Chapter 71: The Person In The Room
“No problem.” Jiang Dan took Zhang Qian’s mobile phone and entered her number on it.
After realizing that Zhang Qian was not an ordinary person, Jiang Dan was no longer so resistant to the idea of getting in touch with him.
It would be nice to make one more friend, after all, she really didn’t have any friends, whether opposite sex or same sex.
It was probably because not many people were willing to walk alongside a humanoid Grim Reaper, right?
The only best friend who wasn’t afraid of death often complained, thinking that Jiang Dan was even more outrageous than Conan in the anime.
At least the cases Conan encountered were homicides, while what happened around Jiang Dan were pure accidents.
“I’m planning to wander around the post office. Do you have any plans?” Zhang Qian invited.
It now seemed that this post office was not safe. Having one more helper would naturally mean one more share of safety.
Zhang Qian couldn’t do something like using lives to fill the killing pattern, so ordinary people were actually a burden to him, but Jiang Dan happened to be a fairly strong ghost controller.
“Ah? I…” Jiang Dan instinctively wanted to refuse.
But she was a bit conflicted. If they were to be friends, wouldn’t refusing like this make her seem ungracious?
“It’s fine. If you have other arrangements, forget it.” Seeing Jiang Dan’s hesitation, Zhang Qian took the initiative to give her a way out.
“No, no. Actually, I’m a bit curious about this place too. Let’s go take a look together.” Jiang Dan waved her hands repeatedly, afraid that Zhang Qian would think she was an aloof person.
Anyway, going home would just mean watching television, so wandering around here could be considered a stroll.
However, daring to treat the ghost post office like a park for strolling—this mindset was probably unique to her.
At least Zhang Qian wouldn’t dare to do that.
“Wait a moment. Let me organize my things.” Zhang Qian opened his backpack and carried the possibly needed items on him.
The most important among them was naturally the ghost candle, along with some scattered small items.
“This place is quite dangerous. Don’t you need to prepare?”
“I’ll pass.” Jiang Dan quietly hid her shoulder bag behind her back.
She didn’t have Zhang Qian’s thorough preparations, only some snacks she carried at all times.
“Alright, let’s go.”
Jiang Dan’s little action naturally didn’t escape Zhang Qian’s eyes, but he didn’t ask further, assuming she had some secret trump card.
The two walked out of Room 103 side by side, with pitch-black corridors on both sides.
“Do you have any place you want to go?” Zhang Qian asked.
“Uh…” Jiang Dan felt deeply lost; she didn’t know any places at all.
So she pointed in a direction based on feeling, “Let’s check the right side first?”
“To the hall first? That’s pretty much my idea too.” Zhang Qian nodded in agreement. “Those portraits do look off. They can serve as a starting point for exploration.”
As expected, Jiang Dan wasn’t as simple as she seemed. She might have quietly conducted some investigation already.
“Yeah… I think so too.” Jiang Dan didn’t understand what Zhang Qian was saying but still responded seriously.
In this environment, Zhang Qian naturally had no mind for idle chat. Jiang Dan on the side wanted to make conversation but was troubled by her lack of such experience.
Thus, the two walked to the hall in silence, their footsteps attracting the numerous figures in the portraits.
But when they saw that the visitor was Zhang Qian, they silently withdrew their gazes.
Scaring ignorant newcomers was fun. This guy knew they were alive—who would end up being the joke?
Zhang Qian ignored these numb portrait people and went straight to the spot where he had encountered the youth yesterday evening.
“It’s gone?”
The painting hanging in the corner clearly depicted the youth’s portrait. Even if the person in painting disappeared, it should still show some room.
But now, what hung there was a landscape painting: endless fields, a winding path…
“No, it’s still the original painting, but the scene has been cropped, leaving only the scenery outside the room, without the view inside the room.” Zhang Qian spotted the clue.
Was there some secret in the room that needed to be hidden?
At this moment, in a certain cramped room.
A man around thirty years old sat cross-legged on the floor, quietly wiping the rusty great saber.
Yet as the cloth passed over it, the bloodstains on the blade showed no sign of fading. Instead, they gradually merged into the blade with the man’s actions.
The source of the blood: a decapitated corpse lay on the floor nearby.
Though the corpse was decayed, a dent from a massive impact was still visible on the head.
A normal human head would have exploded, but this head eerily remained intact at the moment just before bursting.
Though the contents inside the skull were visible, its structure was still intact.
“This painting is so ugly.”
The female voice that suddenly rang out in the room made the man’s hand pause.
“Pfft—”
The youth curled up in the corner of the room couldn’t hold back and burst out laughing.
Sensing the man’s icy cold gaze, the youth instinctively wanted to slap himself twice.
At this moment, he remembered that he no longer had hands.
Not just hands—his feet had also been chopped off by the man before him a day ago.
However, people in paintings didn’t have pain sensations. They could even pick up their limbs and reassemble them, so it didn’t matter.
“You’re quite observant. Upon closer look, this painting really isn’t as good as yesterday’s. It’s like a reproduction that didn’t capture the essence.”
The following male voice stabbed at the man again.
Looking at the youth’s suppressed laughter, the man wasn’t angry. Instead, he said flatly, “Laugh if you want. You won’t have the chance to laugh afterward.”
The smile froze on the youth’s face. “I don’t even know who you are, and you want to kill me just like that?”
This guy had inexplicably appeared in his painting, said nothing, and with four swishes of the blade, chopped him into a human stick.
After chopping, he inexplicably disappeared again. The youth still couldn’t figure out what this guy wanted.
“I don’t kill casually.” The man denied. “But you’re not even human, so what does death mean for you?”
“If I’m not human, then what am I?” The youth asked suspiciously.
“Afterimage? Illusion? Call it whatever.” The man stood up. “Didn’t you already know? The real you has left the post office. What’s left is just a reproduction.”
“Just like this blood—no matter how realistic, it’s merely a supernatural product.”
As he spoke, the rusty great saber was placed on the youth’s neck, and with a slight press, it drew a blood mark.
“Wait, wait…” The youth finally felt panic.
He had encountered old timers bullying newcomers before; otherwise, he wouldn’t have discovered that his limbs could be assembled.
He also had experience dealing with such situations—usually, just playing dead would make those people lose interest, and they would give up soon enough.
But this time, the situation seemed a bit different.
