Qui d'autre pourrais-tu aimer à part moi

Chapitre 43

Tang Ying gently nudged Ah San, "Stop teasing him, we're talking about serious matters." Then she said seriously to Xia Chen, "Little brother, every now and then, orphans from our orphanage mysteriously disappear. The orphanage has been investigating for a long time without any results. We suspect that someone in the orphanage is abducting children. We don't want anything to happen to you, so we came here specifically to protect you. Ah San and I have been investigating this matter for a long time."

"Child trafficking?" This was so different from what Xia Chen had imagined. In his mind, orphanages were full of kind-hearted people; would anyone really do such a heinous thing? His two older sisters had always been good to him; they wouldn't lie to him. In Xia Chen's eyes, the colorful world had turned gray again, with only Ah San and Tang Ying remaining in color.

"Little brother, don't overthink it, go to sleep first." Xia Chen and A San squeezed into one bed, while Tang Ying placed a wooden stick by the door and slept on the bed next to the two of them.

At midnight, a strange sound came from the corridor, rustling... rustling...

Xia Chen was drifting off to sleep when he heard strange noises coming from the corridor. His heart skipped a beat, and a chill ran down his spine. He instantly became wide awake, cold sweat beading on his pores. He whispered, "Sister, did you... hear... that?"

Ah San covered Xia Chen's mouth, "Shh... keep your voice down, we're all awake."

Tang Ying nimbly jumped off the bed, walked barefoot to the door, grabbed the wooden stick lying beside it, and as the rustling sound faded into the distance, she gently opened the door. The pale moonlight streamed in through the window, and at the end of the corridor, a dark figure was dragging a large cloth bag; the rustling sound was from him pulling it.

"I'll go after them and see." Tang Ying had only taken two steps when she was stopped. It was Ah San and Xia Chen. "Sister, it's too dangerous. We'll go with you."

Tang Ying nodded. "Be careful. If you sense something is wrong, shout as you run."

The three children followed the shadowy figure down from the second floor to the first floor, and then from the first floor to the basement. This was a restricted area of the orphanage, where children were never allowed to come down. To prevent any mischievous children from running down, the iron door leading to the basement was always locked, but now it was open. The shadowy figure disappeared after entering the iron door.

The three children held hands and stepped onto the stairs leading to the basement, which was quiet and deserted.

The basement was very dark and the air was stuffy. A damp, musty smell hit them. Tang Ying found the switch, and with a click, a small light bulb on the ceiling emitted a faint light. Only then did the three children see the situation in the basement. There was a layer of water droplets on all four walls, several rusty water pipes in the corners, and a large black iron box in the innermost corner. Other than that, there was nothing else.

The Indian man asked, "Where did that dark figure we were following go? Was he a ghost?"

Thud... Thud... Thud...

A loud thud echoed in the silent basement. The three children's hearts leaped into their throats, as if an invisible hand were gripping their souls. There was no one else in the room besides the three of them. Could it be a ghost knocking at the door?

"Sister...this...this...is...what...what...sound?" Xia Chen's face turned pale with fright.

The Indian man, his face pale, pointed out, "It seems to be coming from that metal box over there..."

"I'll go check it out! You two wait here." Tang Ying raised the wooden stick in her hand. Xia Chen really wanted to follow her, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Ah San's situation wasn't much different.

Just as Tang Ying was about to reach the iron cabinet, the thumping sound stopped.

The basement fell into a deathly silence.

Tang Ying smelled a pungent, bloody odor. Thick drops of blood were dripping onto the ground beside the railway tracks. Tang Ying tapped the cabinet twice with a stick. With a bang, the cabinet door opened, and two bloody corpses fell out, pinning Tang Ying to the ground.

"Ah..." Tang Ying's scream shattered the night sky. She flailed her arms and legs as if trying to push the corpses away, but the more she tried, the less she could move them. By the time Xia Chen and A San finally managed to push her out, Tang Ying was covered in blood. Xia Chen couldn't help but glance at her; the two corpses that had pinned Tang Ying down were those of the two missing orphans. Both corpses had gaping, bloody holes in their chests, exposing many of their internal organs. Xia Chen's vision went black, and he fainted.

