Ghost Detective Records

The first volume of the true record of ghost identification, "Talking about three ghosts in the city", Chapter 1: Lividity on the living?

I, Lin Xiao, am a forensic doctor.

Yes, being a forensic pathologist is a good job, especially if I didn't smell like volatile organic compounds. Actually, I don't really care about the smell, but because I have a sister with OCD, I have to wash myself as clean as possible before leaving get off work every day to avoid her yelling at me. Generally, she can spot me from about ten meters away because of my scent. I often think she shouldn't have been born in the Year of the Snake, but rather the Year of the Dog.

I pulled out my keys, still troubled by the day's work. Several recent cases were unusual, or more precisely, several corpses I'd received were unusual. All were women, around twenty-five or twenty-six years old, and presumably quite beautiful—if their faces hadn't been contorted with extreme terror. They all died from cardiac arrest caused by a sudden surge of adrenaline—what people commonly call being scared to death. That was the primary cause of death stated in the autopsy reports.

The door opened, and I instinctively pressed the light switch in the entryway. It didn't light up; was it broken again? I couldn't help but mentally curse the building management staff again, closing the door behind me and stepping onto the small rug by the door. The room was dark, and the cramped entryway felt oppressive. I felt the rug under my feet was wet, a sticky wetness; I could even hear the sizzling sound of my feet rubbing against it, like the sound of a pirated CD being crumpled by a hard drive. I crouched down and touched the rug. Through the sliver of light from the crack in the door, I saw the sticky liquid on my fingers—it was red. A strange sound came from the far end of the entryway, like someone scratching a rusty steel plate with their fingernails, sending chills down my spine.

Of course, don't think I'm scared, but rather...

"Sis, what trick are you up to now?" I practically yelled to express my dissatisfaction.

"Oh dear, I didn't scare you!" The lights suddenly came on, and a long-haired beauty wearing a men's shirt that could easily be used as a nightgown (of course, it was mine) and denim shorts that couldn't be shorter than they could be, stood there with her hands on her hips.

This is my older sister, Lin Yao, a beautiful woman I often suspect might be an exhibitionist, and also a second-rate horror novelist in my opinion. I've been reading her works since I was six, but each time I read them, I feel less and less terrified. Every time I mock her work, she boasts that if she hadn't trained my tolerance for being scared from a young age, I wouldn't be able to work as a forensic pathologist now. Of course, I've always dismissed her statement as nonsense.

"You think you can fool me with some diluted tomato juice? Do you think I'm a forensic pathologist for nothing?" I took off my shoes on the carpet and walked over.

"I thought these would be more mysterious than the ghost mask!" My older sister pouted and slumped onto the sofa in disappointment.

Ever since she realized her work no longer scared me, she's been using ghost masks to frighten me. Unfortunately, it had no effect whatsoever, only earning her a few eye-rolls. Although she improved today, there were too many flaws; the obvious tomato smell was the biggest blunder!

I ignored her and went straight to my room. The stress of work during the day had left me with no mood for playing the ghost game with her. After collapsing heavily onto the bed, my thoughts inevitably drifted back to the daytime, to that cold morgue…

"Xiao Xiao, is your cause of death definitely excessive shock?" Li Yang, a detective in the criminal investigation team and a recent college graduate from the Public Security University, was clearly not satisfied with my answer.

"Yes~~~~~~~~~!" I drawled out the word, answering his question for the hundredth time. This guy was incredibly stubborn, more so than an ox. I covered the body with a white sheet. The women's faces made the already small room feel suddenly empty and unsettling. Although as a forensic pathologist I'd seen all kinds of corpses, when I faced a body without a single wound, except for a bluish face, bulging eyes like goldfish eyes, and features contorted with fear, a sense of unease slowly rose like bubbles.

"Could it really be a ghost?" Li Yang rested his chin on his hand, his brows furrowed. It wasn't that he was superstitious, but rather that too many doubts couldn't be explained by common sense.

I heard Li Yang talking to himself, but I had no interest in finding out. I'm not a detective; I'm just a forensic doctor. The truth hidden behind a corpse is often more fascinating to me than the truth of the case itself.

"Xiao Xiao, what kind of thing could frighten a well-educated woman to death?" Li Yang pulled the white sheet off the body again. It seemed this guy's tolerance for fright was even stronger than mine. If my older sister's writing could scare him one day, hehe, she'd become a famous writer. Of course, I really shouldn't be thinking about these things while he and I were discussing the case.

I don't know exactly how much fear a person can withstand, but strangely enough, people, despite their fear of terrifying things, still want to experience them. Otherwise, there wouldn't be horror novels or movies. It seems that human fear and curiosity are always intertwined. This was fully proven in my later years.

"Hey, did you hear what I said?" Li Yang's voice pulled me back from my thoughts. Clearly, he was a little annoyed by my Divine Void Travel.

"Oh, I'm listening!" I took the gloves off my hands, but in my mind I was already thinking about what to have for lunch.

"Talking to you is like casting pearls before swine!" Li Yang gave me a disappointed look, blaming me for not following his line of reasoning. "Fine, fine! Come on, how about I treat you to dinner?"

