The lucky-draw wheel on the phone screen slowly began to spin.
Seven pairs of eyes stared intently at the tiny screen. The wheel first spun faster and faster, then gradually slowed down, maintaining a slow and steady speed—but it never stopped.
Even after more than ten minutes, the lucky-draw wheel was still spinning. The people present finally realized that something was wrong and all turned toward Xu Muchan.
“What did you wish for? It’s that difficult to fulfill?”
Xu Muchan said, “I just wanted it to help me find something I lost a long time ago.”
In reality, what he had wished for was that it could help his brother, Wei Xilou, find an important part of himself that he had lost.
Although he had already anticipated this, when Xu Muchan discovered that the wheel really could not fulfill his wish, he was still slightly disappointed.
“Then it seems my guess was right. This lucky-draw wheel probably has limited abilities. If you make a wish that’s too difficult to fulfill, it may simply be unable to do anything.”
As he spoke, Pei Rong had already picked up his own phone and pressed the lucky-draw button in the center.
The wheel on the screen began to spin as well. Just like Xu Muchan’s, it first accelerated, then gradually slowed down and maintained a slow, steady speed, simply refusing to stop.
Yan He said, “You’re quick. What did you wish for?”
Pei Rong said, “I hope there will never be another flood season in Black River.”
Yan He clicked his tongue twice. “That really is asking a bit much.”
As he spoke, he also pressed the lucky-draw button and loudly announced his wish.
“I hope for world peace.”
The lucky-draw wheel on the screen continued spinning endlessly.
“How long is this thing going to keep spinning?” Jin Qingqing stared at the phone and pondered for a moment. “Or could it suddenly stop in the middle of the night when we aren’t paying attention?”
Peng Ye said, “No way. With wishes this ridiculous, can it really fulfill them?”
Jiang Fang said, “There’s a ghost behind this wheel. The lucky draw is just bait it uses to hunt. It’s not really here to grant your wishes. Maybe it really can twist the wishes people make and count that as fulfilling them—a forced sale disguised as wish fulfillment.”
Jiang Fang’s words made sense.
Yan He said, “Tonight, everyone takes turns keeping watch over the phones. Let’s see if anything changes. Peng Ye should stay with his phone too.”
The group quickly arranged their shifts. After that, they took turns keeping an eye on the phones and Peng Ye.
At first, Peng Ye was somewhat nervous. But after a long time passed without anything happening, he gradually relaxed and even managed to get a good nap.
It wasn’t until the next morning that Peng Ye had just opened his eyes when he immediately glanced at the phone beside him.
Three phones were plugged into charging cables, and the lucky-draw wheels on their screens were still spinning.
“It still hasn’t stopped. I don’t think anything happened to me either,” Peng Ye said to Jiang Fang, who was awake.
At this time, the others also gradually woke up from their naps and came over to knock on the door. When they saw the condition of the three phones, they weren’t particularly surprised.
Chai Ming looked at Peng Ye, who was still celebrating the fact that he had successfully survived another day, and said, “Looks like all we can do now is keep a close eye on Peng Ye.”
“If we can’t find a breakthrough through Peng Ye either, we’ll have to take the risk of making some ordinary wishes and conduct more experiments.”
The others shared the same opinion.
Peng Ye, the human guinea pig, had already come to terms with things. He had secretly written his will the previous night and deleted his browsing history. At this moment, his mood was fairly calm.
“Let’s go have breakfast first. I’m starving.”
The seven of them headed to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.
While getting his breakfast, Peng Ye casually glanced through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
“Why are there so many spirit money bills flying around outside? Who’s throwing spirit money around like this? That’s seriously inconsiderate.”
But after saying this, he realized that no one had responded to him.
Confused, he turned his head and found the others staring at him strangely.
Peng Ye froze.
After a moment, he looked again at the sky full of spirit money and cautiously asked, “You guys can’t see it? Am I the only one who can?”
The others nodded, confirming his guess.
Peng Ye immediately began to panic. He looked outside again. The ventilation fan in the floor-to-ceiling window was open, and quite a few spirit money bills had already been blown inside through it.
