pozo profundo

Capítulo 82

"Huan... Huan..." The female corpse still tried to speak, and the expression on her face suddenly became very sad. Her eyeballs, which had no pupils, were covered with a layer of mist, and a black tear slowly flowed down from the corner of her eye.

"Return? Return what?" Old Yu was bewildered by the woman's tears. Subconsciously, he felt that the woman wouldn't harm him.

"Ah~~~!" The female corpse opened her mouth even wider, but couldn't say anything clearly. She just suddenly jumped up from the ground and pounced on Lao Yu.

"Ah~~~?" This time it was Old Yu's turn to shout loudly, and without thinking twice, he slapped the talisman in his hand at the female corpse's face.

With a snap, the talisman seemed to turn into a sticky sticker and stuck firmly to the woman's left cheek. The woman groaned and fell to the ground, rolling around violently. It was as if sizzling sounds, like meat being fried, were coming from her body, along with the acrid smell of burnt meat.

Ahhh! The female corpse's face suddenly began to age rapidly. Layers of bluish-white wrinkles appeared on her face, two points of blood-red light emerged from her white eyes, and her teeth in her wide-open mouth turned a smoky yellow, instantly transforming into a row of sharp canine fangs. The talisman had long since turned into a red, branding-iron-like object stuck to the female corpse's face.

Old Yu no longer had the strength to shout; he collapsed to the ground, scrambling and crawling towards the exit of the morgue. A plume of white smoke, chillingly cold, billowed from the innermost freezer, instantly freezing the ground wherever it touched. As the cold wind swept through, all the white sheets were pulled back, revealing the faces of the dead in various shapes and sizes.

Kara kara kara~~!

This was the sound of the white cloth covering the corpses freezing. In a moment, a fine layer of frost formed on all the corpses, making their faces even paler.

It was so cold! Old Yu felt a chilling wind, as if from hell itself, rapidly lowering the temperature of the entire morgue. Just as Old Yu struggled to reach the morgue door, suddenly, all the frozen corpses opened their eyes and let out a piercing scream, like a howl. At the same time, all the corpses convulsed as if they were having a seizure. This scene was unforgettable for Old Yu; it was the last thing he saw before he collapsed.

After Lao Yu finished recounting what happened back then, his entire being seemed frozen in that moment. The fear on his face made his already aged features appear even more wretched. His constant panting and the sweat on his forehead made Fang Lei and me simultaneously feel the eerie atmosphere of that time.

"What happened to Uncle Yu after that?" Fang Lei asked.

"And then?" Old Yu wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "The next day I was woken up by my colleague Lao Zeng. He found me sleeping right outside the morgue. The morgue was a mess, with almost all the bodies falling off the beds. Only one body looked unmoved, which was the body of that female student, Jiang Mei!"

"Oh?" I frowned, a little puzzled. Was the zombie transformation just for scaring people?

"Although Jiang Mei's body looked perfectly intact, it was only after the white sheet was lifted that we...we discovered..." Old Yu's expression suddenly turned extremely frightened. He took a while to calm down before saying, "Her heart was gone!"

"What?" I exclaimed abruptly. How could my heart have vanished? This is so strange.

"Isn't it strange?" Old Yu glanced at me and said, "Back then, the deceased's family came to the hospital to make a scene several times, saying that the hospital had handled the matter improperly. In the end, the hospital managed to silence the family members by paying them off, but the heart was never found again."

The strange corpse transformation, the missing heart? All of this left me completely bewildered. Could it be that someone took the deceased's heart after Old Yu fell into a coma, or perhaps the deceased already lacked a heart before this? And what exactly was the corpse trying to say incoherently?

Analysis of Chapter 19 of Volume 3, Delicacies of Hell

Analysis of Chapter 19 of Volume 3, Delicacies of Hell

Filled with doubts and speculations about the zombie transformation, Fang Lei and I left the hospital. The hint of fear and unease that flashed in Lao Yu's eyes before we left still lingered in my mind. What else did that look contain? Fang Lei and I didn't speak along the way. I just held her hand tightly. At that moment, for some reason, I was afraid of losing her.

"What's wrong?" Fang Lei noticed my unease and asked.

"It's nothing." I smiled casually and said, "By the way, what exactly is zombie transformation?"

