Chapter 77

[…I no longer dare to talk to the novelist.

[She has become very strange now, but she herself seems to be completely unaware of it. When she talks, she always licks her lips and bites her fingers unintentionally. I wanted to ignore it, but yesterday, she actually bit off her own fingers! On the index finger, apart from a little flesh, there was only blood-stained bone. I saw it clearly!

[I privately informed the assistant to the building manager of this. I originally wanted to tell the building manager, but I really couldn’t find her, so I had to ask the assistant to the building manager to handle it. I hope all the problems can be solved!]

…

[The room where the novelist is located has also been sealed.

[Not only that, the entire building has also undergone unprecedented major reforms. Only then did I realize that the old man living in 102 had also…had changed a long time ago. He has been staying in his room and has not come out for a long time. When they forced their way into his house, they discovered that his body had completely melted into the door panel, with one of his eyes stuck to the position of the cat's eye, and the eyeball had bulged into the cat's eye!

[As for the greasy-faced man who lived on the second floor, I never saw him again. But it is said that when they checked the novelist's house, they found a lot of his things inside, including torn clothes and possibly other broken things.

[I can't stand it anymore, I really can't stand it! I went to the assistant to the building manager again and begged him to let me leave. This horrible place, I really can't stay there for a moment! I would rather go outside, either my soul is scattered or I become a lonely ghost, than to stay here and suffer this anxiety day and night!

[But I can't leave. The assistant to the building manager said he couldn't let me go, and I couldn't find the building manager. I had no choice but to continue living here. He comforted me and said he would find a way, but what could he do? Could he make the novelist return to his harmless and innocent appearance, or make the gardener come back? He was just trying to fool me! 】

...

[The building manager has introduced new rules, called [Resident Rules]. Here are the excerpts:

[1. No noise or running in the corridor. Keep quiet and be civilized.

[2. All residents are requested to stay in their rooms unless necessary and do not walk around at will.

[3. Please do not visit neighbors with their doors closed unless necessary.

【4. Stable lighting can help residents maintain emotional stability, so for the safety of you and others, please do not touch the meter box in the building at will.

【5. Please do not try to trigger the sensor light. It will only light up when it is supposed to, please trust the sensor light.

【6. If you find that your neighbor can trigger the sensor light, please stay away immediately and return to the room. If you can still see your neighbor in the corridor after the sensor light goes out, please report it immediately to Ms. Tian in 302 or the assistant to the building manager.

【7. Please always pay attention to your own changes. If you find that you have a strong change in your appearance or cognition, please report it to Ms. 302 or the assistant to the building manager immediately.

【8. If you find a stranger in the corridor, please ignore them and stay quietly in your room. Even if they come to ask questions or help. Please remember, don't intervene, the building manager will be responsible for sending them away.

【In addition: In order to further strengthen the security in the building, safety doors are added on the stairs on the second, third and fourth floors. For details on the use of the safety doors, please refer to the relevant rules. Please cooperate strictly! 】

...

【The rules about the safety door are posted in the corridor. It is very long, so I won’t copy it here. Because I didn’t understand some parts, I asked the assistant of the building manager to explain it briefly; I have also seen the so-called [safety door] with my own eyes:

【It is said to be a safety door, but it is actually an iron door similar to the access control downstairs. Anyone can go directly through the iron door and go downstairs, but not everyone can go upstairs. As far as I know, it seems that only the living people who come in can go through the door and go upstairs smoothly; and those neighbors who are still [normal] can also open the door and go upstairs with the [password]. But I asked about the so-called [password], which seems to be too much trouble!

[But allowing living people to pass directly, I think this is extremely good. Just in case - I mean just in case, they encounter the same situation as the novelist again (I feel heartbroken when I write these three words now!), at least there is a way to protect themselves.

[Novelist... Alas! Novelist! When she was still conscious, she told me that her biggest fear in life was to achieve nothing, not be able to support herself, and not even have food to eat. Now that I think about it, compared to now, what was that? How sad! 】

…

【Because I was too lazy to find the password for the security door, and because I was afraid, I only moved around in the corridor and stairs on the fourth floor these days, and I felt very lonely.

【Occasionally I saw a notice in the corridor, but I found that the rules about the security door had been changed again.

