Chapter 80.1 Ghost Market
Yi Xinhe went home after leaving the police station.
Although he didn’t face any scary creatures today, Wei Zhimao’s death still left a psychological shadow on him. Even though he had experienced hundreds of battles, he was still not a monster like the monitors who are associated with heretical objects. He was just an ordinary person. In the final analysis, he was just more knowledgeable than others.
How Wei Zhimao died was still a mystery, but it didn’t take much thought to know that it had to be related to those things.
When he got home, Yi Xinhe turned on the TV, took out the black notebook he carried with him, and started recording what happened today. He lowered his head and wrote stroke by stroke, looking extremely serious.
A boring program was playing on the TV. When Yi Xinhe wrote about the part where he went to search Wei Zhimao’s house, he heard a knock on the door.
Yi Xinhe suddenly found it a little strange and raised his eyes to look at the door. He lived alone, and it was almost twelve o’clock. Who would come out at such a late hour?
Yi Xinhe stood up, walked to the door, and saw a thin girl standing outside through the peephole.
Seeing that it was a little girl, Yi Xinhe lost most of his vigilance, so he reached out and turned the doorknob, and asked, “Who are you? Do you have anything to do with me?”
The little girl was very thin, not even reaching Yi Xinhe’s chest, and her wrists looked much skinnier than most people, like sticks. She looked completely non-threatening. The little girl said, “Are you Yi Xinhe?”
Yi Xinhe said: “Yeah, what’s wrong?”
“I have something I want to tell you.” The little girl said, “Can I come in and tell you?”
Yi Xinhe hesitated for a moment then said, “It’s not convenient, so we can talk here.” He paid more attention. There were surveillance cameras in the corridor. It was easy for people to misunderstand this lonely man and woman going into the same room.
“Okay.” The girl seemed a little unhappy. She lowered the corners of her mouth and whispered, “Did you go to the old city during the day?”
Yi Xinhe’s expression condensed: “Who are you? How do you know?”
The girl said: “I have the clues you want to know. Are you really not going to let me in?”
Yi Xinhe said: “…No, just say it here.” A bad feeling made him decide not to give in on this matter.
The girl said: “What a pity.”
This sentence immediately made Yi Xinhe alert.
Yi Xinhe looked this uninvited guest up and down carefully. It would have been better if he didn’t look carefully. As soon as he looked at it, he found something wrong. The girl was wearing a pair of red high heels. The shoes looked extremely familiar. During the day, they saw countless identical shoe cabinets with the same styles on the building opposite. Upon seeing this, Xinhe immediately took a step back, made a defensive gesture, and shouted: “Don’t move!”
The girl stopped walking forward and raised her eyes to look at Yi Xinhe. Her expression very innocent, as if Yi Xinhe’s nervousness was unnecessary.
“What are you doing here?” Yi Xinhe said, “No, no, no, how do you know I live here?!”
“If it wants to know, it will know,” said the girl. “Of course it told me.”
“It?” Yi Xinhe said, “What is it?!”
The girl smiled: “It is me, and I am it.”
When she said this, a fake smile appeared on her face. This kind of smile was very familiar to Xinhe. He had seen it on the faces of those people in the old building.
In an instant, Yi Xinhe’s sixth sense screamed at him to begin calling the police. The girl who had seemed innocent and fragile just now was now full of danger. Yi Xinhe has seen a lot of heretical objects, and naturally had also come into contact with companions. He knew how terrifying these people were. To a certain extent, the harmfulness of some heretical objects was completely reflected in the companions they infected.
“Get out! If you come here again, I won’t be polite!!!” Yi Xinhe reached out and grabbed the door handle, trying to pull the door back and lock it, but as soon as he stretched out his hand, the little girl grabbed his wrist. Yi Xinhe reflexively tried to shake her off, but found that the girl was extremely strong. She stretched out her hand to push him, and he staggered back a few steps as if he had been hit by a cow.
There was a click. Yi Xinhe looked up in horror at the sound of the door closing and saw the girl closing the door smoothly.
She walked into the house, sniffed and said with a smile, “It smells so good.”
Yi Xinhe didn’t understand what the phrase “It smells so good” meant. He quickly ran to the sofa, grabbed the phone on the sofa, and tried to dial 110. However, before the call was dialled, a strange sound came from behind him. There was a sound like meat being torn, accompanied by a sticky sound of something falling to the ground. Yi Xinhe smelled a strong smell of blood. The phone happened to be connected. As soon as Yi Xinhe heard a “Hey”, he saw on the floor, on which countless dense shadows had appeared.
Yi Xinhe froze on the spot. He turned around blankly and found that his room was densely packed with dozens of humans who appeared from nowhere. They stared at him with inorganic eyes, as if…staring at a dead man.
The girl who entered the door just now had turned into countless pieces of broken flesh, covering the entire floor.
***
Ji Leshui worked the night shift, and it was already a little late when he got home.
Their community was extremely quiet. After all, there were only a few living people in the entire community. Ji Leshui had long gotten used to it after these days.
Nevertheless, it was strange today. When Ji Leshui went upstairs, he actually met someone waiting for the elevator with him. He was suddenly curious and wondered who this unlucky guy was. Could it be that he was like Lin Banxia and accidentally bought a haunted room?
