See the Law of Deception

Chapter 159 The House of Evil Spirits (3)

Seeing that they wouldn't get anything useful out of each other even if they stayed there, and considering it was almost time, the group prepared to enter the apartment building.

There are several buildings here that look exactly like the apartment in front of us, so they must have been built at the same time.

They stood outside the apartment building, surrounded by silence. The same cluster of buildings surrounded them from all sides. It was 5:50 p.m. The space was a somber gray and dark blue. There were shops on the ground floor, but no one was on duty. The neon signs were flashing a faint red light.

The environment here exudes a sense of oppression and unreality, making one feel as if they are in a nightmare from the last century. Even the occasional evening breeze blowing across the intersection feels like a ghost breathing behind you.

The tone of this mission was almost confirmed even before entering the apartment, and the oppressive atmosphere became even more pronounced upon stepping inside.

The apartment was in disrepair. Upon entering, the first thing that caught the eye was the blackened floor and mottled walls. The air was filled with a faint smell of mildew and garbage. The old-fashioned light bulbs on the ceiling were yellowed and blackened, as if insects had been trapped inside and left their corpses.

The apartment building has an iron gate, no elevator, and the stair railings are rusty, as if no one has taken care of them for a long time.

"There shouldn't be anyone else living here, right?"

Autumn kicked aside the garbage bags and rotten fruit blocking the road and frowned at the spider web in the corner.

"It looks like it's been abandoned." Aunt Duan's gaze fell on the iron gates that were either open or closed. Through the cracks in the gates, she could see that the interiors had been abandoned for a long time.

As the group walked to the entrance of the building, before entering, they saw a dilapidated blackboard on the mottled wall.

A line of writing remained on the blackboard. Lu Jinzhao carefully examined it and confirmed that it read:
[Loud noise, running in the hallways, and leaving trash in the rooms are prohibited in this apartment building.]

"What is this?" Autumn's brow remained furrowed. "Is it a taboo? Will breaking these things result in being hunted by ghosts?"

"To just write it here so blatantly? That's a bit too simplistic." Tan Meng, standing to the side, narrowed her eyes, seemingly disapproving.

Seeing that another argument was about to break out, the eldest Aunt Duan quickly stopped them, saying, "Whether it's true or not, just try to abide by it, okay?"

Lu Jinzhao didn't speak, but carefully observed the blackboard and everything within his sight.

The writing on the blackboard was very neat, as if it were printed on, but no useful information could be gleaned from it.

Tan Meng and Qiu Tian ultimately failed to argue; they were both holding their breath. Lu Jinzhao couldn't understand why the two of them couldn't stand each other. Perhaps it was a matter of incompatible personalities?

But if you've already reached the top tier, can't you even do a good job of putting on a good show?

Or is this just a facade?

With six o'clock fast approaching, just in case, the group didn't explore the building first. Instead, they agreed to go to their respective rooms first, make sure they were all in their rooms by six o'clock sharp, and then spend half an hour exploring their rooms. They would then meet at the entrance at 6:30 to explore the apartment building together.

Before entering 302, Lu Jinzhao observed the general situation of the other rooms in the building. Unlike the first floor, all the doors to the rooms on the third floor were closed, and the corridors were relatively clean, without the piles of garbage that filled the corridors on the first floor.

But the walls and lights were similar to those on the first floor, all in a dilapidated state.

Time was tight, and she only had time to take a quick look before pressing the doorknob and opening the door to room 302.

Room 302 also looked like it had been abandoned for some time, but the previous furniture hadn't been moved out; instead, it was covered with a white sheet, creating a stark contrast to the filthy and messy state of the first floor. Apart from being dusty, having the windows completely covered with newspapers, making the room pitch black, and the light bulbs being malfunctioning, 302 at least looked like a normal room.

This is what Lu Jinzhao was thinking before unveiling the white cloth.

She was bound to uncover the white sheets covering the furniture. This was the room the train had assigned her, and she needed to find out what was inside and where anything unusual might happen. When she grabbed the dusty sheet and lifted it, she saw the filth hidden beneath.

The old sofa had its outer layer cut open to remove the cotton, and a rotting corpse was hidden inside. The congealed blood had turned into a black, sticky shell, and four arms and legs that did not belong to her were stuck into the twisted corpse. Even though her facial features were rotten and blurred, one could still tell from her wide-open mouth and limbs what kind of painful scream she had let out before she died.

A twisted, decaying corpse that is chilling to behold.

This is just the first piece of white cloth.

Lu Jinzhao felt a chill in his heart; there were three such sheets of cloth in the entire room.

She began to consider the possibility that not returning to the room might violate her identity as a "tenant" and cause the ghost's pursuit to arrive prematurely.

In just a few seconds, Lu Jinzhao had already adjusted his mindset and walked towards the second white cloth that looked like a "television set".

Before uncovering it, she had already imagined what it would be, but when she did, she was still shocked by what she saw.

What was placed on the TV cabinet was not the large-screen TV she had expected, but a human skeleton with its hands and feet cut off, leaving only the torso. Its abdomen had been cut open, its internal organs removed, and in its place was its head.

The word "cruel" is insufficient to describe the fate of this corpse. Even Lu Jinchao does not want to look directly at this already decomposed body.

The last remaining white cloth is for the "dining table".

When the white cloth was lifted, revealing the body lying flat on the ground under the dining table, with all four limbs intact and nothing out of the ordinary, only cut in half at the waist, Lu Jinzhao felt a strange sense of relief.

Even if this can be considered cruel, compared to the previous two corpses, this one did not bring her any more shock.

As the white sheets were lifted one by one, the room, which was originally filled with the smell of decay and dust from being uninhabited for too long, gradually developed a stench of rotting and death.

Whether it's the covered windows, the oppressive lighting, or the gruesome corpses with their bizarre deaths, everything speaks to the oppressive atmosphere and the unsettling feeling in this room.

And she became the new tenant of this room.

"So, what happened here before me?"

Lu Jinzhao suppressed his discomfort and carefully looked at the three corpses.

What were these corpses trying to tell her?

She crouched down, approached the decaying corpses, and examined them carefully for any possible clues.

Unfortunately, due to the advanced state of decomposition, almost no useful information was preserved. The only certainty was that the three bodies seemed to have died very close in time.

After all, their levels of decay were not significantly different.