【…Only [people] can go upstairs through the security door, [pigs] cannot. All invited guests are considered [people]… Strange, what new term is this? And the words are also very strange, not printed, but written with crayon, crooked… It really makes people uncomfortable to look at! 】

…

【At night I lay in bed, tossing and turning, thinking about the man and the pig. Pigs are pigs, livestock. How could there be livestock in the building? In other words, who was treated as a livestock?

[I couldn't help it, so I spent a lot of effort to find the password on my phone, opened the door, went upstairs, and found the assistant to the building manager. But he stared at me with wide eyes and said that the rules in the corridor had not been changed at all, and there had never been any people or pigs. He also asked me to go back, close the door, and don't come out during this period of time!

[What does he mean? It was posted there in black and white, did I lie to him! He also asked me to go back and put me in solitary confinement, as if I had done something wrong, or had committed something abnormal. It was ridiculous!

[I am normal! No one knows it better than me, I am normal! ]

...

[The next day, the child from 301 came up to see me, and I complained to her about it. She also thought it was ridiculous. I said, my mind has always been clear!

[Alas, I still remember that my mother was unfortunately diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease before I died. At that time, I was busy with my own things and had no time to take care of her. By the time I realized it, she was already seriously ill and couldn't even recognize people.

[I accompanied my mother through those blank and confused years. When I recalled it later, I always felt sad and was even more afraid that I would become like that in the future. Therefore, after entering old age, I was careful about everything and took good care of myself. I was afraid that one day, my brain would be gradually hollowed out like an apple eaten by worms. Now that I have become a wild ghost, I don't have to worry about this anymore. I don't know if it's worth celebrating.

[...It's strange. I always feel like I haven't seen the child in 301 for a while. Where did she go before? ]

...

[Don't believe it anymore.

[The induction light is crazy. 】

……

[…It has been confirmed. When the sensor light is on, the corresponding dolphin will appear…dolphins can hurt dolphins at will…the one who has been staying outside must be a dolphin…]

[The question is…how do I know whether I am a human or a dolphin?]

…

[No, no, no, no, no.

] [I can’t explain it, but something is definitely wrong!]

[The sensor light can be trusted, that’s my impression. But why did I see the words [the sensor light is crazy] when I looked through my previous notes? What is the dolphin in the sensor light?

[The little girl in 301, shouldn’t she be locked in the room? When did she come to see me again!

[What exactly is wrong? Is it this building, 301, or…my memory?]

…

[I’ll go to the assistant to the building manager for help. But when he saw me, he flew into a rage and tried to chop me with something in his hand. I fled in a panic, unable to remember when I had offended him. I stumbled back into the house, but spent a long time thinking about where I put the key. I returned to the house, opened the refrigerator, and it was full of blood!

[What happened? Who framed me? I should have known that those who have become evil will never stay where they should be. They have become beasts! Pigs! They want to frame other people and turn them into pigs too!

[My brain... there must be something wrong with my brain. I want to find that phone, unlock the password, and then go upstairs to explain, but I can't even find my phone! Someone must have stolen it! They want to isolate me!

[...but who should I explain to? Are the people upstairs trustworthy? 】

...

【I still haven't found my phone. Not only my phone, I seem to have lost many things. Sometimes when I look through my previous notes, I have no recollection of many things in them, and I can't understand many of the contents.

【This feeling of being unable to grasp makes me panic. The little girl in 301 comforted me and said that it might be just that I have a bad memory, but I have always taken good care of myself, so how could I have a bad memory?

【I think someone must have done something to me, someone stole my memory, stole my brain! But I don't know who it is. I think the person on the second floor is the most likely one. After all, the person there has eaten people (but now I don't remember which room she lived in). But when I think about it carefully, I feel that everyone is worthy of suspicion.

【I decided to go to the second floor tomorrow. The little girl in 301 said that she could be the one to invite me. This way, when I come back, I can open the door without a password. This is a good idea! 】

...

【I went to the second floor. I used the electric meter box to force my way in. I found nothing, but I lost half of my brain.

【I feel that I have forgotten more things, and some older memories come to me all the time. This won’t work. I have to hurry and keep looking.

【My brain must have been stolen by someone in this building. This insidious and vicious building! I can’t let it succeed. I must get my things back! 】

...

【I collected all the information I could, but I dare not leave them at home. I'm afraid they will come to steal again. With my current brain, if they steal again, what else can I remember?

[I can only put them all downstairs. That place where garbage is thrown. I must seize every opportunity, this building is eating me, I can feel that it is eating me!

