Apartamento 602 devorador de hombres

Capítulo 9

"Should we try the second one?"

How do we test it?

"Just go ask."

"Bullshit, if he didn't say anything, wouldn't we be alerting him? We need to be careful with our approach."

“I don’t know what to do. No matter what method we use, as long as we ask him and he finds out that we don’t even know what it is, he won’t be afraid of us anymore. If we know what Feng Xinhua is looking for, then we can scare him. Hasn’t he already been scared once? Then we can set up a plan to scare him again, and maybe we can find the location of that thing and succeed in one fell swoop. You can also be free.”

"You mean you still want me to use psychic abilities? To ask Feng Xinhua?"

"Although this method is a bit far-fetched, we might as well give it a try. If it doesn't work, we'll think of another way."

"Is...is this dangerous?"

---Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [16]: "There is no danger, but what I am worried about is not being able to find Feng Xinhua to ask." Lu Kang suppressed the wild beating of his chest and pretended to be calm to comfort Wen Shan, as if he had a lot of experience and confidence in spiritual matters, but in fact he had no confidence at all.

“Okay, I agree to give it a try,” Wenshan said through gritted teeth, as if he had made a great decision. “When do you suggest?”

"The sooner the better, let's do it tonight then." Lu Kang was overjoyed.

What do we need to prepare?

"I'll prepare that. I'll take you back to the police station now, and then I'll go back to my office to make some preparations."

The preparations for psychic communication were few. Lu Kang only remembered what his mentor, the old Scottish man, had taught him: a few candles and a white cloth. Of course, the Gypsies used many more items back then, but after the old Scottish man analyzed them, only these two were truly useful; the rest were just for show. The key was technique. He remembered the old Scottish man saying that it would only appear when your spiritual energy was lower than its own. This presented a contradiction: if you only had your spiritual energy, it wouldn't appear; if it appeared, you couldn't maintain your spiritual energy to communicate with it. How to solve this problem? The old Scottish man found a possible answer with the Gypsies. Before the communication, the Gypsies gave him a strange drink, a herbal concoction, sour and bitter. After drinking it, the old man felt weak, drowsy yet awake, his mind in a state of semi-dreaming, sometimes clear, sometimes confused. It was in this state that he completed the communication. Afterwards, the old man suspected that his psychic experience was just a hallucination caused by a beverage he had consumed, possibly a nerve anesthetic similar to marijuana. However, he quickly dismissed this notion, because of his conversation with his wife. He had asked many questions about the family situation, and since he had been away from home for some time, his wife's answers were later confirmed, many of which were things he himself didn't know. His wife was like someone about to embark on a long journey, giving him detailed instructions.

After years of dedicated study, the old Scottish man finally had an epiphany. It turned out that the drug did indeed have a psychotropic effect, the purpose of which was to reduce his vital energy to a level that was similar to that of the spirit he was trying to communicate with. Then, it would fluctuate slightly at this level, so that the two vital energies would alternately be in a state of stalemate and confrontation, and the power of the two spaces could communicate in this subtle state.

To this end, the Scottish old man invented his set of psychic tools. Besides a white cloth and candles, the core technology has two aspects: a small amount of sedative to induce a light sleep in the psychic, followed by rapid stimulation of the psychic's brain nerves using electrodes. The stimulation frequency must be high—the higher the better—and stable, absolutely stable, because this relates to whether the psychic's vital energy can reach a level comparable to that of the soul. If this level cannot be reached, the psychic communication will fail. The Scottish old man's invention is based on the following theory: first, lower the psychic's vital energy to induce the emergence of the soul's vital energy; then, through frequent electrode stimulation, slowly raise the psychic's vital energy back to its original level. This is essentially an awakening process, but not a complete awakening; success is achieved as long as the psychic's vital energy reaches a level comparable to that of the soul.

How does one determine the level of spiritual essence and vitality? The old Scottish man, with his eclectic scientific spirit, cited the Gypsy method of using a white cloth and candles. It was on that white cloth that he saw his wife's silhouette. Although the silhouette was blurry due to the candlelight behind the cloth, the old Scottish man immediately recognized his wife of over forty years. At that moment, he completely forgot his original research purpose, and tears streamed down his face, unable to control himself.

Unfortunately, the old Scottish man's great invention was never successfully tested. Besides never encountering someone with true psychic abilities, his sudden cerebral hemorrhage also forced him to pass away with regret. In the days following his death, several of his students, including Lu Kang, experimented with his invention in his former office, but to no avail; they couldn't summon his spirit. They ultimately concluded that either his soul had returned to his homeland of Scotland, or he had died without regret, and his spirit hadn't been able to properly condense.

