Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

Squeak.

A cold wind carrying snowflakes blew into the house.

Chen Ji remained motionless, his heart pounding, feeling Xu Sandao's body stiff as a stone beside him!

Liu Yunfeng came in....

The room was silent. Chen Ji squinted his eyes, observing by the light of the snow.

A dark figure walked to the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), next to Old Sun.

It went up onto the kang (heated brick bed).

A rustling sound of clothes came from behind, then silence.

Chen glanced almost imperceptibly to the left, then suddenly stopped abruptly!

He witnessed an extremely horrifying scene!

Liu Yunfeng's body seemed to be suspended in mid-air, hovering above Lao Yang's body!

This posture was too strange. Chen Ji couldn't understand why Liu Yunfeng would do this!

Liu Yunfeng's body was facing the ceiling, but his head was tilted back so far that it almost touched Lao Yang's face!

But... there was nothing on the ceiling.

Lao Yang has an extremely strong mental fortitude.

Even after all that, he didn't utter a single word.

Chen Ji even wondered if he had fainted from fright.

The thought flashed through his mind quickly, like a gasp for breath, and soon Chen Ji's brain tensed up again!

Because Liu Yunfeng slowly straightened up and moved onto Xu Sandao!

Chen Ji immediately closed his eyes. He could no longer peek like before; Liu Yunfeng was already too close to him!

He could even feel Liu Yunfeng's hair brushing against him.

A scene flashed through Chen Ji's mind:

Just ten centimeters to his left, Liu Yunfeng was looking up at the ceiling, his head tilted back so that it was almost parallel to Chen Ji's...

It's even possible that Liu Yunfeng is currently tilting his head to observe whether Chen Ji is asleep or not.

Xu Sandao beside him remained motionless, breathing evenly, seemingly fast asleep.

Chen Ji's brain was working frantically. What exactly was Liu Yunfeng doing?

Why is it staring at the ceiling?

There was nothing on the ceiling!

Will I be next?

Chen Ji thought for a moment, then, with his eyes still closed and his breathing shallow, he naturally turned over.

After a few minutes.

Liu Yunfeng left Xu Sandao's body, seemingly wanting to float above Chen Ji.

but.....

Perhaps because Chen Ji was sleeping on his side, it didn't do that.

The quilt sank down, and Liu Yunfeng walked to the far right of the kang (a heated brick bed).

The layout of the kang (heated brick bed) is as follows:

From left to right: Lao Sun, Lao Yang, Xu Sandao, and Chen Ji.

There was still a considerable distance between Chen Ji's right side and the wall.

Chen Ji froze, blinked once in 0.01 seconds, and found Liu Yunfeng lying down on his right!

She was also in a side-facing position, facing the wall, with her back to Chen Ji.

Chen Ji vaguely glimpsed the back of the military overcoat, which was wet from the snow, but there was a patch that seemed to have been covered up before, and the color was noticeably lighter.

Liu Er.....

It was that red jacket.

But where is that red jacket now?

Chen Ji seemed to be deep in thought.

Liu Yunfeng stood motionless with his back to him, as if he were asleep.

But ghosts certainly don't sleep.

Unless it's in disguise.

Or perhaps... repeating the behaviors they exhibited in their previous life.

If this really is the Liu brothers' dormitory, then Liu Yunfeng's current behavior can be understood.

As time passed, Chen Ji's heartbeat had become much calmer.

But he remained perfectly conscious because there was a ghost lying next to him!

A while later...

The sound of bed sheets rustling came from beside Chen Ji again.

He noticed that Liu Yunfeng seemed to be slowly moving closer to him...?

A few seconds later, Chen Ji confirmed his thoughts, because he could feel the chill rushing towards him.

He quickly constructed the scene in his mind.

Liu Yunfeng had his back to him, no more than five centimeters away, with the back of his head almost touching Chen Ji's face.

But... something seems off.....

After thinking for a moment, just as Chen Ji was about to blink again, he suddenly felt his finger being touched.

It is Xu Sandao.

Xu Sandao's fingers were cold, as if he had just broken out in a cold sweat.

He was making some kind of scribbling motions on Chen Ji's hand.

It is a character.

head.....

头？

Chen Ji was taken aback, then realized there was a second word.

反。

Head upside down.

The head is upside down.

Liu Yunfeng's head is upside down!

Chen Ji felt a chill run down his spine in an instant!

Liu Yunfeng's body was turned away from him, which meant...

Her face was directly facing Chen Ji.

Liu Yunfeng's face was pressed tightly against Chen Ji's face.

