If he could, Lu Li would prefer a swift and decisive action.
But Lu Li couldn't, as he was unsure whether the sculpture was a ghost or something else. The side effects of using the Spirit-Calling Gun were too significant, resembling an irreversible progress bar that advanced with every moment he held it.
Misuse would result in Lu Li being pulled closer to that evil spirit realm.
So, as Hades had said, he would "communicate" with the ghost. As long as the ghost showed no signs of aggression, Lu Li would not attack it either.
Thud, thud, thud—
Thud, thud, thud!
Suddenly, a series of urgent and forceful knocks came from the door.
Seated behind the desk, Lu Li turned his head and listened quietly.
Thud, thud, thud—
Thud, thud, thud!
The sound of knocking echoed through the empty, desolate gallery corridor.
"Who is it?" Lu Li asked toward the outside, his tone as casual as if he were asking a resident about someone knocking at the door.
After a long wait, there was no response from outside.
In the silence, something eerie was brewing.
Lu Li glanced around to ensure nothing strange had appeared, then walked toward the door.
Thud, thud, thud—
Thud, thud, thud!
The door started to stir again, and Lu Li could clearly see the door shake and dust fall off it.
The moment the knocking stopped, Lu Li reached the side of the door. He placed his hand on the doorknob and yanked it open—
With no obstruction, the light from the oil lamp on the table reached out slightly, revealing a silhouette standing in the dim light at the door.
The sculpture had come back, or perhaps it had never left. It raised an arm, maintaining the pose of knocking.
Lu Li remained silent for several seconds, then stepped aside to make a pathway.
The sculpture remained motionless.
Lu Li remembered, it would not move when watched. Thus, he picked up the sculpture from outside the door and carried it back into the gallery, then closed the main door behind him.
In the brief moment of shutting the door, Lu Li noticed something brewing in the gray fog on the street outside.
Perhaps that was why Belfast was rumored to stay in lit places after dark?
Thud.
With the door closed, everything outside was blocked, and tranquility reclaimed the surroundings.
Lu Li walked past the sculpture, which had had brief new changes, picked up the oil lamp, and continued deeper into the gallery.
He now needed to investigate something on the second floor of the gallery.
The oil paintings hanging on the walls were mostly portraits, each emanating a sense of eeriness. As Lu Li carrying the oil lamp walked past them, the figures in the paintings seemed to come to life, their eyes following Lu Li's moves, and everything returned to normal when Lu Li's gaze met theirs.
The sculpture followed from a distance, seemingly close yet far.
The constant shuffling sound behind him made Lu Li feel less lonely.
Passing an empty sculpture pedestal and still unchanged portrait of a young girl, Lu Li reached the end where a staircase emerged before him.
The staircase extended upwards, not straight to the second floor but turning at a corner about five or six meters away, continuing upward.
Significantly, directly ahead on the wall hung a European medieval portrait.
As Lu Li stepped onto the staircase, he inevitably approached the medieval painting on the wall. It was larger than he had imagined, the half-body figure dressed in vintage garments, with proportions no different from reality. The eerie sensation felt up close was unsettling.
It wasn't included in the envelope's indicated paranormal phenomena, so Lu Li paid no further attention to the painting and turned to go upstairs.
The sudden darkness behind him, the eyes in the painting slowly turned towards Lu Li.
Tap—tap—
The sound of footsteps echoed slowly through the dark, empty corridor, fading into the darkness.
Floating dust swirled under the light of the oil lamp as Lu Li walked by, creating small whirls.
Lu Li casually opened a door nearest to the staircase; the office-like setup made him realize this was Benjamin's room.
Ruling out the possibility that Benjamin trusted his employees too greatly, it meant there were no valuables or money in the office.
Lu Li stepped into the office, closed the door behind him, and thought better of locking it.
His gaze briefly skimmed over the bookshelf before Lu Li approached the desk and picked up an employee manual left casually on the table.
The list included employees who had worked here, including former ones.
Asina Leslie
Claire Joyce
Vera Griffin
Daphne Garcia
Smith Duncan
Chaplin George
James Campbell
Dewey Raphael
Powell Taylor
Edie Bell
Joan Joyce
Leona Murphy
The names of the two female employees who had become ghosts were perhaps among them.
Squeak—
A slight opening of a door sound emerged, and Lu Li, flipping through the employee handbook, noticed something and lifted his head, spotting a figure at the door.
A statue that had been following appeared to catch up from behind.
Ignoring it for the moment, Lu Li turned the employee handbook to the last page, wrote down the dozens of names that appeared, placed the handbook back on the table, and picked up another booklet to browse through.
It recorded the daily visitor count of the gallery, which generally fluctuated between dozens and a hundred each day.
Quietly flipping through it for a while, Lu Li suddenly remembered something and looked up.
The statue had walked inside the door.
Turning his attention away, Lu Li sat down behind the desk, picked up the booklet, and resumed reading.
Seconds later, that booklet rustled down, revealing a pair of profound black eyes.
Those eyes stared at a corner where the statue stood still, but it was closer than before.
After browsing through a few more booklets on the desk and confirming there were no clues there, Lu Li retreated to the door and casually unlocked the lock behind it.
The office door slowly closed.
Click.
A faint sound, the office door locked from the inside.
Lu Li stepped back, turned, and walked toward the outstretched corridor, preparing to go to other rooms.
Tap—Tap—
The sound of footsteps echoed in the empty corridor.
Tap—Tap—Click—Tap—
A barely audible sound mixed among the footsteps.
Lu Li paused his steps, turned towards the direction where the sound came from.
At the office door not far away, the door was slightly open. A rigid, expressionless face peered out from behind it, eerily looking this way.
Dong—Dong—Dong—
The distant sound of a bell pierced the deep quiet of the night, resonating through the air.
Lu Li's steps paused on the corridor, he looked towards the window on the other side, his eyes narrowing.
The street stretched to the coastline, at the crescent-shaped bay's end, a lighthouse among the rocks lit up a clear beam of light, shining towards the deep sea.
Suddenly, a tangible darkness spread from the depths of the sea towards the harbor.
The bell rang five times, gradually subsiding. But its lingering effect continued, much like the surrounding buildings.
The light in the windows of the rooms became brighter as if residents had added new lighting, faint cries of panic and screams emanating.
Realizing something was amiss, Lu Li temporarily stopped exploring, retreated all the way back to the office door.
He grabbed the statue blocking the entrance, carried it into the room, followed by locking the door behind him with a click.
Lighting the wall sconces and the oil lamp on the table, the new sources of light brightened the office, no longer dim, instilling a sense of safety.
Sitting down behind the desk, Lu Li quietly waited for that indescribable, ineffable darkness that emerged from the deep sea to invade.