He had barely entered the dense forest and hadn't gone far before Xu Yin appeared without a sound.
Chen Ge hadn't called his name, yet he had come on his own — which meant he had sensed something dangerous, something capable of killing Chen Ge before Xu Yin could even materialize.
There was nothing unusual in the surroundings, yet all the Red-clothed were behaving oddly, as though the danger lurked right beside them.
Leaves swayed in the wind. Rain slid down the veins of each leaf. Chen Ge had been walking through the dense forest for so long that he had lost all sense of time.
The deeper he went into the woods, the colder it grew. Gradually, the world fell silent.
Xu Yin walked at the front, his vivid blood mixing with the rain. He parted the dead branches, and a narrow, rugged path appeared before them.
Withered flowers lined both sides of the path, and at its end, the faint outline of a small gray house could just barely be made out.
"When I was a child, I brought a cloth doll I'd made in here. You didn't kill me — you only destroyed the doll. I've always been a fair person, so today I won't kill you either. I'll beat you until you're on your last breath, then stuff you into my comic book and take you away."
On this rainy night, several Red-clothed followed at Chen Ge's side as the group moved forward in silence.
"This place doesn't seem to be something just anyone can find. If not for Xu Yin leading the way, I probably wouldn't have gotten in so easily."
As he drew closer to the small house, the blurred images in Chen Ge's memory aligned with reality. Things he had nearly forgotten resurfaced in his mind, clearer now than they had ever been.
"Be careful."
He had almost been killed here once before, so Chen Ge was extremely cautious now. He felt he was drawing ever closer to the truth.
The fence around the small yard had been knocked over, covered in moss. Empty flowerpots were scattered throughout the yard.
The flowerpots were rather curious — all of them were uniform in size, just large enough to fit an adult's head.
Apart from the flowerpots, the yard also held a number of playground fixtures: a broken rocking horse, a rusted seesaw, and a swing with one rope snapped.
"This place doesn't seem to have been visited in a long time."
Abandoned was good. It meant no more children had been harmed here.
Wading through the muddy path, Chen Ge pushed open the door of the gray house.
A faint stench drifted out. Chen Ge's nostrils twitched, and he stood in the doorway without stepping inside.
"I've smelled this odor before in Liwan Town. It's very distinctive — hard to describe. Not as intense as the smell of a corpse, but laced with a kind of cold chill. Once you breathe it in, it feels like your whole lungs are shuddering."
Activating his Yin Eye, Chen Ge peered inside the house.
Most of the furniture had been destroyed. The floor was covered in debris and the torn remains of children's clothing.
"This room wasn't originally like this."
Looking at the chaos spread across the floor, a different image surfaced in Chen Ge's mind.
It was the same small house, but the air was filled with children's laughter. The walls were papered in light blue and pink. The table was low, covered with toys and treats.
"Did the ghost that lived here leave?"
Chen Ge was about to step inside when his phone suddenly buzzed. The caller ID showed an unknown number.
"I already have Captain Li's and Captain Yan's numbers, so it's probably not the police. Who would be calling me at a time like this?"