Historias de fantasmas

Capítulo 8

"That's terrible," Sun Jing echoed.

"That's right." The man seemed to have immediately recovered, his face full of energy. He recounted the events of yesterday as if replaying the scene, from Han Shang's attire to the sound of the flowerpot smashing on her head.

"It's strange how it all happened. There aren't many people on this road, yet she just happened to stop here. If she hadn't stopped, the flowerpot wouldn't have hit the ground."

"Stop? Why?"

"But no one went down to ask her. And the flowerpot landed in the wrong place. The police even sent a scene investigation team... they checked footprints and fingerprints inside and out, but there was no one in Old Li's apartment on the fourth floor at the time. The meteorological expert explained that it was caused by a sudden strong gust of wind at low altitude, which blew the flowerpot tilted in mid-air. Ha, it was just a gust of wind, it just whistled past." He puffed out his lungs, simulating the sound of the wind.

"The woman who died was a star, a stage actress, absolutely gorgeous. Have you ever seen a play? A famous actress, her shows were always packed. What a pity. Lying on the ground, her brains were splattered everywhere."

Sun Jing sensed something was amiss and interrupted, asking, "Did you really see it with your own eyes yesterday?"

The man paused for a moment, then said, "Many people have seen it." After saying that, he patted the cardboard box, turned around, and continued moving things.

This is how folk legends come about, Sun Jing thought. It probably won't be long before it evolves into a very realistic ghost story.

But did Han Shang really stop? The man's version of the story doesn't explain why she stopped. Usually, these oral traditions only embellish the story, making the plot increasingly elaborate and bizarre, but they never erase the original details. If Han Shang truly stopped, it would certainly be an abrupt action that appears to outsiders as without reason.

If this isn't a ghost story, but a murder...

"If I were the killer," Sun Jing thought. "If I could make the flowerpot suddenly fall—which is already difficult enough—I'd better think of another way to make the person I'm going to hit stay still, otherwise hitting the target would be too difficult."

If we could find out why Han Shang suddenly stopped, we could figure out a way to find the murderer. If there really is such a person.

But perhaps... it's just a ghost story? Zweig's curse, Freud's experiments—to most people, these are just ghost stories.

When Sun Jing thought of ghost stories, he remembered the old woman who said ghosts kill people.

The old woman's small tobacco and sundry shop was not open for business. The iron roller shutter was pulled down, but not completely, leaving a gap through which sounds could be heard from inside.

Sun Jing knocked on the door, and the iron roller shutter began to rustle.

"Who is it?" came the voice from inside.

"Buy cigarettes."

"We're moving shops, everything's packed up." The person speaking sounded like the old woman's daughter.

"Want a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes? Don't you have any?"

A few fingers peeked out from the crack, grabbed the bottom edge of the roller blind, and with a "whoosh," lifted the door up.

"Soft shell or hard shell?" It was indeed her daughter; the shop had changed drastically, and all the merchandise had been packed away. But her mother was nowhere to be found.

"Hard-shell." Since the store was open, Sun Jing naturally chose the cheaper option. He didn't like Zhonghua cigarettes; they were too bland.

The woman pulled out a knife and swiftly sliced open the sealing tape of a cardboard box.

"Was that your mom who grabbed me yesterday?"

The woman looked up at Sun Jing and recognized him: "I'm sorry about yesterday, the old lady's mind wasn't clear again, I just took her to the hospital this morning." As she spoke, she hummed half-sigh and half-complaint, and gently shook her head.

Sun Jing took out his wallet and slowly counted the money he needed to pay. He always managed to get a better answer to his questions before he actually paid.

"Yesterday was scary too, you must have been frightened."

"What? Stand here and look for yourself. You can't see a dead person from here. She's just having a mental breakdown. It's not the first time." The woman took out a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes from the box, straightened up, and handed it to Sun Jing.

"Everyone's saying this is supernatural, maybe it really is the work of a ghost. How much is one of these?"

"Three hundred and eighty."

"Tell me what your mom saw. I'm really interested in ghost stories." Sun Jing handed over four hundred-yuan bills.

The woman flicked the brand-new bills, put them in her pocket, and glanced at Sun Jing's expression.

Sun Jing smiled at him.

The woman clapped her hands lightly as if dusting off some dirt: "You really want to hear it?"

Sun Jing nodded.

