By then, Chu Changge had already reached the third floor. He'd used a few special tricks to shake off the ghost on the first floor.
The first floor was entirely a Mourning Hall.
The second floor was entirely hospital rooms.
Just as he'd imagined, the third floor was entirely cells.
The power was out on this floor too. It was pitch-black, and the layout was much like the second floor: a wall on one side, cells on the other.
The cells looked like they'd been abandoned for a long time. The floor beneath his feet was damp, and some of the bars were rusted and peeling. The air was thick with the smell of damp and mold.
Although every cell was empty, all the doors were firmly shut and tightly bound with chains.
Small signs hung above the cell doors. He wasn't sure if they introduced the inmates or listed something else, but he could still make out the writing when he looked up.
Chu Changge shone his flashlight at the nearest sign. "No. 023, Li Guodong, charge: intentional homicide..."
He held the two sheets of paper from the coffin in Yang Shuang's Mourning Hall: a wanted notice for Ma Gang and a letter of thanks for reporting a crime.
Gu Mian had seen the two sheets of paper and put them back on the coffin afterward, so when Chu Changge returned to the Mourning Hall, he'd spotted them at once.
"Ma Gang. He must be the one connected to the prison transport van, and he's the ghost on this floor too." As he thought, he kept walking.
If nothing unexpected happened, Ma Gang's cell would be among these rooms. He just had to find it.
There wasn't much time left. Gu Mian and the others must already be in danger. He had to hurry and piece together all the clues into a coherent storyline so they could figure out the test answers.
Chu Changge walked through the dim corridor.
Before long, a familiar name came into view.
Unlike the other cells, this one's door had somehow been left open. It swayed slightly, looking eerie in the darkness.
The sign on the door was badly damaged, but the original writing was still legible.
"No. 042, Ma Gang. Previously convicted of intentional homicide. Released after serving a thirteen-year sentence. Thirteen years later, murdered a woman with an axe and resisted arrest, attempting to attack the police. Sentenced to death."
Chu Changge looked at the sign by the door.
The woman was almost certainly Yang Shuang, who'd reported him on the first floor. Ma Gang had probably still held a grudge after his release, so he'd killed her again.
But the police department's wanted notice clearly said that the informant's identity wouldn't be revealed. How had he found out that Yang Shuang had reported him?
Chu Changge looked again into the open cell.
The prison cell was small, with gray-black walls and a gray-black floor. In one corner stood a bed that looked as if it had been built from cement.
The bed was covered with the standard prison sheets and blanket, but there seemed to be a patch of color that didn't belong.
He glanced at the cell door, swaying slightly beside him. If he went in now and something blocked the entrance, he'd have no way out.
But he didn't hesitate for long. He strode into the cell and reached for the patch of color on the bed.
He didn't stop to look at what it was. Chu Changge picked it up and turned to leave. Fortunately, the usual horror-movie trope didn't play out: the doorway was still empty, with no terrifying figure blocking his way.
But Chu Changge quickly realized something: the trope might arrive late, but it never failed to show up.
A short distance beyond the cell door, a pair of feet had appeared on the floor.
Without hesitation, he spun around and ran toward the stairs.
The circular corridor was long, and there was only one staircase. Chu Changge ran for a long time before he saw the stairwell, and the sound behind him was almost at his heels.
At the last possible moment, he charged to the stairwell and slammed the door shut. He didn't even bother with his flashlight. Gripping the handrail, he raced downstairs.
Chu Changge ran all the way to the second-floor corridor, then rushed into a random hospital room and hid.
Fortunately, the ghost from the third floor didn't follow him.
He listened carefully behind the door for a long while. Only when he heard no movement outside did he feel safe enough to unfold the thing he'd been clutching.
It was what he'd found in the cell on the third floor: a small slip of paper, a death certificate.
There was also a group photo.
First, he used the light from outside the window to read the death certificate.
"This is to certify that Zhao Lanhai, a female resident of our district who was pregnant, got into an argument with her neighbor, Yang, on October 2, 2003. She fell by accident and suffered severe bleeding, resulting in a premature birth. Due to a delay in receiving help, she died from blood loss on the way to the hospital."
Below that were Zhao Lanhai's ID number and date of birth, which weren't useful.
Chu Changge then looked at the group photo.
