Смертельно опасные электронные письма

Глава 14

"Who exactly are you?"

Ji Yunsheng smugly picked up a cigar from the luxurious seat of the Mercedes-Benz, put it in his mouth, extended his gun-wielding hand, lit it, and exhaled a dark blue smoke ring from his thin, bluish-purple lips, swirling around the barrel of the pistol and drifting towards my temple. He glanced at the watch on his wrist.

“You’re the groom on the list of vengeful spirits. In eleven minutes, you’ll be marrying your cousin who died in a car accident behind you.”

"A death game? With my cousin?"

"16 minutes and 44 seconds of thrills. What an interesting funeral! This is an invention of vengeful spirits. Don't you think it's something to be proud of?"

Ji Yunsheng had transformed into a mafia boss, his cigar-smoking posture exuding confidence and composure. He didn't let the smoke seep into his eyes, but instead feigned a narrowing of his cold, menacing eyes, displaying an air of absolute certainty that made you admire his ingenuity in plotting.

"Really? I suppose your doomsday date is a lucky number too. Oh, you just said you've known us for a long time?"

“Not everyone has this unique perspective. You were born in Yilan County, Heilongjiang Province, and like your cousin, you are an orphan. Do you remember how you got to your aunt’s house in the big city? Don’t you remember? We sent you to study in the big city through sponsorship. Later, you were exceptionally selected by a nationally renowned police academy. Do you think all this luck was a pie falling from the sky?”

"How...how do you know so clearly that you're the one behind the funding? What other motives do you have besides that charity?"

"Along the River During the Qingming Festival"

"Along the River During the Qingming Festival? Are you crazy? That national treasure is in the Palace Museum. What does it have to do with me?"

Do you remember that accidental encounter?

"What do you mean?"

"Think back to an afternoon twelve years ago, almost at dusk, you and your older sister were playing in the fields. She was carrying a brand-new schoolbag that her father had bought for her, and she had a colorful ribbon tied in her hair. She looked like a cute butterfly fluttering on the grass, and you were chasing after her... Then you fell into a hole in an old locust tree."

"That accident? Could it be that our parents...?"

"Please don't say it was our fault. It was purely an accident, and it's precisely because it was an accident that it attracted our attention."

"You surnamed Ji, so you've been plotting against me all along! How did you know the cause of my parents' deaths?"

When I think of my parents, I suddenly feel as if they were murdered, something my cousin and I had never suspected before.

"That's a long story, but thankfully, we have ten and a half seconds to take you to the bridal chamber for your ghost marriage. Let me tell you a brief tale. You know, historical records mention 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival.' Emperor Huizong of Song was particularly fond of calligraphy and painting. He had a treasure that was the double-dragon seal made from the legendary He Shi Bi jade after it shattered, and Zhang Zeduan's 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival,' which was favored by Huizong. During the Jingkang era, the Northern Song Dynasty fell, and Emperors Huizong and Qinzong were captured by the Jin Dynasty and made slaves. They were taken to the most desolate and uninhabited place in the north and made to sit in a well and look at the sky. He always carried the painting with him, sitting in the dirty and cold well every day, looking back at the beautiful landscape in the painting. He spent 1644 days in hunger and cold with that national treasure, and never came out of the well alive."

His death was utterly tragic. To inflict a psychological blow on Prince Kang (Zhao Gou), the Jurchen Jin dynasty poured scalding oil over the heads of his father and brother, burning their faces. The two emperors were tortured beyond recognition. Seeing that they were still alive, they threw poison into the well, where Emperor Huizong and his son, Emperor Qinzong, perished. The Jin nobles stole the painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" and covered the large, filthy well with a rammed earth cover, planting several locust trees on top.

No one saw these two tragic emperors again, and their remains were never found. However, the small double-dragon seal became a curse upon the two emperors, like a pharaoh's curse, spreading malevolently throughout the palace and even your hometown. For centuries, their vengeful spirits have killed many in the palace; I have even found records of such resurrected spirits in the Forbidden City.