Tang Ying's screams alerted the entire orphanage. The police arrived the next day, and the case was quickly solved: a male teacher at the orphanage was involved in organ trafficking. He killed the orphans, harvested their organs, and sold them at high prices on the black market for huge profits. After the case was solved, the police transferred Tang Ying and the other two to another orphanage to protect them. The old woman Xia Chen called the "old witch" was indeed suspicious; she had taken money from the murderer and deliberately spread terrifying stories throughout the orphanage, making the children afraid to leave their rooms at night.

Eight years later, another orphanage was acquired by the Xia Group. Tang Ying went to university in another city, Xia Chen attended a boarding school for junior high, and A-San went to a local high school. The three spent less time together, but their bond deepened. Unexpectedly, the horrific events of years past recurred: children from the orphanage mysteriously disappeared at night. A-San investigated the matter alone, but was discovered by the killer and met a violent end.

Many years later, Xia Chen and Ye Cheng solved the case together, bringing all the perpetrators to justice. This was a major case that caused a sensation in the capital city. All five main culprits and four accomplices were sentenced to death. However, A-San (Tang San) died forever. Xia Chen suspected that the series of cases involving the theft of orphans' organs were related to the Xia Group. Struggling to find evidence, he changed his name to Xia Chen until he obtained evidence of the Xia Group's crimes and found the true mastermind. Only then would he revert to his real name—Tang San.

Four years later, Tang Ying returned home after graduating from university. Just then, Xia Chen graduated from high school, and to help him finish university, Tang Ying became a private investigator. She solved many cases in a year, becoming a locally renowned detective. For work purposes, Tang Ying always dressed as a boy and changed her name to Tang Ying.

During Xia Chen's first year of university, in his second semester, an old man approached Tang Ying, offering her a high price to find a terrifying book called the "Terror Files" at Yishi Academy. Tang Ying spent half a year finding the "Terror Files," but for some reason, she didn't hand it over to her employer. Afterward, she mysteriously disappeared. Xia Chen had already lost his sister, and he didn't want Tang Ying to die under mysterious circumstances as well. The employer contacted Xia Chen again, asking him to continue searching for the "Terror Files." After graduating from university, Xia Chen went to Yishi Academy and began his investigation.

This is Xia Chen's story.

Xia Chen stuck out his tongue and licked his dry lips. "Alright, that's my story. I'm done."

"Waaah..." Luo Shimin cried out, "It's so touching. Tang Ying and A-San are so great. I want a sister like that too. When you find the real culprit, I will definitely tear him to pieces."

Hu Rongrong also had tears in her eyes. Wiping them away, she said, "I never imagined that the famous Tang Ying is actually a woman. Hiring Director Wang from the Academic Affairs Office? What price did he ask for?"

Xia Chen replied, "It was him. He had just become the dean of students at the time. He offered my sister one million. He offered me two million."

"One million!" Hu Rongrong shouted.

Luo Shimin sobbed twice, "Rongrong, why are you shouting so loudly? It's just one million, why are you so agitated?"

Hu Rongrong tapped Luo Shimin's head with her finger. "Would it kill you to use your brain once in a while? A million might not mean much to you, but Director Wang is just an ordinary dean of students. Even if the salary at Yishi Academy is one to two times higher than that of other schools, a million is still a considerable sum for him. Where did he get his money?"

Luo Shimin thought for a moment, "Could it be that he embezzled? I've said before that he's not a good person."

Hu Rongrong looked like she was in agony, and kept banging her head against the table.

"Now I'll tell you about the Horror Files," Xia Chen dropped another bombshell.

005 The Origin of the Horror Files

Hu Rongrong exclaimed in surprise, "The Horror Files? You mean the Horror Files?"

"Could there be other terrifying files in Yishi Academy?" Hu Rongrong's inexplicable question left Xia Chen confused about what she meant.

Hu Rongrong shouted, "You're talking about the most terrifying and bizarre thing in Yishi Academy, a terrifying file that details all the horrific stories that happened here, a file that everyone believes in but no one has ever seen! It's Yishi Academy's biggest secret. A terrifying file that many people have searched for for years without finding!"

Xia Chen nodded.

