The police immediately opened an investigation, but the surveillance footage revealed no one had visited cell number 107, except for a single scene where the night patrol guard knocked on the cell door.
Was that the end of it? The answer was no. After Xiao He's death, one person died every seven days, all in the same manner, with blood everywhere and their bodies dismembered as if torn apart by horses.
This weekly death case sent waves of panic among both inmates and guards. Inmates applied for transfers to other prisons, and the guards wanted reassignments, but all requests were denied. The refusals were based on the need for a thorough investigation; until then, no one was permitted to leave. Some guards, unable to bear the pressure, submitted their resignations.
This was now the seventh set of seven days, with six already dead. Perhaps another would be killed tonight. As dusk approached, none of the inmates wanted to return to their cells, even if it meant being severely beaten with rubber batons. Compared to their lives, what was a beating?
The guards were also terrified, though it had only been inmates dying so far, they couldn't be sure they wouldn't be next. After a meeting, the higher-ups decided that everyone would gather together in the courtyard.
Eight floodlights shone on the courtyard, making it as bright as day. Once the guards had taken a headcount, they instructed the inmates to sit together on the ground.
The weather had turned slightly cold, and a gentle breeze caused a chill, yet no one objected to this arrangement. After all, there were deadly ghosts in the cells.
To reduce everyone's fear, the guards organized the inmates to sing together to relax.
Song after song rang out, slicing through the night sky and drifting among the stars.
The prison's clock reported the time, and it was now midnight. Everyone fell silent as if by agreement.
But nothing seemed to happen under the brightly shining floodlights, with no red-dressed woman or rag doll in sight. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, all eight floodlights went out simultaneously. Darkness enveloped them.
Ah...
After the first scream came a second, and in a blink, the inmates were thrown into chaos, shoving, running, cursing.
The guards yelled for everyone to stay calm, but no one could hear over the commotion, and even if someone did and wanted to stop, they would be pushed along by the others.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The warden fired three shots into the air, and only then did the people stop their frantic running and shouting. With the guards' orderly deployment, the inmates once again obediently sat on the ground, still nervously looking around, praying that the red-dressed woman would not come for them.
After ten minutes, the guards activated the backup power system, and the eight floodlights lit up again. Upon counting heads, the guards were somewhat surprised and went to report to the warden.
"Report to the warden, headcount complete. There should be ninety-three people, present are..." The guard hesitated and did not give the exact number.
The warden looked at her and asked with a frown, "How many are present? Did someone run off?"
"Report to the warden, no one has escaped, it's just... there's one extra person..."
The warden asked if there had been a count error, and the guard confirmed that the count was one extra person both times.
To avoid unnecessary panic, the warden ordered the inmates to line up and call roll, and as names were called, each person would step out of the crowd and stand aside.
The guards' efficiency was extremely high, and in less than a minute, the inmates were lined up in order.
Xiao Ma... Xiao Zhang... Xiao Liu... Xiao Bai... Time ticked by, second by second, and the number of people standing in the middle of the yard gradually diminished.
When the last person heard his name called and ran quickly toward the crowd as if he'd been granted amnesty, there was still one person standing in the middle of the yard, her head bowed, silent.
The guards pointed their guns at the person in the middle of the yard and shouted loudly, "Lift your head."
After the guard had shouted seven or eight times, that person slowly lifted her head...
Everyone couldn't help but inhale sharply. My god, what was this? They saw the person's face, and it wasn't a human face at all but the face of a fabric doll, grinning with its mouth wide open and blinking its eyes.
Seeing this scene, the warden ordered indiscriminate gunfire, and a hundred or so bullets hit their mark all at once, but there wasn't the expected bloodshed; all that filled the air was fluttering cotton stuffing.
After the gunfire ended, a gutsy guard ran over to find only a ragdoll riddled with holes on the ground.
"Why did you kill my daughter? I will have my revenge, I will kill all of you..." a ghastly voice echoed from amidst the crowd.
The crowd scattered in fright, the scene completely out of control. The spot where everyone had previously stood was now occupied by a disheveled, red-dressed woman.
When the red-dressed woman lifted her head, a few of the more fainthearted immediately fainted. Her left eye was a gaping bloodied hole, oozing out bits of red and white, and what was more terrifying was her greenish, ghastly face.
"Xiao Wang! Why aren't you going back to your cell this late at night? Hurry back," the brave guard blurted out, realizing this person was Xiao Wang's vengeful ghost and quickly thought of a plan.
The red-dressed woman paused briefly, then dragged her chains toward the direction of the cell block.
Before the crowd could sigh in relief, the red-dressed woman lunged at the guard who had spoken, screaming, "Give me back my daughter, I will kill all of you."
She bit down on the guard's neck, and immediately, blood spurted out like a fountain reaching seven or eight meters high, while her head fell to the ground and rolled several times before coming to a stop.
Next, her arms were torn and bitten off, and her legs were also ripped apart. Finally, only a body lay silently there, and the red-dressed woman dug her hands into the chest and violently tore it open.
Witnessing this scene, the onlookers were stunned, forgetting everything else as they could only stand and watch. At that moment, they envied those prisoners who had fainted.
The red-dressed woman, now drenched in blood, looked unusually eerie. She smiled at the crowd and said, "I will have my revenge, I will kill all of you."
Then she dragged her chains toward the cell block.
Only then did the crowd remember to vomit, dropping to the ground and retching.
The first rays of sunlight finally fell upon the yard, and everyone gathered their courage, collapsing onto the ground...
The protests of the hardened criminals and the resignation requests of all the guards finally caught the attention of the relevant authorities.
With no other choice, they deployed hundreds of officers to move the inmates to a newly built prison at the border.
During the relocation, a Mage was hired for a special ritual... It is said that in the end, the female ghost was sealed inside cell 107.