The Laws of Horror Movies

Inside the inn.

Zhou Zhenguo closed his eyes and leaned back against his chair, his expression quite weary.

On the wall in front of him was a small hole.

It allowed him to see into the room occupied by Li Liang and Tang Luo.

He had secretly made it after reaching a consensus with Tang Luo, finding it convenient to keep an eye on Li Liang.

Tonight, Tang Luo and Xiao Chu had gone fishing.

The others, keeping in mind the horror movie trope that splitting up leads to certain death, had all gathered in Tang Luo's room—two men and two women.

They could have originally returned to their rooms in pairs to sleep.

But Li Liang had specifically had an incident.

The high school student was unwilling to be "alone" with him, and being truly by himself felt equally unsettling.

As for shamelessly tagging along with the two young ladies?

For the vast majority of loud-mouthed high schoolers, that was an impossible feat.

Everyone simply decided to wait here together; if anything happened, at least there was strength in numbers—or so they hoped.

And so, this night—

The four of them stared at each other, the atmosphere somewhat awkward.

In the other room, Zhou Zhenguo's eyes were also stinging from staring, to the point where he was almost tearing up.

Something isn't right. Why does it feel like I've become the lookout?

Zhou Zhenguo felt the situation was off.

He was clearly the only veteran (pseudo), yet through one thing or another, he had ended up following Tang Luo's instructions.

The situation was being completely dominated by the other party.

Why was it like this?

After thinking it over repeatedly, Zhou Zhenguo decided it wasn't his fault.

The problem lay with that "Master Xuanzang."

This person was no martial monk, nor was he a master; he was a demonic monk.

Thinking of it this way, Zhou Zhenguo felt much more balanced.

It wasn't that his side wasn't trying hard, but that the enemy "had a Gundam."

"Ah~~~~"

In the next room, Li Liang let out a long yawn and, ignoring everyone else, flopped down and went straight to sleep.

He had completely given up on himself now; he didn't even care if the mission failed.

After all, he felt as if his body had been hollowed out.

There was no "Kidney Treasure" here to replenish his vitality.

And everyone still suspected him.

Anyway, that damned Old Zhou had said that failing a mission once wouldn't result in punishment.

His wife had once said: Escapism might be shameful, but it's useful!

"Going to the restroom?" Bi Wanhui asked, looking at her friend.

"Yeah."

Her friend nodded.

Adhering to the basic principle that best friends must go to the restroom together, the two walked out of the room.

In the other room, Zhou Zhenguo thought for a moment and decided not to follow.

The inn rooms did not have private bathrooms.

There was a restroom at the end of the hallway.

The only people staying at the inn were Tang Luo's group, and since it was cleaned daily, it was still quite clean.

Her friend stood guard at the entrance, and Bi Wanhui walked inside, pulling the door to a crack, looking somewhat anxious.

It wasn't that she was truly in a rush.

It was just that she remembered Li Liang had (allegedly) had his incident in the restroom.

Furthermore, places like restrooms were "frequent guests" in horror movies.

Hanako of the Toilet, Moaning Myrtle—uh, the latter seemed more like a comedic character.

In any case, even with a friend guarding outside, and the door only partially closed, she was still quite panicked about using the restroom in the middle of the night and hoped to finish quickly.

Not to mention, there was only a kerosene lamp placed in the corner of this restroom, its light dim to the point of near-extinction.

Panic had set in, making it somewhat difficult to go.

Just then, a gust of chilling wind suddenly swept through the cramped space, startling Bi Wanhui into standing up abruptly.

Turning her head to look, she saw it was just the small window nearby that hadn't been latched tightly.

Bi Wanhui let out a slight sigh of relief; outside that small window was pitch-black darkness, and at most, it was only large enough to fit a big watermelon.

The cold breeze blowing through caused the ajar door to swing open a little wider.

Bi Wanhui heard the distinct sound of footsteps.

"Chengcheng, are you still there?" Bi Wanhui shouted, terrified that her friend might have grown impatient and left.

"Still here."

Her friend's voice came from outside, but the second half of the sentence was not directed at Bi Wanhui: "Someone is inside, come back to clean later."

Bi Wanhui assumed the footsteps she had heard must have been those of the hotel cleaning staff approaching.

Reflecting on it for a moment, the footsteps she had heard earlier had been getting closer, not moving away.

With someone outside, Bi Wanhui felt much more at ease.

She could vaguely see a figure swaying through the two-finger-wide gap of the door.

It wasn't very distinct.

After a while, having finished her business, Bi Wanhui washed her hands and pushed the door.

The door, which opened outward, bumped into the back of the person outside.

"Don't block the doorway," Bi Wanhui said, applying a bit more force at the same time.

"Thud!"

The sound of a heavy object hitting the wooden floor rang out.

Bi Wanhui's movement of pushing the door stopped instantly.

That sound had rung out right in front of the door.

The dim light, previously blocked by the figure, shone into the restroom.

Bi Wanhui's eyes widened.

She saw a pitch-black liquid that had somehow seeped through the door gap into the restroom.

It was dark red blood, spreading across the floor.

"Ah!"

Her scream of terror, due to the sheer intensity of her fear, turned into a dry, hoarse sound, almost as if it were being crushed in her throat.

Fortunately, though she had lost her voice, she had not lost her strength.

