There’re Always Paranoid Thoughts to Monopolize Me - Chapter 49.2

Ling Shuang: “Then is he playing… a person or a ghost?”

The extra on the bed: “…………”

Seeing the pale faces of the four, including Gu Yuncheng, Qin Ke rarely felt playful.

She rubbed her chin, smiling with an air of certainty.

“Well, we don’t know, we’ll have to ask properly.”

Ling Shuang: “…………”

Gu Yuncheng slowly came to his senses, his voice calm and unruffled as he said, “July is about to cry from fear.”

“…”

Qin Ke looked back: it was true.

She could barely hold back her laughter, “I’m just kidding—of course it’s an actor playing a living person. Otherwise, why would they use restraints to tie him to the bed? This is obviously used to restrain mental patients to prevent sudden outbursts.”

Qin Ke said as she turned back and walked forward.

“Come on, let’s let the actor finish his scene so he can leave—he’s tied up so tightly, who knows how long he’s been waiting for us.”

The extra tied up like a dumpling on the bed, unable to move even his neck, was very touched.

Finally, someone who understood.

All five of them approached.

Just as they reached the ward, before Qin Ke could speak, the person suddenly spoke on his own.

“There’s… someone…”

Qin Ke was stunned.

“Us?”

The actor was very professional, not even glancing at her, his focus vague and his voice barely a whisper. “There’s… a ghost…”

The four guests who had just relaxed suddenly froze again: “…………”

Qin Ke wasn’t surprised.

She asked again. “What ghost? Where?”

The actor continued in a faint voice.

“There’s a ghost… a ghost staring at me…”

Qin Ke: “?”

Qin Ke straightened up, her gaze sweeping around the completely empty ward.

When her gaze returned without finding anything, she noticed that behind her, the other four were almost huddled together, regardless of past grievances or gender.

Qin Ke smiled gently.

“You really believe it?”

“…”

July swallowed and looked admiringly at the actor on the bed.

“Brother, your acting is great. Can I learn from you as your apprentice in the future?”

However, the dedicated actor completely ignored him, still repeating the last sentence.

“There’s a ghost staring at me.”

Unable to get any more information, Qin Ke stood thinking.

The ward was spacious, desolate, deadly quiet, and eerie.

It was pitch black outside the window.

Add to that the “mental patient’s” low murmuring on the bed.

Qin Ke heard July behind her muttering. “I believe in science, I’m a firm atheist, I believe in science, I’m a firm atheist…”

Qin Ke smiled helplessly.

“Why don’t you check if there’s anything under the hospital bed? I’ll take a look in the bathroom.”

“…!”

As soon as Qin Ke finished speaking, she received four horrified looks.

Qin Ke held back her laughter. “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant, is there any tangible trace or anything else you can actually see?”

Ling Shuang interrupted her, speaking rapidly. “No no no, don’t explain, the more you explain the scarier it gets.”

Qin Ke nodded.

She was about to go to the only bathroom in the room when she heard Gu Yuncheng say. “The three of them can check here, I’ll go with you.”

“Okay.”

Qin Ke didn’t think much of it and agreed.

The two of them entered the bathroom together.

However, the level of cleanliness here was almost comparable to the empty room outside—as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but a sink, a bathtub, a mirror, and a toilet.

Qin Ke and Gu Yuncheng searched the entire area but found nothing, so they had to return to the room.

“Did you find anything?”

“No…”

“Hmm, then it seems there are no clues in this room. Let’s continue to check the others,” Qin Ke said.

Everyone naturally agreed.

So the five of them left this first room and moved on to the next one…

There were 6 rooms in total along the corridor.

The five of them went through the first 5 rooms, finding patients in exactly the same condition as in the first room. And in the other rooms, they similarly found nothing.

After completing five rounds, it was obviously Qin Ke’s turn again to open the sixth room.

This time before opening the door, Qin Ke hesitated noticeably.

She turned to look at the other four. “If we haven’t missed anything before, then the most likely place for something to change would be this last remaining room.”

“…”

The faces of the four collectively tightened.

Qin Ke: “Shall I open the door then?”

Ling Shuang’s voice was so stiff it sounded like she was facing certain death. “…Go ahead.”

Qin Ke opened the door, entered the room, and turned on the light in one smooth motion.

The moment the light came on, someone drew in a sharp breath.

—

There was nothing in the room.

Unlike the previous rooms with one extra each, in this last room, the hospital bed was empty except for the undone restraints.

“As… as expected, it’s different…”

July shuddered.

Qin Ke frowned, her gaze sweeping around the room before finally stopping at one spot.

“The bathroom door.”

“…Wh-what?” Ling Shuang heard her own teeth chattering.

Qin Ke: “In every previous room, the bathroom door was closed—this one is different.”

Following Qin Ke’s words, the other four held their breath and looked over.

Indeed, the door was open a crack.

It was pitch black inside.

And at this moment when all five of them fell silent simultaneously, they finally heard a sound coming from that crack in the door:

“Drip… drip…”

It was the sound of water.

