Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

crackle.

The sound of the candle wick burning quietly reached Chen Ji's ears.

The damp smell of rain, mixed with a faint burnt smell, filled Chen Ji's nostrils.

He gently opened his eyes and felt warm all over, covered by a thick quilt.

The room was extremely quiet.

The antique stone-tiled wooden door, the wooden table and the hard kang (heated brick bed), and the red candle burning on the table, casting a dim light.

The surroundings were simply and cleanly tidied, with a few strings of dried chili peppers hanging on the wall.

The window wasn't closed properly; it was already dark outside, and raindrops were pattering against the windowsill.

As Chen Ji slowly sat up, he noticed that he was wearing a gray coat, the kind that people used to wear when they did manual labor.

The pen and the monkey were still in my pocket.

A rainy night in the countryside.

Chen Ji roughly determined the environment and timing for entering the domain, then turned over and gave Du Tingfeng a push.

“In ancient times, in mountain villages, guides had not yet been issued.”

Chen Ji said softly, "I didn't see any other visitors."

Du Tingfeng's eyes snapped open, his gaze briefly blurred for a second before clearing up, and he sat up abruptly.

He glanced around again, then got up and pushed the door, discovering that the gate was locked from the inside.

The two men peered out through the crack in the window.

Through the misty rain, two red lanterns could be vaguely seen hanging on the north-facing house.

"It's a small traditional courtyard house."

Chen Ji said, "We are in the westernmost side room; none of the other rooms have candles lit."

The two did not intend to leave the house for the time being. It was the dead of night, silent and rainy outside, and the atmosphere was extremely eerie.

“The domain’s area is not that small; other entrants should be assigned to other residences.”

Du Tingfeng sat at the foot of the bed and speculated, "Let's search the room first—"

He had only spoken halfway when he felt something poking his leg!

Chen Ji was the same.

The two of them sprang off the bed like rabbits.

A deathly pale face, with long, jet-black hair...

It peeked out from under the bed.

His cheeks were sunken, his lips were ashen, and his eyes were wide open to an unsettling degree, staring blankly at them.

"You stepped on my hair."

The woman said, "Why am I under the bed?"

She struggled to crawl out, and after a few seconds, she stretched out a hand and said, "For the sake of us both being newcomers, could you help me up?"

The three of them looked at each other.

The woman glanced at Du Tingfeng, then at Chen Ji, and sighed.

"My name is Chu Jing, and I'm a horror movie actress. I'm not a ghost."

Chen Ji quickly searched his mind for the name, but couldn't recall it at all.

He pulled Chu Jing up; her palms were warm, confirming she was indeed alive.

"Thanks, brother."

After clumsily crawling out, Chu Jing patted the dust off her coat and smiled kindly at Chen Ji.

But because of her overly neurotic large eyes and deathly pale face, the smile was rather eerie.

After confirming that there was no fourth person entering the domain in the room, the three quickly introduced themselves.

It was mainly Chu Jing who was talking.

She woke up last, and was under the bed. When she opened her eyes, she thought she was locked in a coffin.

Then, she felt her hair being stepped on and heard Du Tingfeng's voice.

This is her sixth domain.

"So you're a special effects actor, specializing in playing ghosts?"

Chen Ji asked, noticing that Chu Jing was almost as tall as him, her figure as thin as a sheet of paper, her long, dark hair reaching below her waist...

If Chen Ji were to bump into Chu Jing in the dark, he would definitely conclude that she was a ghost.

"Yes."

Chu Jing nodded, “I directed ‘The Ghost Dormitory,’ ‘Paper Doll Village,’ ‘Sadako vs. Chu Renmei’…”

Never heard of it.

"They all sound like those terrible domestic films..." Chen Ji thought to himself.

"It's the kind of horror movie where the atmosphere is really scary at the beginning, but the ending is either mental illness, a dream, or hypnosis."

"They often create a lot of mystery, only to tell you in the end that there are no ghosts."

Chu Jing seemed to have seen through Chen Ji's thoughts and simply explained, "It's normal that you haven't seen it."

She paused, as if she wanted to say something, but then stopped herself.

Finally, she changed the subject: "Were you all in bed when you woke up?"

"Correct."

“I’ve been thinking about this,” Chen Ji said, “why would Yu leave you alone under the bed?”

Is there anything down there?

Upon hearing this, Chu Jing paused for a moment, then nodded.

"It has a smell."

"It's hard to describe...it's very faint."

Du Tingfeng turned on his phone's flashlight and lay down on the floor to peer under the bed.

After a while, he called the other two people over to come and see: "There's blood."

Using the light, Chen Ji squinted and finally saw a few drops of blood.

They are distributed on the ground, along the walls, and at the bottom of the bed.

The color is very dark, and it has already dried.

Chen Ji stuck his head under the bed and brought it close to the bloodstains. He could vaguely smell a faint pungent odor mixed with a barely perceptible fishy smell.

He took out his phone, turned on the flash, and snapped a picture of the wall under the bed, then showed it to the other two:

"The largest bloodstain was on the wall."

It looks like a bloodstain left on the wall, but many parts are missing.

"Were there dead people under the bed?"

Chu Jing speculated, "The bloodstains on the ground are scattered, but they're right where I was lying."

This is undoubtedly an important clue.

After noting this down, the three of them searched the house again, trying to find a guide.

This is the first time that clues have appeared faster than guidance.

Underneath the bedding, Du Tingfeng found a letter that confirmed their identities in this domain.

The gist of the content, translated into plain language, is as follows:

The wages are high, but acceptable; the work needs to be completed before the sixteenth day of the first lunar month to avoid missing the wedding banquet; accommodations have been arranged for all the craftsmen in Sanhuai Village, namely:

[Li Family]

Chen Ji, Du Tingfeng, and Chu Jing.

[Zheng Family]

Wu Gong, Jiang Zhong, and Yin Ziqin.

[Zhou Family]

Chang Hao, Tan Xiangsong, and Hua Yilan.

There were a total of nine people who entered the domain.

Just as Du Tingfeng had guessed, the newcomers were indeed separated.

This village is called Sanhuai Village, and they came to this village for—

"Making furniture?"

"We are carpenters."

Chu Jing said, and then rummaged through the cabinet in the room and found some tools.

Axes, wood saws, and other tools commonly used by carpenters are among the items, some of which bear the surnames of three individuals: Chen, Du, and Chu.

"The word 'wedding banquet' has been emphasized," Du Tingfeng pointed to the red writing on the paper.

"This should be the most important part of this domain. In other words, everything we have created is for the purpose of the wedding feast."

Wedding banquet....

A ghost marriage?

Chu Jing naturally guessed, "Mountain village, ancient times, wedding banquet... it has to follow the usual pattern, so it's most likely like this."

"A living woman paired with a dead man, driven to suicide by her parents, ultimately becoming a ghost to seek revenge at a wedding banquet..."

"I've made similar films."