The person standing outside the door was actually a bride.
She held out a tray of wedding candies, her voice sweet. "I'm getting married today. Have some wedding candy."
Yin Ge's pupils contracted, and her whole body began to tremble uncontrollably.
Because she saw that the bride's head was hanging precariously from her neck like a rotten watermelon, brains and blood from her shattered skull seeping into her bright red wedding dress.
[On the night of December 9, a bride fell to her death in the city's Youth Road Residential Complex...]
The report from the video she had just watched about a bride jumping from a building in the complex seemed to echo through her mind again.
As the echo grew louder, Yin Ge's heart rose to her throat, yet drowsiness came over her at the worst possible moment.
She tried desperately to force her eyes open, but everything before her grew blurrier and blurrier.
"No, this isn't drowsiness!!!"
"Th-this feeling..."
"Am I going to die?"
"Wake up, wake up! It's almost time!"
Hearing the shout, Yin Ge yawned and sat up groggily.
What was she supposed to do again?
Go to work?
Right, work.
Yin Ge's mind was still muddled, and subconsciously, she wanted to sleep another two minutes.
But the next moment, she got out of bed, dressed, and put on her shoes in one fluid motion. Then, with practiced steps, she turned and entered another doorway.
Time to wash up, Yin Ge thought.
"Morning!" A gentle voice rang out, somewhat familiar, as though she had heard it somewhere before.
Yin Ge answered out of habit, "Morning."
She stretched and rubbed her eyes. A vanity table seemed to appear before her, and the greeting seemed to have come from its direction.
Wait, a greeting? A vanity table?
Didn't I live alone? Where did that greeting come from? And my place is just a tiny studio apartment. Where did a second bedroom come from? And where did this vanity table come from?
All these abnormalities jolted Yin Ge fully awake from her daze.
She rubbed her eyes, and her vision gradually cleared.
In an instant, she determined that this was not her little rented apartment.
The room was covered everywhere with bright red double-happiness characters. Even if she had never attended a wedding, she knew one when she saw one. Yin Ge immediately recognized that a wedding was about to take place here.
Yet this festive setting sent waves of chill through her heart.
Because she noticed that, in front of the vanity table, a comb was floating in midair, bobbing up and down as if it were combing the hair of someone seated there.
But the problem was, there was no one in front of the vanity table!
The unfamiliar surroundings and bizarre sight made Yin Ge's heart pound. She instinctively wanted to step back, but something even more terrifying happened.
She discovered that her feet would not obey her at all. They actually took a step forward!
Then came a second step, then a third.
At that moment, Yin Ge clearly felt that she could no longer control her body.
What the hell was going on?
But before she could think further, she could only watch helplessly as "she" walked to the vanity table.
She?
No, the face appearing in the mirror was not even hers.
Before Yin Ge could recover from the shock, her hand moved beyond her control and reached toward the patch of air before her.
No, that was not air!
A delicate, slick, sticky sensation traveled from her hand to her mind.
Hair. Wet hair!
Even though she could not see it, Yin Ge immediately identified what she was touching.
She wanted to pull back her hand, wanted to turn and run, but her body would not obey her.
She watched "herself" pick up a small mirror and place it behind the wet hair she had just touched. Then she spoke with a smile.
"Look how smooth your hair is. You'll definitely look beautiful when you try on the wedding dress later."
The moment those words left her mouth, overwhelming helplessness and fear enveloped Yin Ge, because she realized that not only was this body's face not hers, even its voice did not belong to her.
Even more horrifying, a reply suddenly sounded from thin air. "That's right, I think so too."
This was too bizarre!
All kinds of thoughts flashed through Yin Ge's mind. Had she been kidnapped, or was she dreaming?
No, if she had been kidnapped, where was the kidnapper? And why could she not control her own body?
Could this really be a dream?
But the feel of the hair in her hand, the conversation around her, and this eerie bedroom all felt so real.
Just as Yin Ge's thoughts descended into chaos, a man came to the bedroom door and urged, "You'd better hurry up. It'll be time soon."
Before Yin Ge could react, she turned to the man and teased, "Why are you in such a hurry, groom? We're going to try on wedding dresses today, not get married."
Only after turning around did she discover that several other people were sitting in the living room, men and women, young and old.
But before she could get a good look, the groom spoke again. "Enough. Instead of wasting time talking nonsense, you should think about which bridesmaid dress to pick later."
