[Shocking! Tens of thousands of unsigned marriage contracts scattered across Jinling's Eleventh District! The entire internet kneels, begging for contact info for the resentful bride Liu Yiyi!]
[In the past month, four people have died near Wanda Plaza in Jiangning District. The area has been sealed off; authorities are conducting an emergency investigation…]
[Bizarre! Someone on Jiangxi Road in Xuanwu District reported seeing a JK-uniformed girl wandering late at night, stopping people to ask if they'd seen her little bear!]
[Third-year student Bai Rou from Jinling No. 2 High School has been missing for seven days. Witnesses say she boarded the last Route 13 bus!]
[Supernatural! Someone once photographed a woman walking past a window on the eighteenth floor in Jiangning District—she appeared to be wearing a blood-red wedding dress!]
...
Jinling City.
Jiangning District.
Tenglong Garden, Building 14, Apartment 1404.
11:30 p.m.
Ning Chen sat in his computer chair, scrolling through posts from UC Horror Zone, gloomily lighting a cigarette.
Ever since the blood moon appeared three months ago, posts like these had begun flooding forums nonstop.
He didn't even need to click them—he already knew the comment sections would spiral into talk of demonic resurrections and supernatural incidents.
And the major trash media outlets loved using this kind of "news" to churn out articles.
Still, he had to admit—those people could really write. Add in netizens wildly speculating, and when you thought about it carefully… it almost seemed like there really was some connection to supernatural events.
But after living twenty-two years without ever seeing a ghost, and after nine years of compulsory education drilling in him that science is the primary productive force, Ning Chen remained firm in his beliefs.
If he were ever going to believe ghosts existed, he'd need to see one with his own eyes.
If ghosts really did exist…
He might as well find himself a female ghost wife.
Forever young, never aging, and able to unlock all kinds of positions—
Wouldn't that be wonderful?
With that thought, Ning Chen clicked open the final post.
Inside was a photo—extremely blurry.
Still, he could vaguely make out the side profile of a woman wearing an ancient-style red wedding dress, her head covered by a crimson veil.
The red was unsettling, as if the dress had been soaked in fresh blood.
One corner of a blanket appeared in the shot—it was obvious the photographer had taken the photo while hiding.
What made it even more eerie was the background.
It was Jinling's city lights.
Which meant the "eighteenth floor" mentioned in the title actually seemed plausible.
"Eighteenth floor… damn it. Don't tell me there really are ghosts?"
The photo didn't look edited, leaving Ning Chen half-believing, half-doubting.
Until he scrolled down and saw the comments.
"Huh? Isn't that my wife? Why's she outside the OP's window in the middle of the night?"
"Confirmed—OP's neighbor Old Wang!"
"Damn, that wedding-dress uniform is god-tier! Bro, lend me your mic!"
"Bullshit! That's the ghost bride my grandma took me to see when I was five!"
"The women who married the dead?"
"…Where's her face?" Ning Chen muttered, putting out his cigarette in annoyance.
Then he typed five serious words:
"Your wife is awesome!"
Poster's location: Jinling City, Tenglong Garden…
Replies flooded in quickly.
"Tenglong Garden?"
"The OP's location is Tenglong Garden too!"
"No way… no way… don't tell me this is a live paranormal incident!"
"Bro! Ghost bride alert! You provoked her!"
"What the hell…"
Ning Chen scrolled back up.
Sure enough, the poster's ID clearly showed Tenglong Garden.
Even though he didn't believe in ghosts, his scalp still tingled at that moment.
If there were no ghosts, joking about finding a ghost wife was one thing.
But if there really were ghosts…
He was Ning Chen, not Ning Caichen!
Even if there were a female ghost, she wouldn't be some gentle Nie Xiaoqian, right?
He lit another cigarette, his thoughts gradually drifting—
Until a sudden phone call snapped him back to reality.
Caller ID: Jiang Jiang.
Jiang Jiang—real name Jiang Qiujin.
His father was the director of Jinling First People's Hospital; her father was the deputy director. They'd grown up together in the hospital family housing, childhood sweethearts who had practically grown up together naked as kids.
Now they even attended the same university.
After Ning Chen moved off campus, she'd deliberately rented the apartment next door.
The moment he answered, all the messy thoughts in his head vanished.
On the screen appeared a makeup-free, pretty face. Her long hair was damp, draped over her shoulders. She looked about eighteen or nineteen, fresh from passing her "loli expiration date."
She wore a loose bathrobe that completely failed to hide her curvy figure.
Normally, she'd have to chat with him for at least half an hour every night before she could fall asleep.
But this time, something was wrong.
Her eyes were red, as if she'd just been crying.
The moment she saw Ning Chen, her peach-blossom eyes blinked twice, and then tears the size of beans fell.
Her lips trembled as she sobbed,
"B-Bro… there's something wrong at my door. Someone's been knocking nonstop…"
"I'm kind of scared…"
Seeing her like this, Ning Chen frowned, anger rising in his chest.
"Which blind bastard doesn't know better?!"
"Is he still knocking?"
"Yes…"
Jiang Qiujin moved her phone closer to the bedroom door.
Through the speaker came rhythmic knocking sounds.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The knocking was oddly… well-paced.
"Bro… should we call the police?"
"No need. I'll go talk some sense into him."
Ning Chen sneered coldly, left the bedroom, and headed for the entryway.
As he walked, he cursed,
"Knocking on someone's door late at night—courting death, huh?"
While swearing, he searched for something handy.
Soon, he pulled a hammer from the shoe cabinet.
A handsome single man living alone keeping a hammer in his shoe cabinet for self-defense—
That was perfectly reasonable.
But just as he was about to open the door and go teach that idiot a lesson—
Ning Chen suddenly noticed something wrong.
His hand froze mid-motion.
He lifted his phone and listened carefully to Jiang Qiujin's side again.
The knocking was still coming through the phone.
But when he pressed his ear close to his own door—
There was absolute silence outside.
Not a single sound.
That made no sense.
Ning Chen's heart sank.
On the phone, the knocking continued.
But in front of his own door, there was nothing.
This completely violated common sense.
After a brief silence, Ning Chen spoke calmly to the girl on the screen,
"Stay inside. No matter what you hear, don't come out."
"O-Okay…"
Jiang Qiujin nodded obediently and buried herself completely under the blanket.
Seeing this, Ning Chen muttered another curse and hung up the video call.
Recalling the recent online rumors…
And the post about the ghost bride in Tenglong Garden…
Almost unconsciously, Ning Chen thought of supernatural incidents.
He swallowed, tucked the hammer into his waistband, and carefully approached the door.
Holding his breath, he leaned forward and looked through the peephole.
Just one glance—
And Ning Chen almost screamed.
In the corridor stood a woman wearing a phoenix crown, dressed in a red robe embroidered with golden phoenixes, with a scarf draped over her shoulders.
Her red skirt brushed the floor, and he could faintly see red embroidered shoes beneath it.
A red veil covered her head.
Her wedding dress was bright red—as vivid as blood.
At that moment, she stood directly in front of Jiang Qiujin's door, bending slightly, peering inside through the peephole—
And knocking on the door with steady rhythm.
This figure…
Was exactly the same as the one in the photo he had seen in that post earlier—
Here is the accurate, natural English translation of the final lines you provided, continuing seamlessly from the previous section:
The
image of that woman perfectly overlapped with the one from the photo…
"The ghost bride… knocking on doors to claim lives?"