Global Collapse

Chapter 40 I am the title
"Of course not, of course I didn't knock on his door."

"After I said no, he fell silent and kept his mouth shut, refusing to speak no matter how I asked him."

"I sensed something was wrong, so I discussed with his brother-in-law about taking him to the hospital, but he absolutely refused, insisting that he wasn't sick."

“My husband and I specifically checked, there was absolutely no knocking or any noise at night, but he insists that someone is knocking on his door and that someone wants to harm him…”

Zhao Meixiang let out a long sigh, looking somewhat tired.

Gu Mian then asked, "What happened next? I heard that Zhao Wen was eventually found in a hotel outside."

Zhao Meixiang nodded wearily: "My brother's personality changed drastically after he came back. He first stopped going out and only went out to eat and use the toilet."

"but then……"

She shuddered as she said this: "But later he would come out often..."

Qinghuan asked curiously, "Is this a good thing?"

"No," Zhao Meixiang shook her head, "He only comes out late at night, in the middle of the night."

"That night... my husband and I were asleep, but in the middle of the night I suddenly needed to go to the bathroom. Just as I was about to get out of bed, I saw..."

"I saw that the door had been pushed open a crack at some point, and he was squatting outside, his face pressed against the crack, staring at me without blinking."

"I screamed in fright, and my husband woke up right away. He also immediately saw the person crouching outside the door."

“I was terrified. I asked my brother what he was going to do, and he said nothing, then he stood up and left…”

Qinghuan shuddered, looking somewhat frightened.

Zhao Meixiang continued, "But later, I discovered that he had been watching us the whole time..."

“When I’m in the living room, he’ll open the door a crack and keep watching me…”

“When I was in the kitchen, he would crouch behind the kitchen door, peering at me through the gap underneath…”

“Even when I come back from outside and open the door, he will press his eye through the peephole and stare intently at me…”

“Once, he even hid in the closet next to our bed. In the middle of the night, I heard a noise, and when I opened my eyes, I saw the closet was ajar, and his head was above mine, staring intently at me…”

Zhao Meixiang shuddered violently: "Later, my husband finally couldn't take it anymore and yelled at me to leave, but my brother said we were trying to harm him."

"He rushed out after saying that... We couldn't catch him, and later... Later, the police found him in the hotel..."

"They said it was already rotten when it was found, in a hotel closet."

"The waiter couldn't find anyone, so he tried to clean the room and rent it out to someone else. But when he opened the closet, the man fell out, his eyes still wide open..."

At this point, Zhao Meixiang could no longer hold back and began to sob softly.

Qinghuan shuddered. Encountering that ghost knocking on the door... they'd probably all end up with a mental breakdown like this.

Gu Mian frowned slightly.

Seeing this, Qinghuan asked, "What's wrong, Dr. Gu?"

Gu Mian looked at Zhao Meixiang: "You just mentioned that your younger brother Zhao Wen's later symptoms included a tendency to spy?"

"The symptoms in the later stages..." Qing Huan swallowed hard. As expected of a doctor, even asking about paranormal events was like treating a patient.

Zhao Meixiang nodded: "Yes, I don't know why, he suddenly became like that..." Gu Mian said knowingly: "I guess your brother Zhao Wen developed symptoms of paranoia later on. He suspected that you and your husband were knocking on the door, so he kept staring at you."

Zhao Meixiang was somewhat bewildered: "Is...that so...?"

"By the way," Gu Mian continued, "before this incident, did Zhao Wen experience any other strange things, such as exploring haunted houses or being frightened by something?"

Zhao Meixiang shook her head: "No, he is a very down-to-earth kid. He usually only works in the factory and at most goes out to play with his friends. He doesn't go to very far places."

Where does he work?

"It's nearby, the Mingliang Plastics Factory, it's still open, you can see it not far away."

Having finished asking all the questions, Gu Mian didn't linger. He stood up, slung the chainsaw over his shoulder, and said, "Thank you very much for your cooperation. We will do our best to find out the real cause of Zhao Wen's death."

Then he left with Qinghuan.

When Qinghuan came down from the building, she was still a little confused: "Dr. Gu, we came here to investigate the ghost that can knock on doors, but it seems like we don't have any clues."

All we know is that the ghost that knocked on the door killed a man named Zhao Wen, but there are no clues about the ghost at all.

"No," Gu Mian shook her head: "Although Zhao Wen has nothing to do with me, he has a lot to do with someone else."

Qinghuan asked, somewhat puzzled, "Who?"

"Think about it, what were Zhao Wen's later symptoms?"

"Paranoid disorder, voyeurism... wait, voyeurism? Could he be the one who's with Yuwen Hao?!"

Gu Mian nodded: "It's probably that spying ghost that followed Yuwen Hao. After Zhao Wen was cursed and died, he himself became a vengeful ghost and became part of the curse."

Qinghuan felt a chill run down her spine: "This is too terrifying. If every cursed person becomes part of the curse after death, how many ghosts would there be!"

“I suspect that if we trace the source, all the deaths of ghosts can be traced back to the same origin. For example, Zhao Wen was killed by the knocking ghost, and the knocking ghost could have been killed by a ghost on a higher level. Tracing back in this way, the one at the very top is the source of the curse we are looking for.”

Gu Mian continued, "The source may be one of these five ghosts, or it may be somewhere else. In any case, we first need to deduce the relationship between these five ghosts who killed and were killed."

Who killed whom? And who killed whom?

Qinghuan suddenly realized and said, "So what we know now is that... the spying ghost was killed by the knocking ghost. If we want to trace the source, we need to go back a step further, to find out who killed the knocking ghost?"

Gu Mian nodded: "So let's find out the relationship between the five ghosts first. Go to your place and find out the cause of death of the ghost behind the scenes."

Qinghuan nodded and led Gu Mian toward her residence.

It was past noon, and the two were a little hungry, so they bought some steamed buns to eat on the way.

"It's almost two o'clock now," Gu Mian said, glancing at her phone. "We need to gather at four o'clock, so we have to hurry."

Qinghuan nodded and strode forward.

Just after 2 a.m., the two arrived at Qinghuan's residence.

It's also a dilapidated apartment building; I don't know why there are so many run-down buildings in this area.

The landlord was somewhat surprised to see Qinghuan arrive, but then seemed to understand and invited the two to sit down: "You also feel that something is wrong with the house?"

咕


(End of this chapter)