Chapter 7: Midnight Mansion (5)
"Creaakk——-"
The dim light from the flashlight illuminated the narrow staircase. Cheng Zhi Chu stepped onto the old floorboards and it immediately made a creaking sound that surprised him and made the hand holding the flashlight tremble a little.
There was still some lingering fear inside him after the earlier encounter with the ghost. If he was the only one in this haunted house at this moment, he probably would have been scared crazy.
But fortunately, he wasn"t alone. He still had a powerful teammate like Bai Yi…..
As they moved on, he looked at Bai Yi"s back and felt rea.s.sured. Cheng Zhi Chu gripped tightly onto the flashlight and decided that he would definitely cling onto Bai Yi shamelessly and try be his friend after this instance is over. Yup, with Bai Yi"s nice personality, he probably wouldn"t reject him………..
He wasn"t at all ashamed at this idea of clinging onto his thigh. Conversely, he even started thinking about how he could invite Bai Yi to work together with him, get to know each other and possibly even become fixed instance partners or something after he manages to become his friend.
Although there was still a bit of doubt in his heart; for example, why Bai Yi had used a mineral water bottle to store something as amazing as the holy water, he quickly helped Bai Yi find a reason. Maybe when Bai Yi received the prop, it was already stored in that bottle.
"What do you think the ident.i.ty of that ghost from earlier was?"
As they walked up the stairs to the second floor, everyone remained silent. Lu Wenjing looked a little nervous and spoke up to try and relieve the tension a little: "Why did it start chasing Cheng Zhi Chu unrelentingly at the beginning?"
"Although I can"t prove it, but I think that it might be the mansions second owner, the person who wrote that letter."
Cheng Zhi Chu pondered for a moment and said: "It appeared when we were getting the letter and the key, and I was holding onto both of them so it wouldn"t be strange for it to chase after me."
Thinking this, it was obvious that it wasn"t the final boss. The final boss would be the ghost that caused Mrs. Mei Jie"s death. That ghost was just one of the many victims of this haunted mansion.
As they talked, they reached the second floor and approached an intricately designed door. Lu Wenjing had the ability to interpret the topography and, according to her, it was the door to the main bedroom.
"I"ll go in first."
Bai Yi who stood at the front whispered to them first and then tried to twist open the door handle. The door wasn"t looked, and it opened with a slight push.
He walked in first and looked around the room with his flashlight. When he confirmed that there wasn"t anything unusual, he nodded at the people standing outside and they also walked in.
The room was very s.p.a.cious, and, like the rest of the house, it was both dark and filled with dust. The wall was decorated with dark red wallpaper and several oil paintings hung from it. A carpet was spread across the floor and a bed with lace canopy along with other wooden furniture were scattered around the room. A gla.s.s light hung from the ceiling reflecting the light from their flashlights and the window was boarded up from the outside leaving no gaps for the moonlight to peek through.
Cheng Zhi Chu once again initiated the "Clue Prompt" skill and this time he saw three lights. Respectively they came from the dressing table, the bedside and from behind the largest oil painting in the room.
"I saw three clues." Cheng Zhi Chu briefly explained to the others his skill. He then described their locations, "Let"s split up and look."
The other had no objections. Lu Wenjing moved to the bedside and Ren Xue chose the dressing table. w.a.n.g Jianming followed behind her while smiling happily.
He had originally made Ren Xue angry but after getting attacked by the ghost, Ren Xue was no longer angry at him. Instead, he even saw her cry for him because of this so to him it was a blessing in disguise.
Cheng Zhi Chu and Bai Yi moved over to the big oil painting and worked together to remove it from the wall. As described by the letter, there was a hidden door behind it.
Cheng Zhi Chu pulled out the key and tried to open the hidden door with it. The key and the keyhole fitted perfectly and after a gentle turn, the door clicked open.
"Creak…….."
As the door slowly opened, a thick layer of dust fell and scattered around. Cheng Zhi Chu coughed a few times and then used his flashlight to illuminate the interior. In an instant, his pupils constricted, and he let out a panicked cry. Dropping the flashlight onto the ground, he fell to the ground trembling.
A dried-up corpse fell out from inside and landed next to Cheng Zhi Chu"s feet. Its arm even touched his foot causing him to scream again and scramble backwards. Ren Xue and the others were surprised by his sudden cry. When they turned around in horror, they also saw the dried corpse on the ground.
"It"s okay. Don"t be scared."
Bai Yi bend down and supported Cheng Zhi Chu up. He patted his back gently and said: "It"s not a ghost. It"s just a corpse."
"R-right…"
Cheng Zhi Chu timidly looked down and was able to breath a sigh of relief when he saw that it wasn"t moving. He wiped away the cold sweat and said: "When it fell out, I wasn"t prepared for it at all. Scared me……."
"You have the nerve to say that? The scariest one here is you. Your scream was more surprising than that corpse!" w.a.n.g Jianming smacked his chest in anger.
Cheng Zhi Chu fell silent. Indeed, he had overreacted earlier. Under the ridicule of his own teammate, he could only remain quiet. Bai Yi gently gave w.a.n.g Jianming a look and then patted Cheng Zhi Chu"s shoulder. He bent down and started to examine the body.
Bai Yi held onto the hand of the corpse and his expression remained calm like he was just holding onto a piece of wood. He examined the dried-up hand and then turned the corpse over before saying: "He"s probably Mr. Charlie, Mrs. Mei Jie"s husband and the first male owner of this mansion."
