Pesadilla - Capítulo 9
Shunde nodded: "I never expected they could actually find the 'cursed painting,' so I didn't pay much attention to what my uncle said and forgot about it after finishing my meal. Now we've caused a huge disaster; they've released the evil spirit from the painting. My uncle must have hanged himself for that reason..." At this point, the little monk seemed very remorseful, and his voice trembled with tears.
"What evil spirit? That's utter nonsense." Shunping walked in with a rebuke.
Shunde immediately stopped speaking and lowered his head in a panic.
"How could Director Luo believe your nonsense? Take these dishes to the kitchen." Shunping seemed a little annoyed. In fact, when Kong Jing arranged for Shunde to take care of Luo Fei's meals, Shunping's eyes had shown displeasure, which Luo Fei had noticed.
Under Shunping's imposing presence, Shunde dared not say anything more, picked up his dishes, and left. Once Shunde was out of sight, Shunping sat down opposite Luo Fei and said solemnly, "Director Luo, I want to talk to you about something."
Luo Fei nodded: "Go ahead and speak."
"Director Luo, what are your thoughts on the theft at the temple?"
Luo Fei was taken aback, not expecting him to bring up this matter, and said somewhat displeasedly, "What opinion can I possibly have now? I know nothing about the situation."
"Well... Director Luo, we didn't report it because we had no other choice," Shunping awkwardly tried to smooth things over.
The theft was insignificant compared to the current murder case, but Shunping brought it up at this moment. Luo Fei couldn't figure out his intentions for the time being, so he decided to go along with it and ask a few questions: "When did the theft happen? How much was the loss?"
“It’s been just in the last month. I can’t say for sure how much was lost, and I can’t even estimate the value of some of the antiques. The weather was nice at the time, and there were a lot of worshippers coming to the temple, and many of them stayed overnight. I never expected that things would be stolen for several days in a row.” At this point, Shunping suddenly looked at Luo Fei and changed the subject: “However, theft is very likely to be the work of an insider in the temple.”
Luo Fei focused his gaze and suddenly looked at Shunping. The other party was clearly implying something in his words!
Shunping met Luo Fei's gaze, seemingly trying to guess Luo Fei's thoughts: "I wonder what Director Luo thinks?"
Luo Fei paused for a moment: "I don't want to get involved in things that are not related to the current case for the time being."
Shunping gave a noncommittal "Oh," and then said, "I'll be going now." Without waiting for Luo Fei's reply, he stood up and walked out of the house.
Luo Fei frowned as he watched his retreating figure. In this temple, besides the series of murders, there seemed to be another discordant atmosphere.
The rest of the afternoon was spent waiting and contemplating. Faced with the strange events unfolding at the temple, Luo Fei couldn't help but feel somewhat helpless. Without the support of criminal investigators, he truly didn't know where to begin his further investigation. Perhaps Zhou Ping's investigation on the periphery could offer some clues, but Luo Fei's several attempts to contact Zhou Ping revealed that the latter was not within the signal range.
During this time, rumors about several deaths began to circulate within the temple, including embellishments of terrifying events such as "headless ghosts" and "cursed paintings." Although everything appeared calm on the surface, Luo Fei keenly sensed a growing sense of dread from the strange looks of some monks.
Kong Jing also sensed this emotion; he stood guard over Luo Fei with a worried expression, seemingly regarding him as his only hope. At this moment, the only other person in the temple who could remain calm was Shunping, who decisively forbade all the monks from continuing...
The discussion focused on these cases. This measure played a role in controlling the escalation of panic.
It was in this state that the sky gradually darkened, and Luo Fei faced his first night since he went up the mountain.
Even after nightfall, the snowflakes continued to fall heavily, showing no signs of abating.
If the snow stops before dawn tomorrow, then manpower can be immediately organized to clear the snow-blocked mountain roads. Even under this most optimistic estimate, reinforcements might not arrive for another two days. Luo Fei had a vague sense of unease; what might happen in the next two days?
