I Am The Title

"Of course not, I've never knocked on his door."

"I told him no, and he stopped making noise. He just kept his mouth shut, no matter how I asked."

"Seeing that things weren't right, I discussed sending him to the hospital with his brother-in-law, but he absolutely refused, shouting that he wasn't sick."

"My husband and I paid special attention. There was no knocking sound at night, no noise at all, but he insisted someone was knocking on his door, that someone wanted to harm him..."

Zhao Meixiang let out a long sigh, looking somewhat weary.

Gu Mian continued, "What happened next? I heard Zhao Wen was eventually found in a hotel outside."

Zhao Meixiang nodded tiredly, "After my brother came back, his personality changed drastically. First, he stayed in his room, only coming out to eat or use the restroom."

"But later..."

She shivered as she spoke, "But later, he would often come out..."

Qing Huan asked curiously, "Isn't that a good thing?"

"No," Zhao Meixiang shook her head. "He would only come out late at night, in the dead of night."

"That night... my husband and I were asleep, but in the middle of the night, I suddenly needed to use the restroom. Just as I was getting out of bed, I saw... I saw..."

"I saw the door was ajar, I don't know when it was pushed open. He was squatting outside, his entire face pressed against the gap, staring at me without blinking."

"I screamed in terror then. My husband was woken up by the noise, and he also saw the person squatting outside the door at a glance."

"I was terrified and asked my brother what he was doing. He said it was nothing, then stood up and left..."

Qing Huan shivered, looking a bit scared.

Zhao Meixiang continued, "But later, I discovered he was constantly watching us..."

"When I was in the living room, he would pull the door open a crack and just stare at me..."

"When I was in the kitchen, he would squat behind the kitchen door, looking down at me through the gap underneath..."

"Even when I returned home and opened the door, he would be pressed against the peephole, staring intently at me..."

"There was even one time when he hid in the wardrobe by our bed. In the middle of the night, I heard a noise. When I opened my eyes, I saw the wardrobe door was ajar, his head sticking out above me, staring at me fixedly..."

Zhao Meixiang shivered violently, "Later, my husband finally couldn't take it anymore and yelled at him to leave, but my brother said we were trying to harm him."

"After he said that, he rushed out... we couldn't catch him. Later... later the police found him in a hotel..."

"They said he was already rotten when found, inside the hotel wardrobe."

"The staff couldn't find him, so they wanted to clean the room to rent it out again. As soon as they opened the wardrobe, he fell out, his eyes still wide open..."

At this point, Zhao Meixiang couldn't hold back any longer and began to sob softly.

Qing Huan also shivered. Encountering that knocking ghost... it would eventually lead to mental breakdown and this kind of outcome, right?

Gu Mian frowned slightly.

Seeing this, Qing Huan asked, "What's wrong, Doctor Gu?"

Gu Mian looked at Zhao Meixiang, "You said your brother, Zhao Wen, his later symptoms were a tendency to spy?"

"His later symptoms..." Qing Huan swallowed. As expected of a doctor, asking about supernatural events was like a medical consultation.

Zhao Meixiang nodded, "Yes, I don't know why, he suddenly became like that..."

Gu Mian understood, "I suspect your brother Zhao Wen later developed symptoms of paranoid delusion. He suspected you and your husband were knocking, so he kept watching you."

Zhao Meixiang looked somewhat lost, "Is... is that so..."

"Right," Gu Mian continued, "Before this incident, did Zhao Wen experience any other strange things, like exploring haunted houses or being frightened by something?"

Zhao Meixiang shook her head, "No, he was a very steady child. He usually just worked at the factory, at most he'd go out with friends, but he wouldn't go anywhere far."

"And where did he work?"

"Nearby, Mingliang Plastic Factory. It's still open, you can see it not far from here."

All questions answered, Gu Mian didn't linger. He stood up and slung his chainsaw over his shoulder, "Thank you for your cooperation. We will do our best to ascertain Zhao Wen's true cause of death."

Then he left with Qing Huan.

As they came down from the building, Qing Huan was still a bit confused, "Doctor Gu, we came to investigate the knocking ghost, but it seems we don't have many clues."

Now they only knew the knocking ghost had killed a man named Zhao Wen, but there wasn't a single clue about the ghost itself.

"No," Gu Mian shook his head. "Although Zhao Wen has no relation to me, he has a significant relation to someone else."

Qing Huan asked curiously, "Who?"

"Think about it, what were Zhao Wen's later symptoms?"

"Paranoid delusion, peeping... wait, peeping? Could he be the one following Yuwen Hao!"

Gu Mian nodded, "Most likely it's that peeping ghost who was following Yuwen Hao. After Zhao Wen died from the curse, he himself became a Fierce Ghost, becoming part of the curse."

Qing Huan's back chilled, "That's too terrifying. If every cursed person becomes part of the curse after death, how many ghosts will there be!"

"I suspect if we trace back to the origin, the deaths of all these ghosts can be traced back to a single source. For example, Zhao Wen was killed by the knocking ghost, and the knocking ghost might have been killed by a ghost higher up. Tracing back like this, the one at the very top is the source of the curse we're looking for."

Gu Mian continued, "The source could be one of these five ghosts, or it could be somewhere else. In any case, we first need to deduce the relationship of killing and being killed among these five ghosts."

Who killed whom? Who, in turn, killed whom?

Qing Huan suddenly understood and said, "So the relationship we know now is... the peeping ghost was killed by the knocking ghost. If we want to trace the origin, we need to go up