Chapter 21

He made not a single sound, like a killing machine carrying out orders to slaughter.

The passengers fled in terror.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out.

Bang, bang, bang!

The passengers fleeing down the aisle fell one after another.

The masked man clearly had a handgun, yet he chose a knife to kill.

He was enjoying the feeling of reaping other people's lives...

This was a psychopath who had lost his humanity.

Su Cheng trembled, the fear inside her leaving her collapsed on the floor.

Helplessness. Despair.

These were not her reactions, but Mu Ling's.

She wanted to flee, but feared being exposed in the aisle and shot. Her legs went weak, and she instinctively searched for somewhere to hide.

Mu Ling was slender and petite. She crawled beneath a seat and huddled there, hiding.

Don't see me. Don't see me...

Her fingertips trembled. She squeezed her eyes shut, silently repeating her prayer...

Bodies kept hitting the floor with thuds, and terrified screams cut off abruptly.

The carriage fell silent.

It was a silence born of death, far more frightening than the screams.

Had the masked man left?

Her heart pounded...

Shoes wrapped in plastic bags passed her seat, the bloodstained plastic rustling with each step.

He had left.

He had not noticed her.

She slowly breathed out. Tears spilled uncontrollably, and her fingertips were still trembling.

Her tense body relaxed a little, relief at surviving the disaster welling in her chest.

Just wait a little longer. Once the police arrived, she would be saved.

But she kept feeling that something was wrong. Her heart was still pounding, as though warning her.

A faint chuckle suddenly sounded beside her ear.

Dazed, she slowly raised her head and met the eerie smiling mask.

"Hi, little mouse. I almost let you get away~" The man chuckled softly, as though greeting her.

Her eyes widened slightly, her breath caught, and her mind went blank...

That sense of something being wrong had come from the mocking gaze that had been above her head all along...

The masked man had not left. He was lying across the seat behind her, watching her.

He watched her cry, watched her feel relieved, then spoke just as she relaxed, joyfully tearing her hopes apart.

Boundless terror tightened around her heart, layer upon layer. She could no longer suppress the sound caught in her throat...

"Ah-!"

The blood-dripping blade mercilessly sliced across the girl's neck...

A few more red spots appeared on the mask's smiling face.

Su Cheng's eyes flew wide as she jolted awake in her seat, as though waking from a nightmare!

She immediately touched her neck and only relaxed a little when she found no cut.

Rumble-

Bzzzt.

The lights came back on. The train had left the tunnel.

The needle in Su Cheng's hand was still pointing down.

Su Cheng suddenly remembered that last time, the needle had pointed down before pointing diagonally right.

She had fallen into a misconception. Pointing down did not only mean behind her.

It could also mean it was pointing at her...

So last time, there had already been a ghost beside her?

Whether it was psychological or not, Su Cheng suddenly felt a chill down her back...

Was there a ghost behind her?

Could it be Mu Ling?

The dream just now had clearly been Mu Ling's memories before her death.

She could sense that Mu Ling meant her no harm. Otherwise, she would not merely have immersed her in a memory just now.

"More people are dead..."

This time, the dead were the wife, the boy, and the middle-aged woman sitting together.

There were actually three.

The three were pressed close together, their eyes wide as they stared in terror in the same direction.

Their heads were still on their necks, but a bright red line marked each throat. With just a gentle push, their heads would fall to the floor...

Why were there three this time?

Su Cheng was now certain that the ghost doing the killing was not Mu Ling.

She thought of the other fourteen passengers the masked man had killed besides Mu Ling.

If they were behind these killings, were some of them vicious, while others were like Mu Ling and had no intention of killing humans?

Her first task was to reenact an old case.

The "old case" definitely referred to the serial murders three years ago.

There had been fifteen passengers both times. Did "reenact" mean the same number of people would die on the train again...?

Su Cheng turned her head. Chen Renping's expression was even graver.

He definitely had important information she wanted.

Author's note:

None.

Chapter 21

"What were you about to say? Unless we get to the bottom of this, none of us are getting off this train."

Chen Renping gave a bitter laugh. "Xunfang was right. I was the security inspector in the murder case three years ago."

He clenched his hands bitterly and lowered his head in guilt. "Back then, all I could think about was my wife's cancer. If I'd been more thorough, could I have found the prohibited items on him...?"