When Luo Fei tried to contact Zhou Ping again, a terrible situation arose: his walkie-talkie was out of power. Luo Fei was furious; this meant a complete loss of contact between the mountain and the surrounding area, rendering Zhou Ping's work on the perimeter meaningless until reinforcements arrived. Luo Fei deeply regretted not bringing the charger, but how could he have imagined he would be trapped in this isolated temple?
The nights in the deep mountains are exceptionally quiet. After 10 p.m., the monks went back to their rooms to rest. Luo Fei hadn't slept all night and was exhausted from the hard climb in the morning.
The backyard of Kumu Temple is lined with monks' dormitories. Except for Kong Jing, Shun Ping, and the deceased Kong Wang, who each have a private room, the other monks share rooms. In addition, there are two guest rooms in the front courtyard. The easternmost room currently houses Hu Junkai's body, while Luo Fei lives in the westernmost room.
Shunping arranged for Shunhe to live with Luo Fei so that he could be at his beck and call. Luo Fei was quite satisfied with this arrangement, as it avoided him being alone in a courtyard with a dead man, which made him feel somewhat awkward—although he wasn't afraid of anything.
Luo Fei sat down on the bed on the west side, just about to take off his clothes to rest, when Shun He looked at him and said hesitantly, "Director Luo... can we change beds?"
"Change the bed?" Luo Fei looked around the small room; to him, the two beds were practically identical.
"My bed... is against the room on the east side..."
"Oh." Luo Fei understood. The bed on the east side of the room and the bed where Hu Junkai's body was placed were only separated by a wall. No wonder Shunhe was hesitant.
"Come on, you can sleep here." Luo Fei beckoned. "It's really not fair to ask you to come and keep me company."
"It's alright." Shunhe switched beds with Luo Fei and smiled somewhat sheepishly. "Shunde is really unlucky!"
"Why?" Luo Fei looked at Shunhe, puzzled.
“We used to share a room. Now he has to live alone, and Uncle Kongwang’s room is right next to ours. Can you imagine how he can feel at ease with such a horrifying corpse hanging next door?”
Luo Fei nodded. Indeed, that timid monk was likely to have a difficult night ahead.
At that moment, no one realized the terrible and dangerous situation Shunde was in.
All was quiet; it seemed that everyone was already asleep.
Suddenly, a piercing scream tore through the night, a scream filled with terror and barely human voice!
Luo Fei was jolted awake from his deep sleep, sat up abruptly, and listened intently. The mournful echo still lingered in the valley, reminding him that this was not a hallucination from a dream.
"Something's happened!" Luo Fei turned on the light, glanced at his watch beside his pillow, and saw that it was 2:25 a.m.
Shunhe also woke up, his voice trembling slightly, "It came from...the backyard."
Luo Fei dressed as quickly as possible and went out to the backyard. The snow seemed to have lessened a bit, but the world was still a dazzling white.
When Luo Fei arrived at the backyard, the lights in many of the dormitories had already come on. Some of the more agile monks had already opened their doors and stepped into the yard. When they looked toward the place where the scream had come from, they were all immediately frozen in fear.
The cries came from the house on the east side. The second house there was pitch black; it was where Kong Wang had hanged himself. Now, the door of that house was wide open, and a clear line of footprints stretched from the doorway to the window of the third house. At the end of the footprints, a person was leaning on the windowsill, seemingly peering into the house through the open window, or perhaps tired and wanting to rest for a moment.
It was this person who caused an indescribable fear to appear on everyone's faces. Even Luo Fei felt a chill seep from every pore of his body.
Under the light and snow, it was clear that the person who had walked through a room and was now lying on the windowsill was none other than Kong Wang, who had been hanging from the roof beam all day!
A terrifying atmosphere froze the air in the courtyard. Everyone stood there dumbfounded, and for a moment no one dared to step forward to see what was going on.
Shunping and Kongjing stood at the west end of the courtyard, their faces also filled with disbelief. As more people gathered, a few of the bolder monks came to their senses first. One of them took a few steps closer to the house and called out Shunde's name loudly, but there was no response from inside.
"Stay in your rooms, everyone!" Luo Fei snapped. "No one is allowed to wander around!"
