Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

"who is she?"

Chen Ji stared at the woman's eerie eyes in the photo and murmured to himself.

Is he one of the two elderly people in this apartment?

If you calculate the age, it roughly matches.

But the dates they died were clearly within these few days...

That is, June 2009!

Why did she take such a memorial photo nine years ago, while she was still alive?

Isn't this cursing oneself to die?

Fei'er picked up the photo and turned it over.

"Wang Lijun".

She murmured the name, which was handwritten on the back of the photograph.

The handwriting is delicate, but the ink has faded.

"It should be the name of the woman in the photo."

Chen Ji thought for a moment before saying, "Wang Lijun, it sounds like a name that women born in the 50s would have, carrying a strong sense of the era."

Fei'er pulled open a fluffy bear decoration on her skirt and put the photo inside.

“We can’t confirm that she is one of the victims of 305,” she said, tossing the teddy bear bag behind her.

There is no direct evidence.

Chen Ji nodded silently. In fact, according to common sense, Wang Lijun was more likely to be a relative or friend of the deceased.

Otherwise, there is no way to explain why she would have taken her funeral photo in advance.

He was about to continue searching for clues with Fei'er when suddenly his ears twitched.

A scream of extreme terror rang out from downstairs!

The man's heart-wrenching screams instantly echoed throughout the entire apartment building and reverberated in the hallway.

Chen Ji immediately turned his head away, his heart sinking.

problem occurs.

Fei'er reacted extremely quickly; the next second, she rushed out the door and headed straight for the first floor.

The sound came from the first floor. Chen Ji followed closely behind and saw Zuo Shiming on the second floor. Zuo Shiming's expression was very solemn.

The two exchanged a brief glance, said nothing, and then went down the stairs.

Wu Zhonghai fell to the ground in the stairwell on the first floor, his back pressed tightly against the wall.

His mouth was open, his lips were trembling, and his face showed intense fear and disbelief.

It was as if Wu Zhonghai had just witnessed something extremely horrifying!

"what happened?"

Chen Ji immediately asked.

"There's...there's a ghost!"

Wu Zhonghai's eyes were wide open, and his voice stammered, unable to believe what he had just seen!

This turned his life upside down after more than forty years!

"This is a domain, there must be ghosts here."

Phil said that she walked from the lobby into the stairwell faster than the other two and had already searched the area.

She shook her head at the group: "The lobby is safe, there's nothing there."

"I...I really saw her...she was right in front of me, she went down to the first floor, and then she disappeared..."

Chen Ji patted him on the shoulder and helped Wu Zhonghai up.

"Don't be afraid, tell me in detail what happened."

At this moment, the remaining people also came down from different floors. Yuanyuan and Zhuang Rui's faces revealed strong unease.

Wu Zhonghai calmed himself down before taking a deep breath and speaking slowly.

"I came down from the 4th floor."

"I originally intended to go downstairs to check the water bill and see if the other households had their water cut off."

"When I got to the middle of the third and second floors, I heard footsteps coming out of the stairwell on the third floor."

"The footsteps were very light and followed me downstairs. I thought it was Ms. Fei'er and didn't pay any attention."

Upon hearing this, Chen Ji's expression immediately changed!

On the third floor, only he and Fei'er were searching; they hadn't gone out at all!

The thought that while the two were examining the portrait, a non-existent person walked out of the same floor, perhaps even passing by the door of apartment 305...

A chill instantly filled Chen Ji's blood.

"...I gave a casual greeting and started walking downstairs."

“But I quickly realized something was wrong!” Wu Zhonghai continued, his pupils dilating. “She didn’t say a word, and…”

"She was too close to me; her footsteps were almost right behind me!"

"I immediately turned my head and saw an extremely old, wrinkled face pressed tightly against the back of my ear!"

"A full minute..."

"She leaned on my back the whole time as we went down the stairs!"

Wu Zhonghai's voice trembled; that scene had left a deep shadow in his heart.

"what!"

Upon hearing this, Yuanyuan immediately screamed, trembling all over as if she had witnessed the scene firsthand.

Wu Zhonghai paused for a moment before continuing, "She's not from this era!"

"The old woman was probably 7 or 80 years old. She was wearing an old-fashioned black coat, the kind of style I've only ever seen my great-grandmother wear."

"Her face was very old, her eyes were cloudy, and her face was covered in wrinkles. When I turned around, I saw her staring intently at me!"

"Then, I heard your footsteps upstairs. The old woman glanced at me again, walked behind the stairs, and disappeared..."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Ji immediately walked behind the stairs and was taken aback.

