Zyklon-Säbel

Kapitel 25

********

"Splash!" I let out a long breath, and my body floated back to the surface of the blood pool. Looking out of the blood pool, Li Hai and Fang Lei were fighting the bandaged ghost together. Talismans and ribbons were being used alternately to strike the bandaged ghost, and the red light emitted by the bandaged ghost had also caused Li Hai and Fang Lei to be injured!

She hurriedly struggled to climb out of the blood pool, glancing anxiously into the water a few times. Fortunately, the man hadn't followed her, and the color of the blood pool was gradually fading, soon turning pink.

Could everything I just experienced be the connection point? I looked happily at the bandaged ghost, and sure enough, his power was gradually weakening; the red light was no longer blinding, and his movements were slowing down. Just then, Fang Lei's ribbons suddenly wrapped around his body, binding him tightly.

"Stop!" I hurriedly called out to Li Hai, who was trying to finish off the bandaged ghost. They couldn't hide their excitement when they saw me return. Fang Lei almost pounced on me, but stopped because she was still holding the ribbon binding the bandaged ghost.

"Kid, you're finally back." Li Hai smiled at me, panting heavily. I could tell he was exhausted.

I nodded to him and turned to the bandaged ghost, hoping to learn the man's true identity from him. But I didn't ask him directly; I already guessed his identity and needed to confirm it first. So I asked, "Are you Yang Yi?"

Upon hearing my words, the bandaged ghost immediately threw his head back and laughed a few times, his hoarse voice ringing out again: "That's right, it is me. When did you find out?"

Yes, just as I expected. I smiled and replied, "We didn't suspect you were Yang Yi at first. We initially thought you were Lin Junxian, but things have changed our minds. Lin Junxian was burned to death, right? Then why are you covered in bandages? Also, Lin Junxian loved his daughter so much, how could he let her remain a ghost instead of being reincarnated? Lin Yuyan is his niece, so why would he use the Ten Thousand Souls Locking Array against his own family? And just now, Li Yang called. Although I didn't hear the whole thing he said, I know he was trying to tell me that the one who wasn't burned to death must be you, Yang Yi!"

"Yes, that fire did burn me and Lin Junxian to death. But Lin Junxian was burned to death directly, while I had to endure the pain of having 90% of my body burned before I died! That's not fair!" Yang Yi shouted in grief and indignation. Although I am not a surgeon, I know that burning 90% of the body is indeed a torment for a person.

"But is that why you want to kill someone?" I asked.

“I think the one who truly advocates for live experiments is you, isn’t he?” Fang Lei suddenly interjected thoughtfully, staring intently at Yang Yi, and said, “And the one who told us those stories about Lin Junxian and St. Mary’s Hospital and tried to mislead us into believing that Lin Junxian was behind it all wasn’t Yang Tianxing, it should be you!”

Huh?! Li Hai and I both turned to Fang Lei with questioning eyes. We hadn't thought about this at all!

Book One: The Three Ghosts of the City, Chapter Fifty-Seven: A Sea of Suspicion

Book One: The Three Ghosts of the City, Chapter Fifty-Seven: A Sea of Suspicion

"How did you know?" Yang Yi was no less surprised than we were; judging from his tone, he must have already admitted it.

“It’s actually very simple,” Fang Lei said with a smile. “Age! The fire at St. Mary’s Hospital happened more than seventy years ago. Yang Tianxing must have been in his sixties. How could he know so much about it? Either he’s making it up, or he’s not Yang Tianxing at all!”

Age! Sure enough, how could we have overlooked the most direct and simplest point? From the very beginning, we overcomplicated things and forgot about what was most exposed to us.

"Then how did you guess that he was the one who advocated for live experiments?" Li Hai asked from the side.

"Hehe," Fang Lei winked playfully at Li Hai and said, "I really did guess, but he admitted it!"

"You!" Yang Yi was immediately angered by Fang Lei's words and struggled for a moment. He never expected that he would be tricked into talking by a little girl.

"But we clearly saw Yang Tianxing! He's a person!" I still felt something was off. Was Yang Tianxing a real person or an incarnation of Yang Yi?

"He's just using Yang Tianxing's body. I think Yang Tianxing isn't your son at all, is he?" Fang Lei asked aggressively.

"Hahaha...hahaha...!" Yang Yi suddenly burst into maniacal laughter, the sound echoing endlessly in the laboratory, sounding desolate and lonely. Fang Lei tightened the ribbon in her hand, and under the purple light, the bandaged ghost's figure showed signs of gradually disappearing.

