A faint smell of blood floated in the air. It wasn't raining outside, but the woman's red raincoat was wet.
Her black hair stuck to her face and water droplets slid down her collar. The woman walked into the restaurant with her head lowered. She didn't look at anyone and found a seat to sit down alone.
"Let's stay away from her." Jia Ming said softly, and stood up and moved to the other side of the table.
He did not discuss this with Li Zheng beforehand. When he stood up and crossed paths with Li Zheng, others could clearly see that Li Zheng was holding a gun in his hand.
"Sit still!" Li Zheng pushed Jia Ming back to his original position, glanced at the red raincoat quietly, and then asked Jia Ming in a low voice: "Do you know this woman?"
"She's a lunatic. All those who wear red clothes here are lunatics. Don't get close to her. It's best to stay as far away from her as possible." Jia Ming's body was shaking slightly. "This is what Shadow told me. If you want to die, don't drag me with you!"
"Does red have a special meaning here?" Li Zheng still had a lot of things he wanted to ask. He had sensed something was wrong since he entered the town, but because he had too little information, he couldn't tell whether Jia Ming was lying or not.
"Red means danger. Don't get close. This is the iron rule inside the door." Jia Ming's voice became smaller and smaller: "The shadow is not in my body now, but he has done many things with this body, so I know some secrets."
"Inside the door?" Li Zheng wrote down every word Jia Ming said: "Is there anything else to pay attention to here?"
Perhaps realizing that he couldn't escape, or perhaps because he saw Chen Ge and was ready to change his plan, Jia Ming became much more honest: "Don't enter any building with closed doors, and don't pass in front of buildings with open doors. Gray represents safety, and red represents danger. If you see black, don't waste time running away. Use the remaining time to think about your last words."
While Jia Ming and Li Zheng were talking, footsteps were heard at the hotel gate again, and several people looked there at the same time.
"It's so lively tonight." A man wearing a black coat and dragging a large box entered the house. There were five blood-red women's heads tattooed on his arms, and a white bone whistle in his mouth.
No one in the hotel paid any attention to him, but he acted very enthusiastically, greeting the guests in the store one by one. It was not until he saw the red raincoat that his body froze. He quickly walked past the red raincoat and came to the counter: "Boss, I want to stay at the hotel."
He spoke much softer, as if he was afraid of disturbing Red Raincoat.
"Why is there someone here again?" Chen Ge pushed the food cart out from the kitchen. They searched the kitchen for a long time, but apart from some cut meat of unknown animals, there were only some cakes left.
The shop owner does not prepare cakes for the customers. From the menu in the kitchen, it can be seen that all the dishes prepared by the restaurant are what the gluttonous female ghost likes.
In other words, the menu here actually only serves the gluttonous female ghost, and the cake still needs post-processing. To give a very simple example, the kitchen does not prepare ketchup and strawberry jam, but some of the cakes are red.
"A red-clothed ghost who likes sweets? That's a pretty good gimmick." Chen Ge pushed the food cart. He planned to transform the restaurant into a horror scene related to food after completing the task.
It was only a few minutes after entering the kitchen. When Chen Ge came out, he found that there were many more people in the hall. The appearance of the person in the red raincoat surprised him the most.
To be honest, Liwan Town has indeed become a special place under the influence of the out-of-control door, where living people can actually sit together with the person in red.
"Maybe this is what's behind the door. There are ghosts transformed by obsessions, and people trapped in nightmares." Chen Ge placed the undyed cake on the table: "Eat as much as you want. I won't charge you. You just need to answer a few questions later."
"Are you sure? Why don't you open it and have a look? Maybe you'll be tempted?" The woman was dressed very tightly. She dragged the box to Chen Ge, straightened her body, took her fingers off the box and placed them on the hem of her clothes. The word "open" seemed to contain two meanings at the same time.
"No need. If necessary, I can do it myself." Chen Ge carried the heavy backpack in one hand. The skull crusher had just hit the blood vessels and long tongue, and the strong smell of blood had not yet dissipated.
