Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

As the lantern was lit, silence fell over the cage.

Thump, thump...

Only the yellow safety helmet, seemingly blown by a gust of cold wind from the wellhead, rolled and tumbled down to Lao Yang's feet.

The inferior quality was visibly evident; a few drops of blood had splattered on the bottom, and they had long since dried.

It was covered with cracks, but for some reason it didn't completely break apart.

Old Yang's heart skipped a beat!

He was completely stiff, not daring to touch his helmet even once, for fear that the helmet ghost might suddenly appear among them at any moment!

Chen Ji calmed down and, without touching the helmet, looked around.

The cage was sandwiched between the coal walls, and apart from a sliver of sunlight diagonally above, it was pitch black on both sides.

Below, the abyss is bottomless.

They were trapped in the descending cage.

But Chen Ji didn't see the helmet ghost at all. There was only the yellow helmet lying quietly at Lao Yang's feet, as if waiting for them to touch it.

Just then, a cold wind blew in...

The eyes of the three people present suddenly widened.

All that could be heard was the sound of fabric rubbing together overhead. In the dim light, a bright red jacket was hanging on the noose, swaying in the wind!

These are Liu Er's clothes!

"I thought it disappeared along with Liu Yunfeng...?" Xu Sandao murmured, "Was it the Liu brothers... who made the cage stop?"

"why?"

The jacket moved a few times and then fell down, landing right in the cage.

It covers the yellow safety helmet.

This implies two possibilities: either the yellow helmet was brought by Liu, or the red jacket is an indication that they are making contact.

Second, the red jacket was actually preventing them from touching it.

But before the red jacket appeared, no one was foolish enough to touch the helmeted ghost's things, so... was it really about stopping it?

Chen Ji thought for a moment, then shook his head at the other two, indicating that he would check it alone, in case it was a trap set by the Helmet Ghost.

The absence of a death warning indicates that touching the object would not cause fatal harm.

The moment Chen Ji's hand touched the helmet...

Suddenly, everything went black before his eyes.

Consciousness instantly entered a vortex.

......

"Zeng, Gui, Chuan".

“The precious one is not the laurel.”

"Forget it, Lao Sun, what do you want to write? You don't know many words anyway, let me write it for you."

Chen Ji's vision was blurry. He heard Si Yan's voice, which sounded somewhat helpless and anxious.

He shook his head uncontrollably.

A voice that didn't belong to Chen Ji, with a local accent, came out: "No need, no need."

"It's almost finished, thank you, Four-Eyes."

Visibility is clear now.

Chen Ji found himself standing in a post office, the air as cold as ice, with Four Eyes huddled up beside him, holding several envelopes in his hand.

Why are you asking the mine manager's name?

Chen Ji said again, seemingly out of control, "It's nothing, just sending a letter to my mother."

He suddenly realized that he had "become" Old Sun and was experiencing the events of the other person's life!

It's like watching an immersive movie from a first-person perspective.

but....

A thought, not belonging to Chen Ji, surfaced in his mind: "Four-eyes is a good person, we can't involve him..."

We can't let Four-Eyes get involved.

This is Lao Sun's idea.

Through Lao Sun's eyes, Chen Ji saw a piece of paper in front of him, with crooked handwriting, indicating that the writer was not highly educated.

Surprisingly, there were no typos, and it looked like it had been copied many times.

[Report Letter]

[...July, flooding accidents occurred frequently, resulting in 12 deaths at the Tuotuoshan coal mine......September......November...]

[Workers are owed wages... The mine manager claims they are free to come and go, but he withholds their identification documents, meaning a year's work is for nothing...]

The underground environment is extremely harsh, with unsafe use of explosives, a lack of safety measures, and many workers suffering from severe lung diseases....

...The bottom of the mountain has been almost completely hollowed out...

We urge a thorough investigation!

