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墨書 Inktalez
The gate of the district had already closed. Zhao Mingkun turned to look at me, still straddling her motorcycle. She turned off the engine, pointed at the wall, and then patted the back seat of the motorcycle. I understood her intention; she wanted me to stand on the motorcycle and climb over the wall.
Standing on the motorcycle made it much easier to scale the wall. Just as I was considering whether Zhao Mingkun would be stable standing up there without anyone to support the motorcycle, I blinked and saw that she had already reached the top of the wall.
She patted my shoulder and said, "Earlier, when I was talking to that old lady, she told me about the current locations and jobs of these people. Except for those we can no longer contact, all thirteen of them are living and working in Dongxing City. They probably won't be leaving Dongxing City anytime soon."
Zhao Mingkun led me into a residential building. The architectural style made it clear that there were likely no surveillance cameras inside. This meant we couldn't check if anyone had previously sneaked into Luo Ding's home to cause trouble. The building had only six floors, and Luo Ding lived on the first floor.
As we walked upstairs, Zhao Mingkun dialed Luo Ding's phone number.
Luo Ding's place was even more run-down compared to Liu Ruize's or Hu Pei's old homes. The motion-sensor lights in the hallway were mostly non-functional. The entire corridor was dark, so I had no choice but to take out my phone for light. Zhao Mingkun kept calling Luo Ding's number but received no response.
She shook her head and glanced at her phone. "Could it be that Luo Ding really hasn't come home and has run off somewhere?"
At that moment, I hesitated as well. "I really don't know. But since Luo Ding is alone, Lu Zhiqiu's ghost is following everyone. No matter where he goes, Lu Zhiqiu's ghost will be with him. Considering this, it seems that wherever Luo Ding runs off to, he will eventually return home."
We continued up to the sixth floor, but Zhao Mingkun still hadn't reached Luo Ding on his phone.
In this old building, there wasn't even a security door outside—just a wooden door blocking our way. I knocked hard on the door, making a loud noise, but there was no response from inside.
I shrugged and said, "I have no idea where Luo Ding could be. And given his situation, whether he can answer his phone is another issue. He isn't married and doesn't seem to have many friends; he probably has nowhere to go."
"Let's go," I suggested to Zhao Mingkun.
But she stood still with her eyes closed, seemingly sensing something.
"Don't talk; listen carefully," Zhao Mingkun instructed.
As I looked at Zhao Mingkun, I closed my eyes and tried to listen to the sounds around me, just like he did. Sure enough, in the darkness, I could hear a soft, delicate sound, like the melody of some song playing quietly in the stillness of the space.
I held my breath, wanting to discern where the sound was coming from.
Suddenly, Zhao Mingkun spoke up, "The sound is coming from inside Luo Ding."
I pressed my ear tightly against the wooden door and indeed heard a gentle melody drifting from within the room.
"It's Luo Ding's ringtone!" I exclaimed.
Zhao Mingkun turned to me and said, "Then Luo Ding must be inside. If—"
But before he could finish his sentence, a piercing scream echoed through the air. Since I was leaning against the door, the sound hit me hard, nearly deafening me. I quickly pulled my head away but simultaneously recognized the owner of that scream.
"Ah! Ah..." came a few more cries.
From those sounds, we could tell that it was a voice filled with sheer terror; it was Luo Ding shouting at the top of his lungs. The voice trembled and even carried a hint of sobbing. Luo Ding must have encountered something horrifying again. Zhao Mingkun and I exchanged glances and then rushed toward the wooden door.
The door wasn't sturdy; with a loud crash, we burst into the room.
As we pushed open the door, however, Luo Ding's voice suddenly vanished. I instinctively pressed several switches on the wall, and the room was instantly illuminated. At that moment, a white shadow flashed past the living room window and disappeared outside.
The fleeting glimpse startled me. The white figure looked eerily like a pale human face. The features were indistinct, but where the eyes should have been was pitch black, as if there were no eyeballs at all. This face was much larger than an ordinary one, and just as I turned on the light, it vanished in an instant.
I hurriedly looked out the window but found nothing there. Scanning my surroundings, everything seemed so calm. It was as if that face I had seen moments ago never existed at all.
Even more bizarre was the fact that the window was closed. So, the face must have passed through the window.