He instinctively carried his plate away from the window, but another piece of spirit money was blown over and stuck to his arm.
Peng Ye could only put down his tray. Feeling unlucky, he pulled the paper off and took a look at it.
“Why are there words written on this? January 2nd, 16:01:59. What does that mean?”
The others could not see the spirit money. When they saw him staring at his palm and reading out a number, their expressions immediately became solemn.
A time precise down to the second made it difficult not to think too much into it.
Looking at Peng Ye’s uneasy expression, Yan He knew he didn’t want to frighten him, but he still said, “This could very well be… the time of death.”
Peng Ye immediately threw the spirit money away as if it had burned his hand and trembled.
“No way. Does that mean I’m going to kick the bucket this afternoon?”
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that,” Jiang Fang said, patting his back reassuringly when he saw how pale Peng Ye had become.
Xu Muchan thought for a moment and asked, “Are there any more of those spirit money bills?”
Peng Ye looked outside and nodded. “They’re everywhere outside. Quite a few have blown in too.”
The scene was actually quite creepy. It was only because there were so many people in the restaurant that it didn’t seem quite as eerie.
Xu Muchan raised his head and gazed into the air. A thin red line faintly appeared between his brows, while a hint of crimson gradually emerged in his pupils.
Yan He, sitting beside him, whispered, “Holy shit.”
He turned to Pei Rong and said, “That’s such dense yin energy. Is this the Ghost King?”
Pei Rong did not answer, but like everyone else, he stared unblinkingly at Xu Muchan.
Aside from the sudden eruption of dense yin energy, there wasn’t actually much of a change in Xu Muchan’s appearance. There was simply an additional red bloodline between his brows, and his pupils had turned an eerie blackish-red.
Yet this tiny change completely transformed the aura surrounding him.
An overwhelming sense of pressure radiated from his body. Anyone who was even slightly sensitive had already sensed the danger.
Jin Qingqing and Chai Ming, sitting opposite him, gripped the edge of the table tightly. The veins on the backs of their hands bulged, and they could only barely maintain their calm and composure.
Fortunately, this scene did not last very long.
Xu Muchan suddenly reached out and grabbed at something in the air.
“Found it.”
“January 2nd, 16:00:02.”
The dense yin energy and terrifying pressure surrounding him simultaneously receded and disappeared.
Xu Muchan turned toward the others, who were still tense and faintly frightened, completely unaware of their reactions.
“I don’t think this is a date of death. If it were, it would be far too soon.”
The others quickly adjusted their expressions as well, making sure they did not let their loss of composure show too obviously.
Jin Qingqing had the same thought as Yan He and also felt that this was very likely a time of death.
“If it isn’t the time of death, then what time is it?”
Xu Muchan thought for a moment.
“I think it might be the time when someone enters the ghost domain. We still haven’t discovered the existence of a ghost domain, but the abnormalities in the old city are definitely real. The people who died before may not have actually committed suicide or died in accidents either. But compared with the amount of time between their participation in the lucky draw and their deaths, Peng Ye’s interval is far too short.”
Peng Ye had participated in the lucky draw yesterday afternoon, and by the next morning, he had already seen the spirit money.
And the date written on the spirit money was four o’clock that afternoon.
“The two colleagues who mysteriously disappeared before—they also participated in the lucky draw the previous day, then returned to their hometowns, and afterward mysteriously disappeared, didn’t they? I think it’s very possible that they aren’t dead yet, but have instead entered the ghost domain.”
Xu Muchan’s deduction made a lot of sense, and Peng Ye felt somewhat reassured.
But then he looked at the spirit money pinched between Xu Muchan’s fingers and became worried again.
“You should still throw that spirit money away. You didn’t participate in the lucky draw, so what if it really is some kind of time of death? Wouldn’t you just—”
Feeling that it was bad luck to even say it, Peng Ye didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he tried to remain calm and said, “Whether it’s entering the ghost domain or something else, I’ll do my best to leave you guys some useful information. But if I don’t…” He lowered his head dejectedly. “Then I probably really won’t be able to do anything.”