There were three people in it. He recognized two of them: Yang Shuang, the ghost from the first floor, and Ma Gang, the ghost from the third.
The third person, whose photo he hadn't seen before, had a large belly and looked to be seven or eight months pregnant.
The three of them seemed to be good friends, close to one another.
The pregnant woman stood in the middle, smiling at the camera. She must have been Zhao Lanhai. Beside her, a younger Yang Shuang affectionately linked arms with her.
A man stood on Zhao Lanhai's other side. His face was unmistakably Ma Gang's, the same as in the wanted notice.
He rested one hand on Zhao Lanhai's shoulder. The two looked like husband and wife.
But someone had drawn a huge red cross over Yang Shuang's face in the photo. They'd pressed so hard that they'd nearly torn the picture. Whoever had drawn it had clearly hated Yang Shuang, enough to vent their anger even on a photograph.
The photo had been found in Ma Gang's cell, so it was obvious who had drawn the cross.
The date the photo was taken was written in the lower-right corner: August 22, 2003. Ma Gang had committed the murder on September 23, so it had been taken exactly one month before the incident.
Back then, the three of them had still been friends.
Now Chu Changge understood how Yang Shuang had learned where Ma Gang was hiding and reported him.
He looked at the clues in his hands, trying to connect them into a single story.
"On September 23, 2003, Ma Gang committed a murder and went into hiding. The Ministry of Public Security issued a wanted notice. Ma Gang wouldn't have told anyone where he was hiding, but he was worried about his pregnant wife, Zhao Lanhai, and trusted her enough to tell her."
"Zhao Lanhai and Yang Shuang were friends. While they were talking, Zhao Lanhai might have accidentally let slip where Ma Gang was hiding. As soon as Yang Shuang found out, she secretly reported it to the police."
"On October 2, the police probably caught Ma Gang while he was still on the run. His wife, Zhao Lanhai, realized Yang Shuang had secretly informed on him and went to confront her. They argued, and an accident happened. Zhao Lanhai didn't get help in time and died of blood loss on the way to the hospital... She died in the ambulance?"
"By the time Zhao Lanhai died, Ma Gang had already been imprisoned. He began a thirteen-year stretch behind bars. In prison, he learned that his wife had died and why, and he began to resent Yang Shuang. That resentment built up for thirteen years."
"After serving his full sentence, Ma Gang went straight to find Yang Shuang and killed her. Then he tried to escape again, but was unlucky and failed. He was caught and sent back to prison to be executed."
The story behind this instance was truly tangled.
He'd filled in many of the details himself. Chu Changge had always had a good imagination, and as a law student, he could piece together a story that made sense.
There were still plenty of unanswered questions, but the overall storyline had taken shape.
Once they knew the story, they'd usually be able to pass the written test.
As he thought, he glanced at the LED display in the corridor. It was already 9:50.
They could start answering the questions at ten.
"I need to find Gu Mian and tell him the story." Thinking this, he opened the door and stepped into the corridor.
"This is a six-and-a-half-star instance. It shouldn't be this easy," Chu Changge continued to ponder. "Most of the difficulty might be in the road test..."
"It's very possible that the ghosts connected to the three vehicles will interfere with the players during the road test. They might not necessarily encounter ghosts during the written test, but during the road test, the chance of running into one is one hundred percent."
"If a ghost appears in the car, the person in the driver's seat will probably die on the spot. That's why the road test is the hardest part of this instance."
Thinking about it gave Chu Changge a headache.
The written test didn't seem to serve any purpose beyond helping them understand the story connecting the three vehicles and the three ghosts.
But could the written test really be that simple?
Could it really be that simple?
As he thought, he looked at the clues in his hands. Then Chu Changge's gaze settled on the group photo.
Yang Shuang's face in the photo was almost torn through. Ma Gang had hated her so much that he'd nearly ripped apart even a group photo. If it had been a photo of her alone... he'd probably have torn it to shreds.
"Torn to shreds..."
A photo...
Suddenly, Chu Changge seemed to understand something. He looked toward the stairs. He remembered that a photo of Yang Shuang was hanging on the door of her Mourning Hall on the first floor.
He hadn't understood what the photo hanging on the door of the Mourning Hall was for. Now he did.
Before you continue