"Yes, don't disturb the scene!" Shunping echoed. Kong Jing, who was beside him, regained some composure after noticing Luo Fei's arrival.
Luo Fei walked up to them and asked, "Is that the house Shunde lived in?"
Kong Jing nodded, wringing her hands in bewilderment: "What...what happened? How could Kong Wang's body be..."
It is too early to draw any conclusions based solely on observations from a distance.
"I'll go check the situation first." Luo Fei took two steps forward, thought for a moment, then stopped and turned back to say, "You two come together and follow my footprints. Don't leave too many traces of outsiders at the scene."
The three of them bypassed the area near Kongwang's dormitory and walked step by step to Shunde's dormitory via another route. Kongwang was quietly lying on the window, just like yesterday morning, as if he had been waiting for their arrival.
Luo Fei stepped forward and gently nudged him. Kong Wang remained motionless, his muscles stiff, clearly a corpse that had been dead for some time.
But the body ran from the beam of one room to the window of another, leaving a clear trail of footprints behind it!
The room was lit. Luo Fei looked through the window and saw Shunde sitting slumped on the floor, facing the window.
Luo Fei walked to the door and pushed it; it was bolted from the inside. The window was open, but to get in, he would have to move Kong Wang's body. He weighed his options and decided to force the door open.
He took two steps back and then kicked the door latch hard. The door wasn't very sturdy and immediately bounced open. Luo Fei and the other two entered the room.
Shunde sat with his back against the edge of the bed, less than two meters from the window, his eyes wide open. His face was contorted with extreme fear, his mouth agape, but he could no longer utter a sound.
Luo Fei stepped forward, squatted down, and used his right index finger to probe under Shunde's nostrils. Then, in a calm voice, he said, "He's dead."
Kong Jing followed behind Luo Fei, shaking her head blankly, seemingly unable to accept the reality before her eyes.
Shunping stood inside the room, calmly looking around. Finally, he stared at Kong Wang's corpse peering in through the window and said in a deep voice, "Shunde was scared to death by him."
This is exactly the conclusion Luo Fei wanted to reach.
Two single beds were placed opposite each other in the room. The one against the north wall had its bedding neatly folded, presumably where Shunhe usually slept. The one against the south wall had its blankets spread out in a tube shape, with Shunhe's outer clothes piled inside. Luo Fei put his hand under the blankets and could still feel the lingering warmth of his body.
Inside, the tables, chairs, and cabinets were all in normal condition, showing no signs of a struggle. Shunde was only wearing underwear, with no injuries, but his expression was one of extreme terror, his pupils were constricted, and his eyes were fixed on Kong Wang, who was leaning against the windowsill.
"Where is the light switch in this room?" Luo Fei suddenly asked.
Kong Jing pointed to a pull cord hanging from the south side of the bed, which was located directly above the body from Shunde.
“That’s right. Judging from the situation at the scene, we can basically guess how the incident happened.” Luo Fei said, reaching out to turn off the light. Then he began to describe: “I was sleeping when I was suddenly awakened by an unusual noise. So I put on my shoes and got out of bed to turn on the light and check. When I got to the bedside, found and pulled the light switch, what appeared before my eyes was a horrifying scene: a corpse was lying on the open windowsill, seemingly trying to climb into the room! My legs went weak, and I collapsed to the ground, letting out a terrifying scream. Due to the rapid release of adrenaline, I suffered a momentary lack of blood supply to my heart, which led to my sudden death. Now, you can imagine how I felt at that moment.”
After saying this, Luo Fei paused for a moment. Once silence and darkness enveloped the entire room, he suddenly turned on the light switch, instantly exposing the uninvited guest at the window to the stark white light.
Although they were mentally prepared, Kong Wang's terrifying face still sent chills down the spines of the three people in the room. Perhaps because he had been hanging there for so long, Kong Wang's head was tilted upwards, so even though he was leaning against the windowsill, his blood-red eyes were staring directly into the room. The fierce and terrifying expression stiff on his ugly face was almost suffocating.
!
"What...what exactly happened!" Kong Jing said in a trembling voice, "My junior brother's body was hanging in the next room, and no one touched it. How could it...how did it get here on its own?"