Xu Muchan, however, was quite certain. “I think my guess is right. We’ll know this afternoon. If it’s entering a ghost domain, I’ll go with you. Nothing will happen to you.”
Peng Ye looked at him emotionally. “Xu Muchan, do you know? You look especially tall and imposing right now. You don’t even look like a high school student anymore. I really want to call you ‘Big Bro.’”
Xu Muchan gave him a speechless look and continued eating his breakfast.
Peng Ye thought about it, then started eating too. Seeing that the others weren’t eating, he said, “Eat more. If we really enter a ghost domain later, at least we’ll have the strength to run for our lives.”
Because of Xu Muchan’s guess, they didn’t go anywhere that day. Instead, they gathered in Peng Ye’s room and prepared for the worst.
Peng Ye and Xu Muchan were surrounded in the middle, while Jin Qingqing and Chai Ming set up several pieces of equipment whose purposes were unclear.
Time passed second by second.
When the electronic clock on the phone jumped to exactly 4:00 p.m., cold sweat appeared on Peng Ye’s forehead. He took several deep breaths and quietly said to Jiang Fang beside him, “Just in case, I saved my will in the notes app. If something really happens to me, take my phone back to the institute…”
He was still muttering instructions for after his death when Jiang Fang suddenly disappeared right in front of him.
Peng Ye froze.
He hurriedly turned his head and looked around, only to discover that everyone else had disappeared too.
Only Xu Muchan and he remained in the room.
“Where did they go? How did they suddenly disappear?”
Xu Muchan stood up and looked outside through the room’s window. The scenery outside hadn’t changed at all.
“I think it’s not them who disappeared. It’s us.”
Peng Ye froze, then remembered the two researchers who had mysteriously disappeared from their homes. He immediately understood.
“So that’s how they disappeared…”
Xu Muchan said, “Let’s go downstairs and take a look. This should be the ghost domain.”
The moment the two of them left the room, they ran into someone head-on.
The newcomer was quite tall, with an imposing presence. His face was even more handsome than that of many celebrities and internet influencers.
But this was a ghost domain.
Usually, ghosts that looked this good were especially vicious.
Peng Ye instinctively became alert, only to see Xu Muchan walk toward the man without the slightest precaution, his tone filled with surprise.
“Brother, why are you here too?”
Wei Xilou’s eyes shifted toward Peng Ye for a moment, ignoring the annoying rat, before he looked at Xu Muchan. He held a piece of spirit money between his fingertips, with a time written on it.
“A-Chan picked up the spirit money. Naturally, I had to follow you here to make sure you were safe.”
Xu Muchan glanced at him without replying. He turned back to the bewildered Peng Ye and introduced him.
“This is my brother, Wei Xilou. He was worried about me coming to Shuinaan City, so I guess he was unlucky enough to get dragged in too.”
So he was someone they knew.
Peng Ye immediately relaxed his guard and nodded repeatedly.
“Oh, so he’s your brother. But you two don’t really look alike.”
Xu Muchan said, “We aren’t biological brothers.”
Peng Ye nodded a couple more times, then secretly glanced at the man walking beside Xu Muchan, silently wondering what exactly he did for a living.
His presence was incredibly intimidating—stronger even than the oppressive aura of the big shots at the institute.
While Peng Ye was secretly observing him, Xu Muchan was also whispering into Wei Xilou’s ear.
He lowered his voice and said, “Whatever happens later, don’t make a move. Otherwise, you might get discovered.”
Wei Xilou raised an eyebrow. His gaze once again slid toward the annoying rat beside them.
“If I get discovered, so be it. Besides, I have plenty of ways to make sure he doesn’t tell anyone afterward.”
“…”
Xu Muchan gave him a speechless look and pushed him slightly to the side so Peng Ye wouldn’t suffer any undeserved misfortune.
“Just listen to me, all right? Remember that.”
Wei Xilou was being glared at fiercely by him, but instead of getting angry, he was actually delighted. He smiled and relented.
“All right. I’ll listen to A-Chan.”
