Le tombeau de Qin Shi Huang

Chapitre 8

"But—why would the ghost kill these people?"

"This is the biggest question surrounding the conclusion that it's about 'ghosts.' Was there someone who had a grudge against them and sent a ghost to kill them? But they didn't know each other and had nothing in common."

“No,” Jian Xiang reminded him, “Zhang Zhimei is what they have in common.”

“That makes sense. Both of them were Zhang Zhimei’s boyfriends. So—if Zhang Zhimei was the murderer who ordered the vengeful ghost to commit the crime…” “No, the vengeful ghost didn’t kill under someone’s orders. Xia Yongyu once said that he tried the method of ‘being able to see ghosts.’ This means that they were all killed by their own curiosity.”

"Then, could Zhang Zhimei be the one who provided the method?"

"no."

"Why?"

“If Zhang Zhimei was the one who provided the method, then Xia Yongyu should have told me that clearly. However, he only told me that she held a crucial key.”

"Perhaps Xia Yongyu didn't expect this. Moreover, the DV tape left by Zhong Sizao before his death may be hinting at the identity of the murderer."

“I think Xia Yongyu was already in mortal danger, so it’s impossible that he didn’t think of this; furthermore, Zhang Zhimei may have already disappeared before he faced the crisis of being murdered by a ghost. Also, if Zhong Sizao wanted to tell the police about this, he could have just written it down by hand, without needing a videotape as a clue.”

"So you think Zhang Zhimei is definitely not the mastermind, and doesn't know how to see ghosts."

"right."

"Alright," said Team Leader Gao, "What you said makes more sense."

Jian Xiang took a deep breath. "However, in any case, to uncover the truth behind the 'ghost murder,' we still have to find Zhang Zhimei."

Team Leader Gao nodded silently.

"Team leader, I plan to go to Xia Yongyu's place tonight."

"Now? Aren't you going back to the hospital?"

“I can’t sleep.” Jian Xiang smiled slightly. “Besides, this isn’t the right time to sneak back to the hospital.”

"That's true. But the bureau will send someone to pick you up from the hospital during the day, so you have to go back before then. You can't let the nurses find out that you sneaked out at night."

"I would first call the hospital to ask what time the visiting hours start... and then pretend to be a family member visiting a patient and sneak back to my own ward on time."

hqszs

Reply [47]: Get into the driver's seat and start Xia Yongyu's car.

A chill ran through the steering wheel. Jian Xiang turned on the roof light, double-checked the address on Xia Yongyu's ID card, then quickly stepped on the gas and sped off onto the dark road.

It is 2:07 a.m. Xia Yongyu lives in a residential area near Fuheng Road in Xinxing District. It takes about ten minutes to reach the sparsely populated streets of Kaohsiung at midnight.

Gazing at the orange-yellow headlights and the rows of dark green roadside trees rushing past on either side, Jian Xiang's mind raced with a series of strange events that had occurred since the case of Mrs. Ge's Red Rat—two giant carnivorous rats with rotting flesh on their claws, the nearly skeletonized corpse of Zhong Sizao, the mysteriously missing beautiful woman Zhang Zhimei, and the psychic medium Xia Yongyu, whose blood gushed from her throat… Jian Xiang's consciousness was hazy; the vivid images of the past few days were like a nightmare he couldn't shake off. No, it was indeed a nightmare, and he had a premonition that these events were only the beginning.

Does Team Leader Gao really believe in himself?

Jian Xiang alone could not escape this trap that seemed to have been set up by Satan. Because of his lax suspicion of Xia Yongyu, Jian Xiang was not only ambushed, but also never expected that the other party would die tragically in room 401. As a result, the building manager saw Jian Xiang and his companion go up to the fourth floor, and the surveillance cameras in the corridors of each floor of the apartment building mercilessly captured the scene of the two of them entering room 401.

At dawn, the forensic team arrived at the scene to conduct further examination and evidence collection. They would discover another unidentified male corpse that had not been dead for long, which would cause another uproar. The officers would then immediately check the witness statements and physical evidence in the apartment, review the building's archived surveillance footage, and soon they would be shocked to see a familiar colleague, who should have been resting in a hospital bed awaiting discharge, appear on camera… Following legal procedures, Jian Xiang would be listed as a key person of interest for criminal questioning at noon, and the city police department would issue a press release to the media in the afternoon, published in the evening paper that followed.

