Himmlisches Buch Die große Leere

Kapitel 17

Lingmin's death seems to have complicated everything again. Previously, everyone believed the terrifying woman in white was Ikeda Nami, but now she's suddenly Zhang Xueyao. Chen Yiming thinks this is the killer in disguise. But I feel things aren't that simple.

Zhao Jun, the Spirit Summoning Society, Chen Yiming—I don't know whose advice to take. They all seem reasonable, but they're offering three different directions of guidance. Yes, I do need to calm down and make a choice.

Zhao Jun didn't help me much; all he told me was to stay away from Maeda Reiko and Meng Na. Maeda Reiko felt the same way about Meng Na. Why were they both so wary of her? They kept saying it was for my own good, but I always felt there was another reason. I've always liked Meng Na, but thinking about it carefully, I haven't really interacted with her much. Does she have some secret too? She's Meng Li's sister, and she's also investigating these things. Did she uncover some secrets we don't know? Also, what was the curse Ling Min mentioned on the day she committed suicide? Was it Zhang Xueyao's curse? If so, how did she know?

Looking back, she suddenly seemed so unfamiliar; I realized how little I knew about her.

What exactly is this "summoning the soul" that Reiko Maeda is talking about? Is removing organs from a corpse really for the purpose of summoning the soul? And what is the purpose of summoning the soul?

There's also the time of Zhang Xueyao's death. The autopsy results showed seven days, while Ling Min's suicide note stated four days, a difference of three days. During those three days, the murderer actually impersonated Zhang Xueyao, moving among classmates and even sleeping in the dormitory. Why was she so conspicuous? Wasn't she afraid of being recognized? A person can impersonate another person in appearance and voice, but how could she possibly deceive her closest people?

Will Hu Xiaoli be in danger? She also saw Zhang Xueyao, and she will also be cursed by Zhang Xueyao... And me, I've seen her too... Was the person I saw Zhang Xueyao? ...It's all so confusing, my head is about to explode.

There's so much to do, and I don't even know where to begin. This will only make things worse. I need to sort things out.

The key is to choose a clue from that tangled mess and investigate it!

Meng Li's diary is crucial; the Séance Society is searching for it, Chen Yiming is searching for it, and the murderer may be searching for it as well. However, there are currently no leads on it. The mysterious red brick house that Ikeda Nami wrote about in the Séance Society's log is the only known clue related to that diary, but it can't be found…

I tossed and turned in bed, my mind racing with thoughts.

Well, let's take it one step at a time. Let's do as Chen Yiming said and check the morgue key first.

PART 3.

Who has a key to the morgue? Why doesn't Chen Yiming use his police ID to check himself instead of making me do it? I've only been at the school for six months; who's going to take my word for it? Left with no other option, I went to find Maeda Reiko.

Reiko Maeda wasn't surprised at all, because she was also planning to check on the key.

"Only one person has the key to the morgue," she said.

"Who? Which teacher?"

"It wasn't a teacher, it was an old gatekeeper."

"The old gatekeeper?"

"Yes, there's a guard room next to the morgue. An old man watches over it during the day, and he's responsible for opening the door when autopsies are performed."

"Does he stay in the duty room at night?" I gasped for the old man.

Reiko Maeda shook her head. "No one's around at night; he only works as a gatekeeper during the day. Let's go, it's 5 o'clock, he'll be off work in an hour."

In the north, it gets dark very early in winter; it gets dark as early as 5 p.m.

On the way, Reiko Maeda described the old gatekeeper. His surname was Sun, he was in his sixties, and he didn't talk much. He seemed to have no home. During the day, he guarded the corpses preserved in formaldehyde, and at night he went back to the school staff dormitory to sleep alone. No one knew him, and no one associated with him. People only remembered him when they had anatomy class.

Once again, we were in that dim woods, on that cobblestone path, and we arrived at the morgue. Not far to the left, in the woods, stood a solitary little wooden cabin, its dim light like a will-o'-the-wisp in a desolate graveyard. I shivered and turned to look at Reiko Maeda; her face was tense, and she seemed very nervous too.

"Let's go, he's still inside." Reiko Maeda walked towards the cabin.

"Knock, knock, knock." Reiko Maeda knocked gently on the door.

There was no response.

"Knock, knock, knock." Maeda Reiko knocked three more times, but there was still no response.

