Lock the door

Chapter 19

After more than three months of recuperation, I was finally discharged from the hospital in early May.

Ever since Wu Jian recounted the entire story of this paranormal event, we've had a strange collaborative relationship. I transcribed his words while simultaneously comparing them with his initial draft to make sure I hadn't missed any details. It felt like I was a biographer, documenting the most unusual case experienced by an excellent detective. Sometimes he would shake me awake from my dreams, and I would have to lie there with bleary eyes and write down any details he suddenly wanted to add.

However, just as I finished the last chapter of my story, our close interaction abruptly ended. Wu Jianxiang's words and actions suddenly reverted to the nodding acquaintances we had when we first met. His conversation with me felt both polite and distant, a stark contrast to his previous enthusiasm. I didn't know why—after telling his story, it was as if he had fulfilled his mission of "becoming my friend"?

My doctor congratulated me at this time, saying that my mild depression had been cured after treatment and I no longer needed to be hospitalized. I was finally able to return to the north, and my wife no longer advised me to avoid work pressure.

I packed my simple luggage, along with my stationery and manuscripts, and left the ward. Wu Jian smiled at me, still holding that yellowish-black solid in his hand.

That wasn't a stone, but the finger bone of Tang Shijing's right index finger.

"With this, I was spared from being hunted by vengeful ghosts... However, they are still secretly watching me." This was his concluding remark after telling the story.

After hearing this, I unconsciously felt a strange sense of dread, as if I were surrounded by evil spirits.

Late at night on April 11 last year, he rushed into the morgue of the municipal funeral home and pounced on Tang Shijing's body. At the time, there was a forensic doctor who was still in the autopsy room preparing to conduct an autopsy all night. He was shocked and completely unable to understand Wu Jianxiang's strange behavior, so he had no choice but to quickly call the nearby police station to send someone to handle the situation.

A group of police officers arrived immediately, but they were unable to pull Wu Jianxiang away from the body. Finally, with the combined efforts of everyone, they managed to drag the seriously injured Wu Jianxiang away from the scene. At that moment, he was tightly gripping the severed finger that he had forcibly removed with a Swiss Army knife during the struggle.

After being discharged from the hospital, I immediately went to thank a certain important person who had specially arranged for me to stay in that hospital. In fact, I did not tell Wu Jianxiang the truth—it was no coincidence that I met Wu Jianxiang and wrote down his dictated story.

Even before I was admitted to the hospital, I had learned about this strange case from the newspapers. At the time, I was deeply attracted by the case and collected all the current affairs magazines that reported on it, and I was preparing to write another crime novel that would spark a sensational discussion. This crime novel would not be a mere copy of the police investigation report; I planned to take advantage of my trip south for medical treatment to meet him in person and write down his personal subjective views on the case.

Therefore, I sought the strong assistance of a medical authority who had treated my mild depression during my student days. I hoped he could use his connections to introduce me to this young detective entangled in the strange case and create various opportunities for conversation. This writing project was kept secret even from my wife.

However, after completing the first draft, I discovered that his story differed greatly from the media reports.

Even after being detained, Wu Jianxiang refused to release his severed finger. The April issue of *Focus* magazine described him as a "mentally unstable police prodigy." The article stated that he claimed, "The severed finger has a five-hundred-year-old magic. If I let go of it, the evil spirit will kill me immediately!" He rejected the police's demand for his return.

Wu Jianxiang was quickly indicted by the district court prosecutor for allegedly committing multiple murders in the Kaohsiung area in recent months. Gao Qinfu, the head of the criminal investigation team of the Sanmin Precinct, stated that he was logically the only suspect capable of killing Zhong Sizao. As for the other unidentified body found at the same scene of Zhong Sizao's death, it was identified as freelance photographer Xia Yongyu after a concerned citizen reported it within a week.

The April issue of *The Escape* magazine provides a detailed account of this case. Xia Yongyu's body was identified after a member of the public discovered that a parked car had been ransacked, with all the windows broken. Police officers received the report and, based on the license plate number, determined that the car belonged to Xia Yongyu, who lived on Fuheng Road.