Peng Ye looked at the two brothers with a little envy and quietly said to Xu Muchan, “You two brothers are really close.”
Xu Muchan casually hummed in response.
“Let’s go downstairs and take a look first.”
The three of them took the elevator downstairs.
The hotel lobby was completely deserted. Even the front-desk staff were gone.
“Looks like we really did enter a ghost domain.” Peng Ye went behind the front desk and rummaged around, looking somewhat amazed. “This is my first time entering a ghost domain.”
Xu Muchan was a little surprised. “Aren’t you and Jiang Fang veteran employees?”
Peng Ye nodded.
“That’s true, but ordinary people like us who don’t have any special abilities usually just assist with investigations. Basically, we collect data and information around the outskirts of a ghost domain. If we actually have to enter a ghost domain or go somewhere dangerous, people like Jin Qingqing and the others—the frontline combat personnel—are the ones who go in.
“But sometimes we encounter situations where the ghost domain can’t be found, and then some unlucky person gets dragged inside. Jiang Fang has entered ghost domains twice before, but I’ve never encountered one until now. This is my first time.”
As Peng Ye spoke, he glanced at Xu Muchan.
“You’re so powerful. If you really join the institute, you’ll definitely become one of their key people to train.”
Xu Muchan said, “I haven’t decided whether I’m going to officially join yet.”
Peng Ye smiled and came out from behind the front desk, walking toward the lounge area.
“Actually, although our institute has a bit more overtime and the danger level is a little higher, it’s pretty good overall. The job market is terrible these days. Compared with other organizations, our institute is much more humane.”
Just as he finished speaking, a sharp crack suddenly came from above them.
Peng Ye looked up in confusion.
He saw the extremely ornate crystal chandelier above them.
Without warning, it dropped straight down.
The countless hexagonal crystal prisms hanging from the chandelier’s frame were like sharp swords stabbing toward him—
“Watch out!”
At the critical moment, Xu Muchan grabbed Peng Ye and pulled him aside.
At the same time, the crystal chandelier crashed down from above.
With a piercing shattering sound, countless pieces of glass exploded and flew in every direction.
Xu Muchan reacted quickly and pressed Peng Ye down behind a sofa chair, preventing them from being struck by the flying glass.
The two crouched behind the sofa for a while.
Only after they were certain there was no further danger did Xu Muchan stand up.
He first glanced at Wei Xilou not far away, then turned his gaze toward the shattered chandelier. His expression was somewhat grim.
“When the chandelier fell, I sensed yin energy above us. Something was lying in wait up there and deliberately dropped the chandelier when you walked underneath it.”
But strangely, he had only sensed the yin energy. He hadn’t seen the thing that had attacked them.
Xu Muchan walked over to Wei Xilou and quietly asked, “Brother, did you see it?”
Wei Xilou shook his head.
“There was no ghost just now.”
Xu Muchan was slightly stunned.
He had thought a ghost had caused the accident but that he simply hadn’t been able to see it. Yet his brother was saying that there hadn’t been any ghost at all…
Xu Muchan turned to look at the chandelier that had been smashed into pieces and fell into thought.
Peng Ye carefully shuffled over beside him and muttered, “Why do I feel like we’ve been handed a script from Final Destination?”
Xu Muchan suddenly looked at him.
“Final Destination?”
“It’s a classic horror movie series from overseas. The characters die in all sorts of unavoidable accidents. You haven’t seen it?” Peng Ye asked in surprise.
“I’ve seen a little.”
It should have been during some evening self-study period in his first year of high school. The teacher hadn’t been there, and someone had used a projector to play one of the movies.
But of course, that wasn’t why Xu Muchan was surprised.
Rather, he felt that…
“You might be right.”
Xu Muchan thought for a moment and said, “This ghost domain currently looks almost identical to the real world. If everyone whose wish is successfully fulfilled enters the ghost domain, then why did they eventually die?”
Peng Ye followed his line of thought.
“Because they all died inside the ghost domain.”
But at least for now, there didn’t appear to be any obvious danger in this ghost domain.
So it was very possible that they had died through various accidents.
