Third-Rate Thriller Novelist Chapter 1

Third-Rate Thriller Novelist | Chapter 1:  Scarlet Apartment (1)

Late at night, Shen Yu suddenly woke up.

He was awakened by a pair of hands in his sleep.

The hands that inexplicably appeared on his throat were cold and sticky. They were about the size of a child’s palm, but their strength was much stronger than that of an adult.

Shen Yu, who was suddenly attacked, tried to open his eyes, but he only felt his breathing was poor and his sight was blurred. In a trance, he saw a mass of scarlet things and was staring at himself.

The scarlet monster stretched out a pair of withered and bloody palms and strangled his neck, as if he had a deep hatred with him, as if he would strangle his throat at the next moment.

Shen Yu got up and wanted to break off his hands, but only one hand was greasy, and the tip of his nose smelled a thick smell of blood.

The child’s sharp and proud laughter sounded in his ear, almost piercing his eardrum.

“Story, start.”

Suddenly, a slightly undetectable voice and the sound of turning pages were mixed with malicious laughter, but Shen yuminrui caught it to his ears.

He touched in the direction of the sound, and unexpectedly touched a thick book. The outside of the book was also sealed with a heavy and cold book case, which was heavy.

Without time to think about how the book appeared, Shen Yu instinctively grasped it tightly, tried his best, and suddenly hit the scarlet monster in front of him.

The cold cover of the book splashed a little scarlet.

The proud laughter in my ears suddenly turned into a scream, and the hands that tightly held my throat couldn’t help but loosen.

Shen Yu, who finally got a chance to breathe, didn’t stop. Instead, he took the book in his hand as his only weapon and continued to smash it down one after another until he smashed the monster in front of him, and the scarlet liquid kept splashing on his clothes on his chest.

The monster roared at the top of his voice. Forced, he had to spread his hands, turned down from the bed and slipped under the bed.

Finally, Shen Yu took a deep breath and shook his head slightly. After getting rid of the dizziness caused by lack of oxygen, he also turned out of bed, still clutching the blood stained book in his hand, lifted the falling sheets and looked at the bottom of the bed.

A non-human thing is lying under the bed.

The monster’s body was the size of a few year old child, but it was like a skinned monkey, revealing its scarlet muscles and constantly exuding thick plasma. At this time, it was shrinking in a strange position in the corner.

Shen Yu looked at the monster’s bloody body and looked down at his clothes and palm. After the fight just now, he was also covered with sticky blood.

The monster stared at him coldly and reluctantly. A sharp twisted sharp tooth gradually disappeared in the dark and disappeared under the bed.

Shen Yu didn’t dare to relax his vigilance. He stared for a long time to make sure that the monster wouldn’t rush out from under the bed again. Only then did he quietly relax, fall off and sit on the ground, raise his head and look around him in a trance.

He noticed that the room he was in was not his usual bedroom.

Although his parents died unexpectedly when he was three years old, they left him a large house with four bedrooms and two living rooms as a legacy. It is in the best community in the city center. Even after 20 years, the house price here remains high.

Last year, when Shen Yu graduated from University, he specially renovated the old house. The whole house should have been clean and modern.

But at this time, the room was dark and dilapidated. The old window glass was pasted with yellow newspapers, the peeling walls were covered with mildew, and the yellow light bulbs flickered constantly, so that the people under the light were dark and blurred.

Even the layout of the room has changed. This is definitely not his house.

Shen Yujun’s pretty eyebrows and eyes suddenly became gloomy.

Even if he slept heavily last night, he couldn’t even know that he changed his room! And where did that monster come from? How did you quietly lurk around him and why did you want to strangle him

This is definitely not a prank to explain.

Thinking of this, he turned a cold face and looked down at the book still held in his hand.

The book, which saved his life at the critical moment, has a dark cover, four corners inlaid with gold as decoration, one of which has just been used to smash the monster’s head, and the gold jewelry is also stained with drops of blood.

There is neither the title nor the author’s signature. There is only a dark red handprint in the middle of the cover. It is so gloomy that it seems to exude dripping blood at any time, revealing a strange and frightening atmosphere.

When he opened the book doubtfully, he saw a small line of Title: “pink apartment” written on the first page in twisted red handwriting

Below the title, there is a simple introduction at the beginning, which is very similar to the fairy tale Shen Yu read when he was a child.

