Dead.
Meng Lan returned to her room and locked the door.
She lay on the wooden door, listening to the sounds outside. Amidst the whistling wind passing through the corridor, there seemed to be faint footsteps, as if someone was stealthily moving around the hallway of the small building.
Didn't everyone return to their own rooms?
Ten seconds later, the corridor gradually quietened down.
With the night deepening, Meng Lan no longer intended to waste time on suspicions. She barricaded the door with a table to prevent anyone from barging in suddenly. Drawing the curtains, she lay down on the bed. The current goal of the mission was: [Please kill the murderer], and she had two clues: [The red murderer] and [She is him].
They seemed unrelated.
And she needed to figure out, had the murderer already killed someone?
Or was he about to kill?
Was the murderer among them, or among the villagers?
Regardless, she locked the doors and windows and decided to rest first.
—The answer wouldn't just appear because of insomnia.
Meng Lan turned over and closed her eyes.
Zhang Jinlong lazily lay on the bed, playing with a fruit knife while smoking. This was another interesting mission, not only satisfying his inflated curiosity, but also a carnival for someone like him, a lover of blood. If it weren't for the sudden appearance of Li Xiaoqing, he would have definitely taken action!
In the real world, killing was illegal, but here, there were no legal constraints! His hands were really itching!
He tapped his leg on the bed, and the cigarette ash burned small holes in the white sheets.
Suddenly.
Creaking sounds came from the wooden floor above, as if someone was tiptoeing around. Zhang Jinlong jumped up and listened intently, staring at the ceiling. The hallway was too quiet, you could hear a pin drop clearly, and his hearing was excellent, he could hear whispers clearly.
It's so late, I wonder which little lamb got up to use the bathroom.
Then, there were rumbling sounds from the metal pipes in the wall, indicating that someone on the third floor was flushing the toilet. Zhang Jinlong opened a small crack in the curtain and looked up, seeing that the bathroom light was indeed on. The warm yellow light had a festive atmosphere.
The old man only said they couldn't leave the building at night, but didn't say they couldn't leave their rooms! Moreover, he had experienced two missions and hadn't heard of anyone being chased and killed for leaving their room in the middle of the night. Besides, he had intentionally dyed his hair red and drew talismans on it. The Taoist said that with his disguise, he would definitely be invulnerable to ghosts!
Thinking that he hadn't touched a woman for three months!
Last time in the mission, he met a cute girl like this, but unfortunately, the girl didn't live to the end. But only the dead can keep secrets, who made the girl threaten to call the police after she left!
Zhang Jinlong's mind was racing.
Teammates needed to help each other out, and he hoped nothing unexpected would happen to the three ladies upstairs! Zhang Jinlong licked his dry lips and smiled maliciously. As long as it wasn't Li Xiaoqing, that old woman, the crying woman, or the expressionless doll-like woman, he could profit from anyone!
This mission also had a new recruit, so the difficulty shouldn't be high.
The more Zhang Jinlong thought about it, the more his heart itched.
Then let's go take a look!
The sound of gushing water came from the end of the bathroom, and white steam emerged from the crack under the door.
Huo Wanwan was taking a shower, she had a slight obsession with cleanliness and couldn't stand the stickiness all over her body. Her legs were splattered with mud from supporting Meng Lan just now. She used a large bottle of Lux shower gel to rub her fair legs, and her skin gradually turned red in the hot steam.
She regarded the "Hidden World" mentioned by Zhao Che as a sightseeing or gaming experience. After all, those "elders" said that as long as they made the right choices, nothing would go wrong.
After washing for a while, the hot steam filled the cramped space, making it hard for her to breathe. She opened the blinds and pushed open the window. At the moment when the slightly cool evening breeze blew in, Huo Wanwan caught a glimpse of a slender figure standing on the distant path.
Staring straight at her.
—Who is that person!
She covered her chest with her hand and looked again, but the person had disappeared!
Was it just her imagination earlier?
Maybe the water was too hot, causing her brain to malfunction.