“It’s a kind of attachment!” Fang Lei looked up at the sky and said, “If a person has any attachments after death, it is easy for them to turn into a zombie. Of course, there is also the situation where something is missing.”

"Missing?" I thought of Jiang Mei's lost heart and said, "Could it be that Jiang Mei turned into a zombie because she lost her heart?"

“Very likely.” Fang Lei nodded and said, “Of course, there are suspicious points in what Lao Yu said. For example, how did he survive Jiang Mei’s zombie transformation? According to Lao Yu, when he imprinted the talisman on Jiang Mei’s corpse, Jiang Mei was already controlled by resentment. Even if she didn’t want to harm Lao Yu at first, there was no reason for her to let Lao Yu, who saw her zombie transformation, live. Also, why was the hospital able to cover up the fact that the corpse had lost its heart so easily? Was it really just because of money?”

"You mean..." I looked at Fang Lei and said, "Go find Jiang Mei's family?"

"Yes, not bad!" Fang Lei smiled and said, "No matter what, besides Lao Yu, I think they are the most qualified to speak about that zombie resurrection back then!"

"But how can we find them? It's been over twenty years." I was a little worried.

“I think the school should keep a file for every student, and there should be clues about Jiang Mei’s family in it!” Fang Lei suddenly leaned her head on my shoulder. This rare girlish demeanor warmed my heart. I touched her hair with my hand. At that moment, I wished time could stop.

**********

In the afternoon, in my room, Li Yang was distributing a stack of documents to me, Fang Lei, and A Bao. Looking at the photocopies of the files of the students who died back then, I really admired Li Yang's ability to collect intelligence.

"How did you find all this?" Fang Lei looked at the documents in her hand with great surprise. She had just called him that morning to ask him to find some information about Jiang Mei, but he had already found it all by the afternoon. He had even found the information about the students who died in the other two murder cases.

"Ha!" Li Yang immediately raised his eyebrows with narcissism and arrogance, and said, "There's no information in this world that I can't find!"

As he was speaking, I suddenly caught a glimpse of Ah Bao's ambiguous smile and immediately realized what was going on.

"Ah Bao?" I had barely opened my mouth when Ah Bao quickly shrugged and said, "Let him be smug for once!"

"Oh~~!" Fang Lei smiled and said to Li Yang, "It was A Bao who found it, right!"

"If I hadn't reminded her to access the school's archives online, how would she have come up with such a great idea?" Li Yang still wanted to take the credit. But this time, to my surprise, A Bao didn't argue with Li Yang; she even looked at him with a strange smile...

She wouldn't...?

Oh no! How could that be?! I quickly dismissed the thought. If they hadn't argued when they were together, it would have been a miracle! I must be overthinking it! Overthinking it!

"Alright, it doesn't matter whose credit it is, we've got what we needed!" Fang Lei said while flipping through the documents.

Li Yang didn't say anything more after that. The only sound in the air was the rustling of pages as we flipped through the documents. Suddenly, my heart started racing, and I felt a tightness in my chest. I quickly patted my chest. I felt an emptiness inside, as if I had forgotten something important.

"Lin Xiao!" Fang Lei's call startled me, and I quickly looked at her.

"What do you think?" Fang Lei asked.

"Huh? What do you mean, how?" I obviously hadn't realized what was going on yet.

"How are these materials?" Fang Lei asked.

"Oh! This!" I looked at Li Yang and quickly said to him, "Li Yang, can you reconstruct the case details?"

"Why is it always me?" Although Li Yang was reluctant, he still stood up from his seat and began to reconstruct the case: "Then let's start with those murder cases from twenty years ago! First is Jiang Mei, a graduate student in the Chinese Department, who died from a recurrence of congenital heart disease. This may be the only case in all of them that was not murder. She was exactly twenty-eight years old when she died."

"Wait a minute!" Abao suddenly interrupted, asking, "Twenty-eight years old and still just a graduate student?"

"Miss!" Li Yang was annoyed by A Bao's interruption and said irritably, "That was right after the college entrance examination system was reinstated, which is why you were already twenty-eight years old!"

"Oh!" Abao exclaimed, feigning understanding.