“Once upon a time, there was a dilapidated apartment. All the residents lived in the apartment. No one could leave. Everyone was very unhappy.”

“Later, the dilapidated apartment was painted by a kind little craftsman. How lovely the powder is! All the apartment residents were happy and moved in happily, but they accidentally found that the apartment couldn’t be cleaned and often found dirty things.”

“So, thirteen brave cleaners accepted the employment of the residents and stepped into the pink apartment…”

Fairy tales come to an abrupt end here.

Shen Yu didn’t understand his meaning, but he went through the whole book. Except for the words on the first page, he couldn’t find any other words, only a blank.

He frowned and remained silent for a long time. Finally, he sighed slowly. He fumbled on himself for a long time and found a box of mints.

Shen Yu loves mints so much that he never leaves his body. At this time, this box of candy is also the only thing brought in.

He threw a piece of sugar into his mouth and broke it with a sound of “Kazi”, and a cold and exciting sweet taste immediately spread in his mouth.

The sugar seemed to give him great comfort. Shen Yu took a deep breath, took this strange book, opened the door and prepared to face the strange situation.

Out of the door, into the eye is a narrow and dilapidated corridor than the bedroom.

There are two rows as like as two peas on the side of the corridor, and the old door has different house numbers. The layout of the house is very much like a school dormitory. But there were no windows at the end of the corridor, so the whole corridor looked very dark and wet.

Finding the same dark and narrow staircase, Shen Yu groped down to the ground floor.

Unexpectedly, there is a rather spacious circular hall on the ground floor. Taking the hall as the center, the atmosphere of the apartment building is on the East and west sides. There is a narrow staircase in the East Building and the West building respectively. Only there is an elevator tightly closed in the center of the hall.

He just came down from the East building apartment.

At this time, in the circular hall, there were about a dozen people, men and women, with different ages and clothes.

Most people have an anxious and uncertain look on their faces. Others try to contact the outside world with their mobile phones. They swear and jump up impatiently.

Only a few people, or calm, or gloomy face, but there was no unexpected look on their faces. Obviously, it was not the first time they met this kind of thing.

As soon as Shen Yugang, whose skirt was covered with blood, came downstairs, he was immediately noticed by everyone present.

A middle-aged bald man looked up lazily, glanced at Shen Yu, who was covered in blood, and hissed: “man, this is the beginning of the story?”

He shook his hand, took out a cigarette and lit it for himself: “it’s really unlucky to meet a monster at the beginning! But if you can survive the start, you must be an expert.”

“I’ve written several horror stories more or less, and I’m also an old hand. How about forming a team?” the bald man spits out a smoke ring and asks again.

Horror story, plot kill, veteran, monster, writing

From what the bald man just said, Shen Yu quickly extracted several key information and thought about it in his heart, but he didn’t take over the olive branch thrown by the bald man for the time being.

Just now he glanced over and found that there were thirteen people in the hall, including himself.

It coincides with the “Thirteen cleaners” mentioned in the story.

About six of them as like as two peas in his hand. The remaining seven were empty.

I don’t know whether there are no books or hide them.

Seeing that Shen Yu didn’t answer his words, the bald man stamped out the cigarette end with an unhappy face and said in a strange manner: “come on, it seems that people don’t look up to me! I don’t know which great God has such a high vision!”

The man with black book in hand and a pair of gold wire glasses gently persuaded: “forget it, the personnel have arrived anyway, wait for the following story to develop! I’m not sure at that time…”

He didn’t finish his words, but he glanced at Shen Yu.

Shen Yu knew that because his reaction was too calm, the two veterans misunderstood him and thought he was not a newcomer.

But without waiting for his explanation, among the people present, there was a bald man with a face full of flesh and flower arm tattoos. He suddenly jumped up, smashed the black book in his hand on the ground, and shouted angrily, “what riddles are you playing?”

“What the hell is this? Why is there a broken book in my hand? Who locked me here?”

He seemed to have a bad temper and started to yell and scold. A young man with yellow hair next to him looked like his little brother. He hurried forward to persuade him, but the effect was not good.

Faced with the cry of the flower arm man, who was obviously a novice, the man with glasses and the bald man were too lazy to glance at him. Both of them were silent, but they were ready to watch a good play.

