Room 2507 was basically maintained in its original state, with all of Brother Zhao's belongings preserved, the cabinets, sofa, and coffee table—every piece of furniture the deceased had used was in the room.
Brother Zhao had been an extremely frugal person in life, and the decorations were very simple. Inside the room, it felt cold and empty, permeated with an indescribable chill.
Raindrops pelted the windowpane, and the sky was gloomy. It was just past six in the afternoon, but the room had already grown very dim.
Xuan Wen didn't turn on the lights; she walked straight to the balcony, looking down at the Sky Well Courtyard and the torrential rain.
After a fierce mental struggle, Gao Ming also entered room 2507. His gaze was quickly drawn to a large photo frame on the living room wall, covered with a black cloth at its most conspicuous spot.
"Want to know what that is?" Xuan Wen didn't look back, but she seemed to have a grasp of Gao Ming's thoughts, "You can take off the black cloth and see for yourself."
Grabbing a corner of the black cloth, Gao Ming pulled gently. As the cloth slid off, a huge black-and-white wedding photo appeared before him.
In the photo, Gao Ming and Xuan Wen wore happy smiles, but in the wedding photo, only Gao Ming was in color. The beautiful Xuan Wen and her extravagant wedding dress were all in black and white.
"Another memorial photo?" Gao Ming had no memory of ever taking a wedding photo with Xuan Wen, especially not one that was so chilling.
"Do you remember something now?" Xuan Wen turned around, her smile warm and expression tender, but the aura she exuded was extremely abnormal. Deep within those beautiful eyes, secrets were hidden.
"What exactly happened in the tunnel that night of the Ghost Festival?" Gao Ming never strayed too far from the door, ready to leave at any moment.
"You took a ride in a car you weren't supposed to, to a place you weren't supposed to go," Xuan Wen said, her eyes full of pathological doting that made Gao Ming feel both creeped out and familiar, "You've forgotten what happened in the tunnel. It's your body protecting itself because your subconscious believes it can't accept that terrifying reality, so you chose to forget selectively."
"Then why do you know what happened in the tunnel? You should only appear because of my game. Logically, you have no reason to know about my experience in the tunnel," Gao Ming backed away to the door.
"Because it was me who brought you home that night." Xuan Wen took another step forward, "Do you remember the design of my subplot in 'To Our Love That Will Eventually Fade Away'? I could always tell where you were. My favorite thing was to watch you. This peculiar ability and uncontrollable love made me seek you out the moment I woke up."
Just by listening to Xuan Wen, Gao Ming felt terrified. He had never played a dating game before and had no idea that a dating game could be so frightening.
"What did you see?"
"Corpses with ferocious and agonizing faces were embedded in the tunnel walls. When I got there, you were talking to something, walking step by step deeper into the tunnel. I brought you out," Xuan Wen said, uncertain if she spoke truth or lies, but a hint of fear flashed in her eyes as she spoke.
"Seeing walls full of corpses wouldn't scare me into amnesia, but I did hear some voices," Gao Ming tried to recall but couldn't remember anything, "Do you remember what the voice said?"
"Everything is out of control, fierce ghosts rampant, monsters frequent, and the malice in people's hearts will overturn the city. The games you've made based on murders and urban legends could all become reality. They will emerge from the rotting memories, and the way to weaken their resentment is to get more people to play the games you designed. You can choose to lead them through, or you can choose to sacrifice them to satiate the urban legends. Different choices will incur different costs and yield different results," Xuan Wen paused for a moment before continuing, "The voice said you were supposed to be dead, but it gave you a chance to live. It seems you made some sort of deal."
"I was supposed to be dead..." Gao Ming pondered the deeper meaning of those words, "Could it be that I experienced a death in the tunnel? When you arrived, had I already been revived? That's totally illogical!"
