Chapter 3

Sure enough, before long thunder rolled, lightning flashed, and rain came down in torrents.

Rainy days were perfect for keeping people indoors.

Unfortunately, they also brought more insects into the house.

I lit a mosquito coil and put it in a corner.

Then I lay in bed with my phone all afternoon.

Just like that, I spent the whole day in a standoff with the man in the wardrobe.

Even after dark, he still hadn’t found the courage to emerge.

By now, I could roughly calculate the time.

He’d been in there at least twenty hours.

Remarkable. Even if he could go without food or water, how could he hold off going to the toilet?

Was he doing it in there?

Oh, God. I didn’t dare think any further.

16

After nine that evening, I saw the landlady return from work on my camera.

Oddly, she seemed to be a little later than usual.

The moment she reached the bathroom door, she froze in horror.

Then she rushed inside, frantically calling her husband’s name.

I never heard him answer.

My camera couldn’t show what was happening in the bathroom.

But I knew the landlord was probably dead.

Then I saw her stagger out.

Panicking, she rummaged in her handbag for her phone.

Presumably, she intended to call an ambulance or the police.

Trembling all over, she fumbled and dropped it.

Crack.

The screen shattered.

She hurriedly picked it up and checked, but it was completely unresponsive.

What a ridiculously fragile phone, I thought.

The woman on my screen grew even more frantic.

After a moment’s thought, she rushed out and ran downstairs.

Soon, urgent knocking sounded at my door.

17

I closed the camera feed and tidied my appearance.

Then I calmly went to answer.

The landlady stood outside, looking terrified.

I pretended to be puzzled.

“What’s wrong? You don’t look well.”

She instinctively glanced behind her.

“Could I stay here for a little while?”

I nodded repeatedly.

“Of course. Come in.”

As soon as she entered, she closed the door herself.

She even locked it for me.

“My phone’s broken. Could you call the police for me?”

I feigned confusion.

“The police? What happened?”

She panted, her voice thick with tears.

“My husband… is dead!”

“What? He’s dead? How?”

Agitated, she seized my hand.

“He died in the bathroom. The way he’s lying is so strange. It looks as though… he strangled himself. Please call the police!”

I hurriedly sat her down and told her not to panic.

Then I took out my phone and pretended to call.

Of course, I didn’t actually call the police.

If they discovered my cameras upstairs, I’d have plenty of trouble.

Deliberately moving away from her to the window, I began my performance.

“Hello? Police? There’s been a murder at Number Fourteen, Juyuan residential complex.”

“The dead man is my landlord. His wife’s here with me. Her phone broke, so I’m reporting it for her.”

“Yes. All right. I understand. Please come quickly.”

I pretended to hang up.

Then I told her the rain had caused serious flooding.

Traffic nearby had practically ground to a halt.

The police couldn’t get here yet.

For now, we should stay inside and wait.

Hearing that, she wept even more bitterly and nodded helplessly.

Then she said something pointed.

“Even if the police come, I’m afraid it won’t help.”

Frowning, I asked why.

Through her sobs, she said:

“What killed my husband… wasn’t human. I think he was… possessed.”

“Possessed?”

“Yes. Lately, I feel as though I’m always being followed. Not by a person. By a… hanging ghost.”

Her words sounded terribly familiar.

Of course.

I’d heard them on the recorder last night.

I hurriedly asked what exactly she meant by a hanging ghost.

She told me it was a woman’s hanging corpse.

She often saw it through the peephole, suspended outside her door.

Her account plunged me into thought.

The landlord and the man in black had both been frightened by something outside.

Could what they’d seen through the peephole be the hanging ghost she described?

Could something so uncanny really happen?

18

The rain outside grew heavier.

Just as I closed the windows and door tightly, thunder cracked.

The landlady immediately shrank into my arms.

I gently patted her back.

“The police will probably take a while. Why don’t you stay here tonight? We can look after each other.”

Looking at the rain, she nodded gratefully, eyes red.

She’d just lost her husband, as though her emotional anchor had been torn away.

With nobody to turn to, she looked so fragile and pitiful it made one’s heart ache.

In her eyes, I’d become the closest thing to a little sister.

After I comforted her for a while, she gradually settled.

