Tiefbrunnen

Kapitel 15

"Boss, do you know why that building is haunted?"

"I don't know." The shopkeeper seemed to hesitate for a moment before continuing, "However, there's a legend in town that some families in that building did something bad and were punished by evil spirits."

Hearing his boss's words, Yang Jian suddenly remembered Lin Yongfu's last words. Perhaps the "secret" mentioned in those words lay here. What exactly had they done, and why had they sworn a solemn oath to keep it a secret?

After a while, the boss continued:

"About two years ago, there was a young man in town who was studying. He didn't believe in ghosts or gods and was very interested in mysterious things. So, one night, he secretly went to the haunted building alone to see what was going on. But when he returned the next day, he died mysteriously. Some people said that he saw a female ghost in blue in the haunted building."

"Is there really a female ghost in blue?"

Yang Jian asked, slightly surprised.

"Yes, everyone in the town firmly believes that she has been living in the haunted building for over a decade and has never left."

The boss's tone was very certain.

After nightfall, following the directions of the hotel owner, Yang Jian found the "haunted building" located on the west side of the town.

Yang Jian silently looked at the three-story villa hidden in the shadows of the trees. It was a very old French-style villa with gray exterior walls and roof.

Yang Jian was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected that such an old Western-style building would exist in such a remote town.

As night fell, the small villa faintly revealed a gloomy and oppressive atmosphere.

Yang Jian arrived at the gate of the small villa's courtyard and found that the iron gate and the large lock on it were rusty, indicating that no one had opened the gate for many years. The courtyard was overgrown with weeds and desolate.

Yang Jian surveyed the area around the small villa. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly heard several coughs, the voices sounding very old and forlorn. His heart tightened, and he quickly looked around, only to find no one else.

After a while, the coughing started again. This time, Yang Jian finally realized that the coughing was coming from the small Western-style building!

Yang Jian glanced at the small Western-style building that looked somewhat eerie in the darkness, and wondered to himself, could there really be a ghost in the building?

Section 4 Death List

In the morning, the town was shrouded in a thick white fog, making the surrounding scenery appear hazy and somewhat eerie. The streets were deserted, with very few pedestrians except for a few vendors heading to the early market.

Around eight o'clock, the thick fog gradually dissipated, and the distant mountains became clearly visible. Yang Jian did not disturb the town's police station; instead, he quietly arrived at the haunted building.

He carefully observed the surroundings of the "ghost building." Between the house and the road was a green space, which was full of various plants, densely packed, making it look gloomy and deep. Many of the trees were probably decades old, covering the first and second floors of the house.

The alley leading to the "ghost building" was deep and dark, giving one a desolate feeling as one walked through it. Yang Jian arrived at the rusty iron gate. The gate was very high, and the courtyard wall was also very high. He tried to climb over it, but couldn't.

So he walked around the outer wall and suddenly discovered a large hole on the west side of the wall. The hole was hidden by some dense trees and weeds, and if you didn't look carefully, you wouldn't be able to tell that there was a hole in the wall.

So Yang Jian climbed through the hole in the wall. The yard was sparsely overgrown with weeds, emitting the smell of years of decaying fallen leaves. The hole in the wall to the west was clearly visible from inside the yard.

Yang Jian discovered that the door to the ground floor of the house was unlocked. He pushed the door open and went inside, immediately smelling a musty odor. The house had been uninhabited for almost twenty years, and dust had accumulated everywhere.

He found the living room to be very spacious, furnished with some simple furniture, but poorly lit and unusually dark. He moved around cautiously and saw a hallway at the far end of the living room, with what appeared to be rooms along the side. On the other side of the living room was a kitchen, cluttered with miscellaneous items.

A staircase led from the living room to the second floor. As Yang Jian stepped onto the stairs, the wooden planks under his feet immediately creaked. Upon reaching the second floor, he was greeted by a dark corridor. Due to poor lighting, the corridor was gloomy and exuded a musty, damp smell.

Yang Jian opened the doors of each room one by one, finding many empty, filled with cobwebs and dust, as if no one had ever lived there. He came to a room at the far left of the corridor and found the door tightly closed, giving it a mysterious feel. He pushed the door, but couldn't open it; it seemed to be locked from the inside.

After hesitating for a moment, Yang Jian gathered his strength and slammed his shoulder against the door, which burst open. He found the room to be quite large. In one corner stood a dressing table with an oval mirror. Strangely, the mirror was spotless, as if it had been wiped clean and was very bright. In another corner of the room was a tall wardrobe.

Yang Jian's eyes immediately fell on the bed in the room. It was a large wooden bed with a clean straw mat and a neatly folded cotton quilt on it. There was also a pillow at the head of the bed.

Yang Jian was quite surprised. Could someone be living in this room? He opened the wardrobe door and found a pile of women's clothes inside. Strangely, all of these clothes were blue.