"Okay." The woman dragged the box and took a few steps back. The charm on her face disappeared and her expression changed faster than turning the pages of a book.
"Hey, where's the shop owner? I've already helped him find out what he asked me to find out last time." The man with a woman's head tattoo approached Chen Ge, dragging a box.
"He's out, so let me take care of the restaurant temporarily. I have the final say here now." Chen Ge said with a smile. In terms of service attitude, he is definitely better than the previous store owner.
"The shop owner is out?" The tattooed man was very smart. He immediately realized that something was wrong and smiled at Chen Ge embarrassedly: "Then I can only come back another day. Sorry to bother you."
After saying that, he didn't want the box anymore, turned around and prepared to walk out.
"Wait a minute, did you not understand what I just said?" Chen Ge used the scissors to stop the tattooed man: "Now here, I have the final say. Just tell me what the store owner wants you to find out."
The tattooed man stood there, his eyes unconsciously glancing towards the kitchen. The more he looked, the more panicked he became: "Isn't this a bad idea?"
"Then what should I do?" Chen Ge turned slightly to let the tattooed man see the collapsed wall inside the kitchen.
"Since you are the shop owner's friend, you are also my friend. We are all friends, so of course there is no problem." The tattooed man immediately changed his tone. His honest face was in sharp contrast to the five hideous female head tattoos on his arm. "There are too many people here, please excuse me."
He turned around and walked towards the second floor. He looked very familiar with the hotel and seemed to be a regular here.
"Scissors, come with me." Chen Ge called for Scissors to come with him, not treating him as an outsider at all.
"Me?" Scissors was stunned. He didn't expect that Chen Ge would still take him with him even when listening to confidential information. What kind of trust was this?
"Come here quickly." Chen Ge and Scissors followed the tattooed man to the second floor.
"Just now I saw the secret room in the kitchen collapsed, but the female monster was not inside." The tattooed man took a breath and said, "She couldn't leave the restaurant. She is not where she should be at this moment, which means she may have disappeared."
"You are very smart." Chen Ge said coldly: "I don't like dealing with people who are too smart, unless they are useful to me."
"Brother, don't be so direct! I promise I can be of use to you, and of great use." The tattooed man took the bone whistle in his hand and paused for a long time before speaking: "I know a way to leave this damn place, and it has something to do with a door."
"This is not a secret. You came in from outside. As long as you find the door, you can naturally go out." Chen Ge's words choked the tattooed man half to death: "Don't be so mysterious. I know much more than you think. I advise you to tell me something real."
"I also know the location of that door." The tattooed man clenched the bone whistle. "All the people who were brought in by the ghost fetus had their heads covered with black cloth. When they woke up, they were already on the street. Moreover, I have asked many people, and everyone was in a different place after taking off the hood."
"You said that you were brought in by the ghost fetus? Is that ghost fetus a black shadow? Why do you call it that?" Chen Ge didn't seem to care about how to get out, but was very interested in some details.
"Brother, your focus is so strange. You must have seen that shadow before if you came here. When you were making your choice in the Underworld Building..." The tattooed man suddenly stopped talking and looked at Chen Ge and Scissors in disbelief: "Wait! Did you come in by yourself? Didn't you go through that door?"
"If you don't want to die, answer my question first." Chen Ge took out the skull crusher directly.
"Calm down, I'm just a little surprised. Sometimes there are indeed some unlucky people who enter the blood mist for various reasons, but such people usually don't survive here for more than an hour." The tattooed man looked at Chen Ge holding the skull crusher and the scissors with a ferocious face: "Your situation is really rare."
"Can you tell me about the ghost tower and the ghost fetus?" Chen Ge's voice was low and his eyes were a little scary.
"Be patient. Since you are outsiders, I will explain the rules of this place to you. Believe me, I am doing this for your own good." The tattooed man looked outside and saw that no one was paying attention to this side. He then spoke: "Unfortunate things happen every day in this world, and unfortunate people also appear constantly. Some people hold on to the only ray of sunshine to get through the most difficult times, but some people sink into despair."
