Nightmare Apostle

"Thank you, thank you Captain Ma for understanding me." Hu Weimin was moved to tears.

Then Yang Xiao walked out of the dormitory again, wandering around each ward, chatting with the patients who stayed at the clinic last night.

The result was more or less what Yang Xiao had expected. Everyone had a peaceful night without any strange occurrences. Ma Jing seemed to have disappeared into thin air and there were nurses on night duty in the duty room behind the clinic’s door.

A team member from the security department brought breakfast for Yang Xiao and the others, and the three of them made do with eating a bite in the dormitory.

𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Hu Weimin had no appetite at all due to Ma Jing’s disappearance. He was utterly dejected and worried.

While Yang Xiao and the others were cleaning up the dishes, hurried footsteps sounded from the corridor outside. The heavy heels of old-fashioned leather shoes clattered on the ground with a "thud, thud" sound.

Yang Xiao turned around and saw Chief Zhou striding in.

"Found them!" Chief Zhou said immediately upon meeting, "The person you wanted!"

"Who?!" Yang Xiao was taken aback by the sudden scene.

Chief Zhou sat by the table, unceremoniously grabbed the enamel mug on the table, and gulped down more than half of it. He then wiped his mouth with his sleeve:

"The person you were looking for, the first-class meal ticket on Wang Yong’s body, we found the owner of that meal ticket."

"She’s a female employee named Wu Hui. According to her, they met at the dance hall, and Wang Yong took the initiative to invite her to dance two dances."

"Then, as she was leaving the dance hall, Wang Yong chased after her."

"Wu Hui had always wanted a watch, a Hai brand one. Wang Yong said he had connections and could get one for her."

"That’s how they got involved with each other, and Wang Yong asked her a bunch of weird questions."

"Then before they parted, Wu Hui gave him a first-class meal ticket, promising to date Wang Yong if he could get the watch. Wang Yong promised he could get the watch in a week." Chief Zhou explained in detail, clearly having already questioned Wu Hui about the situation.

"Were they flirting at the corner at the end of the second-floor corridor?" Yang Xiao suddenly asked.

At this, Chief Zhou’s eyes lit up, and he nodded: "Yes, that’s the place. Young employees in the factory often go there to date."

"It’s quite dark there, and no one goes there to enforce discipline, which the factory leaders tacitly understand."

Upon hearing this, Ye Zheng understood most of it. Wang Yong had an affair there, and then that very night he died, and his body was discarded next to the corner in the abandoned toilet.

All of this is connected; the ghost doesn’t kill at random and discard bodies. According to this logic, the most likely place for Ma Jing’s body to appear tonight is the cafeteria.

"Chief Zhou, I need you to investigate the other three victims, Zhang Xiujuan, Old Zhang from the equipment department, and Pan Xiaoxiao, focusing on their private lives." Yang Xiao emphasized.

"No problem with that, but I need to leave for a while now and should be back by evening," Chief Zhou said.

"Where are you going?"

"I’m going to the towel factory to interrogate Cui Hongying." Chief Zhou stated seriously, "She might be the breakthrough in this case."

"I’ll go too." Yang Xiao volunteered.

"You...you’d better stay. You’re a new face, and I’m worried..."

After a pause, Chief Zhou sighed and nodded: "Alright, but you can only listen in, don’t talk too much."

"Okay." Yang Xiao agreed.

Chief Zhou told Yang Xiao to meet at the security department in half an hour, where a vehicle would come to pick them up, then hurriedly left.

After Chief Zhou left, the remaining people in the room were all on their own side. Yang Xiao instructed Ye Zheng to find Guo Tiejun after he left and carefully inquire whether Feng Xiaoyan had any abnormal interactions with the opposite sex before disappearing.

"I understand." Ye Zheng keenly perceived the critical point of the problem, "This ghost targets those who are unfaithful in marriage or relationships, kills them, and peels their faces as a form of punishment."

"No, what’s the connection here? What about Ma Jing, why was she killed by the ghost?" Hu Weimin was utterly puzzled.

"At the cafeteria, what did Ma Jing do?" Ye Zheng looked at Hu Weimin, "She saved a man and gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, right?"

"Does that count?" Hu Weimin was shocked, feeling wronged, "Ma Jing was saving a life, is that wrong?"

"Are you trying to reason with the ghost?" Ye Zheng retorted.

Hu Weimin took a deep breath, closed his mouth tightly, and said nothing. If this hypothesis held, then Feng Xiaoyan’s death was probably also unjust.

Ye Zheng increasingly found this hypothesis plausible, especially since the arrangement of this mission was quite intriguing.

There were ten of them in total, 5 men and 5 women, paired up as either couples or partners, as though it was custom-tailored for them, a custom-tailored hell.

Soon after, Yang Xiao headed to the security department to find Chief Zhou, while Ye Zheng took Hu Weimin to find Guo Tiejun and the other teammates.

Just arriving at the security department, the truck responsible for picking them up arrived. It was an old Liberation truck with a square head, round headlights, and an open iron cargo bed at the back. The cab was very high, requiring steps to climb up.

Including Chief Zhou, a total of five people went this time. It was impossible for all five to squeeze into the cab.

Besides Chief Zhou and Yang Xiao, the other three security department officers skillfully jumped into the cargo bed at the back of the truck.