Suddenly, he noticed a black tin box in a corner of the wardrobe. He took the box out, and it gave off an unusually cold feeling. The box was locked and could not be opened.

Yang Jian pondered for a moment, then seemed to remember something. He quickly rummaged through the clothes in the wardrobe and found a set of keys, which belonged to the box.

When the box was opened, Yang Jian was shocked! He never expected that the box would contain a hideous and terrifying blue skull!

Suddenly, Yang Jian noticed a white cloth strip under the blue skull. He took the cloth out and found a long list written on it in very strange handwriting.

Upon closer inspection, Yang Jian was utterly shocked! It turned out that the white cloth listed the names of three generations from four families: Lin Qiu, Lin Wangchou, Zheng Ansheng, and Lin Wenrui.

The first line of the list is for Lin Qiu's family, listed in order of seniority: Lin Bingshan, Lin Zhengde, Lin Qiu. The second line is for Lin Wangchou's family, also listed in order of seniority: Lin Xuebin, Lin Yongfu, Lin Wangchou. The third line is for Zheng Ansheng's family: Zheng Biao, Zheng Wenxuan, Zheng Ansheng. The last line is for Lin Wenrui's family: Lin Xingwang, Lin Chaoyong, Lin Wenrui.

In this long list, apart from Lin Qiu's name, all the other names were marked with a red cross. And apart from Lin Wangchou, Zheng Ansheng, and Lin Wenrui, who mysteriously disappeared and whose fate is still unknown, all the others were dead.

This is a horrifying "death list".

Chapter 5: The Ghostly Building and the Wronged Souls

The town was very quiet at night. Before ten o'clock, people were already asleep. A crescent moon hung in the sky, emitting a pale and eerie light.

Under the hazy night sky, the entire "haunted building" appeared eerie and mysterious.

Around ten o'clock, Yang Jian quietly sneaked into the haunted building again. As he entered the first-floor living room, he suddenly heard several mournful coughs coming from upstairs.

Yang Jian felt a chill run down his spine, and he secretly wondered: Could there really be a ghost in this building? After pondering for a moment, he quietly stepped onto the stairs and headed towards the second floor. Although his steps were very light, the stair treads still made a few creaking sounds.

Upon reaching the second floor, a pale sliver of moonlight shone into the dark corridor, casting an eerie glow. Yang Jian stared at the room at the end of the corridor, a slight unease creeping into his heart. Perhaps the coughing he had heard earlier had come from inside. He had sensed something strange about the room when he arrived during the day; perhaps someone had been living there all along.

After a while, seeing no movement, Yang Jian quietly walked towards the room. Reaching the door, he gently pushed it open. The room was empty, just like during the day; the blankets on the bed were still neatly folded, and no one was there.

Yang Jian stepped out of the room and gently closed the door. The moment he turned around, he suddenly noticed a blurry shadow at the top of the stairs—a human shadow!

Yang Jian didn't have time to think and quickly gave chase. By the time he reached the stairwell, the figure had already vanished into the darkness of the first floor. He went downstairs, turned on his flashlight, and searched every corner of the living room, but there was no sign of anyone. Had he imagined it?

Yang Jian left the living room and entered the courtyard. Suddenly, he noticed a light on in one of the rooms on the third floor! The light shone through a window, flickering intermittently. He was secretly astonished. Who was upstairs on the third floor?

After a slight hesitation, Yang Jian quickly went up to the third floor. He quietly entered the room with a light, which appeared to be the glow of candlelight. Unlike the other rooms, this room was locked.

There must be some secret hidden in this room, Yang Jian thought to himself. Fortunately, he had brought the police's special lock-picking tools with him tonight, and the iron lock on the door was easily opened.

When the door was opened, Yang Jian was taken aback! It turned out that the room was an altar, with eight memorial tablets of the dead arranged in a row on a large altar in the middle. Two large red candles and several sticks of incense were burning, indicating that someone had just come here to worship these souls.

Yang Jian carefully examined the names of the deceased on the memorial tablets. From the names on each tablet, it was clear that the deceased were a family. The two tablets in the center were inscribed with: "The Spirit Tablet of Grandfather Tong Yucun" and "The Spirit Tablet of Grandmother Wu Lianying." The two tablets next to Tong Yucun and Wu Lianying were inscribed with: "The Spirit Tablet of Father Tong Xuehua" and "The Spirit Tablet of Mother Mei Yulan." The remaining tablets were also inscribed with the names of the deceased. Clearly, this was the Tong family's ancestral hall, where the spirits of the eight members of the Tong family were enshrined.

Why is the Tong family's ancestral hall located in this "haunted building"? How did these people die? And who was the mysterious person who came to worship the spirits of this family just now?

Section Six: An Unsolved Case

Around 8:30 in the morning, Yang Jian arrived at the town's police station. The station chief's surname was Liu, and his name was Liu Tiezhu. He was a middle-aged man who looked rather honest and kind.