"If you don't believe what I'm saying, or if you think I'm deceiving you, you can also go verify with the other passengers on the bus that night," Xuan Wen sat down on the sofa, "When I was taking you out of the tunnel, I saw other people alive."
"Are there still passengers alive?"
"Yes, it was too hasty at the time, I didn't get a clear look at their faces, otherwise, I would have found a way to imprison them and get to the bottom of the truth." Xuan Wen changed into slippers, her tone as casual as if she were at home, yet she spoke the most terrifying words.
Having gotten some information, and with the sky already dark, Gao Ming took another step back.
"So you've had your fill and now you're in a hurry to leave?" Xuan Wen smiled at Gao Ming, "You probably don't remember what you promised me in the tunnel, do you?"
"I don't remember."
"That's okay, you can think about it slowly." Xuan Wen took out a black-and-white obituary photo from her clothes: "When I opened my eyes and woke up in reality, this black-and-white obituary photo appeared by my side. In the past three days, as I eliminated the other female leads in the love game, the wedding dress in the photo seems to have undergone some changes."
Comparing the black-and-white obituary photo in her hand with the giant wedding photo hanging on the wall, it was clear that the wedding dress in the obituary photo was gradually gaining color.
"The other girlfriends in the love game also appeared under some unknown influence. Strictly speaking, they were already dead, but the problem is..." Xuan Wen approached with the obituary photo in her hand, her eyes burning with madness: "An obituary photo represents the memories of the deceased left in reality. When a black-and-white photo turns to color, does it mean that the dead have come back to life? Killing the other deceased seems to free me from certain constraints."
"So that's why you can move freely around the city? Indistinguishable from normal people?" Hearing Xuan Wen casually mention that she'd offed other girlfriends, Gao Ming broke out in a cold sweat. Eight girlfriends in three days, that was just hysterical!
The least favored minor character in the love game, a twisted and sick abandoned woman, became the person who understood the "current situation" better than the participant Gao Ming himself, after the game turned into reality through clear and precise judgment and insanely decisive actions.
Xuan Wen's arrival also opened up a new train of thought for Gao Ming. In those horror mystery games, there weren't just dangerous monsters and fierce ghosts, there were also potentially huge "madmen".
"I merely want to become the same kind of person as you." Xuan Wen's speech sped up, and her condition became increasingly abnormal as she revealed her true purpose for finding Gao Ming: "After repeated attempts, I found that when a game becomes reality, there is a process. The more terrifying and dangerous the game, the slower it blends with this city, manifesting various ominous signs and warnings. To trigger it before the ghost stories fully form, three conditions must be met: a murder house where someone has just died, an obituary photo from that world, and you."
Standing in the Sky Well Courtyard murder house, Gao Ming fully understood what Xuan Wen meant. She wanted to "hunt" the ghost story games, to devour them before the ghosts in the games fully matured!
"The murder house is the game venue, the obituary photo is like an advance ticket to the game, and you're the conduit." Xuan Wen grabbed Gao Ming's clothes with both hands: "That voice told you to bring more players into the game. I should count as a player, right?"
With bloodshot eyes, Xuan Wen opened her carry-on handbag, which contained precisely eight blank obituary photos with no portraits.
"I have plenty of tickets."
"Calm down, all of this is just your speculation for now." Having figured out Xuan Wen's real purpose, Gao Ming was no longer afraid. He looked at Xuan Wen, who was close at hand, and couldn't find a single flaw on that face: "But I can help you. We'll verify your theory tonight, right here in the Sky Well Courtyard murder house."
Gao Ming was a psychological counselor in a maximum-security prison, a doctor who danced with caged beasts; he knew exactly how to deal with dangerous people.
Just as Gao Ming agreed, footsteps were heard in the corridor, followed by the doorbell ringing.
After Xuan Wen covered the wedding photo with a black cloth, Gao Ming opened the door. The disfigured investigator appeared in the fifth-floor hallway, gasping: "This room is very dangerous, you must move out immediately!"