The basement was now off limits lest they wanted trouble, so Wu Xiaoming just gathered a little bit of salt and laid it around the entrance. It was just enough to form a very thin circle.

He tried contacting the director a few more times, and still got no response. The rain did not stop, and the sky was still dark. Lucky for them, the leak on the ceiling did not get worse, neither did new ones appear. 

After Wu Xiaoming and Malcolm told Jake and Matthew what they had found in the basement, the room fell into silence for quite a while. Everyone was drowned in his thoughts. Only the sound of the rain ramming the windows and ceiling, and droplets falling into their container filled the room.

“Umm, Xiaoming?” Jake broke the silence.

“Yes?”

“Do you know something we don’t?” Jake fixed his inquiring eyes on Wu Xiaoming, his legs were trembling, but his gaze was stern: “What I mean is - even back in that hotel, you seemed to know more than we did. Normally I wouldn’t ask you this because - well it seems too private. But right now we’re all stuck here with you, can you tell us what you know?”

“I - ” Wu Xiaoming hesitated: “ - to be honest, I don’t know what it is. But - I am pretty sure it is actually dangerous.”

“How do you know?” Jake asked.

“And how long have you known?” Matthew coughed, then asked.

“If you really want to count, I’d say since yesterday.” Wu Xiaoming sighed.

“Since the deer?” Malcolm asked.

“Strictly speaking, yes.” Wu Xiaoming shrugged: “I didn’t feel good about this place when we first got here. But - the director insisted, and I - I feel bad about a lot of places. So I thought maybe I was a bit paranoid, and if the shoot could wrap up early - ”

“Okay. Okay.” Matthew waved his hands: “We all know, it’s a gig. It pays the bills. I understand.”

“But - I don’t!” Malcolm raised his voice, almost breaking: “Xiaoming - please be honest with me here. Why didn’t you say something earlier? Did you know about the basement earlier as well?”

“No - I only recently knew.” Wu Xiaoming frowned: “Calm down, man. It’s not that bad.”

“How can you say that!” Malcolm scratched his head with both hands.

“Woah woah woah! Calm the fuck down!” Matthew raised his voice and pulled Malcolm down: “Freaking out is not helping at all! Get it together!”

“He’s right, Malcolm, freaking out will not help. We are all trapped here for now, and we may have to wait till tomorrow, or when the rain dies down.” Wu Xiaoming sighed and shook his head: “We still have plenty of food, we still have supplies - let’s stay here, and always have someone to keep watch for tonight, okay?”

“Okay.” Jake nodded.

“Okay with me.” Matthew sighed, then coughed.

Malcolm smacked himself on the face a few times, before speaking to the rest of the group in a calmer tone: “Sorry - sorry folks, I was just a little stressed out. I - I really don’t like being stuck in dark - rainy houses.”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Nobody does.” Wu Xiaoming shook his head with a wry smile: “Let’s stay here for the night and keep trying to contact the director. You guys agree? And - yeah let’s eat something, I’m starving right now.”

After the “luxury” of the vacuum sealed sandwiches, self-heated ramen and rich-flavored beef jerky was almost gone. The only food they had for now would be some cookies, waffles, chocolate bars, light flavored dried veggies and meat chunks, some emergency rations and tiny bags of dried fruit. Nothing fancy by any means, but enough to last them through the night.

“Do we still have the range cameras on?” Wu Xiaoming asked as he munched on a piece of dry, almost flavorless emergency ratio biscuit.

“Yes, I haven’t shut them down. We should still have a few hours of batteries. ” Malcolm nodded: “Why? Do you think anything’s gonna happen?”

“No, no. I am just thinking - they can be used as surveillance cameras.” Wu Xiaoming swallowed: “And - with the dim lighting there’s more footage Tim can use, so we can wrap this up early.”

“But - what if he doesn’t get back to us?” Jake asked.

“Then - well, I guess we’ll see what we can do.” Wu Xiaoming shrugged: “That cabin isn’t too far from where we are, right?”