He rambled on about it with great relish, but I dismissed it as a cliché.

"The Five Kingdoms City is the burial place of two emperors; that's nothing new. Is your sense of smell too sensitive?"

"You know what I'm trying to say; your interpretation always carries a challenging tone. Just twelve years ago, you and your cousin accidentally discovered the secret of this poison well."

"What? Me and my sister?"

"Of course it's you. You can still learn about that bizarre accident through the local newspaper. An eight-year-old boy accidentally crawled into a hole in a dead locust tree on a mound deep in the forest while playing with his older cousin. He got stuck inside and couldn't get out. Your parents searched for two days before finally finding him. They sawed down the old locust tree, but they couldn't save the children because you fell into an even deeper hole below the tree. They had to ask the nearby armed police for help. It took more than a dozen armed police officers a lot of effort to dig through the hole and rescue the two children. Actually, it wasn't a hole, but an unfathomably deep dry well."

I didn't say anything, but deep in my memory, it really happened. The vague impression of my parents crying in fear afterwards is something I'll never forget. What I still don't understand is why they were so frightened. It turns out they knew they had offended a prophecy about the well.

"You're one of the people who saved us?"

"But the matter didn't end there. In the following year, you and the little girl's parents died one after another, all in accidents. They fell into a nearby well by accident, and their faces were peeled off. Unexplained bruises appeared on their bodies. This was the result of the forensic examination. I was very curious, and later I learned from a prophecy that had been circulating in the area for hundreds of years that it was a curse symbol of Emperor Huizong of Song, and the bruises were traces of the Double Dragon Seal. Sure enough, everyone who participated in the investigation of the Yilan Strange Well case and saw the traces of the Double Dragon Seal died mysteriously one after another. I was assisting with this case at the time. The forensic identification department of the Public Security Bureau kept the case very secret, and that was the end of it. But strangely, you and your brother were unharmed, which left me with a lucky space to continue exploring."

"So even after you transferred to the Palace Museum and became a policeman, you still couldn't forget the paranormal events that happened to my brother and me, right?"

"This is an absolutely worthwhile investment. You have elements of vengeful spirits in your bodies. You opened the lid of the vengeful spirit's remains, and the emperor's resentment attached itself to you. You didn't die because the vengeful spirit needed a vessel. So, two years ago, we boldly conducted an experiment, planning to stage a car accident to bring your sister Pang Zhen into our hands. We didn't find anything unusual, so we imitated the vengeful spirit's actions and conducted the experiment on her."

Chapter 44 Countdown Ending

"An experiment? Because Emperors Huizong and Qinzong had their faces burned off before they died, you're going to peel off my sister's face, is that it, you bastard?"

"This is a dangerous experiment; we are going to lure out vengeful spirits."

"You devil!"

I was furious and struggled to break free of the handcuffs, wishing I could tear that wolfish face to shreds.

"Don't get excited! The best is yet to come. This is the only way to lure out the vengeful spirit. Only by finding the source of the spirit's hatred can I locate the original of the famous painting 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival.' This trick worked! We reaped a great harvest. Your sister's intact woman's skin indeed developed bruises, and a double-dragon seal appeared. We copied its true appearance onto a videotape and sent it to an expert via the internet..."

The cruelty of his methods shocked me. I glared at him and roared:

"Devil! In order to determine whether this skin phenomenon was special, you cruelly peeled off the skins of seventeen young girls in that underground den of demons, the youngest of whom was less than twelve years old!"

"You see through everything! Very well, perhaps I overlooked the power of ghosts! Their wronged souls are still crying, wishing us all to go to hell together! But damn it, just when the experiment was a great success, the video was accidentally leaked online, angering the vengeful spirits, and then some people who watched the video died mysteriously."

