Withered Arm

From the sound of it, it seemed—

It had gone downstairs.

Wang Ye felt somewhat fortunate. Fortunately, there had been someone else hiding in the cabinet next door, and that person had failed to withstand the pressure.

Otherwise, he might have been the one to die.

The owner of those footsteps had likely noticed that the Boning Knife in the kitchen was gone. Was that why it had been in such a hurry?

Wang Ye looked at the Boning Knife in his hand, deep in thought.

Soon, he opened the cabinet and crawled out.

Looking at the blood on his hands, smeared across his clothes, Wang Ye frowned slightly.

This cabinet seemed capable of blocking a ghost's perception.

Otherwise, if it had merely been an ordinary cabinet, that ghostly thing would have opened its doors long ago.

Every item in this room seemed far from ordinary.

That included the cross-stitch hanging in the living room.

But simply taking a Boning Knife had put him in such grave danger. Wang Ye did not dare touch anything else now.

Wang Ye frowned as he looked at the photograph of the woman on the bedroom wall.

A cheongsam.

In Wang Ye's memories, that had been a style of dress from decades ago. Yet Terror Resurgence had occurred after Eternal Night.

The Eternal Night incident—

Had only happened two years ago.

Could similar incidents have existed even earlier?

Wang Ye's expression grew grave.

Meanwhile, in the photograph, while Wang Ye lowered his head in thought, the woman seemed to glance at him faintly. The smile at the corner of her lips deepened slightly.

But when Wang Ye raised his head again, the photograph had become motionless once more, as though everything before had been an illusion.

Taking out the bloodstained Bronze Nail again, Wang Ye walked over to the photograph and stabbed it toward the woman's forehead in the picture.

But—

Wang Ye had apparently overestimated the Bronze Nail's sharpness. The bizarre nail did not pierce into the photograph at all.

Whether it was an illusion or not, the woman in the photograph seemed to move.

Then the footsteps in the stairwell sounded again.

That thing—

Had returned.

The footsteps were hurried. Did it want to stop him?

It was already too late to hide in the cabinet again.

Wang Ye gritted his teeth, raised the Boning Knife in his hand like a hammer, and forcefully struck the Bronze Nail with its handle.

A crisp sound rang out, and the Bronze Nail pierced in slightly.

The woman's expression in the photograph turned savage. Her hate-filled eyes fixed tightly on Wang Ye as she struggled wildly, as though she wanted to crawl out of the photograph.

It worked!

Wang Ye rejoiced inwardly. Ignoring the photograph's strangeness, he struck it again with all his strength.

The Bronze Nail sank in a little farther.

But Wang Ye felt as though his forehead had been struck hard. His head spun, and his vision blurred.

"Damn it, was this the Boning Knife's side effect?"

"It rebounds onto its user!"

Wang Ye shook his head lightly and regained his clarity.

A shrill wail seemed to come from the photograph, and the woman struggled even more fiercely.

The footsteps in the stairwell became more hurried.

Then, a thunderous BANG came from the living room door.

That thing had entered!

Wang Ye gritted his teeth and struck down again in quick succession. Once, twice!

The Bronze Nail was driven in bit by bit.

The woman stopped struggling, and her shrill screams ceased as well. A trickle of blood seemed to flow from her forehead in the photograph.

The woman quieted down, but her venomous gaze remained fixed on Wang Ye, making his heart tremble.

The footsteps in the living room abruptly vanished, as though nothing had happened.

Wang Ye let out a breath of relief. Enduring the dizziness in his head, he walked into the living room.

There was no one there.

Even on the dust-covered floor, there were still only his footprints and those of the first person.

It was as though the earlier sounds had merely been auditory hallucinations.

"Is it over?"

Wang Ye took a deep breath, and his whole body relaxed.

After resting for about a minute and easing the discomfort in his head, Wang Ye left the mysterious Room 404 and gently closed the door.

Back in the residential area, he raised his head and looked at the sun that had yet to set. It was hard to imagine that Wang Ye had just gone through a life-and-death crisis in the span of a single hour.

"Sure enough, people yearn for beauty."

"Ghosts may not fear sunlight, but sunlight can make people feel safe."

Wang Ye sighed. Suddenly, he felt as though someone was watching him. He spun around and looked in every direction, but there was no one there.

"An illusion?"

Wang Ye murmured. A glint flashed through his eyes as he discreetly took out his phone from his pocket. Without unlocking it, he used the reflection on its screen to quietly observe his surroundings.

Suddenly—

Wang Ye froze in place, and a chill instantly swept through his entire body.

In the reflection on his phone screen, a woman stood at the window of Room 404 in Building 4. There was a bloody hole in her head, blood slowly trickling from it, and she was staring at him with venomous eyes.

It was that madwoman!

Damn it, hadn't she already been sealed by the Bronze Nail?!

Wang Ye cursed inwardly and quickened his pace as he left.

He could not stay in this damned place. As expected, every address provided by the Post Office was fucking terror-grade!

As Wang Ye departed, the woman in Room 404 silently left the window.

The entire Building 4 gradually became somewhat illusory before vanishing from Qinyuan Residential Area.

It was as though Building 4 had never existed.

A long while later—

Amid a pile of ruins, a withered arm suddenly stretched out and braced itself against the ground. Gradually, a Young Man crawled out from beneath the earth.

The Young Man's entire body resembled a dried corpse, yet strangely, as time passed, his shriveled body gradually filled out, and clarity returned to his vacant eyes.

"Did I die once?"

The Young Man muttered, "What the hell is going on with this place?"

"How could something so terrifying exist here?"

As he spoke, the Young Man looked toward where Building 4 had stood. Then his pupils contracted sharply, and his face filled with shock.

"It disappeared?"

"Damn it, I really should be grateful I managed to come out alive."

The Young Man still looked terrified. Then he quickly left the place and vanished from sight.

After returning home, Wang Ye opened a newly purchased diary and carefully wrote down his notes.

Codename: 404

Remarks: A bizarre room, a bloodstained Boning Knife, a mysterious cross-stitch, a wooden cabinet capable of blocking a ghost's detection, and... a woman who may have existed even before Eternal Night. There was also a mysterious person in the room. I never had a chance to see his face, but judging by the footsteps, he should have been a man.

Key point: The woman may not have been sealed and has already set her sights on me. I need to be careful!

After finishing his diary entry, Wang Ye looked over the previous page's record of the Suburban Cemetery, then closed the diary.

It was his personal case file and Wang Ye's greatest secret.

Some ghosts could alter memories.

Recording everything on paper with a pen was a habit Wang Ye had developed over many years.

At that moment, the Wooden Door leading to the Post Office appeared in the living room once again.