Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

No sooner had Zuo Shiming finished speaking than Wu Zhonghai abruptly turned his head to look at him, his mouth half-open, his face filled with astonishment.

"305 too...?"

He murmured, looking somewhat bewildered.

Wu Zhonghai is a math teacher who considers himself fairly calm and rational in real life, but he has always stayed in the ivory tower of the campus and has never faced too many dangers.

The sight of such a bloody scene for the first time was too much for his mind to handle and caused him a strong shock.

Chen Ji patted his shoulder, gesturing for the two of them to look at the room in front of them.

He lifted the beaded curtain on the door, and instantly, the chaotic and horrific scene in Room 502 came into the view of the other two.

"A murder also occurred in room 502."

“There are no bodies either, it must have been done by the same person.” Chen Ji looked at Zuo Shiming.

"This is not an isolated incident."

Zuo Shiming's expression relaxed, which was actually a good thing for the newcomers.

If it were just a single murder case, with everyone confined to the apartment, it would be difficult to analyze anything.

"If these three murders are indeed connected, then our chances of finding the killer will be much greater."

"After all, the clues will be more complete."

He hesitated for a moment, then looked at Wu Zhonghai: "Teacher Wu, do you not have any bodies on your side either?"

Wu Zhonghai's face was somewhat pale. He shook his head and said hesitantly:

"I...don't know yet."

"The foyer was covered in blood, so I didn't dare go in. I just glanced at it briefly. But there shouldn't be any bodies in the living room."

"Ms. Murong went into the kitchen herself. She knows better about the other rooms."

Chen Ji immediately gave Fei'er a wink, signaling her to go to the second floor to take a look.

Fei'er stood aside without participating in the conversation. When she saw Chen Ji's gaze, she tilted her head, her twin ponytails swaying back and forth.

She showed no intention of leaving, staring blankly at Chen Ji.

"..."

"Fei'er, go to the second floor and find Murong Qing. See if there are any corpses in room 205."

Chen Ji took a deep breath and spoke each word clearly.

"Oh."

As soon as she finished speaking, a gust of wind swept by, and her petite figure darted out of the stairwell.

"Teacher Wu, could you please go to the 4th floor and check if Hu Li and Yuan Yuan have experienced the same thing?"

“If not, you can go to the second floor with them first. Mr. Zuo and I will search room 502 first, and then we will come down to find you later.”

Wu Zhonghai wiped his sweat and nodded repeatedly: "Okay, okay."

He dragged his weak legs into the elevator.

Zuo Shiming watched the elevator doors close before parting the beaded curtain and walking into room 502 with Chen Ji.

His dark circles were even more noticeable under the white light. After looking around, he finally looked at Chen Ji.

"Xiao Chen, I didn't expect Fei'er to listen to you."

He adjusted his glasses and gave a helpless smile: "Fei'er... sigh, she's a good girl, but she has a bit of a temper."

"Hehe, it's alright, she does have a rather unique personality."

Chen Ji chuckled awkwardly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Zuo Shiming's words.

Zuo Shiming glanced at him and didn't continue, turning the topic to the murder case.

"Have you found any clues in this house?"

As he spoke, he squatted down and rubbed the bloodstains on the ground with his fingers.

Chen Ji pointed to the wedding invitations on the wall, then led Zuo Shiming into the bedroom.

"The victims in this house were a newlywed couple. The husband was named Yuan Ge and he was murdered in the living room."

"The wife's name was Weiwei. She died in the bedroom without resisting."

He then took out two congratulatory letters from his pocket, intending to show them to Zuo Shiming.

Suddenly, the pen wriggled in the pocket and slid down the letter to the ground.

"Ok?"

Zuo Shiming bent down and picked up the pen from the ground.

He wiped the blood off the plate and handed it back to Chen Ji, his voice gentle.

"Be careful, don't lose it somewhere and not be able to find it."

Chen Ji was silent for a second. The pen hadn't moved at all before, but the twisting just now seemed very deliberate.

He nodded, a little embarrassed, and said, "The pockets are too shallow, it's always like this."

"You can string them together with a rope and wear them on your wrist or around your neck," Zuo Shiming suggested.

“My niece always lost her phone, but then we bought her a phone charm and that solved the problem.”

After saying that, he adjusted his glasses and squinted at the congratulatory letter.

Zuo Shiming read very quickly, and after finishing the two pages, he pondered for a while.

"This doesn't seem to be working well for the newlyweds and their friends."

"Moreover, it must have been a whirlwind marriage."

Chen Ji nodded, sharing the same view: "Yes, and the man also has a long-term ex-girlfriend, whom he hadn't broken up with at least a year before his marriage."

"And..." Chen Ji looked around, "They don't have wedding photos, or even a single photo of them together."

The house was completely empty, with only basic furniture and no decorations that suggested a sense of life.

Apart from the congratulatory letter and the newlywed bedding, it's hard to see any trace of the newlyweds in this house.

"Maybe they're new here."

Zuo Shiming glanced around. "The furniture is still very new, but it's a bit strange that there are no photos."

"Does either of these couples have any trace of contact with their families?"

"For example, letters home, health products for the elderly, family photos, and the like."

Chen Ji shook his head; he hadn't found anything yet.

Congratulatory letters from friends were their only relatively close social connection.

The two left the bedroom and then pushed open the door to the study.

There's only one desk here, it's very clean, with a few old books and a calendar on it.

Chen Ji picked up the book and suddenly paused: "Mr. Zuo."

"The woman is highly educated, but..."

In his hand was a foreign-language medical textbook, published at the end of 2008, while the date on the calendar was June 2009.

The signature above consists of only one character: Wei.

In other words, the wife obtained the book shortly after its publication, even though it might not have been available for purchase in China.

Moreover, this book has been read many times and contains numerous annotations.

However, there was another booklet on the bookshelf, a supermarket ledger.

Below each page of the handwritten accounting record is the date of 09 and a signature: Wei.

Turning to the last page, Chen Ji discovered that the supermarket's address was right next to Liting Apartment, and judging from the name, it wasn't a chain supermarket.

"With such a high level of education, why would she work in a supermarket?"

"Because it's close to home?"

Chen Ji frowned, feeling something was off.

In the same year, Weiwei was still reading foreign language materials and made many annotations.

In the same year, she chose to help out at the small supermarket next to her home.

"She may have her own difficulties."

Zuo Shiming also felt that it didn't make sense, but they were trapped in the apartment and couldn't go to the supermarket next door to gather information.

The two searched the house for a while longer, but found no clues about the man.

Just then, the beaded curtain at the gate rustled, and Fei'er returned.

As Chen Ji had predicted, things went exactly as Murong Qing had done.

Room 201, at least two people died, and there were no bodies found.