Cao Yang first looked around, finding nothing out of the ordinary.

Rounding the corner of the corridor, the other side opened onto the hospital lobby, where he could faintly hear people talking and the sound of footsteps.

Outside, the rain was still falling, and the sky was heavily overcast.

Perhaps because few people came here, two of the overhead lights were broken and hadn't been repaired.

The corners of the walls were slightly blackened, bearing traces of dampness and mold.

In the corner of the ceiling, a spiderweb swayed gently in the breeze.

Cao Yang didn't waste any more time; after all, it wasn't completely dark yet.

According to Huai Yi, once it got completely dark, those strange things... would come out.

His gaze slowly swept around, and the sound of Jiang Cheng and Zheng Xiazi drinking and talking eased Cao Yang's anxiety a little.

A few meters to his side was a low, short door.

Based on Cao Yang's height, he would need to stoop to enter.

The door wasn't locked, only slightly ajar.

Cao Yang slowly pushed open the door. It was quite dark inside. He fumbled around the door handle for a moment, then touched a thin string.

He gently pulled it, and the room lit up.

It was a small storage room.

But fortunately, there was a window.

The window was half-open, and a breeze blew in from time to time, so the room wasn't as stuffy as the previous room.

It was just rather cold.

It would be impossible to sleep here at night.

Besides a simple wooden bed, there was also a wooden cabinet standing against the wall.

The wooden cabinet looked quite old.

It was painted with a layer of dark red lacquer.

In some places, the lacquer had worn away severely, revealing the original wood color underneath.

Seeing a large wooden cabinet painted red in such a room, Cao Yang felt an indescribable sense of unease.

Hearing the occasional voices from next door, he calmed down a bit.

He quickly walked to the bed, where a few old clothes were thrown.

Cao Yang picked up one of the long, military-green coats and felt it, finding nothing. Then he rummaged through the other clothes.

Next, he searched the bed, even lifting the mattress to look underneath.

Besides a few crumpled lottery tickets, there were bags of cheap, bulk-packaged baijiu (white liquor) piled under the bed.

It was clear that Zheng Xiazi was intentionally collecting the bags.

As for the reason...

Cao Yang understood everything after seeing a line of small print on the liquor bag.

Accumulating ten bags could be exchanged for a brand new bag of liquor.

He noticed that although the room was dirty and messy, there were no cigarette butts.

Zheng Xiazi himself probably didn't smoke.

After looking around, Cao Yang finally turned his gaze to the dark red wooden cabinet.

To Cao Yang's surprise, the wooden cabinet actually had a lock.

Cao Yang couldn't imagine what Zheng Xiazi could possibly have that he was afraid of being stolen.

But then, he realized he was wrong.

The lock was just for show; it wasn't even locked. He opened it easily with a gentle tug.

Opening the heavy wooden lid, a musty odor wafted out.

It was full of clothes and bedding.

Among them was a crumpled black pair of pants, looking very thick, rolled up and tossed in the corner, with cotton wadding exposed.

It didn't seem like anything was out of the ordinary.

This old man named Zheng Xiazi lived in poverty, and this cabinet was practically all his belongings.

Cao Yang put the garment he had just picked up back in the cabinet, then patted it gently, trying to restore everything to its original state.

But that pat made him freeze.

His gaze slowly moved downward, settling on the clothes in the cabinet.

The feel... was off.

Logically speaking, a box full of clothes should feel muffled when patted, but the feedback he got was a strange... elasticity.

His throat couldn't help but roll. Cao Yang reached out and slowly, slowly lifted the clothes on top, until... a pale face was revealed.

The muscles on the face were twisted together, and the eyes were wide open.

The person had died with lingering resentment.

...

"Brother Jiang," Zheng Xiazi swayed, the alcohol hitting him hard. "We... we are really destined!"

"Yes," Jiang Cheng said with a smile. "I also feel particularly compatible with Brother Zheng."

While enjoying the drinks, Jiang Cheng glanced at the door from time to time.

Cao Yang had been gone for a while.

Why hadn't he returned yet?

That man wasn't stupid. If there were no special circumstances, he wouldn't take this long.

Jiang Cheng's first reaction was that something had happened to him.

But since Cao Yang had left, Jiang Cheng had been listening carefully, and he hadn't heard any unusual sounds from nearby.

"Come on!" The inebriated Zheng Xiazi raised his glass, insisting on clinking glasses with Jiang Cheng. "Let's drink, you and I!"

Jiang Cheng picked up his glass and casually went along with it.

After a mouthful of strong liquor, Zheng Xiazi's nose turned red, and he kept hiccuping. Then he picked up the chopsticks on the table and grabbed a few peanuts to calm his stomach.

After a few more bites of cold dishes, the feeling of wanting to vomit subsided a lot.

But Jiang Cheng's face changed instantly.

He immediately understood what the problem was.

Cao Yang wasn't refusing to come back.

But he didn't DARE to come back!

Because... Jiang Cheng took a deep breath and calmed down.

The Zheng Xiazi in front of him wasn't a person; he was a ghost!!

He was a ghost in disguise!

How could someone who couldn't even hold a wine glass steadily use chopsticks to accurately pick up fried peanuts?

He remembered that, not long ago, he was eating with his hands.

Jiang Cheng smiled and took a sip of wine, continuing to talk to Zheng Xiazi.

But in his mind, he was thinking about how to escape.

He couldn't count on Cao Yang. Jiang Cheng guessed that the real Zheng Xiazi was already dead, sometime while he had gone out to find a pillow.

And the time was short, so the ghost couldn't move Zheng Xiazi's body away.

So the body should be next door.

This also explained why Cao Yang hadn't returned.

He must have discovered Zheng Xiazi's body while searching next door and realized that the person in the room was a ghost, so he had slipped away.

Mentally cursing Cao Yang's family, Jiang Cheng smiled and continued to stall the ghost disguised as Zheng Xiazi.

The ghost hadn't made a move for so long, probably waiting for some kind of opportunity.

Jiang Cheng was also waiting.

"Brother... Brother Jiang," Zheng Xiazi clapped his hands and said with a shake of his head, "Do you think this pouch looks like a brocade bag?"

"A brocade bag?" Jiang Cheng looked at the pouch on the table, pretending to be very interested.

"Yes," Zheng Xiazi continued, "I just don't know what's inside, making it... making it so mysterious."

"Who says it isn't?" Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes, thinking he roughly understood the ghost's plan.

Since this Zheng Xiazi was fake, then this pouch probably also had a problem.

Once he opened it, he would definitely die.

"Why don't we open it and take a look?" Zheng Xiazi said casually, but the suppressed desire in his eyes was clearly seen by Jiang Cheng.