"Yes, it was all me, all my doing!" Yang Yi's laughter sounded more like crying. "Who told him to refuse to continue the experiments? Who told him to sever ties with our partners? He even tried to expose everything! He clearly said he would develop a medicine to save his daughter, how could he go back on his word halfway through?"

After hearing all this, Fang Lei, Li Hai, and I exchanged glances. It seemed Lin Junxian was the biggest victim; he must have been killed by Yang Yi to silence him because he didn't want to continue doing such heinous things as live dissections. But if Lin Junxian was doing experiments for his daughter, then why did Yang Yi do experiments in the first place? Since Yang Yi set Lin Junxian on fire, how could he himself have been severely burned and died? I've never heard of a murderer who set fire to someone and burned themselves in the process! And who hired the murderer who led us here? Was it Yang Tianxing, possessed by Yang Yi?

"Why did you do those experiments?" I asked tentatively.

"Why? Why?" Yang Yi looked at me with a confused expression, his one eye fixed on me, making me feel very uncomfortable. Humans can go crazy, but don't tell me ghosts can go insane too!

"Why are you conducting this experiment? What is your purpose?" I continued to press.

"An experiment?! To achieve immortality! Yes! To achieve immortality! Hahaha..." Yang Yi continued to laugh maniacally, his laughter sounding particularly tragic and ironic to us. Immortality? I sighed, looking at Yang Yi before me. If this state could be considered immortality, then he had indeed achieved his goal. But would "living" like this bring any joy, or would it only be a form of torment?

"Immortality? Who told you that?" Li Hai asked, frowning. While there were many legends in ancient China about the search for elixirs of immortality, the most famous being Qin Shi Huang sending over three thousand boys and girls to the mythical Kunlun Island, he never imagined that in this age of advanced science, anyone would still believe it. But Yang Yi was just an ordinary doctor; where would he get the knowledge of elixirs of immortality? And the biggest question was, who set up the Ten Thousand Souls Locking Array? Although the newspaper reported it was a charity tree-planting event organized by Lin Junxian, surely someone had instructed him to do so? Perhaps even Lin Junxian himself didn't know that his event was actually a setup?

"He told me that as long as we perform live dissections, we can find a way to live forever! He said he would help me!" Yang Yi suddenly looked around in horror, her only eyeball darting around.

"Who is he? Who exactly is he? Is he the skeleton in the sewer?" I asked hurriedly, because Yang Yi's figure was becoming more and more transparent and was about to disappear.

"Wait a minute!" Fang Lei loosened her grip on the ribbon, but it was too late. Yang Yi had disappeared before answering my question, and only his miserable laughter before he vanished echoed in the air.

"Damn it!" I slammed my fist on the wall. This best clue had vanished just like that, and I still had so many questions to answer! I glanced back at the blood pool, and to my surprise, the once crimson water had become unusually clear. I was momentarily stunned. Did the disappearance of the blood mean the disappearance of Yang Yi, or had the wronged souls in the blood pool been released from their torment?

"Lin Xiao!" Fang Lei suddenly ran over and hugged me, her face flushed with joy and sparkling with excitement.

"Have you found the connection point?" Li Hai asked, looking at me.

Nodding, I took Fang Lei's hand. Although I didn't want to dampen their spirits, I still had to tell them what had just happened. After I recounted what had happened at Heart Lake, their happy faces immediately fell again, and their good mood vanished.

"How come another guy has appeared?" Li Hai sighed in frustration, his whole demeanor slumped. Yes, he thought everything was settled after dealing with Yang Yi, but he never expected there to be such a well-hidden mastermind behind the scenes. How could this not make us feel uneasy?

“I think we need to sort out our thoughts now,” Fang Lei comforted me and Li Hai, who were feeling frustrated. “I think what Lin Xiao just experienced wasn’t just a simple illusion.”

"You mean, the part before that was the real past?" Li Hai immediately perked up and asked.

“I think so. If that’s the case, then we can know why Lin Yuyan disappeared the day after the performance. It’s very likely that she was raped by Yu Zhongguo and Mao Aijun,” Fang Lei replied.

"Wait a minute, I saw more than just the two of them, there was also Zhu Zhenhua!" I quickly added from the side.

