Horrorgeschichten, die in einer verlassenen Wohnung spielen

Kapitel 9

"This is missing, that is missing, how did you pass the inspection? I don't think you need to continue operating here."

"Ouch, oh dear, oh dear!" I could still hear the fat aunt's wails as I turned the corner and went down the stairs.

On my way back to the newspaper office, I bought some pan-fried buns and ate them as I walked. An hour ago I was starving, but now I had no appetite at all. I only ate half of them, and the rest was taken by the young policeman, who hadn't eaten dinner either.

"So you know the Special Affairs Bureau. There's a fat guy in there named Zhen Daren. He used to be in our team for a while. Oh, you know him? He's a real character." The policeman seemed very interested in the Special Affairs Bureau. I responded half-heartedly, not really having much interest in chatting.

Back at the newspaper office, I searched every desk and locker, but I still couldn't find a few letters. It wasn't my fault; how could I be expected to carefully preserve letters from a mentally ill person?

Liu Tang hadn't left yet. Seeing me return with a policeman, he asked, "What's wrong? What are you looking for?"

"The mentally ill person who came to see me yesterday is dead. Look for the letter she wrote to me."

Liu Tang was startled. He pulled open a drawer and found an envelope: "I have one here. It was passed around to me last time, and I forgot to return it to you. Um, was she murdered?"

I took the letter and nodded: "I'll tell you later."

Liu Tang jumped up from his seat, grabbed his bag, and exclaimed excitedly, "Big news! Big news! Where is it? Tell me!"

I told him the location, and Liu Tang excitedly rushed out.

That reckless guy... I watched his back disappear through the door, and then I turned off my phone.

When Liu Tang realized that I was the first person to discover the body, he was sure he would call, but I had no intention of giving him an interview.

I waited a long time at the police station before the detective came to take my statement. His attitude was much better then, probably because he had learned more about my background. I've had quite a few dealings with the police these past few years.

The interrogation took two hours. The detective asked very detailed questions, and he was quite surprised when I mentioned the paper baby. When he heard that I had used the stalker to find the hotel where Huang Zhi was staying, he stopped writing, looked up at me, and probably thought it was quite remarkable that I could come up with such a method.

How did you know she came to see you about her missing daughter?

"I guessed it, because there was nothing else between us."

In her letter to you, she mentioned that she has been carefully reading the news articles you write. Think back to the news articles you've written recently. Is there any one that might have attracted her to contact you?

I hadn't thought of that. After thinking for a long time, I shook my head with a wry smile and said, "I don't know. I can't guess her logic. She's not a normal person."

"Does she have any enemies?" the detective asked.

“I don’t know, but the people in her village probably do.” At this point, I remembered something and hesitated before saying, “Actually… as far as I know, Huang Zhi doesn’t have a good relationship with the people in her village.”

The detective's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly asked what was going on. I told him about the "bad luck" that the people of Datang Village had for Huang Zhi.

The detective thought for a moment and shook his head slightly.

“It shouldn’t be that bad,” he said. “Alright, thank you, sir. That’s all for now. I’ll call you again if I need any further information.”

"Oh, may I ask, are there any leads yet?"

The detective hesitated for a moment before revealing some information to me: "Huang Zhi died around this morning. It's a murder case, but the killer isn't very experienced; he left some traces. I think we should be able to catch him. However, the motive is still unclear. I was hoping to get some inspiration from you, but..." He shrugged and didn't finish his sentence.

As I left the police station, I turned on my phone and called He Xi, thinking she probably hadn't finished get off work yet.

“I’m right outside the police station. Want to come out and grab some late-night snacks?” I asked.

"No, I'm busy," came her weak reply from the phone.

Why does your voice sound so weak?

"As I said, I'm busy. I'm holding my phone between my shoulder and arm," He Xi said.

"Are you doing an autopsy?" I realized why she didn't have her hands free.

"I hung up halfway through the cut, and if nothing else happened."

"Wait, is this the dead person I found?"

"nonsense."

"Have you checked her blood type?" I didn't hear much excitement in her voice, which shouldn't be the case.

"I did a very simple test, blood type O, how so?"

“I know her blood type. Do it again in detail. I’ll tell you, her blood type is U-Sembei.”

"What?" The voice suddenly became louder.

“U-Sembei type, I interviewed her, I know her.”

"Oh, I love you so much." He Xi said something I hadn't heard in a long time, but then there was a busy signal, and she hung up.

I was stunned for a moment before calling her again.

"Is there anything else?" Her tone suddenly became much more impatient than before. Damn it, is this how she loves me?

"Do you remember the paper baby I told you about? She was the woman who gave birth."

"Oh ho!" He Xi exclaimed. I imagine she must have blushed with excitement, that medical fanatic.

"That's amazing, that's amazing!" she exclaimed over the phone, though she didn't know who she was saying it to.

"I remember you said that she has no other relatives, right?" He Xi suddenly asked me a strange question.

"Yes, why are you asking this? Uh, wait!" I suddenly had a very bad feeling. "You're not planning to do anything to her body, are you?"

“If there are no relatives, then I can do whatever I want with her. This treasure can stay with me a little longer.” He Xi didn’t hide her plans at all. “I’m a forensic doctor, so this is my legitimate right. Don’t worry, no matter how I cut it, I will put it back in.”

"Sigh, sigh!" I could only sigh. How could the woman I like have turned out like this? Do I really want to pursue her?

"By the way, why did you say that earlier, that reporting it yourself doesn't mean anything? It startled me. At that time, the detective almost thought I was a murderer," I asked, feeling frustrated.

"Reporting the case yourself doesn't really mean anything; there's been some new development in the South Korean case."

"New developments? You mean the French engineer who filed the police report himself? What happened to him?"