---hqszs

Reply [98]: However, during the investigation, the police officers accidentally discovered that Xia Yongyu had been missing for a long time. They immediately sensed something was wrong. After comparing the dates of disappearance, they realized that Xia Yongyu was very likely the unidentified body in the serial murder case at the end of March—the two were extremely similar in appearance and characteristics. With the testimony of the neighbors, the identity of the body was confirmed in a breakthrough.

The case then took a sharp turn for the worse. To investigate the relationship between Xia and Zhong, the police decided to search Xia's residence, only to discover something even more bizarre—in the chaotic third-floor study, which appeared to have been broken into, lay the body of a young woman lying face down. There were no signs of rape, but the extremely brutal method of murder was appalling; in addition to her body being gruesomely disemboweled, various organs had been dragged out and scattered throughout the study.

A woman's handbag was left at the crime scene. In addition to the woman's identification documents—she was named Zhang Zhimei and was 21 years old—the police also unexpectedly found a standard police handgun inside the handbag.

The pistol, still smelling of gunpowder, had clearly been fired not long ago, and the serial number proved that it was Wu Jianxiang's sidearm. The ballistic analysis report showed that the bullet that passed through Tang Shijing's head and embedded itself in the wall was also fired from the muzzle of this gun.

With this investigation completed, the police finally announced that the case was solved. The man and woman who escaped together from the scene of the shooting murder of Polish Mormon Tang Shijing in Fengshan City were Wu Jianxiang and the deceased Zhang Zhimei.

The district court prosecutor indicted Wu Jianxiang on charges of murdering Chung Sze-tsao, Hsia Yung-yu, Tang Shih-ching, and Chang Chih-mei. However, despite the overwhelming evidence presented by the prosecution, Wu Jianxiang has yet to be convicted.

The reason is that there is no motivation.

The defense attorney pointed out that Wu Jianxiang had absolutely no connection with the four victims. In fact, the police could not find any reason for Wu Jianxiang to kill Zhong Sizao. There was no evidence that they had ever known each other. The same situation occurred with him and the other three. No, more accurately, none of the five of them had any connection with the other four.

Furthermore, Wu Jianxiang's confession after his arrest revealed that his mental state was extremely abnormal. His testimony was filled with absurd claims of magic, hypnosis, dreams, necromancy, and the subconscious. While some of Wu Jianxiang's statements were consistent with reality, they contradicted a crucial piece of material evidence—the police could not find the DV tape, including the VHS copy. Additionally, the police discovered that Zhang Zhimei originally worked as a hostess, had complex relationships with men, and had been missing for several months. She did indeed travel to Europe at the end of 1999, but the identity of the man she traveled with could not be determined, nor could the veracity of the charred corpse incident on Malta be confirmed. It could only be speculated that the two did not travel on the same flight to avoid suspicion.

Finally, there was no problem with Tang Shijing's visa, and it was impossible for him to have lived for five hundred years... Tang Shijing was just an ordinary believer who could be seen everywhere in Fengshan City, always riding a bicycle around preaching. He was indeed very devout and enthusiastic about the church, and was determined to dedicate his life to it, but this was not much different from other believers.

The defense lawyer intends to claim that Wu Jianxiang suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and that all the murders were committed unconsciously during his mental breakdowns, and is preparing to appeal to the court for a reduced sentence.

Amidst the ongoing controversy and uproar surrounding the pending verdict, the district court agreed with the advice of medical professionals and temporarily sent Wu Jianxiang to a hospital for psychiatric treatment.

In other words, Wu Jianxiang's confession in court, which is the story he told me in the hospital, is most likely all delusions—delusions he fabricated and directed in his own mind.

Hsieh Hai-Tung, the editor-in-chief of the current affairs magazine "Kaohsiung Exclusive First-Hand," was a junior to me from university, two years my junior, and we were both members of the "Tide Voice Society." We met in the society and shared many similar ideas, so we kept in touch after graduation.

"Tide Sound Society" is not a popular music club, but a small group that specifically attracts enthusiasts of modern poetry. Since Sun Yat-sen University is near Xizi Bay, the ever-changing tides are part of the campus scenery. Members of the society often sit on the embankment rocks, facing the afterglow of the setting sun, reciting long and short poems in harmony with the sound of the tide, hence the name.

It's been so long since I left school, I wonder if the small club of seven people who were so enthusiastic back then is still around?

