Translator: CinderTL
"But," the young man's voice was filled with doubt, "it seems like Lu Huaxu was an admirer of Deep Crimson. If Wu is also Deep Crimson, then he couldn't have turned on his own accomplice, right? Judging by Lu Huaxu's state of death, it must have been the work of a Ghost."
"And what could he possibly do in just 20 minutes? Even if he really is Deep Crimson, it has nothing to do with Sister Chen Yi's death. After all, he couldn't have done it in such a short time—"
At this point, the young man suddenly stopped speaking. It seemed as though he had realized something, and the sound of rushing wind came through the phone.
The young man was breathing heavily.
On the other end, Liu Guo wasn't faring much better either. After a long pause, Liu Guo's voice seemed to squeeze out from the depths of his throat.
"There's something wrong… with this nightmare."
Room 503.
Wei Jinting had just finished a quick meal and was now sitting cross-legged on the sofa. He took out his laptop, opened it, and placed it in front of him.
He was a cautious man. Apart from the lights and the refrigerator, he had unplugged all other electrical appliances in the room, such as the speakers, TV, and washing machine.
Earlier, Liu Guo hadn't been entirely accurate. Although the video of Qiao Yu's murder had been deleted from the computer, the information about Qiao Yu's life was still there.
There were plenty of photos and some videos stored on it.
He browsed through them one by one, while mentally sketching a profile of the laptop's owner, Qiao Yu. Soon, he found a folder and opened it. Inside was a video.
The background was familiar—it was the café they had visited that afternoon, but the scene was darker, likely set at night.
Several young men and women were gathered together. A cake and wine glasses were on the table, and the atmosphere was lively and cheerful. It looked like someone was celebrating a birthday.
Two men and two women.
After a while, the four of them started cheering in another direction, and then another woman came into view.
She was a tall girl with a very innocent appearance, but Wei Jinting, who had a keen eye for women, immediately saw through her act.
She was a scheming little vixen.
The moment she saw the cake, the girl covered her mouth with one hand, displaying a mix of surprise and shyness.
A man dressed in a trendy leather jacket with studs suddenly pulled her into his arms and dabbed a bit of cream from the cake onto her nose.
The girl pretended to struggle, but of course, she didn't break free. In fact, she seemed to enjoy it, sticking her tongue out playfully at the man.
This expression made Wei Jinting feel extremely uncomfortable, his toes curling in disgust.
From the girl's perspective, she must have seen the cake beforehand. Everything afterward was just her trying to maintain her cute persona.
For some reason, after the girl appeared, the previously steady video began to shake.
Wei Jinting, who was fiddling with the computer, couldn't help but frown. This video felt strange to him, and the strangeness wasn't about the scene itself but the perspective from which it was filmed.
It didn't seem like it was shot by the young people themselves because the angles were terrible, often failing to capture their faces. If Wei Jinting had to guess, it looked more like it was secretly filmed.
Someone was hiding in the shadows, recording them with a camera.
Who could it be?
Before he could think further, the scene changed again. Someone suddenly shouted, "Turn off the lights!" After the lights went out, the only illumination left came from the candles.
The candles were lit by the trendy man himself. Then, with what he thought was a dashing gesture, he flicked the bangs off his forehead, knelt on one knee in front of the girl, and pulled out a small red box from behind him.
Based on his experience, Wei Jinting judged that the box was likely a velvet jewelry box.
Inside was probably a ring.
The next scene unfolded exactly as this seasoned observer had predicted. The trendy man pulled out the ring with flair, and the girl pretended to be completely oblivious.
The man looked utterly sincere, reciting a clichéd speech, while the others chimed in with their encouragement. The men and women gathered around, cheering for this self-scripted and self-indulgent, old-fashioned drama.
Finally, the two embraced deeply.
At that moment, the video flickered, likely due to a loose connection in one of the lights. But in the next second, Wei Jinting, who was watching the screen, froze.
He frowned and immediately dragged the progress bar back a little.
He repeated this several times until he finally paused at the exact moment the light flickered. He leaned closer to the screen, staring at the bottom left corner.
There seemed to be a piece of glass there, facing the person filming.
A moment later, a cold chill ran through him. Wei Jinting's hand trembled, and he nearly dropped the laptop.
Reflected in the glass was half of a woman's face.
Her eyes had no pupils—only the whites.
It was the face of a Ghost!
The one filming them wasn't a person—it was a Ghost!!
As if realizing it had been discovered, the screen began to shake violently, as if gone mad.
Wei Jinting let out a scream and threw the laptop to the ground. The impact seemed to have damaged the screen, as the playback turned into a mess of static and snow.
Unidentifiable noises mixed in.
"Thud."
"Thud."
"Thud."
Knocking sounds began.
Wei Jinting was terrified, but he didn't look toward the door because the knocking… was coming from the laptop.
"Thud, thud, thud."
No, it wasn't coming from the laptop. It was coming from the other side of the screen!
A Ghost!
It was a Ghost!
It was inside the computer!
Wei Jinting's throat tightened. Summoning his courage, he rushed to the laptop, intending to shut it down or at least destroy the screen.
The earlier impact had caused the screen to close slightly, so from his angle, he couldn't see it. Just as he grabbed the laptop, preparing to smash it to the ground, he caught a glimpse of the screen out of the corner of his eye.
The scene had changed.
It was now showing a door.
An old door.
A metal plate on the door read "503."
Then a pale hand reached out from the bottom of the video.
"Thud, thud, thud."
The hairs on Wei Jinting's arms stood on end.
He mechanically turned his head to look at the door to his room.
His door… was knocking.
Someone was knocking on his door!
In that instant, everything became clear. The video in the laptop wasn't a recording of a secret filming—it was a Ghost, a Ghost watching them!
Everything that had happened, that proposal party, had been seen from the Ghost's perspective!
This was a female Ghost.
And the people in the video were clearly Li Maoshen and his group. While they were celebrating, the Ghost had been hiding in the shadows, coldly watching them.
This female Ghost was the key.
It must have been this female Ghost who killed them.
It was too late.
Far too late.
The Ghost… had come for him.
"Creak—"
The door in the screen opened, and a white figure darted in at an incredible speed. He was still sitting on the floor, seemingly not yet recovered from the terror.
(End of the Chapter)
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