Lu Kang and Wen Shan met again in the evening. They ate together at a restaurant. Lu Kang briefly explained some details and key points about spiritual communication to Wen Shan. Wen Shan was a little absent-minded. He kept his head down and ate his food silently, as if he was listening attentively, but also as if he was detached from the matter. He seemed preoccupied and focused on his own thoughts.

"Do you have some concerns? How about we stop the spirit communication?" Lu Kang was also a little unhappy to see him like this.

Wenshan looked up at Lu Kang blankly and said, "No, you go ahead and say it, I'm listening."

"Something's not right with you. Something's definitely on your mind. Have you forgotten I studied psychology?"

“Alright,” Wenshan put down his chopsticks, sat up straight, took a big gulp of beer, and said, “Since I can’t hide it from you, I’ll tell you. This Zhao Fenqiang seems to have some connections. This afternoon, the director specifically asked me to go to his office. Guess what he said?”

Lu Kang remained silent, looking at Wen Shan.

"He asked me if I was secretly investigating some case on my own. He told me to stay focused on my job and not to meddle in things beyond my responsibilities, otherwise it would backfire. I was confused. The director then gave me a meaningful hint: 'Have you been going to the hospital dormitory a lot lately?' I wanted to argue, but the director immediately said sternly, 'If you feel your job isn't suitable for you, tell me, and I'll consider transferring you to a less demanding position.'" Wenshan finished, looking dejected.

"So what are your thoughts? Are you going to give up?" Lu Kang asked.

Wen Shan glanced at Lu Kang, downed another beer, and slammed the glass down on the table. Ignoring the foam from his mouth, he gritted his teeth and said, "I don't believe ghosts can communicate with the heavens. The more Zhao Fenqiang does this, the more it proves he has something to hide. I'm going to drag this old fox out of the woods. Lu Kang, tell me honestly, does psychic communication really work? How confident are you?"

“This—” Lu Kang hesitated for a moment. He didn’t dare to meet Wen Shan’s gaze, because he didn’t want to deceive Wen Shan, nor did he want to dampen his morale at this time. Maintaining a stable mindset was important before communicating with the spirit. He thought for a moment and decided to change the subject: “If you want to increase your chances of success, then you can’t get too excited. Let’s not drink this wine.”

Back at Wenshan's home, while Wenshan was on the phone with his wife, Lu Kang carefully checked the security cameras he had set up the night before, as there was no room for error at this critical juncture. He also took out another bag of equipment he had brought with him that day: an electrotherapy device, several microphones, a large white cloth, and a pack of candles.

"How come there's something like this?" Wen Shan looked at the white cloth and candles on the ground with a puzzled expression. "Isn't this similar to the summoning rituals in movies? Lu Kang, are you even capable of this?"

Lu Kang ignored him and continued his busy work. "Go, go, go take a shower first. You'll be done by then."

---Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [17]: When Wenshan came out of the shower, the living room was a completely different scene. The coffee table and sofa had been pushed aside, leaving a large space on one side of the living room. A small triangular corner was covered up by Lu Kang with a white cloth, and several folding stools were placed inside.

Wenshan was surprised by Lu Kang's efficiency, but was also baffled by the strange arrangement.

"Could you sit down and be quiet for a bit? Hmm... it would be best if you closed your eyes and rested, not thinking about anything, just... counting sheep in your mind."

Wenshan complied with Lu Kang's suggestion, walked to the sofa that had been pushed aside, and closed his eyes to rest.

After a while, Lu Kang woke him up and said, "Lower your head." Then Lu Kang covered his head with the electrode terminals that were pulled out from the electrotherapy device.

"Do we need to put up so many?" Wenshan asked casually.

“The more there are, the more stable it will be, and that’s the key to success,” Lu Kang replied while working.

After finishing the work on Wenshan's head, Lu Kang moved the electrotherapy device into the inner room.

"Are you going to hide inside again?"

"Hmm... The environment for psychic communication must be absolutely quiet, without any disturbance. I also need to disconnect the telephone line and doorbell line in a bit."

A short while later, Lu Kang came out from the inner room, glanced around to see if there was any work he had forgotten, and after confirming that there was none, he lit the candles, carefully placed them on the small round stool in the corner, and then pulled down the white cloth, which reflected a few faint flames.

“Once it starts, you will focus on this white cloth. When you see a shadow appear on the white cloth, you can start talking to it. Do you know what to ask?” Lu Kang asked.

Wenshan glanced at Lu Kang, thought for a moment, and nodded firmly.

“Okay,” Lu Kang said with a very serious expression. He turned around to pour a glass of water, took out a small bottle from his bag, poured out a few small pills and handed them to Wen Shan. “Swallow them.”

"What's this?"

"Sedatives."