Everyone was shocked by Mu Yiran's words, including Ke Xun.
"Release?" Still in a daze, Qiu Lu turned her gaze to Sha Liu. "You released that monster?!"
Sha Liu shuddered at Qiu Lu's sudden closeness. "How could I have the guts!" she cried, looking at Mu Yiran for help. "Brother Mu, explain yourself!"
"I believe that Ya Fen was invited by the knocker," Mu Yiran continued.
Qiu Lu then released Sha Liu. Sha Liu felt that Mu Yiran's heavy breathing earlier was intentional; this person was probably dissatisfied with her in some way…
Everyone pondered these words carefully. Ke Xun's peeled egg had gone cold, so he simply soaked it in the hot porridge: "Yiran means that someone knocked on the door of 410 the night before last, which is equivalent to extending an invitation to the vengeful spirit in the house?"
Xin Miao shuddered in fright: "Who? Who knocked on the door of 410?"
Wei Dong glanced over: "Those two girls from your room before."
Yes, just the night before last, Tina and Luo Han violated the rules of visiting other rooms and knocked on the door of 410.
Qin Ci further analyzed: "In other words, those two girls not only violated the rules themselves and were harmed by the fire in this room, but also released Ya Fen from 410 by knocking on the door?"
Mu Yiran looked at Sha Liu with a cool gaze: "Didn't you hear the door knock twice the night before last? It should be Ya Fen going out and coming back."
"But why didn't Ya Fen make a move the night before last?" Sha Liu asked.
"Perhaps this is also a rule; the vengeful spirits released by knocking on the door can only take action on the second night," Mu Yiran stated his speculation.
"It sounds reasonable," Zhu Haowen chimed in, "but the second type of death has only happened once, so we can't rely entirely on this."
Mu Yiran's expression remained unchanged as he looked at Qin Ci: "Did you see anything unusual in your room last night? Not just hear anything, but see something."
Qin Ci was somewhat surprised: "How did you know, Brother Mu?"
Ke Xun was inexplicably excited; the big boss was about to unleash another crushing mental assault.
Sitting next to Qin Ci, Wei Dong couldn't help but ask: "Dr. Qin, did you really see something last night?"
"Indeed… I saw something abnormal," Qin Ci and the elderly Li Taiyong exchanged a glance, "We both saw it. There was a man holding a porcelain basin, stirring something like he was mixing filling."
Hearing the words "stirring filling," everyone's scalp tingled.
"You can't see clearly at night. The person was hunched over and coughed every now and then. He must be quite old," added the old man, Li Taiyong.
This made everyone lose their appetite even more. Xinmiao whispered, "That person isn't going to make human flesh dumplings, is he…"
Wei Dong comforted her, "No way, isn't there already something in his basin…"
Sha Liu retorted to Mu Yiran, "How do you know Dr. Qin and the others will see things at night?"
This time, Ke Xun answered directly for his boss: "Because Zhishao knocked on 307's door last night, which is equivalent to releasing what was inside."
Sha Liu frowned deeply: "The white woman only appeared after they knocked on our door the night before last… In other words, after Zhishao knocked on 307, the person stirring the filling in the basin also appeared? This appearance itself is a kind of omen?"
"That can be considered a condition for inference," Zhu Haowen agreed, then looked at Mu Yiran with a rare look of certainty.
Old man Li Taiyong had finished his meal before saying, "So, that means the person from our room will be in the hallway tonight? If no one opens the door for him, everything should be fine, right?"
Speaking of opening the door, Xinmiao couldn't help but say, "Last night, Dr. Qin and Grandpa Li opened the door for Zhishao. Doesn't that count as accepting a visit?"
Old man Li Taiyong quickly replied, "It has nothing to do with Xiao Qin. I took it upon myself to open the door for him. If there's any retribution, it'll be me alone, not Xiao Qin."
Ke Xun, having finished his porridge, was deeply moved by the kind old man's words and said, "Those who violate these strict rules are usually 'executed' that very night. The people in your room last night..." "It's alright, it just proves that being 'visited' doesn't count as visiting others' and won't be punished."
Everyone thought about it and agreed. Ke Xun added, "But don't do it again! It's scary to think about. Those vengeful spirits might disguise themselves in whatever way they want. If one of them knocks on our door, we wouldn't be able to defend ourselves!"
Old man Li Taiyong nodded repeatedly, "Yes, Ke'er is right. We can't do such risky things again." He then looked at everyone, "Let's eat first. We'll have the energy to look for things when we're full."
Everyone ate a few bites, and then Mu Yiran asked, "Did your rooms change this morning compared to last night?"
Perhaps because last night was so shocking, most people didn't notice the changes in their rooms.
Only Zhu Haowen said, "Our room has deformed again. The walls are tilting even more, and not only that, the corridor railings are also bending inwards."
"I'll go check on the sixth floor in a bit," Mu Yiran said.
"I'll join you too…" Ke Xun's words were cut off by Wei Dong: "Ke'er, is the Danshen Dripping Pill ready?"
Ke Xun recalled the dizziness he experienced yesterday and could only give up: "Then I won't accompany you, Yi Ran."
