The cramped, dilapidated room reeked of mildew. The top floor seemed to have a leaky roof, and the room was damp and stuffy, making it terribly uncomfortable.
Every window had been boarded up. After taking a look, Chen Ge discovered that the boards were new and had only recently been installed.
"This is just an ordinary guest room." The burned furniture had long since been thrown away. The room was completely empty, with nothing of value to be found.
"Then again, five years have passed. Even if there was evidence, it probably couldn't have survived intact."
He stepped out and wandered along the dark corridor. Most of the guest rooms had been cleared out. Odds and ends were mixed in with household trash, leaving barely any room to step.
"Household trash can usually reveal a person's lifestyle and personality. Maybe I'll find something in there." Changing his focus, Chen Ge endured the stench and searched carefully. More than an hour later, he really did find something strange.
"Why are there so many stuffed toys in the Apartment Building? There aren't any children here, so who do these toys belong to?" He spent nearly two hours searching through all the trash and found four stuffed toys in total. Compared with all the clutter filling the corridor, they were easy to miss. If Chen Ge hadn't majored in toy design and been especially familiar with toys, he might have overlooked them too.
The four toys had been tossed there for who knew how long. Their surfaces were covered in grime, and some parts had gone moldy. A gentle touch was enough to pull off a handful of fluff.
Chen Ge examined them again and again, but only found more reasons to be suspicious. The toys looked different, yet they had all been made by the same manufacturer.
"Could they have been left behind by tenants who moved in after Ping An Apartment was renovated?" Chen Ge quickly shook off the idea. "Never mind the odds of anyone moving into a haunted apartment with a child. Even if they had, it's unlikely they would have brought four stuffed toys at once. These toys all came from the same manufacturer, and judging by their workmanship and styles, they're several years old."
The toy market changed at a breakneck pace. Before taking over the Haunted House, he had worked at a toy company and knew the industry fairly well.
"They weren't left by tenants, but they were kept in a haunted house. That means they might have originally belonged to the Apartment Building." He ventured a guess. "The original owner had two daughters. If I'm right, these toys belonged to them."
A new question occurred to Chen Ge. "Fire and water spare no one. The house and furniture were burned down, so how did these four toys escape unscathed?"
"Was it a coincidence? Or did someone deliberately put them somewhere safe?" Chen Ge felt he had grasped an important clue. "There was only one person who could have moved things during the fire: the Killer himself! But why would he risk his life to save four stuffed toys? Did they mean that much to him?"
The zipper on the back of one toy had rusted and broken. Chen Ge tore it open. Among the foul-smelling, rotten stuffing, he found a card about the size of his palm. Every line was full of affection, making his skin crawl. "He put a love letter inside a toy? That's a pretty subtle way to confess."
He began to imagine the Killer's personality. The man must have been shy and reserved, too embarrassed to say what he felt to her face. So he gave her a toy, hoping she would open it after she got home.
Curious, Chen Ge tore open two more toys. Each contained a card with roughly the same message.
But when he tore open the fourth toy, a chill crept up his spine.
There was no confession card in the last toy. The moldy stuffing was packed with torn scraps of paper, and every scrap bore the same three words: "Go to hell!"
Somehow, passionate love had turned into the most vicious curse. Chen Ge had no way of knowing what had happened in between.
"The Killer must have left these notes. This is crucial evidence." He picked out a few scraps and put them in his pocket. Just as he was about to investigate farther inside, the voice-activated light at the stairwell landing suddenly turned on!
"Someone's here!" Chen Ge panicked. He quickly switched off his phone's flashlight and hurried into a nearby guest room, clutching the stuffed toys.
Daring not to make a sound, he held his breath and hid behind the door, peering through the crack to watch the corridor.
Footsteps rang out, followed by the voices of a man and a woman talking in the dark hallway.
"We have to get that thing out of here right away. We can't put it off any longer."
"That new tenant went up to the third floor earlier. He got to the stairs, then suddenly turned back down. He almost found me."
"I know. More and more outsiders have been coming to the apartment lately. We need to deal with that thing fast."
"Yeah."
"Get the others. We'll do it together. We'll dig it out tonight and bury it on the Back Mountain."
The newcomers carried an old-fashioned miner's lamp. In its light, Chen Ge finally got a clear look. The two people talking in the corridor were the Landlord and the woman from the first floor.
"Why are they coming up to the third floor in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?" Chen Ge adjusted his position to make sure he wouldn't be spotted, then pressed himself against the door.
Before long, the Tattooed Man and the fat man he had seen in the Apartment Building came upstairs too. They had bundled themselves up from head to toe and brought tools like an iron crowbar, a burlap sack, and a kitchen knife.
"What are they planning to do?"
The group stood in the corridor, apparently arguing.
The Short Fat Man at the back looked troubled. "Do we really have to do this? Once we dig it out, our fingerprints will be left all over the place. We'll never be able to explain ourselves."
"You think you can explain yourself now?" The Landlord glared at him. "Stop wasting time and come help."
"I think we should call the police."
At that, the Tattooed Man strode over and grabbed him by the collar. "Are you crazy? You want to put yourself in the line of fire? The police will investigate us first. Then everything will come out: your drunk-driving hit-and-run, and us occupying the old man's apartment!"
"Don't get angry, dear." The woman who lived across from the Tattooed Man on the first floor came over. "We're all in this together. None of us can get away. We'd better get to work."
"Every one of us has something to hide. We finally found somewhere to stay. If any of you get other ideas, don't blame me for turning against you." The Landlord shoved the iron crowbar into the Short Fat Man's hands. "You make the first move."
"Me?" Sweat immediately ran down the fat man's forehead. His face turned pale, then flushed. Gripping the crowbar, he slowly shuffled forward.
Watching their strange behavior from outside, Chen Ge grew more and more certain that something was wrong. "What are they getting ready to dig up?"
The Short Fat Man walked to the far end of the corridor. He pushed the clutter aside, then, under the watchful eyes of the other tenants, tremblingly pulled back the curtain behind it.
It was a reinforced concrete wall, with a Female Corpse embedded inside it, her back turned to everyone.
Before you continue