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墨書 Inktalez
Liu Bo's phone call was far more terrifying than the nightmare I had last night. I had thought that nightmare was just a dream, but it turned out that this dream was a reality.
Zhang Chao was really dead, and he had died a tragic death.
Even after Liu Bo hung up, I stood there in a daze. It was Zhou Zhen who came into my room at that moment, noticed something was off with me, and called out, "What happened?"
Seeing Zhou Zhen, I grabbed him tightly, my voice trembling with emotion. "Uncle Zhou, he's dead! He really died in a car accident!"
"Dead?"
Zhou Zhen looked confused by my words, furrowing his brow deeply. He pushed me away and shouted, "Calm down! Who died?"
His loud voice snapped me back to reality, and my emotions began to stabilize. Taking a deep breath, I said, "Zhang Chao... Zhang Chao died in a car accident last night."
Zhang Chao.
Upon hearing that name, Zhou Zhen seemed skeptical. He muttered, "How could he die in a car accident out of nowhere?"
Then he looked at me with an unusual tone and asked, "Did you say he really died in a car accident? Do you know when it happened?"
My mind was in chaos; I didn't know how to respond. So I recounted the nightmare I had last night about Zhang Chao's car accident and how gruesome it was.
After I finished speaking, Zhou Zhen's frown deepened.
After a moment, he asked, "Did you ask Zhang Chao what time the accident happened?"
"I heard from a colleague who called that it was around midnight."
Around midnight.
As soon as those words left my mouth, I was suddenly taken aback, my pupils dilating in shock.
"What’s going on?"
Noticing my unusual behavior, Zhou Zhen asked, "What’s going on?"
“It’s impossible for it to have happened around ten or eleven,” I replied.
I recalled something extremely strange: last night, Zhang Chao had called me. I had specifically checked the time then; it was exactly one in the morning.
However, Liu Bo had told me over the phone that Zhang Chao had been in a car accident around midnight and had died on the spot.
So how could Zhang Chao have called me at one in the morning? Moreover, during the call, he hadn’t said a single word; it was completely silent. Thinking back on it now, it did seem rather eerie. Could it have been a ghost call?
After calming down, I shared this incident with Zhou Zhen.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhen also felt that Zhang Chao's death seemed suspicious, as if it were far more complicated than we had imagined.
To prevent me from overthinking, he tried to reassure me, saying, “Maybe one of your other colleagues used Zhang Chao's phone to call you.”
Although I knew Zhou Zhen was trying to comfort me, I shook my head. That explanation was too far-fetched and hardly convincing.
Not to mention that the police would have sealed off the accident scene for evidence collection and taken all belongings away. Even if a colleague had taken Zhang Chao's phone, why wouldn’t they say anything after calling me?
Was it merely a prank?
Or did this silent call represent something else?
I couldn't make sense of it; no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t figure it out.
Finally, Zhou Zhen asked what we should do next—whether we should go see Zhang Chao one last time.
I nodded. Regardless of everything, since Zhang Chao had passed away, I felt compelled to pay my respects. Not only had we been close friends, but he had genuinely cared for me during this time. I owed him that final farewell.
When Zhou Zhen and I arrived at City Hospital, Liu Bo was already waiting at the entrance and led us to the morgue in the basement.
Given the circumstances, besides Liu Bo, there were also company leaders present and two uniformed police officers—a man and a woman—who appeared to be around my age. The woman was quite attractive; they were likely there to handle the case.
As I had anticipated, just as Zhou Zhen and I approached, the company leader pointed at him and said to me, "Xiao Lin, these two are Officer Tang and Officer Liu from the police station. Please cooperate with them to record your statement."
The man was named Tang Yuxuan, and the woman was Liu Man. Their request for my statement didn’t imply any suspicion towards me; after all, Zhang Chao's death was due to an accident. Recording a statement was merely a formality, asking about some details of Zhang Chao's life.
Thanks to the two officers greeting us, Liu Bo easily led Zhou Zhen and me into the morgue.
The temperature in the morgue was much colder than outside. As soon as I stepped inside, I couldn't help but shiver, feeling a chill in the air and an eerie silence surrounding us.
It was so quiet that aside from our footsteps, even the sound of our breathing was distinctly audible.
The morgue was filled with corpses, located in the basement where the Yin Qi was extremely high. Unless absolutely necessary, no one wanted to come here.
Before long, we found Zhang Chao's body. The moment I saw him, I realized just how horrific his death had been.
Half of his face was completely smashed in. If it weren't for the other half of his Withered Face still vaguely showing some of Zhang Chao's features, I would have doubted whether this was really him lying here.