"How do you know?" Cheng Zhi Chu asked with surprise.
"His nails are badly damaged so he must have scratched it against something hard. Based on the letter, there were many scratches on the walls in the bas.e.m.e.nt. It was probably something left by him. It also mentioned that Mr. Charlie probably died in the bas.e.m.e.nt."
Bai Yi looked at the corpse in silence for a while: "His cause of death is a little strange……….he was starved to death."
"He"s already all dried-up yet you can tell that he was starved to death?" w.a.n.g Jianming asked suspiciously.
"I have a skill in that field." Bai Yi explained simply. He then said, "Maybe Mrs. Mei Jie had locked her husband in the bas.e.m.e.nt and had ordered the others not to give him food. Charlie was starved to the point that he almost went crazy, so he scratched at the walls, but Mrs. Mei Jie didn"t feel any sympathy for him. In the end, he was starved to death."
"If that"s true then that is just too cruel. She actually starved her own husband to death. What kind of hatred is that?"
Cheng Zhi Chu had a look of disbelief. It was hard for him to imagine a wife doing something so vicious to their own husband.
"After starving her own husband to death, she even hid his body behind the oil painting and continued to live in the main bedroom like nothing had happened. For her to be able to do something like this, maybe Mrs. Mei Jie isn"t mentally normal."
Bai Yi smiled faintly. The hand that was examining the corpse suddenly paused and then it pulled out a notebook from the corpses" shirt. He said: "There"s something here."
That notebook was hidden together with the corpse. Cheng Zhi Chu was reluctant to accept the notebook but, seeing that Bai Yi wasn"t saying anything as he examined the corpse, he didn"t feel qualified to be picky.
He held the notebook in his hand and glanced at the cover. He then revealed an incredulous expression: "Mrs. Mei Jie really isn"t normal………This is her diary. She actually hid her own diary together with her husband"s body."
Hearing that there"s a diary, Lu Wenjing and Ren Xue each took the clues they had found and came over. Lu Wenjing found a paper that looked like a report and Ren Xue brought over a jewellery box. Because the diary was quite thick, they began with examining the other two items first.
The report that Lu Wenjing had found was an autopsy report. After Cheng Zhi Chu read through it, he confirmed at it belonged to the second owner. The report mentioned that his body was missing half his foot and half his head. This also proved that the ghost that they had encountered earlier was the second owner.
They then opened the jewellery box. Their lines of sight couldn"t help but be attracted to its contents ——– It was an exquisite emerald necklace with fine workmanship. The gorgeous gemstone was bright and radiant, emitting a moving glow of light in the darkness. It was both beautiful and pure. At one glance, you could tell that it is something very valuable.
Cheng Zhi Chu read over the information about the necklace
【Item Name: Necklace.】
【Item Type: Instance Prop.】
【Can you bring it out of an instance: No】
【Description: A valuable necklace. It is not clear what it can be used for.】
"Unfortunately, it can"t be taken out…." Ren Xue said with disappointment and returned the necklace back into the jewellery box.
w.a.n.g Jianming took the opportunity and said: "That necklace really suits you. I will try my best to earn enough money to buy you one like that in the future!"
Ren Xue didn"t say anything, but you could tell that she was a little happy. Lu Wenjing also seemed to be quite interested in the necklace, but they didn"t dare to casually put it on. After all, after seeing what had happened to Cheng Zhi Chu earlier, they couldn"t be sure that nothing would happen after putting it on.
w.a.n.g Jianming bravely volunteered to hold onto the jewellery box and stored it in his bag so that Ren Xue wouldn"t be affected if anything was to happen. He also stored the report away but, since the ghost related to the report was already dealt with, it shouldn"t appear again.
"The next one is this diary……."
Cheng Zhi Chu moved his gaze over to the diary and took a deep breath before opening it. However, after opening, what they saw was that the vast majority of the pages were either smudged or stained with blood. It couldn"t be read at all. The contents at the back was also torn off. After flipping through all the pages, there were only a few pages that were readable.
Cheng Zhi Chu read through the first page and fell silent for a few seconds. He then opened his mouth and said with a complicated mood: "I think I can understand why Mrs. Mei Jie would do something like that."
"Charlie really was killed by Mrs. Mei Jie and it wasn"t just him. Mrs. Mei Jie also killed a maid. The maid was called Mary and is Charlie"s childhood friend. It was through Charlie"s recommendation that Mary got a job in this mansion."
"Charlie didn"t love Mei Jie. He only had his eye on the Sorcha family status. The person he really loved is his childhood friend, Mary. Not long after Mary came to this mansion, the two of them betrayed Mei Jie."
Bai Yi"s Diary (Part 7)
In the past, I have also thought about the issue of betrayal. Like what I should do if, one day after getting together with Zhi Chu, he falls in love with someone else.
But I wasn"t able to reach an answer. Just the thought of this was enough to drive me crazy. If I continued to think about it, it would only make my soul collapse even more.
I was troubled by this for a long time and I tried to reach a conclusion but no matter how deeply I thought about it, I just felt more and more anxious. It was like something bad would happen if I didn"t reach an answer.
This kind of anxiety continued until I realised that there was another problem.
—–Zhi Chu isn"t together with me. He doesn"t even know who I am.
I became depressed.
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KK has something to say:
Bai Yi in the diary entries is kinda MENG (or maybe it"s just me)