Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

The girl's face was deathly pale, with a bright red floral decoration pasted between her eyebrows. Her hands, which held the lantern, were as white as jade, and her nails were dyed red with balsam flowers.

The crimson jacket was made of silk and embroidered with mandarin duck patterns.

This outfit made Chen Ji frown.

The girl didn't say much. She put down the lantern and took an oil-paper umbrella from outside the door and opened it.

She picked up the lamp again and walked out alone in silence.

"Is she a human or a ghost?"

Chu Jing whispered from behind, "Looking at her outfit, she looks just like a bride-to-be!"

Chen Ji and Du Tingfeng exchanged a glance; they both thought it looked similar.

But what family would send the bride out to see the carpenter off?

Is there no one else in this house?

The main house on the north side became dark after the girl came out, and there was not a sound inside.

The room on the left side never had its lights on from the beginning.

The girl stood in the courtyard, holding an umbrella, gazing at them as if waiting for them to catch up.

"Let's go."

Du Tingfeng said, reaching his hand towards the door, but found nothing.

He turned his head and said helplessly:

"We don't have umbrellas."

The rain was heavy and dense, and the three of them had no choice but to follow the girl in the rain.

My body was almost immediately soaked.

Chu Jing, shameless as ever, bent over and huddled under the oil-paper umbrella, almost pressing herself against the girl's back.

"Sister... wait, no, little sister." Chu Jing's tone was deliberately friendly: "Where are we assigned to work today?"

The girl ignored her.

The only information the girl gave him was that he would go to work at dawn.

Chu Jing, undeterred, asked another question:

"Do you have a lot of life?"

After a few seconds of silence, the girl turned her head and said with a half-smile:

"not much."

"Time is tight, you only have three days."

So today is the thirteenth day of the first lunar month.

Having gotten the information, Chu Jing stopped talking, but still huddled half her body under the oil-paper umbrella.

The girl led the three of them across the threshold and out of the courtyard, where they found themselves in an alleyway.

Looking back, two red lanterns were also hanging on the gate, above which was a plaque that read:

[Li Residence]

The cold wind of January mixed with rain soaked the three of them to the bone.

After walking along the alley for a while, the girl turned left and right, passing many tiled houses, and soon arrived at the gate of a courtyard house.

It also has large red lanterns hanging on it, along with a plaque that reads "Zhou Residence".

Chang Hao, Tan Xiangsong, and Hua Yilan live here.

"The village chief's house."

The girl stopped in her tracks, her long, bright red fingernails pointing towards the gate: "He will tell you what to do today."

After saying that, she stiffly twisted her body and walked into the rain.

After confirming that the girl had gone far away, the three of them did not open the door, but instead hid under the eaves and whispered among themselves.

"You all noticed, didn't you?"

Du Tingfeng imitated the girl's walking posture: "The way she walks is a bit strange. Her body moves first, her head follows behind, and finally her legs move."

"Just like a puppet."

Chu Jing added, "Or perhaps it's a paper doll, which is why she needs to carry an umbrella alone..."

She was familiar with all sorts of horror movie tropes, and at this moment, she couldn't help but start reasoning again.

Chen patiently waited for her to finish speaking before inviting them to the front of the house.

He pointed to the door:

"Hoofprints".

If you look closely at the vermilion gate, you can see that one spot is a darker shade of color than the others.

An oval shape with a slit in the middle.

Chen Ji touched it and felt water droplets condense on his fingertips.

"That sheep came by."

He gestured to the height of the mark, slightly bent his hand, and gently pushed against the door with his palm: "Just stand like this, and push the door open with one hoof."

The black goat's eyes revealed not a trace of human intelligence or emotion...

Yet it is imitating humans.

And that eerie ballad.

“The Li family girl didn’t mention anything about what happened before,” Du Tingfeng said thoughtfully. “It’s understandable that she didn’t hear the sheep’s hooves, but that man cried for so long, his voice was like thunder…”

"This actually proves that she knows something."

Chen Ji nodded.

Sheep have also been here. Just by observing the village chief's reaction, one can deduce whether there is anything unusual about the Li, Zheng, and Zhou families.

"And one more thing."

Chen Ji looked at Du Tingfeng: "Did you see the sheep's pupils?"

"It's vertical."

But anyone who has ever observed a sheep's eyes knows that a sheep's pupils are actually horizontal and rectangular.

This is more common in herbivores, as prey need to maximize their field of vision and minimize blind spots.

"You mean its pupils are shrunk to a vertical line, like a cat's or a snake's?" Chu Jing asked from the side.

She imagined the scene: a goat with the eyes of a predator, and immediately felt a strong sense of incongruity.

“No…it needs to be wider, not just a slit.” Du Tingfeng shook his head.

"I remember now. To be precise, it was as if its eyeballs had been rotated ninety degrees."

It forms a vertical rectangle, which makes it even more eerie.

Is it natural or man-made?

Chen Ji seemed to be deep in thought.

Now, the sheep and the madman have disappeared into the night.

After quickly exchanging information, the three of them pushed open the door.

The Zhou residence was the village chief's house, much larger than the Li family's, and at the same time, they finally saw light!

The door to the west room was open, and the room was brightly lit. Chen Ji immediately spotted several figures wearing gray coats.

All the other entrants have arrived.

The room was filled with the sounds of hurried conversation, spoken by both men and women, and the atmosphere was heavy.

"problem occurs."

Chen Ji's heart sank.

The three entered the house, and it suddenly fell silent. Everyone's eyes immediately turned to Chen Ji and his companions.

Only one man remained, sitting on the kang (a heated brick bed), muttering softly:

"It's only been less than half an hour since we entered the domain..."

"Nothing like this has ever happened in my previous domains—"

He was halfway through his sentence when he noticed someone had come in, and quickly glanced over.

However, his gaze suddenly stopped behind Chen Ji, and his eyes widened as if he had seen something extremely terrifying!

"ghost!"

"They brought the ghost in!"

The man cried out and tried to shrink further into the kang (a heated brick bed).

I knew this would happen.

Chen Ji said helplessly, "She is a Domain Enterer, Chu Jing."

Not to mention others, even he himself was startled by Chu Jing under the light when he first entered the Zhou family mansion.

Chu Jing's long hair was completely soaked by the rain, clinging to her pale face like seaweed.

Her skin was still wet, and her whole body was freezing cold from the wind, making her look exactly like a female corpse that had just been pulled out of the river.

The man on the kang (heated brick bed) looked suspiciously at Chen Ji, then at Chu Jing, before speaking in a hoarse voice:

"...Tan Xiangsong."

Chu Jing seemed to have experienced this kind of thing too many times, and she no longer wanted to explain or mention her profession.

Everyone quickly exchanged their names.

There were no newcomers; everyone had been to the domain more than three times.

The people from the Zheng residence were brought over by a maid. They had only been there a short while, and the village chief had not yet appeared.

"Where is Hua Yilan?" Du Tingfeng asked. He noticed as soon as he entered the room that there were only five Realm Entrants inside!

One person is missing.

"she......"

Tan Xiangsong's expression immediately turned ugly. He hesitated to speak, then looked at the other person leaning against the headboard.

"What are you afraid to say?"

The man being watched by Tan Xiangsong sat up.

His name is Chang Hao.

Along with Hua Yilan and Tan Xiangsong, they were all originally residents of the Zhou residence.

He was probably in his thirties, with a furrowed brow, a hint of hostility in his expression, and a very irritable tone.

"They've been caught by sheep!"