"Excuse me — are you a ghost?"
Chen Ge repeated himself, his tone calm and casual, as if he were simply asking whether someone had eaten lunch today.
The woman's breathing quickened. She felt a sudden, inexplicable wave of irritation. Static began to crackle through the earpiece, and the signal turned terrible.
"If you won't answer, I'll take that as a yes."
Chen Ge held the phone to his ear, leaning casually against the door. Anyone passing by would have thought he was catching up with an old friend he hadn't seen in years.
"I—" The woman on the other end wanted to say something but hesitated, unsure if it was appropriate. She couldn't for the life of her figure out what kind of mindset would drive a person to ask such an awkward question of a ghost.
Normally, upon realizing you were on a phone call with a ghost, wouldn't your first reaction be to scream and fling the phone away?
Even if you couldn't bear to throw away your phone, at least you could hang up with trembling hands!
Why was this man not only unafraid but actively pressing the issue?
The woman muttered a few quiet words on the other end, and the call abruptly cut out.
Listening to the busy signal, Chen Ge was not the least bit surprised. "Looks like she hung up in embarrassment after I saw through her."
He pocketed his phone and stood in the pitch-black corridor. "Three residents from Room 304 have either gone missing or been killed. I just ran into the gambler and the salesman — the woman playing the real estate agent is most likely the second owner, the English teacher."
It wasn't even midnight yet, and Chen Ge had already encountered three different ghosts. He had a feeling this was only the beginning.
"After midnight, who knows what other strange characters I'll run into. Looks like I need to change my approach to cracking this." Chen Ge slung his backpack on and carried the skull crusher to the door of Room 304. "Instead of letting myself be led around by the nose, I might as well take a more direct route."
The light from Room 305 spilled into the dark corridor. In the entire Third Hospital staff residential compound, Chen Ge's was the only light still on.
"Most of the residents are concentrated in the first two buildings. This last building seems to be something of a taboo for them." Chen Ge grabbed the doorknob of Room 304 and shook it hard twice. Rust flaked off and the doorframe shuddered.
Probably because multiple murders had occurred here and the police had forced the lock more than once, there were obvious pry marks along the edge of the lock.
"Smashing down a door is a bit crude — not my preferred method. But I don't have a better option right now."
Lining up his shot, Chen Ge swung the skull crusher!
"BANG! BANG!"
After several consecutive strikes, the lock was bent out of shape. Chen Ge then wedged the hammer's handle into the gap and pried the door open by force.
Such a racket, and yet not a single household in the compound dared to make a sound. It seemed these ghosts had been tormenting the residents for quite some time.
Chen Ge stepped into Room 304 and turned on the living room lights. The room struck him as peculiar.
The sofa, dining table, and other furniture all looked perfectly normal, but every openable surface — the drawers, the wardrobes — had been sealed shut with wooden boards.
"Now this is more like a haunted house."
Maybe it was aging wiring or poor contact, because the living room lights flickered on and off, instinctively putting him on edge.
Walking to the center of the room, Chen Ge ran a hand along the back of the sofa. No one had lived here for a long time, yet it was spotless — as though someone had been cleaning it all along.