Das Geheimnis des alten Hauses

Kapitel 9

This evening, Zhi Mei underwent a deep hypnosis session with me, and I finally pieced together some of her past. A little over a month ago, she met a boy who loved photography (unexpectedly, just like me), and they lived near Kaohsiung High School. During the hypnosis, Zhi Mei mentioned the scenery near the man's residence, but she couldn't recall his name at all.

March 17, 2000

Zhi Mei has disappeared. She left so quickly, as if her existence was just an illusion. I've been looking for her, but it's like she vanished from the face of the earth. For the past two days, I've sensed that she's been avoiding me; her gaze was shifty. But I never imagined that she would completely disappear yesterday.

I really hate to use this term—the existence of "ghosts" seems to be an undeniable fact. They appear and disappear everywhere in my house, emitting many sharp and piercing screams. I must find Zhimei; I believe that only by digging into her subconscious can I uncover the truth behind why the ghosts appear.

March 18, 2000

The situation is extremely serious. In the early hours of the morning, I discovered a hungry ghost in the kitchen that seemed intent on attacking me. Thankfully, ghosts don't appear during the day, but their evil intentions are becoming increasingly obvious. I must devise a suitable countermeasure as soon as possible. I'm too exhausted to work now; I've spent my days searching for Zhi Mei. Perhaps she's run back to her ex-boyfriend; I think I must find him.

I didn't sleep a wink last night, and I'm so exhausted I'm about to go crazy. But I still can't help wondering: is it really my severe insomnia that's causing my delusions of "seeing ghosts"?

The handwriting in the records from the past few days had become messy, with several lines of characters crooked and distorted, revealing Xia Yongyu's fear. As Jian Xiang read, he felt his heart pounding with increasing trembling. What exactly was the content of the "strange dream"? Could it be… could it be… Jian Xiang remembered. Before Xia Yongyu died, he had a very eerie conversation with him: —If, if, I mean if… today I tell you there's a way to see ghosts, would you want to try it?

—If it exists, someone will try it.

Could it be that Xia Yongyu dreamed of "a method to see ghosts"? And then, after waking up, Xia Yongyu actually tried that method? Or, could one see ghosts simply by having a strange dream? Jian Xiang felt a chill run down his spine, and he swallowed hard.

Although fear began to creep into his heart, Jian Xiang's trembling fingers couldn't help but continue turning the page.

March 19, 2000

Is there really no way to break this spell? I've searched through all the books, but I can't find any record of this magic.

This magic should be related to "clairvoyance." However, according to the dictionary of witchcraft, clairvoyance is an innate spiritual ability, not something that can be learned. Is there something wrong with my thinking?

This is a terrifying curse... Is there any way to break it? If this continues, I'm going to go crazy!

March 20, 2000

I finally found Zhi Mei's ex-boyfriend's place; it should be room 401 in that apartment building.

hqszs

Reply [51]: But, after hypnotizing the apartment manager and several residents of that building, everyone said they hadn't seen him for a long time. Could he have escaped? No, my sixth sense tells me he's still in the room. He must still be inside. I believe he's in the same situation as me now. The manager's spare key can't open the door. He must have changed the lock.

I've called his room seven or eight times, but no one has answered. Is he simply unwilling to answer the phone, or is he really not in his room? Or perhaps he's already dead inside? Should I retrieve the archived CCTV footage from the building manager's room to determine if he has actually left the room?

March 22, 2000

After checking all the videotapes, I feel so tired. That person went out once on the 19th and then stayed inside the house without leaving again. So many days have passed, is he still alive? Could he... could he have been killed by a ghost? Judging from his demeanor when he went out, his situation must be much worse than mine. I think he must have been desperate and had no other options, which is why he completely gave up and locked himself in his house, refusing to come out at all.

Will I end up like him? No! I don't want to become like that! I must find a way to break free from this terrible curse.

March 23, 2000

Is waiting the only thing I can do? No, I must do something for myself, even in this passive situation. First, I must determine if this matter is related to Zhi Mei. Could his room hold the crucial clue to this magic? Perhaps he does, but is simply unaware of it? He's just an ordinary person; he would inevitably overlook clues related to witchcraft, unlike me. I am an excellent medium.