[Reported against: Zeng Gui (crossed out) Gui Chuan]

[Whistleblower: Sun Datao]

At this point, Chen Ji confirmed that the Helmet Ghost = Old Sun (Sun Datao) = the miner who was killed by Old Tang, who had been sent by Zeng.

On their first night at the mine, Old Sun, his face covered in coal dust and looking exhausted, was... Chen Ji initially thought he was just an ordinary NPC.

He could sense Old Sun's feelings at that moment; his heart was pounding, filled with tension and unease, yet also a hint of hope.

Chen Ji's vision blurred again.

He sat on a kang (a heated brick bed), his arms heavy, holding Sun Daqiang in his arms.

His wife was mending clothes nearby.

Amidst the turmoil in Chen Ji's heart, a sense of peace and happiness washed over him.

But it quickly disappeared.

"After the New Year, our Daqiang will be three years old."

The wife seemed to say it casually, paused for two seconds, and then asked, "Did the mine manager say when the workers' wages would be paid?"

A memory flashed through Chen Ji's mind.

It was his wife who discussed it with Lao Sun, and they decided to take Daqiang back to their hometown after the New Year and not work in the coal mine anymore.

"We can't let our child live in this kind of environment every day, can we?"

Chen Ji remained silent and quietly walked outside. The wind was like a knife, stinging his face.

A bit of cigarette ash was shaken off and fell to the ground.

"Has the letter... been sent?"

Why haven't I received a reply yet?

"The mine manager has had a gloomy look on his face these past few days..."

A pair of shiny leather shoes suddenly appeared in Chen Ji's line of sight and extinguished the cigarette butt he had just thrown away.

"Sun Datao?"

Chen Ji's heart suddenly clenched; Old Sun was afraid...

"The mine manager has assigned you a task."

The man in the leather jacket tapped Chen Ji's head hard.

.......

Tang Scorpion led him down into the well.

Tang Xiezi hummed a little tune the whole way, seemingly in a good mood, which made Chen Ji less nervous as well.

Moreover, he could tell from the conversation that the mine manager would be releasing the workers' wages in a couple of days!

"Old Sun, you've been working at the mine for over a year now, haven't you?"

Tang Scorpion casually asked, "Where is your hometown?"

Chen Ji mentioned a place name.

At the same time, an image of a mountain village with smoke rising from its chimneys came to mind.

"Never heard of it." Tang shook his head.

He quickly changed the subject, saying with a grin, "Do you know why I asked that?"

Chen Ji asked, "Why?"

"Fool, haven't you thought about why the mine manager would collect your credentials?"

Chen Ji remained silent.

"I've bought you train tickets so you can go home for the Chinese New Year!"

Tang Xiezi slapped Chen Ji on the head, making Chen Ji's head buzz and feel dizzy.

"really?"

Chen Ji "didn't quite believe it."

"But not necessarily...maybe it was that letter that was sent out, or something the higher-ups requested!"

Tang Scorpion didn't say anything.

He led Chen Ji around left and right, and soon they entered a dilapidated mining area.

It was dark nearby, but I could vaguely see a "9" printed on a wooden beam.

"You'll know just by looking at this."

A bag was handed to Chen Ji, and it seemed to contain a dozen or so scraps of paper...

Chen Ji opened the bag, squinted at it, and saw that it was written on it—

[Report Letter]

This is the torn-up whistleblower letter.

It was never sent out.

"Really?" Tang Scorpion laughed so hard he couldn't stand up straight, mimicking Chen Ji's tone from behind.

Boundless fear flooded Chen Ji's mind.

This emotion belongs to Lao Sun.

"run!"

The moment the thought crossed his mind, a sharp pain shot through his head, and blood gushed out!

With a loud thud, the helmet on his head was smashed into pieces and fell to the ground.

"What the hell are you daydreaming about? Go home? Go spend the New Year underground!"

Tang Scorpion sneered.

The letter of complaint was intercepted by an acquaintance at the post office as soon as it was sent.