Peng Ye said, “So if they die accidentally in the ghost domain, then in the corresponding real world, they’ll also die in an accident? But what about the people who committed suicide?”
Xu Muchan shook his head.
“That’s only my guess. We still have too little information.”
He walked toward the hotel entrance.
“Let’s go outside and take a look first.”
Peng Ye immediately got up and followed closely beside him.
As they walked, he saw a transparent glass fish tank at the hotel entrance. Beneath the crystal-clear glass was a huge fish pond. The fish pond was connected to the one outside, and they could even see the plump koi below slowly swimming around, lazily flicking their tails.
Peng Ye immediately became nervous and pulled Xu Muchan around it.
“According to the usual horror-movie套路, this kind of glass could shatter the moment we step on it. Then we might fall into the fish pond and either somehow drown in a shallow pool for no reason, or these koi could turn into monsters and crawl into our mouths, choking us to death…
“And the water conducts electricity too. Maybe there’s a leak somewhere…”
He said it with complete seriousness.
Xu Muchan pulled Wei Xilou along and decisively took the side door around it.
The three of them left the hotel, only to find that there wasn’t a single person outside.
This was an upscale resort hotel that normally had a steady stream of guests. There were often cars filling the entrance, and hotel doormen could usually be seen welcoming and sending off guests.
But at this moment, the hotel entrance was still packed with cars.
There wasn’t a single person in sight.
The road farther ahead was even more empty and desolate.
It was clearly a bright, sunny day, yet everything was eerily quiet.
Peng Ye raised a hand above his eyes like a visor and squinted up at the sun.
“What do we do next?”
There was danger inside the hotel, but that didn’t necessarily mean the outside was safe either.
Xu Muchan walked past him and onto the main road ahead. He pointed into the distance.
“There seems to be a tree over there. Can you see it?”
Peng Ye walked over beside him and squinted hard, trying to see it for a long time.
He shook his head.
“What tree? I can’t see anything.”
Xu Muchan turned to Wei Xilou.
Wei Xilou gave an almost imperceptible nod.
So it seemed Xu Muchan wasn’t imagining it.
Xu Muchan said, “If I remember correctly, that direction should lead toward the old city. The strange incidents began in the old city. Let’s go there and take a look first. We might find some clues.”
Peng Ye now listened to everything Xu Muchan said.
At this, he nodded vigorously and asked,
“Then how do we get there?”
Feeling that it was bad luck to say it out loud, Peng Ye didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he tried to remain calm and said, “Whether it’s entering a ghost domain or something else, I’ll do my best to leave you guys some useful information. But if I don’t…” He lowered his head dejectedly. “Then I probably really won’t be able to do anything.”
Xu Muchan, however, was quite certain. “I think my guess is right. We’ll know this afternoon. If it’s entering a ghost domain, I’ll go with you. Nothing will happen to you.”
Peng Ye looked at him, moved. “Xu Muchan, do you know? You look especially tall and imposing right now. You don’t even look like a high school student anymore. I really want to call you ‘Big Bro.’”
Xu Muchan gave him a speechless look and continued eating his breakfast.
Peng Ye thought about it, then started eating too. Seeing that the others weren’t eating, he said, “Eat more. If we really enter a ghost domain later, at least we’ll have the strength to run for our lives.”
Because of Xu Muchan’s guess, they didn’t go anywhere that day. Instead, they gathered in Peng Ye’s room and prepared for the worst.
Peng Ye and Xu Muchan were surrounded in the middle, while Jin Qingqing and Chai Ming set up several pieces of equipment whose purposes were unclear.
Time passed second by second.
When the electronic clock on the phone jumped to exactly 4:00 p.m., cold sweat appeared on Peng Ye’s forehead. He took several deep breaths and quietly said to Jiang Fang beside him, “Just in case, my will is saved in the notes app. If something really happens to me, take my phone back to the institute…”
He was still muttering instructions for after his death when Jiang Fang suddenly disappeared right in front of him.
Peng Ye froze.
He hurriedly turned his head and looked around, only to discover that everyone else had disappeared too.
