Chapter 538: Chapter 466: Truck
What a terrifying face it was, with disheveled hair and a face smeared with blood. Just one look at it made A Qiang’s legs go weak.
He had entered an endless staircase, and there was no end in sight whether he went up or down. Even worse, when he turned around, he saw that familiar safety door; he had always been on the fourth floor, he never left.
Hearing the sound of high heels getting closer from above, A Qiang couldn’t care about anything else. He rushed toward the safety door, burst it open, and ran down the corridor shouting for help, banging loudly on each door he passed.
But the residents on both sides were like the dead, completely silent. The entire corridor... no, the entire building seemed to have only him left alive.
Soon, he reached the front of his own rental room. The folding door still had that deep green plastic-cased chain lock hanging on it, but this wasn’t A Qiang’s destination. He had to run to the other end of the corridor and escape through the safety passage on the other side.
But the next scene left A Qiang dumbfounded. He hadn’t run a few steps when he saw another folding door, also hanging the familiar deep green chain lock, followed by the next door, and the next. Every door he passed had turned into the door of that rental room.
He looked towards the end of the corridor with panic, only to see that the originally narrow corridor had become incredibly long and dark, with no end in sight. Within his field of vision, both sides were filled with folding doors all hanging green chain locks.
And now, the sound of high heels behind him was getting even closer, like a bone-eating maggot following him relentlessly, the sound of the heels hitting the ground sharper than a knife.
"Why? Why is this happening?!" With bloodshot eyes, A Qiang had completely broken down. Helpless, he collapsed in front of the nearest folding door.
But just as the sound of the high heels reached right behind him, suddenly, the sound disappeared. Not only that, but the chilling sensation that made his skin crawl had also vanished without a trace.
Trembling, A Qiang turned around, to find nothing behind him. He also noticed that the doors of the nearby residents had returned to normal.
A Qiang, who had barely escaped with his life, gasped heavily, finally feeling relieved. But as he turned to look at the door of the rental room, the sight made him stop breathing.
Behind the folding door, there should have been another wooden door. But now the wooden door was open, and a twisted silhouette stood not far behind it.
Shrouded in darkness, its face indistinguishable, it was just a vague shadow, with one arm raised, reaching forward, while the other hand seemed to be gently beckoning A Qiang.
A Qiang didn’t dare to move. He didn’t know who the figure was or what it intended. Could it be that the ghost thought he would come closer just by beckoning him?
Furthermore... why did the ghost’s movement seem so familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before?
But before A Qiang could make sense of it, the ground beneath him suddenly began to tremble. At the same time, a beam of yellow light shone from behind him. Panic-stricken, he quickly turned around, but the intense light dazzled him, making it impossible to keep his eyes open.
But through the fingers shielding his eyes, he saw an unimaginable scene—a car, with a front higher than his own height, was hurtling toward him.
In the last moment before being hit, A Qiang understood. He realized why the female ghost’s movements were familiar—they were like that of a traffic cop directing traffic.
This car... was summoned by the female ghost.
With a loud "bang," A Qiang’s body was like a kite with its string cut—struck into the rental room and crashed heavily onto the floor.
...
The next morning, Yang Xiao received two phone calls, one from Zhang Man and the other from Lian Jinsun. Both A Qiang and Wen Chongxian could not be reached.
Yang Xiao was mentally prepared for something to happen last night, but how could two people have something wrong all at once? Moreover, according to Zhang Man, she was the one guarding the cursed house the previous night.
Since the hotel was closer, Yang Xiao and his two companions met up and headed there first. At the moment, only Zhang Man was left in the hotel corridor.
"What happened?" Yang Xiao asked as soon as they met.
They were outside Room 6019 on the sixth floor, where Zhang Man told them that Wen Chongxian had stayed last night. But when she woke up in the morning and waited but did not see Wen Chongxian, she went downstairs to his room and knocked on the door for a long time, with no response from inside.
"Did you call his cell phone?" Ju Juan quickly asked.
"Of course." Zhang Man replied, "But his phone was turned off."
Under normal circumstances, Wen Chongxian’s phone would never be turned off. Could it be that he was dead and the ghost had turned off his phone?
But thinking about it, that possibility also seemed very slim. Zhang Man had prepared a thin piece of wire in advance, and within a few tries, she unlocked the door—a cautious person indeed, determined to wait for her teammates before opening it.
But once the door was opened, Wen Chongxian was nowhere to be found in the room. The bed was neat, no traces of blood, and no signs of struggle or fighting.
The group searched under the bed, in the closet, bathroom, and all other places where a body could be hidden, but ultimately with no success.
"His cellphone is also gone." Yang Xiao mused, looking at the bed, remembering Wen Chongxian’s timid demeanor from before. Such a person was unlikely to open the door to strangers at night. Where could he have gone?
The four left the room and went to the hotel front desk, asking as friends staying together if anyone had seen Wen Chongxian. Unexpectedly, this inquiry actually led to a clue. According to a receptionist, while on duty that morning, he had seen a guest hurrying out of the hotel door, who looked very much like their friend.
"What time?" Yang Xiao pressed.
"Around... probably around 5 o’clock, just as it was getting light. I even offered to hail a cab for him, but he ignored me," the waiter recalled.
