Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

Rumbling--

Chen could feel the cold wind scraping against his face like knives, his ears were freezing and aching, and his body was being bounced around on something.

But he couldn't move or open his eyes.

I don't know how much time passed...

His face suddenly stung, and someone patted him on the shoulder.

call!

Chen Ji suddenly woke up!

He grabbed the hand that was stretched out to his face and instantly felt that the hand was incredibly rough, covered with chilblains and calluses.

"Hey, what's wrong? Are you having a fit?"

"That's what the owner of the hand shouted."

The man was around forty years old, wearing a fur coat, his wrinkled eyes staring at Chen Ji with a sinister gaze.

"You're not dead, kid?"

Chen Ji remained silent.

He let go of her hand and immediately looked around.

He happened to meet Xu Sandao's sleepy eyes.

but.....

Chen Ji frowned as he looked at Xu Sandao's clothes, then at himself, and noticed that both of them were wearing old, dusty cotton-padded clothes.

And... he was sitting in the back of a tractor.

The middle-aged man in the fur coat sat back down in his original seat, grumbling and cursing.

Xu Sandao, who was standing to the side, was suddenly sobered up by the cold wind. His face was expressionless at the moment. He slowly moved to Chen Ji's side.

"We've entered the domain," he said softly.

Chen Ji nodded; the voice that had been in his mind was now imprinted in his heart.

[Find five scrap pieces in the Tuotuoshan Coal Mine and survive to the end]

The tractor was panting heavily as it crawled along the mountain road, its destination unknown.

Besides them, there were more than a dozen men of different ages and with different expressions sitting in the trailer.

Some people looked numb, some looked cautious, and others carefully observed their surroundings.

Without exception, these people all had piles of snakeskin plastic bags at their feet, containing bedding. Chen Ji and his companion also had some.

Chen touched the snakeskin bag almost imperceptibly, feeling the outline of his own hiking backpack.

Both the little monkey and the fountain pen are included.

“These people are not entrants to the domain,” Xu Sandao whispered in Chen Ji’s ear. “They’re all here to mine coal.”

"So are we."

He heard the man in the fur coat talking to someone else.

"Is it just the two of us in this domain?" Chen Ji felt a sense of unease.

"It should be. We'll go into the mine and take a look later." Xu Sandao nodded.

Chen Ji immediately turned his head, his tone complicated: "So... just how difficult is this domain?"

Xu Sandao fell silent, his face tense.

The domain of Tuotuo Mountain was forcibly opened by them, and it is very likely that there were only the two of them in the domain this time.

But... will it follow Xu Sandao's progress and become as difficult as the Ninth Domain?

If that's the case, then this domain will be hellishly difficult because there are too few people!

We can only take one step at a time.

As Chen Ji pondered, he suddenly saw the man in the fur coat wink at the man next to him.

The man immediately stood up and walked towards Chen Ji.

"Young man," the man said kindly. He looked to be in his thirties, with a kind and gentle appearance.

"You were still in school before, right?"

Chen Ji remained silent.

"My name is Pan Yin." The man took out a cigarette from his pocket and tentatively offered it to Chen Ji: "What's your name again?"

Chen Ji did not take the cigarette, but looked thoughtfully at the man's bulging pockets.

Pan Yin couldn't help but smile awkwardly.

He glanced at Chen Ji's hand and said confidently, "Never been down in a mine before, have you?"

"Without experience, the coal mine won't hire you."

"Your hundred-plus yuan for travel expenses is probably going to go down the drain."

Chen Ji: "Speak your mind."

First, he tried to get close to them, then he threatened them, and he was carrying significantly more money than the others.

Instead of talking to Xu Sandao, Pan Yin went straight to Chen Ji, who looked very young, probably thinking that Chen Ji didn't know anything.

Pan Yin lit his cigarette and said sincerely, "Young man, I saw that you are about the same age as my brother, and I couldn't bear to let you make a wasted trip."

"The mine isn't short of people right now. You don't know anything and have no experience, so who would want you?"

“It’s almost Chinese New Year, and you’re still working here. It’s quite pitiful.”

Finally, he got to the point:

"How about this? You won't be all alone anymore. I'll take you with me. I'll say you're my brother and I'll take care of you."

"When it's time to settle the bill, you can just give your brother half of your salary."

The meaning is very clear: he wants to exchange 10% of his wages for Pan Yin's protection, and incidentally, Pan Yin will teach him mining skills.

The mine is dangerous, and this seems like an equal exchange.

On the surface, it is even extremely advantageous to Chen.

Xu Sandao lazily interjected, "Who told you he was alone?"

He approached Chen Ji, seemingly lost in thought, his face showing some disgust: "You're from Zhaotong, aren't you?"

Pan Yin's face froze instantly.

Chen Ji is an entrant to the domain, so of course he wouldn't accept Pan Yin's deal. But... where is Zhao Tong?

Pan Yin threw the cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it with his foot.

"None of your business," he said curtly, turning around and sitting down next to the man in the fur coat.

Xu Sandao seemed to be deep in thought.

The tractor slowed down. He thought for a moment and said to Chen Ji, "Remember, when we go into the mine later, just say we're together."

"Be careful of those two."

Chen Ji nodded.

After a while, he saw Pan Yin and the man in the fur coat get up and start talking to another boy who looked about sixteen or seventeen.

A few minutes later, the three of them sat down together.

The boy still had a childlike face, carried a tattered schoolbag, and spoke timidly, addressing the other two as "Brother Pan" and "Brother Zheng" repeatedly. He awkwardly smoked the cigarette Pan Yin offered, coughing from the choking smoke.

Chen watched all of this unfold with a complex expression, knowing that Pan Yin had already persuaded the boy.

Soon the tractor drove into the mining area, and piles of coal, like small hills, began to appear nearby, covering the snow and turning it gray.

“This coal mine is quite large,” Xu Sandao said, “but it’s not legitimate. This whole area is probably full of illegal coal mines.”

After more than a dozen people got off the tractor, Chen Ji and his companion, carrying snakeskin bags, hid at the back and lined up outside a slightly better-decorated brick house.

The leaders were Pan Yin, a man in a fur coat named Zheng Jinming, and the boy.

A moment later...

Xu Sandao led Chen Ji into the house.

It was still snowing lightly outside, and the cold wind was howling, but it was warm and cozy inside.

A young man wearing glasses sat at the table, looking refined and scholarly, which seemed quite out of place in a coal mine.

This is the mine's accountant.

He quickly completed the formalities and gave Chen Ji a worn-out safety helmet with tape wrapped around it.

"Four-Eyes, get him a better one." Suddenly, a middle-aged man's voice rang out, and someone came in.

Chen Ji turned around and saw that it was a miner whose face was covered in coal dust, but he seemed to know the accountant very well.

"Old Yang, it's not that I don't want to give them to you," the accountant said helplessly. "The mine manager didn't allocate any money to buy safety helmets. There were only a few good ones, and they've all been taken by others."

Old Yang frowned and said, "The mine has collapsed so many times, and the mine manager still hasn't been replaced—"

"Shh!" Four-Eyes winked at him.

He then stood up and greeted Chen Ji from behind with a smile, "Mine Manager!"

Chen Ji was taken aback, and Xu Sandao pulled him aside. He saw a man in his early thirties walk in.

The mine manager, dressed in a leather jacket and shoes, with a Pierre Cardin belt cinching his protruding belly, didn't even glance at Chen Ji and his companion.

He looked very impatient.

Beside him was a burly man, who could be either a security guard or a thug, Chen Ji heard...

The burly man addressed the mine manager as:

Mr. Zeng.