[I don't have much time! ]

...

Turning the page further, there are large pieces of torn paper. No content can be seen at all. Only through the few messy handwriting printed on the blank pages can one barely see how irritable and flustered the writer was at the time.

Xu Ming took a deep breath, finally closed the notebook in his hand, and stuffed it back into his bag.

At this moment, she was huddled by the stairs on the first floor. Based on her current experience, this is at least a safe place; but she was a little nervous, so she almost skimmed through the second half of the diary.

Even so, the amount of information conveyed in it was enough for her to digest for a while.

"Although I can't be sure, in fact, the owner of this diary may have been affected long before he found out that something was wrong..." She thought to herself, and touched the puppy that peeked out of the bag, "If this is the case, some of the contents in it are still questionable..."

But there is only one thing that can be confirmed. That is, the little girl in 301 is probably "free". She has even grown to the point where she can modify the rules of the ghost story to a certain extent - I just don't know how much of the currently known rules and anomalies are her handwriting, and whether other residents with anomalies are involved.

And there was that Po Haitang... When Xu Ming thought of this, she couldn't help but look up again.

She still couldn't accept the fact that Po Haitang was a clay figure, and she had no idea how he escaped from 301. But to be honest, she didn't think she should be too surprised, after all, clay Buddhas were also clay figures, and one couldn't judge the quality of a person's personality based on appearance alone...

Trying to prepare herself mentally, Xu Ming took a deep breath again and walked upstairs.

Halfway through the walk, she seemed to have thought of something and suddenly stopped. Then she looked down at the puppy in the bag, took out the rule book, and asked in a low voice:

"Can you get in here? Like those Ajiao?"

- Just now, when she entered the simulation scene, the rule book containing thirty Ajiao was still in the bag, but the puppy in the bag was forcibly sent out of the simulation scene. So Xu Ming guessed that if the puppy was also put into the rule book, perhaps a similar situation could be avoided.

Anyway, it is very convenient for such a light soul to enter and exit the rule book. It is just equivalent to putting it in the inner compartment of the bag. In comparison, being forcibly separated when encountering danger is more worrying.

Fortunately, the dog tilted its head and thought for a moment, and soon gave an affirmative answer, with its short tail wagging constantly. Xu Ming secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and then told them to hurry in as soon as they got the signal, then she looked up and continued to walk upstairs.

When she reached the second-floor platform, her steps stopped again. She looked up vigilantly at the induction light above her head, and Xu Ming's mind raced. She quickly raised her hand and touched one of the matches on the bracelet again -

as she moved, a small area that seemed to be shrouded in glass quietly unfolded.

The dream simulation started again.

This time, she simulated the platform area on the second floor. As she stepped into the newly unfolded scene, Xu Ming felt that the feeling of walking on a glass plank bridge surged up again. It was obviously a very unsettling feeling, but now it made her feel at ease.

The puppy has also cleverly understood the rule book, which makes Xu Ming feel doubly at ease.

She walked around in the simulated scene, first testing the triggering and dodging of the induction light again, and after she felt a little more confident, she turned her attention to the doors on both sides and the electric meter box between the two doors.

The doors on both sides looked normal, they were all common anti-theft doors, the doors were tightly closed, and on the door of room 202, there was a string of dried and yellowed dogwood hanging.

In comparison, the electric meter box in the middle was very interesting.

The structure was exactly the same as the one on the first floor, and the electric meters of the two households were running very fast. What surprised Xu Ming was that the small doors under the electric meters had all been pried open, revealing the power control gates inside. Just reach out and you can control it.

This reminded Xu Ming of what he had seen in his previous notes.

The person living in 401 said that he had used the electric meter box to force his way into the house on the second floor... If that was true, then the toolbox found in the pile of junk could also be explained...

Xu Ming thought silently, and tried to push the swirling iron sheet aside a little more so that he could continue to look inside. After seeing a large mass of strange wax objects shrinking inside, his movements suddenly stopped.

After a moment, he looked away indifferently.

Without wasting time on the wax and the electric meter box, Xu Ming turned around and her eyes fell on the stairs leading to the third floor. This staircase was not within her simulation range, but through the glass-like barrier of the simulation scene, she could still observe the situation on the stairs at a glance.

Just as written in the diary, there was an iron door installed on the second floor stairs leading to the third floor.