I think that one day the police will open this sealed room. Because one day the landlord will come to collect the rent, or his relatives and friends will come to visit him. When they find that he has been missing for too long and the door cannot be opened, they will definitely call the police and ask them to solve the problem... So, what will the police do? In addition to asking the other residents of the apartment for their testimonies, they will definitely check the surveillance tapes in the manager's office, right? Okay, then I have a plan.

I can switch the contents of the surveillance video. Besides using a computer to remove my own appearance from the footage, I can also add hypnotic suggestions to the video, hypnotizing the policeman checking the video and asking him to find any possible clues related to the magic in Room 401. If that clue is Zhimei, then I can confirm the connection between the magic and her. I desperately hope she has nothing to do with the curse, but I can't lose my judgment because of this... Editing the hypnotic instructions into the video, that's it! Oh, and I also need to make that policeman call me after finding the clue and personally hand it over to me.

March 25, 2000

It's getting late! I've realized I'm under a terrifying threat from the devil. If I delay any longer, I'll really be killed! The police finally showed up this morning, but why are they so slow...? What should I do? If I don't immediately start planning the next step within the next two days, I'm afraid I'll never have another chance.

Am I really going to die? There's not a moment left—I have to get into Room 401 as soon as possible. If I don't get into Room 401, I won't be able to use the Summoning Spell to find Zhi Mei's ex-boyfriend directly and ask him if he has a way to break the curse!

This is the last entry in the "Summary of Strange Events," likely written by Jian Xiang on the afternoon of the day before yesterday, the day he solved Mrs. Ge's Red Rat case and discovered Zhong Sizao's body. Reading this, Jian Xiang listlessly closed the notebook.

The truth behind file 2000_03_17_h.mpg was unexpected—the letter 'h' stands for hypnosis. The reason Jian Xiang immediately entered Zhong Sizao's bedroom after breaking into room 401, the reason he reached under the bed and pulled at the sheets upon entering the scene, the reason he had a period of complete memory blankness, and the reason he unconsciously took the DV videotape… it was all because he watched those surveillance tapes that Xia Yongyu had hypnotized!

The human eye can receive up to sixty consecutive images per second. Periodically inserting scenes of hypnotic commands into a video can subtly embed these commands into the subconscious mind. Once a specific prompt appears, the subconscious hypnotic commands, like a resident program on a computer, will automatically execute the pre-programmed behavior.

And...and more! Some things that were previously incomprehensible have also been explained!

Xia Yongyu knew that Jian Xiang was recuperating in the hospital because Jian Xiang called him while under hypnosis.

The administrator looked at Xia Yongyu with great confusion, because he couldn't remember when or where he had seen this man before. His memory had been erased by Xia Yongyu.

Jian Xiang's daily routine has been very abnormal these past few days. Sometimes he works for more than ten hours without feeling tired, and he keeps losing consciousness. Moreover, he has had many nightmares while he is asleep, to the point that he can't even distinguish between reality and dreams. Could this extreme disorder of his mental state and biological clock be due to the influence of hypnosis?

—Everyone has become Xia Yongyu's puppet!

hqszs

Reply [52]: Jian Xiang, while enduring waves of shock and hatred, took out his cell phone from his pocket. He began to check the "Dialed Numbers" in the "Call Record" and found that he had made a call to an unknown number around 6 p.m. yesterday. The area code was 07 and the call lasted for one minute and seventeen seconds. Jian Xiang then pressed "Redial".

Less than five seconds later, the telephone rang crisply and continuously in the quiet room.

Jian followed the sound of the ringing phone and found it on the bedside table in the bedroom. The phone had caller ID, and his mobile number was displayed on the screen.

Absolutely correct. All doubts have been confirmed.

Jian Xiang slowly walked back to his study, his head throbbing with pain. He had been drawn into the vortex of mystery surrounding the "ghostly murders." Two horrific cases were closing in on him, and there was still no glimmer of hope that he would be able to find the enigmatic woman, Zhang Zhimei.

