Военный советник и принцесса

Глава 19

The yellow paper had now burned completely, igniting the cotton sheets. The sheets smoldered, forming a large hole with a burning edge. The hole grew larger, emitting thick black smoke, and eventually burst into flames. Li Hong saw the woman still trembling in the air, completely unaware that the flames were beginning to lick at the various flammable materials around the bed—cardboard boxes, books, and other miscellaneous items. The smoke grew thicker, obscuring the woman's vision, and Li Hong began to back away from the door.

The fire quickly ignited, and as the flames climbed onto the woman's body, Li Hong saw her skin begin to peel off. To her surprise, the woman didn't struggle or try to escape; she seemed completely exhausted and could only watch helplessly as the flames gradually consumed her. Li Hong dared not watch any longer and retreated out of the room.

The entire room 413 was now engulfed in flames, black smoke billowing out and flowing down the ceiling. Li Hong covered her mouth and nose with her hand, taking one last look at the woman: her hair was completely ablaze, illuminating her face, the muscles in her face twitching as if enduring excruciating pain. She finally noticed Li Hong, and a tear slid down her cheek…

2.08 Past

Li Hong woke up from her dream, feeling a cool sensation on her face. She reached up and touched it, realizing it was from tears. She wiped away her tears, sat up in bed, sighed, and stared blankly out the window, hugging her knees.

The sky was already bright, and the chirping of early birds drifted in from outside the window, marking another quiet and peaceful morning. Because it was the weekend, a languid atmosphere permeated the campus; there were no hurried footsteps of students rushing to class, only the sounds of a few elderly professors exchanging greetings as they met during their morning exercise.

Li Hong got out of bed and stood by the window. What she could think of now was the fire she'd seen in her dream, and the tearful face reflected in the flames. She could almost feel the waves of heat and the choking smoke.

We must ask Zheng Zhihao if Liu Yun really was burned to death.

“Zheng Zhihao, tell me how Liu Yun died,” Li Hong said softly.

There was no reply; Zheng Zhihao seemed to have vanished without a trace.

"Did you hear me? I'm asking you a question."

There was still no answer.

Li Hong raised her right hand and rubbed her palm. Most of the wounds on her hand had healed, except for one large wound that was still red and swollen. She knew this was the passage Zheng Zhihao used to enter and exit. This wound might never heal, but as long as it didn't get infected, it wouldn't be a big problem.

"What are you doing..." Zheng Zhihao's voice finally came through, as faint as a whisper. Li Hong suddenly felt that the voice was as cute as a baby's cry.

"Get up, get up," Li Hong urged. "I have something to ask you."

"What is it...?"

"How exactly did Liu Yun die? Tell me everything you know."

“I’ve already told you, I don’t know how she died… I couldn’t sense her life force after that battle. She died during the battle.” Zheng Zhihao’s voice was impatient.

“I dreamt about her last night,” Li Hong said. “She was burned to death.”

A moment of silence.

"You saw her burned to death in your dream?" Zheng Zhihao asked, sounding shocked.

"Yes. He was burned to death in room 413."

Another silence followed.

"Just tell me honestly what your relationship is with her, stop beating around the bush," Li Hong said anxiously. "How can I investigate the clues about that finger bone if I don't know anything about her past? Do you still want revenge?"

"Sigh!!" Zheng Zhihao sighed deeply. "Alright, I'll tell you everything."

Li Hong sat down on the edge of the bed and took out her notebook.

"After I met her, we worked together on a few cases," Zheng Zhihao said slowly, his thoughts drifting back to a few years ago. "We worked together very well. Although spirit hunters are supposed to operate alone, that's mainly to avoid attracting attention. Once we cooperated, our strength increased, and our efficiency improved... It was about a few months after I met her that I developed feelings for her..."

"Approximately what year and month?" Li Hong interjected.

"It was around December 2003. It was very cold and there was a lot of snow."

"Well, and then? It's normal that you have feelings for her; she is indeed very beautiful. And then?" Li Hong said with a smile.

"Then... that Christmas, I decided to confess my feelings to her, to stop hiding them," Zheng Zhihao said carefully, "and take her out to dinner..."

