Chapter 1

The moment the video screen froze, the few remaining chips of white paint on the door plaque fell silently, like leaves blown off a tree by the wind.

A blood-red horizontal stroke had been added above the "two" in Second Archive Hall—Third Archive Hall!

"God! Where is this?" Lin Sihan screamed in terror, trying to run outside. She stopped short as she stepped over the desk, pointing with a deathly pale face behind the computer. "The… the… wires aren't connected."

I glanced to the side of the desk. There was nothing but the power cord behind the computer case. How could the monitor be showing the entrance to the archive hall?

The computer screen slowly went dark amidst Lin Sihan’s screams, and the black screen reflected the figures of me and Lin Sihan in the light of the room.

Terrified, Lin Sihan hugged her head and crouched in the corner, screaming at the top of her lungs, "Zhang Qiang, throw the computer out! Hurry!"

I casually slammed the screen down on the desk. "Get up! It's okay now."

Lin Sihan trembled for a long while before slowly letting go of her hands. "Why aren't you scared?"

"What's there to be afraid of?" I said calmly. "If they're capable, they can just kill me. If I die, I'll be a ghost too. We'll all be ghosts; who knows who'll get who?"

"You're an idiot!" Lin Sihan almost cried in anger. "This is no time to be saying… saying… that…"

I shrugged and sat back on the bed, my mind racing as I recalled the layout of the archive hall. What did the eight forking paths mean?

The paths were concentrated on the first floor. The stairs to the second floor had been cut off. Were they trying to prevent ghosts from going downstairs?

If ghosts couldn't go downstairs, then who was attacking us?

Instinctively, I pulled out the cigarette I had gotten from Old Wang.

"Old Knife?" This cigarette was famous before the founding of the country. Everyone who smoked knew about Old Knife. Moreover, this cigarette had another little-known function: it served as a signal for underground liaisons.

Was Old Wang trying to tell me something?

As I was pondering, I suddenly heard Lin Sihan scream, "Zhang Qiang, come look! Look at my phone."

I went over and glanced at Lin Sihan's phone. There was an article describing the Third Archive Hall.

Lin Sihan said in a trembling voice, "It says here that the Third Archive Hall was originally the warlord's mansion, later turned into a secret organization similar to the 76th division. Many people who went in never came out again."

"After the founding of the country, it was turned into the Third Archive Hall to store pre-liberation archives. Later, a team of local history compilers entered the archive hall, and they all disappeared."

"This caused a great sensation at the time. The police and the military sent people into the archive hall to investigate, and they interrogated many people who had worked in the warlord's mansion in the old days. As a result, those people also mysteriously disappeared after being taken to the archive hall for questioning."

"It also says here that one of the people being questioned desperately refused to enter the archive hall, and even violently attempted to break out of jail, and was shot dead on the spot. It is said that before he died, he said one sentence: 'The warlord's mansion eats people.'"

"The article concludes by saying that after many bizarre incidents, the archive hall was ordered to be demolished, but the archive hall has returned, appearing in its original place like a dead man come back to life. It continues to wait to eat people."

Lin Sihan suddenly said, "Look here… there's a paragraph here that says that the experts who entered the archive hall weren't all lost at the same time. A man surnamed Wang didn't disappear with everyone else. He even contacted the police who were handling the case at the time."

"That man surnamed Wang said a lot of strange things to the police. Later, he also disappeared. The last place he appeared, he left a box of Fairy brand cigarettes. He drew a horizontal line in blood on the cigarette box, which happened to cross out the words 'Fairy.'"

My brow furrowed slightly. Fairy brand was also one of the old-fashioned cigarettes from before the founding of the country. The cigarette box had a picture of a beautiful woman on the cover.

The two characters he crossed out in blood? Zhupi (imperial endorsement in red ink)?

In ancient times, when executing a prisoner, their name would be crossed out with a red pen, indicating that the person was to be executed!

That person crossed out "Fairy," and now he gave me an "Old Knife."

Old Knife slays Fairy?

While I was pondering, Lin Sihan suddenly said, "Zhang Qiang, did you write this article? You also said you wanted to work at the archive hall? You know what the archive hall is all about? No wonder you're not afraid!"

I smiled and replied, "I'm not Zhang Qiang!"

Unexpectedly, Lin Sihan's face turned deathly pale. She pointed at me, trembling, and said, "Who… who are you?"

Before I could answer, Lin Sihan's eyes rolled back, and she fainted in fright.

This is bad!

I haven't found any clues yet, and now someone's fainted!

I can't just leave her in the room and go out to find clues, can I?

Just as I was about to go to Lin Sihan's rescue, I saw that her phone, which had fallen to the ground, was turned off. She kept telling me to look at the phone, but she never showed me the screen, and was just reading it aloud.

If her phone wasn't on, who was speaking through her mouth just now?

If the person who was speaking through her mouth doesn't exist, then who is Lin Sihan?