Bi Wanhui pushed the door desperately, squeezing her way out through the widened gap.

In her panic, she tripped over the "object" on the floor.

She slammed heavily onto the ground.

She saw a pair of wide, lifeless eyes, staring at her, appearing right before her face.

It seemed as if they were accusing her of something.

Half of her friend's face was stained dark red by the blood on the floor.

Bi Wanhui, having fallen to the ground, was also covered in blood.

The pungent smell of iron only now began to irritate her nasal cavity.

It was as if her sense of smell, which had suddenly fallen dormant, had abruptly awakened in this very instant.

Bi Wanhui wasn't even sure how she managed to scramble up from the floor.

She only remembered reaching the door of the room.

The room door opened just at that moment.

The high school student Xiao Zhou was startled by the sight of her face and body covered in blood.

He almost slammed the door shut, nearly letting it make intimate contact with Bi Wanhui's nose.

"She's dead..."

Bi Wanhui only had time to utter these three words.

Whether it was due to the overwhelming shock, her vision went black, and she fainted completely.

In a small alley not far from the hotel.

Two figures were approaching.

They were dressed as a man and a woman.

One of them was a cross-dresser.

The cross-dresser, Xiao Chu, was actually feeling a bit excited.

Tang Luo and Xiao Chu searched the man's house and indeed discovered some interesting clues.

A letter.

A very simple letter.

The content of the letter was addressed to the man named Hodge—the same man Tang Luo had turned into a headless corpse, assuming him to be Jack the Ripper.

To join "them," one had to provide a pledge of loyalty.

"Pledge of loyalty" wasn't the exact wording, of course; the original text stated that "they" required a tribute.

Who were "they"?

Tang Luo and Xiao Chu had no way of knowing.

The signature at the end of the letter was a symbol, most likely representing some organization.

As for what the tribute was, it went without saying.

This Hodge had acted on a whim, not out of lust—at least, not purely out of lust.

Beyond that, Tang Luo and Xiao Chu also discovered Hodge's identity.

He was a doctor, or to be precise, a former doctor.

The specific circumstances would still require further investigation.

This person might just be an important breakthrough!

"Master, I also have a bold idea."

Xiao Chu said from behind Tang Luo.

"What idea?" Tang Luo asked, not stopping his pace as he walked.

"Jack the Ripper might not be just one person!" Xiao Chu said, sounding as delighted as if he had discovered a new continent. "Do you think it's possible that Jack the Ripper is actually an organization?"

"Perhaps Jack the Ripper was only one person at the beginning."

"But later, when others saw there was profit to be made, they simply formed an organization and acted in the name of Jack the Ripper to reap the benefits."

"That Hodge was likely just a peripheral member trying to join."

"And I don't think this organization is simple; there must be big shots inside. I just don't know if there are people with supernatural abilities."

At first, everyone assumed Jack the Ripper must possess special abilities.

This was almost beyond doubt.

But now that Xiao Chu speculated that Jack the Ripper was not just one person, but more likely an organization, it was no longer certain whether "Jack the Ripper" possessed special abilities.

An organization, plus special abilities.

Would the mission be too difficult?

"It's very possible."

Tang Luo nodded, but his expression remained calm, showing no signs of excitement.

He was no detective, and he considered himself an ordinary person with average intelligence—plain and unremarkable, not some mastermind with near-demonic wit.

Deducing the truth through clues and various traces was not his area of expertise.

For Tang Luo, as long as there was a general direction to move forward, that was enough.

Whether Jack the Ripper was an organization or a single person didn't actually matter.

"There's no mission completion notification, so it seems we must have concrete evidence, or find and even eradicate that organization."

Xiao Chu was quite confident in his deduction.

Come to think of it, the trope of "the killer is not one person, but a group" wasn't particularly rare.

It was merely a matter of having one's thinking restricted by established preconceptions.

Once that was broken, everything became clear.

"Then let's investigate according to your theory," Tang Luo said, grabbing Xiao Chu and vaulting over the wall once more to return to the inn.

"I really saw it!"

Just as they reached the door of their room, the voice of Bi Wanhui came from inside, where the soundproofing was not particularly good.

Her voice was hoarse and hurried, sounding as if she were screaming.

"Something happened?"

Xiao Chu was stunned and immediately knocked on the door.

The room went silent at once.

"It's us, we're back!"

Xiao Chu pressed against the door and spoke.

The door opened, revealing Zhou Zhenguo's weary face.

Before Xiao Chu could even react, he was yanked inside.

Tang Luo walked in behind him and shut the door with a casual motion.

There were four people in the room in total.

The number of people was the same as when Tang Luo and the others had left.

But the "lineup" had changed.

A female college student had been replaced by a middle-aged man with a beer belly and a grim expression.

It was not a change that brought any joy.

"What happened?"

The heavy atmosphere in the room left Xiao Chu with no time to even change out of his clothes.

"You should change your clothes first; something has happened, Master Xuanzang."

Zhou Zhenguo said.

Clearly, in his mind, only Tang Luo was reliable enough to solve the problem.

Feeling slighted, Xiao Chu was a bit unhappy, but he didn't say anything and walked to the side to start changing his clothes.

"Chengcheng is dead."

The expression on Bi Wanhui's face remained one of terror.

However, the bloodstains on her body had already vanished.