The Third Chapter: I Thrust My Stick Down

A dozen seconds after he inserted the wire, there was a click, and the lock sprang open.

With a shrill creak, the rusty iron door was pulled open by the wind. A chill gust and a flurry of dust swept straight into their faces.

"It's open." Yu Xing put away the wire, shielding his face from the dust with one hand. He showed off his handiwork as if it were nothing, then picked up the camera and skulkingly retreated behind Zhao Yijiu. "You go first."

Everyone already knew he was a coward, so he might as well let the brave one go ahead.

"Only six months, and it's rusted this badly." Zhao Yijiu didn't hurry inside. Though he could already see a new stretch of darkness through the crack in the door, he calmly wiped at the scar-like rust on the iron.

"It's damp around here to begin with, and there's a lot of rain after autumn starts. Nobody's been looking after this place, so it's only natural that it's rusted. Look, there's mold growing on the walls, too." Yu Xing pointed casually. Sure enough, besides the cobwebs in the corner, there were patches of mold he couldn't identify.

"Mm." The other man responded and pushed the door all the way open. Beyond it was a new corridor, much wider than the last. A wall ran along the left side, and a row of rooms lined the right.

A white sign hung beside the nearest doorway. It read Office 01.

Yu Xing shone his flashlight farther down the corridor. The signs continued in order: Office 02 and Office 03, followed farther along by the Exhibition Room and the restroom.

There was a side passage between Office 03 and the Exhibition Room. It was pitch-black.

Beyond the restroom stood another iron door. It looked like there were more areas behind it, but according to the factory map Yu Xing had found online before setting out and committed to memory, that section belonged to Tang Li and Tang Yuan, who had been assigned the middle area to search.

Holding the flashlight, he used two fingers to straighten his bangs, which hung limply over his forehead, then tipped his chin toward Office 01. "Want to take a look inside?"

"Wait." Zhao Yijiu kicked up a small plank from the floor and nudged it into the gap beneath the door with his toe. He left the door ajar, then explained, "So the wind doesn't shut it."

Why did they need to keep it from shutting? Yu Xing's brow twitched. Was that a hint they'd need to escape later? Please, no...

Comrade Zhao Yijiu, could you please keep up your usual quiet, aloof act and not spell things out so clearly? I'm getting nervous for nothing here.

After a round of self-deception and reassurance, Yu Xing followed Zhao Yijiu to the door of Office 01.

The office door wasn't locked. A gentle turn of the handle was enough to open it.

There wasn't much inside. At first glance, it seemed to have been almost entirely emptied when the factory was abandoned and its staff left.

The only places where anything might be hidden were a wooden cabinet against the wall, the desk across from the door, and the sofa and coffee table on the other side of the desk.

They had to film as they searched for batteries, so once they entered the office, Yu Xing and Zhao Yijiu could only turn off their flashlights and use the camera's Night Vision Mode.

The screen glowed a ghostly green in the darkness, adding a faintly eerie air to the room.

Without another word, the two split up with a fair amount of unspoken understanding. Zhao Yijiu searched the desk, while Yu Xing went straight to the storage cabinet.

By Yu Xing's calculations, the six of them needed forty-eight batteries. If the Deduction Company wasn't deliberately trying to eliminate anyone, there had to be at least that many. And if the batteries were scattered around the factory, there should be one or two in every room, at minimum.

A thick layer of dust covered the cabinet. It looked as if no one had touched it in a long time. He opened the doors, then stared at the faint fingerprints left behind. A question occurred to him.

"That's strange. With dust this thick, how did the company's people hide the batteries without leaving any traces?"

He'd been paying close attention to the batteries as they walked, and he'd looked carefully at everything along the way.

Only now did it occur to him that he hadn't seen any footprints on the floor.

If the company's people had been here recently, there was no way they could have left no footprints at all.

Once suspicion took hold, one detail after another came to mind. His heartbeat quickened, but he kept his composure and looked through the cabinet with the camera.

An unfinished tub of toothpicks, an empty square tin that had once held something, a rag whose purpose was unclear, an obviously fake ivory carving... All useless junk.

There were no batteries.

He crouched and pulled open the drawers below. There were three in all. He started from the bottom, and the first two were nearly empty. When he pulled open the top one, something rolled with a hollow rumble.

"You'd better gouge out your own eyes." A chilly voice came from behind him. He jumped and whipped around. Zhao Yijiu was standing behind the desk with a piece of paper in his hand. His eyes were fixed on its contents; he'd apparently just read the words aloud.

"It was in the desk drawer." When Yu Xing turned, Zhao Yijiu raised the paper toward him for show. "It says, 'You'd better gouge out your own eyes.'"

"Oh..." Yu Xing had no intention of gouging out his own eyes. He marveled at how Zhao Yijiu's voice was about as frightening as a ghost's, then looked down to see what was inside the drawer.

Two round little objects rolled to the edge of the drawer. Yu Xing froze. "Black marbles?"

He reached out and scooped them up, but the sensation in his palm made his scalp prickle.

"They're soft! Ah!!!"

They felt sticky and a little warm.

What the hell kind of black marbles were these? So these were the "eyes" the note meant!

Zhao Yijiu flinched at his yell, lowering the paper as he hurried over. Just then, Yu Xing threw something toward him.

He jerked his head aside. The objects hit the ground behind him and shattered with a crisp crack.

"Why'd you throw the marbles?"

That sound proved they were glass.

Yu Xing stared at him, dumbfounded. "They were soft."

"They're hard. They broke." Zhao Yijiu rebutted him without emotion, like a heartless hit man.

"No way..." Unable to accept it, Yu Xing went over to the broken marbles and aimed the camera at one. The fragments reflected a translucent sheen.