"Men are so curious, are they planning to listen and scare young girls? There's no story at all, she was just sitting at the shop entrance yesterday." She put the money away and pointed to the spot next to her, a seat on the right side of the shop entrance.

"I was right next to her when she suddenly screamed 'Ghost!' It gave me a huge fright. I saw her eyes were fixed, her face was deathly pale, so I quickly looked in the direction she was staring at, but there was nothing there. That's it." After she finished speaking, she looked at Sun Jing, spread her hands, and emphasized again, "That's exactly it."

Which way was she looking?

"There."

The woman pointed in the direction of the accident, but even sitting in the shop and looking there, it was still at least twenty meters away from where Han Shang was lying.

Did she describe what a ghost looks like?

"What are you talking about? You can't even speak clearly anymore. You go home at night and cower in a corner, trembling."

"Was it when she screamed that the same time someone died over there?"

"It seems about right, which is a bit strange. But I didn't see anything. There was only a woman passing by in that direction. She probably saw the dead body, though; her expression was terrified."

"woman?"

"Oh dear, you can always tell the difference between a living person and a ghost," she said, as if she had seen a ghost herself.

"She was wearing a hat and sunglasses, and her black stockings went up to this height." She gestured with a pout, "How could a ghost look like this? I even checked, it has a shadow."

Sun Jing's grip tightened, sinking the cigarette pack into his hand. He froze for a moment, then asked, "What kind of hat?"

"It's...the kind, um, with a brim in the front..." The woman couldn't quite describe it because she never wore that kind of hat herself.

"Baseball cap?"

"Yes, yes, it's a baseball cap."

Sun Jing took a deep breath, nodded to the woman, and said, "Thank you for your story." Then he turned and left.

"I don't like this place at all, just like I don't like this guy," Xu Xu said.

"It's probably because there's such a strong smell of corpses here," Sun Jing said, picking up a stack of printed A4 papers that he had slowly placed on the coffee table.

"A corpse?" Xu Xu looked startled.

"There are hundreds of turtle carcasses over there, you've seen them." Sun Jing pointed to the next room with his left thumb. The photo of the man on the first page was printed in black and white and wasn't very clear, but that didn't matter; he recognized the man.

"Damn it." He cursed slowly, realizing he hadn't even noticed the disgusting smell last night. "Didn't they crawl into your dreams one night and bite you, leaving you covered in hundreds of those things? Hahaha."

"Just say it directly, I didn't realize you were actually shy." Sun Jing's words cut off Xu Xu's sharp laughter.

Most of the documents contained detailed information about the man on the cover. His name was Wen Zhenhe, he was 58 years old, and the director of the Oracle Bone Department at the Shanghai Museum.

The Shanghai Museum doesn't have a large collection of oracle bone artifacts, so its oracle bone department can't compare in size to other departments like calligraphy and painting or bronzes. Under Wen Zhen, the director, there's only one researcher in his early thirties and a few frequently changing graduate interns. This means he has complete control over the museum's oracle bone affairs. In the plan, he's the most crucial figure.

This page contains information about Wen Zhen, both public and private. Beyond the internet, con artists always have other channels to gather intelligence. Xu Xu is working on this very quickly; Sun Jing flips through the pages one by one, and so far the quality seems quite good.

Divorced, living alone, somewhat withdrawn, and not very sociable with her neighbors. She gives the impression of a scholar engrossed in academic research, and Sun Jing knows that Wen Zhenhe is indeed very skilled in oracle bone studies.

He had a large frame, was thin, and had an unusually small head, making him an oddly proportioned figure. When he was listless, he appeared somewhat sleazy; when he was energetic, he became a stubborn and obstinate old man. In short, he wasn't an easy person to deal with.

But there is no such thing as an impregnable fortress. Wen Zhenhe was very stingy; the skin between his right index and middle fingers was charred black because he always smoked until his hands were burning. Two years ago he bought a pipe, and now he could finally smoke every last bit of tobacco.

In addition, female graduate students are more readily accepted by him. Many of his colleagues believe that if there weren't so few women studying this field, there would never be any men among Wen Zhenhe's interns. He enjoys one-on-one conversations with female interns, which in China is hard to categorize as sexual harassment, but in any case, women don't stay in his department for very long.

He's greedy for money and lustful; at first glance, he doesn't seem difficult to deal with.

"But that might not work," Xu Xu said. "Han Shang and Wen Zhenhe have met; she offered two million, and she's not ugly at all."

