Nightmare Assault

Chapter 365: Found It

“Don’t move.” Jiang Cheng halted her. “Do you hear the knocking?”

“Yes.”

“You said it was behind you. How close?”

“Very close.” Chen Yi said urgently, “And… it’s getting closer.”

“You might be in danger if it reaches you.” Jiang Cheng said directly, “What you need to do now is to locate its source.” After some hesitation, Jiang Cheng offered, “I have an idea, but it might be dangerous. You can decide for yourself.”

“Tell me!”

“Leave the bed and stand on the ground. Then, you open your legs and bend over. Look behind through your legs.” Jiang Cheng described, “This is a rumour from my hometown. Apparently, this is how you can see if a ghost is trailing you.” He spoke quickly. He also understood how nervous Chen Yi was.

As absurd as Jiang Cheng’s suggestion was, she had no better idea. She could sense the ghost coming closer to him. The chill numbed her. Plus, Jiang Cheng was right. If the ghost touched her, she would die. She held the phone with one hand and took a deep breath. Then, she slowly bent over. The next second, her heart skipped a beat. Her body started to shake. She saw a pair of straight legs covered in bruises half a metre behind her.

…

After a while, Jiang Cheng hung up. From the start to the end, he hadn’t uttered a single word, not even a hello. He confirmed that something had happened to Chen Yi. The only unknown was which ghost had assaulted her and whether she had survived.

The next morning, the travellers gathered as per the agreement. Jiang Cheng scanned the group, and Chen Yi was not around. Chu Jiu, who shared the same floor, had red eyes.

“This morning, I went to knock on Sister Chen Yi’s doo,r but there was no response.” Chu Jiu said anxiously, “I thought she had come down early because she found something.” Clearly, that was not the case.

After Jiang Cheng revealed the incident with the phone call, Liu Guo’s face dropped. “Let’s go up to check.” The group avoided the elevator and walked up the stairs. After knocking on the door, there was still no reaction. It was as still as death. Even though the door didn’t look sturdy, breaking it down wouldn’t be easy.

“Should we go ask the landlord for a spare key?” Banana Wolf suggested. This was clearly not a good idea. They already suspected the landlord, but they had no other options. In their minds, Chen Yi was already dead. However, seeing her corpse might bring them more clues, like which ghost had killed her and with what.

“What are you doing?” Hua Luo, who stood at the back, suddenly questioned. Everyone turned around to see Hua Luo glaring at Wei Jingting as he held his long hair.

Wei Jingting ignored the glare. He undid the metal clip from the hair extension and bent it to the shape he wanted. He signalled the rest to move away so he could have the space to work.

Fatty was surprised. “You know how to lock pick?!”

“I’ve swayed on the grey side of morality when I was poor,” Wei Jingting explained proudly. Then, the group watched as he inserted the metal pin into the keyhole. With a click, the door opened.

Wei Jingting jumped back. Liu Guo and Banana Wolf shared a look before entering the room together. Jiang Cheng pulled Fatty to follow them. They rushed towards the bathroom, living room and finally the bedroom.

Liu Gou paused at the bedroom door. He lowered his voice to tell the people behind him, “Found it.”

When Jiang Cheng squeezed over, he saw a pair of shoes reaching out from under the bed. They were Chen Yi’s shoes. Chen Yi was placed under the bed. Only her shoes were exposed. Liu Guo and Banana Wolf grabbed an ankle each and pulled.

They did it slowly because no one wanted to be frightened by the gore. Chu Jiu was stumped. Tears swirled in her eyes.

“Is it the long-haired ghost?” Hua Luo asked. Chu Jiu mentioned that the ghost first appeared, crawling out from under the bed. Plus, the ghost resided in Building One. Of the three ghosts, the long-haired ghost was closest to Chen Yi.

Wan Xiaoning shook her head. “Not necessarily. The ghost might crawl out from under the bed, but it doesn’t mean it will kill and shove its victim under the bed. Those are two different things.”

Liu Guo eased Chen Yi’s body out. She was facing downwards. Her arms were outstretched as if she were crawling. She was probably yanked under the bed while she was still alive. When they turned Chen Yi over, they saw blood and some hair sticking to her face.

Banana Wolf was suddenly taken aback. With everyone watching with confusion, he placed his fingers around Chen Yi’s neck.

Then…

“The fuck!” Banana Wolf cursed loudly. “She is still alive!”

After some commotions, Chen Yi really woke up. Then, she started to explain what had happened to her. By then, she realised she had been tricked. Jiang Cheng was the ghost on the phone.

“Miss Xu,” Wu’s voice was calm, but it was highly invasive. “Since you fell for the ghost’s trick, how did you survive?”

Chen Yi nodded. Then, she looked fearful. “Actually, when I bent down, I knew that I had been tricked. The person on the phone told me to leave the bed, but how did it know about that? I didn’t tell him!

“Therefore, when I saw the legs, I had a guess that the ghost had no method to attack people directly, unless we satisfied some kind of conditions.”

“Bend over,” Jiang Cheng continued, “And see it.”

Chen Yi nodded. “Yes. So I made a quick decision. I slid down to the floor and crawled under the bed. I noticed that the space under the bed is so cramped that it’s impossible for an adult to bend over when one is under the bed.”