Chapter 12 The Straw Dolls

Zhao Xingguo staggered back a few steps, his face deathly pale. Although he had prepared himself mentally, the sudden sight still made his heart race.

"What's wrong?" Fu Fu asked.

"There... there's someone," Zhao Xingguo stuttered uncontrollably, his anxiety rising. "He's... he's hanging from the rafters."

Hanging from the rafters...

"Can you see who it is?" Jiang Cheng asked immediately.

"No... no, I only saw a pair of legs." Zhao Xingguo answered honestly. Just thinking about the legs swaying slightly in mid-air sent chills down his spine.

There was no use guessing outside; they had to go in to find out the truth.

But before going in, Zhao Xingguo needed to be dealt with. Ever since the incidents with Pan Du and Linghu Yong, he was a changed man, his mental state constantly unstable.

Jiang Cheng turned to him, his tone cold. "Get yourself under control. If you're too scared, stay outside."

The situation inside was unclear. Taking Zhao Xingguo in his current state would only cause trouble.

Perhaps understanding Jiang Cheng's meaning, Zhao Xingguo shivered. He couldn't bear to be left alone outside.

He had been aware of his emotional instability lately, so he immediately adjusted himself. After a few deep breaths, he appeared much calmer.

Jiang Cheng nodded, exchanged a glance with Fu Fu, and together they slowly pushed the door open.

A grating sound filled the air, and the next moment, the cold moonlight illuminated the room, opening up their view.

The sight before them stopped them in their tracks.

It wasn't just one person as Zhao Xingguo had said, but five bodies hanging from the rafters!

The bodies were arranged one behind the other. Due to the light, they couldn't see the upper halves, only the dangling legs.

A gust of wind blew through, causing the legs to sway slightly, and they could faintly hear the creaking of the ropes struggling to bear the weight.

Zhao Xingguo finally understood why the man who led them here hadn't wanted them to come in.

Seeing such a scene in the middle of the night was enough to scare anyone to death.

But after a while, they noticed something was off. These weren't real corpses, but straw figures.

The straw figures were dressed in clothes, so at first glance, they looked like real people hanging there.

"It's a recreation of the scene," Zhao Xingguo said softly. "Someone was indeed hanged on the rafters not long ago, but the bodies were taken away. The straw figures are used to help with the investigation."

Five people hanged at once. The scene was despairing to imagine.

The straw figures were more detailed than expected. The one closest to them wore black pants that were rather baggy, and a leather jacket on top.

The leather jacket was long, almost to the knees, giving off a heavy, vintage feel, suggesting someone of status.

Next to the first straw figure was another one wearing a floral padded jacket, clearly a woman.

Combining this with what Wu Dali had said, these two straw figures likely represented Master Feng and the Feng family's matriarch, who were hanged here.

"No wonder they immediately thought we were involved in this case," Fu Fu said, staring at the other straw figures.

The clothes on the other three straw figures corresponded to Pan Du, Linghu Yong, and Chen Qiang. The sight of the three straw figures dressed in their clothes hanging from the rafters was disturbing.

Apparently, they were found hanging together with the bodies of Master Feng and the Feng family's matriarch, all in this hall.

No, it should be called a mourning hall now.

After all, there were black and white portraits of Master Feng and the Feng family's matriarch on the table in the center.

Against the wall were piles of white paper flowers and paper money.

Several crudely made paper figures leaned against the wall, male and female, their exaggerated features looking even more eerie in the dim light, as if they could come to life at any moment.

A box placed in front of the portraits caught their attention.

The box looked like an ordinary gift box, as if brought by a relative or friend who had come to offer condolences to the Feng family and simply left there.

It was wrapped a few times with thin hemp rope, tied in a simple knot.

A gentle tug would reveal what was inside.

Looking at the gift box, everyone felt an inexplicable sense of unease. Zhao Xingguo looked around, trying to figure out what was wrong.

Slowly lifting the gift box, Jiang Cheng's first impression was that it was light.

Very light.

If it weren't for something moving inside, he would have thought it was empty. He shook the gift box gently, and the feedback from the contents was strange.

Through the gift box, he could sense that the object inside wasn't small, and it was... rough. He could hear it scraping against the inner walls of the box, as if it had many jagged spikes.

The next moment, he immediately put down the gift box and stepped back.

"What did you find?" Fu Fu had been examining Master Feng's portrait and was caught off guard by Jiang Cheng's sudden movement.

Jiang Cheng stared at the gift box and said in a low voice, "It's a straw figure."

Hearing this, Zhao Xingguo swallowed hard, instinctively moving away from the gift box.

Straw figures were the source of the curse. If Zhao Xingguo had to describe it, a straw figure was like a curse doll, and anyone who became involved with it would be dragged into a dream by a ghost and killed.

This gift box was placed in a conspicuous location. Anyone who came here would notice it. If they had opened it rashly, the consequences...

It was a trap.

Realizing this, Jiang Cheng lowered his voice and tried to minimize his movements. "Don't touch anything. Slowly back away."

One step, two steps... Whether it was psychological or not, the further they got from the gift box, the more the unease in their hearts dissipated.

Just as Zhao Xingguo breathed a sigh of relief...

"How did you get in here?" A voice suddenly boomed from behind, sounding like it was right at the door. "Didn't I tell you not to come in?!"

It was the young man's voice, the one who had led them here.

He was clearly furious that they had disobeyed him and entered the scene without permission.

Zhao Xingguo was startled and instinctively turned around to look behind him. "Don't misunderstand, we are..."

The next moment, his voice stopped abruptly.

Zhao Xingguo stared wide-eyed at what was behind him, his mouth open, but he couldn't make a sound.

There was no one behind him.

Moreover, the path they had just walked on had disappeared, and even the door was gone. All that remained behind him was endless darkness.

"This is bad..."

......

"Idiot!" Fu Fu and Jiang Cheng stood together in the center of the mourning hall. Zhao Xingguo was nowhere to be seen.

As soon as they heard the voice, they knew something was wrong.

So, no one answered, and no one was foolish enough to look back.

Along with Zhao Xingguo, the strange atmosphere in the mourning hall had also disappeared. Fu Fu stepped forward and picked up the gift box in front of the portrait.

Jiang Cheng was about to stop her when he saw Fu Fu lift the gift box, turning one side towards him. "Thanks to that idiot, we're safe now."

Jiang Cheng noticed a hole in the bottom of the gift box, with jagged edges, as if it had been torn open from the inside by claws.