I'm a Proper Title

Huang Yu finally couldn't hold back and shouted, "Anyway, nobody's getting me to go back to that apartment tonight!"

The others fell silent in unison. They didn't seem willing to go back to their own homes, either.

Yuwen Hao asked, his face pale, "If the ghost was guarding the door, how did you get out today?"

Huang Yu shook his head blankly. "I don't know. It was already light out when I woke up this morning. I looked through the peephole and saw that there was nothing outside, but I still didn't dare go out. I waited until two people came downstairs from the floor above, then I dared to leave and go downstairs with them... That ghost can probably only move around at night..."

Nighttime was certainly when the atmosphere was most terrifying. If Gu Mian were a ghost, he would definitely choose that time to scare people, too.

People always felt that daytime was a little safer than nighttime.

But even though it was relatively safe daytime now, everyone present shivered.

Yuwen Hao rubbed the goose bumps on his arm and looked at Gu Mian, who hadn't yet described what he'd experienced the night before. "Doctor Gu, what happened to you last night?"

All four of us experienced something extremely terrifying. Gu Mian must have, too. That was what Yuwen Hao thought.

Seeing the others gazing at him expectantly, Gu Mian cleared his throat and began, "Last night..."

The four of them leaned forward slightly, waiting for him to speak. They seemed desperate to find out how terrifying an experience Gu Mian had had.

But—

"Last night, I watched The Ring twice, ate two bags of popcorn, answered a call from Yuwen Hao, and then slept straight through until eight in the morning..."

The others' outstretched necks stiffened.

Yuwen Hao stared at him. "That's it?"

This was simply absurd! Hadn't the doctor noticed anything strange last night?

"No." Gu Mian shook his head. "Something unpleasant happened last night—"

The four of them watched Gu Mian intently, waiting for him to tell them what unpleasant thing had happened.

"It was already dark, and I don't know what time it was. The first dead face had just appeared in the movie when I heard someone knocking on my door."

"I looked through the peephole, but there was no one there, so I went back to the sofa. A little while later, though, the knocking started again."

"I looked through the peephole again. There still wasn't anyone outside. But just as I turned around to leave, the door started knocking again..."

Gu Mian spoke in a perfectly ordinary tone, as if he weren't telling them anything scary at all. The other four looked at him strangely as they listened to his matter-of-fact account.

"Then I immediately turned around and opened the door..."

At this, Yuwen Hao finally couldn't hold back. "You opened the door?"

Would any normal person be stupid enough to open the door and take a look in that situation?

Gu Mian looked at him and answered seriously, "Yes, I opened the door."

Yuwen Hao stared at him with an odd expression. "And then?"

"There was still nothing outside. After that, my door stayed quiet for a while, but it wasn't long before the knocking started again..."

The others stared at Gu Mian without blinking, seeming eager to hear what happened next.

Under the gaze of four pairs of eyes, Gu Mian slowly continued, "I thought there was no way I'd see anything outside the door if I looked again, so I..."

Yuwen Hao prompted him impatiently, "So what did you do?"

"So I got a stool, stuck my head out through the ventilation window above the door, and cursed out the thing knocking below as loudly as I could. After that, my door never made another sound."

His words left everyone stunned.

Lin Yue'er looked uncomfortable. "Doctor Gu, are you telling us a joke?"

Gu Mian shook his head solemnly. "I'm not."

Qing Huan hesitated before asking, "Then... Doctor Gu, did you see what was knocking?"

Gu Mian shook his head again. If I'd seen what was knocking, I wouldn't have stopped at cursing it out.

Yuwen Hao gave an awkward laugh. "Doctor Gu probably ran into a mischievous kid last night. Maybe the ghost following you didn't make a move."

As if he didn't want to continue the topic, he immediately went on, "Let's make a plan for today. Our goal is to survive ten days, so we need to find clues to a way out before the ghosts get to us."

"I've already said that the clues to a way out aren't clear. I think they're probably connected to the source of the curse. For now, our best bet is to follow the clues and figure out what the curse on us is."

Qing Huan asked, "How do we figure that out?"

Yuwen Hao replied, "Based on what happened last night, I think there are five ghosts following us, one for each of us. We've also more or less figured out what the five ghosts are like."

"The one following me keeps watching me from the shadows. We can call it the Peeping Ghost."

"The one following Lin Yue'er is under the bed, so we can call it the Under-the-bed Ghost."

"The one following Qing Huan has been behind him the whole time, right? So let's call it the Behind-you Ghost."

"The one following Huang Yu... Let's call it the Phone Ghost."

"As for the one following Doctor Gu... I'm not sure yet. We can figure that out later."

"Now that we've figured out what kind of ghost is following each of us, we can start by investigating the houses we live in. You all think there's something wrong with your houses, right? We can check whether anyone died in them."

"If there was a victim, we can investigate the person's characteristics further. For example... did the victim die under a bed, or did they have a particular fondness for making phone calls while they were alive?"

"If we can figure out the identities of the five ghosts following us, I think we can use those identities to deduce the source of the curse."

They could ask the landlords or other tenants about the houses. That part shouldn't be too difficult.

But there was still a major problem facing them.

"Time is short. If all five of us investigate together, it'll be a huge waste of time." Yuwen Hao looked at the others. "So it'd be best to split up."

Splitting up was always one of the biggest taboos in horror movies.

It was a great way to speed up the death count, but people still eagerly drank down this death-accelerating potion.

"The best way to split up would be into pairs, but there are five of us..."