Chapter 1 After the Door

After the door opened, Fatty immediately noticed a shed in the courtyard. Inside the shed were four paper horses and a large eight-carried sedan. The horses were a ghastly white, while the sedan was painted a bright red.

Following the man inside, everyone walked with extreme caution. When passing the shed, Jiang Cheng paid special attention to the paper horses and the sedan. These items were only half-finished, with some colors not yet applied.

Most importantly, the surfaces of these items were damp, clearly indicating that they had been neglected since the paper craftsman's death.

Suddenly, a bizarre and terrifying thought surged into Jiang Cheng's mind: could the paper figures have escaped from this house because the craftsman was gone?

Or, perhaps the craftsman's death was related to these strange paper figures.

There were several rooms in the courtyard. They first went to the one in the middle, which was likely where the craftsman and his wife lived, containing a bed and various household items.

They searched the room thoroughly, even opening several large wooden chests, but found no trace of the woman. Zhang Junyu closed the lid and shook his head. "Nothing. Doesn't look like she's been back."

Passing through this room, there was another, larger room not far behind.

This room looked different from a normal room, standing more than a meter taller.

Even stranger, this room had no windows, only a black wooden door that looked very oppressive. One could imagine that even on a sunny day, the room would be pitch black.

Such a room felt very oppressive and unlikely to be inhabited. It was more like a warehouse.

The man leading the way walked towards this room, explaining as he went, "This is the room where the paper craftsman stored the finished paper figures and horses. It was specially built like this. I've only heard of it, never been here before."

"After all, he had such a profession; we tried to avoid it." The man stopped abruptly, as if belatedly realizing something, and turned back apologetically. "Sorry, sorry, I misspoke. Paper craftsmen, like you corpse捞捞人 (lao shi ren), are doing good deeds and will be rewarded in the future."

"Whether there's a reward or not, I'm just trying to make a living," Jiang Cheng said, unconcerned.

Arriving at the room, a gust of cold air rushed out, causing Fatty to pull his clothes up to cover his neck. "It's... it's so cold here."

Zhang Junyu glanced at him. "It's not cold, it's yin. The yin energy is too heavy here."

Yu Chengmu ignored them and walked directly to the corner of the house, outside. He stood on tiptoe, and then everyone noticed a bell hanging under the eaves.

The bell looked like it had been hanging there for a long time, exposed to the elements. But what really caught everyone's attention was that when the bell was moved, it didn't make a sound.

Yu Chengmu turned the bell upside down, showing it to everyone with a strange tone. "The inside of the bell has been sealed with wax."

"What does that mean?" Fatty asked, staring at the bell curiously.

Yu Chengmu hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't know. Hanging a bell under the eaves is supposed to serve as a warning. When evil spirits approach, the bell senses the yin energy and rings without wind... but why seal it with wax?"

"Masters, please stop talking about this. It's creepy. Let's hurry up and find the person, whether we find her or not. Let's... let's leave as soon as we're done," the leading man said, staring at the black wooden door, touching his arm. His arm was already covered in goosebumps.

As Zhang Junyu said, being near this place wasn't just cold, but a bone-chilling eeriness.

After saying that, the man swallowed and reached out to push the door, but before his hand touched the wood, Zhang Junyu grabbed his arm and pulled him aside.

"What... what are you doing?" the man asked, very nervous.

"Don't move!" Zhang Junyu's expression was even more tense, veins throbbing on his forehead. He stared intently at the ground, a few inches in front of the threshold, where there was an extremely thin thread.

The thread had been broken and lay scattered on the ground. Jiang Cheng and Chen Hao frowned slightly; neither of them had noticed it.

Yu Chengmu squatted down and picked up the thread. The other end of the thread was fixed to the wall, clearly carefully arranged. If someone entered this room, it would be difficult to avoid.

Everyone assumed this was a type of anti-theft measure set up by the paper craftsman, but that thought quickly vanished. Where was this place?

This was where paper figures were stored. Who would steal such a thing?

If it wasn't to prevent people from entering, what else could it be? Could it be to prevent something inside from getting out?

As this thought flashed through their minds, their faces turned grim.

"Come and look," Yu Chengmu said, gently pulling the thread. Slowly, on the other side of the broken thread, everyone saw a white object being pulled.

It was... a piece of torn paper.

The paper was hooked on the thread, as if accidentally caught.

Du Moyu took a deep breath. His imagination was on par with Fatty's. A picture quickly formed in his mind: in the pitch-black night, a long line of paper figures with painted faces hopped out of the room one by one. One of them accidentally touched the thread, and this piece of paper was torn off at that time.

Just last night!

Those paper figures were headed for them, to the Wu family mansion, and carried away those coffins.

Fatty swallowed hard, unwilling to go inside no matter what.

Finally, Yu Chengmu took a deep breath, stood up, and pushed open the wooden door. As the door opened, a smell of paint and decay rushed out.

It was very dark inside, an unnatural kind of dark. The man found a lantern behind the door, lit it, and the group walked inside. The space inside was larger than expected, divided into several channels by thick cardboard.

And on both sides of each channel were filled with paper figures.

The paper figures were mostly unfinished, in various shapes and poses. Some had only the rudimentary outlines of their facial features, while others had no faces at all, just bald heads.

"Masters, please look carefully. Maybe that crazy woman is hiding among these paper figures," the leading man suddenly said, raising everyone's anxiety again.

The man walked slowly in front. The channels were interconnected, and they turned back and forth inside. The lantern light wasn't very bright, and the surroundings were shadowy, making the colorful paper figures even more terrifying.

Even more eerie, many paper figures, as if the paint hadn't dried, were hanging from the ceiling, with a hemp rope tied around their necks.

As a gust of wind blew, the hanging paper figures swayed slightly, their stiff paper feet swinging above their heads, accompanied by the creaking of the hemp rope.