"After it happened, an unknown number called my phone. As long as I was willing to testify against the murderer in court, I would receive a million as payment."

Su Cheng frowned. "For money, you..."

Chen Renping nodded, his face weathered. "Yes. For money, I identified the murderer in court. That person didn't lie to me, either. A million appeared in my account."

"With that money, I could give my wife the best treatment... but two years later, she still didn't make it."

"For the past three years, I've kept having nightmares. I dream of those dead passengers questioning me... Their names echo in my mind over and over."

Chen Renping buried his hands in his hair. "So I came to the station on the anniversary of their deaths, and somehow ended up on the train... I reckon the others boarded in the same confused way."

Su Cheng said, "So you actually can't be sure whether the person you identified was the real murderer?"

"Right."

Chen Renping recalled what had happened that day, pain in his eyes. "Although their builds were very similar, I suspect the man I identified was a scapegoat!"

"After my wife died, I used the remaining money to search for the person who called me back then... All I found out was that their surname was Lin, the same as the murderer, Lin Jie. Then the trail went cold."

Su Cheng frowned slightly. It seemed the murderer came from a very well-off family, likely one with money and power, to be able to find a scapegoat for such a major murder case.

"Then could the murderer be on this train...?"

Chen Renping shuddered and gave Su Cheng a serious look. "That's what I thought too, but none of them look right..."

Su Cheng lowered her voice. "Does the young man sitting by the restroom look like him?"

Chen Renping said firmly, "No. His build is even less like the murderer's than the scapegoat I identified back then."

Su Cheng sank into thought. Among these people, the young man's actions had all been highly suspicious.

But Chen Renping's certainty left her unsure.

Su Cheng began to suspect all the remaining males. The boy in the couple did not seem the type, but what about the boy who had been gaming beside the old woman earlier...?

The gamer had very little presence. Like Su Cheng, he always kept himself hidden in the crowd.

Could someone have been watching her while she secretly observed the others?

The thought made her hair stand on end.

But Chen Renping quickly rejected Su Cheng's idea. "None of them look right. I've observed them. None of the ones in the right age range look like him."

It seemed this murderer was extremely skilled at hiding and disguising himself.

After three people died in succession, the seats were soaked in blood, and a thick bloody smell filled the carriage.

Su Cheng stood and walked toward the three corpses.

The ghosts seemed to like cutting people into two pieces. Was there a reason for that?

By now, no one was crying. The other passengers had changed seats and huddled together, their faces ashen, like lambs awaiting slaughter, utterly powerless to resist the approaching danger.

The young man ignored Su Cheng as she came over to investigate and continued staring out the window.

Xunfang was not among them. Had she gone to the restroom?

Su Cheng approached and asked the passengers, "You were sitting so close. Did anything strange happen at the time?"

The girl with earphones bit her lip. "I felt so, so cold, like I was in a freezer..."

"Yes, me too."

"Was it because that thing was close by...?"

"Were we that close to being the ones who died...?"

A scream came from the restroom. "Ah!"

Xunfang ran out in a panic.

This was the first time Xunfang had shown such panic. She pointed at the restroom, her lips moving without making a sound, seemingly too frightened to speak.

As Xunfang passed Su Cheng, she shoved her in her frantic rush and squeezed into the group of passengers.

Was something in the restroom?

Su Cheng watched the restroom warily, keeping an eye out for anything emerging. Just as she pulled the Soul-Pointing Needle from her pocket, a heavy force slammed into her.

Su Cheng stumbled several steps. The moment she stepped into the restroom, the door slammed shut with a bang.

*!

Su Cheng swore and pulled hard at the door, only to discover that someone was holding it shut.

At that moment, what was there left for Su Cheng not to understand?

Xunfang and the young man had teamed up to screw her over.

Xunfang had shoved her as if by accident, drawing her attention to the restroom, while the young man quietly made his move and locked her inside.

When had those two joined forces?

"What are you doing?"

Su Cheng heard Chen Renping's voice from behind the door.

"Why hasn't the ghost killed either of you? You're accomplices..."

Xunfang was twisting the facts.

Rumble-

Bzzzt.

The lights went completely dark. The train had entered the tunnel again.

Was this what Xunfang and the young man wanted?

To isolate her so the ghost would choose her this time?