Translator: CinderTL
As soon as these words were spoken, Jiang Cheng and the others instantly recalled the female ghost who had been chasing Wei Jinting the night before.
The ghost had been hiding in the shadows, secretly observing Li Maoshen's proposal. According to Wei Jinting's account, even from behind the screen, he could feel the ghost's intense anger.
Fatty felt a sense of foreboding. He wondered if these people had done something to the ghost, causing her to refuse to let them go even after death.
Now, it seemed highly likely.
Banana Wolf and the others had clearly realized this as well. He continued, "According to Yu Youwei's colleagues, Li Maoshen was decent-looking but had a terrible personality. He was a minor internet celebrity who was particularly arrogant, believing that all women wanted to throw themselves at him and ride on his fame. After getting together with Yu Youwei, he harassed many models in their company."
"Some couldn't stand it anymore and subtly hinted to Yu Youwei, but she would only say she understood on the surface. Privately, she complained, saying things like 'flies don't land on unbroken eggs,' implying that the harassed women were jealous and couldn't stand to see others succeed."
"Not long after, those who had been harassed were retaliated against. Around midnight, their email inboxes received some videos." Here, Banana Wolf paused deliberately before continuing, "Most of them were fragmented recordings with bizarre content. Several women were so frightened they refused to work the night shift."
"Videos shot by Li Maoshen?" Fatty suddenly exclaimed, feeling that the pieces of the puzzle were slowly coming together.
Li Maoshen was a streamer who had gained fame by shooting paranormal videos, as the group from Building 3 had already investigated.
"Right," Banana Wolf nodded. "Later, after these women compared notes, they realized it was Li Maoshen's doing and immediately reported it to the police."
Hearing that the police had been involved, everyone felt a bit more at ease.
"What happened next?" Chu Jiu asked, her small face tilted upward.
"The police followed the leads and found Li Maoshen's residence. When they knocked on the door, they didn't find Li Maoshen but a woman instead."
"Li Maoshen's official girlfriend?" Jiang Cheng wasn't sure how to describe her, so he used that term to distinguish her from Yu Youwei.
"More or less," Banana Wolf replied, as if remembering something. He quickly pulled out a tablet from his bag.
The tablet looked quite old, with a few faint cracks on the screen. He placed it on the table and said, "These are the videos we copied, the ones Li Maoshen sent to those women. You... you should take a look first."
As soon as he said this, Jiang Cheng's eyes lit up. He hadn't expected Banana Wolf and the others to gather so much information in just one morning.
Fatty and Chu Jiu also leaned in, the three of them crowding around the tablet.
There was more than one video.
They clicked on the first one in order.
The screen shook slightly before stabilizing. The overall tone was dark, likely shot at night.
The setting seemed to be a residence.
The house was quite large, but the facilities were outdated. Some of the old items in the video were things Jiang Cheng hadn't seen in a long time.
There were even black stains on the walls, like mold from water seepage.
The scene kept changing, switching angles every 7 or 8 seconds, much like a documentary that uses multiple shots to set the environment and create an atmosphere.
The shooting angles varied, some high, some low, and some even from the ceiling. At first, they thought of the ghost Wei Jinting had mentioned.
Could these be from the ghost's perspective?
But then they realized that couldn't be. If these were truly videos recorded by a ghost, Li Maoshen wouldn't dare send them out, no matter how bold he was.
After all, he was bad, not stupid.
These places must have been rigged with cameras.
The video had been edited and spliced together.
Gradually, the scene was set, and a person appeared in the video—a petite woman. Due to the angle, her face wasn't visible.
The woman was wearing pajamas and walked into the bedroom. She sat on the bed, rubbed her nose and temples, and then lay down to sleep.
Her movements were stiff, giving off an uncomfortable vibe.
"She sleeps with the lights on?" Fatty whispered.
Chu Jiu, while watching, said, "That's not unusual. I sleep with the lights on too. Many girls do; it makes them feel safer."
"But you wouldn't leave the kitchen and bathroom lights on too, would you?" Jiang Cheng interjected.
The two paused, then quickly realized that, based on the angles, the woman had walked in from the living room, and indeed, all the lights were on.
Just as Fatty was about to say something, the screen suddenly went black.
It wasn't broken because the progress bar was still moving.
The bedroom light... had gone out.
Not just the bedroom, but all the lights in the room had been turned off. If only the bedroom light had gone out, it wouldn't be this dark.
Chu Jiu's face tensed.
They could still see the woman lying in bed, but the image had turned a grainy black-and-white, as the camera had switched to night mode.
The scene remained still for a long time.
If not for the progress bar, they might have thought it was frozen.
Just as someone was about to lose patience, Chu Jiu's eyes froze, and her body began to tremble. She saw a hand emerging from an inconspicuous corner of the video.
There was someone under the bed!
Memories instantly flooded Chu Jiu's mind, recalling the first night she had arrived, when a ghost had crawled out from under the bed.
It was almost the same scenario. The dark figure crawled out and slowly climbed onto the woman's bed.
The video ended there, but the impact on Chu Jiu was far from over. She couldn't stop shaking, and no matter how Fatty tried to comfort her, it didn't work. Finally, Jiang Cheng leaned over and scared her again, which finally stopped her trembling.
"That's what happened to me..." Chu Jiu pointed at the screen, but before she could finish, Jiang Cheng clicked on the next video.
It was still nighttime, and the woman was still the focus, but the setting had changed to a coffee shop.
The lighting in the coffee shop was soft, so they could barely make out the woman's face.
She was quite young, around 20, but her complexion was terrible. If not for the pixelation, Jiang Cheng felt he might have seen her dark circles.
There was another table of people nearby, but the angle was odd, only capturing them from the neck down, so their faces weren't visible.
The woman was hunched over, holding her cup, constantly looking around as if worried about something.
"She's waiting for someone," Jiang Cheng said, watching the video.
On the seat opposite her, there was another cup.
(End of the Chapter)
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