That evening, they couldn't come to an agreement about whether to leave this tube-shaped apartment building.
After the discussion, Ning Su went to the iron gate to order takeout for supper.
The main gate in front of the tube-shaped building had been locked by the elderly residents, so they couldn't go out.
Tang Xin said that while it was called the homeowners' committee's three-story building, the first floor was actually a cafeteria. The elderly and the young girl inside cooked for everyone and handled the building's miscellaneous affairs.
The cafeteria didn't serve supper and closed at 7:30 PM. Fortunately, the nearby greasy spoon restaurants weren't far away; you just had to call out and the owner would deliver.
Ning Su asked Ling Xiao, "Do you want a boxed meal or noodles?"
Ling Xiao replied, "Noodles."
Ning Su shouted to the owner outside, "Boss, four bowls of beef noodles, extra beef!"
The beef noodle shop owner responded, "Alright! I'll give you an extra slice of beef!"
Qin Wu exclaimed in shock, "You can get extra beef? There are only two slices to begin with—one extra slice is a fifty percent increase!"
What was even more shocking came next. The owner quickly handed over four bowls of noodles and said, "That'll be 24 yuan in total."
Ning Su said to Ling Xiao, "Let's split it. You pay 12."
Ling Xiao glanced at him. "Your math is spot on."
He took out 15 yuan and gave it to him.
Ning Su asked the owner to give him three yuan in change.
Weren't they always saying they were his son and daughter? It was only right to support at least one of them.
Qin Wu was utterly dumbfounded.
This wasn't the Ling Xiao he knew—the one who wouldn't even eat with them.
He opened his mouth and asked, "Boss, can I get extra beef too?"
The boss replied, "Extra beef requires a minimum order of four bowls!"
Qin Wu: "..."
Just as they were about to head upstairs with their beef noodles, they heard screams coming from above.
It was around ten o'clock at night.
They rushed upstairs toward the screams, which were coming from the sixth floor. Ning Su first brought the noodles to the two children, telling them to eat before the noodles got soggy, then hurried up the stairs.
When he went up, a crowd had already gathered there, pointing and whispering at the person inside.
"Really, to die beneath the peony flower."
"Ugh! Disgusting!"
"Wow, what a way to go!"
"Why hasn't that woman moved out yet?"
Hearing "what a way to go," Ning Su immediately understood what was going on.
The rooms in this tenement building were all very small, and the one on the sixth floor was no exception.
The cramped room was in complete disarray. Men's and women's clothes were strewn everywhere—deep red, black, and blue undergarments lay in messy piles on the floor, the bed, and the dresser.
A man was lying on the clothes beside the bed. Someone had thrown a shirt over him, barely covering the essential parts. The exposed skin of his hand showed reddish veins.
On the bed sat a woman, her long, thick black hair half-covering her pale, naked back.
She sat on the bed with her back to them, her head turned just slightly. In the dim light, only the line of her jaw was visible.
Many people were looking in from inside and outside the door. Most wore expressions of disdain, though some couldn't hide the murky desire in their eyes.
"Drive her out!"
"You wretched woman! You've killed another man!"
An elderly man from downstairs hurried up. Seeing the situation inside, he sighed. "Someone give me a hand to carry him out."
Just as Ning Su was about to step forward, Ling Xiao beside him grabbed his arm. Another male player and the old man wrapped the dead man in a bedsheet and carried him out.
As they passed the doorway, Ning Su saw that the man still had drool trickling from the corner of his mouth. His lips were curved upward in a smile. His open eyes were hazed with a red glow, revealing his excitement but also something more unsettling.
That's what Ning Su felt. Yet, he noticed many men looking on, their gazes not retracting but growing even more fervent and murky.
Ning Su: "..."
He glanced at Ling Xiao. The moment he did, Ling Xiao looked back at him and asked, "What are you looking at?"
Ning Su scratched his ear and turned his attention to the old man.
The old man and the other player had already carried the corpse out.
"Uncle Li, hurry up and make her leave!" A middle-aged woman rushed over, grabbing the old man's arm. "Why is such a disgusting slut still allowed in this building?"
The old man shook his head. "This kind of thing requires mutual consent. It's not her fault."
The woman was furious. The woman beside her tried to comfort her: "Forget it, don't bother arguing with a woman like that. Let's go."
As she reached the door, the woman spat toward the woman inside who had her back turned to them. "Ugh! Shameless hussy!"
The woman in the room still showed no movement or made a sound, only ever revealing a sliver of her profile.
She sat on the bed, half-shrouded by gauzy curtains, her thick, dark hair cascading in waves down past her waist.
In the dim light, the scene was one of disarray and filth. Her shoulders were a stark, blinding white.
The others gradually left. As a few players departed, several reluctant men remained inside.
Ning Su left quickly.
Qin Wu asked with a laugh, "Ning Su, why are you in such a hurry? Are you shy?"
Ning Su: "My noodles are getting soggy!"
Qin Wu: "?"
He thought he heard a low laugh and followed the sound to Ling Xiao's impassive face.
Qin Wu: "?"
Was that him laughing?
No, what was there to laugh about?
Qin Wu and his roommate, Jia Yahua, followed Ling Xiao to the room shared by Ning Su and Ling Xiao.
Ning Su was already sitting on a chair eating his beef noodles.
Ling Xiao naturally picked up his own bowl of noodles and sat on the chair next to him to eat.
The room only had one small table and two chairs. The small table was placed beside the bed, and two children sat on the bed eating noodles from bowls on the table.
The two chairs were occupied by Ning Su and Ling Xiao, leaving no seats for guests.
Qin Wu and Jia Yahua had no choice but to stand by the small window and look outside, where some players were following the old man downstairs.
Ning Su looked up and glanced over, asking Ling Xiao, "Earlier, when I was about to help Uncle Li carry it, why did you stop me?"
Ling Xiao: "It's a dead person. Inauspicious. Don't bring bad luck back to the room."
Qin Wu: "?"
Is this the kind of talk from someone who's cleared two thousand game instances and walked out of a mountain of corpses?
Ning Su let out a soft "Hmm" and continued eating his noodles.
Jia Yahua looked out the window for a while. After watching the dead man's body being taken away, he turned back and asked, "Is that woman from Room 612 a Desire Monster?"
"Hard to say, but it should be a clue," Qin Wu said. "I thought Desire Monsters were terrifying-looking creatures. Could it be they hide among people, just like humans?"
Ling Xiao, with his wealth of experience, said, "They could also exist inside a person's body or within their mind."
Qin Wu and Jia Yahua were momentarily stunned.
Jia Yahua: "Then how do we eliminate them?"
Ling Xiao: "If they exist within the body, it's parasitism. If they're within the mind, it's evasion and manipulation. They will always reveal themselves at a certain moment."
"There's another possibility," Ling Xiao continued. "Desire Monsters are transformed from humans. When a person's desires reach a certain extreme, they turn into a Desire Monster."
