Chapter 0262 – The Man Who Stood to Hang Himself
”I vaguely understand why the Chairman wants to deal with him, this person should have entered the world behind the door, and may even possess a ‘door’ as well.”
Kong Xiangming’s voice was low, afraid that his words would be heard by a third person.
”It doesn’t matter, so what if he has been to the world behind the door? He’s just a person after all.” Wei Wu’s bottom was a bit lacking when he said this, it was more like he was consoling himself, “This mission is so important, it’s impossible for the president to send only the two of us, the other members of the association should have arrived as well.”
”Don’t pin your hopes on others, what if the President just wants to sacrifice the two of us to scout the way?” Kong Xiangming closed the door of the room, “The members of the association may change at any time, but the numbering stays the same, each number represents a monster behind the door, and by having that number, one will be symbiotic with the ghosts and monsters corresponding to that number. So in the President’s eyes, what he really values is the oni in us, not us per se.”
He narrowed his eyes and suddenly talked about another thing that wasn’t too related, “In the Weird Tales Association, it’s forbidden to disclose one’s own identity and forbidden to investigate the identity of others, these two rules can really protect our own safety, after all, the association is either filled with mentally abnormal lunatics or blood-stained butchers, but have you ever thought about another problem? ”
”What problem?”
”Without going to contact the other members of the association, we will never know who the president is.” Kong Xiangming had a deep mind, “Everyone knows that the Chairman is hidden among the ten people on either side of the dining table, but no one is clear on who the Chairman really is? I now have a strong suspicion that the Chairman himself might be a monster behind the door, and we are nothing more than pieces of containers holding the monster in his eyes.”
”Why are you telling me this?” Wei Wu pulled away from Kong Xiangming, “No one has ever betrayed the Weird Tales Association, and that’s the scariest point of all, do you understand what I mean?”
Kong Xiangming waved his hand, “You and I joined the association in the same batch, I can be sure that you’re not the chairman, that’s why I took the initiative to approach you and tell you my identity during the last mission, you’re the only one I can trust in the association.”
Wei Wu always felt that Kong Xiangming had other plans and that he had already gotten on board without realizing it.
”All monsters escape from the world behind the door, there is no doubt that the chairman controls a door in his hands!” Kong Xiangming’s voice lurched, revealing a very shallow smile, “Possessing a door gives you the right to make the rules, don’t you want to become the chairman?”
”You’re really crazy.”
”I’m not crazy, it’s just that I don’t have any more weird stories to tell you guys, if I don’t change the rules, maybe the next gathering, I’ll be placed amongst the plates by you guys, changing from a diner to food.”
Kong Xiangming’s words seemed like a pot of cold water splashing Wei Wu awake, the Weird Tales Association was not a place for charity, this association felt intimidated even by the members themselves.
”Tell me about your plan.”
”I wouldn’t have gone for something so risky if it were before, but recently I’ve found a glimmer of opportunity. The chairman has been contacting us more and more frequently, and he’s run into big trouble, while also revealing a crack.”
”What crack?”
”The chairman is contacting us through the ghosts and goblins that are hosting us, and ghosts and goblins can only communicate within fifty meters, which is something I had tested with you.” Kong Xiangming got to the crux of the matter, “That means that the distance between the chairman and me was within fifty meters when he released the message.”
”That’s right.”
”My position at the party was very close to Ten, every time I sat next to him, the ghostly creature in me would show a strange emotion, a hint of longing hidden in fear, I could feel its thoughts, it wanted to eat Ten.”
”But that doesn’t make Ten the President, the gargoyles on the ten of us are supposed to be different.”
”I know, the point is that seconds before my oni received the Chairman’s message, it also developed this strange emotion.” Kong Xiangming’s voice slowly changed, “At the time of releasing the message, the Tenth and the Chairman appeared near my house at the same time, doesn’t that prove the relationship between the two of them?”
”Could it be a coincidence?”
”The president of the association should be the one who gave us the leaflets, and he’s also the only one who knows the identities of all the members clearly. On two consecutive occasions of releasing information, both the tenth and the president appeared near my house, I don’t believe there would be such a coincidence in the world.”
After Kong Xiangming finished speaking, Wei Wu was completely silent, the mysterious president was like a sharp sword hanging over the heads of all the association members.
”Number ten is the president? Then how do you want to cooperate with me?” Wei Wu and Kong Xiangming came together simply because they had the same goal, if there was no common interest, the two would definitely be immortal as they knew each other’s identity.
