43 043 (Updated on June 27)
Day 1: What's on the ceiling?
Absolute darkness completely engulfed the stairwell, this time lasting longer than any before.
Only dead silence tightly enveloped Jiang Chuxu and Xiao Hei.
The cold air once again wrapped around Jiang Chuxu's wrist, but she knew very well that it was just yin energy.
She didn't move. Her night vision was very strong and she could see clearly what was happening in front of her.
In the darkness, her pupils were like cold stars sinking into the deep sea.
The thirteenth one flickers.
A blinding beam of light suddenly pierced the darkness.
The hunched figure blocking the second-to-last step moved!
The moment the light came on, its head, which had been lowered, suddenly raised up.
It was the same as the woman in the mirror, without any facial features, only a surface of bones that looked like it had been stripped of flesh, and that "face" was facing Jiang Chuxu.
It moved.
Not pounce.
The raised head without any facial features swayed very slightly from side to side, with a very small amplitude, like a stuck pendulum.
Now you can clearly see the stitching line from the chest to the back. The line is very strange and it doesn't seem to have been made by one person.
A small part of the chest looked like it was sewn by itself, but the rest was sewn by someone else, and it was obvious that the person had good skills, perhaps a professional.
Jiang Chuxu originally wanted to take out the necklace, but looking at the ghost, she felt that there was no need to communicate anymore.
The blood energy on this ghost was not obvious just now, but now, perhaps because it wants to attack, the blood energy on its body can no longer be concealed at all.
Her voice was low, with a hint of mockery that was hard to tell whether it was genuine or not: "Forget it, there's no need to communicate."
The shaking head stopped.
The next second, it seemed as if a cold gaze pierced Jiang Chuxu from the smooth bone surface.
Not an illusion.
The air temperature dropped suddenly, and Jiang Chuxu's eyes turned cold.
She swung the hand holding the necklace forward suddenly, but her target was not the ghost on the stairs, but the area behind it, between the last step leading to the eighth-floor platform and the fire door.
All I could hear was a cracking sound, as if an invisible wall was smashed to pieces, and the entire stairwell seemed to shake.
The hunched faceless ghost on the steps looked like he had been hit hard on the back by a heavy hammer. His whole body trembled violently, and the wriggling sutures were stretched and torn apart.
Under the tattered cloth, the blue-gray skin was cracked inch by inch, but no blood flowed out, only a thicker yin energy escaped.
It let out a silent scream, and Jiang Chuxu and Xiao Hei felt a sharp pain in their eardrums at the same time, as if their heads were pricked by needles.
Immediately afterwards, the hunched figure suddenly collapsed inward like a punctured balloon, turning into a thick, indissoluble black smoke.
It rolled and struggled, but was finally pulled towards the area where Jiang Chuxu's necklace was thrown by a huge suction force.
The place that was originally empty now looked like an invisible giant mouth.
Black smoke rushed in madly, and the faceless ghost disappeared without a trace in an instant.
silence.
The flashlight beam stopped flickering and illuminated the steps steadily.
At this moment, the steps were empty, with only a few wisps of residual evil energy swirling under the light, but they soon dissipated.
The last step leading to the eighth-floor platform and the heavy fire door were clearly visible.
Jiang Chuxu took back the necklace and put it back into her pocket. She looked up at the door on the eighth floor, then looked down at her feet.
Where the ghost had blocked the road just now, there was a faint charred mark on the cement surface of the steps, as if it had been corroded by strong acid.
The ghosts in Xinghua Building are quite interesting.
Jiang Chuxu rubbed her ears. This was why she didn't like to act rashly in places where there were a lot of ghosts, but sometimes it was really unavoidable.
She didn't delay any longer, stepped firmly onto the last step, and stood in front of the fire door on the eighth floor.
She listened carefully and found that there was silence behind the door, even the whispers and noises that were everywhere before had disappeared.
The absolute silence actually exudes an unsettling feeling.
Xiao Hei also pricked up his ears and fixed his pupils on the crack in the door.
Jiang Chuxu stretched out her hand, and without hesitation, she twisted it downwards with force.
“Click.”
The sound of the door lock popping open was particularly clear.
She slowly opened a crack, and the smell inside was stronger than any floor downstairs.
Jiang Chuxu frowned, held his breath, and pushed the door open completely.
A long and narrow corridor appeared before her eyes. Its layout was similar to the one she had seen on the second floor, but it was more dilapidated and the ground was covered with thick dust.
Jiang Chuxu stepped into the corridor.
Is there too much dust here?
She had just taken two steps when there was a muffled sound behind her and the fire door closed automatically.
