Oh no! My yandere school beauty is so clingy!

Shen Yu's voice remained steady as he comforted Lin Anran:

"A trigger mechanism, it's moving slowly laterally along a track, possibly a routed intimidation device..."

As if to prove his point, the ghostly face let out an even more piercing wail and began to slide silently along a hidden track on the ceiling to the other side of the room, disappearing into the darkness.

Lin Anran gripped Shen Yu's clothes tightly from behind. His calm analysis instantly extinguished most of her fear.

She released her grip, took a few deep breaths, and tried to calm her racing heart.

Her voice was still trembling slightly, but she tried to remain calm: "It went that way, is there a door over there?"

Shen Yu moved the flashlight beam away from the direction where the ghost face disappeared and shone it back onto the offering table and the surrounding walls.

As my eyes adjusted further, and with the help of a flashlight, the outline of the room became clearer.

This was indeed a front hall. Besides the dim green electronic candle, there were some old utensils and papers scattered on the altar.

On either side were two rows of tall pieces of furniture covered with white cloth; those were the shadows that had looked like people earlier.

To the left of the altar, in the direction the ghost face had moved, there was a dark-colored wooden door with some crooked symbols painted on it in dark red paint.

"Let's go take a look."

Shen Yu grabbed Lin Anran's hand and led her toward the door.

His steps were steady, and his flashlight beam carefully swept across the ground and walls, searching for possible clues or traps.

Shen Yu did not rush to push the door, but first carefully shone a flashlight on the symbols on the door.

The symbols were random, as if splattered randomly, but on the doorknob, there was a relatively clear, downward-dripping red handprint, the size of which looked like a woman's.

Shen Yu didn't know how to play... so she simply wrote down all the details she saw, thinking they might come in handy later...

"Handprints..." Lin Anran also leaned closer to take a look. She had mostly recovered from the shock and her observation skills were now sharp.

"The color varies in shade, and there's smudging at the edges. Is it blood?"

"Hmm, imitation bloodstains." Shen Yu gently touched the edge of the handprint with his finger. It was dry and had a grainy texture.

He moved the flashlight, the beam stopping below the handprint, at the junction of the door crack and the ground. He crouched down and carefully examined the gap under the door.

Then he stood up and tried to push the door.

The door remained motionless, seemingly stuck from the inside, or perhaps there was a mechanism in place.

"Look around for a key or mechanism..." Shen Yu said, starting to check around the door frame.

Lin Anran also helped, carefully examining the walls and floor.

Her attention was drawn to the offering table, and she walked over to it.

The green candle on the altar is a strangely shaped bronze candlestick, and the flame is a flickering LED light.

Scattered beside the candlestick were several thread-bound books with yellowed pages, and a chipped white porcelain bowl.

Lin Anran carefully turned the pages with her fingertips. The pages were filled with densely packed traditional Chinese characters, and it seemed to be about local history and folk customs.

In the tucked pages of a book, she found an even more fragile piece of paper with a few lines of small regular script written on it with a brush:

"The red makeup is gone, the white candle is extinguished, the good man is not good, the soul is locked in the deep house, the resentment is hard to dispel. It is necessary to use the yang energy of the living as a guide to break the shackles and be freed. At three quarters of Hai hour, use a bronze mirror to reflect green fire and shine it in the southwest Xun position to see the gate of life."

"Yuyu, look at this..." Lin Anran carefully picked up the piece of paper, shone a flashlight on it, and read it to Shen Yu.

Shen Yu walked over, took the piece of paper, and examined it carefully.

"The yang energy of a living person is the guide... The bronze mirror reflects green fire, in the southwest Xun position..."

"The bronze mirror...we haven't seen the bronze mirror yet. Hai Shi San Ke is 9:45 PM, but there are no timekeeping devices here. Green Fire..."

He looked at the dim green candlestick: "This is probably what it refers to; the southwest (巽) position is the direction..."

He looked around; the front hall had no windows, making it difficult to determine his direction.

"Let's find the bronze mirror first."

"Um!"

Lin Anran felt less scared and more safe around Shen Yu...

The two then searched carefully around the offering table.

Shen Yu moved the candlestick aside and found a small, triangular yellow talisman paper under the base, with twisted runes drawn on it in cinnabar.

He picked up the talisman, and underneath it was a palm-sized bronze mirror with rusted edges.

"I found it." He picked up the bronze mirror. The front was not polished to a shine, and under the dim light of the flashlight, it could barely reflect a distorted human figure.

"What does 'the yang energy of a living person' mean?" Lin Anran asked, looking closely at the bronze mirror.

Just then, the temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees.

The flame on the green candlestick suddenly shot up, crackling slightly with electricity, and its color turned an even more ghastly green.

At the same time, a remarkably clear sound of a woman crying drifted over from somewhere.

"Waaah...My love...Why have you betrayed me...It's so cold...It's so dark here..."

The sound was mournful and plaintive, with an echo effect that surrounded the listener in a three-dimensional way, drilling straight into their ears.

Lin Anran stiffened and subconsciously moved closer to Shen Yu.

Shen Yu listened intently, trying to pinpoint the source of the sound, but it seemed to come from all directions, as if it had been specially processed...

The crying lasted for about ten seconds, then gradually subsided, replaced by an extremely eerie suona (a type of Chinese horn).

The music being played seemed to be a wedding tune, but the melody was distorted and out of tune, sounding more like a funeral procession celebrating.

"It's background sound effects, triggered by a device," Shen Yu deduced, but his brows furrowed slightly.

The quality and timing of the sound effects are quite tricky, and they can definitely disturb one's peace of mind.

"Let's ignore that for now... I don't know what it means..."

He pondered, his gaze falling on Lin Anran and himself, then on the bronze mirror and the green candlelight in his hand.

Suddenly, as if he had thought of something, he said to Lin Anran, "Ranran, take the bronze mirror and look at the green candle."

Although Lin Anran didn't understand, she still did as instructed.

She picked up the bronze mirror and aimed it at the ghastly green flames.

The dim, yellowish mirror reflected a flickering green light, making it appear even more eerie.

"and then?"

Shen Yu did not answer immediately, but instead reached out his hand and gently covered the back of Lin Anran's hand that was holding the bronze mirror.

Shen Yu adjusted the angle of the bronze mirror, letting the reflected green light drift around the room.

When the green light reflected by the bronze mirror swept across the wall southwest of the offering table, several handprints emitting a faint glow slowly appeared on the otherwise ordinary wall under the green light!

The handprints are positioned to form a simple arrow shape, pointing downwards onto the wall...

"There," Shen Yu replied calmly.

Shen Yu maintained the angle, allowing the green light to steadily illuminate that area.

The two walked over, squatted down, and examined it carefully.

At the corner indicated by the arrow, the gaps between the blue bricks appear to be slightly larger than elsewhere.

Shen Yu used his fingernail to pry open a loose brick, and it came off.

Behind it was a small hidden compartment containing an old, sealed wooden jewelry box and an antique-looking brass key.

"Got it."