I peered through the window, but the glass was covered in fog. Reiko Maeda continued knocking, but apart from the echo, there was still no response. A sense of foreboding rose within me.

Reiko Maeda seemed to have the same premonition, and she stopped knocking on the door.

The north wind blew, the leaves rustled, and darkness seemed to be swallowing everything.

The Fourth Campus - Old Man Sun (2)

"Is Grandpa Sun... Grandpa Sun...?" I tugged at Maeda Reiko's sleeve.

"I don't know." Maeda Reiko's expression was just like when she first saw that figure in the reading room.

"Let's... go first and come back tomorrow morning." The thought of the morgue behind me gave me goosebumps.

Reiko Maeda hesitated for a moment, then turned around and said, "Let's go, I can't take it anymore either."

Before I had taken two steps, I suddenly heard a "ee-ya--" sound from behind me.

The sound seemed to possess a magical power, freezing our steps. I felt a chill creep up my spine.

A long shadow was cast by the dim light at the door of the cabin. The door opened, and a hunched old man stood there. Oh, thank goodness, it's a person, not a ghost, I breathed a sigh of relief. But when I went up to him to ask him a question, it was worse than seeing a ghost!

Old Sun's back completely blocked the dim light shining from inside the house, so I couldn't see his face at all as I stood in front of him. I asked, "Why didn't you open the door earlier?" He didn't answer, but slowly tilted his head back. At that moment, I saw his eyes, a blankness suddenly mixed with fear. He looked at me, then at Maeda Reiko, his body trembling uncontrollably, emitting intermittent low moans, as if he wanted to say something but dared not speak.

Reiko Maeda demanded menacingly, "Do you still have the key to the morgue?!"

Upon hearing this, the old man recoiled as if electrocuted, his entire body curling into a ball, his blank face contorting in pain. Suddenly, he pointed to the morgue behind us and said in a hoarse, trembling voice, "The curse... the curse is back! It's back, it's back, someone else is going to die! Hahaha!" He burst into maniacal laughter.

I turned to look at Reiko Maeda. She seemed to have been provoked by Old Man Sun's words as well, and her face was filled with extreme fear.

"What curse? What kind of curse is it?" I grabbed Old Man Sun's shoulders and shook him hard.

Old Sun plopped down on the ground, his eyes wide, a ferocious smile on his lips. "So many people, so many dead people. Do you see? There are so many dead people behind you."

I suddenly turned around...

It was pitch black; the morgue resembled a tomb, its outline barely visible in the darkness. There were no dead bodies, only darkness upon darkness!

I turned around and saw Old Man Sun sitting on the ground chuckling, while Maeda Reiko remained standing still with a terrified expression on her face.

"You're trying to scare me!" I was so terrified that I flew into a rage and slapped him.

Old Sun instinctively covered his head, but Maeda Reiko stopped my slap; her hand was so cold!

"So many dead people," Old Man Sun groaned. "You can't see them, none of you can see them. The curse is back, everyone's going to die, no one can escape. Hahaha." He slowly got up from the ground, staggered over to me and Maeda Reiko, pointed at Maeda Reiko's nose, "You're cursed," then flicked his hand and pointed at my nose, "You're cursed too! Hehe, I'm cursed too, we're all going to die!"

"Lin Yuan, run!" Maeda Reiko pulled me towards the edge of the woods. Behind us came Old Man Sun's terrifying voice, a mixture of crying and laughing: "Hahaha, a curse... so many dead people... so many dead people... don't kill me... don't kill me... I didn't see anything, I really didn't see anything..."

PART 4.

"What...what exactly happened?" I followed Maeda Reiko and ran out of the gate of the fourth campus in one breath, bending over and panting heavily.

Reiko Maeda composed herself and said, "The curse, that curse of death has appeared again."

"What curse? I've never heard you mention it before!"

"I've never really believed in the legendary curse, but today..." Maeda Reiko shook her head helplessly.

"What exactly is this curse?"

"A curse in the diary!"

"A diary? Meng Li's second diary?"

"No! It's a dead person's diary, both before and after their death."

What?! You can still write a diary after you die?!

"This is what's circulating on campus: it's said that everyone who died in the forbidden area back then had read that book—the cursed diary!"

Does such a diary really exist?

"I don't know either, but this legend caused quite a stir on campus back then."

Why don't you investigate?