Jiang Chuxu didn't look back. These trivial things couldn't scare her. Her eyes calmly swept across the tightly closed metal doors on both sides.
There was no sense of a peephole, no crying, no sounds of chopping meat, no TV noise, nothing.
Because she already knew the layout of the building, she didn't pause and walked directly to the right side of the corridor. Her footsteps echoed in the empty space, and every step was accompanied by a friction sound.
The flashlight beam steadily opened up a small bright area in front of her. The cold metal doors on both sides reflected a dim light in the light and shadow, like silent iron coffins.
Her goal is very clear, which is to go to 8012.
However, the house numbers on this floor seem to have been messed up.
Right next to 8008 is 8002, and it looks like a few numbers were roughly dug out in the middle.
8002 was 8010 again? The order is completely confusing.
She didn't stop walking, and said "tsk" in her heart, what a trick.
Xiao Hei squatted on her shoulder, his little head turning left and right as he moved, and his cat eyes vigilantly scanning every door and every corner.
When he reached the middle of the corridor, Jiang Chuxu stopped.
Her eyes fell on a door on the left. This door looked relatively intact, at least the surface was not so mottled. There were still stubborn glue marks left after tearing off the Spring Festival couplets.
The house number is severely rusted, but you can vaguely make out it starts with 80, and the last two numbers look like... 15?
8015?
There is a noticeable gap between 8015 and the adjacent 8017, just the width of a door, where the wall is slightly darker.
The dust under the door of 8015 seems to be thinner than other places.
It looks like something has been coming in and out recently.
Jiang Chuxu stared at the metal door of 8015 for a few seconds. The door was very quiet, as lifeless as the other doors.
The little black dog on my shoulder suddenly breathed very lightly in the direction of the door, and the hair on his back seemed to be about to explode.
Jiang Chuxu didn't move, she just watched.
A few seconds passed and 8015 remained silent.
She withdrew her gaze, lifted her foot, and continued walking forward, as if she had just been looking around casually.
Just as she stepped away.
"despair".
A soft sound.
It was extremely slight, like a pebble falling on a tile floor.
The source of the sound was behind the door of 8015.
Jiang Chuxu's footsteps did not pause at all, and even his pace did not change.
She acted as if she hadn't heard anything and walked deeper into the corridor with Xiao Hei.
"despair".
There was another sound, a little clearer than before.
Then, there was the third sound, “click”.
The sounds were very short and getting shorter and shorter, with a creepy regularity, as if something was behind the door, tapping lightly on the inside of the metal door panel with its fingertips.
“Tick, tick, tick…”
The sound stubbornly drilled into Jiang Chuxu's ears. Along with the sound, the fishy smell in the corridor seemed to be stronger, floating out from 8015.
Jiang Chuxu still didn't look back or stop. She didn't even speed up her pace, but just walked steadily, as if the continuous knocking sound behind her was not worth paying attention to.
"Meow." Xiao Hei twisted his body a little impatiently and swung his tail, as if he felt that the thing behind him was a bit annoying.
The knocking continued, relentlessly.
Jiang Chuxu finally walked to the back of the corridor, her eyes fixed on a door on the right.
This door looked even more worn and dilapidated, its dark metal panel covered with deep scratches and dried stains, as if it had been repeatedly scraped and hit by something sharp.
The house number is almost invisible, but if you look closely, you can barely make out "801" and the outline of a blurry 2 at the back.
8012, Li Qiang’s room.
This time the door was closed, and there was also thick dust under the gap, with no signs of it being opened recently.
Sure enough, the door I saw in the ghost wall was fake.
Jiang Chuxu stood in front of the door. She didn't open it immediately, but looked around and finally her eyes fell on the door handle.
She confirmed that the door was real and the ghost wall on this floor just changed the position of the door.
At this moment, the knocking sound from the direction of 8015 behind him stopped without warning.
Deathly silence fell again, and the atmosphere in the entire corridor was heavier than before, as if the entire corridor was holding its breath, waiting for something.
Jiang Chuxu ignored the changes behind her and tried to turn the door of 8012.
Not moving at all.
This was within her expectations. She applied more force, and the door handle made a teeth-grinding creaking sound. Just as she was about to turn it hard with brute force,
"Squeak."
The sound of a door opening came from behind her.
Not the direction of 8015.
The sound was very close, as if it was just a few steps behind her.
Jiang Chuxu paused, his hand holding the door handle did not loosen, and his body remained leaning forward.
She just turned her head slightly and glanced back out of the corner of her eye.
The flashlight also shifted slightly to the side and rear.
The light illuminated a door a few steps behind her and to her left.