Li Yang continued, "Next up is Jiang Hua, also a graduate student. However, this case was shelved because the victim's body was never found. As for the suspect, his wife, Zhou Xiangrong, was also sent to the West City Mental Hospital due to mental instability. Unfortunately, the information on the person who reported the case, Jiang Hua's mistress, is incomplete."

"Oh, right!" Fang Lei seemed to have thought of something and asked Li Yang, "How old was Jiang Hua when he went missing?"

"How old?" Li Yang looked down at the information and said, "It seems to be exactly twenty-eight years old!"

"What a coincidence!" I touched my nose and asked, "What happened to the stomach that the mistress received?"

"That thing?" Li Yang shrugged, a little regretfully, and said, "It's probably long gone. It's evidence from twenty years ago, and it's the kind of thing that's not easy to preserve!"

"What a pity!" I nodded in deep agreement and said, "If this were today, we would definitely do a DNA test first to see if it really was Jiang Hua's stomach tissue!"

“There’s one more thing!” Li Yang added, “They have a daughter named Jiang Xiaohui, who was taken back by her maternal grandmother after the incident and has never been seen since.”

"Can you find her current address?" I asked hurriedly, as she was a very important witness!

"I don't know! There seems to be very little information!" Abao said apologetically.

“Next,” Li Yang cleared his throat and continued, “just three days after this case, another student from this school, this time a sophomore, 21-year-old Liu Qingwen, jumped from the rooftop of the old teaching building and died instantly. Because the police didn’t find enough evidence or other clues to prove homicide at the scene, they closed the case as a suicide. These are the three victims from twenty years ago: Jiang Mei, Jiang Hua, and Liu Qingwen. The preliminary assessment is that the locations of death were this Evil Ghost Manor, the woods behind the manor, and the old teaching building.”

"Twenty-one years old?" Fang Lei seemed particularly concerned about age, and frowned as she stood to the side.

"Let's begin with the current murder case!" Li Yang flipped through the files and said, "On the very day we arrived here, the first victim appeared—Wang Yina, a 35-year-old university teacher living in room 206, who was here on an academic exchange trip. This was Wang Yina's first time in this province and her first time at this university. Logically, it's unlikely that she would have formed such a deep grudge with anyone in this area in such a short time. Moreover, according to the investigation, no one seems to have seen Wang Yina encounter any acquaintances. Furthermore, the cause of her death is unknown, but after her death, the murderer peeled off her scalp and cooked it into a dish!"

At this point, Li Yang visibly nauseous, paused for a moment, and then continued, "Next, the victim in the second murder case was named Qin Xiaoli, a teacher named Ma Si at this school. She was also twenty-eight years old, a philosophy master's graduate from this school, and was directly hired as a teacher. Qin Xiaoli was very warm and friendly; almost all her colleagues and students liked her. Moreover, she led a simple life and had a relatively narrow circle of friends, so she probably wouldn't have made any deep-seated grudges with anyone in society or at school. The preliminary determination of her cause of death is asphyxiation, and her brain tissue was used by the murderer to make a vegetable salad."

"It seems that the two murders were committed by the same person!" Fang Lei said.

“That’s right. Judging from the modus operandi, it should be the same murderer. However, the first victim, Wang Yina, and the second victim, Qin Xiaoli, should not have had any connection. In fact, they were two people who were completely unrelated. Their biggest commonality was probably that they were both connected to this school,” I said from the side.

“There’s another thing they have in common!” Li Yang suddenly looked at me meaningfully and said, “They are all connected to you.”

"Me?" I was speechless, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

“Wang Yina and you stayed at the same guesthouse, and someone saw you at the crime scene on the night Qin Xiaoli died!” Although I knew Li Yang was just stating the facts, I still felt something was off.

“I never said it was definitely him!” Abao pouted and said.

"I believe Lin Xiao, it couldn't be him!" Fang Lei was more humane and immediately gave me a small comfort.

“I don’t believe it was him either!” Li Yang immediately retorted.

"Alright!" I said, "Let's not talk about this anymore. But I do think the crime scene was quite interesting!"

"What do you mean?" Abao asked curiously.

“The crime scene now is the Evil Ghost Manor and the old laboratory building. Don’t you think it looks very similar to the crime scene from twenty years ago? Is this just a coincidence?” I pointed out.