"So one of the big questions now is why Yu Zhongguo and Mao Aijun both died, but he didn't, and he's still alive and well." Fang Lei slowly analyzed, "And why did Lin Yuyan go to Heart Lake at night? I don't think she would choose to visit a place she might not even know before at night. So I think she was probably invited there by someone."

Li Hai and I both nodded in agreement. Fang Lei's analysis made a lot of sense, and we were gradually getting to the root of the problem.

"So who was the person who asked her out? And why would she agree to meet them? I think Lin Yuyan probably doesn't know anyone in this city, so the person who asked her out must be someone she didn't know before. What reason do you think would make a girl go to a remote place so late to meet a stranger?" I suddenly asked a lot of questions.

"It seems the key to this case still lies with Lin Yuyan. And why did she suddenly reappear? If the migrant workers' indiscriminate logging damaged the formation, giving her the opportunity to emerge, then why did she kill those women? This is something I still can't figure out! Is it simply because they all went to Sacred Heart Hospital? There are plenty of women who go to that hospital, so why did she specifically choose them?" Li Hai looked puzzled, but this was a question we were all curious about as well. Lin Yuyan shouldn't be some kind of evil spirit!

“Alright, I know there are still many problems, but…” Fang Lei frowned and said, “Can we leave this awful place first?”

Fang Lei looked around with a hint of disgust and tugged at her clothes. I immediately smiled knowingly. It was indeed inhumane to have such a beautiful woman standing naked in a laboratory full of human specimens!

"Alright, let's get out of this awful place! No matter what, we've had a very fruitful day!" Li Hai patted my shoulder, and I took Fang Lei's hand as we walked out of the laboratory.

As I was the last one to leave the lab and close the door, I suddenly felt incredibly sorry for Yang Yi and Lin Junxian. They were both being manipulated by a mastermind behind the scenes, perhaps dying without ever knowing what they had done, while that mastermind could play them like puppets. How pitiful! People who can't control their own destiny will never see their own lives. And at that moment, I was completely unaware that I, too, was being manipulated by an even more hidden, invisible hand. What I didn't know was that after I closed the lab door, the once clear pool water began to turn red again, eventually becoming a dark red, and within the churning water, I could vaguely see a human body immersed in blood.

Walking through the sewers again, the initial excitement was gone. When we passed the skeleton again, I removed the head from it. This action startled Fang Lei and Li Hai, who looked at me strangely, thinking I had some kind of fetish. I had to explain that I needed to take the skull for some forensic examination, hoping it would help with the case. So, I carried the skull with them all the way out of No. 77 Guhuai Street. The entire way was eerily quiet, but this quietness didn't bring us any peace; on the contrary, it gave us a feeling that a storm was brewing.

To be honest, I'm not without experience carrying a skull while walking, but the feeling right now is particularly strange. Plus, with Fang Lei beside me wearing only a few layers of clothing, the feeling is even more eerie and erotic, especially stimulating to my senses.

We thought our appearance might scare people, but thankfully our ordeal had taken up a lot of time, and it was already past midnight with not a single pedestrian in the neighborhood. Strangely, however, we couldn't find the small path we'd originally taken, and ended up going in a huge circle before finally finding our car.

Volume One: Tales of the Three Ghosts in the City, Chapter Fifty-Eight: A Photograph of a Headshot

Volume One: Tales of the Three Ghosts in the City, Chapter Fifty-Eight: A Photograph of a Headshot

When I woke up this morning, sunlight streamed in through the curtains, dazzling like a thousand golden rays. I rubbed my eyes; it was Sunday, so instead of getting out of bed immediately, I lit a cigarette. Through the swirling smoke, I stared blankly at myself in the mirror—pale face, but bright red lips. I gently exhaled a puff of smoke and lay there contentedly. Although I'd quit smoking for a while, recent events had made me start again. This wasn't good for my health; if Yin Xue were still here, she'd definitely scold me! I gave a wry smile, realizing I still remembered Yin Xue's words. Wasn't that unfair to Fang Lei?

I stubbed out my cigarette, got out of bed, and started washing up, my mind still replaying the events that followed our encounter at 77 Guhuai Street. First, the next day we pretended to go to Yang Tianxing's house to look for him. With the neighbors and the building's security guard as witnesses, we opened the door, but to our astonishment, Yang Tianxing's body was nowhere to be found. Of course, we didn't mention we'd seen his body; we could only report him missing to the police. This was one of the things that worried us. The second thing was that Cao Ying had also disappeared. We couldn't contact her at all, not even by phone, and couldn't reach the hotel where she'd stayed. Then, Li Yang used his connections at the police station to check her phone information at the telecommunications bureau. They discovered that the night after we went to 77 Guhuai Street, she received a phone call and then never made or received another. But when we called the number that had last called her, it was a dead number!