Zheng Zhihao paused at this point. Li Hong didn't urge him, because she thought something might have gone wrong during the meal.

“...I took out a ring during dinner,” Zheng Zhihao said. “I told her my feelings, that I hoped she would be my girlfriend, and that she would wear the ring on her middle finger.”

He paused again as he spoke.

After a long pause, Zheng Zhihao continued, "...but she rejected me..."

Li Hong felt a weight lifted from her shoulders. So that's what happened! No wonder he didn't want to talk about it.

“After she rejected me, she never saw me again.” Skipping over the most awkward part, Zheng Zhihao’s words became clearer. “I haven’t seen her since then. But I learned from others that she became ruthless in her pursuit of souls, even torturing innocent people to death before absorbing their souls.”

"Why did she become like that?" Li Hong asked, puzzled.

“I don’t know either,” Zheng Zhihao said. “She’s like a completely different person, she’s gone crazy.”

Li Hong shook her head in disbelief. Logically, Zheng Zhihao should be the one who was shocked, but why did Liu Yun's personality change so drastically as if she had been shocked? Could this be just Zheng Zhihao's side of the story, and the truth was not so? You know, Li Hong also knew nothing about Zheng Zhihao's past.

"Did you witness her committing the crime with your own eyes?" Li Hong asked. "Could it be that because she rejected you, you're just making assumptions based on hearsay and subjectively believing that her personality has drastically changed?"

"What did you say?!" Zheng Zhihao was suddenly enraged. "Of course I couldn't have witnessed her committing the crimes, but I saw the victims' bodies—four bodies, all tortured to death with the most cruel methods, and their vengeful spirits were absorbed by spirit-hunting techniques. My friends have also investigated, and they've all tracked down a female spirit hunter who looks very similar to her—female spirit hunters are already very rare, so there couldn't possibly be anyone else—if you had seen what she did to those innocent people, you wouldn't be so calmly saying I'm being subjective!"

Li Hong remained silent. He was right; it seemed Liu Yun had indeed done something wrong, which was why Zheng Zhihao's love for her had turned into hatred.

After a moment of silence, Zheng Zhihao calmed himself down and continued, "I don't believe she did these things either; she wasn't like this before. But faced with the facts, I have to admit she's changed. You can check my Spirit Hunter's Notes; there are detailed records and some photos inside. After you see them, you won't think I'm just trying to smear her."

Li Hong pulled the notebook from her desk and casually flipped to that period. Several photos caught her attention (please be aware of the graphic descriptions): the deceased lay face up on a garbage heap overflowing with filthy water, most of his skin peeled off, revealing mangled flesh. The skin wasn't peeled off in large pieces, but forcibly separated in chunks. More importantly, judging from the state of the congealed blood, this was done while the deceased was still alive. A detailed photo nearby showed the deceased's fingernails being ripped out by the roots.

The caption under the photo reads: March 7, 2004, Maizidian. The deceased was discovered by XXX and immediately moved to a safe area, thus avoiding police attention.

“You see…” Zheng Zhihao said, “Dying in such a painful way, the soul of the deceased will gather 200% of his willpower in life, and therefore has a very powerful energy. Such a ghost is a rare find for us, something you can only dream of.”

Li Hong closed her notebook and sighed.

“Okay, I see,” she said. “And then you started investigating her, right?”

"It wasn't an investigation, it was a killing," Zheng Zhihao corrected. "We can't let someone like that live any longer. No matter what her past was like, we had to get rid of her. Later, with the help of my assistant, I used magic to kill her, but I didn't expect that she would eventually be burned to death in her residence, creating a powerful ghost. I thought she had just died from exhaustion."

Li Hong nodded. If that's the case, then Zheng Zhihao hadn't anticipated that Liu Yun's vengeful spirit would seek revenge on his assistant.

"So, you don't know where the finger bone went after that, right?" Li Hong asked.

“Of course I don’t know,” Zheng Zhihao said. “Since Liu Yun’s spirit didn’t form after her death, finding her body is useless. I suspect that someone of hers collected her remains and spread them around.”

“Then we’ll have to investigate the accident report from back then and find out who claimed her remains,” Li Hong said slowly, nodding.

