Chapter Fifteen: Guess Who I Am
“This world is already different from the normal world, so the key to open this door must be in my husband’s room. Only my husband can enter 506, and that ghost just chased after me when I went upstairs. The door hasn’t even closed yet.”
Zhao Mingyue quickly pieced together the situation, turning to Bai Yu. “Sister Bai, if I go downstairs now, I’ll run into my husband’s ghost, right?”
“You want me to deal with him?” Bai Yu caught on.
“Yeah, otherwise we’ll be stuck dealing with two ghosts.”
There were the man walking backward and her husband’s ghost, both lurking on the fourth floor and the staircase, and she certainly didn’t want to go down there.
When she had gone upstairs, she had heard Bai Yu scolding that ghost, then the ghost ran away. That meant Bai Yu had the ability to take it down.
“I can do more than just k*ll that ghost. I could wipe out all the ghosts in this building, but that would affect your task’s progress, and you don’t only have this path to take.”
Bai Yu’s abyss-like eyes were fixed on the staircase. “Lu Liangting is coming.”
“Lu Liangting? Is he arriving now?”
“Yep.”
Bai Yu sensed three living presences entering the building. The first two were clearly Lu Liangting and his cousin, but the third one was a mystery, though one thing was certain: this person was definitely a participant in the game.
“So what should we do now?” Zhao Mingyue blinked, gripping her staff tightly. She understood Bai Yu’s suggestion: the so-called second path was simply to have Lu Liangting distract the ghost.
“Go around, hide on the other side.”
The building was shaped like the character “日” (sun), so taking a detour would lead her to the staircase.
Zhao Mingyue nodded. Standing outside 506, she could clearly hear something scratching at the door, accompanied by faint, distorted sounds of pleas.
Holding her breath, Zhao Mingyue made her way around and found a hidden spot ensuring no one could see her from the staircase.
Just when she thought she’d be waiting for Lu Liangting to arrive, Bai Yu suddenly lifted a small incense burner in front of room 503 with her bl**d thread and smashed it down.
The sound of ceramic shattering echoed ominously in the dark hallway like a thunderclap.
With the crashing noise, Zhao Mingyue could clearly hear the guy walking backward on the stairs quickening his pace as he started moving upstairs.
At that moment, there was also commotion coming from the fourth floor. Once the headless old man reached the fifth floor, another pair of footsteps emerged. This new person’s footsteps drew the headless old man toward them, and as they disappeared on the fourth floor, someone else came up.
This new presence awakened the man hiding on the fourth floor again.
“No one is allowed upstairs!” a hoarse, low voice snarled, filled with malice.
As expected, that shout made the person heading upstairs quicken their pace. Zhao Mingyue peeked and confirmed it was Lu Liangting, and behind him trailed a dark figure.
The figure was shrouded in shadows, its clothes burnt and fused with patches of flesh, releasing a foul stench, with drops of black pus sizzling on the floor.
“No one is allowed upstairs!”
Zhao Mingyue gulped nervously, mentally praying for Lu Liangting. She hadn’t intended to use this tactic to lure him up!
Without needing Bai Yu to say a word, Zhao Mingyue saw the man and ghost disappear around the corner and quickly set off down the stairs.
However, as she reached the fourth floor, something caught her eye.
The person being chased by the headless old man had gone to the third floor but turned back for some unknown reason.
The current situation was that the headless old man was about to come upstairs, Lu Liangting on the third floor couldn’t hold out forever, and her husband’s ghost could return at any moment. If she took any longer, she might find herself cornered in a room on the fourth floor.
Once on the fourth floor, it looked just like the fifth: bathed in a layer of bl**d-red filter, the air tainted with a mix of antiseptic, rot, and burnt smells.
Just as Bai Yu had said, one of the rooms on the fourth floor had indeed been opened.
If she guessed right, that room was the former landlord’s.
Letting out a sigh of relief, at least it wasn’t her own room. If she came out to find her door open, that would be a real kicker—she’d have been living with a ghost this whole time!
She quickly approached the room, looking at the space that had been scorched and not yet cleaned up. Zhao Mingyue bravely stepped inside.
What she didn’t notice was that Bai Yu had already vanished.
A lightning flash lit up the scene, and the shadow she cast was no longer that of a long-haired girl in a white dress.
The ghost from inside that room had left, temporarily restrained by Lu Liangting; it wouldn’t be back for a while, while the female ghost in 506 remained in her own space.
In other words, Zhao Mingyue had entered a “haunted house,” but ironically, it was the safest place to be right now.
For the time being, Zhao Mingyue’s safety was not a concern, but Bai Yu had her own matters to attend to.
The silhouette in the white dress appeared in the fourth-floor hallway, making her way step by step to the staircase.
She was about to meet an “old friend,” and let this “old friend” know that the supernatural stories in this building weren’t just about a few weak ghosts.
At that moment, Xia Han was being chased by the headless old man. She had made it to the third floor, planning to take care of the old man there, but something felt off.
The information was inaccurate; there was another freak in this building.
The man in rain boots and raincoat was a madman! This guy had been knocking on doors since the second floor, asking everyone the same question.
“Have you seen my wife?”
Xia Han had actually seen the man’s wife—in fact, she was right on his back!
This guy was carrying a bloated female corpse, asking if anyone had seen his wife.
His wife had died in this very building; she was one of last year’s tenants.
Xia Han hurried upstairs, pursued by a vengeful spirit and a madman with a dead wife on his back. Under such circumstances, any ordinary woman would have been terrified out of her wits, but she wore a wide smile, as if she were playing a fun game.
However, just as she turned the corner onto the staircase, about to step up the first step, her body froze.
Looking up, she spotted a long-haired girl in a white dress. The girl was beautiful, her shadow in the darkness resembling a dancing butterfly.
But the aura radiating from this girl made Xia Han’s body tremble uncontrollably.
This thing was definitely not from this building!
Her pupils dilated as she turned to flee, but the dark red chain with a pointed end moved faster.
Thwack! The chain pierced through Xia Han’s heart.
Stiffening, she turned to see that the girl in the white dress had somehow appeared right beside her.
Downstairs, the headless old man was preparing to ascend. Noticing Bai Yu had taken out his prey, he paused momentarily before turning back, clearly terrified.
“Jason, guess who I am?”
