A delicate voice came from inside the room, followed closely by the sound of flip-flops.
But the door did not open immediately. The person inside merely observed through the peephole and saw nothing.
Just when she thought someone had knocked on the wrong door and was about to turn and leave, the door sounded again.
This time, the sound was clearer than before.
Chen Lili leaned closer to the peephole again, but still saw no one outside.
Yet the door continued to make sounds!
"Ah!" She was startled.
She took several steps back, distancing herself considerably from the door that was making eerie noises, and suddenly covered her ears in a panic, mumbling: "It’s fake... all fake, you won’t fool me this time... I won’t believe it..."
Although she said this, her feet shook with fear as she ran towards the bedroom, stumbling a couple of times almost falling.
She fled in a panic, as if something terrifying was outside.
The Mist Ghost, seeping through the door crack, saw everything clearly.
Naturally, Wu Liang, whose presence outside was erased, also knew what was happening inside, and he fell into thought.
"This girl has issues, why is she so scared?" He was puzzled.
Who was the "you" Chen Lili was muttering about?
What did she mean by saying she wouldn’t be fooled this time?
Could it be that similar things happened before?
"Interesting, from Chen Lili’s perspective, this ghost knocking phenomenon seems to have happened more than once? This time it’s me playing tricks, but what about the previous times?"
Wu Liang signaled to the Mist Ghost to open the door from inside. He swaggered into the home of the widow Chen Lili and thoughtfully closed the door as if nothing had happened.
As soon as he entered, he smelled something peculiar!
The smell was somewhat familiar...
Yet it felt off somehow...
"Holy shit! Is there a gas leak here?!"
It’s the rotten egg smell of hydrogen sulfide mixed in the gas!
Realizing this, Wu Liang hurried to the kitchen to check and found a large gas cylinder in the center with the valve wide open, spewing toxic gas.
He tightened the valve, finally breathing a sigh of relief.
"Scared me to death, needed a cigarette to calm down."
With a cheeky grin, he said nonsense, but as he touched the cold gas cylinder, Wu Liang began reasoning about the situation.
Something still feels wrong! Whose gas cylinder would be in the center of the kitchen?
Is Chen Lili an idiot?
Obviously not; people living in this neighborhood would know where to place a gas cylinder suitably, even some cooking traces were evident on the stove.
This implies that after cooking, Chen Lili dragged the cylinder from under the stove and opened it to inhale gas?
That’s insane! Isn’t that suicide!
Looking down at the stove, Wu Liang found something more shocking.
Chen Lili used natural gas at home...
"Using natural gas? Where did this gas cylinder come from?" ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel_fіre.net
This is the fifth floor, where there’s zero need for such a thing. Wu Liang couldn’t think of any reason to haul a gas cylinder into the house.
Putting this mystery aside for now, he decided to check on Chen Lili.
Maybe she inhaled too much gas earlier.
Causing her brain to hallucinate...
As he entered the living room, Wu Liang noticed several strange paintings on the wall, mostly various hand shapes.
But oddly, these hands only had three fingers, all curled and twisted in an unsettling claw-like form.
The most obvious was a photograph above the TV, showing Chen Lili smiling and embracing a tall, strong man, who held an odd claw in his hand.
The claw was withered and small, covered with curled and dry hair, although it had five fingers, it didn’t seem human.
At this point, Wu Liang furrowed his brow, thinking of a bizarre legend — the Monkey Claw.
It’s said to grant any wish, but in the process, the wish is fulfilled in the most twisted way.
For example, if you wish for lots of money, the result might be an accident or an inheritance from a deceased family member.
Or wishing a deceased loved one back to life might result in a rotting corpse returning to kill you.
In haunted tales, it’s not seen as a genuine wish-tool but more like a cursed object.
"But this is reality! The Monkey Claw is fictional, right? How could it exist in real life?" Wu Liang grew more puzzled.
He’d even read the original novel about the Monkey Claw, knowing it’s purely fictional.
With this doubt, Wu Liang stealthily approached the bedroom door, slightly opening it to peek inside.
Chen Lili was curled up like a startled bird in the corner by the window, trembling.
She clutched a fruit knife tightly, as if such a small thing could offer her security amidst supernatural occurrences.
Most things in the bedroom seemed normal, except for a peculiar altar next to the vanity that instantly drew Wu Liang’s attention.
Two candles with three incense sticks in an incense burner, tendrils of smoke rising but nothing visible on the altar tray.
No deity statues like those in Wangsheng Village, not even a photo!
It seemed like the incense and candles were worshipping air, eerily strange.
And who would place these things in a bedroom!
"Don’t come any closer! I see you!"
While Wu Liang pondered, Chen Lili suddenly went berserk, wildly swinging the fruit knife at the opposite wall.
Wu Liang followed her gaze, spotting a wedding photo on the wall.
It was indeed her and the tall, strong man from earlier in the living room, probably the husband Li Xiyue mentioned, who died in a supernatural incident.
"Didn’t they say Chen Lili was kept by a rich person? Why is she still hanging her deceased husband’s wedding photo? Does she always do ’that’ in front of this photo? So kinky?" Wu Liang imagined some NTR scenarios.
But as time passed, the fear in Chen Lili’s eyes became more evident, her knife swipes even more frantic.
It’s as if something unclean was crawling out of the wedding photo at her.
Yet Wu Liang could guarantee, up till now, there were absolutely no supernatural occurrences in this house!
If there had been, the Ghost Compendium would have recorded the Fierce Ghost’s information!
So, what exactly happened between Chen Lili and Li Xiyue?
Why were both women mentally unstable?!
A sudden thought from the Mist Ghost interrupted him. He’d left it at the door earlier, and now it was desperately conveying the situation outside.
At this moment, from the neighboring house, Li Xiyue’s place, a man walked out—
Tall and strong, he looked extraordinarily familiar...
Was he... Chen Lili’s deceased husband!?