Chapter 1

My girlfriend, Lin Wan, died in a climbing accident. Her body was never recovered.

Looking for the truth, I went to the mountain inn where she had last stayed before disappearing.

The owner was a kindly old man. He said the room had long since been cleared out and I could stay for free.

But late that night, as I lay in bed, a message arrived from my girlfriend's number.

It contained a single photograph.

The picture showed the pitch-black space beneath a bed. Under it was a line of text:

"I'm so cold. Will you come down here and keep me company?"

I lay rigid, not daring to move.

Because I remembered perfectly well: my girlfriend's phone... had been buried with her.

1.

The inn was called Guilin—Return to the Woods. It stood alone halfway up the mountain, accessible by a single winding trail.

Its owner, a man surnamed Zhong, was thin and slightly stooped. Whenever he smiled, wrinkles creased his entire face.

He wasn't surprised to see me. He merely sighed.

"You're here because of young Lin, aren't you?"

I nodded, an involuntary tension tightening inside me.

"Such a shame about that girl." Old Zhong shook his head and led me upstairs.

"This is the room. The last one she stayed in. We haven't touched her things. Thought someone might come for them."

The room was small but very clean, with a faint scent of pinewood.

Beyond the window, the forest lay in utter darkness. Wind stirred the trees, making their shadows shift like ghosts.

I asked whether Lin Wan had behaved strangely before she disappeared.

He thought for a long time, then said she'd been quiet. Sometimes she would simply stare out at the depths of the mountains.

She'd also mentioned hearing singing out there at night.

"There's no singing in these mountains. Just wind blowing through the ravines." He smiled and set the key on the table.

"Stay here. No charge. Think of it as... keeping watch over her room for a night."

I was short of money, so I didn't refuse.

Once he'd left, I examined every corner.

Apart from the few belongings Lin Wan had left behind, I found nothing unusual.

I'd left my job as a forensic pathologist, but I still had a professional obsession with small details.

Yet this place was too clean. There were no signs of a struggle, no hint of anything amiss.

It was as though Lin Wan had vanished from the face of the earth.

I arranged her belongings neatly, feeling hollow.

Perhaps I'd only come here to find a little peace.

Perhaps I should get some sleep, accept the truth tomorrow, and go home.

2.

After putting everything in order, I collapsed heavily onto the bed.

The exhaustion of the journey soon caught up with me. Before long, I was drifting off.

It was late.

The silence in the mountains was frightening. I could hear only the wind and my own heartbeat.

Just as I was about to fall asleep, the phone beside my pillow vibrated.

I ignored it, assuming it was spam.

But it buzzed again, insistent.

I reached for it irritably and unlocked the screen.

A picture message.

Odd.

Who still sent MMS messages these days?

Then I looked more closely and recognized the number I knew by heart.

Lin Wan's.

My breath caught. Every trace of sleep vanished.

That number, along with her phone, should have been resting hundreds of kilometers away, in the grave we'd made for her clothes and personal effects.

With shaking fingers, I opened the message.

A photograph filled the screen.

It was almost completely black, as if something were covering the lens.

Looking closer, though, I could make out a cramped space coated in dust and cobwebs.

The space beneath a bed.

Beneath the very bed I was lying on.

A line of text sat below the image:

"I'm so cold. Will you come down here and keep me company?"

A chill shot from the base of my spine to the crown of my head.

Every muscle locked. I lay frozen on the bed, unable to move an inch.

I could feel it. Beneath the bed boards, in that dark, unknowable space... there was something.

It was waiting for me.

Waiting for me... to come down.

I stared numbly at the screen, afraid to breathe or make the slightest sound.

Then a faint click came from under the bed.

So soft. Like a fingernail scratching wood.

Once.

Then again.

At regular intervals.

The sound drew nearer, as though something were crawling slowly... slowly from the far end of the bed to the spot directly beneath me.

Terror overwhelmed me.

Could Lin Wan really be here?

Was she alive, trapped under the bed?

The thought had barely formed before an even greater fear swallowed it.

No.

Impossible.

I tried desperately to scream, but something seemed to block my throat. Not a sound would come.

All I could do was stare wide-eyed at the ceiling.

Then my phone lit up again.

The same number.

Another message.

"Why haven't you come down yet?"

"You're being naughty."

Then I heard a voice.

A woman's voice, plaintive and reproachful, drifted up from beneath the bed.

"If you won't come down, I'll come up and find you..."

That voice...

Was Lin Wan's.

My blood seemed to freeze.

I thought my heart would burst from my chest.

I struggled, trying to roll off the bed, but my body wouldn't obey.

Thump!

A heavy sound came from behind me.

Part of the mattress abruptly sank.

As though something heavy had settled into the empty space at my back.

A sinister chill pressed closer.

A breath that wasn't mine, icy cold, brushed the nape of my neck.

At that instant, a familiar ringtone shattered the stillness.

The special ringtone I'd set for Lin Wan!

I jerked. My phone fell to the floor.

The ringing stopped at once.

So did the cold pressure at my back.

Drained of all strength, I lay sprawled on the bed, gasping.

It took several minutes before I dared turn my head.

Behind me...

There was nobody.

I sprang off the bed and rushed for the door.

The moment I pulled it open, I collided with a startled Old Zhong.

He was holding a small incense burner, smoke curling from it.

"Young man, what's wrong?"

He steadied me, his voice anxious.

Still barely coherent, I pointed into the room and tried to explain.

His gaze moved past me.

His expression changed instantly.

His eyes filled with fear.

I followed his stare and looked back.

At some point, the old record player in the room had started by itself.

The needle moved slowly over the vinyl.

From the speaker came a hoarse, warped tune, barely recognizable as music.

It was Lin Wan's favorite song.