It was installed in the middle of the stairs, with a thick door panel and a height reaching the sky, which undoubtedly divided the entire staircase into two.

Xu Ming thought for a moment, then carefully moved to the edge of the platform, stepped out of the simulation scene, and went directly to the real stairs. He quickly walked forward and tried to push the iron gate, but the pattern did not move. He then studied the combination plate on the door, but failed to figure out the combination. Instead, the induction light on the second floor suddenly flashed violently.

Xu Ming was already very experienced at this point, and without saying a word, he hid back in the simulation scene, and waited until the induction light went out again before stepping out again carefully.

He tried to touch the closed iron gate again, but the induction light did not light up again.

Okay, new information - that is, there is more than one triggering condition for the induction light. However, on the same floor, a triggering condition will only take effect once. After being triggered, the sensor light will not react again.

This is very similar to the toilet monster in Guo Shuyi's previous ghost story. The difference is that toilet ghost stories usually have only one trigger condition, and it is clear that after being triggered once, there will be a one-day cool-down period, and it will not appear again on that day; but now this sensor light, on the one hand, cannot determine the specific cool-down time, and on the other hand, it is unclear how many types of trigger conditions there are at present...

Thinking of the sentence "the sensor light is crazy" in the notes, Xu Ming felt that it would be better to be cautious.

Thinking of this, she slowly backed away, and soon, she stopped by the electric meter box again.

The next second, she reached into the meter box and grabbed the mud-like wax object. Without hesitation, she took it out and ran!

Because she was worried about triggering the induction light again, Xu Ming ran back to the first floor stairs. She didn't forget to turn off the simulation scene while running to save time. Only when she stopped at the stairs again did she let out a heavy breath. She

raised her hand calmly and looked at the big lump in her hand.

"Hey, are you awake?" Because the other party's grip in his hand was not very good, Xu Ming's tone was a little subtle, "If you are awake, get up and talk first?"

"..." The big lump of wax continued to curl up, motionless, as if dead.

Xu Ming: "..."

"Can't you hear? Or are you pretending to be dead?" She couldn't help but poke the other party again, "Po Haitang? It's Po Haitang, right?"

The wax object still didn't change at all.

"..." Xu Ming was silent for a moment, and simply took out the rule book from his bag, "Are you sure you still want to pretend to be dead? I can tear off the work badge and record it directly..."

"You dare--" Before he finished speaking, he saw that the big lump of wax suddenly opened its mouth--Xu Ming was so scared that he almost threw it out.

The key point is that this mouth is still talking, chattering. It is estimated that it knows that one cannot make too much noise in this building, so it deliberately lowers its voice when speaking. Even so, it still makes people feel inexplicably noisy -

"Dare to touch this book. Little guy, this is the first time you get a rule book, huh? Don’t you know that you can’t tamper with the rule book that does not belong to you? Can you touch it? You are so grown up, can you be clear!

" "Do you know who this rule book belongs to? It will scare you to death to talk about it, it’s the Demolition and Relocation Office! Xu Ming, Director Xu, have you heard of it! Does Hongqiang know? Does Butterfly Building know? I tell you that it was all demolished by our Director Xu. Demolition? Do you know what demolition means, huh? If she says that Hongqiang should be demolished, do you think that boss Hongqiang dares to say a word?

"Let me tell you, I'm her friend, and we're close enough to risk our lives for each other. I know her methods too well. Sister, let me advise you, I don't know where you stole this book from, but if you still have a chance, return it to me as it is. If so, I might be able to say a few good words for you in front of Director Xu. Maybe for my sake, this matter will be forgotten, and you might even be given a work badge. It's a work badge from the Demolition Office, you know? A lot of people in Butterfly Building are lining up to get it! The value of this is different. If you get it, you can walk around in all the strange stories!

"Go and ask around. You can't go to Butterfly Building, but you can always go to 301 upstairs. The alien root inside begged our director for a year, just to ask her to come and see her. Do you think our director paid attention to her? Are you an alien root? What a coincidence, so am I. We are both alien roots, how can I lie to you? I am doing this for your own good. The rule book is a very complicated thing, don't mess with it casually. You are so old, it is most important to have a backer and a stable job, do you understand me? ah? "

"..." Because it was chattering too fast, Xu Ming had no chance to interrupt.

...Fuck the gentle and kind clay Buddha.

She thought expressionlessly.

This thing must have made some mistakes at the time and was driven here, absolutely.