"It's those two dead infants. The final DNA test results are in. At first, everyone thought they were twins, and they did look very similar, given how long they had been frozen. The samples from the first and second DNA tests did not come from the same infant's body. The truth is, one of the dead infants was indeed born to the French couple who reported the case, while the other infant with the U-Sembei blood type was not. The case has now been transferred to the French police, and Kurz has been deported back to France."

"Ah, but if he really did it himself, why would he report it to the police?" I asked curiously.

"Let the French police deal with this headache."

After ending the call with He Xi, I discovered that Liu Tang had sent me several text messages while my phone was off. I didn't even look at them and just turned my phone off again.

He went home and fell asleep immediately, sleeping soundly through the night. The next day, at the newspaper office, Liu Tang pounced on him and demanded fiercely, "Why didn't you tell me you were the first person to arrive at the scene?"

"You didn't ask."

"Then why did you turn off your phone yesterday?" Liu Tang's eyes were so wide they almost popped out of their sockets. I considered whether I should hand him a cup to catch them.

"The police told me to turn off my phone."

Why would the police make such a request?

"Go ask the police. Or you'll know next time you're taken to the station in this situation."

"Ahhh..." Liu Tang wailed for a while, then asked, "What time did you finish taking the statement yesterday? I called you before the final layout at midnight, but your phone was still off."

That's because you were unlucky and didn't call me three times every minute.

Of course I couldn't say that, so I bluntly glared back at him: "Forgot to turn it on, so what?"

He grumbled for a while, finally managing to utter "I give up," before angrily sitting back down.

Regardless, it was an exclusive report, and Liu Tang even received a small bonus for it. He wanted to treat me to a meal to make up for the money, but I said no. Using that money for food made me uncomfortable.

Over the next two days, I retrieved all the news articles I had written in the past few months from my archive to study, trying to see which one might be related to Huang Zhi; I also looked over and over the letter Huang Zhi wrote to me (I gave the original to the police and kept a copy), but the conclusion remained the same—aside from coming to Shanghai to ask me for help because her daughter had gone missing, I couldn't find any other reason for her to come to Shanghai.

Could it be that her murder was related to her search for her daughter? Could it be that she was killed because she discovered clues about her daughter's disappearance that threatened someone's interests?

I didn't tell the detective about this idea; he would definitely have thought of it too, just as I had. As a friend of the deceased, I asked him to let me know if there were any breakthroughs in the case, and he agreed.

I haven't heard from He Xi for several days. I tried calling her, but her phone was off. This reminded me of when Liu Tang called me. Without a doubt, she was completely absorbed in her work cutting people.

That evening, during a department dinner, the department head, Zong Er, remarked that I looked unwell these past few days and seemed somewhat tired.

"I haven't seen you make any big news lately, young man. Health is the most important thing." As the old man spoke, the kids around him laughed, and even Zong Er revealed a sly smile.

I smiled wryly and finished the beer in my glass.

I have a very low alcohol tolerance, and when I got home I was still feeling dizzy and lightheaded. It was as if a mountain of fatigue was pressing down on me all of a sudden. I took a quick shower and lay down on the bed. But the alcohol didn't help me fall asleep quickly. One moment I was seeing Huang Zhi's dead body, and the next I was seeing the paper baby being held by the doctor. I started sweating again, feeling sticky and uncomfortable, but I didn't have the strength to get up and take another shower.

The chaotic images in my mind eventually led me to recall the missing Zhou Qianqian. The little girl stood in a sunless corner, silent, just staring coldly at me.

I suddenly woke up.

My phone woke me up. The room was pitch black. I opened my eyes and had no idea what time it was.

The cell phone rang persistently for a long time, then stopped for a moment, and then the landline in my room rang again.

My eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and the starlight slowly began to appear. I glanced at the alarm clock; it seemed to be three in the morning.

Who would be in such a hurry to find me at this time?

I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead, reached out and groped around on the bedside table, finally finding the telephone receiver and picking it up.

Chapter Eight: The Invisible Pregnant Woman

After hanging up the phone, I sat blankly in the dark for a while, then got out of bed.

I was wide awake. The light came on, and I went into the bathroom and turned on the cold water tap, showering myself from head to toe.

The call was from He Xi.

For the past few days, she's been working day and night on various tests, and it wasn't until yesterday morning—or rather, yesterday—that she remembered she'd promised me a favor. Just ten minutes ago, the test results I requested came back, and in her shock, she called me immediately, despite it being the middle of the night.

When the call connected, her first words were even somewhat incoherent.

"It's the same! Can you believe it? It's the same!" I had never heard her speak at such a speed before. Excitement and astonishment made her even stutter a little.

"What's the same as what?" I was just woken up and couldn't react at all.

“The DNA test results of Hwang Ji are the same as those of the stillborn babies in South Korea.”

I was stunned.

"Of the two babies that Kurro took out of his refrigerator, one was Huang Zhisheng's, and the other one had the U-Sembei blood type!"

When I suggested to He Xi that she test Huang Zhi's DNA to compare it with that of the stillborn baby in Korea, I secretly found my oversensitivity amusing. I never imagined that it would actually be Huang Zhi's child.

"How could you have guessed? How could you have guessed that the dead baby was related to Huang Zhi?" He Xi asked me loudly on the phone.

"I don't know either, don't ask me, my mind is even more confused than yours right now," I said to He Xi.

After a cold shower, my chaotic thoughts began to settle down. No matter how unbelievable the result may be, the fact remains the fact.

I had previously imagined that if Hwang Ji-hyun and the Korean stillborn baby were indeed related, the connection between them would be incredibly complex and convoluted. But now, even if there's a huge secret involved, I'm determined to uncover it step by step.

Now, there are some basic things to figure out. It's not difficult.