"Will... will I be retaliated against?" Chu Jiu looked extremely frightened, her small face conveying a pitiable sense of grievance.

But no one could offer her concrete reassurance, only vague words of comfort, which Chu Jiu herself didn't seem to believe.

"I'm sorry." Chu Jiu suddenly bowed deeply to everyone and said, "I lied to you all."

These words immediately drew many eyes. "What did you lie about?" Liu Guo asked with a frown, seemingly particularly sensitive to the word "lie."

"I... I'm actually here for the first time... the first time in a place like this." Chu Jiu raised her head and said, "But I was scared because I read a horror novel, and the plot was very similar to this place. I thought if I said I was a newbie, I might be looked down upon."

"Or even killed as a substitute!"

Upon hearing this, everyone was stunned for a moment, and then their expressions subtly changed.

"That won't happen." Yu Lan said with unnatural reassurance, "Here, we're all together and will take care of each other."

"Really?" Chu Jiu asked.

"Hehe." A discordant laugh rang out. "Of course... it's true," said Lu Huaxu, wearing black stockings.

From beginning to end, no one had seen the face beneath those stockings.

Because this time the clues were scarce and very mixed, and the ghosts threatening each building were not the same, everyone agreed to return here before dark for a meeting and then dispersed.

"Doctor." After separating from the others, Fatty walked with Jiang Cheng, worried. "I feel like something's not right."

Jiang Cheng didn't even look at him. "Go on."

"Look, Doctor, usually the instances we've experienced before only had one ghost, but this time, three popped up all at once."

"And almost at the same time, they attacked our teammates who were scattered in three buildings," Fatty said as he walked. He looked at the doctor, frowned, and said, "And what's even stranger is that they didn't kill anyone, and were even dealt with."

Finding a secluded spot, Jiang Cheng sat on the steps and looked at Fatty. "Anything else?"

After leaving the group, they wandered aimlessly nearby, Fatty following closely beside the doctor.

Fatty thought for a moment and replied, "Nothing for now, Doctor." He licked his lips and rubbed his hands expectantly. "Doctor, have you figured something out?"

"Didn't you notice the common thread before they had their incidents?" Jiang Cheng asked.

After a moment, a light flashed in Fatty's eyes. "Doctor," he said excitedly, "are you talking about... the knocking?"

Indeed, in the accounts of all three of them, the presence of knocking was mentioned.

It's just that Jiao Tailang was more specific, while the other two described it vaguely.

Wei Jinting's wording was "should," while for Chu Jiu, it became "possible."

But on closer thought, Jiao Tailang was in the living room and hadn't slept all night, so naturally he would be clearer. Wei Jinting and Chu Jiu, on the other hand, were both in bed in the bedroom.

When the knocking sounded, one was asleep, and the other was also drowsy.

So it was normal.

According to the doctor's reasoning, they... were all awakened by the knocking.

"Doctor," Fatty asked, "are you saying... these ghosts knock before entering? To let them know in advance?"

Jiang Cheng nodded. He liked the word "harassment" that Fatty used.

After all, in his opinion, direct confrontation between humans and ghosts was unrealistic, let alone injuring them with a knife or a screwdriver.

That's too absurd.

The result could only have two answers. First, because the death condition wasn't triggered, the ghosts couldn't kill them.

Second, they were already dead, or at least one of them was, and the ghost that killed them replaced them.

Like Shi Liaozhi in the last instance.

"Doctor," Fatty blinked. "But why would a ghost give a warning before killing someone?"

"Don't know." Jiang Cheng dusted off his butt, stood up and said, "That's what we need to figure out."

In the next hour, Jiang Cheng and Fatty carefully reviewed the methods and habits of the three ghosts, which was very useful for their work ahead.

Building 1.

The ghost in Jiang Cheng's apartment building, harassed Chu Jiu, who lived in room 707, last night.

According to Chu Jiu, the ghost crawled out from under the bed while she was half-asleep, soaking wet and with disheveled hair.

In life, she was likely a woman.

Actually, Jiang Cheng wanted to say it was a woman, but after the image of Hua Luo flashed through his mind, he still felt he needed to be cautious.

After all, in a big forest, all sorts of demons and monsters dare to come out and wander around.

For convenience, let's call her Long Hair Ghost.

The attack method is also that strange long hair.

Building 2.

The young man harassed last night was Jiao Tailang, room 404.

According to him, the ghost made very creepy friction sounds everywhere, first in the bedroom, and then suddenly moved to under the sofa where he was.

Using a ghost hand with very sharp fingernails.

Of course, this hand has now been cut off by Jiao Tailang with gritted teeth, and claimed for himself.

Jiang Cheng was happy for him.

After all, no one knows whether the ghost will come back on a good day to ask for its hand.

The attack method of this ghost is undoubtedly the ghost hand. After all, Jiao Tailang also said that in the end, it was this ghost hand that grabbed his foot.

Jiang Cheng calls this ghost Nail Ghost.

Building 3.

The person harassed last night was Wei Jinting. He didn't look very old, probably two years younger than Jiang Cheng.

According to him, last night he felt someone watching him in the dark, and not just normal watching, but watching with ill intentions.

As if plotting something else.

At the time, some people didn't understand what kind of feeling this was, but Jiang Cheng was different. He had also experienced these ill-intentioned gazes.

But not from ghosts, but from drunk, tipsy rich women.

To prevent some unavoidable groping hands, Jiang Cheng would even wear leggings inside.

Of course, not at hostess clubs.

Wei Jinting introduced that the ghost peeking at him was not just one.

Living room, bathroom, behind the door, in the closet, under the table... there was that feeling everywhere.

It wasn't until he poked a one-eyed creature hiding in the bedside table with a screwdriver that these strange, spied-upon feelings disappeared.

Based on his habits, Jiang Cheng calls him Peeping Ghost.

"Doctor," Fatty hid in a shady place. The sunlight above was a burden to him. He reached out and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Why is it that only one ghost harassed Chu Jiu and Jiao Tailang, but a group of ghosts harassed Wei Jinting?"

"Could it be..." Fatty widened his eyes, "because there are more ghosts in Building 3?"

Jiang Cheng slowly shook his head. "Fatty," he suddenly said, "do you remember the instances we experienced before?"

Fatty nodded. "I remember."

He probably couldn't forget this kind of thing even if he wanted to. It was too thrilling.

"Were there times when no one died on the first night?" The next second, Jiang Cheng's voice suddenly changed.