Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

Chu Jing's tone was extremely calm, but what she said, coupled with her gloomy expression, sent chills down one's spine.

"The next step is for the ghost bride to appear."

"This house has red lanterns hanging up; it might be the bride's house."

"After she died, she wasn't put in a coffin; instead, she was stuffed under our bed—"

Chen Ji and the other man watched speechlessly as Chu Jing frantically made her deductions.

He believes it's highly unlikely he'll encounter a ghost so soon.

Du Tingfeng just showed him the chips, a stable 3500, proving that he was in good luck at the moment.

"...Wearing a red wedding dress and embroidered shoes, she silently peeked out of our window..."

Just as Chu Jing was rambling on and on.

Chen Ji's ears twitched suddenly, and he immediately looked out the window!

Chu Jing also stopped making a sound in an instant, and she and Du Tingfeng looked at each other in bewilderment!

It remained silent outside.

Amidst the patter of rain, a faint, unusual sound seemed to be heard.

pat.

Outside the courtyard.

pat.

That's the sound of treading water.

pat.

We gradually approached the doorway.

In the dead of night, a torrential downpour began...

Why would someone be walking in the alleyway outside the courtyard?

Chen Ji hid by the wall, quietly watching everything outside.

The footsteps stopped.

The instant the sound stopped, Du Tingfeng blew out the candle, plunging the entire room into darkness!

Silence reigned...

Only the two large red lanterns hanging in the main room on the north side swayed in the wind, making creaking sounds.

The faint red light made the rain and mist in the air look like blood droplets.

It was as scarlet as the vermilion gate.

The three of them breathed very softly.

Chu Jing pressed herself against the wall, a position from which no one could see her from outside the window.

Suddenly, an extremely piercing howl, like a thunderclap, exploded outside the door!

It sounded like someone was wailing at a funeral, but it also sounded like someone was laughing maniacally!

It was a man's voice.

"What are you talking about?"

Du Tingfeng asked softly in a breathy voice.

Chen Ji shook his head. He couldn't understand a word. The man outside the house had a rough, indistinct voice with constantly changing tones, sounding like the wailing of ghosts and wolves.

Does it sound like a dialect?

Even more bizarrely...

There was absolutely no sound from the main room.

The Li family must live there... Didn't they hear the noise outside?

Gradually, Chen Ji vaguely heard that the man was singing a folk song.

His eyes suddenly flashed, and a line from the folk song suddenly became extremely clear and distinct, appearing in his mind.

There is only one sentence.

Du Tingfeng nudged him, indicating that he had heard it too.

Chu Jing, who was standing by the wall, also coughed lightly.

"Guidance?"

Chen Ji seemed to be deep in thought.

He put the matter aside for the time being, stepped back slightly, and pulled Du Tingfeng against the wall.

The singing suddenly disappeared...

But outside, all that could be heard was the sound of the wind blowing lanterns and the patter of rain.

The man was still standing outside the courtyard gate.

After a few seconds.

Squeak——

The gate of the mansion was forced open.

Ta, tap.

Chen Ji's heart skipped a beat; these weren't human footsteps!

The sound of hooves mingled with the rain, as if they were taking a leisurely stroll in the yard...

horse?

There were no footsteps. Was that madman riding a horse?

Du Tingfeng silently took out a small mirror, held it up in his hand, and it was just enough to reflect the window.

They held their breath, and in the ensuing silence, the sound of hooves began to gradually approach the western side chamber.

Chen Ji stared at the mirror, listening intently to the sound of horses' hooves outside.

He suddenly remembered the helmeted ghost in Tuotuo Mountain.

They used mule hooves to knock on the wall, luring them into a maze of illusions.

However, the hoofbeats now are clearly being made by the animals themselves; the frequency is chaotic, and there's a splashing sound as they wade through the water...

The sound of mule hooves back then, clatter, clatter.

The sound of horses' hooves is still clattering now.

Tap tap?

wrong!

Chen Ji suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. He suddenly realized something: although the hoofbeats outside were chaotic, they all sounded like they were in two-beat bursts!

Do the horses outside only have two hooves?

Or.....

Is it standing up and walking?

In the mirror, the silhouette of an animal slowly approaches the window, revealing its entire body for a second.

Chen Ji's heart sank.

His guess was correct... but it wasn't a horse.

"What—"

With a silly bleat from the sheep, Chen Ji tensed up, staring at the standing sheep pecking at the half-open window with its horns.

It was a black goat with jet-black fur, wet with rain.

His pupils were vertical, devoid of any emotion, and slid from side to side within his eye sockets, as if inspecting the room.

The three of them stood quietly against the wall, not uttering a sound, but their brains were working at a rapid pace!

It wasn't just because of the sheep standing on two legs outside the window, but also because...

That old folk song!

At this moment, Chen Ji was 90% certain that it was the guide.

A moment later, a clicking sound rang out.

The two-legged sheep left.

They were lucky that the windows couldn't be fully opened; otherwise, if the sheep's head had stuck in, even if people were hiding by the wall, they would have been seen.

Chen Ji heard the sound of human footsteps treading water again...

The sound of hooves was too soft and was drowned out by the sound of rain.

Is that man the owner of the sheep?

After waiting a while longer, the sound of the wind carried a faint singing voice, and it seemed that the man had taken the goat and gone off to go crazy somewhere else.

Chen Ji and the other two then quietly walked to the window.

Sure enough, a few thick, coarse hairs appeared on the window frame, dark and damp.

I looked in the mirror and saw two faint hoof prints on the dry ground under the eaves.

"goat....."

Chen Ji looked thoughtfully at Du Tingfeng and Chu Jing: "You heard that ballad too, didn't you?"

"Pigs and sheep sit on the kang (heated brick bed), while relatives are cooked in the pot."

There is only this one line.

It appeared abruptly in the unclear lyrics, with clear and distinct pronunciation, as if afraid that they wouldn't understand.

"If this is guidance, we wouldn't be the only ones who know it."

Du Tingfeng said, "During the day, I'll meet with the other two groups of people who have entered the domain and ask them. If everyone heard this sentence, then we can confirm that it is a guide."

Pigs and sheep sit on the heated brick bed, relatives are cooked in the pot... a wedding feast.

Is this a veiled reference to what will happen at the wedding banquet?

On the surface, it appears that pigs and sheep ate people.

Chu Jing's eyes flickered slightly, and she asked softly, "Assuming this is a guide, what is our goal?"

"Surviving the wedding banquet on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month?"

Chen Ji nodded. "That should be it."

Chu Jing leaned against the window, a thoughtful look on her face: "The guidance seems to have nothing to do with ghost marriages... So what exactly is the wedding banquet for?"

She paused for a moment as soon as she finished speaking.

The main room on the north side was lit up.

A minute later, there was a knock on the door.

Thump, thump, thump; the three knocks were very rhythmic.

Just as the three of them tacitly chose not to open the door, the gate suddenly snapped open as if it didn't exist!

A small, thin girl stood outside the door, carrying a lantern.

Her face was expressionless, and she wore a vermilion short jacket. She spoke coldly:

"It's past dawn."

"Masters, it's time to get to work."