Hsieh Hai-tung's situation after graduation was similar to mine: he first worked as a local reporter for a newspaper, then moved to the magazine industry, and is now an editor. Actually, he is a native of Taipei, but after his military service, he stayed in Kaohsiung to make a living, which is exactly the opposite of what happened to me.

He had a very peculiar hobby: the study of the occult. He dabbled in everything from magic and occult arts to local legends, ancient religious rituals, and other matters concerning supernatural forces. He had been deeply interested in this field since his studies, and frequently used metaphors from Kabbalah philosophy in his poetry.

---hqszs

Reply [99]: Okay, keep posting!

---alanyanyan

Reply [100]: I originally wanted to meet him during my stay in Kaohsiung to catch up, but our schedules never aligned. During the phone call, I mentioned that I was currently working on a new novel about medieval magic, but I lacked supporting evidence, so I hoped he could give me some advice or help me gather more information on this topic.

In fact, although I knew all along that the manuscript I had written was entirely Wu Jianxiang's delusion, I was filled with conflict. I didn't want to publish it exactly as he described, but I also didn't want to give up this convoluted and mysterious subject. I changed my mind and decided not to publish it in the form of a crime documentary because I found that after I was discharged from the hospital, many people attacked my reputation by claiming I had "depression."

I don't want to be associated with any mental illness again. I know very well that if I publish this crime novel about paranoid schizophrenia, it will inevitably arouse malicious associations from certain individuals. Therefore, I will write the story as a supernatural novel, change all the names of all the characters, and alter some plot points, especially the extremely bloody and tragic ending.

Therefore, I need to learn more about magic to see if I can gain new inspiration to help the male and female protagonists in the book escape danger and successfully resolve the crisis of the curse.

Xie Haitong readily agreed, but I knew he was a bit forgetful, so I kept reminding him before hanging up. About two weeks after I returned to Taipei, I received the package he sent, which was full of reference books in the relevant field, along with a note that read, "Wishing you success in your writing, and that you will no longer be trapped in the storm of worry / Junior Haitong."

My wife handed me the unpacked package late that night after I returned home from work, and I took the books into the bedroom.

To my great surprise, one of them was "Exploring the Personality of a Psychic Medium"!

I remember Xia Yongyu also had a book called "Exploring the Personality of a Spiritual Medium" in his study. Wu Jianxiang used it to teach himself soul-summoning techniques and bring Xia Yongyu's soul back to the mortal world. I wonder if the book in front of me just happens to have the same title, or if it's actually the same work?

I opened the book and took out the manuscript I had co-written with Wu Jianxiang in the hospital room to compare. It was almost midnight, and my wife was quite unhappy that I had brought my work to bed before going to sleep. She silently turned over and buried herself deep in the covers.

I ignored her reaction, turned off the fluorescent light, and continued reading under the soft, orange light of the bedside lamp.

Upon comparison, I gradually confirmed that the two were indeed the same book. The preceding chapters both described famous spiritual mediums from various countries in history: Mrs. Piper, Matthew Manning, Pearl Curran... and the thirteenth chapter at the end of the book was indeed "Elementary Techniques for Self-Cultivation of Spiritual Mediums".

Starting with the introduction of the special physical constitution of spiritual mediums, "Elementary Techniques for Self-Cultivation of Spiritual Mediums" discusses the hidden influence of all things in the world on the physical and mental health of spiritual mediums, the differences in the methods of summoning prophetic spirits and summoning deceased relatives and friends, as well as the methods of meditation and breath control... The content is indeed exactly the same.

No, that's not right. Actually, they're not exactly the same.

I suddenly realized that a description mentioned in the original manuscript could not be found in the corresponding paragraph in the book. This puzzled me greatly.

The original manuscript reads—

"The spells that summon the souls of deceased relatives and friends are not fundamentally different from those that summon prophetic spirits. However, before performing a soul-summoning spell, one premise must be clarified: the so-called soul-summoning spell is not a spell to resurrect the dead. The soul summoned by the caster is, in fact, merely the last consciousness of the deceased before death."

"This dying consciousness is the spiritual power of the deceased. It can reproduce what the deceased thought and focused on before death, but it cannot restore the deceased's ability to act or make judgments in the human world. That is to say, the soul is merely an invisible aggregate of the deceased's remaining consciousness in the human world. It can answer some simple questions from the interrogator, but it cannot replace the possessed person in performing too complex or too long activities."

