Mental Breakdown

"Damn it!"

Liu Haoyu had not expected the hanged woman to kick him like that.

Nor had he expected that the first harm he suffered after entering this house would actually be a physical attack.

Worse still, the kick had shown no restraint and sent him straight to the floor.

By the time Liu Haoyu climbed back up, the woman hanging before him had vanished without a trace.

He rubbed his aching nose and said,

"Tch, it was just an illusion. If you didn't want me to look, you could've just said so. Did you have to get physical?"

Naturally, the hanged woman was not the Fierce Ghost's true form. She was merely something the ghost had created, much like an illusion.

The women Liu Haoyu had encountered in the room on his first night had also been illusions created by that Fierce Ghost.

But despite being illusions, if she wanted to kill someone, they were still terrifying entities capable of taking a life outright.

However, she had now withdrawn the illusion, and his clothes were still hanging there, perfectly intact.

That matter could be considered settled, then.

Liu Haoyu pulled back the curtains and looked at the rising sun outside. He decided not to take in his clothes and simply let them continue drying there.

A ghost helping hang laundry—probably no one would believe it if he told them.

Hopefully, next time she could help him air out his bedding too.

Unfortunately, he had spent the entire night without figuring out what secret the house was hiding.

Now that it was daytime, it would be difficult to investigate anything, so Liu Haoyu could only leave it at that.

As for the basement he had searched for all night without finding, perhaps he could ask Old Wang. He should have the house's floor plan.

Liu Haoyu returned to his room, gathered the tools he used for work, and left the haunted house.

Liu Haoyu arrived at the sales office but did not find Old Wang. He turned to a young saleswoman and asked,

"Hello, is Manager Wang not here?"

At Liu Haoyu's question, the saleswoman's expression changed. No matter how professional she was, she seemed frightened enough to take a step back.

Even so, she forced a smile and said,

"Manager Wang got into a car accident when he returned last night. He's at Third People's Hospital now."

Hearing this, Liu Haoyu's expression turned grave, and he asked,

"Which ward? I'd like to visit him."

"Room XXX."

After getting the saleswoman's answer, Liu Haoyu hurried to Third People's Hospital.

After asking several doctors, Liu Haoyu finally found Old Wang's ward.

A nurse stood outside the door, chatting with a doctor.

Seeing this, Liu Haoyu stepped forward and asked the two of them,

"Is this Wang Faqiang's ward?"

"Yes."

"I'm his friend, and also his client. May I go in and see him?"

"Sure." The doctor nodded, then added, "But the patient's condition is rather strange. Please try not to provoke him."

"Understood."

After receiving permission, Liu Haoyu pushed open the door and entered the ward.

The moment he stepped inside, an extremely pungent, concentrated smell of disinfectant hit him in the face.

There was only one bed in the room, and Old Wang lay on it.

Liu Haoyu walked to the bedside and looked at the elderly man, already past fifty.

Wrapped in bandages from head to toe, he was not asleep. He simply stared wide-eyed at the ceiling. Even upon seeing Liu Haoyu enter, he did not utter a single word.

He looked extremely bizarre and unsettling.

"Old Wang, you asleep?"

"Ghost... ghost..."

In response to Liu Haoyu's question, Old Wang continued staring with eyes as wide as bells, endlessly muttering one word.

Ghost.

Looking at the darkened area between Old Wang's brows, Liu Haoyu could only sigh helplessly.

Old Wang had run off too quickly back then and had not even heard the second half of what Liu Haoyu wanted to say.

From the looks of it, he had definitely encountered something unclean.

He had suffered an extremely severe psychological blow and was even on the verge of a breakdown.

Knock, knock, knock.

Just as Liu Haoyu was about to examine Old Wang's condition, someone knocked on the ward door.

When the door opened, two police officers entered. They looked at Old Wang, then at Liu Haoyu, before taking out a notebook and pen.

"Are you Mr. Liu Haoyu?"

"Yes."

"Last night, this man named Wang Faqiang took you and a batch of furniture to the outskirts, correct?"

"Yes."

After asking a few simple questions, the officers lowered their notebooks and pens. One of them said,

"My name is Li Rongjun, badge number XXXXXX. Here's the situation: last night at seven o'clock, Mr. Wang Faqiang was involved in a car accident on the way back to the city along the XX country road. His vehicle fell straight off a cliff.

Fortunately, villagers below the cliff discovered it in time and called the police, so he was rescued. But for some reason, after he regained consciousness, he became like this.

Mr. Liu Haoyu, do you have any clues?"

Listening to Li Rongjun's questions, Liu Haoyu naturally told him the truth about where he had been at the time.

But since only Old Wang and he had been present, Liu Haoyu understood that it was not wrong for the police to suspect him under such circumstances.

"I had hired Old Wang to transport a batch of furniture for me. The sales office should have records of our transaction."

"Alright, I understand."

Li Rongjun nodded.

Based on the scene, the vehicle had been completely empty, with no furniture inside. Moreover, the accident site was fifteen kilometers away from Liu Haoyu's house. There were hardly any cars on that road at night, so from this preliminary assessment, it appeared to have been a traffic accident.

But the problem was that Wang Faqiang's mental state was far too unsettling.

Furthermore, according to the doctors' examination, his head had not suffered any impact. So what exactly had turned him into this state?

Unable to make sense of it, Li Rongjun had come to question Liu Haoyu.

But for now, they would provisionally handle it as an accidental car crash.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Liu. If you discover anything further, please contact us immediately."

The two officers left, and Liu Haoyu turned his gaze back to Wang Faqiang.

If he wanted the haunted house's floor plan, he could only get the information from him.

No one else, including the people at the sales office, knew what the house was actually like.

As Liu Haoyu pondered this, Old Wang's hand shot out from beneath the blanket and clamped tightly around Liu Haoyu's wrist like a pair of pincers.

The grip was so strong that Liu Haoyu's wrist throbbed with pain.

His eyes, bulging as though they might pop out, stared directly at Liu Haoyu.

Only after staring for a full three seconds did he finally speak.

"Ghost... there was a ghost... in my car."