"Fang, Fang Chao?" Si Lian backed away in fright, only stopping when she bumped into Gu Chenhui's embrace. "How could he... is this... dead?"
"Nonsense," Gu Chenhui mercilessly pushed Si Lian aside. "Someone whose head is severed from their body, can they still be alive? Even if alive, they wouldn't be called human."
As Gu Chenhui spoke, he walked towards Fang Chao's room. Passing the severed head, he glanced at it twice.
"Looks like it was torn off," Gu Chenhui said as he walked inside. "Don't know if the body is still around."
"Brother Hui," Jing Minghe called out to Gu Chenhui, who was about to enter Fang Chao's room.
Gu Chenhui turned back and asked with a smile, "What is it?"
Jing Minghe reminded him, "This is Fang Chao's room, the dungeon condition..."
Jing Minghe's words stopped abruptly because he saw that the doorplate, which had originally been Fang Chao's name, had now reverted to Room 403.
Gu Chenhui smiled, turned around, and entered the room, flipping on the lights as he went.
"Everyone come in and take a look," Gu Chenhui shouted to the outside. "It's truly quite spectacular in here."
Before Gu Chenhui could finish speaking, Jing Minghe had already entered, followed closely by Chi Hao. The rest of them gathered by the doorway.
An Ruo and Si Lian took one look and ran to the side to throw up.
The scene was indeed spectacular.
Fang Chao's body was merely severed, with nothing else amiss, but blood had splattered everywhere.
What churned their stomachs was not the bloodstains all over the room, but the maggots constantly crawling out from Fang Chao's severed neck.
Pale white bodies, trailing black and red tails, wriggled out in swarms.
Fang Chao's corpse was already covered in them, and some were crawling along the bloodstains in other directions. In short, this room had almost become a maggot's domain.
"How could this be?" You Mi, as expected of a doctor, had a much higher psychological tolerance than the other girls. At this moment, she merely frowned slightly and voiced her question, "We separated from Fang Chao less than an hour ago. How does the condition of this corpse look like it's been dead for dozens of days?"
Jing Minghe noticed that no matter how these maggots crawled, they never moved towards the door. Furthermore, from Fang Chao's corpse to the door, apart from the bloodstains left by the rolling head, there were no other bloodstains.
"Brother Hao," Jing Minghe leaned closer to Chi Hao and asked, "Why do you think he died?"
"What did he encounter last night?" Chi Hao frowned slightly. "We still don't know anything about it."
Jing Minghe said regretfully, "Yeah. I originally wanted to find an opportunity to ask him, but I never expected that I wouldn't get to say a few words until I saw his corpse."
So, what exactly did Fang Chao encounter last night? Was his death related to him being the only one who could and couldn't hear? Or was it related to the way he resolved something after encountering someone or something last night?
Jing Minghe's gaze swept over every corner of the room, but he found no useful clues.
Gu Chenhui even specifically checked the bathroom. After coming out, he shook his head at everyone, "Very clean, nothing there."
As he spoke, he glanced at the trash can by the bedside, a very subtle expression appearing on his face.
"Let's go," Gu Chenhui said, walking to the door and addressing everyone. "We can't find any valuable clues here. Let's go look elsewhere."
Naturally, no one wanted to linger in such a place. But speaking of clues, Xia Rong frowned deeply and said, "This hotel is so small, and the places we can enter are even more limited. We've searched every possible place since we entered yesterday, repeatedly. What new tricks can we find?"
"Perhaps?" Gu Chenhui looked at Xia Rong meaningfully. "We couldn't enter Fang Chao's room this morning, could we? Now it's a different situation."
"How can this..."
Xia Rong was about to retort when he saw Jing Minghe and the others starting to move. Anything more he said would seem out of place.
This time, everyone did not split up but walked together.
The rehearsal was over. Seeing that the art troupe members had gone downstairs, Jing Minghe went to the lounge of the performance hall on the third floor first.
In the lounge, Jing Minghe finally saw the large wooden box Gu Chenhui had mentioned earlier. He walked over immediately, casually lifted the lid of the wooden box, and found it empty and clean. There was no body, not even a single hair.
"How could this be?" Xia Rong walked over, confused. "The wooden box is back, but where is the body?"
An Ruo then said, "Xia Rong, look closely. This wooden box is much newer than the one we pried open this morning."
With An Ruo's reminder, Xia Rong finally noticed. "Did they replace the old wooden box because it was missing and bring in a new one? But if they brought in a new wooden box, someone should have noticed, right? Unless it was brought in while we were watching the performance."
Seeing the empty box, Jing Minghe was slightly disappointed, but he already had an idea and didn't intend to dwell on it here.
"Let's go," Jing Minghe turned and walked out of the lounge. "It's mealtime now. The art troupe members should be eating on the first floor. Let's go to the second floor first."
For just a few floors, Xia Rong really felt there was nothing left to search. But since everyone was following, he couldn't go back alone. Moreover, at this time, being alone might lead to danger. It was safer to stay with everyone.
As before, only the lights in the exhibition room on the second floor were on, and only the door to the exhibition room could be opened.
Entering the exhibition room, Jing Minghe saw that the mannequins used for the performance earlier had returned to their glass display cases. Before he could get closer, he heard Si Lian cry out.
Jing Minghe turned back and asked, "What is it?"
Si Lian pointed to one of the glass display cases and said, "The... the extra glass display case, it... it was empty before, but now it's not. And that... doll..."
Si Lian stammered, unable to complete her sentence for quite some time.
Chi Hao suddenly spoke, "The doll's clothes are the same as Ning Ping's."
Hearing Chi Hao's words, Si Lian nodded repeatedly. Looking at the doll again, she kept backing away, her voice trembling even more severely than before.
"He... he's looking at me, looking at me!"
You Mi walked up and leaned closer to the doll. The doll's eyes were lowered and not looking at anyone. She turned to Si Lian and asked, "Do you think this is Ning Ping?"
Si Lian shook her head frantically. "No, I don't know, I don't know. Ning Ping, Ning Ping he..."
·
Gong Liang opened his eyes, looking at the abundant flowers. A sinister smile curved his lips, and his gaze casually swept over the red text warning that appeared in the void. With an indifferent expression, he walked out of the flower garden.