Volume 1: Breaking Ground Chapter 12 Rhinoceros and Elephant
Everyone was shocked by Mu Yiran's words, including Ke Xun.
"Release?" Qiu Lu, still in a daze, cast her eyes on Sha Liu, "You released the monster?!"
Sha Liu was frightened by Qiu Lu's sudden approach and said, "How can I have the courage!" Then he looked at Mu Yiran for help, "Brother Mu, please explain clearly!"
"I think Yafen was invited by the person who knocked on the door." Mu Yiran continued.
Qiu Lu then let go of Sha Liu. Sha Liu felt that Mu Yiran was panting heavily when he spoke just now on purpose. This man must be dissatisfied with her in some way...
Everyone pondered over these words carefully. The egg that Ke Xun had peeled had gone cold, so he simply soaked it in the hot porridge. "What Yi Ran meant was that someone knocked on the door of 410 the night before yesterday. Was that an invitation to the evil spirits in the room?"
Xin Miao was frightened and shuddered: "Who ? Who knocked on the door of 410?"
Wei Dong glanced over and said, "The two girls who used to live in your room."
Yes, just the night before yesterday, Tina and Luo Han violated the visiting rules and knocked on the door of 410.
Qin Ci further analyzed: "In other words, not only did the two girls violate the rules and were attacked by the fire in the room, but they also released 410 Yafen by knocking on the door?"
Mu Yiran looked at Shaliu with a cold gaze: "Didn't you hear the door open twice last night? It must be Yafen going out and coming back."
"But why didn't Yafen take action the night before?" Shaliu asked.
“Maybe this is also a rule. The vengeful spirits released by knocking on the door can only take action on the second night.” Mu Yiran expressed his speculation.
"It sounds like there's nothing wrong with it," Zhu Haowen also spoke up, "but the second type of death incident only happened once after all, so we can't completely use this as a benchmark."
Mu Yiran's expression did not change at all, and he looked at Qin Ci: "Did you see anything strange in your room last night? Not hear anything, but see something."
Qin Ci was somewhat surprised: "How did Brother Mu know this?"
Ke Xun was inexplicably excited, as the boss was about to start another crushing brainwashing.
Wei Dong, who was sitting next to Qin Ci, couldn't help but ask: "Doctor Qin, what did you really see last night?"
"Indeed... we saw something unusual," Qin Ci and old man Li Taiyong looked at each other, "We both saw a man holding a porcelain bowl, stirring something like stuffing."
Hearing the words 'stir the stuffing', everyone's scalp went numb.
"You can't see clearly at night. The man is hunched over and coughs from time to time. He must be quite old." Old man Li Taiyong added.
Now everyone couldn't eat anymore. Xinmiao whispered, "Is that person trying to make human meat dumplings?"
Wei Dong even consoled him: "No way, isn't there something in his basin already?..."
Sha Liu asked Mu Yiran, "How do you know that Dr. Qin and the others can see things at night?"
This time, Ke Xun answered directly for his boss: "Because Zhitiao knocked on the door of Room 307 last night, it was equivalent to releasing the things in the room."
Sha Liu frowned, "The white woman appeared after they knocked on our door the night before... In other words, after Zhi Tiao knocked on Room 307, the man stirring the stuffing in the basin also appeared? Is this kind of appearance itself a sign?"
"This can be a condition for inference." Zhu Haowen agreed, and looked at Mu Yiran with a rare look of affirmation.
Elder Li Taiyong had already finished his meal before he said, "So, the man from our house will appear in the corridor tonight? If no one opens the door for him, then it should be fine."
Speaking of opening the door, Xinmiao couldn't help but say, "Dr. Qin and Grandpa Li opened the door for Zhitiao last night. Does this count as an act of accepting a visit?..."
Elder Li Taiyong said hurriedly, "It has nothing to do with Xiao Qin. I opened the door for him on my own initiative. If there is any retribution, it will be on me alone. It has nothing to do with Xiao Qin."
Ke Xun had also finished the porridge in his bowl. After listening to what Li Taiyong said, he was very moved by the kindness of the old man. He said, "Anyone who violates the hard rules will be 'executed' that night. The people in your house were fine last night, which proves that 'being visited' is not a visit and will not be punished."
Everyone thought about it and it made sense. Ke Xun added, "But don't imitate them in the future! It's scary to think about it. Who knows what those evil spirits might look like. If they turn into one of us and knock on the door, we won't be able to defend ourselves!"
Elder Li Taiyong nodded repeatedly, "Yes, Xiao Ke'er is right. We should not take risks like this in the future." Then he looked at everyone and said, "Let's eat first. Only when we are full will we have the energy to look for things."
Everyone reluctantly ate a few bites, and then heard Mu Yiran ask, "Is there any difference between your room this morning and last night?"
Perhaps because last night was so shocking, most people didn't notice the changes in their rooms.
Only Zhu Haowen said: "Our room has deformed again. The wall tilted even more. Not only that, the railings in the corridor also bent inward."
"I'll go to the sixth floor to take a look later." Mu Yiran said.
"I'll join you too..." Before Ke Xun could finish his words, Wei Dong responded, "Ke'er, are the Danshen drops ready?"
