CHAPTER 38: CHAPTER 38: I AM A SERIOUS TITLE_1

Huang Yu finally roared at this point, "No matter what, I’m not going back to that apartment tonight!"

Upon hearing this, the group fell silent. It seemed they also didn’t want to return to their own places.

Yuwen Hao, his face pale, asked, "If the ghost was waiting at the door, how did you manage to leave today?"

Huang Yu shook his head blankly. "I don’t know. In the morning, when it was already bright, I looked outside through the peephole and saw nothing. Still, I didn’t dare to go out until two people came down from the floor above. Only then did I dare to go out and leave the building with them. Maybe the ghost can only operate at night..."

Night was indeed when the terrifying atmosphere was thickest. If Gu Mian were a ghost, he would definitely choose this time to scare people.

People always feel that daytime is slightly safer than nighttime.

But even now, in the relatively safe daytime, everyone present shivered.

Yuwen Hao rubbed the goosebumps on his arm and looked at Gu Mian, who had not yet spoken about his encounter last night. "Dr. Gu, what happened to you last night?"

The four of us all encountered extremely terrifying things. Gu Mian must have had the same, Yuwen Hao thought.

Seeing everyone eagerly looking at him, Gu Mian cleared his throat. "Last night, I..."

The others craned their necks, eager to hear what terrifying experiences Gu Mian had endured.

However, Gu Mian began, "Last night, I watched ’The Ring’ twice, ate two bags of popcorn, received a phone call from Yuwen Hao, and then slept straight until eight in the morning..."

The others’ outstretched necks stiffened slightly.

Yuwen Hao stared. "That’s it?"

That’s just unreasonable! Did the doctor not notice anything abnormal last night?

"No," Gu Mian shook his head. "Something unpleasant did happen last night—"

All four of them stared intently at Gu Mian, waiting for him to describe this unpleasant incident.

"It was late at night. I’m not sure what time it was exactly. It was when the first dead face appeared in the movie, and I heard someone knocking on my door.

"I peeked out through the peephole and saw nobody, so I sat back down on the couch. But a short while later, the knocking resumed.

"I looked through the peephole again. Still, no one was outside. But just as I turned to leave, the door knocked once more..."

Gu Mian spoke casually, not at all like someone recounting a horror story. The other four listened with strange expressions on their faces.

"Then, I immediately turned around and opened the door..."

When Yuwen Hao heard this, he couldn’t help but ask, "You opened the door?"

Would any sane person be foolish enough to open the door in that situation?

Gu Mian looked at him and answered seriously, "Yes, I opened the door."

Yuwen Hao looked at him with a strange expression. "Then what?"

"Then there was still nothing outside. Afterward, my door was quiet for a while, but not for long. The knocking started again..."

The others stared at Gu Mian without blinking, clearly eager to know what happened next.

Under their four pairs of eyes, Gu Mian slowly said, "I figured that even if I looked again, I definitely wouldn’t see anything outside. So, I..."

Yuwen Hao asked impatiently, "So what did you do?"

"So, I moved a stool over, stuck my head out through the ventilation window above the door, and thoroughly cursed out whatever was knocking down there. After that, my door stayed silent."

Upon hearing this, all four were stunned.

Lin Yue’er’s expression turned awkward. "Dr. Gu, are you joking with us?"

Gu Mian shook his head seriously. "No, I’m not."

Qing Huan hesitated before asking, "Then... Dr. Gu, did you see what was knocking on the door?"

Gu Mian shook his head again. If I had seen what was knocking, it wouldn’t have just ended with a scolding.

Yuwen Hao laughed awkwardly. "Perhaps Dr. Gu just encountered a mischievous child last night. Maybe the ghost following you didn’t make a move."

Seemingly unwilling to continue this topic, he quickly changed the subject. "Alright, let’s plan for today. Our goal is to survive for ten days, so we need to find clues to a way out before the ghosts get to us.

"I’ve said before, the clues for the way out aren’t clear. I think they’re related to the source of the curse. Right now, we should try to follow the breadcrumbs to understand this curse on us."

Qing Huan asked, "How do we get to understand it?"

Yuwen Hao said, "Based on last night, I deduce there are five ghosts, each following one of us. The characteristics of these five ghosts are now mostly clear.

"The one following me is always watching from the shadows. We can call it the Peeping ghost for now.

"The one following Lin Yue’er was under the bed, so we can call it the Under-bed ghost.

"The one following Qing Huan is always behind her, right? So let’s call it the Behind ghost.

"The one following Huang Yu... let’s call it the Telephone ghost.

"As for the one following Dr. Gu... I’m not quite sure. We’ll talk about it later...

"Now that we have a grasp of the characteristics of the ghosts corresponding to each of us, we can start by investigating our own apartments. You all feel there’s something wrong with your places, right? First, let’s investigate if anyone has died in our current residences.

"If there was a death, we can then dig deeper into the deceased’s characteristics. For example... whether the person died under a bed, or if they were particularly fond of making phone calls when they were alive.

"If we can figure out the identities of the five ghosts following us, I believe we can deduce the source of the curse from their identities."

Investigating the apartments can be done by asking the landlord or other tenants; that part shouldn’t be too difficult.

But there was still a significant problem facing them.

"Time is pressing. If all five of us move together, it’ll be too much of a waste of time," Yuwen Hao said, looking at the others. "So, it’s best if we split up to investigate."

Splitting up has always been a major taboo in horror movies.

This approach is highly effective at accelerating the death rate, yet everyone still rushes to drink this fatal catalyst, one after another.

"The best way to group up would be in pairs, but there are five of us..."