"The Horror Files don't just record the horrific events that occurred at Ishi Academy; they existed since the Nursing Academy was founded. To be precise, they record all the horrific events that have happened on campus over the past century. It's not just one book, but many books. The person who holds the Horror Files is called the Archiver, and their duty is to truthfully record the horrific events that occur on campus and investigate the truth as thoroughly as possible. When an Archiver leaves the campus, they must find a trustworthy and capable person to take over the Horror Files and become the new Archiver. Since the school's founding, there have been more than twenty Archivers, among whom several very skilled detectives have emerged and uncovered the truth behind many bizarre events."

Luo Shimin asked curiously, "How do you know so much about the horror files? Are you the 'Archiver'?"

“I’m not,” Xia Chen sighed. “The Archivers are hidden among the students. They know how to conceal their tracks and won’t leave any clues for you to find them. I wish I were an Archiver, so I could find the other Horror Files and figure out what happened to my sister. As for why I know so much about the Horror Files, it’s simple: my sister left me her investigation materials via email, along with a blank Horror File.”

Luo Shimin exclaimed in surprise, "So the horror files you had were real! Xia Chen, you're amazing!"

Hu Rongrong's eyes darted around as she asked, "Why did Director Wang of the Academic Affairs Office spend such a huge sum of money searching for the 'horrific files'? Could there be some secret hidden within them?"

Xia Chen coughed twice to clear his throat and said, "I don't know either. We'll only know once we find the horror files."

Luo Shimin thought of the mysterious man who called himself Mr. X and asked, "Could that mysterious Mr. X be the Archiver?"

Xia Chen immediately refuted Luo Shimin's guess, "As far as I know, archivists have always been selected from among students, and this Mr. X doesn't look like a student at all. Now I'll tell you the origin of the Horror Files, which is what my sister told me. The story is a bit long, so listen carefully."

In 1921, the Swiss doctor Dr. Dennäger traveled to China and eventually established a nursing school in the city. Among his first students was a girl named Mo Yushan, whose father was a renowned martial arts master in the city, owning several martial arts shops. She was not only beautiful but also courageous, meticulous, and exceptionally skilled in martial arts—a true heroine. Her father, not wanting her to pursue a martial arts career, sent her to the nursing college instead.

Not long after Mo Yushan arrived at the nursing school, a strange thing happened. A very beautiful female student suddenly went mad, claiming that she had been chosen by God and that God would come to marry her on an auspicious day. A few days later, this girl mysteriously disappeared. Everyone assumed she had gone mad and gotten lost. Less than a month later, another girl went mad, also claiming to have been chosen by God. A few days later, this girl mysteriously disappeared as well. A sense of dread began to spread throughout the campus. The female students dared not dress up beautifully anymore, fearing they would be chosen by God. The most frightening saying circulating among the students was—"God is watching you!"

Despite the female students' desperate attempts to look ugly, a few days later, another beautiful girl named Tang Yanfei went mad. This girl lived right across from Mo Yushan. The classmates were terrified. Mo Yushan, however, wasn't afraid at all. People in the martial arts world didn't believe in ghosts or gods; they only worshipped one deity: the loyal and righteous Martial Saint Guan Yu. Mo Yushan secretly resolved to find out the truth.

Not long after, the legend of the Fallen Flower Cave Girl began to circulate on campus. It was said that in the Miao tribes of western Hunan, there were some beautiful unmarried women who could make leaves fall from the trees; they would go to caves, neither eating nor drinking, and survive for days, only to return and die a few days later without food or drink. The tribe believed they had married tree spirits and well spirits. Because these girls were unmarried in life, but after their deaths, while others held funerals, their families not only didn't hold funerals for them, but also held weddings to signify their union with the gods. There was also an extremely rare type of Fallen Flower Cave Girl: girls wearing self-woven flower wreaths would go up the mountain alone at night to meet with tree spirits. Some would return home dead before dawn, while others would disappear without a trace, never to return. The villagers believed they had been married by the tree spirits. In that ignorant and backward era, most students believed that the beautiful girls who first went mad and then disappeared had become Fallen Flower Cave Girls, married by the gods.