Worrying wouldn’t help now. I suggested she shower, then rest.

She quietly nodded, following my arrangements.

I found her a change of clothes.

We had similar builds. My clothes would surely look good on her too.

There was only one bed, so sharing was unavoidable.

Almost every night, I’d watched her sleep through my cameras.

Tonight, sleeping beside her, I was closer than I’d ever been.

A pity there was still a third wheel in the wardrobe. It made things awkward.

Still, the man in there was getting quite a view.

Seeing two beauties sleeping together at such close quarters, he hadn’t made this trip for nothing.

19

After all, the landlady hadn’t known me long. Sharing a bed made her a little uncomfortable.

She lay curled on her side, back to me, breathing softly, perfectly still.

Just as I thought she’d fallen asleep…

She suddenly turned and asked:

“Do you have rats? I think… I heard something in the wardrobe.”

20

Her question caught me off guard. I quickly pretended to be frightened.

“What? Surely not? I’m terrified of rats. What should we do?”

She hurriedly hugged me.

“Don’t be scared. I’m here. It’s a pity my cat’s run off again. If only it were here.”

Neither of us spoke again. The room was strangely quiet.

She kept holding me. We stayed like that for a while.

Then she spoke again.

“You’re a good person. Take my advice and move out as soon as possible.”

“Move out? But I only moved in yesterday.”

She sighed.

“I’ll tell you a secret about this house. You mustn’t tell another soul.”

I quickly agreed, though inwardly I was muttering.

Not telling another soul was easy enough.

The problem was… there was already another pair of ears in the wardrobe, hearing everything.

Lowering her voice, she continued:

“This house… someone died here. There’s something unclean in it!”

“What? Someone died here?”

“Yes. A woman was found hanging in this room.”

She pointed at the multicolored chandelier.

“She was… hanging from that very light.”

21

At her words, I couldn’t help looking up.

An image instantly appeared in my mind: a woman in white dangling from the chandelier.

I shuddered.

This time, the physical reaction was real!

“Don’t be frightened. It happened half a month ago.”

She hugged me tighter.

“The dead woman was this room’s previous tenant. The police ruled it suicide, but only I know she was strangled with a rope, then hung up.”

I swallowed.

“How do you know?”

She sighed, then told me the following.

“Remember the black cat I came to fetch last night?”

“Its previous owner was the woman who died here.”

“After she died, I found the cat in a nearby ditch.”

“There was a collar around its neck.”

“At first, I thought it was only decorative.”

“A few days ago, I happened to discover it was actually a voice recorder.”

“And it had recorded evidence of her murder.”

“She died unjustly, so her spirit keeps returning.”

“I think the hanging ghost I’ve seen through the peephole… must be her spirit!”

22

Her words left me deep in thought.

A long while later, I suddenly asked:

“Do you know who killed her?”

She thought back.

“The recorder captured the crime. There were three killers. One was the actual owner of this house.”

She told me she and her husband had only recently rented the two-story building themselves.

They’d been tempted by the cheap rent. They hadn’t known someone had died here.

Later, they realized two floors were too much space for just the two of them.

So they decided to sublet the ground floor.

When I moved in yesterday, they became my landlords.

More accurately, they were middlemen.

She went on:

“I’ve never met the actual landlord. My husband dealt directly with him when we rented the place.”

“But I’m certain he’s no good.”

“The day before yesterday, our bathroom heat lamp broke. I called an electrician to replace it.”

“When he removed the bulb, he found a tiny camera inside.”

“I suspect the owner installed it. And I’m afraid it isn’t the only camera in this house.”

23

Her words left me utterly silent.

Because she was completely right.

The camera had indeed been installed by the building’s true landlord.

And there was indeed more than one.

Because…

I was the actual owner.

Her landlord.

I was also one of the killers who’d hanged the previous tenant in this room.

And the electrician who’d replaced her bathroom heat lamp was Li Yong, whose body I’d buried in the woods last night.

Li Yong had discovered my cameras.

So I’d killed him to silence him.

The woman said she intended to tell the police about both the recorder and the cameras when they arrived.

Unfortunately…

The police weren’t coming.

And she certainly wouldn’t survive until they did.