Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

The three of them went down the stairs to the second floor, where Murong Qing was already waiting.

In addition, the other four people were also standing outside room 201.

"I ran into Xiao Zhuang when I went downstairs, so I brought him along."

Wu Zhonghai said, his expression softening somewhat. Perhaps it was because everyone was gathered together that he felt a sense of security.

Hu Li held Yuan Yuan's hand, who was trembling. Although they found nothing unusual on the fourth floor, the two women witnessed the horrific scene in room 201 after going downstairs.

"This is a three-room house, where two elderly people live," Murong Qing said, leading them into the house.

Room 201 has a more outdated style, with a very obvious 90s feel. There are wooden floors, wooden cabinets, and all the furniture has earthy yellow trim. The sofa and air conditioner covers are made of cheap lace, and there is a calendar with the theme of "many children, many blessings" hanging on the wall.

But all of this was splattered with thick blood.

Murong Qing spoke briefly, pointing to the sofa.

"One of them died here, with no signs of struggle."

The brown sofa was soaked in blood, the bloodstains were evenly distributed, and almost none of it flowed onto the walls or the floor.

After saying that, she led the group into the kitchen, where blood splattered onto the ceiling.

On the wooden floor, the blood was still very viscous, with a human-shaped empty space in the middle.

"Another death occurred here."

Murong Qing said, "I suspect that the deceased was slit in the throat from behind while cooking, otherwise the blood wouldn't have sprayed so high."

Chen Ji examined it carefully and agreed with her statement.

Most of the bloodstains were concentrated on the wall in front of the stove.

The house was filled with health products, such as muscle and bone pain relief patches and milk powder for the elderly, and the clothes in the wardrobe also indicated the resident's identity.

The house has three rooms, but only one room has a bed. The other two rooms are filled with clutter, and there is even a stroller that has long since fallen apart.

The calendar here is frozen at June 2009.

Zuo Shiming suddenly said, "The decoration of room 305 that Zhuang Rui and I checked is very similar to this room."

Zhuang Rui was taken aback when he was suddenly mentioned. He quickly nodded when he saw that everyone's eyes were on him.

He opened his camera and faced everyone: "I took some photos of room 305. I have photos of all the other rooms except the bedroom."

He paused, his expression turning somewhat grim.

"The bedroom... I didn't take a picture."

"There's too much blood inside, it's bad luck."

Hu Li's voice trembled slightly: "Someone died on the third floor too?"

"Yes, there were three incidents in total, located on the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th floors."

Murong Qing glanced at her, a subtle smile playing on her lips, tinged with disdain.

"You're lucky that nothing happened on the fourth floor."

Hu Li pursed her lips, knowing that Murong Qing was mocking her for being too timid, and her tone was not pleasant.

Fei'er suddenly spoke up: "Why?"

As soon as she finished speaking, the atmosphere in the room suddenly became heavy.

Murong Qing immediately glanced at her, a hint of coldness flashing in her eyes, somewhat unable to fathom Fei'er's intention in saying those words.

She snorted coldly, didn't answer Fei'er's question, and turned to go outside alone.

Hu Li was stunned for a moment. Looking at Fei'er's calm face, she forced a smile and suddenly felt a little better.

"It's nothing. Perhaps Ms. Murong feels that... places with murders are more dangerous."

"We haven't seen a single person, what danger could there be?"

Fei'er's voice betrayed a hint of impatience: "She thinks too much."

Yuanyuan had also been feeling a bit unwell, and upon hearing Fei'er's words, she nodded silently.

"Cough cough."

Chen Ji cleared his throat, breaking the awkward atmosphere in the kitchen.

"Look at the photos."

He leaned closer to the camera and examined the images inside carefully.

As Zuo Shiming said, the layout of room 305 is almost exactly the same as this room, both being three-bedroom rooms facing east and west.

Even the calendars on the wall are all the same style, symbolizing many children and many blessings.

"305 only has one bedroom. The other two rooms are a tea room and a storage room."

"The bloodstains in the bedroom were all concentrated on the bed. Judging from the bleeding and the distribution, the two elderly people were killed in their sleep."