"The soul of the deceased will gradually fade with time. Therefore, if you want to perform a soul-summoning ritual that is effective, you must choose the place where the deceased died and do it as soon as possible to recall the clearest consciousness of the deceased."

However, I was unable to find the above three paragraphs in Chapter Thirteen.

Perhaps Wu Jian misremembered what he dictated? It's not uncommon for someone to see a description in another chapter and mistake it for content from this one. On a whim, I continued searching through other chapters of the book, but still couldn't find the relevant description.

---hqszs

Reply [101]: Did Wu Jianxiang mistakenly insert content from other books?

I tried to recall carefully, but a sense of unease began to creep in—because I remembered this passage was the description Wu Jian had given me one night when he shook me awake, demanding I fill in the blanks immediately. His stubborn expression flashed through my mind. He hadn't made a mistake.

Then why was he in such a hurry for me to write down a passage that didn't exist in the original book?

This passage simply states: "Summoning the soul cannot bring the dead back to life. The soul summoned is, in fact, merely the last consciousness of the deceased before death."

The more I thought about it, the less I understood. After rereading these paragraphs, I suddenly remembered an illogical point in the story.

Hung Chak-chen, the Bone-Eating Demon, was executed in 1995, yet his vengeful spirit appeared in Room 401, where Chung Sze-tsao lived, and in Hsia Yung-yu's home. But since the soul is merely an invisible aggregate of the deceased's remaining consciousness in the human world, without any ability to act or make judgments, how could Hung Chak-chen's spirit commit murder in these two places?

No matter how you look at it, it seems contradictory.

Could it be that... this entire passage is fabricated by Wu Jianxiang? But why would he do such a thing?

My mind was filled with doubts, and I unconsciously began to mutter to myself. This startled my wife, who looked exhausted, lying beside the bed.

"Tie Cheng, what's wrong with you?"

"It's nothing... I just can't sleep, I'm thinking about things." Over the years of our marriage, my wife and I have gradually grown distant and estranged, maintaining only a minimal level of intimacy in front of our two daughters. Even now, sharing a bed, our conversations are reduced to nothing more than small talk.

Even though I am renowned and influential in the outside world, in my wife's eyes I am nothing more than a gloomy and timid husband. She sees through my dazzling performance under the spotlight, which is at best a cover for my inner inferiority and cowardice. I have nowhere to hide in front of her; I am truly a pitiful person who needs applause to bolster my self-esteem. That is why I am eager to write controversial works that can spark widespread discussion.

"You've been acting really strange lately! You often stay up at night and sneak out to the living room. What are you doing there?"

"I didn't do anything wrong..." I mumbled a low denial when I saw my wife's harsh words.

The wife, unable to sleep, became defiant. "You do have it!"

—Did I really leave my bedroom in the middle of the night? But I really have no memory of it!

Instantly, I felt a terrifying tremor!

All the mysteries have been solved... I finally understand the meaning of that "content that shouldn't exist".

In fact, the soul is not merely an invisible aggregate of the deceased's lingering consciousness in the mortal realm. Just like the spirit of the Bone-Eating Demon Hong Zechen, he also possessed the ability to act and make judgments before his death, enough to slaughter the world.

That content does not exist. Because it was fabricated by Wu Jianxiang.

No, you can't call that person "Wu Jianxiang," you should call him "Xia Yongyu"!

Comparing the story's plot with reality, it becomes clear that among these individuals, the only one who truly studied black magic was not Tang Shijing, but Xia Yongyu. Tang Shijing was a devout believer; he could not possibly possess forbidden books on witchcraft.

In other words, the man who truly cast the "Judas's Prison Gate" spell, the man who truly made Zhang Zhimei feel that evil was utterly wicked, was not Tang Shijing, but Xia Yongyu.

In the original story, this is the name that should have been replaced. This would make perfect sense—Xia Yongyu couldn't possibly be Agrippa's direct disciple, nor could he have lived for five hundred years, but he was indeed obsessed with the world of witchcraft during his lifetime. He must have learned "Judas's Prison Gate" by chance and combined it with hypnosis, sleep talking, and somnambulism. After being rejected by Zhang Zhimei, he harbored malicious intentions, cursed her, and murdered her lover, Zhong Sizao. However, he didn't expect that he would also perish in his own hands, as the curse he cast through Zhang Zhimei also affected him.