The door was originally tightly closed, but at this moment, it opened silently a crack, about a palm's width.
It was pitch black inside the door, and the flashlight could only illuminate a small area of the tiled floor at the door.
The strange smell seemed to have found an outlet and suddenly surged out from the narrow gap in the door, covering up the smell in front of door 8012.
Jiang Chuxu could even feel the cold air brushing across the back of her neck.
She maintained her current posture, her peripheral vision fixed on the crack in the door.
Something seemed to move in the crack of the door.
It’s hard to describe, it’s like a movement of “sense of presence”.
A gaze emerged from the darkness and stuck to Jiang Chuxu's back.
The thing inside stopped moving again.
I could just barely see a figure standing inside, it was all pitch black and not very clear.
Xiao Hei turned around and faced the door that was slightly open, and his body entered the attack state again.
Time seemed to stand still.
Will the stuff inside come out?
The only sounds left in the corridor were Xiao Hei's suppressed growl and that strange smell.
A few seconds passed.
Nothing peeked out from the darkness behind the door.
No hands, no face, no eyes.
There was only the intense feeling of being watched and the overwhelming stench.
Jiang Chuxu withdrew her gaze. She seemed to have no interest in the door that suddenly opened behind her, and her attention returned to the locked 8012 in front of her.
She tightened her grip on the door handle again.
"Crack!"
She actually broke the door lock of room 8012 by using brute force!
She pushed hard.
The door slowly opened inward, and the first thing that came into view was an extremely narrow entrance.
There were some strangely shaped claw marks on the ground, as if left by some animal.
Opposite the entrance is a small living room. The light is too dim and you can only barely see the outlines of some furniture.
Jiang Chuxu stepped over the threshold and entered the living room.
When her whole body entered.
"Bang--"
There was a loud crash behind her, and the metal door of room 8012 closed automatically with terrifying speed and force.
The wind caused by the closing door also stirred up the dust on the ground.
Jiang Chuxu raised his hand to brush off the dust on his shoulders, and the flashlight swept steadily into the depths of the living room.
An old sofa was leaning against the wall. The sofa cover was so dirty that the color could not be seen. There were several long tears on it, revealing the yellowed sponge, as if it had been scratched by sharp claws.
She held Xiao Hei in her arms and walked towards the corridor leading to the bedroom.
Just as she was about to reach the sofa, a sound of friction on the tile floor came from behind the sofa.
The voice was soft and full, cautious and furtive.
Jiang Chuxu stopped and illuminated the narrow shadow area behind the sofa.
In the light, there was nothing behind the sofa.
But the rustling sound did not stop.
The thing seemed to be moving towards the side of the sofa, close to the TV cabinet.
Xiao Hei had already jumped off Jiang Chuxu's shoulder and landed silently on the dusty tile floor.
Xiao Hei lowered his body, raised his tail high, the tip of his tail trembled slightly, and his pupils were fixed on the direction of the sound.
Jiang Chuxu stood in place, following the direction of the sound with his flashlight, and finally locked onto the gap between the side of the sofa and the TV cabinet.
There were several flattened cardboard boxes and some trash piled there.
The sound seemed to come from behind the pile of garbage.
A fresh dragging mark appeared on the ground. The mark was very narrow, like it was left by a tail dragging?
The end of the trace is hidden behind the pile of garbage.
The sound stopped.
The flashlight still kept a steady gaze on the pile of garbage.
One second.
Two seconds.
There was no movement behind the garbage dump.
Jiang Chuxu walked to the side of the sofa, and the sound of his shoes stepping on the tiles was not loud, but extremely clear.
She stopped at the garbage dump and examined it.
There is neither living thing nor dead thing here.
The dragging mark on the ground disappeared at the edge of the garbage dump, as if it had evaporated into thin air.
Xiao Hei moved closer, his nose twitching as he carefully sniffed the ground at the end of the trace. He then looked up at the garbage dump and a confused gurgling sound rolled out of his throat.
"Run away?" Jiang Chuxu whispered to herself, more like she was talking to Xiao Hei, there was no surprise in her voice.
She didn't linger at the garbage dump for long. She turned around and used her flashlight to illuminate the corridor leading to the bedroom. The door was ajar.
She walked over holding Xiao Hei, and her footsteps echoed in the empty living room.
The bedroom door was not locked, and a slight push opened a larger gap.
There was a single bed against the wall with the mattress exposed.
A simple cloth wardrobe was leaning against the corner, its zipper closed and covered in dust, as if no one had moved it for a long time.
But Jiang Chuxu noticed that there were several irregular scratches on the dust at the bottom edge of the wardrobe.