Mo Yushan didn't believe this absurd legend; she had heard the story of the Fallen Flower Cave Girl before. One of her father's apprentices came from western Hunan, and according to him, he had seen the Fallen Flower Cave Girl. The real Fallen Flower Cave Girl, before her death, entered a state of ecstasy; her face was as radiant as a peach blossom, her eyes as bright as stars, her voice as melodious as silk and bamboo instruments, and her body emitted a sweet fragrance. She would tirelessly wipe tables and chairs, sweep the hall, and tidy up a once dilapidated home until it was spotless, entering a realm untouched by worldly concerns. The first two girls who went mad and disappeared didn't exhibit this behavior. She focused her attention on Tang Yanfei, secretly observing her every move, certain that she could find clues from her.

On the third night of Tang Yanfei's madness.

Mo Yushan murmured, "I can't fall asleep, I can't fall asleep..." She struggled to open her eyes. She hadn't slept for two days and two nights. Her intuition told her that something was going to happen tonight. If she fell asleep, all her efforts over the past two days and two nights would be in vain.

A creak... Just as Mo Yushan's eyelids were about to close, the sound of a door opening came from the corridor. It was very soft, but clearly audible in the quiet night. "I've finally waited for this!" Mo Yushan felt a surge of joy. She nimbly jumped out of bed, opened the door a crack, and saw someone walking slowly in the darkness—it was the crazed Tang Yanfei. Mo Yushan quietly followed. The dormitory building door wasn't locked; Tang Yanfei pushed it open and went out.

Mo Yushan followed her out. Tang Yanfei walked through the grass towards a desolate spot. The night was cool and still, and dewdrops fell on her bare skin, causing her to shiver slightly. She followed Tang Yanfei to a pond, where there was a small wooden house not far away. Tang Yanfei went inside.

The surroundings were as silent as a tomb, and the pond water was completely still. Mo Yushan walked over quietly, and through the small window of the wooden house, she saw Tang Yanfei lying motionless on the ground, like a dead person. The pale moonlight shone on her face, making her look frighteningly white.

"Who are you?" Suddenly, a voice rang out behind Mo Yushan.

Mo Yushan slowly turned around, staring in horror at the figure standing in the shadows. This person had appeared silently behind her. Was he the legendary god? Mo Yushan was, after all, a girl, and faced with the unknown, she still felt a trace of fear. She questioned, "Who are you?" Those three simple words took all her strength to utter.

“I am God,” said the figure in the shadows.

"Bullshit, divine power..." Mo Yushan hadn't finished speaking when she heard a whooshing sound behind her. Before she could react, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head and fainted.

"Damn it, he attacked from behind!" Mo Yushan woke up with a start, cursing, "So shameless, he has no sportsmanship at all!" A collective gasp filled the room. Mo Yushan then realized she was in her dorm room, her roommates staring at her wide-eyed. What happened? Hadn't she gone to a wooden cabin by the pond with Tang Yanfei? How did she get back to the dorm? Was she dreaming? That seemed unlikely; dreams couldn't be this vivid. Her head throbbed. Rubbing her head, a thought struck her, and she asked, "How's Tang Yanfei? Is she still in the dorm?"

One of my roommates answered,

“I just went to the dorm across the hall to see Tang Yanfei. She was sitting on the edge of her bed like a stone statue, and she didn’t respond no matter how I called her.”

Mo Yushan jumped out of bed and rushed into the dormitory across the hall. She saw Tang Yanfei sitting on the edge of the bed, her face even paler and her expression blank. Mo Yushan waved her hand in front of her eyes, but there was no reaction. One of Tang Yanfei's roommates said, "You don't need to wave anymore. We've tried everything, but she doesn't respond at all."

Mo Yushan asked, "Did she go out last night?"

Tang Yanfei's roommate chuckled twice.

"She hasn't even left her bed, where do you think she could have gone?"

Mo Yushan glanced at Tang Yanfei, then turned and left the dormitory. Walking down the corridor, Mo Yushan was filled with questions, and her head still throbbed. Leaving the dormitory, she decided to go check out the small wooden cabin by the pond; if something had happened there last night, there would surely be traces.