This was truly strange. I hurriedly opened the window and leaned out to look, but there was still nothing there.
I was dumbfounded. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, how could I believe that such bizarre things actually existed in this world?
Zhao Mingkun was standing beside me, peering out of the window just like I was.
"My eyes aren't playing tricks on me, are they?" I looked at Zhao Mingkun.
Her expression was equally grim. From her face, it was clear that she had also seen the face that had been by the window moments ago.
"No," Zhao Mingkun replied, looking at me. "I saw that face too; it vanished outside the window in an instant."
I turned back, as if recalling something important, and quickly asked, "Where's Luo Ding?"
Luo Ding was not in the living room. It was a complete mess; the tea table had fallen over, and cups and plates were shattered all over the floor. In one corner, there were beer cans scattered everywhere. Cushions and tissues were strewn about, clearly indicating that Luo Ding's life had become particularly chaotic.
Zhao Mingkun and I hurriedly searched through each room for Luo Ding, but after going around, we still couldn't find any trace of him.
"Where's Luo Ding?" Zhao Mingkun asked. "How can a living person just disappear like this?"
We had clearly heard Luo Ding's terrified screams earlier, yet when we pushed open the door to the room, he had vanished. Could it be that Luo Ding had disappeared in an instant like that face?
Thinking of this made me feel a wave of fear wash over me. The series of events unfolding were simply too strange—first Xing Yafang inexplicably gouging out her own eyes in the elevator, and now a gigantic face several times larger than a human's mysteriously vanishing from the room.
Could it be that Liu Ruijie was also trapped in such a confined space, with his eyes gouged out by a ghost?
"Phone! Luo Ding's phone!" I hurriedly said, "I didn't see Luo Ding's phone in the room. Can you give it a call?"
Zhao Mingkun nodded and dialed Luo Ding's number again.
There was no sound.
Zhao Mingkun and I frowned.
"Could it be like Hu Pei, that his phone was taken away?" I suggested.
Zhao Mingkun shook his head without answering, instead he raised a finger to his lips. I closed my mouth, and in the quiet environment, I could hear a faint buzzing sound. Upon closer inspection, it was the sound of a phone vibrating.
Zhao Mingkun pointed to a spot and said, "The sound is coming from over there."
With that, Zhao Mingkun walked into the bedroom.
In the bedroom, a large wardrobe appeared before us, and the vibrating sound was indeed coming from inside it. Zhao Mingkun and I exchanged glances, and he said, "It's in here."
Considering Luo Ding's entire home, if there was any place that could hide a living person, it would only be inside this wardrobe. I took a few deep breaths, fearing that if I opened the door, there would be no one inside. If Luo Ding had truly vanished from this room, nothing could be more terrifying than that.
When I opened the wardrobe door, I found Luo Ding curled up inside.
As the wardrobe door swung open, Luo Ding tumbled out. Yet he remained tightly curled up, motionless like a coiled pangolin.
Zhao Mingkun immediately put on his gloves and went to check for a heartbeat and pulse.
After a moment, Zhao Mingkun shook his head, indicating that Luo Ding was already dead.
Meanwhile, the phone continued to vibrate in the cabinet.
It took both of us some effort to pry Luo Ding from his curled-up position. Looking at his face, we saw a twisted expression, his eyes wide open. His hands were curled up like two chicken claws, and we could even see the tendons in his hands taut with tension.
His face was drenched in sweat, which had not yet dried. It was evident that in the moments leading up to his death, Luo Ding had been so frightened that he had sweated profusely.
Zhao Mingkun stared at Luo Ding for a moment and said, "I didn't expect we would arrive too late."
I frowned and replied, "Luo Ding was scared to death."
Zhao Mingkun nodded.
Another life claimed by fear—Hu Pei had died of fright, and now Luo Ding had met the same fate. Who would be next? What about that face that vanished in an instant? Did such inexplicable things truly exist in this world? Were there really ghosts?
But if it was the work of a person, how could they achieve such a thing?
Zhao Mingkun and I could not have experienced the same hallucination simultaneously; that face was real. Moreover, its eyes had been gouged out. If that was indeed Lu Zhiqiu's ghost, who among the thirteen of us would be the next to die?
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