"Not necessarily." Sun Jing used the same two words to express different meanings. "You should be able to tell from the recording how much Philadelphia holds in Han Shang's heart. I don't think she would be willing to turn her greatest advantage into a weapon, especially against such an old man. As for the two million, that's for the museum; Wen Zhen and I won't get any of it."

"And one more thing," Sun Jing said, closing the file, "I can add something you don't have here. His stubbornness extends into the academic field; even when he's wrong, it's very difficult to persuade him. Therefore, I don't think someone with this kind of personality would be entirely satisfied with his current position. Our plan should have a pretty good success rate."

"Agreed." Xu Xu smiled. "So I've already arranged to meet Qiu Xilai later."

That person was also part of the plan. Every plan is like a machine made up of gears, some big, some small, but all essential.

She slowly lowered her crossed legs, a signal in behavioral science that she intended to leave. But she quickly switched to crossing the other leg.

Sun Jing suddenly realized that his gaze had lingered on Xu Xu's legs for too long. He quietly sighed and moved his gaze upwards until he met Xu Xu's eyes again.

"What are you thinking about?" Xu Xu asked.

"Um?"

Xu Xu pointed to Sun Jing's right hand and said again in a declarative tone, "What are you thinking about?"

Sun Jing looked down and realized he was unconsciously turning the ring. He was slightly startled, but just smiled nonchalantly and continued to play with the little thing at a leisurely pace.

"Observing too closely can sometimes lead you astray," he said, "but it's still a good habit, at least for you."

Xu Xu wrinkled her nose and gritted her teeth: "I'm your partner, not your apprentice! Stop acting all high and mighty. Do you even know how to cooperate with others?"

"Heh, you're overreacting a bit. Partner... um." Sun Jing put his hand on his chin and rubbed his newly grown stubble. "Partners should always be considerate of each other, so don't let that reporter bother me first thing tomorrow morning. I haven't had a break these past two days; I need to get a good night's sleep."

"I'm the one doing all the work, what are you so busy with?" Xu Xu retorted angrily.

"For example, finding the treasure cave in the synagogue, or buying a book at the bookstore... what's it called... 'Remembering Yesterday'?"

"It's 'Yesterday's Memories'," Xu Xu corrected him.

Sun Jing glanced at her: "So you've read this book."

"Today. I saw it in the bookstore today."

"So, you've got a lot going on today. You went back to sleep, got all this stuff done, settled the car issue, met with Qiu Xilai, and even managed to squeeze in a visit to the bookstore to read Zweig's autobiography?"

"Don't equate your efficiency with mine," he said, raising his chin slowly.

"So you and I both went to verify the truth of what Han Shang said. But you didn't mention it at all. I think you should be a little interested in these mysterious things."

"I'm somewhat interested, but I'm more interested in the wizard's skull. Our mission is to get our hands on it as soon as possible, isn't it?"

"Aren't you worried at all about the dangers involved? Especially after what happened yesterday?" Sun Jing narrowed his eyes, looking at Xu Xu with great interest. "It seems that women's minds are either too rough or too meticulous."

"You know Han Shang died right before our eyes. Just imagine her head being blown apart, you don't want to end up like that, do you?" Sun Jing added.

In Go terms, this is another probing move, even more subtle and challenging than the previous one. "Dying before one's eyes" is a double entendre; you can interpret it as witnessing it firsthand, or you can simply take it as a metaphor.

Sun Jing wondered if she would deliberately clarify that she hadn't seen it with her own eyes.

"Don't mention her, don't mention this, it's too horrible," Xu Xu said, her face pale. "I've decided not to think about her anymore, and it took me so long to do that."

She took a deep breath, trying to look better, and said, "Didn't you say yesterday that you were out of danger, even if only temporarily? I don't want to get myself into trouble by actively investigating some curse or murder. Right now, I just want to get my work done. Most trouble is self-inflicted; you understand that, don't you?"

Sun Jing wasn't sure if he could take that as a warning. From the very first moment he met Xu Xu today, he had been scrutinizing her. But Xu Xu's performance was flawless, just as he remembered her—intelligent yet simple, as if he could see right through her. But if this was an act, then without a doubt, she was a dangerous woman.

Stay away from danger, at least until you are ready.

Sun Jing watched as Xu Xu put her legs down again; this time, she was indeed planning to leave.