In this eerie, deathly quiet room, in the chilling mix of the white light inside and the dark gloom outside the window, that eerie water sound made their scalps tingle.

Qin Ke was the first to come to her senses.

She took out her phone and turned on the built-in flashlight app—

“Let’s go take a look.”

Ling Shuang: “Can I… refuse?”

Qin Ke: “You can. But anything unusual could happen at any time, not necessarily on either side, you know.”

Ling Shuang: “…………”

Ling Shuang: “I’ll go.”

The five of them moved over with synchronized steps.

Qin Ke and Gu Yuncheng were still walking side by side at the front.

The two of them pushed open the door and shone the flashlight at the entrance, finding nothing unusual.

Qin Ke reached out and turned on the bathroom light switch.

Everyone’s gaze swept around.

“It seems there’s nothi—Ahhhhhhhhhhh…!!”

Qi Tian suddenly jumped onto Ling Shuang.

The three guests, except for Qin Ke and Gu Yuncheng, started screaming at the top of their lungs, performing an impromptu high-pitched trio.

Qin Ke really couldn’t laugh at this point.

—

The last place their eyes had fallen was on the large bathtub at the far end of the bathroom.

At first glance, there was nothing, but looking closer, they could see a person hunched over lying in the bathtub.

Half of their face was submerged in the thin layer of water at the bottom of the tub, their posture very strange, looking nothing like a living person no matter how you looked at it.

Qin Ke couldn’t help but have her pupils contract slightly.

A few seconds later, however, she suddenly let out a sigh of relief and spoke with a mix of amusement and exasperation. “…It’s fake.”

“—Huh?”

The three who were in the middle of screaming stopped.

Qin Ke pointed, “Although it’s indeed simulating a dead body, it’s essentially a highly realistic dummy.”

Ling Shuang glanced over and quickly turned her head back. “That doesn’t comfort me at all.”

Qin Ke was about to say something else when the broadcast in the building sounded again.

Whether it was because the directing team had a guilty conscience or they were truly frightened by the earlier screaming trio, this time the voice and tone used in the broadcast were much more normal—

[Congratulations to the guests for discovering the crime scene.]

Ling Shuang’s eyes were fierce. “Who’s congratulating? Is this something to be congratulated for? Who designed this script anyway? Weren’t they scared writing this late at night at home!?”

The broadcast continued, oblivious to her outburst.

[According to the initial forensic examination, this is the primary crime scene. The victim died from drowning, with signs of painful struggle before death, but no traces of external force.]

[After learning this, the town residents have been spreading rumors of ghost involvement. Please, guests, determine the method of death, restore the truth, and calm the public.]

Several seconds after the broadcast ended, the room was still dead silent.

Finally, July let out a long sigh, covering his chest and said gloomily.

“The public’s hearts are already shattered with fear, they can’t be calmed.”

Qin Ke looked back and saw that except for herself and Gu Yuncheng, the other three were pale-faced with fearful eyes. Let alone making accurate observations and judgments, if asked “what’s one plus one” right now, they’d probably take a while to react.

Qin Ke turned back helplessly and looked at Gu Yuncheng.

“Shall we examine it?”

“Mm.”

After confirming it was just a dummy, Gu Yuncheng didn’t show much emotional fluctuation. He nodded and walked forward with Qin Ke.

The dummy was made incredibly realistically, with skin that felt very elastic to the touch, and even marks from being tied up with restraints on the hospital bed.

Fortunately, its weight was very “fake,” and Gu Yuncheng didn’t need Qin Ke’s help to turn over the drowned dummy in the bathtub by himself.

From behind came occasional low exclamations with varying tones.

To lighten the mood, Qin Ke joked, “Aren’t we contaminating the crime scene?”

Gu Yuncheng: “I think our roles should be like a special investigation team, so it doesn’t count.”

Qin Ke thought for a moment and smiled.

“You’re right.”

After moving the dummy out, Gu Yuncheng began examining the bathtub, speaking as he did so. “Since this is the primary crime scene, it means it drowned right here in this bathtub.”

Qin Ke nodded. “Mm.”

Gu Yuncheng frowned.

He reached out to test the bottom of the bathtub, “The plug at the bottom is fixed, which means there’s no possibility of draining some water after drowning someone…”

Gu Yuncheng frowned as he looked at the dummy.

“It drowned… in water less than 10 centimeters deep?”

From the three people standing outside the door, Ling Shuang nervously reminded, “And, the broadcast said there were no signs of external force on the body…”

July shuddered. “Could… could it really be… a gh-ghost that drowned it?”

Qi Tian’s face turned pale.

Gu Yuncheng turned around and made a rare joke.

“Weren’t you an atheist?”

July looked like he was about to cry.

Ling Shuang was also nervous, her gaze shifting. “Qin Ke, why… aren’t you saying anything?”

Qin Ke remained silent.

After another few dozen seconds, her eyes finally lit up.

“I found it.”