Mu Yi Ran looked at Ke Xun and heard him say: "Eat the eggs, otherwise you won't have the energy to climb to the sixth floor."
Old man Li Taiyong also said: "Yes, eat the eggs, at least get some nutrition."
Ke Xun really wanted to shake hands with Grandpa Li.
"Grandpa Li," Sha Liu suddenly spoke up, "When you were playing chess with Grandpa Zhang today, could you ask about 307?"
If they could find out in advance what murder had happened in 301, maybe they could prevent some things from happening.
Old man Li Taiyong nodded: "That's what I was thinking too. I'll ask him for a chess game later."
Hearing this, everyone seemed to see hope again.
Next, everyone quickly divided the tasks. Mu Yiran and Zhu Haowen went up to the sixth floor and checked the sixth and fifth floors as well. Ke Xun and Wei Dong checked the third and fourth floors, Qiu Luxinmiao was in charge of the second floor, and Sha Liu and Qin Ci were in charge of the ground floor shops and the courtyard.
Ke Xun squinted, watching Mu Yiran and Zhu Haowen walk upstairs one after the other. The two of them exuded an aura that kept people at a distance, yet there was a kind of harmony that one didn't want to admit.
"Stop being jealous, hurry up and get down to business, or someone will dip you in dumplings and eat you tonight!" Wei Dong pulled Ke Xun and went into the third floor.
"I feel like he is also..." Ke Xun looked suspicious.
"Haowen? That's impossible." Wei Dong said with certainty, "He was shirtless at night, and he didn't even look at me."
"..."
"Really, not even glancing at me. Why are you looking at me? Really, not even glancing at me."
"We're meat-eaters, if you give him a bowl of porridge, he'll be completely oblivious."
"Who's a bowl of porridge?" Wei Dong patted his face, feeling quite pleased with himself.
"…"
"You're meat-eaters…who are you…" Wei Dong felt there was a lot of information in what he had just said. "Who have you fallen for? Have you fallen for someone else? You can't betray the boss!"
Ke Xun suddenly stopped by the wall in the corridor, frowning as he looked at it for a long time.
Wei Dong also hurriedly went over to look and carefully examined it: "Another lewd picture."
"How did you know?"
"Isn't this a penis?"
"…" Ke Xun became anxious: "This is a bamboo shoot!"
"I was wondering why it was wrapped in several layers of skin…"
"…"
Wei Dong carefully examined the simple bamboo shoot: "This is just graffiti carved with a knife, something a kid did."
Ke Xun looked at the room closest to the graffiti, which was 309 where the poets had stayed. So he searched room by room and found a bamboo shoot with blurry carvings on the wall next to the door of room 307.
No similar patterns were found in the other rooms on the third floor.
Wei Dong also found this strange: "Could this bamboo shoot pattern be related to the Spring Bamboo Shoot Apartment?"
Ke Xun propped his head up and looked out the railing: "Let's check the fourth floor too," but when he looked up, he felt dizzy. "Holy crap..."
Ke Xun rubbed his temples and looked up again: "Dongzi, have you noticed any changes in that tenement building?"
Wei Dong also looked up, but didn't see anything.
Ke Xun resisted the nausea and squinted, trying to see the skylight at the top of the tenement building: "Don't you think the opening up there has gotten smaller?"
"Have I?" Wei Dong didn't notice.
"Let's go to the fourth floor and see if there are any similar bamboo shoot patterns." Ke Xun prepared to go upstairs to check.
The results of the check were indeed the same as on the third floor: bamboo shoot patterns appeared on the exterior walls of all the rooms where the people outside the picture lived. The patterns varied in depth, and some required careful searching to find.
At noon, people gathered downstairs again to share the results of the morning's search.
"It's not just the sixth floor that's deformed; the fifth floor has also deformed slightly. The entire top of the building is slowly converging inwards," Mu Yiran announced first. Zhu
Haowen remained silent, leaning against the wall playing a mobile game.
Everyone looked up at the sky, but apart from Ke Xun, no one else noticed anything unusual.
Ke Xun also shared his discovery about the bamboo shoot graffiti. Wei Dong went up to the sixth floor specifically for this and indeed found the same bamboo shoot pattern next to room 616.
"This pattern is very mysterious, and it's a perfect coincidence with the name of the Chunshun Apartment," Sha Liu said gravely. "I think that once we uncover the secret of this pattern, we should be able to find the seal."
The others' searches yielded nothing, including the elderly Li Taiyong. It was said that once the doorman mentioned the sensitive room number, he would stop answering altogether.
But the elderly Li Taiyong still brought some news: "Because so many things happened at the Spring Bamboo Dormitory, it's said that the Hong Kong developer is very superstitious about it. He specially commissioned someone to carve a stone elephant and a stone rhinoceros and placed them outside the dormitory building, saying they were for warding off evil spirits."
"An elephant and a rhinoceros?" Xinmiao was a little puzzled. "It's rare to hear of people using these things as warding off evil spirits. Usually, it's dragons, tigers, or unicorns..."
"I asked too, and Old Zhang said it's because elephants and rhinoceroses are vegetarians." The elderly Li Taiyong couldn't figure out the reason either.