"You're insane!"
Fang Shenyan and Yu Guo, who had planned this together, showed no sign of opposition. Instead, the one who had been standing uselessly in the back all along — Cao Yuan — suddenly rushed forward.
At the same moment, he tried to snatch the knife from Yu Guo's hand!
His once youthful face was now drained pale with terror.
"Are you out of your minds? Do you know what's next door? A ghost!
I kept quiet when you wanted to provoke it earlier, but now you're going too far. You're gambling with all our lives!"
Yu Guo frowned, glancing at the hole. The ghost was nearly there — its straight legs already visible.
Placing his hand on Cao Yuan's shoulder, he sneered:
"Brother, didn't you hear Ji Li's deduction? Relax. It's a ghost, yes — but it can't hurt us right now."
Cao Yuan, usually timid and submissive, suddenly snapped. He jerked his arm free and shouted through clenched teeth:
"Ji Li? Why should I trust his guess?
At least for now, we're alive. We haven't been attacked!
But if your reckless gamble triggers a full outbreak of the dead end, who will take responsibility?"
Fang Shenyan's expression grew colder, eyes behind his lenses utterly devoid of pity.
"If we're wrong, then so be it. We're going to die anyway."
"Fuck you, Fang Shenyan! Maybe you're done living, but I'm not! I'm only seventeen!"
Cao Yuan's eyes reddened. He was cowardly, even foolish — but not completely wrong.
Fang Shenyan and Yu Guo hadn't fully trusted Ji Li's deduction either, which was why they kept testing, pushing for proof of the killing rule.
But such methods carried extreme risks, and Cao Yuan's fear was natural.
"Enough! The bow is drawn — the arrow must fly!"
Yu Guo no longer bothered arguing. His focus was locked on the hole.
The ghost's footsteps were there — he could sense it lowering itself.
Fang Shenyan, watching Cao Yuan thrash in panic, let the corner of his mouth twitch.
Then, without warning, he drove his foot hard into Cao Yuan's chest!
The kick was brutally strong and sudden. Still trying to block Yu Guo, Cao Yuan never expected his own companion to strike him.
His chest felt crushed, as if hit by a truck. He flew backward, skidding across the polished tiles for several meters.
Only when his spine slammed against the bed frame did he stop.
*Pff!*
A mouthful of blood burst from his nose and lips. Fang Shenyan hadn't held back at all — it was as if he meant to kill him.
Cao Yuan's breathing grew ragged. His head lolled against the bedframe as he weakly moaned a name: "Fang… Shenyan…"
Fang Shenyan calmly stepped up to the half-conscious boy and, as usual, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"Whether our guess about survival is right or wrong…
I'm sorry, Cao Yuan.
A crippled you might become the ghost's priority target, buying us — the useful ones — more time.
Your life isn't worth much. What matters is how it's used."
Yu Guo frowned. He wanted to say something, but bit down on his words.
He was certain now — Fang Shenyan was no mere teacher.
He was a cold-blooded madman. Yet one truth lingered, one Yu Guo himself had begun to accept after facing the ghost:
*In here, human life really is worthless.*
...
"Stop it! Stop the ghost from killing her—"
Ji Li's toes still pressed against 701's window ledge, numb after only two minutes. Yet his mind raced, calculating how to halt the ghost's killing.
He knew nothing of Fang Shenyan's side of things, but he had already reached 702's window.
When he peered inside, he froze.
The raincoat ghost wasn't killing the woman — it was rushing straight toward the corner wall, as though distracted by something Fang Shenyan had done.
"What did they do?"
"How the hell should I know? Who are you asking?" The second persona was already unraveling under the chaos.
Only the third muttered on:
"Judging from its reaction, it looks like Fang Shenyan and the others provoked it, drawing it away from the woman…"
"But something feels wrong…"
"It is wrong!"
Ji Li had far more task experience than Fang Shenyan and the rest. He too had once thought of provoking a ghost to turn its focus onto the staff.
But he had quickly abandoned the idea.
Every time he'd faced a ghost, he had felt it clearly: ghosts had no emotions, no complicated nature.
Only pure slaughter!
Perhaps stronger ghosts possessed the cunning to outwit the living—
But they would never be provoked by mere words or actions.
Such complexity implied humanity, something no ghost should ever have!
Ji Li's eyes flickered. Watching the increasingly incomprehensible scene inside 702, he shook his head violently and forced his focus back onto the bedroom.
Unlike 701, this room was far from tidy. It was obvious at a glance that someone truly lived here.
Belongings were scattered haphazardly in every corner, the place a mess.
Ji Li barely skimmed it. His attention was locked on two things: the raincoat ghost, crouching in the corner—
And the unmoving woman lying on the bed.
She was the second key figure in this task, bound deeply to its mystery.
The tenant of 702—the woman who had been watched.
From Ji Li's position, her face was hidden beneath a curtain of disheveled hair. She wore only a simple dress and lay flat on the bed.
If not for the faint rise and fall of her chest, Ji Li would have sworn she was already dead.
Yet the longer he looked, the more wrong she seemed.
There was no reason, only instinct—just seeing her body there filled him with unease and rejection.
And then—
The raincoat ghost suddenly shrieked, a piercing, deafening howl that tore through the air!
Even through the thick glass, Ji Li's eardrums felt ready to burst.
When he blinked, he saw the ghost staggering backward, blood spraying across the floor.
Its right eye socket had burst open like a split lychee, gore streaming down its deathly pale face!
After thrashing and howling in agony, the *ghost* turned and fled in panic.
It was then that Ji Li noticed something. His eyes narrowed to slits.
He wiped furiously at the glass, staring at the spot where the raincoat man had fled.
A phone had fallen there.
Ordinary in shape, but when the back faced up, Ji Li clearly saw the childish cartoon design—
A pink teddy bear.
His mind roared. He froze, struck as if by lightning.
*The raincoat man…*
That perverse man, the one he thought was a ghost—his phone case bore a pink teddy bear!
Just as Ji Li was drowning in a storm of confusion, the woman on the bed moved.
Her head rotated slowly, turning a full one hundred and eighty degrees. Her posture twisted past the limits of anything human.
The tangled black hair fell away, revealing a face warped into monstrous proportions.
She smiled at Ji Li—
a soul-piercing, hideous grin.
Every nerve in Ji Li's scalp exploded. Only now did he truly realize—
This voyeuristic ghost mission concealed a truth that overturned everything.