"..." Yu Xing couldn't believe it.

Was I hallucinating?

Had I been so tense that my own suggestion had made me imagine the sensation?

The sticky warmth grew clearer and clearer in his memory. He frowned, unwilling to believe he was the problem, and decided to explain it to Zhao Yijiu. "When I picked them up just now, they were clearly eyeballs..."

Sure, eyeballs couldn't make a "rumbling" sound as they rolled. That was why he'd assumed they were black marbles at first and hadn't thought any further. But he'd definitely felt them in his hand. And the note on the desk had mentioned eyes. There was no way that was a coincidence.

"From what you're saying," Zhao Yijiu mused after a moment, "something interfered with your sense of touch to scare you on purpose."

"Y-You think so?" If that was the case, then there was definitely a ghost here!

Once was one thing, but after getting tricked a second time, Yu Xing decided there was no point in risking his life here. Only then did he realize he was covered in cold sweat.

"I'm leaving."

He wanted a better job, but not so badly that he'd keep suffering after noticing something obviously supernatural. There'd be another job, but he only had one life.

He only had one life.

The thought made him even more determined. "What about you? Are you coming with me? And the other four..."

Zhao Yijiu stared at his face for a while, apparently lost in thought. After a long pause, he asked, "You really want to leave?"

Yu Xing thought the question made no sense. Was he supposed to stay here for the holidays?

"Right." Zhao Yijiu nodded to himself. "It's a little dangerous here, so let's leave together."

What a strange person. Yu Xing smiled.

Besides, he could just make out a battery in the hand Zhao Yijiu was holding.

"..." So the battery was by the desk. Damn it. How was that fair? He was the one who'd been scared, but someone else had gotten the battery!

After leaving Office 01, Yu Xing looked a little ill. For some reason, he suddenly had to use the restroom. "I'm going to the bathroom before we leave."

"Oh?" Zhao Yijiu glanced at him. "You still dare to go into the restroom?"

Since ancient times, in horror movies and urban legends alike, restrooms had been a high-risk zone without equal.

Hanako in the bathroom, mirrors in the bathroom, knocking from inside a stall, running out of toilet paper... Every one of those was terrifying!

"It's a bodily necessity. It's not like I chose this." Yu Xing hesitated. "Could you come with me?"

He really didn't dare go in alone.

"Mm." Zhao Yijiu answered indifferently, then walked with Yu Xing toward the restroom at the end of the corridor.

As they passed the side passage, its deep darkness made Yu Xing quicken his pace. He was afraid a ghost would jump out a second later and send him straight to his grave.

The restroom hadn't been cleaned in ages, not since the factory was abandoned. The moment they entered, the two of them smelled a strange mixture of odors.

Even more surprising, the men's restroom was divided into stalls, with the urinals partitioned off so that no one could see between them.

"Isn't this just asking for trouble...?"

Yu Xing endured his discomfort and went into the outermost stall. Zhao Yijiu waited outside. Beneath his cold exterior, it seemed there was at least a tiny bit of old-fashioned kindness in him.

There was a mop and a trash can in the stall. Nothing seemed out of place.

"Could you hold the camera for me?" Yu Xing asked, a little embarrassed.

"I think you'd better take it in with you." Zhao Yijiu didn't agree this time.

"Why?"

"Instinct."

All right...

Yu Xing obediently took the camera with him. Zhao Yijiu seemed far too calm in this situation; maybe he knew something. It couldn't hurt to listen to his advice. Yu Xing stepped inside, set the camera on the floor facing the wall, and planned to hurry up and get out. He wasn't even going to close the stall door. Then a gust of wind blew through, making him shiver.

At the same time, the door blew shut.

Uh-oh. Yu Xing instantly went on alert. He quickly finished up, zipped his pants, turned around, and pushed at the door.

"..."

It wouldn't open.

"Zhao Yijiu?"

No answer.

This was bad, bad, bad... Yu Xing's head started to ache. Was it going to happen a third time? Why was it always him?

"I have no paper, I'm deaf, I'm not buying anything, don't ask—if you do, I'm cute. I don't want to hear the person next door, and I don't need them passing me paper. Please, just leave me alone, I'm begging you, QAQ..." Muttering under his breath, he picked up the camera, ready to bolt as soon as the door opened.

"Whoosh—"

Water flushed in the toilet. Yu Xing had been watching the crack under the door, and his body stiffened. "I'm deaf, I'm blind, I've gouged out my own eyes. I can't see you. Don't waste your effort..."

He was thoroughly terrified.

But though he said he was blind, he still couldn't stop himself from slowly glancing toward the toilet out of the corner of his eye.

A pair of blood-red eyes met his.

A deathly pale face was floating in the water, black hair spilling out and clogging the toilet bowl completely.

It was a woman's face.

Swollen and misshapen, it was impossible to make out her original features. She looked both hideous and horrifying. The rest of her body seemed to be stuck in the sewer, and she was struggling to climb up. Her mouth gaped open, letting out an eerie laugh like teeth clattering together.

"Gagagaga..."

"Ghost!!!" That was the second time in less than half an hour Yu Xing had shouted those words. This time, he was completely certain: screw this recruitment test. They'd been sent straight into a nest of ghosts!

The Female Ghost's face drew closer and closer. She looked about to crawl out of the toilet. Her laughter grew louder, and he could just make out what sounded like words mixed in with it. "Gagagaga... gouge... your eyes..."

Yu Xing was utterly desperate.

He grabbed the mop leaning beside him, pinned the mop head down with his foot, and yanked the wooden handle free. Then he shouted, furious and terrified, "Didn't I say I was a coward? Don't scare me! What the hell are you laughing at?"

Then he thrust the stick into the Female Ghost's face, knocking her back down into the sewer.