Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

The hourglass is running out of time.

Yin Ziqin glanced at Wu Gong not far away, a strange feeling flashing through her mind.

Wu Gong.....

Isn't it a bit too loose?

At this moment, it leans lazily against the fence, seemingly dozing off.

Wu Gong's change in attitude was actually very subtle, but Yin Ziqin immediately noticed the difference.

It seems to have started shortly after lunch break ended?

Yin Ziqin could not be considered to know Wu Gong well.

But she had personally experienced this person in the domain last time. This person was extremely cunning. He would often be smiling and interacting with people on the surface, but the next second he could kill them.

Even though she and Wu Gong had made a deal before entering the domain, Yin Ziqin could not guarantee 100% that she would not be taken advantage of by Wu Gong.

This time, who has been tricked by Wu Gong?

She lowered her head, her eyes slightly narrowed, lost in thought.

After thinking for a moment, she strolled casually down the corridor, her gaze falling on the flowerpot that had been beneath Du Tingfeng's former spot...

There was a note hidden inside.

Jiang Zhong has most likely gotten into trouble.

I'm going back to the Zheng residence for a visit.

Beware of Wu Gong!

.....

After a while.

Yin Ziqin climbed over the back wall and quietly slipped into the Zheng residence.

She is nimble and walks almost silently. Her reconnaissance skills are always top-notch, which is why she was able to gather crucial intelligence for everyone while chopping wood yesterday.

The house was as silent as a tomb.

A light drizzle started again, and the ground was wet.

The door to the east wing was unlocked.

The reason the space was locked before wasn't to prevent others from entering, but to prevent those who had entered from leaving!

Yin Ziqin understood.

The room still smells bad.

Yin Ziqin sat on the ground, pondering why the smell of cow dung lingered for so long.

The window was half-open, allowing for sufficient air circulation, but the smell of cow dung seemed to linger in the room, impossible to get rid of.

Wu Gong isn't even here.

So.....

Yin Ziqin's eyes flickered slightly. The only possibility was that the source of the stench was actually in the room, specifically the outer room!

She quietly opened the inner and outer partition doors, and sure enough, the inner room where Wu Gong was located had no windows and was not as smelly as the outer room.

Take a look around at the layout of the outer room.

There was a kang (a heated brick bed) on the north side, and a thin quilt on the floor near the window on the south side, outside the curtain. That was Yin Ziqin's makeshift bed.

Yin Ziqin discovered traces of cow dung smeared on vases, paintings on the walls, and in various hidden corners.

This is the source of the odor.

What about the smell of rotten grass?

Jiang Zhong said he smelled rotten grass, but Yin Ziqin couldn't smell it when she was in the house.

The source of the smell must be related to the kang (heated brick bed) where Jiang Zhong slept.

After a moment's thought, Yin Ziqin climbed onto the kang (a heated brick bed) and carefully inspected the bedding.

It wasn't until she picked up the cloth pillow and shook it that Yin Ziqin could vaguely smell that there was indeed a rotten weed smell!

and.....

There were several barely noticeable stains on the surface of the cloth pillow, as if they were seeping out from the inside.

Yin Ziqin roughly understood.

She flipped the pillow over and, sure enough, found traces of re-stitching on the back, the workmanship was very rough.

Yin Ziqin ripped the thread apart!

Straw and cotton immediately leaked out. Yin Ziqin reached in and, sure enough, it was there!

On the top layer of the pillow filling...

It was a large mass of crushed grass paste.

It's hard to spot when it's mixed in with the straw.

"Wu Gong!" Yin Ziqin broke out in a cold sweat. Even though she knew a little about this person, she never expected him to be so ruthless!

If enough straw is stuffed into the pillow, Jiang Zhong's head will inevitably turn unconsciously on the pillow while he sleeps.

Before long, the weight of his head itself will crush the grass as it rotates, and the juice will seep out of the pillow and soak through Jiang Zhong's hair!

And the smell of cow dung can mask this odor.

In an instant, a series of details flashed through her mind... Tan Xiangsong was also killed by Wu Gong!

He hid rotten grass on Tan Xiangsong's body!

Everyone was in a panic when the rainstorm hit, and Wu Gong pushed Tan Xiangsong in the back at that time. Later, when everyone was examining the body, he seemingly unintentionally tugged at the leather on the wedding chair!

He only left after confirming that his back was glued to the wedding chair.

It was precisely because the rotten grass was hidden by the chair back that no one discovered Wu Gong's conspiracy.

Yin Ziqin rummaged through the cabinet again and found that the sewing box had been opened and a bag of cow dung was hidden in the inner compartment.

All of this points to the same clue:

Wu Gong was the one who was initially chosen by the ghost!

Was he really tripped up by Chu Jing?

Or did he deliberately fall into the cow dung pit to cover up the smell of fresh grass?

The answer is self-evident.

Yin Ziqin even believed that after confirming that he had been chosen, Wu Gong guessed from the kidnapping of Hua Yilan that he would soon smell of grass on himself.

To avoid being discovered by the ghost, the ghost first shifted the risk to Tan Xiangsong; but the ghost seemed to realize something was wrong, and in its rage at being fooled, it tortured and killed Tan Xiangsong.

Then came Jiang Zhong.

It's quite possible that Wu Gong deliberately provoked Jiang Zhong's anger to make himself sleep alone in the room, perhaps out of fear of ghosts visiting his home, or perhaps to avoid being discovered by others.

Wu Gong didn't show up yesterday while everyone was in the kitchen.

It must have been the Zheng residence I returned to around that time.

Later, they came with oil-paper umbrellas, probably to prevent the cow dung they had just smeared on from being washed away by the downpour.

Yin Ziqin gave a silent, cold laugh, already understanding all of Wu Gong's tricks.

She increasingly felt that Wu Gong might not so easily hand over the last 'terracotta figurine' he had promised her.

Pulling herself back to reality, Yin Ziqin restored everything and hid by the window to spy.

Still no one in sight.

What is Jiang Zhong's current situation?

Yin Ziqin believed that Jiang Zhong was most likely dead.

Wu Gong's inexplicable change in state is very likely because his scheme has succeeded. After the first ghost harmed Jiang Zhong, Wu Gong found that the scent of grass on his body had disappeared.

Looking at the half-eaten pancake that Jiang Zhong had left over from lunch on the table, Yin Ziqin sighed with mixed feelings.

Half of the domain has passed, and the two elders of the Zheng family still haven't appeared.

There's a 50% chance the phone will still be in the same spot.

She's going to look for her phone.

While we're at it, let's see if we can find any of the strange items left behind by Jiang Zhong...