The third thing that unsettled us was that we discovered all the leads we could follow had gone cold. Even Li Yang's charm trick had failed to get any useful confidential information from the library girl. Did we really have to rush to the deputy mayor and confront him? I buried my face in the cold water, the coolness stimulating my skin. After wiping my face, I walked to the desk and sat down in front of the skull I had taken from the sewer.

When I first brought it home, my older sister's reaction was truly astounding; the neighbors almost thought I was abusing her. After I repeatedly assured her that I would only keep it in my room and with a bunch of Häagen-Dazs ice cream, she finally stopped saying anything. Touching the clay on the skull, I prepared to begin the final steps of my handmade skull reconstruction.

Originally, I wanted Fang Lei to use magic to solve this complicated process, but strangely, the skull-alignment spell she invented couldn't be used on this skull at all, so we had to give up in the end. As for the computer at the bureau, I did consider using it, but unfortunately, I couldn't take the skull to the bureau's lab to do private work, so I finally decided to do it at home myself.

The technique of reconstructing faces using skulls isn't a modern invention. As early as 1895, a Swiss anatomist named Wilhelm Siss pioneered this technique. I simply adopted some of his methods. First, I attached rubber tips to key locations on a plaster model of the skull to fix the skin thickness—the dimensions of which were well-documented. Then, I filled the spaces between the rubber tips with clay according to carefully drawn dimensions. Unfortunately, the nose was the most difficult part to work with because human soft tissue disappears due to decay, making perfectly precise sculpting impossible. The skull is now basically complete. I've added artificial eyes, but because I didn't add a wig, the bald head looks awkward.

Although it was handmade, it should still be able to restore about six or seven tenths of the original head's appearance. Staring coldly at the skull before me, I wasn't surprised at all that it was the mysterious man. Closing my eyes, I recalled the man's face and some of his words. I guessed that he was very likely the one Yang Yi had mentioned, and the one who told Yang Yi about the elixir of immortality!

I opened my eyes again. The dazzling sunlight streamed through the glass window, reflecting off the portrait. The interplay of light and shadow created a striking visual effect, and a malevolent glint emanated from its artificial, fake eyes. I blinked, convinced I was seeing things. I touched the portrait; the clay surface, far from feeling warm from the sunlight, was strangely cold. I withdrew my hand and glanced at the skull beside it. The dark, hollow eyes seemed to hold another pair of eyes watching me, a feeling that made me very uneasy.

Because my older sister had disappeared again, it was very quiet around me, with only the sound of my breathing. Although I knew it was just the sound of air entering my lungs and then being exhaled, unease gradually crept over my entire body, leaving me feeling cold all over. The image in front of me stared at me expressionlessly. I stood up, a little annoyed, and turned to go get breakfast. Just as I turned, the image seemed to split into several parts. I immediately stopped and stared at the image. There was clearly only one, but I stared intently at it. My hand gripping the chair was a little damp. When I opened my hand, I saw that my palm was covered in sweat.

Don't scare yourself! I slapped my face. Was I still half asleep? I walked out of the room quickly, feeling like there was a pair of eyes watching me from behind, and a sudden cramp ran down my back. I quickly closed the door; I didn't even have the courage to look at that profile picture again.

Stepping into the kitchen—or at least if you'd call it a kitchen, since there's nothing there except a refrigerator and a microwave—there's not even a gas stove. Yes, because my sister and I are too lazy to cook, and we certainly don't know how, so we skipped that when we moved in. My sister said it was to avoid wasting resources; if we definitely wouldn't use it, we shouldn't buy it! I have no problem with that, since I mostly eat at the office or outside. As for her, I guess she's pretty much the same; most of the time I see her not eating anything, saying she's on a diet!

After taking some bread out of the refrigerator, I plugged in the electric kettle. Since we don't have a gas stove, we use an electric kettle to boil water, which is why we never have to pay our gas bill, yet our electricity meter keeps spinning rapidly. The thought of the strange expressions on the faces of those who come to read our gas meter makes me want to laugh.