Relying on her memory from the previous night, Mo Yushan spent the entire morning finding the small wooden cabin by the pond. The cabin had only one small window, and it was pitch black inside, containing only a wooden bed and nothing else. A large tree stood beside the cabin, blocking most of the sunlight, making the surrounding area dim and gloomy. A layer of green algae floated on the pond next to the cabin, emitting an unpleasant odor that was somewhat nauseating. Mo Yushan circled around the cabin, picked up a stone, held it in her hand, and carefully entered the cabin.

The wooden cabin was gloomy and oppressive. There was some trash beside the wooden bed; Mo Yushan found several small medicine bottles and used cotton wool. She smelled the bottles; they had a strange fragrance, unlike medicine. Suddenly, Mo Yushan felt a chill run down her spine, as if a cold wind had suddenly blown in, sending shivers down her spine. She turned and saw a dark shadow flash by the wooden window. Mo Yushan chased after it, but there was no one outside. "Could I have imagined it?" She returned to the cabin and looked around, finding it covered in dust, except around the wooden bed, which was spotless. She was sure she hadn't dreamt last night; something must have happened here. She quickly made a plan, made some concealed marks at the door of the cabin, and left. She returned to her dormitory and secretly observed Tang Yanfei's every move. Tang Yanfei sat by the bed all day without blinking.

Night fell again. Mo Yushan glanced at Tang Yanfei, then left the dormitory alone and went to the pond. The markings she had made were clear, indicating that no one had entered the cabin since she left. They would definitely come back. She quickly climbed the big tree next to the cabin, hid in the bushes, and chose a good angle. Through the small window of the cabin, she could see everything inside.

The wait was long, and coupled with a lack of sleep the night before, Mo Yushan actually fell asleep perched on a tree. In her hazy sleep, she heard a woman's soft moans. Although she was inexperienced, she still had some understanding of matters between men and women. The sound made her blush and her heart race, waking her from her dream. The woman's cries seemed to be coming from the wooden house below the tree. Mo Yushan looked down and saw a scene that made her heart pound even faster. Tang Yanfei lay naked on the wooden bed, a masked man on top of her, thrusting rhythmically. Tang Yanfei's face was as white as paper, now flushed red. It was like a drop of blood on a pristine white sheet of paper, a glaring, eerie red.

"Ugh..." The man let out a moan of pleasure, lying on top of Tang Yanfei for a while before getting off her. He stood by the bed and dressed. "You lecherous thief, I'll come in and kill you once you're dressed." Mo Yushan was certain that the masked man was not some so-called god; a god wouldn't do such a lewd thing.

The masked man finished dressing, and Mo Yushan was about to jump down when a man in black approached the wooden house and whispered to the masked man, "I don't want to do this anymore. This kind of thing is too immoral. We've already attracted the students' attention, and they'll find out about us soon."

The masked man patted the man in black on the shoulder and said in broken Chinese, "Chen, things have already started, so there's no turning back. Since God arranged for us to discover this magical plant, we should make good use of it. Once we fully understand its medicinal properties, we can turn it into a potion and make a fortune."

The man in black said, "We've already conducted three experiments, and we've figured out the drug's properties very well. You keep doing this kind of thing... isn't that a bit inappropriate?"

The masked man leered, "Chen, these girls are going to die sooner or later. I'm just making their deaths a little more comfortable, which is a good thing. Chen, you have such martial arts skills; it's a waste to have them buried in this school. Once you have money, you can take your family away from here and live the life of an upper-class person like me. Isn't that what you've always dreamed of? Your terrifying legend about the Fallen Flower Cave Girl has terrified all the students. You Chinese are so ignorant, actually believing in such unfounded things. No one will suspect us. As long as we do a few more experiments, I can completely master the drug's properties. I've already found two new targets, hehe... This Tang Yanfei is quite good. Do you want to try her? She's very comfortable."

“Alright, fine, we’ll stop after a few more times. You can enjoy this yourself.” The man in black actually agreed. “Last night, a female student followed Tang Yanfei and found this cabin. Let’s go somewhere else.”

“This is too much trouble. If you had listened to me and killed her last night, there wouldn’t be so much trouble. Let her live for a couple more days.” The masked man reached out and touched Tang Yanfei’s body a couple more times.

