Chapter 82: Wang Family Funeral Home
Lu Jinzhao and Meng Ning’s footsteps were exceptionally cautious, growing more prudent the closer they got to the service hall.
Having lost her hearing, she clearly shouldn’t be able to hear her own breathing, yet Meng Ning felt as if she could hear her own rapid and tense nasal breaths.
Although she had a premonition in her heart that tonight’s patrol might not go smoothly from the start, they had only just approached the service hall when the flashlight light in her hand began to flicker on and off.
Was it caused by the ghost’s weirdness interference?
Meng Ning had seen this statement on the forum: inside the platform exists 【weirdness interference】, which causes some technological items to malfunction, depriving humans of communication and lighting means.
Even with full signal bars, mobile phone calls couldn’t get through; even with a fully charged mobile phone, the battery would drain at a weird speed, and sometimes it wouldn’t even turn on.
No modern equipment inside the platform can be said to be absolutely reliable.
This is also one of the things that fills passengers with fear.
When the tools humans rely on for survival are weakened, and they can only gamble against the ghost with their own strength, how much chance of winning remains?
Just like at this moment, after several flickers, the flashlight light suddenly malfunctioned and completely disappeared.
Even though she was prepared, Meng Ning’s heart still skipped a beat.
Fortunately, the flashlight light was gone, but the funeral home hadn’t had a power outage yet.
This seemed like just an omen, an inauspicious omen.
The two continued walking forward. Without the illuminating flashlight in hand, both tacitly avoided directly using their mobile phone lights.
Who knew how long a fully charged mobile phone could last in this see-a-ghost place?
Hearing no sounds and without any lighting in hand, from afar, they could only see the service hall standing in the darkness ahead. Whether it was an illusion or not, Meng Ning felt this building was eerily terrifying.
But Lu Jinzhao ahead didn’t stop her steps, so she could only follow closely.
Sometimes, like in moments like this, Meng Ning wondered if Lu Jinzhao didn’t feel afraid at all.
How could her steps be so steady, without a trace of trembling?
She was clearly just like her, a low-level passenger circling in Class C Instances.
Lu Jinzhao was unaware of Meng Ning’s wild thoughts at this moment.
To say she felt no fear at all was impossible.
Even though she had experienced more terrifying moments, fear has no immunity.
Would someone afraid of ghosts stop fearing them after watching a scary horror movie?
No, she would fear ghosts even more.
Lu Jinzhao couldn’t say if she feared ghosts more now, because of the parchment’s invasion, part of her thinking no longer belonged to herself, but the part that belonged to “Lu Jinzhao” and to “a human” still made her feel fear of ghosts.
Losing her hearing made her uncomfortable, but it also reminded her of something that happened when she was little.
She was frail and sickly as a child, bedridden for years, and being too young, she couldn’t remember many things clearly.
But now she recalled one thing.
This wasn’t the first time she couldn’t hear.
Once, she suddenly developed a high fever for no reason, burning until she lost her hearing.
Not only that, as time passed, her high fever persisted. It started with not hearing, then she burned so badly she couldn’t even see with her eyes, and she wasn’t afraid of bitter medicine anymore because even her sense of taste was gone.
According to her mother’s recollection, at that time she thought she was about to die; calling her got no response, and slapping her face elicited no reaction.
For some reason, she didn’t remember this severe illness memory very clearly.
After her mind wandered for a few seconds, Lu Jinzhao pulled herself back to the present.
At this moment, she was only a few steps away from the service hall.
Fortunately, up to now, the funeral home still hadn’t had a power outage.
“Maybe the time hasn’t come yet?”
Lu Jinzhao was certain there would be a power outage tonight; for the ghost, the earlier the power outage, the more advantageous, right?
If it’s not cutting power now, what is it waiting for?
In her agreement with Meng Ning, they would take turns opening the doors of the patrol locations, but the first door would be opened by her.
Lu Jinzhao took out her mobile phone and held it in her hand; her mobile phone had a shortcut key for the mobile phone flashlight on the side button.
Lu Jinzhao didn’t prepare herself mentally a second time; instead, taking advantage of no power outage yet, she quickly walked toward the service hall. In any case, the funeral home without a power outage probably wouldn’t be more dangerous than after a power outage.
She wanted to patrol the first location as much as possible before the power outage, to reduce risk.
The click-click of footsteps echoed in the night sky, but the only two living people here couldn’t hear anything.
They approached the door of the service hall.
Lights were on inside, with no human figures.
Meng Ning wasn’t surprised by this, but Lu Jinzhao was somewhat astonished.
But… lights on is best; they could see inside the service hall from the window. At least, from outside the window, no human figures were visible, nor ghost shadows.
To be safe, Lu Jinzhao still prepared to open the door and take a look.
She had always done it this way before; she didn’t want any accidents to happen on the last night because she skipped it.
Lu Jinzhao’s face was taut, appearing nearly expressionless, a bit serious, with no visible sense of fear—only she knew that as she reached out to push open the service hall door, her heartbeat and breathing accelerated.
—Click
It was the sound of a hand landing on the door handle, twisting, and pushing open the door.
At this time, there was still no power outage.
She pushed the door open; there was light in the hall, so no need to turn on lights to see clearly. When the door gap was wide enough for her to look inside the service hall…
Bang
A faint power outage sound came, and the world plunged into darkness.
Lu Jinzhao didn’t hear this sound; she could only feel the sudden plunge into darkness before her eyes, and at this moment, she had just directed her gaze inside the service hall.
Power outage.
In this instant, Lu Jinzhao felt the familiar alarm from her subconscious—echoing in her brain during several past death crises—ring out.
The nearly sharp sense of crisis made all the hairs on her body stand on end; the next moment, she immediately turned on the mobile phone flashlight in her hand.
In the door gap… nothing was there.
But… was it an illusion?
When that moment of darkness descended, Lu Jinzhao felt she had made eye contact with something.
That thing, in the darkness, had seen her.
But in the service hall where the lights had just been on, clearly nothing was there.
Meng Ning behind her had a deathly pale complexion; she didn’t have that feeling, merely startled by the power outage.
Because she knew a power outage meant danger, greater danger had arrived.
Lu Jinzhao had completed her patrol mission and immediately turned to walk in the other direction, while Meng Ning behind her, with a mournful face, quickly glanced inside the hall with her mobile phone and hurriedly followed.
At this moment, Lu Jinzhao checked her mobile phone’s battery.
Sure enough, the battery was draining at an unscientific speed.
Keeping the light on continuously absolutely wouldn’t last long!
