Zhang Li

Zhang Li is a Western Jiujiang Medical University security guard whose traumatic night in the underground morgue gives Chen Ge crucial information for entering it.

Biography

Narrative role

Chen Ge notices Zhang Li after the guard visits the House of Horrors with his younger sister, Zhang Shihan, and leaves his security pass behind. Zhang's composure in the attraction and refusal to enter a more dangerous scenario suggest previous contact with the supernatural. When Chen returns the pass, the guarded, heavy-smoking man explains how rumors around a missing student damaged his sister and isolated both siblings from the university community. (Chapters 413–415)

Zhang then describes surviving a night among moving cadavers during an expansion of the underground morgue. Hidden beneath cement bags, he watches dissected bodies move through the corridors and remains trapped until morning. The experience makes him bitter and fearful of the morgue, but he still shares its warnings, sealed routes, unexplained eighth room, and renovation history when Chen claims to be helping the police. (Chapters 416–418)

Because Zhang lives at Hai Ming Apartments, he also reveals that Doctor Gao once spent a night in the cursed room before Men Nan moved there. He later sends Chen ten photographs, two videos, and an outer-perimeter map of the morgue. That information identifies usable entrances and the suspected central hub, directly enabling Chen's underground investigation. (Chapters 418–422)

Appearance and personality

Zhang Li is tall and thin, with sunken eyes, a gray jacket, sports shoes, and pockets usually filled with cigarettes. He is wary, bitter, and reputedly difficult, yet his rare smile around his sister reveals strong affection. Recounting the morgue makes him tremble, but he overcomes that fear enough to give Chen practical warnings and records. (Chapters 413–418)

Skills and supernatural abilities

As a long-serving security guard who participated in the morgue expansion, Zhang knows campus patrols, entrances, renovation history, and restricted areas. He has strong survival instincts and remarkable composure under fear, but no supernatural ability. (Chapters 413–418, 421–422)

Relationships

Zhang Shihan is Zhang Li's younger sister, whom he protects after students falsely connect her to a disappearance. Chen Ge first coerces and then earns his cooperation. Zhang recognizes Doctor Gao from campus and witnesses his suspicious stay near Men Nan's later apartment, though neither man is Zhang's ally. (Chapters 413–419)

Items

Zhang's university security pass leads Chen to his home after it is left at the Haunted House. His later map, ten photographs, and two videos document the underground morgue's accessible outer perimeter and become essential planning materials for Chen's mission. (Chapters 413–414, 421–422)