A strong musty smell emanated from the shabby and narrow room. The top floor seemed to be leaking, and the room was damp and confined, making people feel very uncomfortable.

All the windows were sealed with wooden boards. After Chen Ge checked, he found that the boards were very new and had been installed recently.

"This is just an ordinary guest room." The burned furniture had long been thrown away, and the room was completely empty, with nothing of value to be found.

"That's right. Five years have passed. Even if there is evidence, it may not be preserved intact."

He walked out of the house and strolled in the dark corridor. Most of the guest rooms were emptied, and debris and household garbage were mixed together. There was no place to step.

"Domestic waste can usually reflect a person's living conditions and personality. Perhaps we can discover something from it." After changing his target, Chen Ge endured the peculiar smell and searched carefully. After more than an hour, he really found some strange things.

"Why are there so many stuffed toys in the apartment building? There are no children in the building, whose toys could they belong to?" He spent nearly two hours searching through all the garbage and found a total of four stuffed toys. Compared to the clutter that filled the corridor, these four toys were inconspicuous. If Chen Ge had not majored in toy design and was not sensitive to toys, he might have ignored them.

I don't know how long the four toys have been thrown here. The surfaces are covered with stains and some places are moldy. A light touch of the fingers will knock off a handful of fluff.

Chen Ge watched them again and again, and he became more suspicious. The dolls had different appearances, but they were produced by the same manufacturer.

"Could it be that they were left behind by the tenants who lived here after the renovation of Ping An Apartment?" Chen Ge quickly shook his head and denied this idea: "Let's not talk about the probability of bringing children to live in a haunted apartment. Even if you move in with your children, it is unlikely that you will bring four dolls at the same time. After all, these four dolls are from the same manufacturer, and judging by the workmanship and style, they should be made several years ago."

The toy market is changing very quickly. Before taking over the haunted house, he was an employee of a toy company and had a good understanding of the market.

"It was not left by the tenant, but it was kept in the haunted house, so it is very likely that this thing was originally from the apartment." He made a bold guess: "The original owner of the apartment building had two daughters. If I am not mistaken, this doll should belong to them."

Thinking of this, Chen Ge had another question: "Water and fire are merciless. The house and furniture were all burned. How did these four dolls escape the disaster?"

"Is it a coincidence? Or... someone deliberately put it in a safe place?" Chen Ge felt that he had grasped a very important clue: "The only person who can move the items in the fire is the murderer himself! But why would he risk his life to protect the four dolls? Are these four dolls important to him?"

The zipper on the back of the doll was rusted and broken, so Chen Ge tore it open. In the smelly and spoiled cotton wool, he found a palm-sized card with words full of love. Chen Ge got goose bumps when he saw it. "Stuffing a love letter into a doll? Isn't this a too subtle way to express your feelings?"

He began to imagine the murderer's personality. He thought that he should be a shy and introverted man who was embarrassed to say it directly to his face, so he gave the doll as a gift, hoping that he would open it and check it after returning home.

Out of curiosity, Chen Ge tore open the two puppets and found a card inside each of them, with roughly the same content.

But when he tore open the fourth doll, a chill crept up his spine.

There was no confession card in the last doll. Instead, the moldy cotton wool was filled with torn pieces of paper. There were only three words on all the pieces of paper - Go to hell!

Somehow, the strong love turned into the most vicious curse. Chen Ge had no idea what happened in between.

"The words on the note should be left by the murderer. This is the key evidence." He picked out a few notes and put them in his pocket. Just as he was about to investigate deeper, the voice-controlled light at the corner of the stairs suddenly lit up!

"Someone is coming!" Chen Ge panicked. He quickly turned off the flashlight on his phone and hid in the guest room next door with a few dolls.

Not daring to make a sound and holding his breath, Chen Ge hid behind the door, secretly staring outside through the crack.

Footsteps were heard, and the voices of a man and a woman talking could be heard in the dark corridor.

"We have to get that thing out quickly. We can't delay any longer."

"The new tenant had been up to the third floor before, and when he reached the stairs he suddenly went down again and almost found me."

"I know that there have been more and more outsiders coming to the apartment recently, so this thing needs to be dealt with quickly."

"kindness."

"Call the others and work together to dig it out tonight and bury it in the back hill."

The visitor was holding an old-fashioned mining lamp, and with the light, Chen Ge could see clearly that the two people talking in the corridor were the landlord and the woman on the first floor.

"Why are they here on the third floor so late at night?" Chen Ge adjusted the angle to ensure that he would not be discovered, and then pressed his body against the door.

After a while, the tattooed man and the fat man who had been seen in the apartment building all came up. Not only did they wrap themselves tightly, they also carried tools such as iron rods, sacks, and kitchen knives.

"What is this for?"

Several people were standing in the corridor, seemingly having an argument.

The short fat man walking at the back was in a bad mood: "Do we really want to do this? Once we dig it out, our fingerprints will remain around it, and then everything will be unclear."

"Do you think you can make it clear now?" The landlord glared at the fat man and said, "Don't waste time. Come and help me."

"I think we should call the police." The short and fat man stood where he was.

Hearing what he said, the tattooed man walked over and grabbed him by the collar: "Are you crazy? Are you throwing yourself into the muzzle of a gun? When the police come, we will definitely be the first ones to be investigated. By then, your drunk driving, hit-and-run, and our occupation of the old man's apartment will all be exposed!"

"Honey, don't be angry." The woman who lived opposite the tattooed man on the first floor came over and said, "Everyone has a share in this matter. No one can escape. Let's get to work quickly."

"None of us are clean, and we finally found a place to stay. If any of you dare to have other ideas, don't blame me for turning my back on you." The landlord thrust the iron rod in his hand at the short and fat man: "You go and do the first one."

"Me?" Sweat immediately dripped down the fat man's forehead. His face turned pale and blue, and he moved slowly while holding the iron rod.

Seeing the unusual behavior of the people outside the door, Chen Ge felt something was wrong: "What are they planning to dig?"

The short and fat man walked to the end of the corridor, pushed the debris to both sides, and under the gaze of other tenants, he lifted the curtain behind the pile of debris with trembling hands.

It was a thick cement wall, with a female corpse embedded inside the wall with her back to the crowd.

(.=)