pozo profundo

Capítulo 4

The three of us crossed the street and went inside. The bar was dimly lit, with only a few dim yellow lights highlighting the listless atmosphere. There weren't many people inside, probably because the real night owls hadn't come out yet. We chose a seat with a view of the entrance, ordered drinks, and Li Yang and Fang Lei started chatting, though Li Yang did most of the talking while Fang Lei listened. As for me, I held my drink and drifted off into a daze, my mind filled with the scenes that had unfolded at Heart Lake that afternoon. I think my brain hadn't processed these events yet; they were so different from my usual understanding. And then there was the little girl in my dream. I must have had a dream after I passed out, but I couldn't remember what it was about. Could this be an early symptom of Alzheimer's?

As night deepened, the bar filled up, but no one seemed suspicious. I paid particular attention to the women who came in, but none of them appeared to be the woman from my sister's computer. Li Yang was still spouting his profound theories; I couldn't help but wonder if he was Tang Sanzang in his past life, uttering so much nonsense!

I lowered my head and drank my wine, feeling utterly bored. It seemed like tonight's trip had been a waste. Just as I thought this, I suddenly felt as if everything around me had quieted down. When I looked up again, I had a strange feeling. The scenery and people around me hadn't changed, but it felt as if I wasn't actually there, but watching a holographic movie. The music had stopped, and everyone around me was talking and laughing, their mouths moving, yet no sound came out. Could it be that the events of the afternoon had been too traumatic, causing me to hallucinate? I quickly looked at Li Yang and Fang Lei. They didn't seem to notice anything amiss and were still talking, but even at such close range, I couldn't hear what they were saying. The movements of the people around me were so slow, like a slow-motion scene in a movie. I sensed something was wrong and tried to speak, but no sound came out. This was bad news; my eyelids began to twitch violently, and an ominous feeling washed over me.

Looking towards the doorway again, I saw two women walk in. One was the woman from my older sister's computer, still breathtakingly beautiful, with an ethereal, otherworldly beauty. Her pale green dress accentuated her perfect figure, enough to make any man's fantasies run wild. The other woman was a pretty young woman with fair skin and flowing long hair, bearing a striking resemblance to the previous victims in her demeanor. My heart sank, and cold sweat broke out on my back. I tried several times to stand up and walk over to the two women, but for some reason, my body felt as heavy as lead, and even with all my strength, I couldn't move an inch from my seat.

The mysterious woman and the girl continued drinking and chatting, seemingly without any intention of harming her. Time passed slowly, but to me, each second felt like an eternity. I couldn't move, speak, or hear; I could only watch helplessly. This time, I truly understood the terror of loneliness. Although I was in a crowded bar, there was no one to help me. The loneliness and fear made me sweat profusely; I could feel my clothes gradually becoming soaked through, and my hands trembled uncontrollably. I desperately wanted someone to notice my distress, but it felt as if I had been forgotten.

After a long while, the mysterious woman stood up and walked towards the door, the girl following behind. I almost screamed, but the sound vanished before I could utter a sound. Just as the mysterious woman stepped out the door, I saw her turn back and smile at me. Her face had turned deathly pale, a pale white tinged with ashen, like a long-dead, desiccated corpse. Her eyes were empty, devoid of pupils, and the lividity on her face was horrifying. A tremendous fear pressed down on me, and I quickly turned my head away, unable to look any longer. But I met the girl's face directly. Her once delicate features were gone, replaced by a face distorted with terror. Her bulging eyes showed the horror she had suffered before death, and her protruding tongue indicated that she might have been hanged. Yes, if it weren't for the fact that she could still walk, I would have been certain that she was a corpse, a walking corpse.

The two women walked out of the bar one after the other, and in that instant, I felt as if I had returned to the normal world. The sounds around me started again; I could hear them, I could feel them, and of course, I could move again.

"Lin Xiao, what's wrong?" Fang Lei's concerned voice came through the phone. "You're sweating so much!"

Yes, I was sweating a lot. I looked like I had just been pulled out of the water. My hands trembled as I put the cup back on the table and managed to utter a weak, guttural sound, "I, I, I saw it."

"What did you see?" Fang Lei noticed something was wrong with me and asked.