Chen Ji frowned, then suddenly asked:

Do the three families know each other?

Two elderly people living alone, and a newlywed couple.

They look like a married couple and their parents.

This is also the most logical guess.

Zuo Shiming thought for a moment before saying, "I didn't see any connection with the other two companies in 305."

"However, they have too much clutter there. Maybe we have it, but we just haven't found it yet."

He glanced at his watch; it was already one o'clock in the afternoon. He then said, "We can look for it slowly this afternoon."

The people in the room nodded. After gathering so much information, they were all a little hungry.

After discussion, since they didn't know how many days they would stay in this instance, everyone agreed to stay on the 4th floor first.

At least, this is the only floor where no murders have occurred.

The dust on the fourth floor was thicker than on the other floors. None of the rooms were locked, and the furniture inside had been mostly moved out.

The old Spring Festival couplets that are half-fallen off the door prove that no one has lived here for some time.

Zuo Shiming took some ingredients from the refrigerator in apartment 201 and also brought the cookware to apartment 3 on the 4th floor.

Because this place was the cleanest and relatively large, the group temporarily made room 403 their base.

"Is this food...safe to eat?"

Zhuang Rui felt nauseous. He had seen Zuo Shiming open the blood-stained refrigerator door in the kitchen and take out some vegetables and meat.

"You can choose not to eat, you can even starve to death."

Murong Qing rolled her eyes at him.

Even Chen Ji felt a little uncomfortable, glancing at Murong Qing with a strange look in his eyes, not quite understanding why her attitude was always so bad.

To be precise, Murong Qing's aggressiveness was mainly displayed to the newcomers.

It wasn't wariness, but rather an extremely obvious contempt, as if they thought the other party knew nothing.

There was even a trace of inexplicable hatred...?

She had an awkward attitude towards veterans like Fei'er and Chen Ji, being somewhat cold, but she was still quite proactive in speaking most of the time.

Zuo Shiming smiled gently as he washed the vegetables: "It's alright, they're edible."

"Moreover, only the food in those three apartments was relatively fresh. They hadn't been dead for long, so the food shouldn't have spoiled yet."

The refrigerators in the other rooms were empty.

Zuo Shiming quickly prepared the meal, cooking eight dishes and a soup in just one hour, and the portions were quite large.

Hu Li helped out from the side, somewhat admiring him. Although she was also a skilled cook, she was far inferior to Zuo Shiming in terms of cooking speed and quality.

"So much! Can we finish it all?"

Yuanyuan's eyes widened. She had just accompanied Zhuang Rui and Wu Zhonghai upstairs and brought down a lot of water, enough for the group to drink for three days.

"It might not be enough."

Zuo Shiming adjusted his glasses and glanced at Fei'er, seemingly casually.

By three o'clock, all the dishes on the table had been cleared out.

"Old man Zuo, your cooking skills haven't deteriorated at all."

Phil eats the most of everyone, and she eats very quickly, but very elegantly.

She stood beside the dining table, a look of utter contentment on her face like that of a kitten.

It's time for the afternoon search.

Chen Ji discovered a new clue in room 305.

It's an old photo, taken in 2000.

The bottom corner of the black and white photo has yellowed. A woman in her forties, wearing a black dress, is sitting in a chair, facing the camera.

The woman's face had an indescribable strangeness; her eyes were astonishingly large, staring straight ahead, and coupled with her deeply sunken, thin face, Chen Ji couldn't help but think of a certain image.

The extremely sensitive and terrified female protagonist in the movie The Shining.

Suddenly, Fei'er snatched the photo from his hand and stared at the woman in it for two seconds.

"Like a funeral portrait."

She spoke softly, placed the photo in the center of the table, and took a few steps back.

Chen Ji stood beside her, looked at her carefully, and suddenly felt a chill.

He felt a chill run through him...

Phil's intuition was right.

He hadn't noticed the black and white background of the photograph before, but once he moved a little further away, he could see it clearly...

A white paper flower was pinned to the woman's hair.