He left at dawn without saying goodbye, and his phone was turned off too. Ju Juan couldn’t believe what was happening as she widened her eyes in shock, "He... He didn’t run away, did he?"
"I don’t think so, he’s an experienced player, he wouldn’t be that foolish," Zhang Man was taken aback by Ju Juan’s remark, but the more she thought about Wen Chongxian’s cowardly demeanor, the more plausible it seemed.
Regardless, they needed to clear up this person’s whereabouts. Yang Xiao picked up his phone, called Fei Rou, and informed her of Wen Chongxian’s situation. Fei Rou’s mood didn’t fluctuate much, and she simply advised them to focus on their task and assured them she would handle this matter.
After hanging up, Yang Xiao sighed. It seemed that Fei Rou was also unaware of the situation, which meant there was an even greater chance that Wen Chongxian had defected, or perhaps he had stumbled upon an incredible lead and wanted to hog it all to himself. However, Yang Xiao doubted that was likely.
The four of them hailed a taxi and sped towards the rental house. Soon, they reached the building where A Qiang lived, and there they found Lian Jinsun and Che Xuexiang anxiously waiting in the hallway, with Lian Jinsun holding a huge pair of pliers.
The plier handles were orange and half a meter long. Yang Xiao knew that such pliers were usually used for cutting steel bars.
Upon seeing Yang Xiao and the others arrive, Lian Jinsun first asked about Wen Chongxian’s disappearance. After hearing that the lad had likely sneaked away, he cursed under his breath, calling him an idiot.
"What’s going on here?" With one problem after another, Yang Xiao couldn’t help feeling a headache coming on.
"No one answered the phone, so the two of us came to knock, but there was no response from inside. However...," Lian Jinsun gestured for Yang Xiao to come closer. Doing as he was told and approaching the door crack, Yang Xiao quickly picked up a faint smell of blood.
Yang Xiao frowned, slowly standing up. The presence of the smell of blood in the room meant things were likely to be grim.
After everyone stepped aside, Lian Jinsun used the long-handled pliers to cut the chain lock on the folding door. The other wooden door inside was slightly ajar and swung open with a push.
The sight before their eyes made everyone’s faces change. About 5 or 6 meters from the door, there was a body lying on the ground, mangled beyond recognition.
The body was naturally A Qiang’s, but his death was horrific. His skull was shattered, brain matter and blood were scattered everywhere, and the only remaining eye, his right one, was wide open as if he had seen something terribly frightening right before his death.
His arms were broken at varying degrees, and his lower half was crushed so badly that flesh and bones were indistinguishable from the clothing, impossible to tear apart.
This manner of death was not unfamiliar to them; it was exactly how Sha Meihui, one of the three victims, had died—struck by a vehicle and subsequently run over repeatedly.
Next to A Qiang’s body, they also found the blood-stained imprint of a high heel, with the heel positioned above the head of the corpse, the tip pointed towards A Qiang’s face.
"How... How did this ghost manage to do this?" Zhang Man, usually so composed, lost her composure at the sight.
Hearing this, Yang Xiao exhaled and said, "How it was done is not important. What matters is why that ghost is doing this, what rule she is using to kill us."
Holding back his revulsion, Yang Xiao rummaged through the flattened pockets of the body, but he didn’t find A Qiang’s phone, nor was it in the room.
The phone was missing, but Yang Xiao did find two keys in the pocket.
After testing, one was the room key, and the other was the key to the chain lock outside the door, which meant that lock was installed and secured by A Qiang himself.
Now the problem became even more complicated. If A Qiang had locked it himself, why would he lock himself in the room?
With mysteries piling up, Yang Xiao attempted to call A Qiang’s phone. Lian Jinsun shook his head, indicating that they had already tried calling multiple times—it would connect, but no one would answer.
Just as Yang Xiao was about to give up, suddenly, the call connected, "Who is this?" a strange and aged voice came through from the other end.
"Who are you?" Yang Xiao instantly became vigilant.
After a brief conversation, Yang Xiao eventually understood the identity of the caller—a janitor from the complex. The person explained that he had found A Qiang’s phone in the corridor of their building.
They agreed on a time, and five minutes later, they met in the hallway with an old man in tattered clothes and unkempt hair, holding a bamboo broom in his hand.
After meeting, the old man returned the phone to them and insisted on not accepting Yang Xiao’s gratitude money, but he scolded them for making a mess in the hallway, warning that they should never let it happen again.
"Where exactly?" Ju Juan inquired, "Old man, where did you find this phone?"
The janitor quickly led them further down the hallway to the opposite side, pushed open a safety door, and pointed to the now-clean staircase, "The phone was found right here, the ground was filthy with thrown cigarette packs and butts."
Lian Jinsun did not refute and apologized with a smile, then asked the old man where he had disposed of the cigarette butts and packs. Although the janitor didn’t quite understand, he pointed upstairs nonetheless. The group went up and indeed found a garbage can in the corner of the upper floor.
Without caring for the dirt, Lian Jinsun reached in and took out a few cigarette packs from the top, all white in color. After examining them, Lian Jinsun nodded and whispered, "No mistake, these were left by A Qiang. He liked to smoke this brand."
