"What do you mean by that?"
The third persona's words were strange. Ji Li roughly understood, but he wanted a clearer explanation.
*It means that when the door to 701 closed, another door closed at the exact same time.*
*Two sounds, almost perfectly overlapping.*
Ji Li blinked. The wooden door before him seemed to grow deeper, darker.
Suddenly—
Blood burst from all four gaps of the door, surging unnaturally fast. In the blink of an eye it coated the entire surface, flooding toward him as if to swallow him whole!
Just as Ji Li's pupils shrank to the limit, a hand landed on his shoulder.
Huff…
Ji Li snapped back to himself. The door stood motionless, spotless, the floor beneath him as clean as before.
"What are you looking at?"
Fang Shenyan's kind face appeared, though his voice was stiff and mechanical, as always.
Ji Li shook his head, dismissing the vision.
"Nothing… Check the layout of the rooms first."
Fang Shenyan gave him a doubtful look, then led the bewildered Ding Miaoxin and Cao Yuan deeper inside.
Yu Guo had already gone ahead with his phone, still livestreaming his so-called *ghost hunt*.
In the living room of 701, Ji Li stood alone, facing the silent door.
"Are you certain?" Ji Li asked coldly, leaning toward the peephole.
*My senses are sharper than yours and Second's. I'd say eighty percent sure!* the third persona replied, honest as always. His presence filled the gaps in Ji Li's perception.
*I don't buy it!* The second persona snapped, ever ready to argue.
*You claim two doors closed at once. For the sounds to overlap, the source must be close—very close!*
*But on this floor, only 701 and 702 exist. I kept an eye on 702's door—it never opened, not once. This makes no sense!*
Ji Li let them bicker. He pressed his face to the cold wood, peering through the warped peephole.
The hallway beyond appeared blurred, like the world itself had been smeared, but still clean.
702 lay silent. The pink teddy bear on its handle didn't stir.
After a long pause, Ji Li turned back, scanning the spotless living room, its perfection almost unnatural.
"You're both making sense. We'll see soon enough," he murmured.
701 was a two-bedroom apartment.
Everything about it seemed ordinary. Nothing stood out—except its extreme cleanliness.
Not new, but meticulously kept.
Every item sat perfectly aligned, dustless.
Even the curtains on the sofa bore no creases.
Yet the faint yellowing of the walls and ceiling revealed that a heavy smoker had lived here for years.
Ji Li ran his hand across the top of the TV, rubbing his fingers thoughtfully. What kind of person owned this place?
At that moment, Yu Guo emerged from the bathroom with his phone.
"Don't lose hope, brothers!
Even if this house doesn't look haunted, I swear something terrifying is about to happen!"
"Hey, hey! Stop leaving! Don't go watch that other girl streamer—damn it…"
His expression darkened. He shut off the stream, sighed, and muttered to Ji Li, "This place doesn't feel haunted at all…"
"I checked the bathroom top to bottom—nothing. Now all my viewers are gone!"
He slumped on the sofa. "If I hadn't seen those three ghosts on the hotel's second floor, I'd never believe what you said."
Ji Li said nothing. He pulled a cigarette from his pack, lit it, and walked into the kitchen.
The kitchen was even more lifeless than the living room.
Cold tiles reflected his pale face. No one had cooked here for a long time.
Frowning, he took a drag, pushed open the window, and let the night wind sweep his hair. His expression grew distant.
"The hotel email was clear.
The sixth replacement was supposed to be waiting at the mission site.
But here…
It's empty."
Ji Li walked out of the kitchen empty-handed just as the others emerged from the two bedrooms. The five staffs gathered in the center of the living room.
Fang Shenyan, watching Ji Li surrounded by smoke, felt the urge himself. Lighting a cigarette, he said,
"Both bedrooms are intact. We searched every corner, found nothing unusual…
But I think the owners of this place were either a live-in couple or a married pair!"
Ji Li, puffing his cigarette, perked up at the remark. Tilting his head, he asked, "Explain."
"In the two bedrooms, the smaller one is clearly unused—you can tell from the empty wardrobe.
But in the master bedroom, there are faint sweat stains at the corner of the sheets, and the wardrobe holds both men's and women's clothes.
Typically, men sweat more. If he lay bare on the sheets long enough, those marks would form."
Ji Li noticed Ding Miaoxin nodding in agreement as Fang spoke. Both had marital experience, so the conclusion seemed reliable.
"Still, it looks like they were preparing to move. The whole place has clearly been cleaned out."
"No…"
Yu Guo, who had been silent, finally frowned and spoke. "That doesn't add up."
"Why not?"
"Because in the bathroom, I only found one set of toiletries—and they were clearly for a man!"
He glanced at Fang Shenyan, who smoked quietly, then pointed toward the entryway.
"There isn't a single pair of shoes on the rack. I checked the bathroom trash—any packaging was thrown out. Everything that could confirm an identity has been wiped away."
A trace of confusion crossed Fang Shenyan's pale face. He didn't quite understand.
"What he means," Ji Li said, crushing his cigarette and straightening from the sofa, "is that the entire house has been cleaned—
So why is there anything left in the bedroom, or in the bathroom with men's toiletries?"
The room fell silent at his words.
Ji Li cast Yu Guo a half-smile. He hadn't expected someone so seemingly careless to shift his thinking so quickly.
"This apartment is our mission site. Anything we find here could be part of the clues.
What remains may be the hotel's way of pointing us forward."
Fang Shenyan adjusted his glasses. After a long pause, he looked up and said:
"To deduce the true identity of the homeowner."