Chapter 553: Chapter 481: Time
"Master Wukong, you have such a kind heart," Yang Xiao chuckled, uncertain if it was mockery or praise.
Catching a taxi, the two rushed to the hotel. On the way, Yang Xiao’s phone rang. Seeing the caller ID, he was dumbfounded for a moment—it was Zhang Man calling, but Zhang Man was clearly dead!
However, Yang Xiao soon considered that someone might be using Zhang Man’s phone to make the call, perhaps Wen Chongxian.
But after confirming there was an issue with the phone, Yang Xiao didn’t dare bet on whether it was a "Ghost Call" or not. On the other hand, Monk Wukong, noticing this, reached out, took the phone from Yang Xiao, and pressed the answer button.
Sure enough, Wen Chongxian’s voice came through, sounding as if he were on his last breath. It was obvious that Wen Chongxian had had a rough night.
Monk Wukong comforted him briefly and hung up the phone. Soon, the two arrived at the hotel and found Wen Chongxian in room 8018, still terrified. He was wrapped in a thick blanket, curled up on the bed, as if he had lost his soul.
Seeing Yang Xiao and Monk Wukong, Wen Chongxian reacted as if he had seen long-lost relatives, nearly bursting into tears, "It’s over, I’m done for. I didn’t make the call last night, and today... they will definitely come find me, Mr. Wolf won’t let me off!"
Monk Wukong patted Wen Chongxian on the back and comforted him in a low voice, "Don’t be afraid, I also didn’t make the call last night."
Wen Chongxian heard him and looked doubtful, "Really?"
"Amitabha, a monk does not tell lies," Monk Wukong said with hands clasped together, his attitude extremely devout, stunning Wen Chongxian into stupefaction.
Now that Wen Chongxian seemed to have regained his senses, he looked up at the intact Yang Xiao and Monk and suddenly his face changed, "Where are Brother Lian and Miss Che?"
That was a nonsense question, and Yang Xiao didn’t even bother to answer. They took Wen Chongxian with them and hurried to the rental where Lian Jinsun lived. On the way, they called several times, and as before, the calls went through but no one answered.
"They’re all dead..." Wen Chongxian, sitting in the back of the car, felt utterly hopeless.
Standing in front of the rental, Yang Xiao had not even started dialing when he heard some noise inside. He stopped what he was doing, curiously approached the door, and put his ear to it. The sound became clearer, a "creak, creak," not loud, like someone shaking a table.
After opening the door, Yang Xiao immediately saw Che Xuexiang, bound to a chair. She was the one making the shaking noise; her wrists were chafed bloody from being tied behind her back. He quickly went forward to untie her, removed the gag from her mouth, and only then did they learn the truth from Che Xuexiang’s account.
The events were much like Yang Xiao had imagined. After hearing Monk’s analysis yesterday, Lian Jinsun had returned to the rental and attacked Che Xuexiang, tying her up in the haunted house, planning to use her as his death substitute that night.
"Where’s your phone?" Yang Xiao looked around but couldn’t find it.
"That bastard Lian Jinsun took it!" Che Xuexiang said through clenched teeth, her injuries were not light, with several wounds on her face and dislocated arms.
Monk Wukong stepped forward and quickly reset her dislocated arms while she was distracted by talking.
"Where’s that bastard Lian Jinsun?" Che Xuexiang, standing up and moving her stiff body, furrowed her brows with anger.
"We don’t know, we didn’t find him either. No one answers when we call his phone, same with yours," Yang Xiao explained.
After a quick search of the room revealed no further clues, the three were about to leave when Yang Xiao, unwilling to give up, dialed Lian Jinsun’s number again. This time, they heard a very faint ringtone.
Following the sound, they discovered the ringing was coming from behind a door in the hallway, very close to their rental.
The door was an old-fashioned iron gate. Yang Xiao grabbed the bars and pulled gently outward. With a "creak," the door opened.
It was unlocked.
And then, the scene inside the room delivered a crippling blow to Yang Xiao. The floor was covered with a thick layer of blood, and Lian Jinsun was lying in the pool of blood, his upper and lower body torn apart, his innards and intestines spilled all over.
What was truly chilling was Lian Jinsun’s death stare, his eyes bulging and bloodshot.
"Rustle, rustle..."
The next second, a strange noise suddenly came from behind a partially closed wooden door in the room, startling Yang Xiao and the others. The sound was coming from behind what appeared to be a bedroom door, given the layout of the house.
"Rustle, rustle..."
The noise came again, a friction sound, as if someone was moving on the floor like a snake.
Yang Xiao was also frightened by the image his mind conjured up—could it be that the ghost, after killing, was still hiding in the room?
"Who’s there? Who’s inside?" Che Xuexiang mustered her courage and challenged.
Just after hearing this, the thing inside the room paused for a moment, and then the friction sound grew more intense, accompanied by helpless "whimpers."
"It seems... it seems like there’s a person." Wen Chongxian whispered from the back of the group.
Looking back at Monk Wukong and seeing he did not object, Yang Xiao slowly stepped forward, pushed open the ajar door, and then saw a thin man, bound to a chair with his hands tied behind his back, the knots identical to those used by Che Xuexiang.
After removing the gag from the man’s mouth, everyone learned the truth of what had happened, including Mr. Wolf instructing him to keep an eye on the rental room.
"Anything else?" Yang Xiao pressed after a while.
The man weakly shook his head; he had been tied up all night without a drop of water to drink. A normal person could cope, but for a drug addict like him, it was life-threatening.
"Thank you." Yang Xiao stood up, turned around, took the cloth, and gagged the man’s mouth again.
The man’s words seemed to be true, but Yang Xiao couldn’t just let him go; releasing him now would be a problem.
In the study, Yang Xiao found Che Xuexiang’s mobile phone, as well as A Qiang’s, and then, resisting nausea, he searched the pockets of Lian Jinsun’s corpse and pulled out his phone as well.
Gathering all the mobiles together, there were nine in total. Apart from the broken one belonging to Monk Wukong and the one Yu Dagui had password-protected, they now had seven usable phones in their hands.
By now, everyone had realized the issue with the task; Lian Jinsun hadn’t stayed in the haunted house the previous night, and someone was still inside the house. Yet even so, he had died, which indicated staying in the haunted house wasn’t a condition for the ghost to kill.
"It’s the mobile phones," Yang Xiao said in a low voice. "Sha Meihui brought us here to be scapegoats for her, and I think the problem lies in the calls to her every night."
Che Xuexiang nodded, "We’ve suspected this too, but every night, three people make calls. If making a call is a certain death, then all three should die."
"Amitabha," Monk Wukong spoke, "The one who dies must differ from the two survivors in some way."
"Could it be the time of the calls?" Yang Xiao voiced his conjecture.