"I have come into contact with more than a dozen people from outside, and they all encountered Shadow when they were desperate and collapsed."
"The initial voice came from their own shadows. Under the guidance of their shadows, they took the last bus No. 104 to Liwan Town and entered the Hades Tower, hoping to be redeemed."
"The owner of the Underworld Tower is also a shadow. No one has ever seen his true face. In our eyes, he is just a shadow, a shadow that may appear beside you at any time and transform into your own appearance. He is like the monster generated by malice deep in our hearts, who understands the weaknesses and needs of each of us."
"That shadow calls itself a ghost fetus. According to the shop owner, the shadow is actually the shadow of a living person, but was abandoned by that living person."
"I know this sounds unbelievable, but it's true. Many things that happened in Liwan Town, Minglou, and Dongjiao were actually caused by that shadow. He was willing to destroy everything just to do one thing, to turn himself into a human, and then turn the living person who abandoned him into a shadow."
"Malice is contagious. The shadow was originally the shadow of that person, but as he absorbed more and more malice and despair, he has become a..." The tattooed man thought for a long time and didn't know how to describe it: "Anyway, it's a very scary thing. He planted most of his body and negative emotions in an unborn child, which is the body of the ghost fetus. The remaining small part is secretly protecting the ghost fetus and promoting the whole plan."
"How do you know these things?" Shadow was very cautious and kept his words to himself. In Chen Ge's opinion, it was impossible for him to reveal these things to an outsider, unless Shadow wanted to know them on purpose.
"The hotel owner and I were the first living people to enter behind the door. We have lived here for a long time, and we can probably piece together a truth from the fragments of words from the shadows." The man took off his coat, and there was a black and red rope tied around his lower abdomen.
This rope seemed to have been tied there a long time ago and had never been taken off. It had now grown into the flesh.
What's even more strange is that, with the rope as the boundary, the tattooed man's upper body is normal, while his lower body has turned completely dark gray.
"This rope is made from the blood of the shop owner's mother. Without it, I would have died long ago."
"But this doesn't prove that what you said is the truth." Chen Ge has his own judgment on everything and does not listen to others casually. This is one of the reasons why he was able to survive so many trial missions.
"I can't prove that this is true. I'm just telling you everything I know. I hope you can feel my sincerity and cooperate with me to escape together." The tattooed man put on his clothes. He understood Chen Ge. In a place like this, if Chen Ge believed what he said immediately, he would feel uneasy. "Continuing with the previous topic, I asked many people and finally discovered a secret of Shadow."
"Everyone who enters here is put on a black hood in the Underworld Building, and then they are allowed to pass through the door after a while." The tattooed man narrowed his eyes slowly, as if what he was about to say was very important: "The Underworld Building is located next to Liwan Town. It is an unfinished building that has been suspended. It is called Mingyang Community."
"Many of those who were sent in were unwilling to give up and wanted to escape, so they would grope towards the outskirts of Liwan Town, but they never came back."
"At first I also thought the door was in the Underworld Tower, but after asking many people I suddenly realized that the door might be in Liwan Town." The tattooed man felt that he had discovered a huge secret: "After everyone enters the Underworld Tower, their subjective consciousness will become blurred, and the malice deep in their hearts will be aroused, but there are also a few determined guys who did not get lost. They clearly remember that they were not pushed directly into the door, but moved to a certain place for a long time. After several years of groping, without attracting the shadow's attention, I finally found the location of the door."
"Is it in a residential area outside of Liwan Town? If I remember correctly, it should be a room on the first floor of Building No. 1." Under the shocked gaze of the tattooed man, Chen Ge said the location he wanted to talk about: "Forget it, it's not all in vain. At least I know that Minglou is in Mingyang Community, and I also know that Shadow put most of his 'body' on an unborn baby."
Chen Ge asked the tattooed man a few more questions and found that this man was not simple either. He was naturally close to ghosts and monsters, a bit like a weakened version of Fan Yu.