At that moment, Liu Bo whispered in my ear that the police who first arrived at the scene reported that half of Zhang Chao's face had been crushed against a guardrail when he fell, and then another vehicle ran over him from the waist down. The scene had been a gruesome sight with blood and intestines spilling everywhere.
Although I hadn’t witnessed that scene myself, just imagining it made me realize how bloody and tragic it must have been.
Unknowingly, my eyes became moist; I felt an inexplicable sadness wash over me.
But suddenly, an unexpected change occurred. Since the morgue was in the basement, even during the day it required lights to be on. However, at that moment, all the lights flickered as if they were affected by some disturbance, flashing erratically and sparking.
Then suddenly, all the lights went out completely, plunging us into darkness.
In that instant, I felt as if I were enveloped by endless coldness and darkness. There was no one around; Zhou Zhen and Liu Bo seemed to have vanished. The silence was eerily frightening.
I shouted loudly and reached out to feel around me but received no response whatsoever.
No—wait! Just then, I heard footsteps.
Footsteps echoed in the dark.
In that darkness, it felt like I had found a glimmer of hope. I quickly moved toward the sound of the footsteps, getting closer and closer until I finally touched a body.
I barely had time to ask whether he was Uncle Zhou or Liu Bo when, in the next moment, I saw a pale, blurry face that sent a scream escaping my lips. It felt as if my scalp was about to explode.
That pale, blurry face belonged to none other than Zhang Chao, who had just been lying on the gurney. Now, he stood right in front of me, his bloodied half-face wide-eyed and staring.
Yellowish-red mucus continuously oozed from his mouth, nose, and eyes.
What was I seeing?
Zhang Chao was supposed to be dead, lying there—how could he be standing now?
Could it be a corpse trick?
My heart raced to an extreme degree, feeling as if it might leap out of my throat.
However, this fear didn’t seem strong enough; I soon saw another figure—Mu Yan.
She appeared silently and eerily.
Though she kept her distance, I could see her clearly. She still bore that ferocious look, her eyes bloodshot and fierce.
Meeting her gaze made my entire body tremble.
I weakly collapsed onto the ground, and then I noticed Liu Bo appearing beside me. He seemed to look at me strangely and asked what was wrong.
Liu Bo.
I suddenly felt a surge of excitement. But when I looked up, I found that both Mu Yan and Zhang Chao had vanished without a trace.
It seemed I had also left the morgue, leaving me utterly confused about what was happening.
I grabbed Liu Bo's shoulder and asked, "Weren't we in the morgue? Where's Uncle Zhou?"
"Uncle Zhou? He said he would go find those two officers to ask some questions and told us to wait outside," Liu Bo replied with a smile.
"Outside"
I looked around, and at that moment, Liu Bo and I were standing in the corridor of the hospital outpatient department.
Liu Bo patted my shoulder and said, "Wait for me here for a moment. I need to relieve myself; otherwise, I won't be able to hold it any longer."
With that, he dashed out.
But just as he reached the corridor's exit, I heard a loud crash. When I turned to look, Liu Bo was lying on the ground, his head smashed like a watermelon from a falling object.
I wanted to scream, but at that moment, a hand suddenly slapped my shoulder hard, startling me.
I quickly turned around and found it was Zhou Zhen.
He frowned at me and asked, "Xiao Lin, what's wrong?"
Uncle Zhou
What puzzled me even more was that Liu Bo was now standing next to Zhou Zhen, looking just as confused and asking me, "Haozi, what's up? Why are you spacing out for no reason?"
Spacing out?
I glanced around; we were still in the morgue, right where we had entered.
Zhang Chao was still lying on the stretcher, completely motionless.
I looked at Liu Bo with a pale face and said in disbelief, "You... you're still alive?"
"Get lost, Haozi! What’s wrong with you? Are you cursing me?" Liu Bo said with an annoyed expression.
Only Zhou Zhen seemed to notice something was off with me. He furrowed his brow slightly and said, "Alright, enough of this. Let's get out of here."
I nodded repeatedly; at that moment, I didn't want to stay there for another minute.
Even if everything that just happened was merely an illusion, it was a terrifying and disturbingly realistic one—so real that I began to question whether I was suffering from schizophrenia.
Leaving the morgue, I walked toward the corridor, still immersed in the haunting images I had just witnessed.
At that moment, Uncle Zhou mentioned he was going to find those two police officers to ask some questions, while Liu Bo said he needed to use the restroom. He seemed to be in a hurry and dashed off.
I was momentarily stunned, then I felt an unsettling familiarity with this scene.
Suddenly, it struck me; this moment mirrored exactly what I had just seen.
I looked up in horror as Liu Bo was just a step away from running out into the corridor. I shouted at the top of my lungs, desperate to stop him.
But it was already too late.
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