Unlike the grand and imposing buildings of the hospital, the apartment complex just separated by a wall was in a state of utter dilapidation.
The white walls were full of peeling marks, covered with red and black characters advertising short - term rentals at low prices and monthly discounts.
The five - story building had three units. In front of each unit door, there were garbage piles as high as small hills, emitting a putrid stench.
When Du Peilin led me into the courtyard, I kept my head down as I walked.
Because as long as I looked up, I could see many emaciated people lingering in the shadows where the sun couldn't reach.
Those were probably patients who had been tortured by illness and were waiting for death, their souls already half - gone.
Most of the people living in these apartments were seriously ill patients who couldn't afford treatment in the hospital. Their families brought them here to await the end.
There was no elevator in this five - story apartment building. I hung my head and followed Du Peilin up the stairs. From time to time, painful groans seeped out from behind the closed doors, making one's heart tremble with fear.
"Ah!!!"
Suddenly, a shrill scream came from the top floor. Immediately afterwards, the security door of a household on the fifth floor was forcefully kicked open, and a woman in her underwear scurried out, rolling and crawling.
"Will you ever stop?!!"
At this moment, the door next door also opened, and a fat woman rushed out, shouting at the top of her lungs, "Crying and wailing every day. Even if your man wasn't supposed to die, you'd torture him to death!"
"Who do you think you are? Old hag! Whether my man lives or dies is none of your business!"
Although Wu Mingyu had been frightened and fallen to the corridor floor, she still shouted back at the woman, "Go home and take care of your useless old man! Don't come out and make a fool of yourself! Poor thing!"
Saying this, without waiting for the fat woman to reply, she turned around and rushed back into the room, slamming the door shut.
"Hey, ma'am, what's going on here?"
Du Peilin squinted his eyes and walked over with a smile. He said to the fat woman who was about to close the door, "All this shouting and screaming. Doesn't it affect your family's recovery?"
"You're telling me!"
The fat woman curled her lips and scolded disdainfully, "There's always fighting and shouting in that room. She doesn't want her man to live!"
"Really? People who rent here usually save the money for the hospital ward to buy medicine for their family members, right?"
What Du Peilin said was true. Besides those who were just waiting to die, some people living here couldn't afford to stay in the hospital. They saved the ward fees to buy more medicine or receive more treatments.
"Not her family!"
The fat woman snorted. "When her man first came here, he could still walk. But she'd hit him in the face with a fly swatter every day. His face was so swollen that he cried and wanted to escape."
"Wow! If he could run and jump, it shouldn't be a serious illness, right?"
Du Peilin put on a gossiping look and leaned in. "Why would he come to live here?"
"Come on. Not a serious illness?"
The fat woman sneered. "He drank paraquat. There's no saving him. Otherwise, why would they bring him here?"
As she spoke, the fat woman glanced at Du Peilin and me. "You two are healthy. What are you doing here? Does someone in your family..."
"No, no, no." Du Peilin waved his hand. "I'm a friend of that man. I'm here to visit him today."
"Really?" The fat woman looked at us suspiciously again before saying, "Then go quickly. That man doesn't have many days left!"
Saying this, she swayed her hips and went back into her room.
"What should we do now?"
I glanced at the door that Wu Mingyu had slammed shut.
If she didn't open the door, we really couldn't break in...
"Just now, it should have been Zhou Wei's wife showing herself and scaring that woman half to death."
Du Peilin stroked his chin. "If necessary, we can scare her again!"
Saying this, he pointed his sword - finger at the red, paint - peeling door and mumbled some incantations. Suddenly, he let out a soft "hmm" and looked at me. "His wife doesn't want to scare Wu Mingyu!"
"Why?"
I was even more surprised. At that time, Zhou Wei's wife hated Zhou Wei and especially hated Wu Mingyu. In landlady Aunt Xu's rental house, she even wanted to kill this woman. How could her thoughts have changed in just a few days?
Was it really true that, as the old saying went, ghosts were fickle?
"Come on. Let's go into the room and take a look!"
Du Peilin didn't seem in a hurry. He quickly made a hand gesture with his hands clasped together. Pointing one finger at my glabella and the other at his own, he said, "Mind - reading spell!!"
As the name suggested, the "mind - reading spell" was a spell that could peer into people's hearts. The person casting the spell could see everything the target had experienced!
My vision suddenly darkened for a moment, as if I had passed through a dark tunnel, and then immediately returned to normal light.
However, what I saw in front of me was no longer the dilapidated corridor but a dirty and messy room.
In this room of about twenty square meters, used take - out boxes and wine bottles were scattered everywhere. No one could have imagined that this was a place where a patient lived.
There was only a bed and a small coffee table in the room. Zhou Wei was chained with his hands tied behind his back like a dog and huddled in the corner.
I immediately understood my current situation.
This was what Zhou Wei's wife saw. Her wandering soul was floating on the ceiling of the room, looking down at the two people who had caused her so much pain and death.
There was a sound of running water from the bathroom. Wu Mingyu, still wearing her underwear that barely covered her buttocks, walked out of the bathroom.
When she had rushed out of the room just now, her elbow had been injured. Now there was a Band - Aid on the wound, but blood was still seeping out.
"Xiao... Xiaoyu... I'm hungry..."
Zhou Wei pitifully raised his head and looked at Wu Mingyu. The small light - blue talisman on his forehead was firmly stuck to his forehead with a wide piece of transparent tape.
Hearing Zhou Wei's words, Wu Mingyu glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, picked up a moldy bun from the coffee table, and stuffed it forcefully into his mouth!
"Eat, eat, eat! All you know is to eat!"
Still not satisfied, Wu Mingyu reached out and slapped Zhou Wei twice on the face. "Tell me the password of your bank card quickly, and I'll find Master Du for you!"
"Um, um, um!!"
Zhou Wei's mouth was stuffed full, and he couldn't say a word.
Seeing this scene, Zhou Wei's wife floating on the ceiling seemed to be in a good mood. She even sat on the chandelier, swinging her bare feet.
"... Xiaoyu, you said when we were discharged from the hospital..."
Zhou Wei finally managed to spit out the bun in his mouth. Along with the bun, he also spat out mouthfuls of thick, muddy liquid.
"Ugh!"
The liquid seemed to have a strong stench, and some of it splashed on Wu Mingyu's legs. Immediately, Wu Mingyu got angry and kicked Zhou Wei in the cheek, knocking him to the ground.
"You don't want to live a good life. Do you want to seek death?"
Wu Mingyu scolded, "Give me the money, and I'll let you live for another three days. On the seventh day, I'll find Master Du. How perfect! But no, you have to torture yourself!"