Next, the intelligent and outstanding detective Wu Jianxiang became involved in the case, tracing the giant rat in Mrs. Ge's house to the decaying corpse of Zhong Sizao in Room 401. However, this fell right into Xia Yongyu's trap. Xia Yongyu wanted to use a soul-summoning technique to turn the tables and find a way to save himself from Zhong Sizao. Although Xia Yongyu was killed by a ghost, he was fortunate enough to temporarily return to the human world through Wu Jianxiang's soul-summoning.

Just after Wu Jian summoned Xia Yongyu's soul, Xia Yongyu finally possessed his body. Contrary to the fake description, the soul was not merely a dying consciousness; in fact, it could control the host and their actions.

---hqszs

Reply [102]: Wu Jianxiang was unaware that he had been possessed, and he continued to search for the missing Zhang Zhimei. Then, the subconscious curse of Zhang Zhimei struck again, plunging the newlyweds into a deadly crisis.

Did Wu Jianxiang already know Tang Shijing and have been extremely kind to him? Their connection is now impossible to verify. Perhaps he decided to take Zhang Zhimei to the church to ask for his help. Was Tang Shijing, with his extreme loyalty to God, pulling the trigger at this moment hoping to save the poor couple through a martyr's sacrifice?

But Tang Shijing's blood was clearly of no use. The evil spirit Hong Zechen reappeared and killed Wu Jianxiang and Zhang Zhimei in succession. Xia Yongyu finally seized the perfect opportunity; he possessed Wu Jianxiang's body and resurrected after Wu Jianxiang was strangled to death!

The truth couldn't be as the story portrays it: Wu Jianxiang couldn't have regained consciousness after being strangled for five minutes due to the shock of the sensation. He must have died on the spot, and Xia Yongyu would have taken over his body and all his memories!

Xia Yongyu's magic was insufficient to combat the evil spirit; he still needed to resolve the crisis following his resurrection. He learned the "relic theory" from Wu Jianxiang's memories, understanding that the blood of devout believers was useless, but that didn't mean his remains were ineffective. So he immediately went to the municipal funeral home and broke off Tang Shijing's finger as a protective amulet… To avoid being imprisoned under Wu Jianxiang's identity, Xia Yongyu fabricated a series of lies, leading a psychiatrist to diagnose him with delusions. The debate between the two sides in court has yet to subside.

Xia Yongyu ran into me at the hospital, and his cruel malice resurfaced. Annoyed by a popular novelist constantly asking him for creative material, he decided to inflict "Judas's prison gates" on me.

He once sat on the edge of my bed late at night, actually casting a spell. And when he finished telling his fabricated story, his curse was completed at the same time, so he stopped talking to me, only giving me a final smile when I was discharged from the hospital.

But I never had that nightmare about Cornelias Agrippa. I stretched out my right hand, but there was no trace of the bloodstain with the pentagram magic pattern. Perhaps Xia Yongyu has invented a new, more troublesome, and more undetectable "Judas's Prison Gate"? Perhaps I just vaguely went to the bathroom a few times in a hazy sleep?

There was an extra, inappropriate passage in the original manuscript, which I shouldn't have speculated about. Perhaps the author of *The Psychic's Personality Exploration* wrote multiple versions of the book, and this passage was present in one version but deleted in another… Could my wife also be under my spell? I've always suspected her of having an affair. Could this curse have been passed on to an unknown man she's had intimate contact with?

Perhaps Wu Jianxiang didn't die at all; he just suffers from severe delusions and fabricates impossible stories.

Have I been infected by delusions about magic? I find myself inexplicably believing in the existence of magic. Yes, magic must be all around me, tempting me with slogans, images, and sounds, driving me into madness. I don't know what traps Xia Yongyu, after his resurrection, has set around me, leading me to perform involuntary and bizarre behaviors.

Perhaps Zhang Zhimei's encounters and romances with all her boyfriends in the crowd were not a protector-protected relationship under a deadly crisis. She was a hostess at a tavern, and the killings among these men, including the devout Tang Shijing, might simply be a matter of jealousy and rivalry over love, and had nothing to do with murderous magic.

Did Xia Yongyu cast a spell on me through my friend?