"Quick, after them!" I suddenly jumped up from my seat and almost stumbled as I rushed toward the door.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Li Yang and Fang Lei's voices came at the same time, but right now I just wanted to catch up with those two women. I rushed out of the bar and looked around. It was already dark, and there weren't many pedestrians on the street, but I couldn't find those two women anywhere. Theoretically, they should have just come out a short while ago!

"What's wrong with you?" Li Yang caught up from behind and hit my shoulder hard, clearly bewildered by my erratic behavior.

"Get in the car quickly, we're going to Xinhu." I grabbed Li Yang and frantically patted him down, hoping to get the car keys out as soon as possible.

"What exactly happened? Didn't we agree to investigate at the bar? Is it going to end before we even started?" Li Yang asked.

"Get in the car first, I'll explain on the way." I impatiently took the car keys out of Li Yang's pocket and ran towards the car.

"But you..."

"Get in the car first, then listen to his explanation." Fang Lei interrupted Li Yang's complaints, and Li Yang never refused the beautiful woman's suggestion, so he had no choice but to obediently follow her.

I drove at top speed, speeding towards Heart Lake. Although I couldn't be sure if the mysterious woman was related to the recent cases, my intuition told me that going to Heart Lake now would definitely yield some results. As I drove, I told them everything about the strange photo on my sister's computer and the strange things that happened at the bar earlier. I figured now was no time to hide anything. Li Yang and Fang Lei listened to what I said without saying anything, their brows furrowed and their faces serious. I knew they needed time to process what I had said; after all, not everyone would encounter something like this.

Because of the seriousness and strangeness of the situation, none of the three spoke. The carriage was deathly silent, the atmosphere heavy. The car was speeding towards Heart Lake, and the closer they got to the lake, the fewer cars there were on the road. In the last stretch, they were the only ones left.

The moon in the sky is bright and beautiful. I look towards the lake in my heart, where everything is shrouded in mist, concealing all ugliness. But right now, all I wish for is for the car to go faster, much faster.

Book One: Tales of the Three Ghosts in the City, Chapter Nine: A Step Too Late

Book One: Tales of the Three Ghosts in the City, Chapter Nine: A Step Too Late

When they arrived at Heart Lake, the moonlight was rising and swirling over its surface. The woman's body was already hanging from a locust tree by the lake. Her loose hair could not hide the terrified expression on her face; her wide-open eyes resembled those of a dead fish, and her protruding tongue was still bright red.

Too late. I sighed helplessly and felt Fang Lei lean back against me unconsciously and turn her head away.

"Damn it!" Li Yang expressed his dissatisfaction directly, stomping his feet hard.

I clenched my fists, feeling the cold sweat on my palms. What terrified me wasn't the corpse, but that this woman was the same girl I had seen in the bar earlier. It seemed that everything I had just witnessed wasn't a hallucination.

"Really?" Fang Lei asked softly. I knew she was asking if this female corpse was the girl from earlier. I nodded silently. The feeling of a life just moments ago turning into a corpse in the blink of an eye was not pleasant.

"Quickly, find out if that mysterious woman is around!" Li Yang shouted, turning around to look for her, but Fang Lei stopped him.

"Don't bother looking, you won't find it."

"Why? That woman is the prime suspect."

"Take a look around the locust tree," Fang Lei reminded us solemnly. Looking towards the tree, the bushes and grass, though untrimmed, showed no signs of being trampled. In contrast, the bushes and grass along our path were leaning and crooked, traces of our running. In other words, the murderer had used a remarkable method to leave no trace of the crime around the locust tree. Even more incredibly, there was a single set of footprints by the lake, clearly visible due to the dampness, but only one set.

I looked up at the woman's feet. There was obvious mud on the soles of her shoes, and her foot size was similar to the footprints. I could now tentatively deduce that those footprints belonged to this woman. But where was the mysterious woman? I couldn't believe any girl would be bold enough to come to such a ghostly place in the middle of the night, especially since several deaths had recently occurred there.

"How exactly did the murderer do it?" Li Yang's analytical skills were sharp after he calmed down, but he wasn't the only one who was puzzled.

