Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

"wait."

Zuo Shiming sat on the sofa, looking tired.

Based on the contents of the letter in the basement, Chen Ji and his three companions have deduced a way to escape from the Liting Apartment.

Wang Lijun's words were precisely the key to survival:

Even if only one person remains in our family, this curse will never end.

The curse on this land is inextricably linked to the royal family, and the reason it has never disappeared is...

It's because there's still one member of the Wang family alive.

"It's 4 p.m. now, and there are less than eight hours left until the end of this cycle."

"Next cycle...who will make the first move?"

Hu Li leaned against the wall, her lips tightly pursed, looking at the three people opposite her.

Killing the elevator repairman would sever the Wang family's bloodline, thus breaking the cycle.

But... Hu Li couldn't accept that she was about to kill a living person with her own hands.

Although she herself was aware of it.

The repairman killed his own parents and half-siblings, making him a truly heinous villain.

In the real world, the repairman would have been arrested and executed long ago.

"I come."

Chen Ji said, his face expressionless, "I'll make my move as soon as the next cycle begins."

There was silence.

"Let's all take a break."

Zuo Shiming suddenly spoke, his dark circles seeming even more pronounced than before. Now that the mystery has been solved, he finally relaxed.

A series of intricate deductions and deductions, including being trapped in a maze-like environment, retrieving a corpse amidst an attack by a ghost in an elevator, and the complexities of the mystery...

So much has happened in just a few hours, and now we can all sit here peacefully.

Hu Li nodded, sat on the ground, and looked somewhat sad.

She thought of Yuanyuan again.

Fei'er didn't speak, but occasionally glanced at Chen Ji.

Chen Ji kept his head down, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

He just felt that... he and the repairman were somewhat similar.

He also killed his closest family members.

Chen Ji knew very well that in the eyes of outsiders, he was probably no different from a repairman.

They are all sinners.

"He only killed living people."

Fei'er walked up to him without him noticing and spoke softly.

"you are not."

She knew Chen Ji's identity and seemed to have guessed what he was thinking. She spoke very softly, so that only Chen Ji could hear her.

".....Um."

Chen Ji's body seemed to tremble slightly, and after a long while, he raised his head and responded.

After the matricide case, part of the audio recording of Chen Ji's interrogation was leaked online, so he wasn't too surprised by Fei'er's words.

It's clear that Fei'er, like the Du siblings, chose to believe Chen Ji.

His emotions remained relatively calm, but a hint of relief gradually flashed in his eyes.

11:13 in the evening.

Fei'er and Hu Li were lying on the left side of the lobby, while Chen Ji and Zuo Shiming were curled up on the sofa.

This time, the repairman will only kill the two of them.

With the familiar feeling of power failure, Chen Ji slowly closed his eyes.

.......

At 8:15, Chen Ji and Fei'er were the first to wake up again.

The two exchanged a glance, somewhat wistful; this was the last time they would cycle through the loop.

Chen Ji sat up and immediately looked around, but nothing unusual had happened in the hall for the time being.

He, or the ghost that emerged after Zuo Shiming's death, has not yet appeared.

Less than two minutes later, Hu Li and Zuo Shiming were also woken up, and the group stood scattered around the freight elevator.

This time, everyone could clearly hear rustling sounds coming from inside the elevator.

The digital clock on the wall points to 8:20.

"Ding-dong-"

The elevator door slowly opened.

A maintenance worker wearing a yellow helmet and a uniform came out from inside.

"?"

The elevator operator was startled by the group and looked at them with some suspicion.

Just then, Zuo Shiming sighed softly.

Now that everyone knows the repairman is the murderer, some details that were previously overlooked have become particularly striking.

For example, a tiny, barely noticeable bead of blood on the corner of the repairman's clothes.

And, faintly visible in his bag, was a corner of a white paper flower.

"The elevator on the left is broken and cannot be used."

The maintenance worker said to place a warning sign in front of the elevator door.

"For safety reasons, I suggest you take the stairs."

There was still complete silence behind him, and no one responded.

“…”

The elevator operator suddenly stopped moving, silently put his hand into his pocket, and then slowly turned around.

However, a hand gently patted his shoulder and tugged at his collar.

Zuo Shiming stared directly at the elevator operator's wheat-colored face. The operator's eyes were downcast, and his expression carried a faint gloom.