"Let me correct you. That wasn't a mistake. Qi Silong was the key person who operated the recording. He succumbed to your tyranny and watched helplessly as his lover, Pang Zhen, was brutally executed. That night, he was filled with remorse and tried to delete the video from his computer. But he accidentally saw a strange woman appear in the video. He deleted all the data but couldn't erase the image. The next day, while on duty, he gave the disc to another woman who loved him very much. She was a female reporter. But on his way back, he saw the strange woman's shadow again and knew he wouldn't live much longer. He left a suicide note in his dormitory dated August 20th. Later, you crossed out that page. Right?"

"How do you know so much? Yes, the day before he died, he seemed preoccupied, and I still can't figure out why he was so anxious. Later, I reviewed the experimental videos he recorded, and he had deleted them all. I only found the image of that strange woman, who seemed to be singing an unpleasant song. I still don't understand this."

"The curse of the vengeful spirit. Before a person is skinned alive, they will hear that song. I don't think it's lucky that you didn't die!"

"That's because I have something important in my possession."

"The image of the Double Dragon Seal? You've already given it to a mysterious figure in your accomplice. This may be your only capital to save your lives and carry out your conspiracy."

"This is enough to show that the Night of Vengeful Spirits has a weakness."

“I think you’re an idiot! Captain Ji, there are some things you don’t know at all. And just this morning, your right-hand woman, Ning Yu, was also stripped of her face. Now, the Ning Yu driving in front of me is nothing but a walking corpse, do you know that?”

"Nonsense, she's a ghost?..."

"You don't believe me? Look at what she's wearing on her feet."

Ji Yunsheng leaned over, his eyes wide as he stared at the driver's feet in the darkness.

"Embroidered shoes?"

Do you know why she wore sunglasses and covered her face with her hair?

"Ning Yu...you, turn your head around!"

Ji Yunsheng suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, realizing that he too had been deceived by the ghost.

"She has no shame, except for that talking mouth and those eyes that can only roll upwards. She's dead! Do you understand?"

I roared at the top of my lungs because the guy was panicking. Ningyu, who was driving, didn't turn around, and that's when I suddenly realized that she really didn't have legs.

"A ghost! Stop the car, you bitch!"

Ji Yunsheng was so frightened that he lost his composure, unsure of where to point his gun. I knew the situation was likely dire; the digital clock on the front of the car was about to strike the final deadline of 16 minutes and 44 seconds, and I couldn't help but feel anxious too.

"That's enough. You and I are in the same boat. We have one minute and fifty-three seconds left. We need to find a way to stop the car."

The so-called Ning Yu, who was driving, never looked back. The Mercedes-Benz moved forward smoothly. She was wearing a police uniform, with long hair, and her face was only a slit. She appeared very calm, as calm as a zombie.

Ji Yunsheng's emotions were about to spiral out of control. After all this time, he hadn't even gotten a glimpse of the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" scroll. The humiliation of being cheated and the fear of certain death were driving him to desperation.

"I'm going to kill you first! It's all your fault!"

"You've been tricked? You've never even seen a vengeful spirit. Anyone who sees it will die!"

"Shut the fuck up!"

"Since my sister and I are vessels of vengeful spirits, why are you so bold as to want us dead? This is retribution."

"Shut up! I'll kill you first."

"The vengeful spirit will skin you alive! Because you've seen her shadow and heard that song!"

"She wouldn't dare! If I die, the secret of the vengeful spirit will be exposed, and its remains will be burned!"

"Finally, you've told the truth. What you call leverage is actually a few bones that were dug out of that well in Yilan City!"

"That's the root of vengeful spirits; at worst, we'll all perish together!"

"It's not that simple. The real vengeful spirits are a pair of twin sisters."

"You're lying!"

"There's absolutely no need for that, and one of the people I hate the most is you."

"What do you mean?"

Ji Yunsheng's hand holding the gun was shifting from anxious, erratic movements to a helpless tremor. Time was like a hammer about to slam down on our heads, second by second passing by. Ji Yunsheng was terrified; he was even more frightened than I was. The unease and despair in his heart caused large beads of sweat to appear on his forehead.