At the same time.
Zhang Jinlong approached the toilet door, his hand gripping the handle as he turned it.
He was satisfied.
—This smell smells like the girl with long hair, Huo Wanwan, right? Her name sounds soft and beautiful.
"Click."
"Click."
The toilet door was locked.
However, the shower head was running at full force, and Huo Wanwan couldn't hear the toilet door being cautiously pushed. With her eyes closed, she washed her hair, unaware of any eerie sounds.
Zhang Jinlong twisted the handle for a while, but the door still didn't open. It would be too conspicuous if he barged in, and it wouldn't be easy to explain if his companions found out. Unexpectedly, the door lock in this old house was quite new. Forget it, tomorrow he would break the locks on the third floor, and then he could have his way at night! Or perhaps, what if the girl got scared tomorrow and wanted to voluntarily share his bed, these things were also unpredictable.
He smoothed his red hair and decided to go back inside to get a good sleep.
As Zhang Jinlong turned to look back at the corridor...
—"Snap!"
The fluorescent lights in the corridor all went out, plunging the corridor into darkness.
Did the lights break? Sure enough, the electrical circuits in the village were unreliable! If it weren't for these scaredy-cats deciding to keep the corridor lights on all night, the circuits wouldn't have shorted out.
Zhang Jinlong grumbled and shouted, "Hey! The lights are out, two people come out and check the main switch!"
There was no response in the darkness, as if no one could hear what he was saying. With his hand stretched out into the darkness, he took two steps forward, preparing to knock on Meng Lan's damn door and drag the girl out to vent his anger! However, as he took a step forward and reached out, he found neither a wall nor anything else beside him!
—Damn, it's really hard to find the way!
Zhang Jinlong stomped his foot and shouted again, "You all are dead! Come out! Aren't you afraid of ghosts when it's pitch black?!"
Silence.
Eerie silence.
Feeling uneasy, Zhang Jinlong couldn't help but start to panic. He took out his fruit knife for self-defense and didn't continue to move forward. He approached the toilet again, and a bright light leaked through the crack in the door. Seeing the light, Zhang Jinlong calmed down again. It seemed that only the corridor light bulb had blown out. The cute girl in the bathroom was still taking a shower. Who knew if she would come out and directly fall into his arms because the corridor was too dark!
He had originally planned to wait for the woman at the door, but suddenly a smile appeared on his lips. Since the residents on this floor pretended not to hear or open the door, it meant that no matter what happened, they wouldn't come out!
Since no one could hear and pretended not to hear, he could do whatever he wanted!
With gritted teeth, Zhang Jinlong turned the toilet handle.
"Click—"
Miraculously, the door handle opened by itself.
The scent of mint and lemon hit him, and behind the white shower curtain, a graceful figure could be vaguely seen. For a moment, Zhang Jinlong forgot to be afraid. He strode forward and pulled open the white shower curtain, only to find scalding hot water, but no one was there!
He immediately felt something was wrong and turned around abruptly!
Suddenly, a tremendous force dragged him into water boiling at a hundred degrees! He fell onto the tiled floor, hot water soaking through his skin, and red-yellow blisters instantly appearing on his arms!
"Ahhhh!" Zhang Jinlong screamed in agony. He tried to struggle out of the shower, but the water flow suddenly turned into strands of black hair, wriggling into his nostrils, ears, and eye sockets.
Like long snakes, they found their way through his muscles and bones, his skin cracking from the scalding water!
But Zhang Jinlong lost control of his limbs in an instant, unable to move at all!
He watched helplessly as he slowly stood up in the scalding water, the hot water pouring over his scalp.
He was like a steel sculpture, standing motionless in the boiling water, his scalp boiled. Gradually, a foul smell filled the air, like the smell of rotten pork cooked in a pot!
The sound of water drowned out his cries for help, until finally, the tattoos on his arms peeled off from the heat and clogged the drain.
The rushing sound of water did not stop.
