Âme Miroir Ancienne

Chapitre 16

For the next three months, nothing happened. Shi Feng gradually grew impatient with Luo Min's icy beauty, slowly losing his patience. Eventually, he became indifferent to Luo Min, and finally, he completely lost the enthusiasm he had shown when he first arrived.

Seeing how he treated Luo Min at the end, and considering Luo Min's personality, she probably wouldn't stoop to harming someone like that. So, I gradually relaxed my observation of the two of them. In the end, I even started to suspect that Wang Hai's death might not have anything to do with Luo Min.

(At this point, Meng Ping was a little embarrassed and awkwardly grinned at Zheng Qi!)

Well, to put it simply, I had already calmed down from the initial hatred and impulsiveness surrounding Wang Hai's death. Furthermore, I'm a highly educated person, so of course I don't believe in theories about ghosts and monsters; otherwise, I'd be doing Marx a disservice. (Hehe!)

Regarding Wang Hai's last words, "Luo Min is a monster," I always thought it was just drunken ramblings. Although I believed it to be true for a time after his death, after observing him for the past three months, I've started to doubt its validity again.

(Sigh, Meng Ping pulled a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took out a cigarette, and just as he put it in his mouth, he suddenly looked around, a look of disappointment in his eyes. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and then fiddled with it in his hand. After a while, Meng Ping slowly continued speaking.)

I had no idea Shi Feng was going to die; I thought he wouldn't. But he did die, and he died exactly like Wang Hai.

That morning, he was found dead near a trash can at the entrance of Lion Lane. The cause of death was the same as Wang Hai's: sudden death from unexpected shock. The police ultimately concluded the case based on this explanation.

Although the police investigated and analyzed the two deaths for some time afterward, which occurred at the same location, had similar causes of death, and involved two people who had worked at the same newspaper one after the other, they did not suspect that someone might have been secretly robbing them or harboring a grudge and intending to kill them.

However, the final investigation revealed that neither of them had any enemies, and no valuables were stolen after their deaths. But the fact remained that two young, strong men had been inexplicably frightened to death by something. In order to provide an explanation to the public, the police ultimately concluded that their deaths were due to their own weak hearts, exacerbated by other underlying medical conditions.

At that time, my mind was in turmoil. I really didn't know whether I should regret my carelessness or feel guilty about Shi Feng's death.

(That's not your fault,) Zheng Qi patted Meng Ping on the shoulder to comfort him. Meng Ping smiled bitterly and said, "Well, if I had taken Wang Hai's last words to heart, maybe Shi Feng wouldn't have died. Although I admit I don't usually like him, he was still a life!"

The night after Shi Feng died, Sister Zheng suddenly came to my house.

That day, Sister Zheng looked unwell; her pale complexion betrayed her unease, and she appeared very tense, as if afraid of something. After entering the room, she kept trembling. I gave her a glass of water to try and calm her down, but her hand holding the glass shook so badly that she spilled the water all over herself. I asked her what was wrong, if something had happened at work. But she wouldn't say. After asking several times, she kept stammering, so I stopped pressing her.

A long time passed like this. Seeing her just sitting there blankly, I grew impatient, and my expression became somewhat displeased. Finally, I used my trump card and told her to leave. Only then did she stammer out the whole story.

The night before last, the night Shi Feng died, Sister Zheng, Luo Min, and Shi Feng stayed at the newspaper office to work overtime. Sister Zheng finished her work before them and left first. It was her husband's birthday that day, and she was in a hurry to get back to celebrate with him, so as soon as she finished, she said goodbye to them and left in a hurry. It was probably just past eight o'clock at that time.

Who knew that the busier she got, the more chaotic things became? When Sister Zheng was halfway there, she suddenly remembered that she had left the birthday gift she bought for her husband at the office. In a panic, she had no choice but to go back to the newspaper office to get the gift.

When she returned to the newspaper office, she found it quiet and dark, the door locked. It seemed Shi Feng and Luo Min had already left and gone home. Zheng Jie thought to herself, "Those two really got away quickly; I'd barely left and they were already gone."

In the darkness, Sister Zheng took out her keys from her bag, opened the door, and went inside. She tried to turn on the light, but no matter how many times she pressed the button, the light wouldn't turn on. She cursed inwardly, "Why did this light have to break of all times, of all times, just when I came in in the dark? Today is really unlucky."

Despite her complaints, she couldn't care less, as it was getting late and she was in a hurry to get her gift and go home. Fortunately, she knew the newspaper office like the back of her hand, and with the help of the moonlight streaming in through the window, Sister Zheng quickly made her way to her desk.

A moment later, just as Sister Zheng had found the gift and was about to leave, she suddenly heard a low scream coming from the director's office. Sister Zheng's curiosity was piqued. She wondered who could be in the director's office so late, in complete darkness. Was it a thief or the director himself? Perhaps the director was just scaring himself because the light was broken? Thinking this, she suddenly laughed at herself for her wild imagination.

Lost in thought, Sister Zheng tiptoed to the director's office. She gently turned the doorknob, and the door was already open. She quietly pushed it open a crack and peeked inside. It was pitch black, and she couldn't see anything clearly. She looked around for a while, but seeing no one and hearing no noise, she thought she must be overthinking things. She closed the door and turned to leave.

Suddenly, in the dim moonlight, she saw a transparent monster emitting a faint glow moving up and down above Luo Min's position.

