L'affaire du messager fantôme - Le récit d'une âme qui quitte son corps

Chapitre 35

Chunyu immediately remembered the name, and the girl in the old photo flashed before her eyes—the most beautiful girl in the art department eight years ago. But most importantly, she looked very much like Yunhan, especially their eyes. "I'm sorry, I've never dared to admit it before, and I've never told anyone."

Because I've kept her buried in my heart for many years, I don't want anyone to know who my first love was.

"Why are you telling me now?" Chunyu's lips suddenly trembled. "Is it because I look a lot like her?" "No, that's not the reason. It's because tonight is so special. We're in such an ancient cave, with murals from a thousand years ago watching us, and you're lying on my shoulder. I can feel your breath, your heartbeat. I can't hide it from you anymore."

Chunyu was somewhat moved. She said softly, "Tell me, how did Yunhan attract you?" "We were in the same class. From the first day of university, I secretly liked her. I don't know why, because I've always been an extremely arrogant person. I thought I was the only one in the world who was good enough for me. But, looking into Yunhan's eyes, I gave in to someone for the first time. But I was too shy back then, and she seemed too innocent. I never dared to express my feelings; I could only secretly like her in my heart." "Haven't any other girls ever liked you?"

Gao Xuan chuckled self-deprecatingly and said, "It seems there are many, but I don't like any of them. The only one who truly moves me is Yunhan." "And Yunhan doesn't even know you have a crush on her?" "Yes, she probably doesn't know. Later, I heard she got a boyfriend, and I felt very sad, but it wasn't something I could decide. I could only silently wish her well. Later still, I heard she became somewhat mentally unstable because of her relationship." "She went crazy?" "Not crazy, maybe a little depressed. Finally, one day, she ran to that teaching building and committed suicide." Gao Xuan looked up, his eyes filled with immense sorrow in the red flames, and it took him a long time to speak, "I remember being very heartbroken then, but I could only keep it to myself, until today." "You can't forget her, can you?"

Gao Xuan remained silent for a while longer: "Yes, if it were you, would you forget?"

Chunyu shook her head and said, "No one can forget their love, and no one can forget their hate." "And what about you? What about your love and hate?" "No! Please don't ask anymore." Chunyu climbed off his shoulder and sat down at the other end of the campfire. She and Gao Xuan looked at each other across the firelight, their eyes illuminated by the flames. At that moment, neither of them needed to speak; silence was the best language.

After sitting there for a long time, Gao Xuan finally spoke: "We've walked a long way today, you must be very tired, right? Go into your tent and rest early, we'll leave here at dawn."

Although Chunyu wanted to continue chatting with Gao Xuan, the dry branches were almost all burned out, and sitting in the dark cave was not a pleasant experience, so she had no choice but to obediently crawl into the tent. The tent was small and low, and she could just stretch her legs out inside. However, the sleeping bag was still very warm, and a thick blanket was laid on the ground to ward off the cold from underground.

She was curled up in the dark bed again, but the feeling was completely different from being in the dormitory. She couldn't forget that she was lying on rocks, that outside the tent were ancient caves, and beyond that, desolate, wild mountains, where countless ferocious beasts with gleaming green eyes roamed. But more importantly, a man named Gao Xuan was sleeping in a tent just inches away from hers, which made her heart pound wildly.

Perhaps she was just too tired. Despite the passion coursing through her veins, she quickly became too sleepy and drifted off to sleep.

After an unknown amount of time, Chunyu woke up in a cold sweat, the only sound being the urgent ringing of a text message. Her mind was still hazy. She hesitated for a while before struggling to reach out of her sleeping bag and finally managing to grab her phone. Strange, the phone had clearly had no signal just now, how come it's back all of a sudden?

The phone screen still displayed that number: "741111".

In this cave painted with the "Nineteen Levels of Hell" from a thousand years ago, looking at this 21st-century hellish text message feels like traveling through a time tunnel.

As expected, the text message read: "You have entered the 16th level of hell. You will choose 1: your most painful memory; 2: the one thing you most want to do."

The previous levels of hell all had three options, how come there are only two now? In the dark sleeping bag, her eyes were illuminated by the backlight of her phone screen, feeling like a small campfire in a cave. Her thumb hesitated between "1" and "2" for several seconds before finally pressing "1: Your most painful memory".

