"What about the second ti?" Yang Xiao noticed the old man standing up and walking back to his bedroom.
"The second ti was even stranger, it was a voice ssage, all jumbled up content, Shude seed, it seed like she had gone mad. She was crying and screaming that she had been tricked; the one who ca back wasn’t her child at all, but an evil ghost! She said she was going to kill this evil ghost, to prevent it from doing more evil, and that she and her husband must atone for their actions."
The old doctor’s voice began to tremble, "The ssage was sent in the middle of the night, by then I had already gone to bed. By the ti I saw the ssage in the morning, everything was too late. Shude and her husband were already dead, their deaths were very horrific. Shude’s husband had fallen to his death from the apartnt’s ergency exit, his head smashed open, and Shude... during the elevator accident, she was cut in half at the waist, the upper half of her body outside the elevator, the remaining half left inside, a sight too horrific to endure."
"What about the child?" Yang Xiao urgently wanted to know the whereabouts of the child.
"I don’t know." The old doctor’s voice was weaker than ever, recalling the past was torturous for him as well, "The child went missing, the police searched the entire apartnt but couldn’t find the child."
"And then?"
"After that, the matter just seed to fade away." Hesitating for a mont, the old doctor suddenly lowered his voice, appearing secretive, "But later, through my connections, I found out that several strange cases had occurred in their apartnt, but they were all suppressed in the end. As the apartnt managers, Shude and her husband couldn’t have been unaware of these incidents, yet they didn’t tell . I roughly estimated the ti, and it started from when that child began receiving exorcisms."
"There is sothing I can tell you, but you must not speak of it, or we will both be in trouble." The old doctor was very cautious, "Can you promise that?"
"Of course." Yang Xiao replied seriously.
"I have a friend in the authorities who revealed to that Shude and her husband may have been duped into a cult. In their child’s bedroom, they found a strange symbol, very large, half the size of the room, drawn on the floor, and to cover it up, they had placed a thick carpet over it."
The old doctor slowly recalled, "Wait, let think, ah... I’ve got it! The symbol was a dragon and a snake, their tails entwined together!"
A sense of dread hit Yang Xiao; he instantly thought of the middle-aged man who died in the mist when he first entered, who also had an identical tattoo on his body!
"Do you know what this ans?" Yang Xiao asked, still trying to control the excitent in his heart, his voice remained calm.
"Not completely clear, I only found out that it’s a symbol of a cult. Shortly after the incident, while I was at work, the dean brought two strangers in plainclothes to my office; from his attitude towards them, I could tell these n were of no minor importance."
"Bringing these n into my office, the dean simply told to cooperate with their work and then imdiately left after closing the door."
"These n told not to be nervous, they were just going to ask a few questions. But as soon as they started talking, they went straight to Shude’s case and inquired about my relationship with Shude and any contact we had before the incident, what we talked about."
"And then?" Yang Xiao pressed on.
"I didn’t dare to lie. I told them everything as it was. Before they left, they gave a photo and asked if I recognized the item in it."
"It was... it was a small mirror, not big, with a brass casing on the outside, about the size of a pocket watch."
"Have you seen it?"
"I have." The old doctor’s answer was decisive, "I’ve seen it once, on the family portrait that Shude sent to . At that ti, the ancient bronze-colored little mirror had a tal chain threaded through it, like a pendant, worn around the neck of that child."
Taking a deep breath, Yang Xiao finally understood; the two n who ca to question him were most likely people from the Patrol Defense Bureau or the Apostles Union, and the ancient bronze-colored little mirror in the photo must be the Resentful Eye that triggered this supernatural event.
And all these were part of the cult’s conspiracy; even the car accident was intentional, all to get close to this unfortunate family and earn their trust.
And that kind couple turned out to be followers of an evil cult, which used a dragon-snake emblem with intertwined tails for their totem.
Now, what Yang Xiao and his companions needed to do was find the non-existent room number 85. According to the last words left by Shude, it was clear that she realized she had been deceived and wanted to kill the evil ghost parasitizing her child, but unfortunately, it was too late. Both she and her husband died tragically, and the missing child was very likely still inside room 85.
"Click."
With a crisp sound coming from behind him, Yang Xiao didn’t dare to move an inch; he recognized it as the sound of a hunting rifle being loaded.
Unable to turn around, Yang Xiao could only glance out of the corner of his eye at the ground beside him, where he saw the silhouette of a shadow.
Soone was standing behind him, raising the long-barreled hunting rifle, aiming it at his head.
In a critical mont, Yang Xiao grabbed the telephone and yanked out the cord. The little green light that indicated power imdiately went out.
"What are you doing!" The elderly man went into a frenzy upon seeing the phone "broken" again, pressing the hunting rifle against Yang Xiao’s forehead and roaring with anger.
Yang Xiao raised his hands, smiling as he stared at the man. From the old man’s rolled-up sleeves, he could see the bulging muscles of his forearm and the familiar pattern of a python hissing its tongue inked there.
Yang Xiao had already guessed that the old man and his deceased wife were the evil cultists who had deceived Zuo Qiu Shude and his wife, as ntioned by the old doctor. Otherwise, how could he possibly know so much about Zuo Qiu Shude and his wife? After all, other ghost tenants couldn’t even rember the na of the manager, not to ntion that the old man had a hunting rifle hidden at ho and knew the phone number of Teacher Shude.
"Fix the phone, fix it for now!" The old man was now angry, his finger hooked on the trigger, as if he could blow off Yang Xiao’s head at any mont.
But Yang Xiao wasn’t panicked in the slightest; he knew there was still a way out if he didn’t fix the phone, but if he did, he’d likely get his head blown off within minutes.
"Co on, if you have the guts, just shoot . Kill , and you’ll never get to hear a phone ring again in your life," Yang Xiao said, bringing his face closer without showing a hint of fear.
Neither of them could do anything to the other, and in the end, they agreed that Yang Xiao would take the phone out to fix it and then return it to the old man.
"Don’t try any tricks with ." The old man kept his gun trained on Yang Xiao, his eyes sinister and filled with bloodshot veins, showing none of his previously kind deanor.
"I, Chu Xi, am a man of my word," said Yang Xiao, pointing toward the door, "You go out and ask around, see what people say about Chu Xi’s reputation."
At this point, the old man had no other choice but to watch as Yang Xiao picked up the telephone and walked toward the door step by step, finally stepping over the threshold.
Yang Xiao was true to his word, and imdiately began fixing the telephone just outside the door, working intently under the dim light.
"How is it?" The old man, still holding his gun, urged impatiently.
Without even lifting his head, Yang Xiao fiddled with the phone intently, and then extended a hand to the old man, "No big problem, just get a screwdriver."
"Fine."
But when the old man returned with a screwdriver from the bedroom, he found himself dumbfounded; there was no sign of Yang Xiao at the door.
Yang Xiao had run away and taken the telephone with him.
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