Chapter 293 Like I Sink to the West
Ning Zhe took stock of the known information at hand and found that there were at least five police officers turned into lackeys in Vanessa Castle, including three members of Sunak’s team, plus John and Susie.

Among them, only Susie’s cause of death is certain: she was tricked by Sunak’s phone call to go up to the third floor, and then was killed by the ghost and turned into a ghost. This is the only person with a clear cause of death. It is also the only breakthrough in this matter at the moment.

Ning Zhe narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at Dejin Hansa and others who were standing at the door of the torture room not far away: “Besides, they should have died once just now.”

That was the direct reason why Plumeria made the decision to regret her move: after the investigation team entered the torture room, there was a high probability that they would be wiped out.

“Then why did the investigation team have to enter the torture room?” Ning Zhe asked himself.

“Because we need to find the missing Sunak and others.” Ning Zhe answered himself in his heart.

He still remembered the figure walking against the flow of people when the large army was evacuating. At that time, Susie had already become a ghost. She took the initiative to run to Meilin and said that she wanted to find her lost brother.

It was also from Susie that the investigation team was able to immediately determine that the last place where Sunak and others lost contact was on the third floor.

“It is known that the accomplices cannot kill people directly, but rather use fraud and deception to kill people indirectly. First, Sunak tricked Susie to the third floor, and then Susie became an accomplice and tricked the investigation team to the third floor… and so on.”

Ning Zhe pondered and suddenly remembered something: “In my previous dream, those messages and notes I found all over the castle seemed to be some kind of guidance, trying to lead me to the basement of Vanessa Castle?”

Ning Zhe quickly recalled the first message he found in his dream:

[Red writing hidden inside the closet:]

【To the survivors:】

[If you are still alive and want to escape from here, please move to the basement]

[Do not leave this castle through the front door, back door, window, or any other exit that looks like an exit. That is a dead end! Those who walk into a dead end will be lost without exception and will never be able to come back.]

[The only exit is in the basement of the castle, in the secret basement at the bottom of the sewer of the “Vanessa” castle. If you want to escape, go there. Remember to bring a light. You must bring a light! Without a light, you can’t get there.]

[Be careful, don’t let it find you, I’m leaving too]

Thinking of this, Ning Zhe felt that he had grasped the key to the problem:

Just as Sunak led Susie to the third floor, and Susie led the investigation team into the torture room, the message in the dream was also leading him and Baizhi, the outsiders who had mistakenly entered the castle, to the basement.

The message also emphasized that one must bring a corpse oil lamp and go to Vanessa’s Castle in the other world to reach the basement.

And the other world… has ghosts.

“Sunak told Susie he had found clues to the intruder on the third floor. That was a lie.”

“Susie told the inquiry that Sunak and his team might be in the torture chamber. This is a lie.”

“The message in my dream told me that the basement was the only way to leave Vanessa Castle…which was also a lie.”

The deepest basement of Vanessa Castle had long been destroyed by a landslide. Two major renovations only repaired the boiler room and warehouse on the underground first floor, and the deeper basements were directly abandoned.

“Any misleading words spoken by the minions are most likely lies.” Ning Zhe leaned over the cabinet, quietly moved his wings, and retreated: “And the common point of these lies is that they lead people to a certain place.” Where?
The place where ‘ghosts’ lurk.

“The person who was tricked into the forest by the evil spirit was eaten by the tiger and then became an evil spirit, and then tricked other people into the mountains and were eaten by the tiger… It was really like being an evil spirit for the tiger.”

Ning Zhe quietly retreated to the wall and jumped down to the ground. He recalled the instructions given to the investigation team by housekeeper Meilin when he just regretted his move: “Don’t get close to the torture room. Don’t believe anything you see or hear next. And absolutely, absolutely don’t get close to the torture room.”

Now, Ning Zhe understood the meaning of this sentence.

“It seems that the key to this ghost’s rule is ‘deception’.”

With the help of the long-tailed tit’s small body, Ning Zhe quietly slipped to the moon-viewing platform, squatted behind the guardrail and observed Plumeria and Marylin in the open space downstairs.

Combined with Susie’s reaction when her identity was revealed just now, Ning Zhe roughly guessed the lethal condition of this rule:
1. [If a living person believes the lies of a ghost and takes the initiative to enter the area where the ghost is, he will die]

2. People who die in this way will become ghosts enslaved by ghosts.

3. [Ghosts will use lies to trick others into entering the area where the ghosts are]

Whether it is Susie, the investigation team and others in the real world, or Spencer, Gazza and others who died in the dream, their deaths have one thing in common – they all believed the lies of the ghost and took the initiative to go to where the ghost was.

“That does make sense, but it still doesn’t explain one thing.” Ning Zhe shook his head: “That is: where did the original ghost come from?”

How did the ‘tiger demon’, which had no minions, kill people before killing the first person?

Therefore, in addition to the deception of the ghost’s minions, the ghost in the castle must have another hidden condition for killing that has not been revealed.

“Plumeria and Meilin probably don’t know about this hidden condition either. That’s why they didn’t go directly to catch the ghost, but instead set up the chess game on the spot and let the investigation team and others act as pawns to explore the way.”

Thinking of this, Ning Zhe no longer hesitated. He glanced at the housekeeper who was standing upright in the open space downstairs and the graceful girl in the black dress. Meilin lowered her head slightly and was saying something into the microphone.

Ning Zhe turned around and went back into the building. The door of the torture room had been closed. Dejin Hansa had propped up the iron door with an iron bolt. Several people were guarding outside the door with guns, obviously having received instructions from Meilin.

“time is limited.”

The investigation team has already located the ghost, and there is no time left for him to continue to explore the mystery.

Ning Zhe took a deep breath, changed from a tit back to a human form, squatted behind the curtain next to the bookcase, and took out a fist-sized regular octagonal wooden box from his arms.

“Xia Rong, are you there?” Ning Zhe lowered his voice and called softly while holding the music box.

Before he finished speaking, Ning Zhe felt a light weight on his shoulder. He turned his head and saw a cute rag doll that looked like a little girl. It had beautiful golden curly hair and a pair of sapphire button eyes. Its two short legs were dangling on Ning Zhe’s shoulders, and its small hands were gently hugging his neck.

This is the unique prop of the Dyke family – the spirit-calling doll.

(End of this chapter)