However, instead of a text message, Chunyu received a phone call.

From within the cave, which was over a thousand years old, the melody of "Dong Feng Po" echoed. Chunyu quickly answered the phone. A strange voice came from the other end: "I am your closest friend. Tell me your most painful memory, and I will definitely help you solve it."

Hearing that voice here, Chunyu was terrified, as if a ghost from over a thousand years ago had crawled into her phone and was talking to her. It took her a long while to finally speak: "Who are you? I don't have any painful memories." "At least you have someone you hate the most—your stepfather." The voice seemed to be deliberately piquing Chunyu's curiosity, as if it had entered her mind directly. "He is your most painful memory, isn't he?"

Hearing this, Chunyu could no longer resist. She could only tremble as she said, "Yes, he is the person I hate the most, and also my most painful memory." "Tell me everything, why do you hate him?"

Although the other person's voice was terrifying, Chunyu automatically opened the floodgates of her heart. For so many years, she had never had the opportunity to confide in anyone. Now, a ghost from hell was willing to listen to all her pain, so why not speak out?

In this dark, ancient cave, Chunyu spoke without restraint: "Because he's not human—although he was relatively good to my mother and me when he first became my stepfather. But after a year, he began to show his beastly side, often getting drunk and beating my mother frequently. Although my mother cried every night, she still refused to leave that man because she didn't have a job, and my life and studies depended entirely on my stepfather. I grew to hate him more and more, locking myself in my room every night, looking at my father's photo and crying. One night, I heard him beating my mother, so I rushed into the room to save her, but he slapped me hard, making my nose bleed. When my mother saw him hit me, she finally couldn't bear it anymore and tried to fight him, but he tied her up with a rope and beat her again."

After a long silence, the voice on the phone spoke again, still in a calm but strange tone: "You're a pitiful girl. Your mother is a pitiful woman. Why don't you divorce him?" "My mother can't, because if she divorces him, I might have to drop out of school, and we'll be forced to move out and become homeless. And that man takes advantage of this, abusing my mother and me even more. When my mother went to the neighborhood committee for help, he cut all her clothes to shreds with scissors, forcing her to stay inside the house. But what's even more terrifying is that as I grow up and gradually become a teenage girl, his eyes are always fixed on my body. His filthy gaze terrifies me..."

At this point, Chunyu choked up and couldn't continue, as if grief had choked her throat. The voice on the other end of the phone rang out again: "One day, you will be freed from suffering."

The call abruptly ended, and Chunyu seemed to wake from a dream. The phone screen was now silent. She struggled to stick her head out of her sleeping bag, taking a deep breath as if she had just surfaced and almost drowned.

Chunyu gasped for breath, recalling everything they had said on the phone. The horrific events played out like a movie. Looking up, she saw the man's face seemingly right there in the dark tent, a cold smile on his face revealing a row of gleaming white teeth. A peculiar smell filled her nostrils. She buried her face in her hands, curled up into a ball, and began to sob, trembling. Her sobs were so heartbreaking, they escaped her lips, and she cried out like a wounded fawn in the forest, her cries filled with pitiful anguish.

Suddenly, Chunyu heard some strange noises outside, and a dim light shone on the top of the tent, causing the tent's small door to tremble slightly.

Could it be some wild beast that has entered the cave? Could that eerie light be the green glow emanating from a wolf's eyes? If it's not a wild beast, could it be the ghosts from the "Nineteen Levels of Hell" that have escaped? The tent was finally opened, and a ray of light shone into her pupils. She blinked and saw the face clearly—it was Gao Xuan.

He said nervously at the tent entrance, "What happened? I just heard you crying."

Chunyu finally let out a long sigh of relief. "...It's nothing, just a nightmare." "That's good, then get some sleep."

Just as Gao Xuan was about to leave, Chunyu grabbed his hand and whispered, "Don't leave me, I'm scared." He could only squat at the tent entrance and ask, "What are you scared of?" "I'm scared of being alone in the dark." "Maybe, so am I."

Chunyu held his hand tightly and said, "Then come in, let me lean on you."