Chen Ji felt as if he had been struck by lightning, but outwardly he showed no signs of distress and seemed to still be asleep.

This was largely thanks to his experience dealing with dormitory supervisors in his repeat high school.

He immediately recalled everything that had happened before and realized that Liu Yunfeng was not tilting his head back, but was craning his neck and looking at Lao Yang and Xu Sandao with his face close to his, just like he was now!

No wonder, he felt something was off just now... If Liu Yunfeng's head had been turned away from Chen Ji, at this close distance, the hair on the back of its head would have already poked Chen Ji's face!

But no.

There was only a chill.

So Xu Sandao also peeked.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have noticed that Liu Yunfeng's torso was facing the ceiling.

Chen Ji pulled himself out of his thoughts, lay quietly, and waited for a long time before pretending to turn over naturally.

Throughout the process, Liu Yunfeng maintained a face-to-face position.

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

A rooster crowed outside.

Liu Yunfeng slowly got up, pushed open the door, and left the cave dwelling.

Chen Ji finally breathed a sigh of relief. He had roughly deduced that Liu Yunfeng hadn't made a move, perhaps because none of them had shown any unusual behavior.

They're all pretending to be asleep.

But why did they leave so early?

Old Yang stirred slightly, seemingly confirming that Liu Yunfeng had left, before speaking softly:

"Liu Yunfeng usually gets up around this time to go to the cafeteria to find his lover."

In other words, this was Liu Yunfeng's daily habit before his death.

The group fell silent and quickly went back to sleep.

......

Early the next morning.

The snow outside has stopped.

A scream suddenly shattered the morning's tranquility and woke Chen Ji from his hours of sleep.

Zhang Xiangdong is dead!

"Who is Zhang Xiangdong?" Chen Ji was taken aback, then immediately put on his coat and went out.

A scream came from the cave dwelling next door...

Chen Ji and Xu Sandao exchanged a glance; they both already knew where Liu Er had gone last night.

This is the dormitory of those three drunkards from last night.

"The one who died should be that young man," Xu Sandao said softly, watching as several miners frantically carried out a body.

Chen Ji was stunned for a moment.

Not a young person.

It was the middle-aged man who hadn't touched the red jacket yesterday and had shouted that there was a ghost!

And... this person actually froze to death!

His entire body was pale and bluish-white, his skin was as cold as ice, and he wore a smile on his face.

It is said that when Zhang Xiangdong was found, his upper body was completely naked and felt as hard as an ice pop.

Chen Ji touched it and found that it was indeed so.

This is undoubtedly Liu Er's method of killing people... but why would he kill Zhang Xiangdong?

"Touching the red jacket is not taboo."

Chen Ji said thoughtfully, "Is there something that Zhang Xiangdong did last night that the others didn't?"

Xu Sandao said, "I didn't touch the red jacket."

He didn't touch anything ghostly, yet he was killed by a ghost...

Is this a common practice?

“That’s not right.” Chen Ji frowned. “I was also pointed at by Liu Er, and I didn’t touch the red jacket either.”

"But Liu Er never came to see us."

Xu Sandao stroked his chin and pondered, "Is it possible that it's because his brother came?"

This seems like a reasonable explanation.

Chen Ji nodded, then suddenly asked about something else: "Do you think Liu Yunfeng was sincere or not when he asked everyone to help him find his brother at the door last night?"

Xu Sandao was taken aback.

Chen Ji continued, "The door lock can't stop Liu Yunfeng. He has no reason to put on such a show outside to trick us into opening the door."

He went back inside and asked Lao Yang, confirming one thing:

"Liu Yunfeng died suddenly as soon as the Forging Demon appeared. He was the first person to die."

"Liu Er was working at another noodle shop. After hearing the loud noise, he went to check on his brother and found Liu Yunfeng's body."

"Then he ran away like a madman, and when they found him again, all that was left was half a naked corpse."

After repeating Lao Yang's words, Xu Sandao immediately understood:

"Therefore, Liu Er was still alive before Liu Yunfeng died."

"That's why he believed Liu Er was missing, not dead..."

Chen Ji nodded.

"Liu Yunfeng's words outside the door last night might be the way to resolve the issue between these two brothers."

"When we go down the well today, let's see if we can find the other half of Liu Er's body."

"Also, I have a guess about [waste]."

----

Note: [Zanzi face]: The working face in a coal mine where excavation is carried out to advance forward.

Note: The prototypes of Pan and Yin in the first two chapters are based on the 1998 miners' fraud case: the Pan Shenbao gang and the Zheng Jikuan gang. The book "Shenmu" by Liu Qingbang was also referenced.