Only Xu Muchan and he remained in the room.
“Where did they go? How did they suddenly disappear?”
Xu Muchan stood up and looked outside through the room’s window. The scenery outside hadn’t changed at all.
“I think it’s not them who disappeared. It’s us.”
Peng Ye froze, then remembered the two researchers who had mysteriously disappeared from their homes. He immediately understood.
“So that’s how they disappeared…”
Xu Muchan said, “Let’s go downstairs and take a look. This should be the ghost domain.”
The moment the two of them left the room, they ran into someone head-on.
The newcomer was quite tall, with an imposing presence. His face was even more handsome than that of many celebrities and internet influencers.
But this was a ghost domain.
Usually, ghosts that looked this good were especially vicious.
Peng Ye instinctively became alert, only to see Xu Muchan walk toward the man without the slightest precaution, his tone filled with surprise.
“Brother, why are you here too?”
Wei Xilou’s eyes shifted toward Peng Ye for a moment, ignoring the annoying rat, before he looked at Xu Muchan. He held a piece of spirit money between his fingertips, with a time written on it.
“A-Chan picked up the spirit money. Naturally, I had to follow you here to make sure you were safe.”
Xu Muchan glanced at him without replying. He turned back to the bewildered Peng Ye and introduced him.
“This is my brother, Wei Xilou. He was worried about me coming to Shuinan City, so I guess he was unlucky enough to get dragged in too.”
So he was someone they knew.
Peng Ye immediately relaxed his guard and nodded repeatedly.
“Oh, so he’s your brother. But you two don’t really look alike.”
Xu Muchan said, “We aren’t biological brothers.”
Peng Ye nodded a couple more times, then secretly glanced at the man walking beside Xu Muchan, silently wondering what exactly he did for a living.
His presence was incredibly intimidating—stronger even than the oppressive aura of the big shots at the institute.
While Peng Ye was secretly observing him, Xu Muchan was also whispering into Wei Xilou’s ear.
He lowered his voice and said, “Whatever happens later, don’t make a move. Otherwise, you might get discovered.”
Wei Xilou raised an eyebrow. His gaze once again slid toward the annoying rat beside them.
“If I get discovered, so be it. Besides, I have plenty of ways to make sure he doesn’t tell anyone afterward.”
“…”
Xu Muchan gave him a speechless look and pushed him slightly to the side so Peng Ye wouldn’t suffer any undeserved misfortune.
“Just listen to me, all right? Remember that.”
Wei Xilou was being glared at fiercely by him, but instead of getting angry, he was actually delighted. He smiled and relented.
“All right. I’ll listen to A-Chan.”
Peng Ye looked at the two brothers with a little envy and quietly said to Xu Muchan, “You two brothers are really close.”
Xu Muchan casually hummed in response.
“Let’s go downstairs and take a look first.”
The three of them took the elevator downstairs.
The hotel lobby was completely deserted. Even the front-desk staff were gone.
“Looks like we really did enter a ghost domain.” Peng Ye went behind the front desk and rummaged around, looking somewhat amazed. “This is my first time entering a ghost domain.”
Xu Muchan was a little surprised. “Aren’t you and Jiang Fang veteran employees?”
Peng Ye nodded.
“That’s true, but ordinary people like us who don’t have any special abilities usually just assist with investigations. Basically, we collect data and information around the outskirts of a ghost domain. If we actually have to enter a ghost domain or go somewhere dangerous, people like Jin Qingqing and the others—the frontline combat personnel—are the ones who go in.
“But sometimes we encounter situations where the ghost domain can’t be found, and then some unlucky person gets dragged inside. Jiang Fang has entered ghost domains twice before, but I’ve never encountered one until now. This is my first time.”
As Peng Ye spoke, he glanced at Xu Muchan.
“You’re so powerful. If you really join the institute, you’ll definitely become one of their key people to train.”
Xu Muchan said, “I haven’t decided whether I’m going to officially join yet.”
Peng Ye smiled and came out from behind the front desk, walking toward the lounge area.
