Chapter 48 The Source of the Odor

"Your phone has been off every time I tried to call you."

"Where are you right now?"

"The security on Pingan Street isn't very good. Shall I come pick you up?"

Lu Simin's voice came through again.

[This voice sounds quite normal.]

[I can't figure it out now. What's the deal with the woman from earlier, the woman on the phone now, and the business card in that room?]

[Damn, me too! I'm confused!]

[...Could this one be fake too??]

The chat messages kept flying by.

"Where are you?"

Lu Xian asked.

Judging by her voice, he felt that Lu Simin was quite young.

But the previous information indicated that Lu Simin was his 'dad's' friend.

That would make her at least thirty or forty, right?

So Lu Xian didn't know how to address her. Auntie? Big sister?

"I'm at home. Where are you? Are you lost?"

Lu Simin asked in return.

"What's the room number?"

The other end of the line was silent for a moment before whispering:

"Don't ask that directly. I'll come pick you up. Have you found that collective housing building yet?"

{Current exploration progress of Madman Street weird rules: 12%.}

Can't tell others the detailed address directly?

Lu Xian was a bit surprised by this weird rule.

After all, he had come here by following an address.

No. 36 Pingan Street, collective housing building. He didn't know the specific room number.

"Can I contact you when I arrive?"

"Okay. Remember, don't go upstairs randomly; you have to listen to me. Someone just broke a taboo again. Judging by the sound, it seems to be on my floor, and it sounded quite familiar."

"Mm."

Lu Xian nodded and hung up the phone shortly after.

"That Lu Simin should also be a resident of this building," Lu Xian said.

"But I plan to look around here first to see if there are any other clues."

There were three rooms. He had already searched the bedroom with the suitcase and found two clues about the weird rules.

Now, he would go check out the bedroom with the stench.

Carrying the bone-shattering flying hammer, Lu Xian entered that bedroom again, and the faint, strange stench assaulted his nostrils once more.

In the hundred-square-meter, empty and dead-silent old apartment, the lights in the living room were dimly flickering.

The stir-fried raw meat and blood on the dining table, and the faces of the human heads in the kitchen refrigerator that had died with their eyes wide open.

All of these constantly revealed that a terrifying and weird event had occurred here.

[Brothers, I'm a little scared.]

[First-person horror movie. I keep feeling like someone is watching me from behind...]

[Brother Lu, open the wardrobe first. I feel like there's a problem there.]

Lu Xian glanced at the chat and nodded.

He had already searched the desk area. Now only the wardrobe, the bed, and behind the curtains remained.

Creak~ He carefully opened the wardrobe.

What if a monster jumped out and latched onto his face? That would be disastrous, right?

However, the corpses and ghosts that everyone expected did not appear.

A scent of mothballs assaulted his nostrils.

He saw the wardrobe was filled with all sorts of clothes: men's suits, casual wear, sportswear, women's dresses, underwear...

"Hmm?"

"This is..."

Soon, he saw two unusual sets of clothes. Blue and white striped hospital gowns!

On the chest, there were six embroidered characters: [Affiliated Psychiatric Hospital].

"These are hospital gowns? Why are they here?"

Lu Xian looked surprised.

He picked them up to compare and found that the sizes were different—one was XXL, the other was L.

Their origin was unknown. Could it be...

Recalling the woman who liked to eat raw 'pig brains', Lu Xian thought of a terrifying fact.

"I'm afraid this murderer is a repeat offender," Lu Xian told everyone in the livestream room.

If his deductions were correct, this room should be hiding corpses!

He searched the wardrobe thoroughly. Aside from those two special hospital gowns, there were no clues about the weird rules, nor did he find the source of the stench.

"Let's check the bed."

He threw the hospital gowns onto the desk and lowered his head to check under the bed.

Because this was a four-poster bed, there was a large gap underneath where someone could hide.

He remembered there was a weird rule here: 'If you hear chewing sounds under the bed, do not look down.'

But there was no movement yet. Even if there were, he wanted to see it for himself.

Once he put on the anti-stab gold chain, he was the toughest boss here.

"I've found the source of the corpse stench, Family members."

Lu Xian's expression tightened.

Under the bed, he saw a quilt with a human-like silhouette.

The surface of the quilt was wrapped in transparent plastic, and it was tied tightly with rope on the outside.

The next moment, Lu Xian gently lifted the foot of the bed and flipped it over.

A pool of unknown yellow liquid had already accumulated on the floor from the plastic wrapping of the long, bundled-up quilt.

A large number of yellow-white maggots were wriggling in and out of the quilt.

"..." Lu Xian held his breath and narrowed his eyes.

[Ugh~]

[Damn, this is too terrifying!]

[I can't handle this imagery! Help me~]

[It makes me so angry, that crazy woman deserved to be killed!]

Everyone was cursing. There was no need to imagine; the scene inside the quilt must be even more terrifying!

"I won't be performing an autopsy on this."

After saying this, Lu Xian walked over to the curtains and pulled them aside.

Everyone was astonished. The original window location had been completely walled up with red bricks, sealing it shut.

On the wall, there was a sentence: [Do not look outside the window at night.]

{Current exploration progress of Madman Street weird rules: 14%.}

Seeing no other clues, he collected the two hospital gowns. Lu Xian exited the foul-smelling room and closed the door.

After flipping the bed, the odor inside had been even more overwhelming. Only after coming out did he dare to breathe.

"The more information I get about the weird rules, the more I feel that the rules here can be deduced."

Lu Xian said. These things look weird, but they are all very ordinary daily behaviors, just with some horror elements added.

For example, things like not looking in the mirror at night, not responding when someone calls from behind, not turning around, etc.

These are common phenomena in weird and paranormal events.

Soon, Lu Xian arrived at the third room.

Creak~ The door wasn't locked. It was pitch black inside.

A pungent scent of perfume wafted over. Click~ He turned on the light.

The layout of the room was similar to the other two bedrooms, with a more feminine style.

But there were clearly some extra things here, such as a dressing table and some bags hanging on a tree-shaped coat rack.

"This should be the room where that woman lived," Lu Xian guessed.

Regarding those two hospital gowns, one large and one small, he seemed to have thought of something.

"There's a phone here." Soon, he found a white mobile phone on the dressing table.

After searching the room again.

"There are no other clues, and there's no stench, though the perfume scent is quite pungent."

"This vanity mirror might be a problem."

Lu Xian had noticed the vanity mirror covered by a black cloth as soon as he entered the room.

"What do you guys think? Should I uncover it?" Lu Xian asked.

There are many horror stories about mirrors. Things like seeing ghosts when looking in the mirror at midnight, or weird things happening when playing rock-paper-scissors with your reflection.

[Won't this trigger another weird entity to appear?]

[It feels pretty scary, but I like it~]

Many viewers were both cowardly and eager to watch. They kept voting, egging Lu Xian on to remove the black cloth.

"Fine, I'll satisfy you all," Lu Xian shrugged.

At the same time, he prepared himself to handle whatever might happen. He wanted to try out the effect of the anti-stab gold chain again.

The black cloth was removed! A large, square mirror appeared before everyone's eyes.

The scene in the room and the reflection of Lu Xian's upper body also appeared in the mirror.

The mirror was synchronously replicating everything in the room.

{Current exploration progress of Madman Street weird rules: 16%.}

Suddenly, the reflection, which had been normal, turned weird the very next second!

In the reflection, a human-shaped black shadow with disheveled hair and an indistinct face appeared at the bedroom door!

It drifted in like a ghost, entering the bedroom silently! It stood behind Lu Xian!