And on the other side of the toilet, the person taking a shower continued calmly with their routine. Huo Wanwan, halfway through her shower, noticed that the water was getting colder. With common sense, she knew that the hot water downstairs must have been used up, but there was still a bunch of foam on her head that she hadn't rinsed off. She didn't want to trouble anyone and tried rinsing with cold water, but her head started to ache faintly, and catching a cold wouldn't be good!
She reminded the people downstairs not to use so much hot water, and decided to wait a bit longer for the water heater to start working smoothly again.
Huo Wanwan put on her clothes, her head still covered in foam, and opened the toilet door.
The bright corridor gave her a sense of security.
Downstairs, there was the sound of rushing water, as if the water was overflowing. Huo Wanwan hurried down, and steam billowed out from the half-open toilet.
"Excuse me, is anyone in there?" Huo Wanwan knocked on the door, but there was no response from behind it. She took the initiative to open the door.
Behind the white shower curtain, a figure suddenly appeared, and the scalding steam made her skin sting!
—"Bang!"
There was a loud impact from the bathroom.
"Ah! I'm sorry!" Huo Wanwan thought the person inside was angry and stomped their foot. When she saw the figure, she covered her eyes, quickly closed the toilet door, and blushed with embarrassment as she couldn't stop apologizing, "I'm sorry, I didn't expect this to happen, I thought there was no one inside!"
Huo Wanwan's apologetic voice echoed in the corridor, and Zhang Yizhi, who was not asleep, nudged Zhao Che, "Brother Zhao, I think I heard Huo Wanwan talking."
"Isn't she on the third floor?" Zhao Che got up in one motion.
Huo Wanwan's embarrassed voice continued without stopping. The person inside the toilet still hadn't said "It's okay." She thought the other party hadn't forgiven her rash behavior, and her face turned red with anxiety.
Zhao Che opened the door, "What's wrong?"
"Wow, there's so much steam! It's shameful to waste water like this!" Zhang Yizhi also followed out.
With the noise, Qi Huan also opened the door.
The second floor suddenly became lively.
Huo Wanwan stood at the toilet door with a bunch of white foam on her head, looking at a loss as she explained what had just happened intermittently. Qi Huan's face changed when she finished listening, and she noticed that Zhang Jinlong, who enjoyed watching the excitement, was missing, which made her feel uneasy. She pushed Huo Wanwan aside and opened the toilet door!
Behind the shower curtain, the sight that greeted her was Zhang Jinlong's almost scalded corpse.
There were no signs of struggle under the shower head. Qi Huan quickly turned off the hot water and restored peace.
Qi Huan's face looked grim.
Huo Wanwan screamed, "Is he... is he dead?"
"Dead as a doornail," Qi Huan sniffed.
Zhang Jinlong was scalded to the point where his skin was peeling off.
Huo Wanwan was so frightened that she almost fainted, but she was fortunately supported by Meng Lan, who hurried over.
There were no signs of struggle on Zhang Jinlong's body, but it seemed like he had endured an unstoppable torture.
His scalp was burnt, and the skin on top of his head swelled into yellow-red blistered ruptures. Why did he stand under the hot water? Why didn't he run away?
There was no external force, no signs of intrusion, and he didn't even let out a single scream.
"Why did he die?" Meng Lan lowered her eyes, her fingers trembling slightly. This was the first time she had seen a corpse, and her stomach churned. She took a deep breath, trying hard to adjust her mindset.
Zhao Che murmured, "How could this happen so quickly? It's only the first night, no, accurately speaking, just an hour after arriving at the task, how could someone die already! How did he die?"
"It seems like he was scalded to death... maybe it was a heart attack, fainting without timely rescue... or maybe, drowned... drowned by hot water..." Li Xiaoqing was also far from calm.
"Why did he die? What rule did he violate? What did you see in the corridor just now?" Zhao Che's face was pale, his lips trembling, as he turned to question Huo Wanwan.