“Actually, although our institute has a bit more overtime and the danger level is a little higher, it’s pretty good overall. The job market is terrible these days. Compared with other organizations, our institute is much more humane.”
Just as he finished speaking, a sharp crack suddenly came from above them.
Peng Ye looked up in confusion.
He saw the extremely ornate crystal chandelier above them.
Without warning, it dropped straight down.
The countless hexagonal crystal prisms hanging from the chandelier’s frame were like sharp swords stabbing toward him—
“Watch out!”
At the critical moment, Xu Muchan grabbed Peng Ye and pulled him aside.
At the same time, the crystal chandelier crashed down from above.
With a piercing shattering sound, countless pieces of glass exploded and flew in every direction.
Xu Muchan reacted quickly and pressed Peng Ye down behind a sofa chair, preventing them from being struck by the flying glass.
The two crouched behind the sofa for a while.
Only after they were certain there was no further danger did Xu Muchan stand up.
He first glanced at Wei Xilou not far away, then turned his gaze toward the shattered chandelier. His expression was somewhat grim.
“When the chandelier fell, I sensed yin energy above us. Something was lying in wait up there and deliberately dropped the chandelier when you walked underneath it.”
But strangely, he had only sensed the yin energy. He hadn’t seen the thing that had attacked them.
Xu Muchan walked over to Wei Xilou and quietly asked, “Brother, did you see it?”
Wei Xilou shook his head.
“There was no ghost just now.”
Xu Muchan was slightly stunned.
He had thought a ghost had caused the accident but that he simply hadn’t been able to see it. Yet his brother was saying that there hadn’t been any ghost at all…
Xu Muchan turned to look at the chandelier that had been smashed into pieces and fell into thought.
Peng Ye carefully shuffled over beside him and muttered, “Why do I feel like we’ve been handed a script from Final Destination?”
Xu Muchan suddenly looked at him.
“Final Destination?”
“It’s a classic horror movie series from overseas. The characters die in all sorts of unavoidable accidents. You haven’t seen it?” Peng Ye asked in surprise.
“I’ve seen a little.”
It should have been during some evening self-study period in his first year of high school. The teacher hadn’t been there, and someone had used a projector to play one of the movies.
But of course, that wasn’t why Xu Muchan was surprised.
Rather, he felt that…
“You might be right.”
Xu Muchan thought for a moment and said, “This ghost domain currently looks almost identical to the real world. If everyone whose wish is successfully fulfilled enters the ghost domain, then why did they eventually die?”
Peng Ye followed his line of thought.
“Because they all died inside the ghost domain.”
But at least for now, there didn’t appear to be any obvious danger in this ghost domain.
So it was very possible that they had died through various accidents.
Peng Ye said, “So if they die accidentally in the ghost domain, then in the corresponding real world, they’ll also die in an accident? But what about the people who committed suicide?”
Xu Muchan shook his head.
“That’s only my guess. We still have too little information.”
He walked toward the hotel entrance.
“Let’s go outside and take a look first.”
Peng Ye immediately got up and followed closely beside him.
As they walked, he saw a transparent glass fish tank at the hotel entrance. Beneath the crystal-clear glass was a huge fish pond. The fish pond was connected to the one outside, and they could even see the plump koi below slowly swimming around, lazily flicking their tails.
Peng Ye immediately became nervous and pulled Xu Muchan around it.
“According to the usual horror-movie套路, this kind of glass could shatter the moment we step on it. Then we might fall into the fish pond and either somehow drown in a shallow pool for no reason, or these koi could turn into monsters and crawl into our mouths, choking us to death…
“And the water conducts electricity too. Maybe there’s a leak somewhere…”
He said it with complete seriousness.
Xu Muchan pulled Wei Xilou along and decisively took the side door around it.
The three of them left the hotel, only to find that there wasn’t a single person outside.
This was an upscale resort hotel that normally had a steady stream of guests. There were often cars filling the entrance, and hotel doormen could usually be seen welcoming and sending off guests.
But at this moment, the hotel entrance was still packed with cars.
There wasn’t a single person in sight.
The road farther ahead was even more empty and desolate.