His hand, which was in his pocket, twitched slightly, as if he were about to take something out.

But the next second...

The elevator operator's body instantly stiffened.

A sharp screwdriver...was plunged into the elevator operator's temple.

Chen Ji stood to the side, his lips pressed tightly together, drops of blood dripping from the screwdriver in his hand.

thump!

The elevator repairman immediately knelt down, and a bloodstained knife slipped from his pocket.

Drops of blood dampened the elevator operator's black hair and slowly trickled down his cheeks.

Inside the uniform that Zuo Shiming had pulled open...

Blood covered the horizontal birthmark on the elevator worker's neck.

Like a throat-slitting wound.

The elevator repairman opened his mouth, first looking at the elevator, seemingly at the corpses he had buried at the bottom of the elevator, the ones who shared the same bloodline as him.

Then, he turned his head and glanced at Chen Ji.

"Thank you... Goodbye."

He suddenly said, his voice filled with sadness.

The eyelid above the beauty mark seemed to be bearing an immense weight as it slowly closed.

The repairman stopped breathing completely.

Chen Ji didn't say anything, but pushed the screwdriver in further until it completely pierced through his skull.

He gave the repairman no chance of survival whatsoever.

A vague and inexplicable feeling suddenly arose in everyone's hearts.

It's as if a part of their bodies has finally been freed from its constraints.

The curse of Liting Apartments has now been completely lifted.

"gone."

Chen Ji said, then turned around and pressed the elevator button.

"Are you going upstairs?"

Hu Li asked, somewhat puzzled, "Aren't we going through the main gate?"

As she spoke, she opened the apartment door, but then paused in surprise.

Outside, wisps of black fog still lingered.

“Go up from the elevator; that’s always been the only place in the apartment that’s not affected by the circulation.”

Chen Ji explained, looking at the ceiling of the elevator car.

The gap that was pierced by the elevator ghost still exists.

"But...aren't there ghosts in the elevator shaft?"

Hu Li was a little nervous and didn't dare to step into the elevator. The twisted and eerie figure of the two-headed ghost flashed through her mind.

“Not anymore.”

Zuo Shiming said that he had fully understood Chen Ji's meaning:

"When the curse ends, those mutated ghosts will either disappear or leave on their own after being freed from their bonds."

Sure enough, there was no sound from inside the elevator shaft.

As the group entered the elevator car, the elevator doors seemed to close automatically, no longer sluggish.

No one pressed the floor button, but the elevator slowly started moving upwards.

"So that's it..."

Hu Li's expression was somewhat complicated. She finally understood why the corpse at the bottom of the elevator had not been [refreshed] away.

Even the steel plates on the ground showed signs of being pried open multiple times.

One reason is that this place is not subject to the restrictions of apartment circulation.

Secondly, these corpses serve an important purpose: they are influenced by the curse to create new ghosts.

"However, what the repairman said at the end was quite strange."

Her thoughts shifted, and she remembered the ambiguous thank you, feeling that something was off.

Moreover, that "goodbye" always gives one a chilling feeling when you think about it carefully.

"do not think too much."

Chen Ji said.

"There's a high probability that he was saying goodbye to the apartment, or to the relatives he killed."

"Perhaps..."

Hu Li felt uneasy, but she really had no other explanation.

After all, they had witnessed the repairman stop breathing; he was dead beyond any doubt.

"It's not that you're overthinking it," Zuo Shiming said slowly.

"This domain has always given me a strange feeling."

"It's quite different from any domain I've ever experienced before..."

Chen Ji nodded silently, sharing the same sentiment.

In the repeat-year high school, the clues are like peeling an onion, layer by layer, until the truth of the whole story is revealed.

And at the Liting Apartments, so many people died, yet so many clues were found.

Even after they found a way to escape, many questions remained unanswered, like a fog.

What happened in Jixiangyuan and Wangjiacun before?

What is the source of the curse that is bound to this land?

...And was this generation-after-generation inbreeding due to a curse, or was it something the Wang family did intentionally?

If we use an onion as an analogy, it means that it takes a lot of effort for everyone to peel off a single layer of skin.

Inside, there are still several layers of inner core.

"Ding-dong-"

The elevator's notification sound interrupted Chen Ji's somewhat obsessive thoughts.

He looked up and saw the elevator doors opening wide—

Outside, there is a long river shimmering with countless stars.