“Not very far, if we have a van or a jeep it’s about ten - maybe at most fifteen minutes of drive, even considering the terrain.” Matthew coughed again, wiping his forehead: “If we go by foot, then it should be roughly about - maybe half an hour to an hour, depending on our speed and weather conditions.”

“But it’s not gonna work tonight?” Wu Xiaoming raised an eyebrow.

“It’s not gonna work tonight. Too dark.” Matthew shook his head.

“Okay. ” Wu Xiaoming shrugged, grabbed his own backpack and pulled out his soapberry wood staff - the physical staff, one that still seemed somewhat normal to him: “Let me know which shift you guys want me to take. I’m good with any.”

“A shift? Are you sure?” Jake asked.

“Yeah, I am actually pretty okay with taking a shift. ” Wu Xiaoming turned to Matthew, “Matthew, maybe you need more rest. I really think you should take a break tonight.”

“I - I can take a shift.” Matthew shook his head, but still had to cough a few times before he could continue: “It might just be a cold, or something I ate. I can still function. Still can kick ass if I need to - ”

“Okay then, you take the first shift. Then you can sleep through the night.” Wu Xiaoming nodded: “Folks, let’s set up alarm clocks?”

“On it.” Malcolm pulled out his phone. No one had any reception here, but they had enough portable power sources for all their normal electronic devices, and thus the clocks should still work. “I’ll take the third shift, let me see, we still take three hour shifts?”

“Let’s make the first shift two hours, then three hours.” Wu Xiaoming nodded: “And we sleep earlier, so we get enough rest for the night.”

No one objected to this proposal. So right after their simple and rough supper, Jake and Malcolm went into their sleeping bags.

“Aren’t you sleeping?” Matthew asked Wu Xiaoming.

“I will sleep ON the bag for now, it was a little bit uncomfortable.” Wu Xiaoming came up with a rather lame excuse.

“Okay - just make sure to wake me in time.” Jake took a deep breath: “Boy, I really needed a good rest. ”

Malcolm also took a deep breath before closing his eyes.

“How’s the camera looking?” Wu Xiaoming whispered to Matthew as he was checking out the feeds from the different cameras inside and on the exterior of the house.

“They’re still recording. ” Matthew nodded as he scrolled through different panels of mini screens: “But on the outside it’s not getting much - too much rain, even with night vision it still can’t see very far.”

He then switched to the panel of the cameras inside the house. Just as expected, they were mostly dim and boring.

“Okay, keep an eye out and keep the laptop on.” Wu Xiaoming patted Matthew on the shoulder: “See you in a bit. And wake me if you actually see anything abnormal. And I mean

anything

, even just a shadow, or you think you might be seeing things.”

“Okay.”

“If you have doubts, err on the side that you

are not

seeing things. ” Wu Xiaoming looked Matthew in the eyes: “You should know that if there’s anything unclean here, making you doubt yourself would be the first thing they’d do to you.”

“Okay, okay, got it.” Matthew waved his hands: “Don’t be so serious, you’re making me nervous.”

“Okay. Wake me in two hours." Wu Xiaoming laid down. He hesitated for a bit about whether he should enter the ethereal realm, or meditate like he had done in the Sproutlinger Hotel. Entering the ethereal realm would probably lead to some useful discoveries, but he could easily lose track of time when he was in there - he still had trouble at tracking time sometimes; and if he would meditate using his skill, there would still be a little bit of risk with losing track of time as well, but at least he would still get some rest, and he had more control over it - in theory.

Before making a decision, he decided to take the time to check out the “notification” he had had earlier.

It was from his skill tree, to be precise, the unlocking of a new minor skill tree: the Lu Ban Craft Tree, a tree that would enable and empower him to build gadgets, constructs and even weapons and jump points. Maybe it could be quite useful to him in the ethereal realm too.

No new items in the inventory, but it was rather apparent what caused it - the bloody shovel.

So right now the choice was somewhat clear: he could get into the ethereal realm, grab the shovel, and then exit. It would cost him only a few Spirit Fragments, a worthwhile trade.