It was like something was pushing out from inside, scraping off the dust.
She walked closer step by step.
The bedroom space is very small and there are only a few steps to the wardrobe.
There seemed to be someone standing inside, and a figure that did not belong to Jiang Chuxu appeared there.
Jiang Chuxu stretched out his hand, and his fingertips touched the metal zipper head. The zipper teeth were tightly engaged.
"hey-hey."
I didn't know where the laughter came from, as if it came from the closet, or from above my head.
Jiang Chuxu pulled down hard.
The harsh sound of the zipper was amplified infinitely, and the cloth door opened to both sides.
It was empty inside, no one was there.
There were only a few cheap clothes hanging around, smelling musty.
The bottom is empty, with no room to hide.
The friction sound disappeared.
But the feeling of being watched did not diminish, but became more acute, like a needle pricking the back of the neck.
Jiang Chuxu's gaze did not linger on the empty wardrobe. The flashlight slowly moved away and turned to the single bed next to him. The shadow under the bed was so thick that it could not be dispelled.
She half-knelt with her back to the wardrobe, and the light shone straight in.
Empty.
There were only a few dusty balls of fur and a torn upside-down slipper.
The feeling of being watched still did not diminish. Jiang Chuxu stood up straight and glanced at the cramped bedroom.
His gaze moved slowly, first to the window frame, then to the peeling corner of the ceiling, and finally to the curtains.
The curtains were of heavy, dark velvet, the hems of which trailed on the ground.
There were several clear scratch marks on the edge of the curtain, and the fabric was torn into tiny tears, revealing the equally dirty lining inside.
The extremely slight friction sound was heard again, and this time, the source of the sound seemed to be behind the curtain!
The sound moved along the ground, slowly and cautiously.
Xiao Hei lowered his body silently, his vertical pupils fixed on the narrow gap at the bottom of the curtain.
"rustle".
The sound continued, and it seemed to be sticking to the inside of the curtains, moving towards the window little by little.
Suddenly, the sound stopped and stopped at the middle of the curtain near the window.
The curtain fabric in that area bulged outwards very slightly, forming a small bulge whose outline was blurred.
Xiao Hei pounced forward and tore the curtains apart with his sharp claws.
Jiang Chuxu's gaze penetrated the torn gap and looked straight at the window.
The window glass was grimy, the sky outside was gray, and the windowsill was empty, covered with thick dust.
Behind the curtains, there was nothing but cold walls and dusty windowsills.
There were no living creatures, no ghosts, not even any new traces.
It was as if everything that happened just now was an illusion.
Jiang Chuxu rubbed Xiao Hei's head as a comfort, after all, they were in the territory of those ghosts.
Xiao Hei let out a "Meow?" filled with deep doubt.
The clear bulge and movement just now seemed like an illusion.
Jiang Chuxu's brows furrowed slightly.
Most of the ghosts in this place are not very strong, such as the ones in this room, but they are very good at hiding, or rather, the building itself is helping them hide.
Jiang Chuxu reached out and picked up Xiao Hei and put him back on his shoulder. The little guy used his paws to brush off the dust on the tip of his nose in dissatisfaction, and swung his tail irritably.
Her fingers soothingly rubbed the soft fur behind its ears, but her eyes once again swept across the bedroom.
"hey-hey."
The laughter came again.
There was nothing under the single bed, nothing in the wardrobe, and nothing behind the curtains.
But the thing is still in this room.
Do you want to look up?
Is there something above your head?
Jiang Chuxu slowly raised his head and looked at the ceiling.
The old white paint was mottled and yellowed, covered with cobwebs and mildew, and everything looked like it hadn't been lived in for too long.
Nothing unusual.
I don’t know if it was an illusion, but it seemed like there was liquid dripping from the ceiling, sticky and dark red.
Same as before on the stairs.
The difference is that the area where the liquid drips looks more and more like a mouth.
Open mouth.
You can even see its tongue, teeth, and what it seems to have just eaten.
I can't see clearly, but it seems to be a black sports suit.
It’s exactly the same as the one Jiang Chuxu has on, including the bag.
The mouth seemed to be getting closer, or maybe it wasn't actually the mouth itself, it was the ceiling that was getting closer.
The nursery rhyme comes again, this time it's the second half of the nursery rhyme.
"The iron gate opens, the shadows grow long,
The blood words are bright, don't look back,
Don't respond when your name is called.
The bloody mouth opens, the claw marks are cold,
Hiding behind the curtain, don't make a sound,
The song ends in the crematorium!"
【Author’s words】
I should be able to post more updates on 300 and 400 nutrient solutions this afternoon [Please][Please]
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