"Of course it would be very difficult for a human to do," Fang Lei's voice came from behind me, and I could feel the tremor in her voice.

"What do you mean?" Li Yang stared intently at Fang Lei's face.

"What if—and I mean what if—the murderer wasn't human?" Fang Lei stared intently at Li Yang, answering each word carefully.

"How is that possible?" Li Yang pressed his temples, a signature gesture he made whenever a case was difficult to solve.

"If the manner of these women's deaths, the bizarre crime scenes, what Lin Xiao saw in the bar and on his sister's computer, and the ghostly aura I examined on the corpses all give me reason to suspect that the murderer in these cases may not be human," Fang Lei reasoned calmly. Meanwhile, my head was throbbing terribly. I was truly fortunate to have encountered such a ghostly situation.

"There's another point, something these murder cases have in common, something your police have overlooked," Fang Lei continued, "that is, it always rains on the night the murders occur."

"Yes, it's raining. What's wrong?" I asked curiously.

“So some things were washed away by the rain, like those footprints,” Fang Lei explained calmly. “And the police would just consider it a coincidence, because no murderer could accurately predict whether it would rain on the night of the murder. But if it were a ghost…”

“If it’s a ghost, then it’s not difficult, right?” Li Yang interrupted Fang Lei’s statement and interjected.

"Yes." Fang Lei nodded.

"If it's a ghost, why would it need the rain to wash away those footprints? The police can't catch it anyway," I immediately offered my opinion.

“If it was raining when that ghost died!” Fang Lei stepped forward and looked up at the female corpse. “If a person dies too tragically or has great resentment, the ghost will repeat the scene of their death over and over again. In other words, if all of this was done by a ghost, I can conclude that this ghost must have hanged herself on a rainy night before she was born, and her cause of death must be very suspicious.”

"Is this your autopsy report for this ghost?" I glanced at Fang Lei; the soft moonlight shone on her beautiful face, giving it a holy glow.

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't." Fang Lei sighed. "If I'm not mistaken, then I can also guess why only Lin Xiao saw them at the bar earlier."

"Oh, what is it?"

"That's because of the barrier. The barrier set up by the ghost is not one that anyone can enter at will. And the reason why you couldn't move, speak, or hear at that time, but could only see, is because your Seven Star Heavenly Dragon Pendant only allows you to see through the barrier."

"If Li Yang can't see it, that's one thing, but why can't you see it either? Don't you have magic?"

“I can see through it, and even destroy it, but,” Fang Lei’s face suddenly became unusually solemn, “if the ghost that creates the barrier has too much spiritual power, then I will not be able to destroy it, and I might not even notice it, like tonight.”

"How powerful a ghost would it have to be for you to not be able to see it?" Li Yang, who had been silent for a while, suddenly asked. This was actually the question I had been wanting to ask.

Fang Lei gave a wry smile and shrugged helplessly. "I thought my cultivation was already pretty good, but now I realize there are always higher heavens and more powerful ghosts out there!"

"So, you've never encountered such a strong opponent before?"

“Yes, never before. It seems this time things have exceeded both my and my master’s expectations.” Fang Lei frowned.

Neither Li Yang nor I asked any more questions, and Fang Lei remained silent, lost in thought, making the atmosphere somewhat awkward. I didn't know what they were thinking, but I felt increasingly agitated. This time, I couldn't escape; it was like trying to handle dry flour with wet hands—I couldn't get rid of it now. I looked up at the corpses. How many more people would die before there was a conclusion?

"Should we call the police?" Li Yang suddenly asked, looking helpless.

"Aren't you a policeman? Why do you need to call the police?" I teased him, trying to lighten the mood. But unfortunately, I forgot that in such a dreadful place, with a corpse in the background, no one would be in a good mood.

"Then, what do you mean?" Fang Lei pointed to the body. It was indeed a bit strange that we were at the crime scene. Could it be that we came out to enjoy the night view?

"Just say it's because you were eager to see the crime scene that you asked me to come with you. As for Li Yang, just say we came along because we were worried about him." I tried to make the lie sound better, but it seems that's all I can say now.

"Okay!" Li Yang and Fang Lei both nodded in agreement. Li Yang took out his phone from his pocket, which meant that his intention to go home was now impossible. What awaited me was a series of police reports, waiting, crime scene investigation, autopsy, and so on...