This is the staircase on the first floor, leading directly to the lobby.

No one noticed that there were several more steps leading down to the underground space behind the stairs.

However, the end of the stairs was tightly sealed off by a brick wall, making it impossible to get in.

Zuo Shiming walked up behind him, seemingly lost in thought: "If you can't go down, why build these steps at all?"

Chen Ji squatted down and looked at it, then took out his phone and shone the flashlight on the facade of the staircase.

He stood up and said, "This is not newly built."

These abrupt steps, made of earth and stone, are covered with a thick layer of dust, indicating that no one has stepped on them for countless years.

The other steps at the Liting Apartments are paved with a single terrazzo slab.

"Take a look, is this the person?"

Fei'er suddenly spoke up, opened the teddy bear backpack, and took out a photo of Wang Lijun.

Wu Zhonghai took the photo, stared at it intently, and was immediately stunned.

"It's her!"

"These are the eyes! I've never seen such terrifying eyes in my entire life!"

In the photo, Wang Lijun's eyes are wide open, with the whites of her eyes taking up most of the space, as she stares blankly ahead.

"you sure?"

Chen Ji frowned, sensing something was amiss. Wang Lijun was only in her early forties in 2000; how could she possibly look as old as Wu Zhonghai described?

"That's right... huh?"

A hint of doubt suddenly flashed across Wu Zhonghai's face. "That's not right."

"It is indeed this face, but that old woman has a mole on her chin."

"Moreover, her cheeks are not so sunken."

Zuo Shiming thought for a moment, then interjected, "Is it possible that she's not the woman in the photo, but is related to her?"

"For example, a mother and daughter?"

Murong Qing's eyes flashed: "That should be it."

She took the photo, saw the date on it, and nodded: "The age matches too."

"But why didn't she kill you?"

Murong Qing's eyes were sharp as she said directly, "The ghosts in this domain are not just for scaring people."

"How...how would I know?!"

Wu Zhonghai was clearly provoked by her words, and he suddenly stood up, glaring angrily at Murong Qing.

His face flushed red, and his voice lost its previous gentleness: "What good would it do you if I died?"

"Of course."

Murong Qing snorted coldly, "If you die, we'll know how ghosts kill people."

"you!"

Zuo Shiming immediately placed himself between the two of them and patted Wu Zhonghai on the shoulder reassuringly.

"Alright, Teacher Wu, at least you're safe now."

He sighed and exchanged glances with Chen Ji and the others.

Although Murong Qing's words hit the nail on the head, they were rather blunt to Wu Zhonghai, who had just witnessed a ghost.

The atmosphere was tense. Wu Zhonghai shook off Zuo Shiming's hand, walked heavily away from the corridor, and headed towards the lobby alone.

Zuo Shiming gave Chen Ji a wink, and the latter understood, following Wu Zhonghai into the main hall.

The old woman's appearance may not have been random; Wu Zhonghai may have violated some taboo.

If he is left alone, he may encounter a ghost again before long.

Chen Ji sat quietly on the sofa, pressing his temples, momentarily unable to sort out his thoughts.

Three murder cases, Wang Lijun.

The old woman, and those few blocked steps.

What is the connection between all of this, and how can it help them escape from this apartment?

As his thoughts raced, Wu Zhonghai, who had been leaning against the wall in silence, suddenly sighed.

"I know she looks down on us newcomers."

“She’s younger than me, so I don’t want to argue about it. Besides, I went downstairs to help out.”

He pointed to the water bill: "Xiao Chen, you're young, you probably haven't paid your family's bills before, so you don't know."

"The water bill may contain a lot of information, such as the water consumption of each household, outstanding payment information, and household number. From this, we can see how many people live in this building recently."

"I also wanted to check if all the other households in Liting Apartment had moved out, leaving only the three households where the murders occurred."

Account number?

Chen Ji was stunned for a moment, and Wu Zhonghai's words suddenly flashed through his mind like lightning.

He immediately stood up, ripped the water bill off the wall, and read it line by line.

At first glance, Chen Ji noticed the accounts for 201, 305, and 502, because only these three households had fluctuating water bills.

His eyes froze, staring intently at the water bill. After a few seconds, he called out in a deep voice into the hallway:

"Fei'er".

"What's wrong?" Fei'er walked in.

Chen Ji waved the order form in his hand:

"The woman in the portrait is one of the two people who were killed."

He pointed to the water bill; at the end of line 305, two names were filled in the head of household column.

Wang Lijun, Chen Jianguo.

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Thank you so much, Daodao, for the three gifts! Thank you for your support!