Yang Jian introduced himself to Liu Tiezhu and told him the purpose of his visit to Qianling Town. Upon hearing that it was about investigating the "ghost building," Liu Tiezhu's expression seemed somewhat complicated.

"Director Liu, are you aware of the haunted 'haunted building' incident?"

Yang Jian stared at Liu Tiezhu and asked thoughtfully.

“I know. However, this is just a folk legend. No one has ever seen the so-called ‘ghost’ in the building.” Liu Tiezhu paused and then continued, “We have investigated that building many times, but we have not found anything. It is just an abandoned old house.”

When was the last time you investigated the "haunted building"?

Liu Tiezhu pondered for a moment and then said:

"The last investigation into the 'haunted building' was about two years ago. Two years ago, a young man from the town who was studying went into the 'haunted building' alone one night, and died mysteriously the next day. In order to find out the cause of death, we investigated the 'haunted building', but we did not find anything unusual."

After listening to Liu Tiezhu's words, Yang Jian nodded slightly and then asked:

"Chief Liu, it's said that the 'haunted building' started being haunted more than ten years ago, and that several people who lived in the building at that time were killed by vengeful ghosts. Is this true?"

"Yes, I heard about this when I was first transferred to this town." Suddenly, Liu Tiezhu seemed to remember something. "Oh, right, Officer Yang, please come with me to the archives."

Upon arriving at the archives, Liu Tiezhu took out a thick stack of dusty files from the filing cabinet. These files contained records of all the cases that had been handled in the town over the past few decades.

"Officer Yang, this file records all the major and minor cases that have occurred in this town over the past few decades. Among them is a bizarre disappearance case that occurred thirty years ago, and the missing person was the owner of the 'Haunted Building'."

As Liu Tiezhu spoke, he flipped open the thick stack of files, as if he could breathe in the breath of time.

"The missing person is the owner of the 'Haunted Building'?" Yang Jian's spirits lifted upon hearing this. "So, the 'Haunted Building' has changed hands before? The original owners of this 'Haunted Building' were not the Lin family or the Zheng family?"

"Yes, the original owner of this 'haunted building' was surnamed Tong. Thirty years ago, one winter night, more than a dozen members of the Tong family suddenly and mysteriously disappeared overnight, as if they had vanished from the face of the earth. They have been missing without a trace ever since. To this day, the case remains unsolved and has become a forgotten historical mystery."

"So, when did the Lin family and the Zheng family move into that building?"

"They moved in about two years after the Tong family went missing."

Yang Jian nodded, then turned his gaze to the case file and carefully looked at the case records related to the disappearance. In the list of missing persons, he was surprised to find that the missing persons were the dead in the 'Ghost Building' shrine. In addition to the eight people, including Tong Yucun, Wu Lianying, Tong Xuehua, and Mei Yulan, there were five other people: Tong Xuening, Wen Shufang, Tong Chunsheng, Tong Rumeng, and Tong Ruyu.

Yang Jian closed the file and let out a long sigh of relief, as if he had found some kind of answer.

Chapter Eight

Section 1: Seeking Refuge in the Deep Mountains

A light drizzle began to fall from the sky again, and several ancient arcade buildings in the distance were hidden in a hazy night. A few orange lights flickered on and off, casting an eerie and unsettling glow.

At 6:30 PM, night had quietly fallen. The atmosphere in the conference room on the third floor of the police station building was quite different from usual, appearing particularly solemn and serious. The entire task force was holding a meeting, and everyone's face was grave.

Just over an hour ago, Lin Qiu received a mysterious phone call from a woman who told him that tonight would be his death night. After receiving Lin Qiu's report, the police convened an emergency meeting of the entire task force to discuss countermeasures.

After a long silence, Chen Feng finally spoke:

"The killer is mysterious and unpredictable, making him impossible to guard against. For months, we have been unable to do anything about him. Now, what we need to do is strengthen the defense of Lin Qiu's personal safety and never let the killer succeed again."

"Yes, that's the only thing we can do for now." Yang Jian nodded and said, "After the meeting, I will immediately dispatch police to Lin Qiu's house to set up a comprehensive cordon and guard it throughout the night."

“No.” Chen Feng waved his hand and said, “Lin Qiu’s home is also a security risk now.”

"What should we do then?"

Everyone asked in unison, with more than a dozen pairs of eyes staring at Chen Feng with suspicion.

"Bring Lin Qiu to the police station." Chen Feng's eyes were sharp. He glanced at everyone and said decisively, "There's no safer place than the police station."

After hearing Chen Feng's words, everyone nodded in unison.

After the meeting, Chen Feng sent Yang Jian to drive Lin Qiu to the police station. The police had already prepared a room for him, a small room of only a dozen square meters with only a tiny window. Apart from the door, there was nowhere else to enter the room. Inside, there was only a bed and a chair, so even if the murderer entered, there would be nowhere to hide.