“Although the Demon Manor is the same crime scene, another case from twenty years ago occurred in the old teaching building, not the old laboratory building,” Li Yang pointed out my flaw.

“Don’t forget, Jiang Hua’s body was never found! And his wife has gone insane, so her testimony is questionable. Besides, we can’t be certain that Ghost Manor was the primary crime scene for Jiang Hua’s death!” I boldly hypothesized: “A ghostly space has formed between the old teaching building and the old laboratory building, and a ghostly space requires immense resentment to form. It’s unlikely that the resentment of Qin Xiaoli, who just died, could form in the old laboratory building so quickly. Therefore, this old laboratory building itself is strange!”

"You mean Jiang Hua's death scene back then was most likely the old teaching building rather than the Evil Ghost Manor?" Fang Lei guessed my reasoning.

“That’s right!” I nodded and said, “I think the crime scenes back then were the three places: the Evil Ghost Manor, the old laboratory building, and the old teaching building. And the current murderer chose the crime locations in the order of these three scenes from back then.”

"So, according to you, there should be a third murder case, and the location is in the old teaching building?" It seems that A Bao's thinking is very quick.

"Maybe!" I shrugged, neither confirming nor denying.

"But why?" Li Yang scratched his head, utterly bewildered. "Why would this killer choose the route from the murder case back then? And you've only deduced these three locations so far, how would the killer know them? Could he be the killer from back then?"

"Unlikely!" I quickly dismissed Li Yang's claim, saying, "If it were the same killer from back then, why would he hide for nearly twenty years before resuming his crimes? Even if he wanted to avoid the limelight, it wouldn't have taken twenty years! Besides, one of the cases from back then seemed like a natural death, another a disappearance, and the third a suicide. It doesn't seem like the work of a single killer. Even if we assume it was the same person, it seems that killer disguised himself very well and tried his best to prevent others from connecting the three cases. But this killer's methods are extremely bizarre, and almost everyone can tell that it's the work of a serial killer. The methods and mindsets of these two people are very different. One is secretive, the other is arrogant."

“I think,” Fang Lei glanced around at us, “even if it’s not the same person, the killer should be connected to or have some knowledge of the cases from back then. Usually, the motives of a serial killer are very difficult to fathom. So, if we want to find out the truth, I think starting with those cases from twenty years ago would be easier. For example, where is Jiang Mei’s heart? Her family? And where is Jiang Hua’s body? And where are his daughter Jiang Xiaohui and his mistress? Finally, there’s the female student Liu Qingwen who committed suicide. Since the police can determine it was suicide, she must have had a reason to do so! These are all clues we can follow.”

"Jiang Hua's body should be in the old laboratory building!" I was still certain of my guess.

"Where in the old laboratory building? Is there a place there where you can hide a corpse and keep it hidden for twenty years?" Li Yang asked.

"Basement?" I thought for a long time before finally uttering those three words.

"Really?" Li Yang frowned as he looked at me and said, "Even a basement wouldn't remain untouched for twenty years!"

“There might be similar places!” I glanced at Li Yang, then looked at A Bao and asked, “Can you check some relevant information?”

"This?" Abao pursed his lips, looking a little hesitant, and said, "I'll try my best!"

"It would be faster to ask Juanzi!" Li Yang reminded me from the side.

"So you go ask Juanzi, and Abao goes online to check!" I briefly assigned the tasks, and then said to Fang Lei, "The two of us will go to the West City Mental Hospital to find Jiang Hua's wife, Zhou Xiangrong, and we can also check the whereabouts of his daughter, Jiang Xiaohui."

"Why do I always have to act alone?" Li Yang shouted indignantly.

"Because Juanzi likes you more!" I patted Li Yang on the shoulder with a hint of mockery, which made him glare at me angrily.

************

"What? Really?" I was holding Li Yang's phone in one hand and opening the door of a taxi with the other.

"What's wrong?" Fang Lei, who was about to get into a taxi, looked at me and asked.

"Do you want to wait until we get back before you go see it? What? You can't wait?" I said on the phone while winking at Fang Lei to get in the car first, then continued to Li Yang, "Then you decide for yourself. Fang Lei and I will be right back after we go to the mental hospital! Okay! See you later!"