"Although I am the head of the Séance Society, I speak with evidence. Do curses really exist? I myself doubt it, let alone the fact that no one has ever seen that diary. It's all just hearsay."

"There's no smoke without fire. Since it was so widely circulated on campus back then, there must have been some basis for it."

"Lin Yuan, nobody knows anything about that diary. We don't even know if it really exists, and there's not a single clue about it. How can we investigate?"

I looked up at the night sky. "That old man Sun, maybe he knows."

Upon hearing Old Man Sun's name, Maeda Reiko's expression changed. "Are you sure you want to go back and ask him?"

I smiled wryly and said, "Tomorrow, let's talk about it tomorrow. Come during the day, and bring a few more people. To be honest, he's scarier than a ghost."

PART 5.

What kind of curse was it? The word "curse" suddenly became extremely striking. Mengna told me that Lingmin mentioned it in her suicide note, and Old Man Sun also howled the word many times.

What kind of curse is it? What kind of diary is it? Did Old Man Sun read that diary? Otherwise, why would he say the curse has returned? If he really did read that diary, then why didn't he die?

Why didn't Old Man Sun die? I soon didn't need to think about that question anymore, because news of Old Man Sun's death reached my ears.

The morgue, usually as quiet as a tomb, was now crowded with people, whispering amongst themselves. The small wooden hut was cordoned off with yellow police tape, and several police officers were examining the scene. Old Sun's body lay on the grass, covered with a white sheet. Of course, Chen Yiming was also present, speaking with the dean of our college.

The Fourth Campus - Old Man Sun (3)

Suddenly someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and saw Reiko Maeda. She pointed behind her and then turned and walked towards that spot.

I followed her away from the crowd; she seemed very nervous.

"Old Sun is dead. What happened?" I asked.

"I also want to know, it must have happened after we left yesterday," she said.

"Could the curse really have come true?" The thought of Old Man Sun pointing at us yesterday and saying that we were also cursed sent chills down my spine.

"Don't think too much about it. Old Sun is dead, and we were here again yesterday. Who do you think the police will suspect? Neither you nor I can escape."

Indeed, the police are investigating the scene and will definitely suspect us first, but fortunately, Chen Yiming has a good understanding of these cases.

"Don't worry," I said, "we'll be fine. Chen Yiming won't easily suspect us."

"Are you sure?" Reiko Maeda asked.

Before I could answer, a commotion suddenly broke out behind me, and several policemen carried Old Man Sun's body away on a stretcher.

As the stretcher passed by me, the policeman in front of me suddenly stepped on a small stone, twisted his foot, and the stretcher tilted inward. The sheet covering the body then slipped off, revealing Old Man Sun's dead face.

Even in his dying moments, his eyes were wide open, his face contorted in a grotesque grimace, as if he had witnessed something utterly terrifying. What did he see before he died? Those eyes seemed to be staring at me, and I could almost hear his voice: "You're cursed too! Heh heh, I'm cursed too, we're both going to die!"

The sky was filled with dark clouds, and the shadow of death once again loomed over the campus. A curse—could such a terrifying curse truly exist? Who would be next? Hu Xiaoli, Maeda Reiko… or me? My feelings became strange; I didn't know whether it was fear or excitement!

The Secret Passage of the Clock Tower in the Fourth Campus (1)

PART 1.

Lin Duyu rarely smokes; he has almost never been seen touching a cigarette since he entered the school. But tonight, he sat in his dormitory, smoking incessantly.

If someone who rarely smokes suddenly starts smoking heavily, it often indicates that they have something on their mind.

"Two people have died in three days. This campus makes me uneasy. I even have a feeling that someone else will die soon." This is Lin Duyu's concern.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. You weren't involved. You should be worried about me," I said. "Maybe I'll be the next one to die." I couldn't say for sure who would be next. Old Sun's death seemed to be a mockery of my sixth sense. After Lingmin died, I always thought the next one would be chosen from between me and Hu Xiaoli, but I never expected it to be an old gatekeeper.

"How do you think the old man who guarded the morgue died? There have been rumors lately that the morgue is haunted. Also, what's the progress on those things we've been investigating? Did Lingmin really commit suicide? What did the autopsy report say?"

Lin Duyu rarely speaks; he always remains calm in all situations. He was like that when we broke into the restricted area of the campus last time—he always thinks carefully before taking action. He's always been the kind of person who talks less, thinks more, and does more. But today, he's unusually talkative.