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墨書 Inktalez
Sometimes, we inexplicably hear certain sounds, most of which can be attributed to natural causes and are explainable. However, some occurrences defy normal explanations. This is one such incident.
This event took place two years ago. The victim was a little boss who had opened two convenience stores in bustling areas. These stores operated twenty-four hours a day, and over time, various incidents inevitably occurred, mostly at night—there were thefts, robberies, and drunken disturbances. However, what I want to discuss is related to a spirit god. Because of this incident, the convenience store had replaced five night shift employees within just two months. All of them left for the same reason: they were too afraid to work the night shift anymore.
When the victim called me, he sounded just as anxious as others who had encountered strange events. He asked if I was Master Liu and if I could help with ghostly affairs. After confirming my identity, he sighed in relief and calmed down a bit, saying, "I finally found you! I've made over ten calls back and forth. Liu Master, where are you? I have something to discuss in person."
I happened to be free at that moment, so we arranged to meet at a specific location. When I arrived, he was already there and appeared quite anxious. After a brief introduction, I learned his surname was Zheng and that he came from Henan. He was a self-made man from a rural village, around thirty years old. He was thin and dark-skinned, exuding an air of honesty and diligence—clearly someone who had endured hardships.
We immediately began discussing the ghostly affairs at hand. It felt somewhat unnatural to dive straight into such topics, so to ease the atmosphere and get to know each other better, he shared his experiences over the years. He had tried many things in life but always felt he lacked opportunities despite his hard work. Eventually, he abandoned the idea of making a fortune and decided to invest in two convenience stores instead, thinking that living a simple life might not be such a bad thing after all. Although he couldn't make a lot of money from these stores, their prime locations meant that they would likely perform better than before if things went smoothly. Just as the stores began to stabilize and turn a profit, one of them suddenly experienced strange occurrences.
That store was located at a busy intersection—a relatively good spot. Due to low business after midnight, there was usually only one night shift employee on duty. The store had an automatic sensor door that would chime when someone entered and say "Welcome." This was quite normal until about two months ago when every morning around four o'clock, the door would automatically announce its welcome message. At first, the employee thought it was just a malfunction or caused by some air current.
However, this continued for three consecutive days; every night around four o'clock, the welcome message would play twice with about three minutes in between each announcement. During those three minutes, there were also strange rustling sounds—like plastic bags being crumpled or someone sweeping with a bamboo broom—as if someone had entered and then left again after three minutes. Sometimes it even felt like a gust of wind passed by as if someone had run past him. It was quite bizarre. Most importantly, sometimes they even heard a sigh during these occurrences. On the third day, the employee reported this situation to him. He then sought help to check whether there was an issue with the sensor; however, the inspection revealed no problems.
When he reached this point in his story, I interjected: "This situation is likely not due to a sensor malfunction."
He nodded and continued explaining that it indeed wasn't an issue with the sensor but that he couldn't clarify further since the employee was too frightened to work the night shift again. Once this information spread among the other two employees on rotation, they also refused to take night shifts. It became difficult to find replacements quickly. Therefore, he decided to work the night shift himself—not only because it was his investment but also because he felt that the employee might have exaggerated the situation. Being an atheist with strong scientific beliefs backing him up gave him confidence.
When he worked through until four o'clock during his shift while constantly checking the time and noticing how empty the streets were outside, half an hour passed without any response from the sensor. Just when he thought nothing unusual would happen that night, suddenly the sensor chimed "Welcome" as expected. This made his scalp tingle because he remembered what the technician had told him—that unless someone walked through the door or there was an exceptionally strong wind, it shouldn't activate for no reason.
Recalling what the technician said made him nervous; clearly no one had walked by yet it still sensed something—this was both strange and unsettling. If he persisted in rationalizing it away, he might find reasons to convince himself otherwise; however, what followed next made it impossible for him to do so any longer. He heard exactly what that employee described—the rustling sounds—and even heard noises like sticks hitting shelves. After about three minutes passed again, another chime rang out before everything returned to silence as if nothing had happened.
I asked him: "Was that rustling sound loud?"
He replied that it wasn't loud at all—just very subtle—yet given how quiet it was outside with no cars or people around except for some faint humming from inside the refrigerator, any additional noise could be heard clearly. As for what that sound resembled? He felt it was somewhat like sweeping but not quite; overall it just felt very strange.
I asked, "And then?"
He replied that this shop had consumed almost half of his savings. There was temporarily no one available to work the night shift, so he had been covering it himself for a week. Although this situation occurred every day, it seemed that aside from a little noise, there was no real impact. After getting used to it, he no longer felt scared. However, he couldn't keep working the night shift because he had a family to take care of. So after a week, he hired someone new, but that person also quit after just one week. The same thing happened again; he went through three people in a row, and none of them lasted even a week, not wanting any pay at all. Ever since that incident, the help-wanted sign outside his shop had never been taken down. He even added a line to the requirements: "Must be bold and able to work the night shift."
The boldest of them all was the last salesperson, who lasted half a month but ultimately couldn't stick it out any longer. They held on for that long just to earn half a month's wages. So now, there were basically no one willing to work the night shift at the shop. Losing one shift meant losing a segment of income, and rent in such places was not cheap. If they couldn't operate 24 hours, they might end up losing money and not making any profit at all.
That was why he was anxious. If things continued like this, he estimated he wouldn't be able to keep the business running. After trying many avenues, he finally found me and hoped I could help him. He truly didn't want his hard-earned business to go to waste.
I said, "From what you’re saying, it sounds like there’s definitely a spirit causing trouble."
Seeing me casually mention spirits and say it so naturally seemed to astonish him. He even doubted whether I was joking with him, as if I needed to lay out many explanations before concluding it was a ghost. Yet I had skipped all that and directly stated it was a spirit. So he asked outright, "Are there really that many ghosts in this world?"
Noticing his expression, I said, "You don’t need to be surprised. Many things you haven’t seen are quite common for me; that’s why I spoke so naturally about it. As for what you call ghosts, they are rare in this world; however, due to my profession, I’ve encountered quite a few."
He nodded and said, "You were recommended by a friend; I trust you. Please analyze the situation for me and see if you can help resolve this issue."
I replied that the information he provided was limited and I couldn’t make any judgments yet. "How about this? I'll cover a night shift for you and see what the real situation is like; I need to witness it firsthand. After all, seeing is believing."
He agreed, saying he would join me.
Initially, I planned to go alone to check things out, but since it was his shop filled with goods, I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving it in the hands of someone I had just met.
I said, "That’s fine; however, when the time comes, you need to hide away somewhere. Does your store have any extra rooms? Don’t you have surveillance equipment installed?"
He replied, "There’s a small storage room. We do have surveillance equipment, but it's just for show—to scare people."
I said, "There's no surveillance... Just a storage room will do. When the time comes, you can hide in that little storage room and leave the door slightly ajar."
The reason I wanted him to hide was that if there was suddenly another person when he was alone, it might scare him off and then I wouldn't be able to investigate anything. I asked him to leave the door slightly ajar to give him some reassurance, allowing him to see me at any time.
After all, one person's Yang Qi is far weaker than that of two.
He nodded and said, "Okay, so tonight?"
I replied, "You tell me where your shop is, and I'll come by at three in the morning. There's no point in coming too early; I'll just take a nap at home first."
He said, "It's over by Shibashi Prosperous Road."
I responded, "That's not far. I'll come by at three tonight to take over for you."
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