The Forbidden Basement

Ye Shengge snapped his phone off with a speed he had never possessed before.

But the voice message from his childhood friend had already finished playing. The dolls had heard every word. This “closing the stable door after the horse has bolted” behavior was a completely ineffective attempt at a rescue.

If only his hands hadn’t moved faster than his brain.

If that were the case, this embarrassing situation wouldn’t have happened.

Ye Shengge gripped the phone tightly, his eyes reddening with embarrassment and his face burning fiercely.

He thought indignantly that in the future, no matter who sent him a voice message, he would never click to listen to it again.

Isn’t the automatic voice-to-text feature better?

But the urgent task wasn’t that, but rather solving the issue of the dolls hearing Big Brother Wen’s voice message.

[Don’t worry, they have no resentment for the time being. Even if they wanted to do something to you, they couldn’t. Just ignore them,] the system said. Seeing the host so anxious, the system stepped forward to help him solve his problems. It showed none of the coldness from the first dungeon and acted like a little butler, extremely attentive.

Ye Shengge frowned, his face full of worry as he said: [Things change. Who’s to say that in a while, they won’t become as powerful as those dolls in the basement…]

The more he thought about it, the less he could rest easy. Ye Shengge simply turned his phone back on. In front of the two dolls, he replied to his childhood friend with a cold voice message: “I don’t need your fake kindness. We can meet, but you only have ten minutes to talk.”

After saying this, Ye Shengge’s furrowed brows slowly relaxed.

He thought with satisfaction that this should avoid the possibility of “rolling the car” and allow him to continue with his original plan.

However, what Ye Shengge didn’t know was that his voice, which he thought was cold, sounded soft to others. Even his angry tone was as proud and pampered as a kitten’s.

Furthermore, the content of the message was exactly like a couple having a minor lover’s spat.

Not only did this voice message fail to dispel the jealousy in the dolls’ hearts, but it also made them madly jealous of the person who received it.

They wished they could immediately break the seal completely and kill the person who was having a voice conversation with their creator.

Just as the thoughts in the two dolls’ hearts were becoming more extreme, bloody, and terrifying, the creator they regarded as a deity suddenly put his phone away. He pushed the small cart toward them and even grabbed one of the dolls by the waist!

The lucky doll who was held suddenly lost all other thoughts. If not for the seal, its face would have flushed red. It would have used its strength to embrace the creator’s waist—so slender it seemed as if it could be held with one hand—and confess its frantic love for him.

What would the creator’s reaction be then?

Would he be like he was now, so shy that the tips of his ears turned red, or look at it with watery eyes, begging it not to say such embarrassing things?

Just thinking about this scene made the lucky doll incredibly excited.

Ye Shengge, who had used all his strength to finally get the doll onto the cart, was completely unaware that he had been thoroughly “arranged” by that lucky doll.

He held the handle of the cart with one hand and gently tapped his aching lower back with the other. Then he straightened up and continued pushing the cart forward.

After pushing one doll, there was another one waiting for him in the living room. Moreover, those six dolls in the basement had to be brought up as soon as possible. Every day they were abandoned, their resentment would deepen. Once their resentment became uncontrollable, he would be finished.

It wasn’t hard to predict that he would be busy today; he had to speed up the transport of the two dolls in the living room.

Thinking of this, Ye Shengge quickened his pace, pushing the cart toward the guest room behind the remaining doll.

Every room in the villa was very clean, with tight-lipped domestic workers coming regularly to clean. It was just right for placing the dolls.

After laying the doll neatly on the bed, Ye Shengge hurriedly pushed the cart back to the living room to continue moving the other doll.

With the experience of moving the first doll, his speed improved significantly with the second.

When the two dolls in the living room were finally moved, Ye Shengge slumped onto the sofa, staring blankly up at the crystal chandelier.

Although there was a cart, moving the dolls was still very taxing for his small frame, consuming a great deal of physical and mental energy.

However, he was still worried about the six resentful dolls abandoned in the basement. After resting for less than two minutes, he hurried toward the basement.

[Stay safe.] Seeing him get up, the system guessed what he was going to do. It didn’t stop him but reminded him to be careful.

The system knew that even if it—out of guilt and an inexplicable feeling—warned Ye Shengge that there was a qualitative difference between the dolls that hadn’t been discarded and those that had, and that it was best not to go to the basement to provoke those six blackened doll bosses, Ye Shengge would find an unavoidable reason to go, just like before.

Since the result would be the same, it might as well not mention it and only tell him to stay safe. That way, he would take it to heart and keep a safe distance from the dolls.

Sure enough, the host, who responded to gentleness rather than force, nodded with a bright smile after hearing the system’s concerned reminder. His voice was soft as he said: [Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.]

After speaking, Ye Shengge ran toward the basement stairs.

As luck would have it, the staircase connecting the basement and the first floor was just right.

The moment he saw the small slope, Ye Shengge felt relieved.

If it weren’t for this slope, he would have to rely on himself to drag the dolls out and walk away.

But the problem was that he wasn’t very strong. Even if he gritted his teeth and tried his best to drag the dolls out, it would turn into a terrifying scene like dragging a package.

At that time, the blackened doll bosses, who already held resentment toward him, might explode on the spot and turn directly into ultimate blackened versions. They might even think he was doing it on purpose to test their limits.

In a fit of rage, the doll bosses might even pin him to the floor and drag him around to vent their anger.

Fortunately, there was a slope.

Ye Shengge pushed his small cart, walking through the slightly dim corridor with an uneasy heart, all the way toward the cupboard deep inside where the dolls were placed.

The moment he pushed open the small door and saw the scene inside, he finally understood why the dolls abandoned here would have such deep resentment—so much so that they eventually killed the dollmaker.

The light inside the small door was even dimmer than in the corridor. The orange light flickered unsteadily, liable to go out at any moment. It was no exaggeration to say this room “never saw the light of day.”

Not only that, the layout inside the small room was very eerie, and the humidity was very high.

A crude, dark red display case faced the door directly. Six pairs of eyes stared straight at Ye Shengge, their pupils reflecting a sinister light from the lamp.

The entire scene, except for the small lamp, looked exactly like a horror movie set, as if a malevolent ghost would pounce out the next second.

Ye Shengge was so frightened that he took a small step back, his pale face looking incredibly pitiful.

Worse still, at that moment, the orange light in the small room suddenly flickered and then went out completely.

At the same time, the door behind Ye Shengge closed with a heavy thud.