on?”

“What the hell is this?!”

The other passengers finally noticed the anomaly and shrieked, one after the other, individuals taking off their jackets, desperately trying to clear a field free of the blood mist the moment the iron doors opened, screaming and running out the door, pushing each other in panic and nearly causing a stampede.

The small group was no exception, “Run!” A voice came from the small group as they watched the bloody fog about to spread over them.
They worked their way against the flow through the crowd and towards the back of the carriage.

The slightly chubby man who had previously given a thumbs up to Li Fang Yu's eyes glanced at them and suddenly stared in shock, “Holy shit! This N……
Lu Yan, what the hell is he up to?”

Everyone was supposed to leave together, but Lu Yan returned to stop the passengers about to run outside: “Don't run outside, calm down! It's more dangerous outside!”

Before he could finish his sentence, the passenger he had dragged by the door half a step away suddenly stared wide-eyed and hissed in pain, struggling.

“Help ……”

The words of distress were not finished as the body he had stepped outside melted as quickly as if ice had met the sun.
First, there was a layer of skin that faded to reveal the scarlet-white flesh, white bone and still-beating organs inside ……

The living man had only two layers of skin.
Still, the blood mist had peeled off an unknown amount downwards, devouring layer after layer.

It all happened so fast, but in an instant, the man Lu Yan was tugging was left with only one intact hand, held in Lu Yan's hand.
Like the other passengers who hadn't stepped out of the door, he stood stunned in his place, unable to react until now.

The broken hand snapped to the ground, and Lu Yan took a step back in horror, his eyes wide with fear.

“Ah…”

The broken hand landed at the feet of one of the young passengers.
Because there was less blood and mist in the carriage, the hand was consumed much slower.
Now the skin had only faded away, and the texture of the mechanism and the gradually visible skeleton could be seen.
Apparently, one of the passengers couldn't take the excitement and subconsciously kicked the severed hand out, which happened to land on an advertising wall.

A stunning actress was on the advertising wall, and they weren't sure if it was an illusion.
She was watching everyone with a weird and beautiful smile.
The hand landed on her lips, and her lips twitched as her long tongue reached out, pulling the wrist into her mouth and hooking it, her fine white pointed teeth slowly chewing.

A pair of beautiful, flirtatious eyes, slowly beginning to focus, turned towards the passenger.
Anyone could see the unmistakable mad malice in her eyes.

The group backed away in unison in horror.

The passenger, who knew he was dead even if he was stupid, looked around, and only Lu Yan, who had just helped someone, looked more reliable.
He shivered and approached Lu Yan before grabbing his hand: “Help me ……
help me, please help me…
…”

“I ……” Lu Yan was clearly hesitating.

He Lou's face sank: “Go! Bring him over.”

The group was too big a target, and another tall, thin, yellow-haired youth trotted back and got into the crowd.
He looked at the two people still pulling and tugging.
His eyes narrowed slightly before he kicked the man to the ground and dragged Lu Yan out of the crowd with one hand, running desperately and wildly backwards.

The other passengers also reacted and fled after them.

The yellow-haired young man was tempted to curse Lu Yan as a reincarnation of the Virgin Mary or something like that, but in the end, he held back, stifled his head, and charged forward.
He was so strong that Lu Yan could not break free, so he ran after him back to the centre of this somewhat odd little group.

Of course, also following him were several other passengers, many of whom were office workers, whose sudden strenuous exercise had left them gasping for breath.
They were about to talk when they were met with a cold glare from a highly tall, fierce-looking man in the crowd.

Lu Yan noticed that the same glare swept over him with slight dislike and that others were more or less unkind.
Yet, he breathed a sigh of relief and swept his eyes unobtrusively over the few people who had followed him.

There were six.

'Six options, so if something happens later, someone with less skill and less helpful will be chosen to be pushed out instead of me, right?'

Lu Yan was in a happy mood.

His eyes slid over the passengers.
Suddenly his gaze stopped, and he immediately averted his eyes, pretending not to see.

That person….
why does that person keep tiptoeing?