The two of them entered the elevator together. Ji Leshui watched him press the elevator button. What he didn’t expect was that the man actually pressed the number thirteen. Ji Leshui was even more confused. The thirteenth floor was the floor where they lived. He was absolutely sure that there were no other residents except them. What was this person doing on the thirteenth floor? Could he be Song Qingluo’s friend?
Ji Leshui became cautious and deliberately slowed down his steps to let the man get out of the elevator first. Unexpectedly, after getting out of the elevator, this man walked all the way to where they lived, stopped in front of the door of 1303, and raised his hand to knock on the door.
It was unknown if Lin Banxia and the others were not at home, but after knocking for a while, no one opened the door. Just when Ji Leshui was wondering whether to go forward and ask, the door opened with a creak, and Xiaohua’s cute little head peaked out from inside.
Ji Leshui was still watching quietly from the end of the corridor. When he saw Xiaohua, he immediately became anxious and thought about how Lin Banxia educated his sister. Should she open the door to someone she didn’t know casually? If he was a bad person, wouldn’t something happen on the spot?
Ji Leshui was about to step forward to stop her, but found that the person who had been knocking on the door staggered back a step, with a hint of panic in his originally peaceful expression, as if he had been frightened by Xiaohua.
Xiaohua’s soft voice rang: “Do you want to come in?”
“No… no need.” The man turned around, and under Ji Leshui’s inexplicable gaze, he rushed over at a very fast speed, bumping into Ji Leshui who was standing nearby and peeking.
Just when Ji Leshui was about to ask him what was wrong, he saw the man entering the elevator in a panic, tapping the elevator buttons like crazy, as if a ghost was chasing him.
Ji Leshui was baffled from beginning to end. He turned to look at Xiaohua and saw Xiaohua standing at the door looking at him innocently, as if she didn’t know what was going on.
“Xiaohua!” Ji Leshui walked over, “How can you open the door to a stranger casually?!” He scolded, but couldn’t help reaching out to pick up the little girl, pinching her soft cheeks, “What if it was a bad guy?!”
“It’s not bad, it’s not bad.” Xiaohua said vaguely, “I don’t mind…”
Ji Leshui didn’t hear her last words clearly, and he didn’t care. He took out his mobile phone and called Lin Banxia and asked where he was.
Lin Banxia said he was in the hospital. When Ji Leshui heard this, he said, “Why did you go to the hospital? Are you sick?”
Lin Banxia said: “No, I’m going to see a friend.”
“It’s so late.” Ji Leshui said, “Can’t you go tomorrow? Someone suddenly came and knocked on your door just now. Xiaohua didn’t know anything and opened the door. Come back quickly.”
When Lin Banxia heard this, he immediately agreed.
After hanging up the phone, Lin Banxia looked at Song Qingluo, who was talking to Lu Yinyin’s mother at the moment. Lu Yinyin’s mother said that someone did come to see Lu Yinyin in the evening, but it was not a stranger, but a classmate from Lu Yinyin’s university. However, because she was not there at the time, and the nurse stopped the classmate.
“Is there something wrong with her?” Mother Lu asked doubtfully, “She does know my Yinyin.”
“Don’t let unfamiliar people come into contact with Lu Yinyin for the time being.” Song Qingluo said, “Her current situation is very dangerous.”
Mother Lu said: “What on earth is going on?”
Of course, Song Qingluo couldn’t explain everything to her, so he simply took out his mobile phone and asked Li Su to send a few people to watch Lu Yinyin and then left. On the way back, Lin Banxia told Song Qingluo what happened at home. After hearing this, Song Qingluo’s expression suddenly became solemn: “Let’s go back first.”
Lin Banxia agreed.
Both of them felt that the situation was not right. Through Ji Leshui’s description, Lin Banxia was sure that he did not know the person. An unknown person suddenly came to the door and looked at Xiaohua as if he had seen a ghost. This was obviously not a good thing. Lin Banxia recalled the theory about ants that Song Qingluo talked about before going out. If those people really came to the door, could it be that the reason why they came to the door was because they had touched that sticky syrup like liquid? However, they were not the only people who touched this liquid. Weren’t the others also in danger?!
Song Qingluo had obviously thought of this and had already taken out his cell phone and continued to make calls.
First, they went to Sun Shui. After making sure that he was fine, they called Li Xinyu and Yi Xinhe. Li Xinyu’s phone was answered, but Yi Xinhe was out of contact. Song Qingluo called more than a dozen times, all of which went unanswered.
Song Qingluo said: “I have to go and have a look.”
Lin Banxia said: “Let’s go together. The man has already been there and Ji Leshui is at home, so nothing should happen.”
“That’s okay.” Taking into account the special nature of Xiaohua, Song Qingluo felt more at ease.
Fortunately, Yi Xinhe’s home was not far from there. Twenty minutes later, the two of them arrived at his door and knocked on the door for a long time. No one came to open the door, but they disturbed the neighbors.
“Are you looking for someone?” The neighbor raised his head and came out.
Lin Banxia said: “Yes, we’re looking for our friend. Have you seen him? He hasn’t answered the phone. We are a little worried.”
The neighbor hesitated for a moment: “Are you… with that group of people?”
Lin Banxia was slightly startled: “That group of people?”
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