"A running corpse," Luo Fei muttered to himself. "Have you ever seen your own running corpse?"
Kong Jing and Shun Ping looked at each other, unsure how to respond.
Luo Fei didn't seem to be asking them anything. He walked into the courtyard on his own and stared intently at the footprints that stretched from the entrance of the empty house to the body.
The footprints sank deep into the soft snow, each step so clear, as if the "squeak" of the footsteps left by the owner just now was frozen in time.
Luo Fei pondered for a moment, then walked to Kong Wang's body, squatted down, gently took off one of his monk's shoes, and examined it carefully in his hand.
The soles and sides of the monk's shoes had a small amount of fresh snow on them, indicating that they had just been walked on in the snow.
Luo Fei walked to the set of footprints again. He squatted down and examined them closely: the edges of the footprints were smooth and even, confirming that they were the marks left by a single step. He placed a monk's shoe inside the footprints, and it fit perfectly!
Could this mysterious series of footprints really have been left by a dead person on the windowsill?
Luo Fei repeatedly and firmly told himself, "This is absolutely impossible!" But he really couldn't come up with any other explanation.
Apart from the few footprints left by Luo Fei and his two companions and the few footprints left by the monks in front of their respective houses, there was only this one lonely line of footprints in the snow in the huge courtyard, and this line of footprints was indeed from the monk shoes worn by Kong Wang!
Kong Jing and Shunping stared intently at Luo Fei. They, and perhaps all the monks in the temple, were perhaps perplexed by the same question. Fear gripped everyone's heart.
Chapter Three
After leaving the People's Hospital, Zhou Ping immediately drove back. As he approached the mountainous area, he repeatedly tried to call Luo Fei via walkie-talkie, but received no response, which gave him a vague sense of foreboding.
When Zhou Ping returned to the Nanmingshan Police Station, it was already past 10 p.m. Before he could even park the car, Jiang Shan greeted him and told him that Wu Yanhua had been waiting in the office for nearly two hours.
Zhou Ping rushed back to his office. Wu Yanhua, who had been sitting, immediately stood up with a worried expression when she saw him: "Officer Zhou, you wanted to see me?"
"Sit down and let's talk," Zhou Ping gestured with a flourish. "I want to ask you some questions about your father."
"My father?" Wu Yanhua looked at Zhou Ping with her delicate eyes, her expression full of surprise.
Looking at the woman before him, Zhou Ping felt a pang of heaviness in his heart. She was unaware of the horrific upheaval that had occurred to her life in just one day. Zhou Ping lacked the courage to tell her the truth: her father and husband were dead. So, he hastily fabricated a lie: "Well… it's like this… the Public Security Bureau is currently clearing up a backlog of files. Your father, having been missing for many years, was reported as deceased. We must now re-verify this."
“No, you’re lying. You’re hiding something from me. Tell me, what’s going on?” Wu Yanhua said calmly, but her tone was very certain.
Faced with Wu Yanhua's persistent stare, Zhou Ping subconsciously looked away. After hesitating for a moment, he finally decided to surrender to the woman in front of him.
“This morning, a monk named ‘Kongwang’ died in Kumu Temple. Preliminary investigation has confirmed that he is your father, Wu Jianfei,” Zhou Ping said, scratching his forehead as he revealed the truth.
Wu Yanhua opened her mouth slightly, looking somewhat bewildered for a moment. Her clear eyes slowly blurred and became moist, and finally, tears slid down her cheeks.
However, she quickly regained her composure, wiped her eyes, and asked, "Are you sure that was indeed my father? How did he die?"
“The identity should be confirmed. Judging from the scene, the death was a hanging, but we can’t rule out other possibilities.” Zhou Ping answered Wu Yanhua’s question, but his gaze was fixed on a ring on her finger. The ring was made of silver. Although it was not expensive and the color was old, the design was elegant and unique, and it had a lot of charm.
"Then what about Chen Jian's fall off the cliff? Can't we rule out other possibilities?" Wu Yanhua suddenly looked at Zhou Ping with a strange expression.