"I have a minute left to live, and I'm certain that you harbor an even deeper secret in the depths of your mind, one that even your accomplices are unaware of. It is this ancestral secret that has driven you to take such a risk and become utterly depraved! If I tell you this little story, you can interrupt me with a gunshot at any time if I make a mistake."

"Speak quickly! You only have fifty seconds!"

"Many years ago, there was a eunuch named Qin Wuying who ran away from the palace. He settled in old Beijing, changed his surname to Ji, and even on his deathbed, he refused to forgive himself for a heinous act he had committed. Years ago, he had betrayed his promise, abandoned his lover, and left the Forbidden City alone. At Zhengyang Gate, he was questioned by soldiers from Feng Yuxiang's army. A group of soldiers harassed him, demanding that he take off his pants to prove he was a eunuch. As a result, his genitals were exposed, and the vicious soldiers were about to cut off his precious thing with bayonets. At this moment, he remembered his lover, the palace maid Luoyi who was in charge of the national treasure, who was waiting for him in the Wuying Hall. The priceless painting 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival' that they had hidden together, he begged the soldiers to spare his life, offering to exchange the priceless national treasure for his life."

So Qin Wuying let the wolf into the house, leading the Republic of China's soldiers to the Wuying Hall. Sure enough, the palace maid was anxiously waiting to elope with him. Qin Wuying begged her to use the national treasure to redeem his life.

The palace maid refused to hand over the national treasure to the bandits, so the beasts gang-raped Luo Yi. Luo Yi then jumped into a well and committed suicide. The bandits then covered the well, and Qin Wuying, after being severely beaten, was expelled from the Forbidden City. The whereabouts of the painting became a mystery. Qin Wuying regretted his actions for the rest of his life, later changing his surname to Ji. On his deathbed, he revealed this past event, hoping not to go to hell. His son, however, treasured it, writing his father's description in a diary and casually jotting it down on a handkerchief given to him by the poor palace maid when his father was a eunuch in the Forbidden City.

You are the grandson of this father. You combined that diary entry with your personal experiences to piece together a map to find the treasure of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival," and used your job at the Palace Museum to meticulously plot to find the hidden location of the real painting. You even went so far as to commit heinous crimes and persecute the innocent—you schemed and plotted relentlessly! But there's one thing you overlooked: the well that Luo Yi jumped into was the very place where the vengeful spirits of her sisters had died tragically. From then on, Luo Yi carried the curse of revenge from those spirits, searching for the descendants of Qin Wuying, who had caused her death.

"Finished?"

"It's not over yet!"

Chapter Forty-Five: The Grim Reaper on the Run

"You're a fucking devil! How do you know so much?"

Do I really have to finish?

"You have sixty more seconds. Speak now!"

"I once found a bronze mirror in Qi Silong's dormitory, inside which was Qi Silong's diary and a palace maid's suicide note written on yellow silk. Later, when I returned to the dormitory late at night from my duty post, the bronze mirror was gone. This is enough to show that the important physical evidence that was originally intended to deepen my belief in the ghost mirror was withdrawn because I was worried that I might give myself away."

You were terrified and ordered Ningyu to disguise herself as a headless corpse and retrieve the item. However, when she retrieved the mirror, she suddenly discovered that the contents of the yellow silk handkerchief diary had changed. Someone had added a strange paragraph in the last few sentences, because in my memory, the font of the last paragraph was slightly different from the rest of the diary. It mentioned that the palace maid saw a group of women with their faces covered before she died, and also mentioned a bridal sedan chair. This terrified you, because this "dog's tail added to a sable coat" was the most vivid metaphor for your devilish deeds of killing many young girls and peeling off their faces under the guise of ghost marriages. What frightened you the most was that the yellow silk diary also had a signature that chilled you to the bone: "Palace Maid Luo Yi" (meaning "Palace Maid's Clothes Fall Off"). She was the lover from the Republican era whom your selfish and heartless great-grandfather had killed.