※※※

When I stepped into my house, it was already the evening of the second day. I was exhausted after working non-stop for a whole day and night. The autopsy report for the body was still the same: cardiopulmonary failure caused by excessive adrenaline secretion. Fang Lei's report also showed signs of ghostly influence, but of course, her report couldn't be submitted to the higher-ups.

My older sister is still not home. I'm used to her elusive nature; I always affectionately call her the "Leader of the Dragon Cult," the kind of dragon that appears only briefly. She's out for the night, and during the day... who knows which boyfriend's house she's staying at? I've always felt the house is too quiet, even a bit eerie. I don't know if it's just my imagination or if it's because of my profession that I think of all houses as morgues.

Fang Lei and Li Yang tacitly refrained from revealing the mysterious woman and what happened at the bar, because no one would believe them anyway, and they might even think we'd both lost our minds. Of course, I wouldn't tell either. Sometimes, honesty doesn't guarantee leniency; concealment is sometimes a matter of necessity.

After showering, I lay in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time. Even with my eyes closed, I could still clearly see the mysterious woman, and the woman's face in the bar before she died—a face that looked like a dead person. In my hazy state, I seemed to dream of the little girl again, the little girl I dreamed of when I was unconscious that afternoon. I realized I was chasing her, but I just couldn't catch up. This made my chest feel so tight. The sunlight was so strong, it hurt my eyes and made me dizzy; I couldn't see the girl's face clearly at all. But strangely, I couldn't feel the sun's warmth; instead, I felt a chill all over my body, as if I had fallen into an icebox, and my hands and feet were numb. Was it all because I was dreaming?

When I woke up the next day, my head was throbbing. It was more painful than even after a hangover. I shook my head and looked at the culprit that woke me up: the phone. The phone was ringing wildly and relentlessly. Who said that the phone is the hero that brings people closer together?

I rolled over, not wanting to leave it, but it seemed very persistent, ringing incessantly. In the end, I gave in and picked up the receiver. Immediately, I heard Li Yang's urgent voice: "Xiao Xiao, come to the police station right now!"

"What are you doing so early in the morning? I'm not even awake yet!" I mumbled, my words indistinct.

"Something terrible has happened!" Li Yang said anxiously.

"What's wrong?" I really wanted to go back to sleep, but Li Yang's next words almost made me fall off the bed. As for sleep, I'll have to wait until next night.

Book One: The Three Ghosts of the City, Chapter Ten: The Sudden Murderer

Book One: The Three Ghosts of the City, Chapter Ten: The Sudden Murderer

"The murderer has turned himself in!" Li Yang's deep voice still seemed to echo in my ears. I knew which case he was referring to, but his tone wasn't relaxed; this wasn't his usual style after solving a case. Sitting in the taxi, I still had bread in my mouth and a carton of milk in my hand. In my haste, I hadn't even buttoned up my shirt properly. I wolfed down my breakfast. No matter how busy I was, I never forgot to eat breakfast, because it was Yin Xue's instruction. I used to think she was nagging, but now, I'd never hear that again. Looking at the text message on my phone, there was only one short sentence from Li Yang: The murderer has turned himself in, come immediately!

Turning herself in? I suddenly burst out laughing. Now I could practically quote a famous line from Pi Zi Cai: "Can pigs fly?" No, so that mysterious woman would never turn herself in. So, what exactly happened? For the first time since starting work, I desperately wanted to get to the police station; the journey that had seemed so short suddenly felt incredibly long.

※※※

"You're only just arriving!" Fang Lei stopped me at the police station entrance. It seems she'd been waiting for a while. Being greeted by a beautiful woman is truly a wonderful thing. If it weren't for all these recent awful events, I think it would be even better.

"What's going on?" Fang Lei and I hurried towards the office, and I started asking anxiously along the way.

"The murderer has turned himself in, but it's not the mysterious woman you saw. It's a taxi driver."

"Taxi driver?"

“Yes, he turned himself in early this morning. Ren Gang, 51 years old, is an employee of Datong Taxi Company. He has a wife and a daughter. His wife, Li Fengyin, is 48 years old and is unable to work due to severe uremia and is recuperating at home. His daughter, Ren Yingying, is 23 years old and has just graduated from university.” Fang Lei briefly told me about the murderer.