There was only one short haired girl who looked like a middle school student wearing a black-and-white sportswear with a lollipop in her mouth. She patiently explained, “you can’t get out for the time being.”

“We are trapped in a horror story. Only after writing this horror story, the living are qualified to go out.”

She shook the black book in her hand: “the person selected by the story is a novelist, who has his own book. The person without a book in his hand is the audience selected by the story.”

“Novelists can write their own horror novels. The story participation is higher and the danger is higher. They need to enter the story again and again.”

“The audience are more bystanders, and the story participation and risk are low. You only need to experience the story once to return to real life… If you can live out of the story.”

After listening to her kind explanation, the flower arm man not only didn’t appreciate it, but became more irritable. He kicked his black book hard: “what a mess, I don’t understand! I don’t want to write any novels. Let me out quickly, or you’ll look good!”

With the flower arm man as an example, the rest of the people shouted: “which TV station is holding the reality show? When to let us out, I have to rush out to talk about business!”

“I’m a driver. I don’t know anything. I came here with my boss. I don’t know why. I don’t want to participate in any activities.”

“I slept well at home and was suddenly brought here. I want to find a lawyer to sue you…”

In the face of the excited shouting of the crowd, the bald man pulled out another cigarette and lit it. Looking at the eyes of these novices, it was like looking at a group of fools.

Shen Yu noticed that there was a quiet little boy in the crowd.

The boy looked only five or six years old, pale, black eyes, wearing a hood and a canvas schoolbag. He avoided everyone and sat alone in the corner. He said nothing and looked very introverted.

The boy was so young that Shen Yu couldn’t help looking at him more and felt that the child might be afraid.

But unexpectedly, the little guy felt very sharp. He suddenly turned his head and looked in the direction of Shen Yu. Their eyes touched in the air.

Shen Yu did not hide or flash, but showed a gentle smile at the child, trying to appease the lonely boy.

He always looks good, the sun is fresh, the star eyes are bright, and the warm smile around his mouth is like a beam of light in a dark apartment.

The little boy was a little stunned, looked at him for a few seconds, pulled down his hood again, completely hid his young face in the shadow, turned his head and stopped looking at him.

On the other side, the grumpy flower arm man couldn’t help but rush to the door of the apartment: “I don’t believe it. A broken door can stop me!”

The entrance and exit of the apartment were locked by a rusty iron fence. There was a thick white fog outside the apartment door, and nothing could be seen.

At this time, the flower arm man kicked up with a fierce kick. The iron door was immediately kicked “clattered”, the sound of metal friction was hoarse and harsh, and the thick fog outside the door also surged up.

Seeing this, the short haired girl who had kindly explained to them suddenly changed her face and shouted, “stop and leave the door!”

“What are you talking about…” the flower arm man shouted unclearly while dismantling the iron door, but the next second, his yelling and scolding stopped suddenly.

An ape like palm, with sharp fingernails and thick black hair, seemed to be attracted by the sound, suddenly stretched out from the thick fog, passed through the gap of the rusty iron door, grabbed the flower arm man closest to the door and pulled it out suddenly.

“Shit! What……” the flower arm man immediately uttered a shrill scream, and the wrist grabbed by the black claw had turned blue and purple in the blink of an eye.

He wailed and wanted to run back, but the arm of the black claw seemed to extend infinitely. It had been pulled for two meters, but he still dragged his prey, as if waiting for the moment when the prey was exhausted.

Seeing this, the people who were still shouting at random immediately shouted and retreated.

The Yellow haired younger brother of the flower arm man originally wanted to help, but when he saw that there were also several looming black hands wandering outside the iron door, he couldn’t help but shrink back silently.

“Ah!”

At this time, the flower arm man was out of strength. He stumbled and fell to the ground. He was immediately dragged by the black claw and quickly dragged to the door.

Shen Yu, who was nearest to him, couldn’t bear it. He stretched out his hand and pulled him. He tried his best not to let him be dragged away directly.

“Hold him down.” the short haired girl who had just given the warning gave a low cry and flashed to them. She saw a flash of bright knife light and blood gushing out.

She was holding a knife in her hand that she didn’t know came from. It was like cutting tofu. She cut off the wrist of the flower arm man.

The black claw pulled his bloody palm and quickly retracted outside the door. Then, in the thick fog outside, there was a creepy clear chewing sound.

