322 Source of Hatred

 

The pain that eased due to the medicine returned. Zhuang Ren scrunched up his face in pain.

“Why would your name be among Zhuang Wen’s curses? Is there really no relationship between you and Zhuang Wen’s mother?” Han Fei continued to control the character, but his voice was turning ugly.

“Really, there’s nothing between us! When she was in my movie, her mental condition was already fraying. She often returned to the set alone at midnight, no one knew what she was doing and I definitely did not have a child with her!” Zhuang Ren pleaded with his hand on his chest.

“She returned to the set alone at midnight? Based on what I know, you’ve only worked on horror movies, wasn’t she afraid?”

“The last movie that I shot was called Dreaming. After I have enough money, I plan to shoot a real horror film to prove myself but the shooting got halted due to various reasons!” Zhuang Ren forced himself to stand up. “I still have some of the recordings from back then. It was also at that moment that I started to ruminate over what the Director of Immortal Pharma said. I can show you all the recordings. All I beg of you is that you open the other room doors and see if my family is trapped inside Room 1244 by Zhuang Wen!”

Zhuang Ren’s body shook from emotions. Han Fei didn’t say anything and turned his attention back to the game. Room 1244 was like a hellhole, covered with curses and talismans. Han Fei opened all the rooms and found no trace of Zhuang Ren’s family. Eventually only the main bedroom was left. “This is the last room!” Zhuang Ren’s heart rose, he had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

The bedroom door opened to reveal not Zhuang Ren’s family but a little girl. She sat beside the window with her legs crossed. She had innocence on her face, unaffected by her environment.

“A girl?” Zhuang Ren stared at the screen and the fight went out from him. He appeared to grow old in mere moments. He stood flummoxed for seconds before he sighed and turned towards the bedroom. It sounded like he was searching for the tapes for Han Fei to prove his innocence. After Zhuang Ren left, Han Fei’s character approached the girl and initiated the conversation prompt.

The girl didn’t seem to have a name, she didn’t know who her parents were but she did know that this was not her home. Her home was under the balcony bricks. When he obtained the key to Room 1244, Han Fei’s character had already been affected by Death Curse. He didn’t waste time and hurried to the balcony. The balcony door was covered with talismans and the balcony itself was painted with ritualistic symbols. Han Fei controlled the character to check the brick one by one. When he reached the brick in the middle of the balcony, the game hinted at him that he had found something. He selected for his character to interact with it. He peeled it loose. At that moment, the dawning sun shone into the space underneath the brick, there was a corpse of a baby under there. The moment the corpse was discovered, every talisman in Room 1244 was dyed red. The screen turned red like all the hatred was triggered in that moment. The Death Curse on Han Fei’s ingame character was forcibly triggered and he melted into a pool of blood.

‘Why was there a nameless, parentless girl inside Room 1244? And the source of all the hatred is a baby corpse?’ Bad omen rose in Han Fei’s heart. Han Fei put down the controller and called Li Xue’s again. “Did you find anything else?”

“I hope you can help me investigate something. Zhuang Wen who died 14 years ago, can you still get her coroner’s report? I want to know if she has given birth before she died.”

“Okay.”

“There’s one more thing. Do you have the right to compare Zhuang Wen’s DNA with a living person? I suspect Zhuang Wen might be the horror movie director, Zhuang Ren’s daughter. I hope you can look into the citizenry database for me.”

“I’ll need to submit a request for that, I’ll reply to you in 10 minutes.” Then Li Xue hung up. At that moment, Zhuang Ren came out from the bedroom. He fixed all the equipment and played the tapes for Han Fei to see. “We suspected someone was sabotaging us because problems kept happening at the set. Therefore, we decided to put security cameras around the set and these were the things we caught.” Zhuang Ren pointed at the aged computer screen and the videos that came on were quite creepy.

A very beautiful female actor walked into the set alone. She appeared to be talking to someone, occasionally flirting and showing some skin. The ‘someone’ appeared to know the presence of the camera because they hid at the blind spot. Then we could see clearly, Yuan Shuang was dragged away by some force deeper into the set.

“Where did you shoot the movie?”

“It was at the building in this neighbourhood, which was bought by Immortal Pharma. At the time, they hadn’t made the purchase and the building wasn’t yet sealed.” Zhuang Ren pointed at the screen, “She lost her mind after that. She kept telling me many strange things but I had no idea what she was talking about!”

“Wait, the same building where the Director of Immortal Pharma spent his childhood?”

“Yes, but when we made the movie, he had long since moved away. Now that you mention it, that is quite a strange coincidence. In fact, not long after the actor went insane, Immortal Pharma bought the building with a fee way above the market price. They sealed off the place and no one was able to enter it since.” Zhuang Ren had something else to say but Li Xue’s call came in then. Han Fei picked up his phone and walked out of the room.

“Zhuang Ren and Zhuang Wen have no blood relationship, but we did find something weird. According to the database, Zhuang Wen’s biological father is unknown.” Li Xue had helped verify Zhuang Ren’s statement. Perhaps Yuan Shuang did run into someone back then and he had been staying in the building where the Director of Immortal Pharma grew up.

“Have you checked Zhuang Wen’s coroner’s report?”

“She wasn’t pregnant when she died but she did give birth before. After her death, her family was investigated but they all soon died in the same manner as Zhuang Ren did so the case ended there. The house they owned is a famous haunted apartment and has been left empty until now.”

“Can we go over there to look? I’ve discovered some disturbing details and I hope to verify them in person.” When Han Fei first encountered the jumper woman, the system told him that she was a monster who failed to overcome her hatred. Just what had to have happened to a person to morph into something like that?

After getting Li Xue’s permission, Han Fei returned to the game. Room 1244 appeared to be a dead end. No matter how hard Han Fei tried, he couldn’t clear it. His progress was stuck.

3 hours later, Li Xue and her colleagues who got the key to Zhuang Wen’s former home arrived. They brought Han Fei to a rather high-end neighbourhood at Xin Lu. With the land owner leading the way, they came to the top floor of the building. The moment they opened the door, they were shocked by the dusty, innumerable talismans inside the room. As they entered the room, everyone including Han Fei had to take a moment. The room was similar to Room 1244 in the Ziggurat game. The walls were painted with strange curses and there were many grotesque and eerie objects.

“This place is haunted and no one dares to rent it. I hear the last family all jumped to their deaths. It’s a horrifying place.” The land owner didn’t dare to even enter. After a moment of observation, Han Fei pushed open the door to the storage room. There was a small bed with a shackle sitting on it.

He walked out from the storage room and entered the main bedroom. He pulled off the layer of talismans on the balcony door and forced it open. The sun shone on the ground. Han Fei’s eyes wandered to the brick in the middle of the balcony.

Li Xue ordered, “Someone put on the gloves and pry this brick loose.” As the brick was shattered, a box which was wrapped in strange talismans appeared. It was painted with inexplicable patterns. After removing the talismans and ropes, the box cracked and shattered to reveal the bones of a baby inside.