Huo Wanwan was so scared that she retched, "I didn't see anything, there was no hot water upstairs, I originally wanted to see who was using the hot water in the toilet and ask them to save some. Who knew... who knew he was dead!" She recalled, "I remembered! When I first pushed the door, he was clearly standing, but suddenly it seemed like he fell down, I couldn't see clearly."
The six of them looked at each other, unable to explain what had happened.
"Pink, red." Qi Huan looked at Huo Wanwan and then observed Zhang Jinlong's body. Both of them had their blood flowing rapidly due to taking a shower, making them look red.
Could this be a hint from the "red killer"?
Huo Wanwan hugged Meng Lan in tears, continuously sobbing because of extreme fear. She didn't expect that people would really die inexplicably in this strange world!
"I... I want to go home... I don't want to stay here anymore, I want to go home! Let me go home!" Tears flowed from Huo Wanwan's eyes as she lost focus.
Zhang Yizhi, also a newcomer, was trembling with fear.
Only Meng Lan, after panting heavily for a few times, had a hint of calmness on her pale cheeks.
No, something wasn't right.
!
ChatGPT
Zhang Jinlong's scalp was split open, and the top of his forehead was severely scalded, indicating that he had been forcing himself to tilt his head back, drenched by scalding water.
The hot water entered his eyes, organs, scalding him, and suffocating him.
Moreover, after he fell down, the skin on his waist did not suffer the same level of scalding and ulceration as his scalp, indicating that the duration of exposure to hot water was different.
In other words, he first stood motionless under the hot water until he lost consciousness and fell to the ground.
Or, he just died — when He Wanwan pushed open the door.
Who could force themselves to stand under scalding water?
Meng Lan muttered, "He looks like he committed suicide."
He Wanwan loudly retorted, "Suicide? Impossible! How could he commit suicide!"
Meng Lan didn't say anything, she was just describing the scene and didn't say it was really suicide. Something must have affected Zhang Jinlong, making him behave irrationally.
"Be careful, we don't know why he died," Qi Huan closed the toilet door, "let's all go back to rest, be careful, don't go out tonight."
Standing next to Meng Lan, Li Xiaoying said disdainfully, "It's not suicide, he was killed by a ghost. Can he still commit suicide? This is retribution."
Zhao Che pulled Zhang Yizhi back to the room.
He Wanwan stood helplessly outside the corridor, her teeth trembling, her eyes dizzy.
Meng Lan pinched He Wanwan's stiff hair, she wouldn't comfort others, just said, "First wash your shampoo off."
He Wanwan had forgotten that she hadn't finished rinsing, and tremblingly said, "I, I don't want to shower."
"I'll go boil some water, you can wash in the room with a basin." Meng Lan used to do this when the water heater at home was broken.
Li Xiaoying, who had been standing still and didn't want to look at the corpse, said, "I'll accompany you guys, let's go upstairs."
The three of them finished washing their hair in the toilet.
He Wanwan hesitated to speak.
"You can sleep with me." Li Xiaoying said, she didn't want to help anyone originally in this task, but she couldn't harden her heart against He Wanwan.
"Thank you." He Wanwan turned her head and asked, "Is Meng Lan coming too?"
Meng Lan shook her head.
She always felt something was off, although it would be safer with two people, but if a stranger showed their credit report and criminal record, it would be more reliable. More importantly, she felt Li Xiaoying's expression was strange for a moment.
The two went back to the room.
Meng Lan looked at the flickering toilet door, her face reflected in the glass of the corridor.
Suddenly.
A blood-red face flashed behind Meng Lan!
Meng Lan immediately turned around!
— Zhang Jinlong!
In the reflection of the glass, Zhang Jinlong's body covered in blood faced her, from his mouth to the back of his head, making a "hee hee hee" laughing sound.
—Bang!
Meng Lan instinctively stepped back, hitting the wall with a dull sound.
Just as He Wanwan, who heard the sound when she closed the door, opened the door abruptly: "What's wrong? Is something wrong again?"
"Nothing, nothing."
The ghostly face of Zhang Jinlong disappeared.