TSFLIP Chapter 804

Fengguang had no choice but to search the house again with Shu Qiu, this time more carefully than before. She touched everything she saw, hoping that maybe she’d trigger some hidden mechanism that would open the secret chamber. But in the end, their hopes were dashed — no matter how thorough they were, they still couldn’t find any hidden room.

She began to doubt herself. “Maybe I was wrong? Maybe the space in this house isn’t actually smaller than it looks?”

“Impossible,” Shu Qiu said firmly. “At first, I didn’t notice anything strange about the size either, but now that you’ve mentioned it, I feel it too — something’s off. There’s no way we both misjudged it. There must be something here that we haven’t found yet.”

“What else could there be? We’ve searched every inch of this place — short of digging up the floor!”

“Exactly! Digging up the floor!” Shu Qiu clapped his hands, suddenly enlightened.

Fengguang gave him a look. “You’re not seriously thinking about tearing up the whole floor, are you?”

“Not necessarily,” he replied with a small grin, glancing down at the ground. “Let’s just take a look first.”

He began pacing slowly around the room, and Fengguang followed close behind. For some reason, she couldn’t shake the feeling that this man might actually find something.

Then, Shu Qiu stopped abruptly at the corner of the wall. He crouched down, frowning in thought. “Don’t you think… something’s not right here?”

“What do you mean?” Fengguang crouched beside him. When she looked closer, she pointed. “All the other gaps between the floorboards are filled with dust — except here. This spot’s completely clean.”

“In other words… someone’s moved this board.” As soon as he said that, Shu Qiu reached out and pried it up. He barely had to use any strength before the plank came loose easily.

At that exact moment, a passageway appeared along the wall — and before Fengguang could react, the floor beneath her gave way and she fell straight down.

“Hey! Miss Xia!” Shu Qiu instinctively reached out to grab her, but only managed to catch a piece of her clothing before she slipped through his fingers. Her small figure disappeared into the dark passage, and a long moment later, he finally heard the sound of her hitting the ground.

Panicked, Shu Qiu shouted, “Miss Xia! Are you all right?!”

No one had expected the secret chamber’s entrance to be right under their feet.

Fengguang had no idea what she had landed on, but surprisingly, she wasn’t badly hurt. Still, the darkness around her and the foul stench in the air made her stomach turn. She stood up and called toward the faint light above her. “Get me out of here!”

“Hold on a second,” Shu Qiu replied, lighting a torch. As the flame flickered to life, he saw that the passage sloped downward. Just as he was about to head down, a flash of white flickered in front of him — gone before he could be sure it was even real.

He clicked his tongue twice. He had a feeling that man wouldn’t just sit back and let Xia Fengguang get hurt. But before he could finish the thought, it hit him — she had fallen because of him. Not daring to linger, Shu Qiu turned and ran.

After all, now that he was here, the young lady would be fine.

“Fengguang.”

Still feeling her way through the darkness, Fengguang froze when she heard a deep voice call her name. Before she could respond, a sharp pain pricked at her neck. Her body went limp, and strong arms caught her before she hit the ground. As her consciousness faded, she had one last thought — that the scent on this man was achingly familiar.

Shufeng held the unconscious girl in his arms, his expression dark. He was grateful she hadn’t seen what was in this place. Otherwise… she would have been haunted by it forever.

Beneath his feet lay bodies — half-decayed, the stench unbearable. He counted them silently.

Five in total.

All of them were children, no older than eleven or twelve.