Looking at the screen on the computer desk in the study, the time in the lower right corner of the Windows desktop showed AM 05:31.

The sky outside the window gradually brightened.

Chapter Five: Revolts against Reality. At 3:50 p.m. on the 28th, Jian Xiang slightly opened his sleepy eyes and saw Zheng Shaode standing in front of him, dressed neatly and smiling. Only then did he realize that he had been lying in the hospital bed asleep for eight hours.

"Senior, still in bed?"

"Hey..." Jian Xiang replied hoarsely, "You've come?"

His vision cleared, and behind Shaode stood the young nurse who had been taking care of him for the past two days. Her clear eyes were slightly narrowed, as if she had just been laughing and joking with someone. Jian Xiang slowly sat up.

"Um."

Where is the team leader?

Shao De's expression suddenly turned serious: "He is involved in Zhong Sizao's murder case. Another unidentified male corpse has been found in Room 401, and the preliminary judgment is that he was murdered last night."

Jian Xiang unconsciously recalled the blood-stained shirt he had taken from the scene, which was still hidden under his bed at home. He left Xia Yongyu's residence before six o'clock, taking the blood-stained shirt, along with the photos and notebooks he had found, home and storing them. After tidying everything up, he returned to the hospital, it was already past seven o'clock.

"Around 8:30 this morning, some people from the bureau went to investigate the personal belongings of the deceased in room 401. Unexpectedly, they found another young man who had died tragically in the bedroom. His left neck had been slashed by a sharp object, with a wound about 10 centimeters long, 7 centimeters wide, and more than 2 inches deep. The deadly weapon was a small shovel used for gardening! It seems that Zhong Si-zao bought this shovel to dig up stones outdoors, bag them, and then brought it home to pile up in the iron cabinet inside the door to block the front door."

Shao De recounted the details of Xia Yongyu's death to Jian Xiang while pulling up a chair and sitting down. As for the young nurse, as if sensing that the upcoming conversation was absolutely confidential, she didn't disturb the two of them at all and quietly and gently walked away.

"This is absolutely unbelievable! The tip of that shovel wasn't sharp at all; I can't imagine that something like that could rip a huge chunk of flesh from a person's neck. I can only conclude that it was done by some kind of machine with immense force, but what kind of machine could it be?... I just can't figure it out!"

Jian Xiang did not answer. Shao De glanced at him, revealing an understanding expression, as if he thought that Jian Xiang was still recovering from his injuries and did not have much strength to speak.

"My task today was to sort out the uniform invoices for food that Zhong Sizao bought before his death, but I was very interested in this new murder case, so I asked the team leader to let me investigate. However, in order not to hinder the overall progress of the case, the team leader did not let me go and went to the crime scene to collect evidence himself."

Shaode opened his work notebook and reviewed the notes he had made that morning.

There are a total of 63 uniform invoices in Room 401, all piled up in the drawer of the desk that is lying on its side by the door in the bedroom. Since Zhong Sizao's girlfriend stopped appearing about a month ago, and he has not left the house, I have sorted these uniform invoices by date, roughly into those before March 1st and those after March 1st.

"The section after March 1st contains seven large expenditures and a variety of smaller expenses. The invoices were all issued at large supermarkets, and the timeframes were very close together. The items purchased were mainly large quantities of canned food, bottled water, woodworking materials, and some tools. I also found the fatal shovel in the details. This section contains forty-seven invoices."

"As for the sixteen invoices before March 1st, most of them were for film negatives and blank videotapes. I originally thought I could find a few restaurant and coffee shop invoices, and maybe I could ask the waiters if Zhong Sizao had brought a girl with him. But I didn't expect there wasn't a single one. It's such a pity... "However, I thought that since Zhong Sizao's places of consumption were so fixed before he hid in the room, this woman might have been in these stores! Maybe they met in such places. But—" hqszs replied [53]: "But what?"

"Based on the testimonies of the apartment building residents, the bureau drew two facial sketches of the mysterious woman, but some residents denied both of them, saying they were too different. In other words, we still cannot determine her appearance. No matter which sketch we use for investigation and questioning, the credibility is very low."