“Yes. Only in this way can we determine how the finger bone was dispersed and how the girl who died in the elevator obtained it after we find this person.” Zheng Zhihao said, “Only after we find this person can we determine how the finger bone was dispersed and how the girl who died in the elevator obtained this bone.”

“Okay,” Li Hong said, biting her lower lip.

2.09 Report

Weekends are usually Li Hong's most relaxing and enjoyable time. She can do whatever she wants during these two days, such as shopping, reading, or sleeping. As long as there isn't a particularly urgent case, she can put down her work and have a good rest. But now, Li Hong has to continue working. Her current task is to investigate who will claim Liu Yun's belongings.

This was a rather complicated process, and because it was a weekend, many government departments were not open to the public. Fortunately, she had a police officer's ID and submitted an investigation application to the Public Security Bureau through Xiao Jia, so the investigation was not slow. On Sunday afternoon, Li Hong finally found the deceased's belongings claim form. Including the remains, all of Liu Yun's belongings had been claimed by a person named Xu Feifei.

Another troubling question arose: Who is Xu Feifei? What was her relationship with Liu Yun? Where is she now? Finding her in a vast sea of people is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Li Hong could only seek out some people who handled the fire back then, asking them to recall events after the disaster. Persistence paid off; after two whole weeks of investigation, Li Hong finally found Xu Feifei—she was Liu Yun's former roommate and a close friend of Liu Yun's.

Now the problem suddenly became simple: find Xu Feifei, inquire about the whereabouts of the remains, and completely destroy them. Li Hong dialed her number.

"Hello, who is this?" A young girl's voice came through the phone, with very loud background noise.

"Hello, are you Xu Feifei? I'm Officer Li Hong from the Municipal Public Security Bureau. Is this a convenient time to talk?" Li Hong raised her voice and said.

"From the Public Security Bureau?" The other person was clearly surprised. "What can I do for you?"

"That's right, I'd like to know the whereabouts of Liu Yun's belongings, including her remains, and where they are currently kept."

"What? Relics? What relics? I can't hear you clearly."

“Liu Yun’s belongings!” Li Hong almost shouted.

The other person paused for a moment, then said, "I don't know this person you're talking about, and I don't have any of her belongings. You've got the wrong person."

"Aren't you Xu Feifei?" Li Hong was very surprised. "I've investigated and found out..."

"You've got the wrong person. Please don't call again." The other party hung up before Li Hong could finish speaking.

Li Hong stared at her phone in disbelief. "A mistake?! How could there be a mistake?"

“You’re not mistaken,” Zheng Zhihao suddenly said. “Her voice tells me she definitely knows Liu Yun.”

"Then why won't she admit it?"

“I don’t know,” Zheng Zhihao said. “Maybe she couldn’t reveal the location of the conversation, or there might be other reasons. Did you notice that she didn’t repeat Liu Yun’s name in her speech? Maybe she couldn’t say it out loud.”

"This is so absurd!" Li Hong said angrily. "I thought it would be a simple matter to communicate, so I was too lazy to go to her, but now she's denying it."

"Don't worry," Zheng Zhihao comforted her. "We can go look for her again. Where does she work?"

Li Hong glanced at the notebook and said, "This is a record of bar waitresses, but I don't know which bar it is. No wonder it was so noisy over there."

Just then, the phone rang; it was Xiao Jia calling.

"The accident report is out," Li Hong said.

***********************

The accident report was very brief. Li Hong took the few sheets of paper and read them carefully.

7.13 Elevator Accident Investigation Report

Accident Process

At approximately 11:50 PM on July 13, 2007, a serious elevator accident occurred in Elevator C (passenger elevator) of Building A, Jiancheng Building, Xicheng District, resulting in a passenger being crushed by the elevator and falling to the pit and dying while using the elevator normally.

Following the accident, an accident investigation team quickly arrived at the scene to investigate. According to the surveillance video playback, at approximately 11:50 PM, Zou Shunqing, a tenant employee of the building, was in the elevator lobby of Building A, preparing to take the elevator to the first floor. When the elevator reached the 17th floor and the doors opened, Zou entered the car. After the elevator doors closed normally and waited for about 300 seconds, the doors suddenly opened again, and the elevator began to move upwards, pulling Zou, who was preparing to return to the elevator lobby, upwards. During the upward movement, Zou was struck by the elevator lobby door sill, fell to the ground, and plunged into the pit at the bottom of the shaft, dying instantly.