"Great!" The thought of a free lunch piqued my interest, my eyes lighting up. I practically dragged Li Yang out, intending to close the door behind me. Perhaps I was too hungry to see clearly, or maybe the midday sun was too bright, but I vaguely thought I saw a wisp of black smoke rising from the corpse. Unfortunately, it was just a vague image; preoccupied with lunch, I didn't pay any attention…

"Hey, come here for a second!" My older sister's voice called out, pulling me back to reality from my daytime reverie. I dislike her calling me "hey" all the time, but compared to the creepy and cringe-inducing nickname "Little Brother Xiao," it's still acceptable. I once suggested she call me "Xiao," but she said it was too ambiguous. Calling me by my name directly, she said that was too formal. Then I started calling her "Brother," but she said that would clearly indicate she's my older sister, making her seem older! Finally, she wanted to call me "Little Brother Xiao"—I suspect she's been reading too many martial arts novels!

"Hey~~~~~~!!!" Just as my older sister's voice reached a certain decibel level, a level comparable to that of the victim during the pig slaughter, I knew for sure that if I didn't arrive within thirty seconds, I would be facing a sleepless night.

"What are you doing?" I kicked open my older sister's door. Based on my previous experience, I wondered if some clueless "cockroach" had once again invaded her territory.

"My computer crashed again, come quick and help me take a look!" My older sister shouted, pointing at a laptop.

"Please, you've been fiddling with it all day, and you still can't figure it out!" I seriously doubt if she's really my sister. How can someone with such intellectual problems be my sister?

"I only use it to write things, how could I possibly become a computer expert?" My older sister stood up, looking completely matter-of-fact, and picked up the cup beside her. "I'm going to make a cup of tea. You'd better get it fixed by the time I get back, or else I'll give you a piece of my mind!"

"Ha, it looks like I'm the one who broke it!" I muttered, not daring to say it too loudly, otherwise I might become her first victim of using a cup as a hidden weapon. Then from now on, there would not only be Little Li's flying dagger, but also Little Lin's flying cup!

Just as I reached for the mouse, my eye suddenly twitched—a violent twitch, as if it were about to leap out of its socket. A chill ran down my spine, because whenever my eye twitches, something bad never happens, and the more violent the twitch, the worse the misfortune! A slight twitch might just mean I trip and fall, or perhaps knock something over. I've only experienced this violent twitch three times: once was the day my parents had their car accident, once was the day before the college entrance exam results were released, and then, the night before Yin Xue hanged herself—a night I never want to remember but can never forget!

A wave of fear and trepidation washed over me simultaneously. I noticed my hands trembling. I wasn't afraid of death itself, because death was already too obvious to me. I was afraid of experiencing the loneliness and panic that would follow the death of someone close to me again. I shook my head, trying to calm myself, and covered my twitching left eye with my hand. My right eye, however, saw something—something I knew all too well. Yes, it was livor mortis, right there in the digital photo on the computer screen, on the wrist of a beautiful, almost ethereal woman. It was a mark unlike any other, one that most people would struggle to recognize, yet it was all too easy for me to spot. I told myself this was likely another joke my sister was playing to scare me, but reason told me that someone as computer illiterate as her couldn't possibly create a composite image. So if it wasn't a joke, then what was it? The woman in the photo was clearly a living person. Could a living person have livor mortis, or had I just lost my mind and mistake some other mark for a livor mortis?

Book One: Three Ghosts of the City, Chapter Two: The Black Forest Bar

Book One: Three Ghosts of the City, Chapter Two: The Black Forest Bar

I shook my head vigorously, then pressed the computer's restart button, and the computer immediately started making a "creaking" sound.

The sound was completely different today, though I'd heard this hard drive noise many times before. It pierced my eardrums, causing a dull ache. The Windows 2000 shutdown screen didn't appear; instead, the face that should have been alluring was distorted, its features contorted and terrifying, especially its eyes, which had stretched into two enormous black holes, making it look like a character from a horror movie. I could feel the sticky sweat on my palms, but I couldn't scream. My throat felt dry, as if something was stuck in it. I saw the woman in the photo was emitting black smoke, just like the female corpse in the morgue during the day. My eyes twitched violently. I didn't know if this meant something unfortunate; I dared not think about it, nor did I want to. Years of forensic work had instilled in me the principle of handling everything with scientific evidence, but weren't some things difficult to explain scientifically? I don't know where the strength came from, but I rushed forward and yanked the computer's power cord. The image on the screen disappeared, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ah, you pulled it out? I haven't even saved what I just wrote!" My older sister's scream came from behind me. I knew that I wouldn't have a good night or the next few days.

"Who was in that photo you just took?" I deftly dodged my older sister's "Foshan Shadowless Kick," ignoring her numerous deadly stares, and asked her.

"What, you've got your eye on someone?" My older sister smiled with a suggestive and lewd expression.

Flirting with her? Who knows who she is? I sighed, deliberately ignoring my older sister's sly grin. "Even if I am!"

"She's a friend I met at a bar. She's pretty, isn't she? It's rare to see someone interested in people other than the dead!"

My sister pressed the start button, and my heart immediately started pounding. But a strange curiosity prevented me from stopping her. It seems that curiosity isn't just something cats have; humans have it too.

"Huh, why isn't it responding?" My older sister is always good at yelling and shouting, but this time it seems like there's really a problem. My eyes twitched again. Merciful God, are you telling me that this computer's future might be spent in a junkyard?

"You b

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