Ke Xun recalled the dizzy experience yesterday and could only give up on his own initiative: "Then I won't accompany you, Yiran."
Mu Yiran looked at Ke Xun and heard him say, "Eat the eggs, or it will be boring to go up to the sixth floor."
Elder Li Taiyong also said: "Yes, eating eggs will at least increase nutrition."
Ke Xun really wanted to shake hands with Grandpa Li.
"Grandpa Li," Sha Liu suddenly spoke, "while you are playing chess with Grandpa Zhang today, can you ask about 307?"
If we could find out what murders had happened at 301, perhaps some things could be avoided.
Elder Li Taiyong nodded and said, "I think so too. I'll go play chess with him later if I can find out more."
After hearing this, everyone seemed to see hope again.
Next, everyone made a simple division of labor. Mu Yiran and Zhu Haowen went to the sixth floor and searched and checked the sixth and fifth floors. Ke Xun Weidong checked the third and fourth floors. Qiu Luxinmiao was responsible for the second floor, and Sha Liu and Qin Ci were responsible for the first floor basement and the patio.
Ke Xun narrowed his eyes and looked at Mu Yiran and Zhu Haowen who walked up the stairs one after another. Both of them gave off an aura that kept people at a distance, but there was a kind of harmony between them that made people unwilling to admit.
"Don't be jealous and get down to business, or someone will eat you with dumplings tonight!" Weidong pulled Ke'er and went to the third floor.
"Why do I feel that he is also..." Ke Xun looked suspicious.
"Haowen'er? That's impossible." Wei Dong said confidently, "He didn't even look at me when I was shirtless at night."
“…”
"Really, I didn't look sideways. Why are you looking at me? Really, I didn't look sideways."
"We eat meat. If you serve him a bowl of porridge, he will definitely not look away."
"Who is a bowl of porridge?" Wei Dong patted his face and felt quite solid .
“…”
"You are meat eaters... who are you..." Wei Dong felt that the words just now contained a lot of information, "Who do you like? Are you in love with someone else? You can't let the boss down!"
Ke Xun suddenly stopped at the wall of the corridor and looked for a long time with a frown.
Wei Dong also hurried over to take a look and carefully identified it: "It's another pornographic picture."
"How do you know that?"
"Isn't this a **?"
"..." Ke Xun was anxious: "This is a bamboo shoot!"
"I wonder why there are so many layers of skin on the outside..."
“…”
Wei Dong took a closer look at the simple bamboo shoots and said, "This is graffiti carved with a knife. It was just a random drawing by a child."
Ke Xun looked at the room closest to the graffiti, which was Room 309 where the poets had lived before. He then searched room by room and sure enough, he found a bamboo shoot with a blurred mark on the wall next to the door of Room 307.
No similar patterns were found in other rooms on the third floor.
Weidong also thought this was odd: "Could this bamboo shoot be related to the Spring Bamboo Shoots Apartment?"
Ke Xun leaned his head to look outside the railing and said, "Let's go to the fourth floor to check." But when he looked up, he felt dizzy, "Fuck..."
Ke Xun rubbed his temple vigorously and looked up at the picture again: "Dongzi, do you feel that the tube building has changed?"
Wei Dong also stretched his head and looked up, but felt nothing.
Ke Xun resisted the dizziness and nausea, squinted his eyes and looked hard at the opening of the skylight on the top of the tube building: "Don't you think the opening up there has become smaller?"
"Really?" Wei Dong was completely unaware.
"Let's go to the fourth floor first to see if there is the same bamboo shoot pattern." Ke Xun prepared to go upstairs to check.
The results of the inspection were exactly the same as on the third floor. Bamboo shoot patterns appeared on the outer walls of all the rooms where the people outside the painting lived. The patterns were either deep or shallow, and some required careful searching to be discovered.
At noon, people gathered downstairs again to share the results of their morning search.
"Not only the sixth floor has deformed, the fifth floor has also had a slight deformation. The top of the entire tube building is slowly gathering inward." Mu Yiran was the first to share his findings.
Zhu Haowen said nothing and leaned against the wall next to him playing games on his mobile phone.
Everyone looked up at the sky above, and except Ke Xun, no one else noticed any special changes.
Ke Xun also shared his discovery of the bamboo shoot graffiti. Weidong went to the sixth floor specifically for this purpose, and sure enough, he found the same bamboo shoot pattern next to room 616.
"This pattern is very mysterious, and it coincides with the name of Chunsun Apartment," Sha Liu said solemnly. "I think once we uncover the secret of this pattern, we should be able to find the seal."
Others found nothing in their searches, including Mr. Li Taiyong. It is said that once he mentioned the sensitive room number plate to the doorman, the doorman no longer responded.
But old man Li Taiyong still brought some news: "Because so many things happened in Chunsun Dormitory, it is said that the Hong Kong developer is very superstitious and specially hired someone to carve a stone elephant and a stone rhinoceros and put them outside the dormitory building, saying that they are used to ward off evil."
"Elephants and rhinos?" Xin Miao was puzzled. "I rarely hear of people using these things to ward off evil. Usually, they use dragons, tigers, or unicorns..."
"I asked too, and Lao Zhang said that it was because elephants and rhinos are vegetarians." Old man Li Taiyong couldn't figure out the reason.