It was clearly a bright, sunny day, yet everything was eerily quiet.
Peng Ye raised a hand above his eyes like a visor and squinted up at the sun.
“What do we do next?”
There was danger inside the hotel, but that didn’t necessarily mean the outside was safe either.
Xu Muchan walked past him and onto the main road ahead. He pointed into the distance.
“There seems to be a tree over there. Can you see it?”
Peng Ye walked over beside him and squinted hard, trying to see it for a long time.
He shook his head.
“What tree? I can’t see anything.”
Xu Muchan turned to Wei Xilou.
Wei Xilou gave an almost imperceptible nod.
So it seemed Xu Muchan wasn’t imagining it.
Xu Muchan said, “If I remember correctly, that direction should lead toward the old city. The strange incidents began in the old city. Let’s go there and take a look first. We might find some clues.”
Peng Ye now listened to everything Xu Muchan said.
At this, he nodded vigorously and asked,
“Then how do we get there?”
Xu Muchan said, “We’ll walk. There are too many uncertainties if we drive.”
Peng Ye thought that made sense. His eyes happened to land on some complimentary guidebooks nearby, and he quickly picked one up and flipped through it.
“There’s a map in here.”
The three of them followed the map and were about to set off when Xu Muchan suddenly stopped.
He turned around and looked toward the roof of the hotel.
“There seems to be someone on the roof.”
Peng Ye looked up as well, and his eyes immediately widened.
“Holy shit, there really is someone!”
Xu Muchan’s eyesight was much better than his. He could even make out the person’s face.
“It’s Ding Hai.”
Ding Hai was one of the two researchers from the institute who had gone missing. There had been a photo of him in the missing-person report, and Xu Muchan had only needed to look at it once to remember him.
“Ding Hai? What’s he doing on the roof? Is he going to jump?”
Peng Ye was startled. He hadn’t expected the person standing on the roof to be a colleague. He immediately ran back into the hotel.
“Let’s go take a look. Maybe we can still save him.”
Xu Muchan also intended to take a look, but he felt that something about Ding Hai’s condition was strange. He hesitated for a moment, but Peng Ye had already run ahead.
Xu Muchan could only grab Wei Xilou and hurry after him.
The elevator doors on the first floor were just about to close. Peng Ye hurriedly stuck one leg between them and squeezed inside, then reached out to press the door-open button.
The elevator’s mechanical voice suddenly announced:
“Elevator overloaded.”
Peng Ye’s expression stiffened.
He turned and looked around the elevator.
It was completely empty.
There was only him.
Yet the mechanical voice continued repeating:
“Elevator overloaded.”
“Elevator overloaded.”
“Elevator overloaded.”
Peng Ye swallowed hard, his neck stiff with fear, and shakily tried to step out.
But then he discovered that his body seemed to be pinned down by several pairs of invisible hands. He couldn’t move even half a step.
His eyes widened in terror.
He saw Xu Muchan catching up behind him and desperately mouthed:
Help! There’s a ghost!
Xu Muchan stopped one step away from the elevator.
The mechanical voice continued announcing, “Elevator overloaded,” but the elevator doors had already begun slowly closing.
Peng Ye stared in terror as the gap between the doors grew narrower and narrower.
Just as the elevator doors were more than halfway closed, a leg suddenly jammed into the gap.
Xu Muchan’s eyes were crimson.
Half his body crossed into the elevator, and his icy fingers grabbed Peng Ye by the shoulder. Like an iron clamp, they forcibly dragged him out of the elevator.
Peng Ye stumbled out and immediately clung to Xu Muchan’s arm like it was a lifeline.
“Something was grabbing me inside the elevator and wouldn’t let me leave. I thought I was going to die in there.”
As he spoke, he rolled up his sleeve.
Sure enough, there was a large area of bruising on his shoulder, looking as though countless fingerprints had overlapped one another.
Peng Ye sucked in a cold breath and looked back toward the elevator.
The doors had already closed, and the number on the display was slowly climbing upward.
He rubbed the goosebumps on his arms.
Xu Muchan said, “We’ll take the stairs.”