The flower arm man who lost a hand, after being stunned for a moment, immediately screamed louder, cried with tears and snot, and did not see the prestige before.

The rest of the crowd stared in shock at the short haired girl who cut off the living man’s wrist at will.

“Looking for trouble!” the short haired girl didn’t care about other people’s strange eyes at all. She just scolded. Then she took out some first-aid supplies and leaned down to stop bleeding and bandage the wound for the flower arm man.

She said with a cold face, “if you want to leave here in violation of the rules, you are lucky to get back your life. If you don’t give up some flesh and blood to the outside, you won’t be satisfied with those things in the thick fog.”

“In the story, there are some rules that can’t be violated, remember?” after saving the flower arm man’s life, the short haired girl turned her head and looked seriously at the newcomers behind her.

Frightened by the bloody scene just happened, the newcomers dared not have any more opinions at this time. They all shrank aside like cold cicadas and dared not shout any more.

Only Shen Yu, who had just come forward to help, noticed that the short haired girl seemed to touch the cover of the black book with her hand before taking out the knife and first-aid supplies.

“Interesting,” he thought, and his palm slowly stroked his book.

It feels delicate, almost like touching a piece of human skin.

“Cough… Welcome to the pink apartment.”

At the end of this tragic farce, many newcomers were still immersed in fear and failed to recover. A cough sounded behind them, followed by a welcome speech with a strange tone.

Everyone looked back and saw a small old woman, bent back and coughing, coming towards them.

The old man’s face was haggard and his eyes were covered with a gray shadow, which made people wonder whether she could see things clearly.

She hung a large bunch of keys around her waist. Every step she took, she clattered. She wore a red sleeve ring on her left arm, which read “Corridor Management”.

The little old man stopped, looked at the crowd with his eyes covered, opened his mouth seriously, and his voice was hoarse and hard to hear: “I’m the corridor manager of the pink apartment. How did you thirteen hired cleaners come?”

The identities of the thirteen of them in the story are indeed cleaners, which is consistent with the words written in the book.

Shen Yu’s eyes moved, his fingers stayed on the bloody palm print of the black book, and his heart was thoughtful.

The corridor manager is still nagging: “your action is too slow. From today on, you only have five days to clean the apartment. If you don’t clean it at that time, our apartment won’t pay!”

As she spoke, she took off some keys from her waist: “your accommodation is in the charge of the pink apartment. Here are seven keys that can open seven rooms for people to rest, one for two.”

“These six pink keys can only open the corresponding door of the West building apartment. This red key can open all the doors of the East Building and check in at will.”

“Every morning, before you go to work, remember to return the key to me. Every night, I will reassign the key to you.”

She spread out all the seven keys in front of the crowd. Sure enough, six of them were pink, with the house number engraved on them. There was only one red key, and there was nothing on them.

Seeing this, a newcomer bravely asked, “two people have a room, but we have thirteen people, the rest…”

The administrator stared at her with muddy eyes and grinned, revealing the sparse yellow teeth in his mouth: “you assign it yourself, I won’t interfere.”

After that, she glanced at the crowd again and said sadly, “the public security is not very good recently. Be careful at night and remember to lock the doors and windows.”

“The apartment lights out at 11 p.m. every night. You are not allowed to go out after turning off the lights. You should clean the seven floors of the pink apartment during the day. No one is allowed to be lazy. You should be polite when you meet the residents in our apartment.”

After telling the apartment building regulations, she glanced at the tightly closed elevator in the center of the hall and said inadvertently, “also, the elevator in our apartment has broken recently. Just go upstairs and downstairs and use the stairs.”

After that, the administrator bent his back and left.

Only the people were left, looking at each other in the face of the seven keys.

Suddenly, the man with glasses was thoughtful. He took the first shot and grabbed a pink key in his hand.

The crowd looked at him. He stroked his forehead and eyes on the bridge of his nose and explained, “thirteen people, seven keys and one room for two. One person must be left and one person lives in one room.”

“Six pink keys and one red key. The administrator asked us to assign them by ourselves. It is very clear that the remaining person lives in the room with the red key.”

He looked around at the dignified look of the people, and pulled out a proud smile from the corners of his mouth: “obviously, the person who is alone will be in danger at night.”

As soon as his voice fell, someone who responded quickly had snatched all the pink keys in an instant.