Cause of accident

The elevator involved in the accident was a passenger elevator, model JKX3VF, with a load capacity of 1000kg/13 people, 21 floors and 21 stops. It was manufactured by Beijing Xunjie Elevator Factory and renovated and maintained by an elevator service center in Beijing in 2006.

On-site inspection revealed that the elevator car was stopped at the 18th floor level, with the car door closed and the landing door open by approximately 60cm. The sill of the 17th-floor landing door was deformed, preventing the door from closing. There was a large amount of blood in the pit. The elevator control cabinet and elevator brake appeared normal.

According to the surveillance video playback at the accident site, the elevator was moving upwards with the doors open when the accident occurred. After the accident, because no one called for the elevator, it stopped at the 18th floor level.

It is understood that the elevator malfunctioned around 9 PM the night before the accident (July 12th), failing to operate on the 8th floor. Maintenance worker Zhao XX explained that the door magnetic fuse was damaged; after replacing the fuse, the elevator resumed operation without any improper wiring or short-circuiting.

An inspection of the maintenance and accident records of the maintenance unit revealed that the unit's maintenance work on elevators was extremely irregular: First, maintenance was not carried out in accordance with the "Special Equipment Supervision Regulations"; second, the elevator malfunction records were seriously chaotic and incomplete; and third, maintenance work was often carried out by only one person.

On July 14, the accident investigation team conducted several technical simulation tests and experiments on the elevator involved in the accident and the A elevator of the same model.

1. Elevator Reverse Leveling Test: The elevator car operates normally from the 17th floor to the 1st floor. When the elevator reaches the 1st floor leveling point, a simulated malfunction of the YPX (Yield-down Leveling Device) is applied to observe whether the elevator reverses direction. The test results show that the elevator reverses direction when there is an external call or in-car floor selection. The conclusion is that the elevator should not reverse direction when the doors are open.

2. Elevator Reverse Operation Test: The elevator car operates normally from the 17th floor to the 1st floor. Immediately after starting from the 17th floor, select floors 1 and 5 from inside the car, or press the call button on the 5th floor. The test results show that after reaching the 1st floor and leveling, the elevator closes the door after a 4-6 second delay before reversing. The conclusion is that the elevator cannot reverse operation with the doors open.

3. Door lock anti-sticking test: The door lock relay was simulated to stick during elevator operation. The test results showed that the elevator could not operate when the door lock relay was simulated to stick. The conclusion is that the elevator cannot open its doors when the door lock relay is stuck.

4. Elevator Rollout Test: With the machine room brake engaged, the elevator wheels cannot be manually turned. One person enters the elevator car, and with the car door open, uses a brake release wrench in the machine room to engage the brake. The test results show that the elevator takes 15 seconds to move from the -3 floor sill to the 1st floor lintel, and under these conditions, the car cannot descend. The conclusion is that even with a slow upward roll, there is ample time for someone at the door to escape the danger zone.

While conducting technical simulations and tests, the accident investigation team consulted with technicians from the control cabinet manufacturer. According to the manufacturer's technicians, based on the control cabinet's design principles, the elevator is currently not capable of operating with its doors open.

According to the surveillance video at the accident site, the elevator was indeed operating with the doors open (at -3 floors) before the accident. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the door was opened due to a deliberate short circuit of the sealing wire at the time of the accident.

After on-site inspection and testing, the elevator was found to be in normal condition except for the 17th-floor hall door, which was deformed and could not be closed. Therefore, only abnormal forced measures in the door lock circuit could have caused the elevator to operate with the door open, thus leading to the accident.

Based on the above analysis and assessment, we notified the public security department: the current condition of the elevator suggests that only a deliberate short-circuiting of the sealing wire (which disables the electrical safety devices) could have caused the accident. The public security department, with the cooperation of elevator maintenance experts, immediately re-interrogated the maintenance personnel. Faced with overwhelming evidence and scientific test results, the maintenance personnel finally admitted that they had illegally sealed the door lock during their work the previous day, directly leading to the elevator entrapment accident.