The man in black said, "The girl who came with us last night is named Mo Yushan. Her father is a famous martial arts master in this city with thousands of disciples. Her own martial arts skills are also quite good. If I hadn't ambushed her from behind, it would have been difficult to subdue her. We can't kill her; killing her would have had more serious consequences. If you want to be followed by her senior and junior brothers all the time, I'll go and kill her."

"So what's your idea? You Chinese are too troublesome."

"I plan to poison her to make her leave school temporarily. By the time she recovers, we'll have already left."

“That’s a good idea. I’ll leave it to you. There are still too many secrets on campus waiting for me to unravel. You take this woman back first.” The man in black dressed Tang Yanfei, carried her out, and Mo Yushan saw a dark figure flash twice before disappearing from sight. Mo Yushan muttered to herself, “Carrying someone and running so fast, this person’s lightness skill is amazing.”

After leading the man in black away, the masked man emerged from the wooden hut and muttered to himself, "Chinese people are so stupid. Once I've used you, I'll pin everything on you. After you're dead, I can take the money back home. Haha... I don't care what secrets this campus holds, as long as I have money."

Mo Yushan suppressed the urge to kill the masked man. If he died, the trail would end. There were many male employees with the surname Chen at the school, as there was a village with that surname nearby. This kind of scoundrel couldn't be allowed to live. Mo Yushan followed the masked man back to his dormitory. This bastard was actually a foreign teacher. There were guards at the door of his house, so Mo Yushan didn't follow any further. Only three foreign teachers lived in the house, one of whom was a woman. The masked man's true identity was becoming increasingly clear. She turned and went back to her dormitory. Tang Yanfei had already returned, the flush on her face gone, sitting blankly on the edge of the bed. Mo Yushan clenched her fists, secretly resolving to catch those two bastards and make them suffer a terrible death.

Back in her dorm room, after locking the door, Mo Yushan lay on her bed, pondering her next move. Foreigners in China held a privileged status; unless she caught him red-handed, it would be difficult to convict him. She also needed to be careful with her diet lately, as the man in black had tried to poison her. Lost in thought, she fell asleep.

The next morning, Mo Yushan meticulously collected information on the three victims, including Tang Yanfei. All three girls had taken Yvonne Bolt's pharmacology class. Yvonne Bolt was 31 years old, British, single, and had been living in China for two years. He lived in the apartment she had followed to the door the previous night. She quickly came up with an idea; she couldn't deal with Yvonne Bolt alone. Among all the teachers was a Chinese male teacher named Wei Youzhuo, who was very popular with the students. Mo Yushan trusted him and thought discussing it with him might help. Wei Youzhuo suggested reporting the case to the police station. The two of them, along with the police, guarded the cabin all night, but nothing happened. At dawn, a group of policemen left, cursing and swearing. Before leaving, they repeatedly warned Mo Yushan, "Little girl, are you out of your mind, playing games with the police? If you weren't a girl, we'd lock you in the police station's dark room."

Could the information have leaked? That seems unlikely; she reported a sexual harassment to the police, not Yvonne Bolt's name. Only Wei Youzhuo knows the whole story—could it be him?

"Hehe..." A murderous aura emanated from Mo Yushan's back as she slowly turned around, seeing Wei Youzhuo looking at her with a cold smile. Mo Yushan immediately understood, "You're the man in black?"

"Yes, it's me. I was going to let you go, but you chose the path to hell when there was one. The police will never believe you again. I'll kill you and make you disappear from the world forever, so no one will ever know our secret again."

Mo Yushan cursed loudly.

"You bastard surnamed Wei, I thought you still had a shred of conscience, but I never expected you to be such a beast, worse than a pig or a dog. You actually helped foreigners harm your own sisters. It's because there are so many people like you that foreigners are becoming more and more lawless."

Wei Youzhuo said in a low voice, "Heh, you're right to criticize me. It's a pity my surname isn't Wei; my real name is Chen Youzhuo. You've never lived abroad, so you don't know what it's like. Everyone around you looks at you with prejudice, even the lowest-status Black people are considered superior to you. And then there's China—corrupt officials run rampant, politics are dark, the government doesn't care about the lives of ordinary people, and with years of natural disasters, human life is cheap as a dog. When I have money, I'll immigrate to Japan. I'll stop at nothing to achieve my goals. One or two deaths don't matter."