Little did I know that my mere curiosity about a DV videotape that I somehow obtained would lead me to sneak away from the hospital and go home, resulting in an irreversible disaster.

At this moment, the only person Jian Xiang could rely on was Team Leader Gao. Jian Xiang could only trust Team Leader Gao, who was willing to dispose of the videotape that showed him and Xia Yongyu entering Room 401 in secret as soon as possible, and was also willing to deliberately distort and erase the administrator's testimony.

That's probably because when Team Leader Gao first took over Zhong Sizao's case, he intuitively imagined the possibility that the murderer Hong Zechen might return to the world and commit crimes again, so he was willing to believe in him.

A vengeful ghost that comes and goes without a trace—what terrifying truth lies hidden behind these two murder cases? In fact, now that it is known that Zhong and Xia were killed by a vengeful ghost, the investigation could simply end there. But Jian Xiang still found himself stepping on the gas and heading towards Xia Yongyu's residence.

Is it because of her... because of Zhang Zhimei?

—Yes. Although Jian Xiang was 100% certain that Zhang Zhimei was not the mastermind behind the murders, he desperately wanted to stand before her and confirm with her own words that she had nothing to do with these crimes.

—We must find Zhang Zhimei. Only then can we clear the suspense in his heart.

Jian Xiang gradually drifted into a state of confused contemplation until he nearly crashed his car into the arcade of a convenience store at the corner of the intersection, at which point he suddenly snapped back to reality. The convenience store was brightly lit, and the rows of fluorescent lights made Jian Xiang's eyes slightly dizzy.

Upon closer inspection, Jian Xiang realized that Xia Yongyu's residence was only a hundred steps away. He then parked his car inside the arcade, turned off the engine, and got out, intending to search for his target on foot. A convenience store clerk peeked out, but showed absolutely no curiosity about Jian Xiang's appearance.

While checking the house numbers of the surrounding buildings and the street signs, he took out Xia Yongyu's ID card, flipped it over, and used the dim light of the street lamp to confirm the address. Jian Xiang had a very sharp sense of direction, and he found the detached building within three minutes.

A row of dark gray four-story buildings stood there. Xia Yongyu's house was the second one from the right. At this moment, all the windows of the Xia family's house were pitch black. From what Xia Yongyu said to Jian Xiang before he died, it can be roughly judged that he was a man of good fortune. Therefore, Xia Yongyu was a young man with excellent financial conditions, but it is unknown where his income came from.

Without a second thought, Jian Xiang swiftly pulled out Xia's keys from his pocket, tried a few, and opened the frosted glass door on the third key. A dim yellow light shone from the depths of the entryway—the stairwell light. He entered the house from the deserted street and closed the door behind him.

Following the dim yellow light of the night lamp, Jian Xiang gradually came into view of the interior layout. There was absolutely no furniture, only a light blue clock hanging on the right wall, showing the current time as 2:40. The first floor was likely used as a garage.

Jian Xiang silently stepped onto the stairs leading to the second floor.

Climbing the stairs, the second floor was completely dark. At the top of the stairs, on a wall at chest height, was a set of light switches. Jian Xiang touched one, and the second floor instantly became bright, revealing the layout and furnishings of the room clearly to him.

To the left is the living room, with several avant-garde iron chairs leaning against the wall. In the center is an oval three-legged round table with a wooden tabletop and iron legs. A dark green electric fan stands next to the table, and on the edge of the table are two remote controls that are probably for a television and a VCR, as well as a box of tissues.

The television was placed on a wooden cabinet on the opposite wall, on which were two VCRs, the display showing AM2:43. Dozens of unlabeled VHS tapes and a tape rewinder were scattered on top of the VCRs.

hqszs

Reply [48]: Facing the street, there is a full-length glass window, behind which is the second-floor balcony. Through the grid-patterned glass, the outdoor view is vaguely visible, and one can only vaguely make out that there are two potted plants by the balcony railing. In addition, for some reason, several of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows have irregularly shaped and severe cracks, as if they had been subjected to a violent impact, which are scattered on the windows like a spider web.

Stepping on the light yellow floor tiles, Jian walked towards the other side of the second floor. There were three rooms there: the toilet was next to the kitchen, and the third room was a darkroom for developing photos.

Jianxiang entered the darkroom and turned on the blood-red light bulb. Deep inside, there was a film developing workbench with more than ten cans of chemicals lying around. To the right, a rope stretched across Jianxiang's eye, with many metal clips holding several rows of developing film. There was also a metal cabinet containing five or six SLR cameras from various brands and folding tripods.