Therefore, you sensed the danger of fighting against ghosts. It was clear that Luo Yi had become an invisible and powerful ghost, and the national treasure you wanted was in her hands. In order to control Luo Yi, you began to monitor my whereabouts.

The principle of the ghost mirror made me realize that human factors played a significant role in the development of this complex ghost case. My suspicions about you arose after Ning Yu interrogated me. The three fingers Ning Yu had, and the perfume bottle in her bathroom—originally intended to wash away the blood and gore of a murder scene, but which she used to impersonate the scent of acacia blossoms—along with the handwriting in her interrogation transcript so similar to that of the palace maid's diary, suddenly made everything clear. Ning Yu was your subordinate; she died in the line of duty according to the public security system's records. Since she was your subordinate, you couldn't possibly be unaware of her death. Therefore, the real answer is that she didn't die. The palace maid's and Qi Silong's diaries were largely fabricated by her based on Lao Qin Wuying's diary.

You just mentioned seeing records of vengeful spirits in the Forbidden City. However, the Forbidden City's documents don't actually record such unofficial histories. It was your great-grandfather's recollections that fueled your greed. Among your ancestral treasures is a bronze mirror. I haven't yet explained the connection between that magical mirror and Qin Wuying's sudden death. Qin Wuying didn't die of old age; he saw his own head severed from his body in the mirror and realized he was nearing the end. He told his son the bizarre stories of the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" painting's calamity and his name change. Later, after you returned from your military service in Heilongjiang, you told your grandfather what you had seen and heard, and he then told you about the Yellow Silk Diary and the events of your ancestors. I never imagined you would begin committing crimes driven by greed.

You suddenly had a brilliant idea: to use the developing bronze mirror to order Ningyu to copy the altered diary entry onto the yellow silk handkerchief that the palace maid Luoyi had given your great-grandfather as a token of love. You had no other intention than to make it look realistic, but you never expected Luoyi to actually come looking for you. You even used the spy chemical tool, Hidden Word Elixir, to erase Qi Silong's diary entry for August 20th. These things weren't difficult to do, so what I saw was a blank page. Unfortunately, your plan was ruined by your clumsy imitation; I can see through the deliberate manipulation.

The mystery of the mirror was a carefully orchestrated scheme by you all, designed to trigger the latent curse of vengeful spirits in my mind. Only my cousin and I could experience strange hallucinations after seeing the painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival." The incident at the Afang Hotel where my cousin disappeared after experiencing that hallucination for the first time was also part of your plan. It was all to foreshadow my later transfer to the Forbidden City and my strange interest in that painting. That was the last time I saw my cousin. Now I know that she was already dead then, and you controlled her soul, using her corpse as a vessel to drink red wine with me one last time.

I saw many networked computers in the haunted building, and I guessed that your accomplices were using technology to track my brain signals, hoping to find the place where I jumped into the well after losing my clothes, because the real "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" might be inside there.

But despite your meticulous planning, you failed to anticipate the powerful supernatural abilities of the vengeful spirit. She killed many of your collaborators, and then Luo Yi appeared out of nowhere, causing your conspiracy to spiral out of control. As a result, you dared not continue with your elaborate schemes and sensed the approach of death. Therefore, you decided to execute me, the so-called bearer of the vengeful spirit's golden seal, as soon as possible, so as to create some chaos at tomorrow's 80th anniversary celebration of the Palace Museum and take the opportunity to carry out your deceptive plan.

To kill me, you went to great lengths to create a plausible crime scene, evade legal prosecution, and commit murder without leaving a trace. Unfortunately, your 16 minutes and 44 seconds of this death game weren't just a one-person show; now, you too face the curse of a vengeful spirit!

"Are you fucking done guessing?"