At that moment, Sister Zheng felt her heart suddenly leap, and then everything went black before her eyes, her body went limp, and she knew nothing more.

When she woke up, she found herself still lying by the door of the director's office, but the transparent monster had disappeared, leaving only the dim moonlight faintly illuminating everything in the office.

At that moment, she felt that if she stayed in the office any longer, she would probably faint again. She immediately struggled to get up. She forced herself to stop her heart from pounding with fear and ran quickly towards the office door.

The next day at work, Sister Zheng only saw Luo Min and didn't see Shi Feng. At that moment, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind, a thought that startled her: could that low scream have come from Shi Feng's mouth?

Not long after, upon hearing that Shi Feng had suddenly died from an unexpected fright, Sister Zheng immediately realized that Shi Feng's death was likely related to the strange monster she had seen the previous night. It was possible that he had been frightened to death by the monster like she had, or that he had been killed by the monster in a way that humans could not yet explain.

Thinking about this, she suddenly had a feeling that the transparent monster must have been transformed from Luo Min.

After hearing what Sister Zheng said, I remembered what Wang Hai said to me when he was drunk that day, "Luo Min is a monster." It seems that Wang Hai must have also seen that transparent monster that may have been Luo Min in disguise!

After hearing Sister Zheng's words, my blood boiled. I turned and went into the kitchen to grab a knife, ready to fight Luo Min to the death. Sister Zheng grabbed me.

She asked me what concrete evidence I had to prove that Luo Min was the monster.

I looked down and thought about it, and realized that what he said was indeed true.

Sister Zheng only saw the monster; she didn't witness it being transformed from Luo Min. Secondly, she didn't see Shi Feng being scared to death by the monster. Thirdly, Wang Hai and Shi Feng all died suddenly at the trash can at the entrance of Lion Alley, not in the newspaper office, which seems to have nothing to do with Luo Min. All of this only proves that it's our feeling and speculation; it doesn't prove or explain the fact that Luo Min is the monster.

Even if Wang Hai and Shi Feng did see the truth about Luo Min turning into that monster before they died, they are both dead now, and there is no way to prove that Luo Min was the monster who killed them.

After thinking for a moment, I threw the knife to the ground with a clatter. I buried my head in my hands and plopped down on the sofa, lost in thought. Just then, another question suddenly occurred to me.

(As Meng Ping spoke, the muscles in his face twitched involuntarily a few times. His eyes were fixed on Zheng Qi, and a strange smile appeared on his lips, as if he wanted Zheng Qi to guess what question he was thinking at that time.)

Zheng Qi coughed a few times and chuckled, "Weren't you wondering why that monster only showed itself to Sister Zheng but didn't kill her?" Meng Ping's face showed a hint of surprise, then he smiled knowingly and nodded.

Yes, that thought suddenly flashed through my mind: Why is Sister Zheng alright?

Why did those two monsters target Wang Hai and Shi Feng specifically? Could it be that they weren't killed by that monster, but by someone else? Or perhaps they witnessed its transformation and were thus motivated to kill it?

Logically speaking, if Sister Zheng saw the monster, wouldn't the monster have taken pity on her and let her go just because she was a weak woman?

But isn't that monster afraid that Sister Zheng will tell everyone she saw it?

Thinking of this, I was suddenly startled. Could that monster be Sister Zheng? But Sister Zheng doesn't look like it. Besides, if it really was Sister Zheng, she wouldn't need to come to me so late to tell me about seeing that monster, right?

Just as I was lost in thought, unable to make sense of anything, I suddenly heard Sister Zheng mutter to herself, "If we want to know if Luo Min is really that monster, why don't we just test her out ourselves? Hmph, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right, Xiao Meng!" Hearing this, I finally understood her real purpose for coming to me tonight to tell me this. But the fact that she said that also proved she wasn't the monster; otherwise, why would she have me investigate her? Wasn't that just asking for trouble?

After some thought, I agreed with her idea. Actually, I had this idea after Wang Hai's death, but I didn't put it into practice then because of Shi Feng's appearance. Now that Shi Feng is also dead, it seems that I have to take charge of investigating whether Luo Min is a monster myself.

But this is really fucking weird.

Two deaths have occurred at the newspaper office. Although the incidents did not happen in the office, both victims worked there. So, it seems only ghosts would want to work at our newspaper again.

(Hehe, because he's not afraid of being killed! Meng Ping chuckled humorously!)

Who knew that two days later, a foolish young man who wasn't afraid of death would actually come to their door on his own!

His name is Chen Gang. That day, he volunteered to come to our newspaper office. At that time, the office was short-handed, the workload had suddenly increased, and after what happened, no one wanted to work for our newspaper anymore.

When the director saw that his major was quite relevant to the job, and that he had come here voluntarily, why not hire him? So the director didn't hesitate and immediately recruited him into the company, and assigned him to that damned seat opposite Luo Min.

Sister Zheng and I had no choice, because that night, we discussed moving my seat to the opposite side of Luo Min. We always felt that the seat was quite eerie, and the deaths of Wang Hai and Shi Feng must have been related to that seat. We didn't know if the monster was specifically designed to scare people sitting in that seat. Besides, it would be more convenient to be closer to Luo Min from that seat.

But who could have imagined that a Cheng Yaojin would appear out of nowhere? As we predicted, that kid was just there to die, and he was gone less than two months later. His cause of death was the same as Wang Hai's, except for the location.