The walls on both sides are covered with 3x5 and 4x6 photos. Some of the photos depict street scenes, while others show interiors. None of them are very clear, but it's easy to tell from the focus of the lenses that each photo shows a man and a woman. Some photos seem to be of them shopping, while others show them dining or drinking tea. The men and women are all different.

And some... were even photos of men and women naked and intertwined in bed!

Jian Xiang finally understood—Xia Yongyu's job was extortion.

Although the faces of the men and women in the photo are not fully visible, their body shapes are at least discernible. Their clothing is glamorous and elegant, clearly indicating they are members of high society. They are wealthy yet melancholic, powerful yet lonely, outwardly cold but inwardly passionate, influential yet fearful of scandal.

Jian Xiang even spotted several political figures and celebrities in the photos.

This is the main reason why Xia Yongyu lives a comfortable life. Perhaps being a "spiritual medium" is just his "amateur" research interest.

Shaking his head, Jian Xiang walked out of the darkroom and turned off the red light. He turned on another switch at the bottom of the stairs, preparing to go up to the third floor.

Jian Xiang couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, for he realized that the door to the secret room could not be closed smoothly. Upon closer inspection, he could see that the door was damaged and deformed, with long, crisscrossing scratches on the outer door panel.

This place looks remarkably similar to the scene of Zhong Sizao's death!

Xia Yongyu had indeed been attacked by a vengeful ghost at home. That's why he said he would be the next victim.

However, in stark contrast to Zhong Sizao's purchase of large quantities of woodworking materials to build a strong defensive fortification, Xia Yongyu actually took the initiative to go out and investigate the apartment of the previous victim... Considering the possibility that evil spirits might be lurking at any time, even though Xia Yongyu had done the bad thing of extorting others, Jian Xiang still had to admire his courage.

Thinking of this, Jian Xiang's urge to find Zhang Zhimei immediately grew stronger. He was running out of time. Xia Yongyu had said that there were some documents here that might help him uncover the truth.

It seems these clues are located on the third floor—Jian Xiang looked up at the deep staircase leading to the third floor.

Jian Xiang quickened his pace, went up to the third floor, turned on the lights, and began a preliminary search.

The third floor houses Xia's bedroom and study. The bedroom is simply furnished, containing a double bed, a stereo system, and an air conditioner by the window. On the bedside table, two photo frames sit side by side; one contains a solo portrait of Zhang Zhimei, and the other a solo portrait of Xia Yongyu. Judging from the lighting and background, they were taken at the same time.

Jian Xiang pulled the two photos from the frame and put them in his pocket. Zhang Zhimei's smile was bright and charming, revealing cute tiger teeth between her lips, and her eyes were hazy and sexy. Jian Xiang couldn't help but stare at her for a long time.

The study's wall-to-wall bookshelves were piled high with all sorts of unusual books: *Transcendental Psychology*, *Modern Spiritualism*, *Studies on Witchcraft*, *Exploring the Personality of Spiritual Mediums*, *Hypnosis and Magic*, *The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism*, *Hypnotic Medicine*, *Telepathic Hallucinations: A New Theory of Ghosts*, *Studies in Hypnotic Techniques*... The only desk in the study was stacked with notebooks of varying ages, along with some simple stationery. A loose-leaf notebook lay open on the table, its pages filled with dense, grid-lined pen writing.

Besides, there was a computer desk nearby, with a sleek black personal computer in standby mode, its screen saver displaying a school of fish in the deep sea. A camera was placed next to the computer screen, connected to the personal computer by an AV cable; its appearance was somewhat different from the one used by Jian Xiang's younger brother.

Jian Xiang recalled Xia Yongyu's words: "I know he liked playing with cameras just like me." This was a common thread between the two deceased. But if Xia Yongyu didn't know Zhong Sizao at all, how could he have known about this?

In any case, Jian Xiang believed that he would surely find all the answers in this study.

hqszs

Reply [49]: He reached out and touched the mouse next to the keyboard, and the deep-sea fish suddenly turned into a Windows 98 screen.

The three rows of small program icons, including "My Computer," "My Folders," and "Recycle Bin," are located on the left side of Active Desktop. Looking down at the taskbar at the bottom of the desktop, you can see a minimized executable that is still running.

The taskbar's display name indicates it's an executable program used for non-linear editing of captured video. The camera connected to the PC is likely also used to assist in video editing.