Shaode closed his work notebook, shook his head, and indicated that even if this path was feasible, the possibility of going astray was very high. He swallowed hard, preparing to start another topic.

“I learned some details about the new murder case from my colleague who accompanied me to the forensic investigation. Besides what I just mentioned, I also heard that the man’s pockets had been thoroughly searched because the position of the body when it was found was different from the position when he died. This can be confirmed by the change in the location of the bloodstains on the floor. And, since his position when he died would have squeezed his jeans pockets, someone must have changed the man’s position by taking all the identification documents in order to search the body…” Even though Jian Xiang already knew that such reasoning would be easy for an experienced detective, he still couldn’t help but feel a tightness in his chest. In fact, with today’s forensic technology, such a level of on-site analysis is not difficult. Therefore, when Jian Xiang moved Xia Yongyu’s body, he didn’t think too much about it, because any attempt to cover it up would only make things worse and would not be able to hide it from the cold, sophisticated instruments of the police.

“The team leader was supposed to come and pick you up from the hospital, but he couldn’t because of this case. I finished my work early, so the team leader asked me to come over again to check on your condition.”

Jian Xiang listened to Shao De's narration with apparent calmness, but his heart was pounding uncontrollably. As expected, in order to protect Jian Xiang, Team Leader Gao managed to keep Shao De, the most imaginative and resourceful person in the branch office, away from him, preventing him from getting even a step closer to Room 401.

"My strength has almost fully recovered, and the doctor said I wasn't infected," Jian Xiang said. "Once I get out of bed and tidy up my personal belongings, I can go through the discharge procedures and leave."

“That’s great,” Shaode said happily. “With you gone these past few days, everyone has felt the pinch of being short-handed! With this, no matter how bizarre the murder case is, it will surely be solved quickly.”

Jian Xiang responded casually to Shao De, but was very worried about the situation with the team leader. Although Shao De knew very little about Xia Yongyu's case, he made some sharp judgments from time to time, which made Jian Xiang break out in a cold sweat.

"The deceased did not have any identification documents on him, which I believe were taken by the murderer. The murderer did not want anyone to know the victim's identity, perhaps because their relationship was secret and could not be disclosed. In other words, the murderer and the deceased had no apparent connection."

"Starting from this conjecture, let's go back to the Zhong Sizao murder case. There were absolutely no clues about his relatives or friends in Zhong Sizao's room. Therefore—the murderer of Zhong Sizao must have deliberately eliminated any connection between the two. Similarly, the murderer and Zhong Sizao also appeared to have no relationship on the surface!"

This was a deduction that surprised Jian Xiang. Indeed, from a realistic perspective, Zhong Sizao's social life was shrouded in mystery. Precisely because it was secret, if there were any clues about his social life left in Zhong Sizao's home, the murderer would have tried to eliminate them. Therefore, it is natural to conclude that "the murderer and Zhong Sizao have no apparent relationship."

In other words, Zhong Sizao and the "unidentified male corpse" may have had no connection whatsoever, but there must be a "hidden" connection between them and the murderer. The murderer doesn't necessarily have to be their relative or friend; no, it should be said that the murderer definitely isn't their relative or friend.

Of course, this must be based on the premise that "Zhong Sizao was not murdered by a ghost".

However, this viewpoint that "conforms to reality" will eventually become that "Wu Jianxiang" fully meets the conditions.

Jian Xiang knew he was innocent, but he was powerless to refute this conclusion.

To create an unexpected ending, mystery novelists sometimes frame the police as the murderer. However, experienced readers might easily mistake the police for the killer. And indeed, such cases have occurred in real life; Jian Xiang never imagined he would become the biggest victim of this trope.

Even more seriously, Shaode's greatest interest outside of work was reading detective novels... He suddenly felt a suffocating sensation as if his neck was being tightened.

Shaode was unaware of Jianxiang's feelings at that moment. He greeted the nurse who was taking care of Jianxiang cheerfully, while the doctor who was treating Jianxiang's injuries was standing next to her, greeting the two criminal police officers.

