Hearing Jiang Jiuguo say this...
Chen Chen, who had just been about to slip away, immediately hesitated.
If Jiang Jiuguo wasn't lying and really was Jiang Xinyue's brother, then given his paper man appearance, he definitely wasn't simple. It was probably right to listen to him.
But he was still a bit hesitant. The villa door was right there; it would only take a few seconds to run over. As long as he ran out of the villa and left this place, the ghost might not necessarily chase after him.
"I'll risk it."
Wealth is found in danger. Chen Chen checked around to make sure he didn't see any ghosts in the living room, then bolted for the villa door.
Jiang Jiuguo wasn't surprised by his actions.
Wanting to live was only human nature.
Chen Chen quickly reached the villa door, then he rushed out, and his figure vanished.
When he reappeared...
He manifested back in the living room, still in a sprinting posture, nearly crashing into the living room table.
"Ugh..."
Looking at the familiar scenery of the living room, Chen Chen reached out and touched the table.
How could this be happening?
He couldn't hide his terror.
"I clearly..."
Refusing to believe it, he turned and rushed toward the villa door again. The result was the same; he returned to the living room once more.
This time...
Chen Chen finally believed Jiang Jiuguo's words. Dejected, he hurriedly ran back to the basement Entrance.
"That..."
Just as Chen Chen was about to speak, Jiang Jiuguo raised a hand to interrupt him, making a shushing gesture. He couldn't be sure if the ghost was in the first-floor living room, but since Chen Chen had come from the basement stairs, he could be certain the ghost wasn't in the basement.
Immediately...
Jiang Jiuguo pulled Chen Chen into the dim basement.
Using the faint light from the moon that shone into the basement Entrance...
Jiang Jiuguo could vaguely see several student corpses lying in the basement.
After a quick check of the bodies and confirming that neither his sister nor Jiang Yan were among them, Jiang Jiuguo turned around.
"Did you just say your classmates were all killed by the ghost in the basement, but you hid on the stairs and weren't killed?"
"Yes, they're all dead. Even Liu Yun and the others who were hiding inside are dead; the ghost found them."
Hearing this, Jiang Jiuguo's featureless eyes narrowed.
"So you mean you were just huddled on these stairs, and after the ghost finished killing your classmates in the basement, it walked out of the basement via the stairs? Does the basement have any other exits?"
When he first met Chen Chen and heard his account, Jiang Jiuguo had noticed something strange.
Chen Chen had actually avoided death by huddling on the stairs, which wasn't even a proper hiding spot.
Based on his understanding of ghosts...
Jiang Jiuguo had a faint suspicion.
"There are no other exits. The Class Monitor said this is the only Entrance," Chen Chen said at this moment.
Upon hearing this...
Jiang Jiuguo was basically certain about Chen Chen's situation.
"You're very lucky," Jiang Jiuguo said suddenly. "Just now you ran back and forth to the villa door twice, triggering the Ghost Wall. Theoretically, you should have been targeted by the ghost, and it should have appeared to find you, but it didn't show up."
"Ah?" Terror appeared on the half of Chen Chen's face that was obscured by the basement's darkness.
Why the hell didn't you say so earlier?
He wanted to question Jiang Jiuguo like that, but then he thought better of it; it wasn't like the man hadn't given him a kind warning.
With the incident at the villa door, he basically believed Jiang Jiuguo's words now. Thinking about how he had just hovered on the edge of death twice, he was so scared that he couldn't help but lean closer to Jiang Jiuguo.
Right now, aside from soft and large breasts...
The only thing that could give him warmth was the paper man Jiang Jiuguo beside him.
Jiang Jiuguo didn't care about Chen Chen's fear; instead, he scrutinized Chen Chen carefully.
His level of focus...
Suggested he wanted to see every single hair and capillary on Chen Chen's body clearly.
"Brother Jiang, why are you looking at me like that?" Chen Chen was a bit uneasy.
Being stared at by a paper man made his skin crawl.
Jiang Jiuguo finally spoke: "We're going to find my sister now. Stay by my side and don't leave, otherwise if the ghost comes, even I won't be able to save you."
"Okay, okay, okay, I'll definitely follow closely."
Chen Chen's head nodded so hard it vibrated. If his spine hadn't prevented it, his nodding frequency would have surely exceeded that of a certain vibrating device.
"Also, let me ask you another question," Jiang Jiuguo said as he led him out of the basement. "What do you think is different between you and those classmates who died in the basement?"
The slow words echoed in Chen Chen's ears.
Chen Chen was stunned: "???"
What kind of ghost-related question was this?
What else could be different? They're dead, I'm alive.
"Besides the fact that they're dead and you're alive, is there anything else? For example, you can sing but they can't—something only you have that none of them do," Jiang Jiuguo added.
Ghosts do not possess compassion.
Killing is a ghost's primal instinct.
Yet Chen Chen had been ignored by the ghost simply because he huddled on the basement stairs. The ghost had even walked right past him without killing him.
There could only be one answer... the ghost disliked him.
Yes.
The ghost disliked Chen Chen, so it didn't kill him immediately, choosing to bypass him to kill the others in the living room.
The reason sounded absurd.
But that was the reality.
"Don't think about negotiating with ghosts. Ghosts cannot be communicated with and lack intelligence. They are like the most primitive creatures, following only the most primal biological instincts."
"Killing is their instinct. As for whom they choose to kill, it depends on their likes and dislikes."
"Yes, you heard right. It depends on whether the ghost likes you or dislikes you. Those they like are killed first; those they dislike are left for later."
"Whether it's humans or animals, everything in nature has its own preferences. For example, lions like to eat meat but not grass. Humans have foods they like and foods they hate, and different people have different preferences."
"Ghosts are the same."
"Different ghosts also have different likes and dislikes."
"So if you encounter a ghost and want to deal with it to survive as long as possible, go look! Find out what kind of people the ghost you encountered likes and what kind of people it dislikes."
These were the exact words Number 47 had told Jiang Jiuguo and the others while teaching them about ghosts.
Memories surfaced in his mind.
Jiang Jiuguo: "I don't know if you've ever burned paper money during the Qingming Festival, but you should have heard of this. Some people are born with 'weak constitutions.' No matter which direction they stand to burn paper money, the wind will always blow toward them. These people are the most likely to attract 'dirty things.'"
Chen Chen didn't know why Jiang Jiuguo had changed the subject, but he still nodded.
"I heard my late grandmother talk about this. She said such people have insufficient 'Yang Fire,' and dirty things like this kind of person the most, so they attract ghosts easily."
After saying that, Chen Chen seemed to realize something.
He jolted: "Brother Jiang, you weren't referring to this when you asked about the difference between me and Liu Yun's group just now, were you?"
"Something like that," Jiang Jiuguo nodded slightly.
"Ghosts have preferences. Some ghosts like those with weak constitutions, and some like other things. The reason you weren't killed is because the ghost dislikes you. However, that doesn't mean the ghost won't kill you; it will just leave you for last."
Jiang Jiuguo constantly observed their surroundings, then continued.
"So think carefully. What is the difference between you and the classmates who died in the basement?"
While talking, the two of them arrived at the second-floor stairs.
Jiang Jiuguo glanced toward the second floor. Confirming that the ghost didn't seem to be lingering by the stairs, he immediately stepped onto the staircase leading to the second floor...