Picking a bridesmaid dress?
I'm the bridesmaid?
Yin Ge was deeply shaken, but the groom gave her no time to react. After speaking, he walked into the bedroom.
Yet something even more terrifying happened: every sound suddenly vanished at that very moment.
The groom's foot, which had been stepping forward, froze in midair. It clearly defied the laws of physics.
Even the clock on the wall had stopped moving, as if it had gone on strike.
The instant that thought arose, slow footsteps abruptly sounded behind her.
Who was it!?
But despite being filled with questions, Yin Ge could not turn her head to look. She could not even move her eyes.
As the unknown footsteps drew closer, a chill wind swept over her, and her heart climbed into her throat.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
The sound of dripping rang out, but what fell onto the floor was not water. It was blood!
So much blood!
Following the bloody water upward, she saw a blood-red wedding dress, followed by long, jet-black, sticky hair that dripped continuously with blood. The person wrapped in that blood-red dress...
Yin Ge clearly saw a head with its brains splattered out, and a face reduced to a bloody pulp.
Her entire body turned cold, as though she had fallen into an ice pit.
At the same time, a news report sounded from the depths of her mind, awakening a buried memory.
[This morning, a bride fell to her death in the city's Youth Road Residential Complex...]
The bride... was this the bride who had already died!?
Realizing this, she was plunged into absolute terror.
But the bride had already walked up to her and suddenly pressed her face close.
Yin Ge wanted to close her eyes, but having lost control of her body, she could not even manage that tiny movement. She could only watch as that grotesque, bloody head stopped before her.
The extreme terror nearly made her heart stop beating.
But soon, the bride left. She walked to a spot where everyone could see her and stood there, leaving behind only a few words.
"Find him..."
"Kill him!"
A voice filled with bone-deep hatred came from the bride's body.
Find who? Kill who? What did that mean...? Yin Ge panicked.
Every day, she only traveled between work and home. Although she lived in the same residential complex as the bride, they had never crossed paths, and she knew nothing about her.
Did the bride mean that she had been murdered rather than having committed suicide, and wanted Yin Ge to find the Killer?
But wasn't the bride already dead?
What the hell was going on?!
But at that moment, no one could answer Yin Ge's questions.
The flesh on the bride's face was only held together by a thin layer of skin to begin with. When she smiled, it fell away like drifting snowflakes.
Seeing that sight, combined with the bride's words, Yin Ge felt terror surge through her like a tide.
But after letting out a strange laugh, the bride vanished from where she stood.
As she disappeared, Yin Ge's body suddenly became able to move.
Yet this "movement" was still not under her control.
She watched as the groom's suspended foot came down.
Everything returned to normal, as if that bride had never appeared.
The groom strode forward, passed Yin Ge, and embraced a patch of air in front of the vanity table, his expression filled with joy. It was utterly bizarre.
"Baby, it's almost time. You're already beautiful now. Let's go." His voice was extremely gentle.
Seeing this, Yin Ge instantly understood. That patch of air was the bride!
Soon, the groom held the bride's hand and led her outside.
Absurd, bizarre, cold, sinister...
Yin Ge felt chills all over her body.
She followed everyone out.
The moment she stepped outside, she saw the familiar layout of the floor.
This really was Youth Road Residential Complex.
Youth Road Residential Complex was an old complex with poor facilities. There was no elevator, only stairs.
More importantly, a huge "6" was painted on the stairwell wall. This was the sixth floor!
Yin Ge lived on the sixth floor!
She had even figured out roughly where her rented apartment was, but right now, she could not even turn her head to look at it.
Helpless, she could only force down her fear and begin thinking.
After confirming that this was Youth Road Residential Complex, Yin Ge became even more certain that the bride in bloodstained clothing was the bride from the video who had committed suicide.
So what was she supposed to do now?
She could not even control her own body. She could not run even if she wanted to.
The instant that thought appeared, the dim yellow light in the hallway suddenly went out.
Yin Ge froze, and her footsteps stopped instinctively. In such a bizarre situation, darkness was always frightening.
But fortunately, the light came back on a moment later.
Though the light was weak, it was better than nothing.
Yin Ge let out a faint breath of relief and raised her hand to wipe away the cold sweat on her forehead.
Wait...
She stared at her hand, her pupils shrinking.
She could move?
Before you continue