"Ren Yingying? I'm Linghu Chong!" I reached for the white coat on the hanger, thinking her dad was probably a Jin Yong fan, and the kind who read a lot of *The Smiling, Proud Wanderer*. But based on my personal speculation, someone who likes this book must be a very chivalrous and straightforward person, how could they be a deranged serial killer? Usually, a person's preferences and habits are subtle manifestations of their personality. In criminology, there's a field called criminal psychology, where experts can deduce a criminal's appearance, habits, personality, and even medical history and family background from the smallest clues, the target of the crime, traces at the scene, and the modus operandi.

"Don't joke around!" Fang Lei scolded me seriously. I think I saw a pointer in her hand. It's a waste of resources for someone like her not to be a teacher!

"Okay, I understand." I smiled at her. "What was his motive?"

"Because I don't like them!" Fang Lei's answer really surprised me. There are all kinds of people these days, completely beyond people's imagination.

"What a terrible yet perfect excuse!" I poured myself a glass of water. The more illogical the excuse, the more perplexing it is for the police, often leaving them with no clues and potentially requiring a psychiatrist to assess the person's mental state. It's terrible because no murder is without reason; money, love, revenge, or power are all extreme expressions of human desires. Even a deranged serial killer has an underlying motive: they may have suffered abuse in childhood, making their abusers their adult targets; they may have been abandoned by a lover, making those similar to their partner their imagined enemies, leading to retaliatory attacks. Such traumas may not be immediately apparent, but they don't disappear with time; instead, they erupt later. As Lu Xun once said, "Either perish in silence or erupt in silence." This statement aptly describes the psychological process of criminals.

"You're all here!" Li Yang walked in from the door, looking haggard and helpless, as if he had aged several years in an instant.

"How's the interrogation going?" I asked.

"Don't even mention it, he's really stubborn as a mule. Several of my colleagues and I have questioned him repeatedly, but he still insists that he did it." Li Yang came up and snatched the cup from my hand, then gulped it down. "He said he just couldn't stand them, so he killed them. He chose Heart Lake because he knew no one would go there at night, making it easier for him to dispose of the bodies."

"So, Heart Lake wasn't the primary crime scene? Then where was it? And how did he hang the body on such a high tree after arriving at Heart Lake? Did he have some kind of superhuman ability or be able to fly on grass? Also, how did he scare them to death? Don't tell me he used a ghost mask!" I successfully snatched my cup back while Li Yang wasn't paying attention; I didn't want to have an indirect kiss with him.

"He said he first drove the car to a relatively secluded place, then pretended the car broke down, and when he got out of the car to get tools from the back seat, he strangled the victim. Then he drove to Xinhu Lake. As for how to hoist the body up, it was very simple. He tied a stone to one end of the rope, threw it over the tree trunk, then tied the body's neck to the other end, pulled down the end with the stone, and finally tied a knot between that end and the end tied to the body's neck. That was it!" Li Yang shrugged.

"Impossible. If that were the case, the downward pull would be enough to severely injure the neck bone of a corpse, possibly even causing a fracture of the cervical vertebrae. But there's absolutely no such sign on the corpses." Fang Lei preemptively said what I was about to say. Moreover, their deaths weren't caused by strangulation, because if someone were strangled to death, there would definitely be bruises on the neck, even if they were wearing gloves. There's also the subtle congestion around the eyes. When a person is being strangled, the blood supply to the brain is obstructed, leading to localized congestion in the eyes, leaving tiny red spots on the whites of the eyes.

"So, he transported the body in his taxi?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Then order an inspection of his taxi. Even if he washed the car, we can still find things like hair, clothing fibers, and skin tissue. And if, as he claims, he was strangled, there should also be urine from incontinence due to suffocation. We could do hundreds of lab tests on these things," I said confidently. I refused to believe we couldn't find evidence. Every crime leaves behind enough evidence to uncover the truth, even if the evidence isn't always obvious and requires time, manpower, and resources. I firmly believe this; no criminal is perfect, and there will always be loopholes.