"So that means Sister Nuan's body was still in the bedroom when I arrived yesterday."
"Yes, right behind the door." Chen Xiaomeng paused, then stared at Jiang Cheng with a cold laugh. "If you'd gone a few steps farther in yesterday, that ghost would have dragged your body here too."
Jiang Cheng ignored her and continued asking, "Where is Sister Nuan's body now?"
Chen Xiaomeng stood up and walked toward the door. Jiang Cheng immediately followed, keeping less than a meter behind her.
"The door hasn't opened yet. I can't run," Chen Xiaomeng sneered.
Jiang Cheng shook his head as he followed close behind her. "Don't misunderstand. I just feel much safer when I'm closer to you."
Chen Xiaomeng was left speechless. She simply stopped responding to him and, after reaching the wall, felt around until she pressed a button. Suddenly, the room came into sharp focus.
The lights overhead came on.
The Fatty's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. He saw that the room had been decorated to look like a church.
A huge cross hung on the wall, and Sister Nuan was bound to it upside down, her face contorted. She was clearly dead.
Looking more closely, the entire cross, like Sister Nuan, was inverted.
All kinds of torture devices stood around the room. Their archaic, bloodthirsty designs gave them a medieval feel, and most were covered in gruesome bloodstains.
This was a torture chamber.
"The cross represents God. An inverted cross is a symbol of the devil." Jiang Cheng stared impassively at the instruments of torture. "Looks like this family were devil worshippers."
The Fatty was stunned by the scene, but Chen Xiaomeng looked at Jiang Cheng with interest. "Seems like you figured it out a long time ago."
This room couldn't have been set up in a short time, so the torture devices could only have belonged to the villa's owners, not the two unfortunate outsiders.
As soon as the Fatty came to his senses, he looked at Jiang Cheng. "So the real culprits were the family in the villa, and those two men—"
Jiang Cheng nodded. "Didn't you just see them?"
As if a bolt of lightning had shot through his mind, the Fatty suddenly seemed to realize something. Trembling, he said, "The bus that came to pick us up! The male driver, the mother with the child, the female ticket seller dressed like a man, and the girl in the couple. They're the family! They're the owners of this villa!"
"Exactly." Chen Xiaomeng shrugged. "And the man in the couple and the Big boy in the mother-and-child pair were the victims this family imprisoned and abused."
The Fatty recalled all the strange things he'd noticed about the mother and child and the couple on the way here. The man in the couple had worn an eye patch the whole time and never moved, while the Big boy, who'd supposedly been brought out for a trip by his mother, had looked terrified and hadn't said a word the entire time. So that was what had really been going on.
Hell was empty; the devils were here on earth.
The murderous female ghost hadn't killed for revenge. She was simply continuing the evil she'd done in life. The things that were etched into her bones could never be changed.
"When did you learn the truth?" Jiang Cheng asked Chen Xiaomeng.
"After that ghost killed Sister Nuan, the photos we'd found on the wall suddenly became clear." As she spoke, Chen Xiaomeng took out a photograph. The wooden frame was gone, probably because she'd found it bothersome and taken it off.
Jiang Cheng took the photo. It showed the villa's family of four, and he recognized every face. The background was this very torture chamber.
In a corner of the picture were two men, one lying down and the other sprawled out. Both were shackled with chains. Their heads were lowered, so their faces couldn't be seen, but their clothes were exactly the same as those worn by the two men on the bus.
"So the taboo this time was disguise." Jiang Cheng looked at Chen Xiaomeng. "The ghost had lured her victims into the villa by disguising herself when she was alive, so even after she died and became a ghost, she retained that trait."
"Fan Li and the others were killed because they didn't see through the ghost's disguise," Jiang Cheng continued.
Chen Xiaomeng shrugged. "Exactly."
A pale glow began to emanate from the doorway, and the entire space started to tremble.
The door was about to open.
Chen Xiaomeng was clearly used to the shaking that came when the door opened. While the Fatty was still bracing himself against the wall to keep from falling, she had already run to the iron door.
The iron door swung fully open. Beyond it lay a stretch of murky mist.
Jiang Cheng reached out to grab her, but he was a step too late. Chen Xiaomeng had already crossed the threshold and vanished into the mist beyond.
Jiang Cheng turned to look at the Fatty behind him, then stepped into the mist as well.
After a strange wave of dizziness, Jiang Cheng's body jolted to a stop, as if his feet had landed on a hard, level surface.
He lowered his head and, in the faint light, saw the wooden floor beneath his feet.
Everything around him had grown familiar.
He let out a deep breath. He'd actually returned to his psychological counseling office.
It was still night outside the window. A little moonlight filtered in, and everything was exactly as it had been when he left.
He reached into his pocket and pulled something out. It felt slightly rough. In the thin moonlight, he could make out a piece of paper folded several times.
He was slowly unfolding it when his body suddenly stiffened. A hand had silently settled on his right shoulder.
Someone had been lying in wait behind him, as if they'd known all along that he would return here.
Jiang Cheng slowly, slowly raised his hands. "There's twenty thousand yuan in a hidden compartment in the third drawer on the left side of the desk. The drawer is locked. The key's in the second-to-last coffee cup in the kitchen."
There was no sound from behind him. He paused, then continued, "That's all the money I have. If you're looking to steal anything else, I suggest you go upstairs. But there's no bed, just a mattress, so you'll have to make do."
After a long pause, the hand on his shoulder gave a little shake. A hearty voice rang out. "Brother, you've got a nice place!"
As soon as Jiang Cheng heard the voice, he grabbed the hand on his shoulder and twisted around, using the momentum to pin a chubby figure against the wall.
"Brother! Brother!"
The Fatty slapped the wall, grimacing in pain.
Jiang Cheng recognized the Fatty who had barely survived in the Dream Realm. His voice turned icy. "What are you doing here?"
He quickly glanced behind him at the spot where the door should have been. Now there was nothing but an ordinary wall.
According to Fan Li, anyone who survived a mission would return to the place in the real world where they had started. In other words, everyone went back home.
But this clearly wasn't the Fatty's home.
The Fatty's right arm creaked as if it were about to snap. He hurriedly explained, "Before I went through that door, I just thought it'd be great if I ended up in the same place as you, brother. Then I came out and saw you standing in front of me with your back turned. Maybe it's fate that brought us together."
But before the Fatty could finish, Jiang Cheng cut him off. "Cut the crap. You were just afraid of dying."
Before you continue