Translator: CinderTL
"But there's one thing that doesn't add up," Fatty said with a puzzled expression. "If Li Maoshen from Building 3 was really haunted by a ghost because he filmed a paranormal video, then why was he killed by the ghost from Building 2?"
"Was the video he filmed related to the ghost in Building 2?" Fatty blinked and looked around at everyone. "Or was it because of something else?"
"Could it be that these people knew each other?" Chu Jiu suggested softly.
However, based on the current clues, there was no evidence of any connection between these people, so this speculation had to be temporarily set aside.
"Wait," Hua Luo said as he pinched a ring between two fingers and gently placed it on the table, speaking in a soft voice, "We found this ring on Yu Lan's body."
"It was in her mouth, wrapped in a large clump of hair." Since Banana Wolf had already described Yu Lan's death in detail earlier, Hua Luo didn't elaborate further.
Inside the ring, the words "Shen Aiwei" were engraved.
Chen Yi took the ring from Wei Jinting's hand, and everyone passed it around to take a look. "Could this 'Shen' refer to Li Maoshen?" Fatty asked, looking up.
Although there was no concrete evidence, everyone thought it was highly possible.
If what Manager Zhao said was true, then Li Maoshen was likely the one who caused this big trouble. It was just unclear why Zhao Jiajia from Building 1 and Song Xiaoyou from Building 2 were also dragged into it.
But now it seemed that there might be some connection between these people.
They just hadn't found the key link yet.
Now, what they needed to figure out was who the person named "Wei" was. It seemed to be a woman, and she likely had an unusual relationship with Li Maoshen.
She was probably his girlfriend.
Chen Yi suggested that this could be a breakthrough point and that they should focus their investigation on it.
Then, Jiang Cheng briefly told everyone about the ghostly phone call he encountered that afternoon.
When they heard that a ghost had impersonated someone and called Jiang Cheng, even showing up at his door, Banana Wolf's expression couldn't help but change.
"Banana Wolf, don't worry," Jiang Cheng said, stretching his neck toward him. "That ghost won't knock on your door."
Hearing this, Banana Wolf's expression improved slightly, but before he could ask why, Jiang Cheng continued, "It's already in your room, so why bother being polite?"
Banana Wolf: "..."
Fatty: "...I feel like I've seen this plot somewhere before."
Liu Guo stroked his chin and said, "It seems that using the room phone to communicate isn't safe either. The ghost can intercept our communications and might even use the phone to trick us into opening the door or lure us outside."
"Then let's avoid using the phone to communicate. If someone claiming to be a teammate asks us to open the door or go out at night, we'll treat them as ghosts."
This was the only solution for now. Once they had more clarity on the clues, things should get better. After all, they still didn't understand the whole story or why these ghosts were killing people.
"There's one more thing," Jiang Cheng suddenly said. "How did the ghost in Building 1 die?"
Based on the previous reasoning, the ghost in Building 1 killed the ghost in Building 2, and the ghost in Building 2 killed the ghost in Building 3, so the ghost in Building 1 was the source.
So who killed the Long-Haired Ghost, Zhao Jiajia?
With only these clues to go on, there was no point in discussing further. As the sky gradually darkened, everyone dispersed.
"By the way," Wei Jinting suddenly said as they were leaving, "Our time limit for this mission is 7 days." He explained, "When we came back today, we ran into the landlord. He stopped us and said we could only stay until the 14th of this month. Counting the days, that's exactly 7 days."
"Is it because our rent only covers until the 14th?" Chu Jiu asked, looking at him.
"It's not about the money," Wei Jinting shook his head. "I also asked if we could extend the lease, but he said no, because it doesn't allow it."
"Who is 'it'?" Fatty asked in surprise, his expression clearly suggesting he was thinking of something unpleasant.
"I don't know," Wei Jinting said. "I asked, but he just smiled at me and limped away."
Recalling the old man's smiling face, Wei Jinting still felt uneasy.
At that moment, he was almost certain that the old man was a ghost. However, since they hadn't crossed the critical line in the mission yet, the old man couldn't directly kill them.
But it was only a matter of time.
After the group dispersed, they each headed back to their residences.
As close teammates from the same building, Jiang Cheng and Fatty naturally walked with Chen Yi and Chu Jiu. Chen Yi didn't seem to think much of Jiang Cheng, not just because of the KTV raid incident earlier, but mostly because she thought Jiang Cheng was a useless freeloader.
He was the kind of person who would only take advantage of others' hard work.
He didn't actively search for clues, preferring to hide in safe spots and wait for his teammates to share information.
The more people like him there were, the more difficult the mission became.
But Jiang Cheng didn't care about Chen Yi's disdain. It didn't stop him from trying to get close to Chen Yi and Chu Jiu.
He would ask Chen Yi why she wasn't wearing her police uniform, complimenting her that the uniform made her look especially fair and, most importantly, suited her temperament. Then he would sneak a few glances at Chu Jiu's upper body and sigh that she should eat more papaya during her growth period, or else she might end up like Sister Chen Yi, with stunted development and no one to cry to later.
"Cut it out," Chen Yi said angrily as she stopped walking. "Even if I had any clues, I wouldn't share them with someone like you."
"Hey," Jiang Cheng grinned, then squinted and said sarcastically, "If you had been this capable back then, I wouldn't have gotten away."
The two of them went back and forth, making the walk quite lively. Fatty and Chu Jiu could only watch, unable to get a word in, but the fear caused by the ghosts seemed to lessen a bit.
Fatty had originally hoped to get some clues from Chen Yi, but it seemed that the information they had was also limited.
After all, there were only two of them, unlike the other groups, which had four people gathering clues together.
It wasn't until they reached the 6th floor that Jiang Cheng suddenly lowered his voice, as if he had become a different person, and said to Chen Yi, "Be careful tonight. The ghost might come for you."
Chen Yi was stunned for a moment, then stared at Jiang Cheng with a professional scrutinizing gaze. But before she could say anything, Jiang Cheng had already turned and walked away, leaving behind a comment that if she missed him, she could call anytime, before disappearing around the corner of the hallway.
"Sister Chen Yi," Chu Jiu looked in the direction Jiang Cheng had left, her throat moving slightly as she cautiously asked, "Is what he said true?"
"I don't know, but whether it's true or not, we need to be careful tonight. I also have a feeling," Chen Yi sighed and looked out the window, "Tonight... won't be peaceful."
"Doctor," Fatty moved closer to Jiang Cheng and blinked, asking, "Was what you said about the ghost coming for Chen Yi tonight true? Or were you just scaring her?"
Dropping his playful expression, Jiang Cheng looked at Fatty calmly and said, "In our building, she's the only one the ghost hasn't visited yet."
(End of the Chapter)
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