”The chairman wants to go after the haunted house owner, and this haunted house owner is obviously a ruthless character as well, let them fight to the death and we’ll come back for an opportunity.”
Kong Xiangming entered the bathroom and removed the female corpse from the ceiling, rummaging through her pockets he found a school license plate, “We’re just tourists visiting, just be careful not to be detected by the haunted house boss.”
The two left with the school card out of the room, after a minute or two, the house resounded “grunt”, “grunt” sound, bedroom bed rolled out under the head of a mannequin.
……
The three medical students huddled together, without a map, they finally felt the “fun” of visiting a haunted house.
”Li Xue, walk slower!”
The chubby girl with a baby face walked in front alone, followed closely by the two male students, who were leaning together, almost holding hands.
”When you were outside you guys were more than capable of blowing off steam one by one, how come you’ve suddenly become so wimpy after not having the seniors’ tips?” Li Xue looked back at her two companions, somewhat helpless, “Are you two men?”
”What does this have to do with being a man or not?” Although Wang Yan was hiding at the very back, his temper was not tempered at all, “We call this caution, can’t you see that the two of us are breaking your back?”
”Huh.”
Yang Chen was also a little embarrassed, “I’m not afraid, mainly this place is too similar to my high school, just now that scene at a glance I knew it was specially arranged, but this new scene gives me the same feeling as returning to my alma mater.”
”What’s so scary about going back to your alma mater?” Li Xue didn’t quite understand.
”It’s different from the scenes in real life, I can keep hinting in my mind that everything is fake, but this place is almost exactly the same as the school in real life, no matter how I hint at it, I can’t help but substituting into it.” Yang Chen’s cell phone was still grasping a notebook and a pen, trembling as he drew the route map.
The Western Suburbs Private School had most of its scenes chopped off for some reason, so the overall area wasn’t too large.
The three students quickly walked to the end of the long corridor, and in front of them was a very ordinary glass door.
”Wait!”
Yang Chen stopped Li Xue who wanted to go and open the door, he laid down on the door and looked inside with his face pressed against the glass, “This seems to be a certain floor of the dormitory building, and there’s a number on the door.”
”Could it be the girls’ dormitory on the map?” Li Xue urged Yang Chen to open the map and compare it, and found that the location was far apart.
”It should be a hidden scene.” Yang Chen seemed to have an answer, “When I first got the map, I wondered why there was only the girls’ dormitory and no boys’ dormitory on it, now it seems that the boys’ dormitory should have been made into a hidden scene. But what I’m curious about is, how did we trigger the hidden scene? Everyone doesn’t seem to have done anything special.”
”It’s probably because we raided too fast and made the boss feel a sense of crisis.” Wang Diem gave a dry laugh and also leaned over the glass door to take a look, “It’s similar to our school’s dormitory, go in and take a look.”
His mouth said go in and take a look, but his body didn’t move at all, in the end, it was Li Xue who pushed the glass door open.
The rusty chains slid to the ground, and as the glass door opened, a strange smell came out from behind the door.
”Why does it smell a bit like a corpse odor?”
”Should we go in?”
”Being reasonable, for us to get this far and discover the hidden scene, we’ve already broken the records of our seniors and sisters.” Wang Yan raised his own hand, “I propose to withdraw first.”
”I don’t know if we can still trigger the hidden scene next time, besides, we’ve come this far, if you don’t go in and take a look, are you willing to do so?” Yang Chen and Li Xue racked Wang Yan into the middle of the corridor.
The long, dark corridor was flanked by half-open doors, and it was unknown from which room the stench was wafting out.
”This place is too depressing, isn’t it?” Wang Yan’s voice turned low, as if talking loudly in this place would wake up some hidden monsters.
”There’s still enough time, don’t let go of the rooms on both sides, this place definitely hides a lot of school cards.” Yang Chen accompanied Li Xue to walk in front, Wang Yan reluctantly followed behind, he was already panicked in his heart, he didn’t dare to leave alone, he could only walk forward with everyone.
”Don’t be too scared, the scary scenes are definitely all in the back, the first few rooms are safe.” Yang Chen tried to comfort Wang Yan with his own experience, “What kind of haunted house shows the scariest scenes as soon as they come up?”
After he finished speaking, he pushed open the door of the first sleeping room on the left side of the corridor.