Jian Xiang used the mouse to resize the executable's window, and he was dumbfounded.

The footage in the window was surveillance footage from the fourth floor of the apartment building where Zhong Sizao lived... In other words, the videotape in this camera was obtained from the apartment manager's office.

How did Xia Yongyu get this?

The monitor screen shows the recording time in the upper right corner—March 17, 2000, 09:25—which happens to be one of the ten videotapes archived by the apartment manager.

The filename for this video is 2000_03_17.mpg. Jian Xiang continued to open the "File" menu and opened the old file, only to find that there were more than a dozen other video files with similar names in the current subdirectory. This indicates that Xia Yongyu had saved the building's surveillance footage from the first ten days of March 15th into MPEG file format, organized by date.

Additionally, in the adjacent subdirectory, Jian found ten MPEG files with the same name, such as 2000_03_15_h.mpg, but all ending with "_h". These files were all slightly larger than the previous corresponding files, and their modification dates were also more recent.

Is there any difference? Jian opened 2000_03_17.mpg and 2000_03_17_h.mpg with Windows Media Player to examine the video content. However, after checking four or five times, he found no difference.

Jian Xiang was confused. He knew that files ending with _h must have been processed by video editing software, but he didn't understand why Xia Yongyu obtained these surveillance videos, nor could he sense any change in the processed videos.

After pondering for a while, Jian Xiang remembered that Zhong Sizao had briefly left home once during the period when they were "protecting themselves from being chased by vengeful ghosts." He flipped through his notebook, which recorded that Zhong Sizao left at 6:48 a.m. on March 19th and returned home at 7:41 a.m. on the same day.

Could it be that Zhong Sizao's actual departure time wasn't in the early hours of the 19th, but at some other time? Even more concerning, did he go out more than once? And was the evidence currently held by the police secretly altered by Xia Yongyu through editing? — Jian Xiang became increasingly convinced that this conjecture was highly likely. So he immediately opened the file 2000_03_19.mpg and adjusted the playback position to a crucial moment.

Disappointingly, whether he was out or back home, Zhong Sizao's panicked figure still appeared at the door of Room 401, just as they had known. Jian Xiang was still not giving up, so he opened 2000_03_19_h.mpg again, and after carefully watching and comparing it, he could only reluctantly admit that his previous guess was incorrect.

No. There is another possibility—even if it is an indisputable fact that Zhong Sizao went out in the early morning of the 19th, Xia Yongyu may have manipulated the footage to cut out other scenes of Zhong Sizao going out.

He reviewed ten days' worth of video files, totaling 240 hours. Jian Xiang had already conducted this massive search operation on the day of Zhong Sizhao's murder. Even with a high-speed, simultaneous review and search, it still took Jian Xiang a considerable amount of time to watch everything.

At that time, with six video recorders running simultaneously, it took more than four hours. Although the computer's CPU was very powerful and could open ten windows at the same time and perform high-speed viewing, Jian Xiang decided to postpone the search because it was already close to five o'clock, and even at the fastest speed of eight times, it would still take three hours.

There was no time to waste on the videotape—Jian glanced at the desk beside him; the next thing to investigate was Xia Yongyu's notebook.

Jian Xiang moved to sit at the desk and began to peruse the open notebook. Xia Yongyu's handwriting was very neat, and the date of each event was appended to the bottom left margin of each page, making it easy to read at a glance.

The notebook's title page reads "Summary of Strange Events".

March 13, 2000

Three days ago, after having that strange dream, I started feeling unwell all over. Tonight, I feel something's off about my room, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I can't help but connect this strange feeling to the dream. Could that dream, which felt so real, become real?

I really wanted to become a good medium, but seeing this happen in real life was disgusting. I have to find a way to change this.

I can't concentrate on my work at all.

hqszs

Reply [50]: March 14, 2000

I believe this strange dream is related to Zhimei. Although I've asked her about it, I still haven't gotten any answers. Whenever the topic comes up, she says she has a terrible headache. I also have a terrible headache; I simply can't sleep in my room, and my insomnia is getting worse and worse.

Is Zhimei suffering from amnesia? I think it's very possible. She seemed to be deliberately avoiding my questions, but I could clearly sense that her headaches weren't feigned.

Should I persuade Zhimei to accept my hypnosis? I believe that only by using hypnosis can I retrieve the memories buried deep in her subconscious.

March 15, 2000