Once Ye Chu returned safely, everyone visibly breathed a sigh of relief, and the atmosphere eased considerably.
Pei Yanchuan looked around, intending to settle the score with Tian Fuguo, but the coward had hidden somewhere. He was nowhere among the people around them.
Hah. So he wasn't afraid of dying after all.
He actually dared to go off alone.
"Now that we're on the third floor, let's look for clues here," Ye Chu said. "We'll start here. Feng Zi, Sister Lu, Wu You, search the left side. Xiao Pei and I will take the right. Splitting up will be faster."
"Okay." The others nodded. At some point, everyone in this instance had begun treating Ye Chu as their leader and following his instructions.
Pei Yanchuan and Ye Chu headed right. The farther they went down the corridor, the darker it became, so Ye Chu switched on his flashlight.
The white beam fell on an advertisement on the wall. The smile of the person pictured on it looked eerie.
Pei Yanchuan opened the door. "Ye Chu, you go in first."
Ye Chu started to step inside, then suddenly sensed something was wrong. In unfamiliar surroundings, Pei Yanchuan always went first.
Ye Chu pulled his foot back and silently watched Pei Yanchuan.
Pei Yanchuan gave him an innocent smile. "Ye Chu, what's wrong?"
"Xiao Pei." Ye Chu took two almost imperceptible steps backward. Pei Yanchuan watched his feet and chuckled. "Ye Chu? Don't you trust me anymore?"
"Of course I do." Ye Chu curled his lips into a smile too, but his hand shot out and clamped around Pei Yanchuan's throat. A vein pulsed strongly beneath his palm, yet Ye Chu didn't dare lower his guard.
[Pei Yanchuan] slammed into the wall with a grunt, but his smile only widened. "Couldn't you just pretend nothing happened, Ye Chu?"
His face flushed crimson, yet his expression remained unchanged. His pupils gradually turned from black to red, giving off a faint glow identical to that of the monsters outside the hospital.
He reached out, his fingernails growing long and thin, and suddenly thrust his hand toward Ye Chu's back.
But Ye Chu reacted faster. He shoved him hard, drew a bayonet from behind his waist, and plunged it into the heart of the monster before him.
Pei Yanchuan had given him this bayonet back on the first floor. The young man had grinned. "Ye Chu, look what I found!"
Ye Chu had looked at his hands. It was a scalpel. As though presenting a treasure, Pei Yanchuan had pressed it into Ye Chu's hand. "I searched so many places before I found it. Don't tell Brother Fengzi."
Ye Chu had smiled. "If it's so precious, why don't you keep it yourself?"
Pei Yanchuan had rubbed his nose and smiled sheepishly. "I thought you'd like it."
Ye Chu pushed the blade deeper, driving it straight through the monster, and said expressionlessly, "What gives you the right to wear his face?"
The monster let out a wail, curled in on itself, and dissolved into a pool of blood.
[Damn, Ye Chu's pretty hot...]
[Agreed. Ye Chu looks seriously badass when he puts on that cold face.]
[Why is Xiao Pei always the one who gets replaced? Hahaha, is it because he's so reckless and keeps charging ahead?]
Ye Chu stood up, took a tissue from his pocket, wiped the scalpel clean, and tucked it back behind his waist.
Pei Yanchuan's voice came from the reception room. "Ye Chu? Why aren't you coming in? Did something happen?" As he spoke, he poked his head out from behind the door, his eyes wide and bright.
"Nothing." Ye Chu smiled again. "I just accidentally stepped into an illusion."
Pei Yanchuan's eyes widened slightly, but seeing that Ye Chu was unharmed, he relaxed. He held a register in his hand. "Ye Chu, come look at this."
The register looked rather old, its pages slightly yellowed. Ye Chu turned a page and froze for a moment. The entire sheet was covered in the words "must die."
"Must die must die must die must die must die must die must die must die..."
The whole page was blood-red, covered in "must die."
Ye Chu turned to the second page. [Wang Chunhua, female, 67 years old. Cause of death: pesticide poisoning.]
His fingers paused briefly. He flipped back to the cover and discovered that the large words "Registration Book" had changed to "Death Records." They were blood-red and slightly sticky to the touch. This was real blood.
Pei Yanchuan offered him a piece of tissue and helped wipe his fingers clean. Ye Chu looked over at him. Pei Yanchuan's white hoodie was a riot of colors, red here and black there. There was absolutely no chance of washing it clean.
Ye Chu pressed his lips together, looked away, and continued leafing through the Death Records.
On the third page: [Zhong Xiaoli, female, 35 years old. Cause of death: beaten to death. Additional notes: multiple bruises from blows across the body; one broken rib.]
A photograph of the deceased sat in the upper-right corner. "Ye Chu, doesn't this picture look familiar?" Pei Yanchuan asked.
The woman in the photograph wore a gentle smile, with two faint dimples at the corners of her mouth.
Ye Chu felt the same way. Pei Yanchuan spoke again. "Doesn't she look a bit like her?"
Ye Chu followed his pointing finger. A face suddenly appeared in his field of vision, making him flinch.
The woman was staring fixedly at the two of them through the clear window. When she failed to see that familiar little figure in Ye Chu's arms, she let out a grief-stricken wail, as though condemning him for losing her daughter.
Ye Chu: ...
How do you communicate with a ghost and explain things? Waiting for answers. Urgent.
Pei Yanchuan took the Death Records from him and opened it to the third page. [Li Jiayi, female, 24 years old. Cause of death: suicide. Additional notes: multiple scratches from sharp objects on the face.]
Pei Yanchuan turned two more pages. Finding no other clues, he closed the Death Records.
"Looks like we need to find these three women's bodies before we can get the final answer."
Ye Chu was still locked in a staring contest with the female ghost, Zhong Xiaoli. He raised his hands, trying to gesture an explanation for why Tian Yatou wasn't with him.
The ghost pressed herself against the glass. If the room hadn't been locked from the inside, she probably would have been clinging to Ye Chu and clawing at him already.
Pei Yanchuan could see what the ghost wanted too. Holding up the Death Records, he pointed at the page covered in "must die." Sure enough, she reacted violently, opening her bloody maw and trying to tear the page apart through the glass-or rather, tear that person apart.
Heart-rending screams rose from her throat. She wanted to kill that person, that person who deserved to die.
Pei Yanchuan said softly, "Ye Chu, I'll open the door and lure her away in a moment. Go meet up with Brother Fengzi and the others first."
Ye Chu shook his head. Aside from how dangerous that plan was, he personally would rather stay with a monster than constantly have to wonder whether the teammates beside him were human or ghosts.
"This is our best option. Otherwise, we'll waste too much time." Pei Yanchuan reached behind Ye Chu's waist, making him shudder, and pulled out the knife hidden there.
"Pei Yanchuan..."
"Ye Chu, have a little faith in me." Pei Yanchuan raised his eyebrows and grinned, a Little Tiger Tooth lending his smile an air of cockiness. "I'll definitely get back safely. Just wait for me to come find you."
Pei Yanchuan pressed his hand against the door handle. "I'll count down from three. You go left, I'll go right. Three, two, one!"
The door flew open with a bang, slamming hard into the ghost's face.
Ye Chu seized the chance to sprint left, while Pei Yanchuan headed in the opposite direction, raising the scalpel high.
Shhk-
Ye Chu heard the sound of a blade piercing flesh.
Before you continue