Gao Xuan hesitated for a long time before finally crawling inside. But the tent was too small for two people; they could only huddle together, like little hedgehogs trying to escape the cold. The space was so cramped that Chunyu could only nestle in Gao Xuan's arms. She felt a warmth spread through her body, as if this was no longer a dark cave.

Gao Xuan kept the small lamp on the whole time, and his hands remained perfectly still, showing no intention of taking advantage of Chunyu. He said softly, "What nightmare did you have?" "A terrible nightmare, worse than hell." "Now you won't have nightmares anymore."

"Yes, because I will protect you." Gao Xuan's chin rested on her hair as he spoke softly, "Go to sleep now."

Chunyu stopped speaking. She smiled slightly, took a deep breath, and inhaled Gao Xuan's scent. She slowly closed her eyes and buried her head in his warm chest. In that moment, she felt happiness.

A moment later, she finally fell asleep. Gao Xuan looked at Chunyu, who was breathing evenly in his arms, and tears welled up in his eyes.

Outside the cave, the night was dark and the wind was high, with wolves howling...

Seventeenth Floor

3:00 AM, Shanghai.

Ye Xiao was still awake. He sat under the lamp by the window, staring at the number on his phone screen: *****741111. He had descended into another level of hell today, but he knew he was not far from the answer.

He opened the text message he had just received—

"Xue'er wants to talk to you."

His body froze. He stared blankly at the screen, as if he could see Xue'er's face.

Suddenly, his phone rang. He slowly answered the call and heard a soft female voice: "Ye Xiao, this is Xue'er. Please tell me how I died?"

Ye Xiao's hands trembled uncontrollably. He softly called out into the phone, "Xue'er, is it really you? Do you want to know how you died? Okay, I'll tell you. Remember when we were assigned to Yunnan for our internship before graduation? We were all with a Yunnan anti-drug team, investigating drug-related crimes. During a drug raid between China and Myanmar, something unexpected happened. The criminals' strength far exceeded our expectations. You lost contact with our main force and were held captive by armed drug traffickers. A few days later, we found your body. It was a gruesome sight. Your body was covered in injection marks. You died in extreme pain."

At this point, Ye Xiao was already sobbing uncontrollably.

"Shortly afterward, I arrested one of the drug dealers at the border. There were no other police officers around. I handcuffed him, pointed a gun at his head, and that's when he injected you, causing you to die in excruciating pain. I was furious. I hated those guys to the extreme. At that moment, I had only one thought: revenge, revenge for you."

"You fired the gun?"

“I… I don’t remember. I think I almost pulled the trigger. The bullet would have shot out of the muzzle and splattered that bastard’s brains. But if I had actually fired, I would have broken discipline, even the law, because he was already caught and not resisting, and I couldn’t have killed him.”

"But you really want to see his brains splattered."

Ye Xiao nodded subconsciously: "Yes, because I hate him very much."

"So, you shot! You really shot!" Xue'er shouted into the phone.

"Did I fire the gun?" Ye Xiao's mind was completely in a mess. "Maybe I really did fire the gun, but I forgot about it afterwards?"

"Yes, you fired!"

Right after he finished speaking, a loud bang came from the phone—it was the sound of a gunshot.

Ye Xiao listened blankly to the gunshot, as if he were actually holding a gun in his hand, the bullet spinning from the muzzle, piercing through layers of air, and finally hitting his heart.

"I've been shot?"

Ye Xiao lay on the ground, still staring blankly at his phone screen, which had turned into a bullet icon.

No! He jumped up like a madman and smashed his phone against the wall with all his might.

In an instant, he smashed the phone to pieces, shattering it into more than a dozen fragments that scattered on the floor.

He never saw the nineteenth level of hell.

Early morning, Tiancang Mountain. A wisp of mist slowly drifted into the cave. Chunyu finally opened her eyes. Although it was still pitch black, she knew she had made it through. Gao Xuan was still beside her. She realized her clothes were intact, and her body was still curled up in her sleeping bag. Nothing had happened; Gao Xuan had simply held her like this all night, without violating her body.

She looked at Gao Xuan like a child, and said blankly, "Why is your heart as hard as stone?"

"You're awake." Gao Xuan whispered in her ear, "Because you're too pure, I just want to be your guardian angel."