Ultimate Horror Nine (Updating up to here for now, will update more when I have time tomorrow)

"How would I know?!" Ling Zhijie was extremely impatient, looking like he was about to lose his temper, but he immediately took a breath and then slowed his tone as he said to me, "Quickly grab some thin iron wires, we'll go upstairs and see for ourselves."

A few minutes later, we opened the door to 702, and a musty smell hit us.

Although it was nearly noon, for reasons unknown—either because of the overcast weather outside or the layout of the room affecting the lighting—the room appeared quite dim. Fortunately, Ling Zhijie had brought a flashlight, and using its beam, he fumbled for the light switch near the door. But clearly, the electricity in this room had long since been cut off, and the light could not be turned on at all.

Ling Zhijie cursed once and then walked straight in, turning to the living room where the floor-to-ceiling windows should have been, and pulled the heavy curtains aside.

However, what greeted us was not the light from outside—it was still the deep gloom inside. I was just about to step toward Ling Zhijie when I suddenly heard another sound from behind me, that is, from the bathroom on the right-hand side of the living room. It coincided with the "clatter" of the curtains being pulled aside—a soft sigh.

I turned around sharply, but there was nothing—dead silence.

Maybe I misheard; the constant shocks over recent days must have made me increasingly paranoid... I laughed at myself and continued toward Ling Zhijie. The same putrid smell was there, just stronger than what I had smelled in my own bathroom ceiling.

I scanned the bathroom with the flashlight. It was roughly the same size as my own, about seven or eight square meters. Around the edges were yellowed, blackened sinks and a toilet. There was no dedicated shower area, but at the far end, a shower curtain partially concealed a large object. As for the huge thing lying right in front of us, at the doorway, it had a mottled green surface, a rusted iron base, and was tightly bound with dark red nylon ropes—though the ropes, likely due to age, seemed rough and possibly no longer secure.

Ling Zhijie did not stop to observe like I did upon entering. Instead, he raised his gun and flashlight and quickly stepped over the large object on the floor, heading straight to the far end, and yanked the shower curtain aside.The large thing behind was a bathtub. He bent down to take a closer look for a while, but nothing particularly special seemed to be found, so he turned back and carefully observed this big guy lying at the doorway with me. We could never have imagined that something so big would be holding the bathroom door, and being tied up with a rope like that was really baffling. After Ling Zhijie carefully examined it with a flashlight, he realized that it was actually an old-fashioned large refrigerator. But logically speaking, for such a large refrigerator, its weight shouldn't have been enough to withstand Ling Zhijie's initial strong kick and bounced him back, so Ling Zhijie paid special attention to this old refrigerator. He bent down again, ran his hand over the nylon rope, and tried to pry at the refrigerator door, then turned and said, “There's something inside. Did you bring a knife?” I shook my head and turned to go home to get a knife from the kitchen. Just as I reached the door, a ringtone came from behind me. Turning back, I saw Ling Zhijie taking his phone out of his pocket. After he took out the phone and said hello, his expression became very anxious. His brows gradually furrowed into a “川” shape. After hanging up, he said to me, “A'ning, I have to go back to the police station. You see, about what's happening here, maybe…” I immediately realized that there must have been new developments in the large serial murder case at the police station, and he had to go back immediately, so I replied, “No problem, you go ahead, I can handle it myself.” After hearing this, Ling Zhijie didn't delay, went downstairs, quickly packed the few items I asked him to have fingerprinted, and hurriedly headed to the police station. After sending him off, I grabbed a fruit knife and went back up to 702 to start cutting the ropes on the refrigerator. The rope wasn't strong and was soon cut off. Impatiently, I opened the refrigerator door, and a strange smell wafted up. I covered my nose and looked inside, only to find it full of soil, black, clumped together. I lightly scraped it with the knife, and it fell down in clumps. I scraped for a while. The initial impatience gradually turned into fear, and the movements of my hands naturally slowed down.Because I always feel that in some corner of this room, there is a pair of eyes, perhaps the same ones I saw earlier on the ceiling of my own shower. They are staring at me intently from the darkness... This uneasy feeling is related to scenes from horror movies I've seen before and also to my own current experiences. I am very clear that it is psychological pressure generated by the body's self-defense mechanism in an unfamiliar and complex environment, but as the person experiencing it, it's hard to dispel this pressure. To relieve this pressure, I decided to get up and go outside to breathe some fresh air before coming back to continue investigating. But just as I stood up, another sound suddenly came from the bathtub. Glug… glug… glugglug… I was a little surprised but then realized that it was the sound of water leaking from the pipes. I quickly got up to check the bathtub. Sure enough, it was half-filled with murky black water, probably accumulated for a long time. Perhaps due to the vibration from the fridge falling earlier, a crack appeared at the bottom of the bathtub, and the water began to slowly leak down. Occasionally, a bubble surfaced, spun around, creating a tiny whirlpool. I looked at that black whirlpool and suddenly felt a bit dizzy. Then, an even more terrifying thought arose in my mind, which immediately drove me to quickly leave the house. I then ran out of room 702 even faster, crouching on the window frame at the corner of the corridor, gasping for air. I had never felt so afraid, never experienced such an overwhelming sense of pressure, as if two hands were pressing through my chest, squeezing my heart! “Is that Xiao He upstairs? What's wrong?” A familiar voice came from downstairs. It was Luo Xianmei. I pressed my temples hard and replied, “It's nothing, it's nothing. I just felt a bit uncomfortable staying in the room too long, so I came out for some fresh air.” After saying that, I quickly walked downstairs to my own door, pretending that I had just come out of the room. At that moment, Luo Xianmei happened to be walking upstairs. She said while walking, “I could tell something was wrong just from your voice. Are you sick? You should go to the hospital, don't delay!” “Sister Mei, thank you. Um… I'll go to the hospital this afternoon, you just focus on your own things first!”“Oh dear, Xiao He, what are you talking about… By the way, has Xiao Jie come back?”

“Not yet…”

Luo Xianmei walked up to me, looked at me carefully, then sighed, patted my shoulder and said, “Xiao He, don't overthink it. Listen to Sister Mei, take good care of your health. Xiao Jie will definitely come back.”

Suddenly, I saw Luo Xianmei reach out a hand toward my face. I shivered and stepped back, staring at her in shock.

Unexpectedly, she seemed taken aback too, with a very awkward expression on her face. But she quickly waved her hand awkwardly and moved closer, saying, “Oh my goodness! What are you saying? You absolutely can't say that!”

After hearing that, I realized that earlier she had only wanted to cover my mouth. I quickly said, “Didn't you say earlier that 702 is haunted? Maybe Xiao Jie is…”

Before I could finish, Luo Xianmei firmly covered my mouth this time. I saw her spit on the ground several times, saying, “Tch! Tch! Tch! May the Bodhisattva protect us, may all demons stay away…” After chanting a few scriptures or something, she lowered her voice and said to me, “You absolutely must not say that again. Listen to Sister Mei, go to the hospital this afternoon to check your health first. Another day, I'll invite a specialist to help you with Xiao Jie's situation.”

When I heard the words “specialist,” I felt a bit awkward and thought to myself, going to a psychologist to get some mystic to help exorcise a ghost… what kind of thing is this? But judging from this conversation and her expression, Luo Xianmei seemed like a perfectly normal, slightly superstitious middle-aged woman. There was nothing obviously wrong, so I relaxed a little.