The others were a little slower. Facing the only remaining red key, they wanted to cry without tears. They could only turn Qi Yi’s eyes to the person who got the key.

It’s about your life. No one wants to be alone.

Among them, a couple came in together. The man grabbed a pink key and naturally wanted to share a room with his girlfriend. Others couldn’t plug in at all.

Although the flower arm man lost a palm, his little yellow haired brother was a pickpocket. He was the fastest. He successfully grabbed a pink key in the chaos and helped his big brother to the West building apartment.

Therefore, others put their courteous eyes on the man with glasses who got the key at the beginning.

There was a pair of twins in the new couple. Her sister’s personality was hot and open. She came directly to the man with glasses, pleaded softly, and rubbed the back of the man’s hand intentionally or unintentionally.

My sister is shy. She just anxiously drags her sister’s clothes and whispers, “sister, it’s not safe to share a room with a strange man…”

The impatient sister directly scolded the past: “now it’s this time. You can’t guarantee your life. What are you paying attention to? Don’t pull me if you want to die!”

My sister loosened her sister’s clothes.

The man with glasses had a reserved smile on his face, and his critical eyes turned around between the sisters. Finally, he chose his sister who took the initiative.

The left sister stayed where she was and stared at her toes uneasily.

The short haired girl who had fought for justice before couldn’t help sighing when she looked at the poor little girl. She waved and called her to share a room.

The bald man, who is also an old hand, did not grab the pink key this time for some reason. His face was so gloomy that he was about to drip water.

On the contrary, a thick man with a simple and honest face succeeded in grabbing a pink key.

He is a driver. This time he came here with his boss to talk about business. He was accidentally involved in the story.

Seeing that he succeeded in grabbing the key, his boss was also overjoyed. He held the driver’s hand and said repeatedly: “Da Zhuang, if we can go out this time, we will give you the salary in arrears! I will give you a promotion and raise…”

The driver, named Dazhuang, still smiled simply and honestly, and then turned around and chose the bald men with gloomy faces to form a team.

The left boss was stunned and shouted, “Da Zhuang, we’ve been old guys for many years. You can’t do this at this time! Do you think your salary is too low? I’ll give you whatever you want after you go out!”

Da Zhuang scratched his head and said sincerely, “boss Qian, if you want to live, I want to. Like me, you just came in and have black eyes. You don’t know anything, so I have to find an old hand to cover me. In this way, I have a better chance of surviving.”

“Boss Qian, I’m sorry!”

The rejected boss Qian was worried. He quickly shook the black book in his hand and stammered, “Da Zhuang, I also have books. I’m also what they said… Novelist, but I’m not good at using it.”

Dazhuang shook his head and followed the proud bald man.

“Da Zhuang, you son of a bitch! You, you are fired, and then you pack up and leave…” watching your driver leave with other men, you feel like being scolded by the green money boss.

But his scolding and threats are of no use here.

At this time, there were only three people left in the hall, Shen Yu, boss Qian, and the little boy still hiding in the corner.

Shen Yu held the last pink key in his hand.

So, boss Qian turned his eyes to Shen Yu again and begged, “young brother, choose me to form a team with you! I have money, I’m very rich. As long as we go out alive, I’ll give you 200000… No, 2 million!”

“As long as I can go out, I will never cut corners on construction, default on migrant workers’ wages, deduct employees’ salaries, or raise a junior behind my wife… I will donate money to charity every day and never do immoral things again…”

A big boss of a company cried his nose and tears at this time, which almost threw out all his faces.

Shen Yu looked down at him, then turned to look at the little boy in the corner.

The little boy is still so silent and quiet, hiding himself in the shadow of the corner, as if forgotten by everyone.

The red key, which was despised by others, was rolling down at his feet, covered with a layer of dust, as if it were the same as the fate of the little boy.

Shen Yu thought for a moment, shook his head apologetically to boss Qian, turned and walked to the little boy.

Suddenly he lost all hope. Boss Qian sat down on the ground with a soft leg and shouted sadly: “don’t choose him, choose me, choose me! He doesn’t have money, I have… I’ll give you as much money as you want!”

Leaving the desperate roar behind, Shen Yu went to the child and stretched out his hand to him.

The little boy raised his dark eyes and looked at the palm extended to him. He was silent for a long time and suddenly aroused a shallow smile.

He asked, “are you sure you want to choose me?”