The door slammed hard against the wall, and Chen Ge rushed into the room and threw open the window.
"Shit! It's so high?"
Standing by the windowsill and looking down, he saw that it was at least three or four meters to the ground.
Rapid footsteps sounded in the corridor. The Landlord and the Tattooed Man were closing in fast.
Chen Ge had no time to think. He climbed out the window, gripping the sill with both hands and planting his feet on the anti-theft net on the first floor.
"He definitely saw us moving the corpse!"
"We can't let him get away!"
The Landlord's ugly, furious face appeared at the doorway. He raised his Kitchen Knife, his expression savage. "You think you can run?!"
There was no way Chen Ge would hesitate in a situation like this. He let go and jumped straight down.
His arm scraped against the wall, and the anti-theft net tore a large hole in his clothes. After landing, Chen Ge rolled across the ground, grabbed the Tool Hammer lying there, and ran toward the courtyard wall.
"Quick! Get him!" the Landlord roared, hurling the Kitchen Knife at Chen Ge.
A chill brushed the back of Chen Ge's head. The Kitchen Knife had missed him by a hair and was embedded deep in the grass behind him. Cold sweat poured down his face. "I absolutely can't fall into their hands. They're already trying to kill me!"
The Apartment Building's security door opened just then. The Fat Man and the woman, who had been lying in wait on the first floor, charged over with iron shears used for trimming bushes.
"A bunch of lunatics!" Chen Ge sprinted with all his might. Like an arrow, he shot toward the courtyard's iron gate, stepped on the new padlock the Landlord had installed, grabbed the rust-covered chain, and climbed over.
The Apartment Building was surrounded by dense woods. It was pitch-black, and he could barely see where he was going. With several people chasing him, Chen Ge barreled straight into the forest.
One chased, the other fled. Flashlight beams swept over him from time to time, and the Landlord and Tattooed Man's curses rang out behind him. Chen Ge didn't dare look back. There was only one thought in his mind: Get out of here, now!
Tree branches and vines snagged and tore his clothes and pants. Covered in mud and leaves, he ran for a full fifteen minutes before finally losing the Landlord and the others.
He crouched in a thicket, watching faint beams of light sweep back and forth in the distance. His fingers dug into the soil as he gulped down air.
That had been too close!
When he'd been trapped inside the Apartment Building, one moment's hesitation or one wrong choice could easily have cost him his life.
"Isn't this trial mission way too difficult?" The Black Phone's missions put his life on the line. Even worse, they took place in the real world.
He'd temporarily lost the Landlord, but that didn't mean he was safe. Huddled in the bushes, Chen Ge couldn't help worrying that he'd turn around and suddenly find the Landlord and the others behind him, armed with pruning shears and Kitchen Knives.
Once his heartbeat returned to normal, Chen Ge slowly stood up. The Landlord's flashlight had vanished, and the forest was dead silent in the middle of the night, with barely a chirp from an insect or bird.
"Which way should I go?"
He didn't know the area, and after running wildly through the woods, he couldn't even tell north from south.
"Maybe I should hide here until dawn?"
Chen Ge took out his phone and saw that the livestream was still running. The screen had been black for over an hour, and the chat was filled with question marks. Even the seasoned veterans, who had seen all sorts of things, were at a loss over this bizarre livestream.
He didn't bother chatting with the viewers. After checking the time, he was about to open He Shan's reply when a branch rustled behind him and to the side.
Chen Ge immediately shoved his phone back into his pocket to keep its screen from giving him away.
Gripping the Tool Hammer tightly, he felt his palms grow sweaty. He stared fixedly at the bushes where the sound had come from.
Before long, a faint beam of light shone over.
"Is someone there? Who's there?"
Just as Chen Ge was about to spring up and swing the Tool Hammer, he heard a familiar voice.
"Wang Qi? Didn't he leave the Apartment Building ages ago? Why has he come back in the middle of the night?" Chen Ge was curious, but he knew that curiosity killed the cat, so he remained crouched and didn't move.
"Did I see that wrong? No, I couldn't have." Wang Qi swept his flashlight around several times, then reluctantly paced around the spot.
"I absolutely can't go near him. There's no less wrong with this man than with the tenants of Ping An Apartment." Chen Ge didn't just stay away from Wang Qi; he deliberately avoided him, heading in the opposite direction.
Not long after, Chen Ge noticed the ground growing steeper. It seemed he'd gone the wrong way and wandered into the Back Mountain.
After pushing through the bushes, he came to a slope. Surrounded by trees, it held a crude Wooden Hut. A sign was nailed to the door. He stepped closer to read it: "Treat fire prevention like epidemic prevention; never let your guard down. Improve the investment environment; start with afforestation and greening."
"This looks like where a forest ranger lives." He tried the door. The Wooden Door was unlocked, and with a faint creak, a strange smell wafted out.
"What is that?" He didn't dare turn on his phone's flashlight, only raising the screen's brightness.
The Wooden Hut was small, and everyday items lay scattered everywhere, as if it were a garbage heap.
Sniffing, Chen Ge walked toward the strongest source of the odor. He lifted the bedboard, revealing a large pile of moldy clothes underneath.
"A hoarding habit?" What he saw was even worse than he'd imagined. Most of the clothes under the bed were women's, never washed and covered in stains.
He pulled out a few pieces at random and compared their sizes. They were all the same size and seemed to belong to the same person.
"The dirt on them hasn't completely dried. Someone seems to have worn this outfit within the last day or two?"
Chen Ge had the Corpse Makeup skill and knew the contours and structure of the human body very well. As he measured the clothes with his fingers, the image of the Female Corpse sealed inside the wall flashed into his mind.
"They fit perfectly. These clothes could belong to the Female Corpse in the wall!"
Why would clothes worn by a dead person be hidden in this Wooden Hut? And why had someone worn them just within the past few days?
Chen Ge's heart began to race. He spread the women's clothes out on the ground and searched their pockets, finding several crumpled scraps of paper. Faintly visible on them were phrases like "I love you."
"This handwriting..." Chen Ge took out the paper he'd found inside the Ragdoll and compared the two. The handwriting was almost identical.
"The notes inside the Ragdoll are from five years ago, while these women's clothes were clearly tossed here only in the past few weeks. They're separated by five years, so why are there so many similarities between them?"
The same handwriting, the same love letters. Could the culprit behind both cases be the same person?
He picked up the clothes again and was about to put the bedboard back when a phone with a pink casing fell out of an inner pocket.
"The dead woman's phone?"
Chen Ge picked it up and pressed the power button. The screen was open to a text message draft.
"Help me?"
A bad feeling rose in his heart. With trembling hands, he opened the sent messages. Every single one contained the same two words: "Help me!"
Before you continue