Chapter 10: The Peeping Begins

"Bingo!"

Yu Guo clapped his hands sharply, grinning as he scurried over to Fang Shenyan and familiarly draped an arm over his shoulder.

Ji Li pulled his trench coat tighter around himself, his head bowed as he walked toward the master bedroom, speaking as he moved:

"The owner of this room must be a male, and perhaps a rather peculiar one at that."

Hearing this, the others exchanged puzzled glances, but a glint of insight flashed in Fang Shenyan's eyes.

Ji Li frowned as he looked into the bedroom, which exuded a strange, distinct scent. His nose felt uncomfortable. The smell was cloyingly sweet, nauseatingly so. He gently pulled open the wardrobe door, revealing a jumble of clothing—some men’s, some women’s.

Ji Li didn't speak. He quietly put on a pair of gloves and began to organize the garments, laying them out one by one on the bed. Several items of clothing in varying styles and colors lay on the mattress, with the corners drooping toward the floor like limp, headless corpses.

The men's clothes were on the left, the women's on the right.

Ji Li rubbed his nose, pointed at them one by one, and said softly, "Have you noticed?"

Cao Yuan, poking his head out from the back, said blankly, "There are only half as many women’s clothes as there are men’s... and most of them are intimate apparel!"

Fang Shenyan nodded, apologizing, "I was distracted by the pile of clothes bundled inside the cabinet, so I didn't analyze them properly."

Ji Li waved a hand to indicate it was fine, then circled the bed a few times. "It is almost certain now: the owner of this house is a man, and a twisted pervert at that!"

Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but glance again at the disheveled women's clothing. Ding Miaoxin turned bright red, covering her mouth with the back of her hand and gagging slightly. Trembling, she asked, "Then... these women's clothes..."

Ji Li stopped and nodded. "They must have been stolen."

Yu Guo strolled carelessly around the room, then flopped down onto the edge of the bed, causing the entire frame to shake. With a loud creak, the noise interrupted the group’s discussion. Yu Guo froze, looking at Ji Li’s pale face, and quickly stood up. "I just sat down! Why is this bed so flimsy?"

He felt around the pillow he had been sitting on, as if he had touched something hard, and then tore the pillowcase open. A black notebook appeared in his palm. Ji Li and Fang Shenyan stepped forward, while Cao Yuan and Ding Miaoxin stayed back, not daring to move.

Yu Guo flipped through it casually. At first, he didn't pay much mind, but as he continued to read, his expression grew increasingly grim.

Fang Shenyan stepped closer, confused, and asked, "What is it?"

Yu Guo handed him the notebook, his voice heavy. "It’s that pervert’s... voyeur diary."

The two men’s conversation reached Ji Li's ears, but he didn't ask any questions. Instead, he paced around the head of the bed, narrowed his eyes, and seemed to have discovered something.

Ji Li waved for Fang Shenyan and Yu Guo to move aside, then pushed hard against the bed frame. A gap appeared between the headboard and the wall. He was stunned to find a faint beam of light seeping through from the other side.

Yu Guo looked up at Ji Li. "Breakthrough coming this fast?"

Ji Li didn't have time to respond. He called Fang Shenyan and Cao Yuan over, and with Yu Guo, the four of them worked together to shove the entire bed to the other side of the room. Now, the section of the eastern wall previously hidden by the headboard was fully exposed.

"Ding Miaoxin, go turn off the bedroom light."

Ji Li dared not move recklessly. He didn't know where the strange beam of light was coming from or what lay behind the wall, so he had to be cautious. Ding Miaoxin murmured an "oh," walked to the door to switch off the light, and then leaned against the doorframe, too afraid to move.

The five living people in Room 701 were plunged into darkness, but the beam of light on the eastern wall became increasingly bright.

"That’s a hole, isn't it..."

Cao Yuan rubbed his forehead and couldn't help but take a step forward, only to be immediately held back by Ji Li.

"Judging by the layout of the hallway, the master bedroom of 701 should be connected to 702," Ji Li’s voice drifted through the room, slowly explaining the situation. "I noticed the condition of 702 earlier; there was a pink doll on the door, so I assume a young woman lives there. If you connect that to the women's clothing the pervert in 701 stole..."

Fang Shenyan’s glasses caught the beam of light, turning a cold, sterile white. He quietly continued, "A twisted pervert lives in 701, and his master bedroom is separated from 702 by only a wall. He must have chiseled through the head of the wall just to spy on that young woman coming home from work, washing up, and sleeping..."