The wooden door was covered with dust, and it seemed that no one had opened it for a long time, accompanied by the ear-piercing sound of the door shaft turning, Yang Chen stepped in, but he only took one step before he came to a hard stop, and the upper half of his body even maintained a forward leaning position.
”Old Yang? What’s wrong with you?”
The door of the room opened completely, and outside, Li Xue and Wang Yan also sucked in a breath of cool air.
In the middle of the dormitory, there was a person hanging.
”Mannequin?” Yang Chen was the first to slow down, and he rubbed his hand on his clothes to wipe away the cold sweat on his palm.
”Don’t go over there yet.” Wang Yan pointed at the man’s feet, “It doesn’t look like a hanging, look at his feet are not even off the ground, I suspect it’s a haunted house actor pretending to be one.”
”It shouldn’t be played by a living person.” Li Xue was more bold and walked straight over, “The rope is taut and straight, keep this posture for a long time, you will be strangled to death even if you are standing.”
She carefully circled around to the other side of the dormitory, the person hanging in the middle of the dormitory was wearing a pitch-black coat, his head was hanging low, and he couldn’t see his face clearly.
Li Xue raised her hand, a little closer, her fingertips touched the skin of the dead body.
”Not human skin, come in, it’s okay.”
A long sigh of relief, all three were scared.
”What’s the point of hanging a mannequin in the middle of the room? And deliberately let it stand on the ground?” Wang Yan touched the dead body’s hand, he was studying forensics and knew very well that the feeling was different from human skin, to be a little more cold and stiff.
”You two don’t move, this dead body could be the answer to some puzzle.” Li Xue gently dragged the dead body’s chin with both hands and lifted its head up a little bit.
After seeing that face of the dead body, the three forensic science college freshmen were a bit flustered.
It was too real!
Just because they had seen a real dead body, that was why the three of them had a stronger sense of terror than ordinary people at this moment.
”The constriction tightly pressed on the front of the neck, forcing the root of the tongue to squeeze backward and upward, pressing against the posterior wall of the pharynx, blocking the pharyngeal cavity to occlude the airway, the cause of death was probably asphyxiation.” After Li Xue finished, she was stunned herself, she really couldn’t imagine that the first time she used the knowledge from her textbook was in a haunted house.
”You pay attention to the face of the mannequin, the presence of irregular blood spots, which is somewhat different from the death of suffocation.” Yang Chen walked around the mannequin, “Carotid artery occlusion, blood flow is obstructed, the cause of death should be cerebral anemia.”
”Both of you, no matter what the cause of death really is, let’s hurry up and go!” Wang Yan urged, “Don’t you two feel scared? A dead body mannequin in the haunted house is not only made to look like a dead person in appearance, even the cause of death is perfectly restored!”
”The haunted house owner also knows forensic science?” Li Xue glanced towards Yang Chen next to her.
Yang Chen’s face wasn’t too good: “It’s impossible for a layman to restore the death characteristics of a corpse in such detail, unless he did it little by little on a real dead body.”
A horrifying image floated in the minds of all three, they did not speak again and walked out of the dormitory with a tacit understanding.
”We’re already pretty deep, let’s just call it a day.”
”Search a few more rooms and take a look, by the way, was there a school license plate in that room just now?”
Yang Chen asked, Li Xue and Wang Yan both shook their heads, “Didn’t notice.”
”Forget it, let’s search the other rooms first, and then finally enter this room.”
The three students were talking outside the door, they didn’t realize that the dead body in the dormitory standing with its back to them slowly opened its eyes.
The hallway appeared to split in front of them, and the further in they went, the heavier the odor became.
Gradually, stains began to appear on the floor tiles and walls, and in one breath the three students came to the end of the corridor, where several rooms near the end of the corridor were locked.
”The stench seems to be wafting out from here.”
Li Xue walked ahead as she pushed open the door of the room at the deepest part of the corridor.
Of the four beds in this dormitory room, only one bed was covered with bedding, and the remaining three beds were piled with all sorts of garbage.
”Nothing? I thought this room hid something really scary, it doesn’t feel as scary as the first dormitory room.”
”Time’s almost up, let’s find the school license first, Wang Yan, don’t dawdle outside, come help!”
Yang Chen and Li Xue both entered the house, only Wang Yan looked at the long, dark corridor, something was vaguely bouncing up and down in the darkness!
”Lao Yang, you guys come out first, I think I heard the footsteps of a fourth person.”