Free Web NovelChapter 1446: Chapter 894: The Plan (Part 3)
"Bah! You’re worse than a dog! Dream on if you think I’ll open the door for you!"
Wu Zhuo had already made up his mind, he wouldn’t open the door for anyone tonight, because he couldn’t distinguish between humans and ghosts. This was the safest approach.
As for whether Yang Xiao and the others could survive, it would depend on their skills.
Even if they came for retribution the next day, he had his excuse ready: he’d claim he fainted and didn’t hear anything. What could they do? They certainly wouldn’t kill him.
Wu Zhuo was somewhat of a rascal in society, well-versed in handling such situations.
Moreover, he had thought it through; given Yang Xiao and Zhou Mingxiao’s abilities, it was unlikely they would all perish. At most, one would die, and the survivor would bring back clues, which would also benefit him.
"Creak—"
Suddenly, a noise interrupted his thoughts. Wu Zhuo perked up his ears and listened intently. The sound was coming from the depths of the corridor inside the office.
It sounded like...like a cabinet door or drawer being opened and closed repeatedly.
It felt like someone was standing in front of the cabinet, mindlessly repeating the action of opening and closing it. Just from the sound, one could feel a sense of stiffness and numbness.
"Damn Chu Xi, insisting on opening the door. It’s indeed brought disaster!" At that moment, Wu Zhuo’s heart was in turmoil. He instinctively wanted to open the door and run outside, but suddenly stopped, suspecting this was a blinding technique.
Maybe...maybe there wasn’t a ghost inside the room at all, but the real ghost was standing right outside the door.
Just like last time.
"Wu Zhuo, stay calm. If that bastard Chu Xi can do it, so can you." Wu Zhuo cheered himself up mentally, determined not to leave no matter what happened.
But he still had to make preparations. He picked a hiding spot under an old desk. The spot provided a good vantage point, allowing him to see both the glass door and part of the corridor, enabling both offense and defense.
To be more discreet, he dragged a chair in front to block himself.
Feeling hidden by the desk and chair, Wu Zhuo relaxed slightly. Next, he silently prayed for a peaceful night, hoping that the ghosts would go after Yang Xiao and Zhou Mingxiao.
It seemed his prayers worked, as the scratching sounds from the corridor soon ceased.
At some point, even the chaotic footsteps and screams from above subsided, and the thick smoke in the room dissipated significantly. Everything was heading in a positive direction. freēwebnovel.com
At this moment, Wu Zhuo was more certain than ever that he had made the right choice. The ghosts inside the building were lured away by Yang Xiao and Zhou Mingxiao’s foolish actions.
Daring to visit the most haunted 18th floor at night, these two surely didn’t know what death meant.
However, this worked out for him, making him the safest person that night. The thought of Yang Xiao’s hypocritical face made him furious—they wanted to trick him into becoming a substitute death, but screw them!
As he was curled under the table, thinking, suddenly, a light flashed before him, accompanied by an eerily clear female voice, like that of a news announcer.
"Breaking news: A massive fire broke out in a building in Hongyu District late at night. The fire is spreading rapidly. According to informed sources, a large number of people are still trapped inside, and several have fallen from heights..."
Hearing this, Wu Zhuo was stupefied, but he quickly realized it was from the computer, which had been left on because Yang Xiao was using it to look up information.
Regardless, he needed to shut off the computer to avoid attracting unwanted trouble.
He pushed the chair aside and crawled out from under the table, approaching the desk where the computer sat, its screen facing him, broadcasting the news.
On the left side of the screen, a local female host was solemnly delivering the news, while on the right side, there was live footage from the fire scene. As the camera zoomed out, a blazing high-rise building was visible, with flames roaring fiercely. With the camera shaking, one could see a cordon set up below the building, and within it, several bodies on the ground, with bloodstains visible around them.
Presumably, they were the ones who fell to their deaths, as mentioned in the news report he heard earlier.
Before he realized it, Wu Zhuo became engrossed in the news, momentarily forgetting to turn off the computer. He stared at the wavering footage, particularly at the cordoned area, where several people lay dead from their falls.
But the more Wu Zhuo looked, the more something seemed off. One of the distant figures on the right side of the screen looked familiar; the person was lying on their side, back facing him, wearing a black top and blue pants—an odd and outlandish combination.
In the next second, Wu Zhuo shuddered violently. He looked down at himself, noticing he was wearing blue pants and, indeed, a black top!
How could the person in the news be dressed just like him? This was too...too eerie!
Even Wu Zhuo realized something was amiss. This couldn’t be a coincidence; something was definitely wrong.
What happened next was even more baffling. The corpses on the ground started twitching and, one by one, grotesquely stood up with their backs to him, beginning to walk toward him in a manner impossible for the living.
Their movements seemed illogical, yet incredibly fast, reaching the camera in just a few blinks.
At this moment, Wu Zhuo finally snapped out of his fear. He immediately tried to press the power button to shut off the computer, frantically pushing it, yet the computer wouldn’t shut down. Instead, the corpses moved even faster as if someone hit the fast-forward button.
His mind was about to explode, and at that instant, he noticed an even more horrifying scene. The female host on the left side of the screen had, at some point, turned to face him, her eyes piercing through the screen, staring at him intently.
"Found you," the female host grinned and said, enunciating each word.
"Found you!"
"Found you!" frёeωebɳovel.com
"Found you!"
The female host, as if gone mad, kept repeating the phrase, her voice increasingly sharp and shrill, until it erupted into flames, engulfing her, turning her into a charred figure.
Even so, the burning figure kept shouting, screaming out the phrase like a curse from hell.
"Ah!! Ahhh!!!"
At this moment, Wu Zhuo was utterly in despair. He fell backward onto the ground, desperately trying to distance himself from the computer, and from his position, he could see the gap under the table.
What filled him with despair was the realization that the computer wasn’t even plugged in. It was a computer without any power!
Simultaneously, new things appeared in the gap under the table—pairs of bloodstained shoes lined up together.
There were old leather shoes, dirty sneakers, trendy high heels, both men’s and women’s shoes, and inside the high heels was a pair of broken, twisted bare feet.
The bloodied shoes, through the table, had their toes pointed directly at his position.
Wu Zhuo, sensing a creeping dread, shakily lifted his head, only to see several grotesquely distorted ghost faces standing behind the table, staring at him eerily.