Fang Shenyan’s voice remained steady, but the others felt a chill run down their spines.

Ji Li stared intently at the hole, not far away, and said to Fang Shenyan, "Read the contents of the diary."

Fang Shenyan took a deep breath. With a low, melancholic voice, he began to recite the words filled with sin and filth.

"From the moment that person moved in next door, I was completely lost. I have a sickness; if I don't see that person for even a moment, I feel as if I am being burned by hellfire, my innards scorching! I want to see every move they make, every single day, so I chiseled a hole in the east wall. I sleep in 701; they sleep in 702. I watch them. Can they feel me?"

Perhaps the woman in that room never noticed. She continued to live there alone, assuming her missing clothes were just misplaced. She had no idea that a turbid, oily eyeball was spying on her life every single day, every single moment.

"Ah!!"

Just as the five of them were instinctively moving toward the hole, a muffled, shrill scream suddenly rang out!

It came from Room 702, just a wall away!

Ji Li hesitated, glancing down at his watch. It was 8:32 PM. Theoretically, a ghost could appear at any moment.

"Go, go, go! What are you afraid of? You can't catch a cub without entering the tiger's den—there’s definitely something happening next door!" his second personality urged him, restless in his mind.

"No! I’ve felt that something was wrong with 702 all along. Looking at it now, the focus of this mission is clearly these two adjacent rooms. We must not charge in blindly!" his third personality desperately blocked him.

Fang Shenyan cleared his throat, sweat beading on his forehead, but he continued flipping through the notebook, searching for useful information amidst the lover's ravings.

"They arrive home at exactly 6:34 PM every day. The pink doll on the door matches their phone case, though I searched the entire internet and couldn't find the same model. I have watched them live for a long, long time. Their habit is to open the bedroom window every day before leaving for work, which provides me with convenience. It allows me... to sleep in their bed, hold their clothes, and take what I want to take..."

The perverted acts in the diary were escalating.

At the same time, the arguing next door grew louder. It sounded like a man and a woman were locked in a violent conflict. The woman's cries and the man's roars pushed the nerves of the five staff members to their breaking point.

Just as everyone was caught in a dilemma, Ji Li suddenly spoke.

"Yu Guo, use your phone to block the hole!"

Yu Guo was stunned, but reacted immediately, rushing to the east wall. He turned on the phone used for the livestream and aimed the camera at the crevice.

Inside the dark, cylindrical edge of the hole was a cold, white scene, blurry and indistinct, like a black-and-white recording. Ji Li held his breath, crouching on the ground, his eyes fixed on what was happening next door. The more he saw, the more his scalp tingled!

It was a bedroom as well. A woman in a long dress lay on the bed with disheveled hair. Her face was obscured, but her head was twisted at an exaggerated angle, declaring that she was already dead.

"This..." Ding Miaoxin’s legs went weak, and she collapsed to the floor, her mouth wide open, about to scream, but Fang Shenyan quickly covered her mouth.

Cold sweat drenched Cao Yuan and Yu Guo. They were ordinary people; they hadn't expected to witness a murder instead of a ghost. How could they not be terrified?

Fang Shenyan paused for a long time. He stopped reading, and the entirety of 701 fell into a deathly silence.

The breath remained trapped in Ji Li's chest, neither able to go up nor down. It happened too fast; though he was quick-witted, he was still a step late. The woman was already dead, and he had missed both the act of murder and the killer.

He was one hundred percent certain that this was no simple murder; everything was linked to the ghost that had yet to appear.

Yu Guo’s arm was aching, but Ji Li wanted to keep waiting to see if there was more. After all, the murder and the disposal of the body should be connected.

One minute, two minutes... five minutes passed. Ji Li could no longer hold his breath, but as time went on, apart from the newly dead corpse, nothing else moved in the room next door.

After waiting for a sufficient amount of time, the other four finally exhaled. After all, they weren't facing a murderer, but a ghost. Only Ji Li licked his parched lips, feeling frustrated at missing the clue.

Fang Shenyan looked up at the others, who wore various expressions of horror, closed the notebook, and looked at the hole connecting to 702. He read the final page, word by word.

"They found me. I am dead, and I am going to find them..."

"Bang!"

A dull, thumping sound suddenly came from the wall next door!

Yu Guo’s arm shook with fright, and the phone pressed against the hole wobbled. But in the gloom, Ji Li still saw the scene that made his soul tremble.

A bloodshot eyeball, its turbidity and dullness filled with endless malice, was staring straight through the peephole, making eye contact with him.