After completing the discharge procedures, the two walked out of the hospital gate side by side. Shaode handed Jianxiang a helmet in the parking lot next to the hospital, and the two got on their motorcycle to return to the branch office.

"Senior, would you like to go around to Room 401 and take a look?"

At 10 p.m. on the 28th, Jian Xiang entered Xia Yongyu's residence again.

He left the station, unable to calm down for a long time. No matter how hard Team Leader Gao Qinfu tried to protect him, he couldn't hide the fact that someone had broken into Room 401 last night with the unidentified male corpse. Although Team Leader Gao successfully misinterpreted the apartment manager's testimony, creating the impression among the task force members that the manager was often forgetful, his colleagues also began to seriously consider the possibility that someone had secretly switched the surveillance videotapes.

hqszs

Reply [54]: Moreover, the forensic team also determined from various bloodstain test results that the "murderer" had used the bathroom at the crime scene to wash away the bloodstains that had splashed onto the victim's body.

When Team Leader Gao saw Jian Xiang return to Room 401, he didn't show any unease. On the contrary, Jian Xiang, upon entering the bedroom that felt like a nightmare at midnight, couldn't muster any enthusiasm to express his deep concern for the new murder case. Seeing Shao De wandering around the scene, constantly talking to the other colleagues who were working there, almost made him tremble.

In fact, Jian Xiang kept telling himself that such behavior was very likely to arouse Shao De's suspicion, but what he could show was an awkward silence.

Seeing the forensic personnel taking blood samples from Xia Yongyu on the floor, Jian Xiang could only nod stiffly with the remaining strength.

The conclusions of the evening's search meeting weighed heavily on Jian Xiang's mind. When the meeting adjourned, Team Leader Gao's somewhat disheveled look seemed to tell him, "This is all I can do." In truth, Team Leader Gao alone couldn't possibly withstand the brainstorming sessions of the team members. Whenever someone proposed a new hypothesis, others would immediately follow up, offering reasonable questions and revisions, and consulting Team Leader Gao's opinion. As the conclusions drew closer to the truth, Jian Xiang eventually even had the illusion that he was already handcuffed.

The only thing that gave Jian Xiang a glimmer of hope was the uniform invoices for Zhong Sizao's purchases during his lifetime.

Shaode had said that before March 1st, Zhong Sizao had only purchased negatives and blank tapes. Unlike Jianxiang, Shaode—and all his colleagues in the group—did not actually possess a photograph of Zhang Zhimei.

Therefore, Jian Xiang has an absolute advantage and can find Zhang Zhimei before the task force. He can find the intersection between the locations where Zhong Sizao shopped before his death and the clues in Xia Yongyu's home by comparing the two, and then he will very likely find Zhang Zhimei.

—Only I can find Zhang Zhimei. I must be there before everyone else.

If the task force finds Zhang Zhimei first, her situation will be extremely dangerous. Given that no one in the world would believe in "ghostly murders," the police would certainly devise an explanation sufficient to convict her. In other words, before the police could even discover that Jian Xiang was also highly suspicious, they would send Zhang Zhimei to jail first.

However, even after calm reflection, Jian Xiang still felt incredibly powerless. Zhang Zhimei's innocence was merely wishful thinking on his part. Moreover, even if he could truly protect Zhang Zhimei, he himself would be in grave danger.

Jian Xiang returned to Xia Yongyu's study with the intention of finding clues as to how he and Xia Yongyu knew each other.

Entering the empty and silent study, Jian Xiang could only hear the sound of his own footsteps. Everything in the room was just as it had been yesterday, and Jian Xiang, just as he had been yesterday, slowly looked around, like a movie that had been paused and then resumed playing the next day.

The study was filled with notebooks; there were more than a dozen piled on the table and thirty or forty on the shelves. Most of the notebooks contained strange drawings. These bizarre drawings included geometric shapes, curves, and arrows, resembling either writing or talismans. Each drawing filled an entire page, as if Xia Yongyu was diligently practicing drawing them.