Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

The group searched through the backpack compartments again, even turning the bags inside out and shaking them, but only some gravel and debris came out.

There was no sign of the "key".

"Could he have taken it with him?" Sun Weiming asked hesitantly. "But he's already disappeared."

Liu Zi was getting a little frustrated. They had been searching for clues for a long time and seemed to have made some progress, but it didn't seem like they had made any real progress.

The contents of these emails seem to have absolutely nothing to do with the Hair Ghost.

Just like the Chuncheng serial murder case that Chen Ji had investigated before, it was all useless information.

"Let me think about it."

Liu Zi took a deep breath, plopped down in Duan Cong's seat, and frowned.

"First of all... let's assume that the only person on this flight is the Hair Ghost."

"After all, nowadays, the ways of dying that are truly related to ghosts are all inseparable from hair."

Fei'er nodded, her hand constantly making notes in the suggestion book.

"This ghost is quite different from any I've encountered before..."

Liu Zi murmured, "It has no physical form; its initial form is a strand of hair."

"And its origin remains a mystery to this day."

Sun Weiming asked, "Is it possible that this ghost can disguise itself as a human and board the plane?"

Liu Zi shook his head: "The possibility is slim."

"If it has this ability, why would it need to develop a host?"

"And why would it specifically lure those who want to enter the domain?"

If the Hair Ghost could disguise itself as a human, it would have no need to trade with those who entered the realm and give them strands of hair.

In such a confined space, if the Hair Ghost could move on its own given its ability to spread, the entire cabin would have been completely parasitized by it long ago.

At this point, more than an hour had passed since takeoff, and there was only one dead person, who was passed on to him by Wu Zhou through a strand of hair.

"correct."

After thinking for a moment, Fei'er said slowly, "Why don't we just look at the results?"

"The hair ghost killed the men of Spring City and formed a hair cocoon in order to create a split entity that could act on its own."

"If we work backwards, it definitely wasn't in human form before."

Liu Zi remained silent.

In the end, Liu Zi still believed that what was taken onto the plane was just a "hair strand".

He had asked Chen Ji for confirmation, and the other party shared the same opinion.

"I always feel that this hair ghost is not like the ghosts I have encountered before."

"Or is it more like a ghost?"

Sun Weiming muttered.

“Strange things are ghosts too,” Phil glanced at him. “They’re all the same in essence.”

The three of them were arguing beside Duan Cong's seat when Fei'er's ears suddenly twitched, and she looked behind the curtain.

Chen Ji, Wan Xiaoshuang, and Qi Chen had finished inspecting the bathroom and were lifting the curtain as they walked over.

The three of them looked solemn.

"How much longer can this stone cage hold out..."

Qi Chen pressed his temples and said with a hint of helplessness.

His condition had been poor, and he was burdened with heavy responsibilities, putting him under much more psychological pressure than other newcomers.

"Two bricks have already fallen off."

Chen Ji quickly stepped forward and whispered to Liu Zi.

"What if the hair ghost escapes?" Before Liu Zi could say anything, Sun Weiming's face turned pale, and his voice trembled.

"It's just a matter of time," Wan Xiaoshuang whispered.

After a brief discussion, the group decided to take turns standing guard outside the restroom, checking every ten minutes.

"Let's not talk about that for now." Liu Zi raised his phone: "We still haven't found Duan Cong, but we found his phone."

He briefly explained the unusual features of the phone, then swiped open the screen to show Chen Ji and the other two the emails in the [Clock].

A few minutes later...

Chen Ji looked at the email dated November 3rd, lost in thought.

Qi Chen looked indignant. He had a vague idea that Guishan Tin Mine had probably done something to Officer Luo's family.

"Damn it, that bastard!"

Wan Xiaoshuang glanced at Qi Chen with some surprise; Qi Chen's reaction seemed a bit excessive.

"...I'm a police officer too." Qi Chen said in a deep voice after a moment of silence.

This is his actual profession.

"No wonder you were assigned the role of air marshal." Wan Xiaoshuang's eyes flickered as she looked Qi Chen up and down.

Chen Ji didn't say anything. Actually, he had already guessed it before, because Qi Chen's gun-handling posture was very professional.

More importantly, the righteous aura emanating from Qi Chen is rarely seen among those who have entered the domain, or even ordinary people.

"I have an idea."

Chen Ji suddenly spoke, breaking the heavy atmosphere: "Is it possible that this 'key' doesn't have a literal meaning?"

"You mean..." Wan Xiaoshuang instantly understood: "'Key' is just a concept, it's actually just a strand of hair?"

Chen Ji nodded.

This conjecture is absurd, but Duan Cong's inexplicable disappearance must be inextricably linked to the Hair Ghost.

and......

"Look here." Chen Ji squatted down, picking up a piece of gravel from the ground with his fingers:

"This is the material of stone bricks."

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at each other in disbelief.

"These stone fragments were shaken out of the cassiterite bag. Aren't they remnants of the cassiterite sample?"

Liu Zi was a little confused. None of the three of them paid much attention to the debris, because Duan Cong's profession was related to mining.

"Let me take a look."

Sun Weiming took out his glasses from his pocket, put them on, picked up a bit of residue, and looked at it carefully.

A few seconds later, he said with certainty:

"This is not tin."

“Castanol is much blacker than this, and it’s also brighter.”

He picked up another slightly larger piece of debris: "If it's an outer layer of stone, then the material and the shape of the fracture don't match up at all."

"and....."

Sun Weiming placed the larger piece of stone in his palm and showed it to everyone:

“A tin mining company would never show an unprocessed sample to its customers.”

There are obvious signs of moss on this pebble.

At this moment, Qi Chen also took out the last bullet from the pistol.

The middle section of the stone bullet had identical moss marks.

"no......"

Liu Zi muttered in confusion, "Where did this company get these kinds of stones?!"

Everyone could see that these moss-covered gray stone bricks were of extraordinary material, and even the air around the stone bullets was subtly distorted.

“But these stone chips look quite normal.” Phil pointed out a key point: “Also, the fragments in the clumps are much darker in color than the stone bullets and bricks.”

Wan Xiaoshuang suddenly frowned.

She sighed deeply and exchanged a glance with Chen Ji.

The two exchanged uncertain glances. After a few seconds, Wan Xiaoshuang said, "That's because... these stone chips are no longer useful."

"Simply put, it's no longer valid."

She quickly explained that the two loose bricks in the bathroom were similar in color to the debris.

It can no longer serve to restrain the hair ghost.

"so....."

Liu Zi asked in a daze, "Duan Cong used these stone bricks to put his hair ribbon on the plane?"

"Is that why he didn't die immediately?"

Chen Ji nodded silently.

"However... he may not know that the stone bricks have a limited lifespan."

"Moreover, these are just fragments; we don't know where he took the whole stone brick."

Everyone looked extremely tense!

The most crucial issue is.....

Why did Duan Cong give Wu Zhou this strand of hair?

Also, did Duan Cong only carry a single strand of hair with him?

“The hair ghosts are endless,” Chen Ji murmured. “The hairs they split off can continue to parasitize other people.”

"If Duan Cong still has any extra strands of hair, and he breaks through the restriction again..."

Chen Ji's words came to an abrupt end.

He looked around, a rare hint of panic appearing in his eyes.

Where is Lan Meng?

"Didn't she say she'd come over after checking in the front cabin?"