I poured myself a glass of milk and leaned against the refrigerator, munching on my breakfast. The slight vibrations from the refrigerator made me feel a little reassured. After taking a sip of milk, my eyes involuntarily drifted towards the room. The door wasn't closed properly, just a crack. This reminded me of the long corridor in that villa and the doors on either side of it. I tightened my grip on the glass, then looked down and took another bite of bread, but a dark shadow flickered past in the crack.

"Who is it?" I shouted, my voice echoing through the room. I strode to the door and flung it open. Nothing there, just that image, still staring at me expressionlessly. Relieved, I closed the door again. What's wrong with me? Why have I become so timid? It's not like it's the first time I've been home alone, yet I'm so paranoid. I gave a self-deprecating laugh and went back to the kitchen.

"Ring ring..." A sudden phone call startled me, almost causing me to drop my cup. Slightly annoyed, I answered lazily, "Who is it?"

"Lin Xiao is me!" I recognized Li Yang's loud voice without him having to announce his name.

"What?" I asked.

"Are you still half asleep? Didn't we agree that you'd bring over the profile picture you've finished today so we could study it?"

"Oh, I almost forgot!" I slapped my forehead. I'd been a bit absent-minded since I woke up this morning, and I'd completely forgotten about the important thing.

"Are you coming or not?" Li Yang asked anxiously.

"Coming, coming right away! Wait for me!" I hurriedly hung up the phone, hastily biting off a few bites of bread to finish my breakfast. Rushing into my room, I paused at my desk, stunned. The portrait remained motionless, but to me it looked more like a human head coldly staring at me. Touching my nose, I quickly grabbed a bag and stuffed the portrait and skull inside. Then I fled the house as if escaping.

*********

When I arrived at Li Yang's house, Fang Lei was already there. She looked very tired, and I thought she must be worried about Cao Ying. Although we hadn't spent much time together, Fang Lei had already come to treat Cao Ying like her own younger sister. And how could Li Yang and I not be worried?

"Did you bring it?" Li Hai poured me a glass of water and asked.

I nodded, handed him the bag, and said, "It's all inside. Have you figured out what to do next?"

"There is a way, but it's a bit old-fashioned!" Li Yang looked at me with a grin, but I felt a chill run down my spine. This kid's method must be more than just old-fashioned.

With a helpless sigh, I said, "Tell me, what is it?"

"Hehe," Li Yang scratched his head and said, "Just take a picture of your face and then take the photo to ask them!"

"What?" I almost spat out the water in my mouth. He even compared himself to Sherlock Holmes reincarnated. How could he come up with such a deadly method?

"I've got everything ready!" Li Yang, oblivious to my disdain, proudly displayed his camera in front of me.

"Isn't there a better way?" I knew it was useless to talk to him, so I could only look helplessly at Li Hai and Fang Lei. Unfortunately, both of them shrugged at me. It seems that Li Yang's outdated method is the only option left.

Watching Li Yang, unusually serious, place the portrait on the table, carefully adjust the angle, and then point the camera at it, ready to take a picture.

*Click*, a flash went off in front of me. Because I was staring at the image, my vision blurred noticeably after the flash, and the image appeared as a superimposed image in the halo of light—a sinister grin flashed before my eyes. I couldn't help but shudder. Looking at the others, I saw strange expressions on their faces. It seemed I wasn't the only one hallucinating. Li Yang's previously excited face fell, and he lowered the camera, looking at us nervously. He asked, "Did you see anything just now?"

Li Hai and I exchanged a glance without speaking. Fang Lei frowned and remained silent as well. The atmosphere grew cold. Li Yang, holding the camera, looked at a loss, unsure whether he should continue taking pictures.

I pressed my temples; I had a slight headache. The image in front of me made me uneasy. It felt like it was no longer just a sculpture, but had come to life. And staring at a living head is not a comforting thing.

Perhaps sensing the slightly eerie atmosphere, Li Hai smiled awkwardly and looked at us, asking, "Does this look like the scene in 'The Ring' where they're taking pictures of Sadako's portrait?"

"Get lost!" I immediately punched Li Hai. This kid's analogies never please anyone. Fang Lei and Li Yang also glared at him fiercely.

"Why take a joke so seriously?" Li Hai shrugged, feeling wronged.

"Alright, stop fooling around and keep shooting!" The beautiful woman finally gave the order, and Li Yang nodded hurriedly. He didn't just press the shutter button a few times and call it a day like before.

"When are we going to develop it?" I asked as I took the camera equipment and took out the film.