Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

Chen Ji remained silent.

He glanced at Tian Qinghe and saw that she was pondering over her clue book and showed no intention of getting up.

"Li Bo, you go first."

Chen Ji said:

"I want to bring Fei'er out."

According to Huici, there should be more than one ghost on the second floor, and Fei'er is currently in danger.

Li Bo shouted angrily, his tone already showing signs of impatience:

"She might be dead already!"

"There's absolutely no sound from upstairs!"

He was telling the truth, and to this day, the second floor remains silent.

Just like the gurgling sound Chen Ji heard yesterday was merely his own hallucination.

Chen Ji shook his head and didn't say anything more.

The entire village house fell into absolute silence.

Only Li Bo paced anxiously in place.

He said he was going to leave, but he didn't actually move.

After a moment, Du Tingfeng suddenly spoke:

"By 7 p.m. at the latest, the red cloth will cover the whole body."

Seven o'clock.

Therefore, before that, Du Tingfeng must leave the domain or find a way to survive.

But the curse of the red umbrella is assimilation, not encountering a ghost, so where can it find a way to survive?

After pondering for a moment, Chen Ji went to his bedroom on the second floor alone and closed the door.

A few minutes later, Tian Qinghe pushed open the door, looking somewhat irritated.

"Li Bo is incredibly noisy; he keeps yelling that he wants to leave."

He said this and walked to Chen Ji's side.

“I told him he knows the magazine’s address, so if he’s going to leave, he should just leave already. What’s he babbling about?”

Chen Ji's voice was very soft:

"He definitely doesn't want to leave now since he hasn't received the goods yet."

"what?"

Tian Qinghe paused for a moment, closed the clue book in her hand, and looked at Chen Ji with some doubt.

"nothing."

Chen Ji turned to look at Tian Qinghe.

This man has been acting as the team leader ever since he entered the domain.

He was indeed constantly searching for clues and contacting police officers; almost every new piece of information was relayed by Tian Qinghe.

But Chen Ji felt...

He's more like a tool to advance the main storyline.

In this domain, everyone was passively receiving information, including Tian Qinghe.

Chen Ji suddenly spoke up, changing the subject:

"Tian Qinghe".

Why didn't you go to the magazine office with Li Bo?

Tian Qinghe was taken aback, as if she hadn't expected Chen Ji to ask that question.

He hesitated for a moment before stammering:

“This time, I’m not a member of the Detective Club, right, the leader?”

"So?" Chen Ji pressed.

"I have more experience than you do."

Tian Qinghe thought for a moment and said, "Then I have an obligation to take you all out."

"As a team leader, you bear more responsibility."

Tian Qinghe spoke more and more fluently: "At the same time, it is also necessary to unite the team and ensure that everyone survives; have a clear direction, firm will, and be calm and fearless."

"...Stop memorizing it."

Chen Ji said, somewhat speechless.

This was clearly not Tian Qinghe's true thought; it sounded more like something she had memorized from somewhere.

“I’m serious, Chen—Little Chen.”

Tian Qinghe coughed lightly twice.

Chen Ji seemed not to have heard his slip of the tongue and suddenly laughed:

"You're not going with Li Bo..."

"Is it because there haven't been any new entries in your clue book yet?"

Tian Qinghe stared into Chen Ji's eyes, the smile on her face slowly fading.

"You genuinely believed that 'Liang Ming's Story' was right there in the magazine office, didn't you?"

"But after all this time, there's been no change in your clue book."

"So you start to suspect that the information provided by Inspector Chung is false, or that the direction is incorrect."

Chen Ji said slowly.

"..."

A crack finally appeared on Tian Qinghe's usually composed and calm face.

He looked at Chen Ji very carefully, a hint of emotion appearing in his eyes:

"The fact that you could guess the 'Clues Book' is a strange object is already quite surprising to me."

"But what I really want to know is, how exactly did you figure out its abilities?"

Chen Ji flipped the clue book forward a few pages, revealing Liang Xiaobao's portrait.

"First, after Inspector Chung mentioned that Leung Siu-bo might be an alias, you didn't even investigate that direction, but went straight to the clothing rental shop."

"It's like you suddenly become certain that Liang Xiaobao and Liang Ming are not the same person at all."

"Secondly, your expression after Fei'er disappeared shows that you believed Xu Yuanshuang's words."

“You thought the call was probably a ghost call, but a little while later you decided to come to the village house with us.”

"There's one more thing..."

"Tian Qinghe, the portrait you showed me last night looks exactly like it was printed on."

"You didn't even have a draft, no revisions, and you managed to draw this based solely on the clothing rental shop owner's description. Are you a robot?"

Chen Ji concluded by saying:

"I bet you couldn't draw it like this if you tried now."

"As for your abilities... once they know you're holding a strange object and you've been constantly recording on it, it's easy to guess, right?"

Tian Qinghe's expression was very complicated. He stared blankly at Chen Ji for a long time before finally letting out a long breath.

"6."

He didn't mention his "clue book" again, but instead asked:

"So you also think that the magazine's lead was a false one?"

Chen Ji shook his head.

"I can't predict the future, how could I be so sure?"

"I just feel that Phil's disappearance is definitely not a coincidence."

"It's very possible that anyone who came to Ah Xiang's house today would have been dragged into another dimension."

Tian Qinghe's eyes flashed: "You mean...."

"Is this a necessary node in the domain?"

Chen Jidao:

"Do not."

He believes that being "dragged into another dimension" is indeed an important turning point.

However, it's not something you'll definitely experience!

"This is similar to a hidden level."

"Just like branches in the main storyline of a game, we need to choose specific options in a certain dialogue to unlock that level."

"That is... the conversation with Kelly Chen in the police station."

“If we only investigated in the direction of Inspector Chung and ignored Kelly Chen, we would never have come to the village house again.”

"You won't hear that splashing sound either."

Tian Qinghe frowned and said:

"But according to your logic, isn't it too much of a coincidence?"

"According to you, the splashing sound stopped after that. If you had come any later, wouldn't you have found nothing at all?"

Chen Ji nodded slightly:

"You have a point."

"But I think that by simply looking through the things in the village house, it would be easy to conclude that Zheng Zhongshan is trapped in another dimension."

"Now that we're certain of this, even if we didn't hear it at the time, we'll come back to look for clues later."

Sooner or later... we'll all hear the rushing sound.

Tian Qinghe immediately pressed, "Why?"

"Because we took a shortcut."

Chen Ji said, "Hui Ci can sense ghosts."

"But when the swishing sound appeared, he didn't feel anything."

This can only prove one thing:

The ghost isn't always here!

"At a certain moment, which is likely to be a regular moment, the ghosts will disappear, and at that time we will be able to communicate with people from other dimensions!"

"Therefore, all we can do now is wait here for that special moment to occur."

Chen Ji then pointed to the clue book:

"Let me tell you something else first."

"I'd like to borrow your strange object to help me find a clue."

Tian Qinghe hesitated for a moment before saying:

"It's okay, but..."

His words stopped abruptly.

Chen Ji raised his hand, interrupting Tian Qinghe.

He, along with Huici in the living room, all turned their heads and looked around blankly!

Huici stopped trembling.

Chen Ji, however, heard that sound again, very faintly.

Like the wind blowing through the pages of a book.

Like fallen leaves being gently swept away.

wow——

wow——