The cramped, dilapidated room reeked of mildew. The top floor seemed to have a leak—the interior was damp and sealed off, making it deeply uncomfortable.
All the windows had been boarded up with planks. After checking,
"This is just an ordinary guest room." The burned furniture had long since been removed, leaving the room bare and empty, with nothing of value to be found.
"That makes sense. It's been five years—even if there was evidence back then, it probably wouldn't have survived intact."
He stepped out of the room and strolled down the pitch-black corridor. Most of the guest rooms had been cleared out, their junk piled together with household trash until there wasn't even a place to set foot.
"Household waste often reflects a person's lifestyle and personality. Maybe there's something to find here." With a new target in mind, Chen Ge endured the stench and conducted a thorough search. After more than an hour, he actually turned up something strange.
"Why are there so many stuffed toys in an apartment building? There are no children living here—who do these belong to?" He spent nearly two hours going through all the garbage and found four plush toys in total. Compared to the clutter filling the hallways, these four toys were easy to overlook. Had Chen Ge not majored in toy design and possessed a keen sensitivity for such things, he probably would have missed them too.
The toys had been lying in the trash for an unknown length of time. Their surfaces were covered in grime, some parts had gone moldy, and a gentle touch with his finger was enough to pull away handfuls of fluff.
Chen Ge examined them repeatedly, and the mysteries only multiplied. The dolls were all different shapes, but they came from the same manufacturer.
"Could they have been left behind by tenants who stayed in the apartment after the renovation?" Chen Ge quickly shook his head and dismissed the idea. "Setting aside the odds of someone bringing a child to live in a haunted apartment—even if a child were present, it's unlikely they'd carry four stuffed dolls with them. All four were made by the same producer, and judging by the craftsmanship and style, they're probably several years old at least."
The toy market churned through new models at breakneck speed. Before he took over the haunted house, Chen Ge had worked at a toy company, so he had a decent grasp of the industry.
"They weren't left by tenants, yet they were preserved in a haunted house. That means they likely belonged to the apartment itself." He ventured a bold guess: "The original owner of the apartment building had two daughters. If I'm not mistaken, these dolls were theirs."
This raised yet another question in Chen Ge's mind: "Fire and water show no mercy—the house and all the furniture were destroyed. How did these four dolls survive?"
"Was it a coincidence? Or did someone deliberately move them to a safe place?" Chen Ge felt he had latched onto a crucial lead. "The only person who could have moved items during the fire was the killer himself. But why would he risk his life to protect four stuffed dolls? Were they that important to him?"
The zipper on the back of one of the dolls had rusted shut. Chen Ge tore it open directly, and amidst the foul, rotting cotton stuffing, he found a card. It was palm-sized, every line brimming with affection—so much so that it gave Chen Ge goosebumps. "Hiding love letters inside stuffed dolls? That's an awfully subtle way to confess your feelings?"
He began piecing together the killer's personality. The person was probably a shy, introverted man—too embarrassed to say things face to face—so he had given the dolls as gifts, hoping the recipient would open them after getting home.
Driven by curiosity, Chen Ge tore open two more dolls. Each contained a card with roughly the same message.
But when he tore open the fourth doll, a chill crept silently up his spine.
There was no love letter inside the last doll. The moldy cotton stuffing was packed full of torn paper strips, and every single strip bore only three words: Go die!
An intense love had somehow transformed into the most vicious curse. What had happened in between, Chen Ge had no way of knowing.
"The writing on those strips should be from the killer—this is critical evidence." He picked out several strips and pocketed them, then turned to investigate deeper into the building, when suddenly the sound-activated light at the stairwell corner flickered on.
"Someone's here!" Chen Ge panicked. He quickly shut off his phone's flashlight, grabbed a few of the dolls, and ducked into a neighboring guest room.