Chapter 17 The Photo

And the "villagers" who delivered the meat soup eventually returned to this building.

So...

As he pondered deeper, Zhou Rong's face grew increasingly grim. Just then, a hand suddenly appeared behind him, slapping him hard. The suddenness almost made him cry out.

He immediately turned around to face Jiang Cheng's very serious expression.

Jiang Cheng pointed behind Zhou Rong.

The latter was stunned, then his throat bobbed uncontrollably. He slowly, slowly turned his head, and saw a wooden frame hanging on the wall behind him.

The frame was very old, covered in dust.

Earlier, because it was dark around, no one had noticed it.

Zhou Rong frowned and carefully took down the frame. He found that in this environment, the frame was already somewhat decayed, and the wooden edges showed signs of loosening.

He gently brushed away the dust with one hand.

Inside the frame was a group photo of six people.

In the front were an old couple. The two elders sat on wooden chairs, with four middle-aged men standing side by side behind them.

Clearly, the four men were their children.

The old people looked ordinary, but their clothes suggested they were not ordinary people.

The woman of the old couple was thin and frail, her face withered, her eyes lifeless. She wore gold bracelets and rings on both hands, and a pearl necklace around her neck.

The man of the old couple sat squarely on the wooden chair, draped in a fur coat, wearing fur-lined boots, and holding a smoking pipe.

His small eyes were slightly narrowed, revealing a sense of malice and meanness.

Just one look made him seem very unapproachable.

The four men behind him were also burly and sturdy.

One carried a hunting rifle, another held an abacus, another held a book that looked like a thread-bound volume, and the last wore a light blue floral apron.

Due to poor preservation, some of the faces were no longer clear.

But overall, the family's first impression was not good. They must have been a very powerful family in the village.

They immediately thought of the Qian family, who had been wiped out.

But… Pei Qian looked at the group photo with growing suspicion. Something didn't quite add up.

According to the village chief, the Qian family did have four children, but not four men. There were three sons and one daughter. The youngest daughter, Qian Jianxiu, had died of illness at a very young age.

Wait… Zhou Rong suddenly raised his head, as if suddenly realizing something.

He turned his head to look at the half-closed door.

The strange chopping sound… had disappeared without a trace.

Not only that, but their behavior just now had also been very strange.

As veteran players, they had been distracted by a photo when facing the near-distance threat of a ghost.

Pei Qian's face grew even stranger. He walked over, staring intently at the photo in Zhou Rong's hand, his eyes gradually becoming fiery, as if he would snatch the photo away and claim it as his own in the next second.

Now Zhou Rong understood. This photo was probably not right. It was another important clue related to the ghost.

Jiang Cheng stepped forward, blocking Pei Qian's view with his body.

After a few seconds, Pei Qian blinked as if waking up from a dream. When he opened his eyes again, his gaze had returned to normal.

He immediately realized what had happened.

Jiang Cheng reached out, took the photo album, then neatly broke the wooden frame, folded the photo in half, and stuffed it into his arms.

Pei Qian and Zhou Rong were both dumbfounded.

The photo was indeed a clue, but no one knew whether taking the photo would trigger an attack from the ghost, especially… when the ghost was only a door away.

If they were attacked by the ghost, Jiang Cheng would surely die.

Although the ghost's voice had disappeared, the three of them were sure that the ghost was still in that room, because a chilling aura was constantly emanating from the half-closed door.

They were all old players, and they had all faced ghosts at close range.

It was that kind of feeling.

Zhou Rong, who was closest to the door, didn't dare to breathe loudly. He couldn't understand. It seemed that the ghost had already noticed their presence, but why hadn't it attacked them yet?

Pei Qian was just as nervous as Zhou Rong. His eyes darted around in horror. He had spent a long time observing the building the previous evening.

He knew how many doors and windows the building had, and where they were located. This was his confidence for coming in.

According to his observation, to the left of the half-closed door, about three or four meters away, there was a door that led outside.

But it was pitch black there now.

Although the windows had been covered up by the ghost's methods, the door might not be. There would be no inescapable situation in a nightmare.

He thought there was at least a 50 percent chance that the door was the path to survival.

"Creak—"

Just as the three of them were on edge, the half-closed door opened.

In the dim afterglow, a curled-up, fragmented figure appeared behind the door.

As the figure appeared, a cold sensation instantly enveloped the three of them.

The ghost… had finally revealed itself.

Turning around and running away now would definitely be too late, and there was a high probability of becoming the ghost's target. Zhou Rong and the others held their breaths.

At this moment, all they could do was pray.

Pray that they wouldn't be the first to be attacked by the ghost.

In a nightmare, it was rare for multiple people to die at once. As long as the ghost didn't attack them first, there was a chance to escape.

The three of them tried their best to press their bodies against the wall. Zhou Rong, who was at the front, felt the greatest pressure, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably.

The ghost's face was covered in a layer of mist, but judging from its posture, it should be a woman.

Her way of moving was very strange, like wriggling. Her joints were twisted in the opposite direction, as if all the bones in her body had been broken.

After leaving the kitchen door, she unexpectedly didn't come straight at the three of them. Instead, she slowly twisted to the left, wriggled a few meters, and with a "click," light suddenly shone in.

The three of them were momentarily blinded, and the next second, the door slammed shut again.

The ghost… had left.

Zhou Rong and the others didn't dare to move until a few minutes later, when they finally accepted the fact.

Pei Qian's face was filled with disbelief. He asked in as steady a voice as possible, "She… she's gone?"

Zhou Rong took a deep breath and nodded. "I think so."

"She didn't find us?"

"We probably didn't trigger any taboos in the mission," Zhou Rong corrected in a low voice. His eyes never left the position of the door, as if he was worried that the ghost would suddenly return. He pursed his lips and continued, "If we had reacted too strongly when we heard the sound or saw her, I'm afraid we would have…"

Indeed, if it had been a newbie here, they probably would have already run away or had a mental breakdown.