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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 16: Phantom Technique
Finally falling asleep, I heard a sigh in the depths of my dreams. Shen Shoucai's pale face appeared before me. He bowed and said, "Boss, I'm going now. Thank you for taking care of me for so long. You need to think of ways to comfort that girl."
Shen Shoucai was definitely leaving this time, and once he went, we would never meet again. Perhaps in the next life, or the one after that, we might see each other again, but everything would have changed; no one would recognize anyone.
Having freed myself from the entanglement of Shen Shoucai's matters, I continued to sleep.
Suddenly, something cold poked my face. I jolted awake and opened my eyes. Standing quietly by the wall was a figure with a pale hand and a ghostly white face. We locked eyes, and then it lunged at me with a fierce motion.
What the hell! Startled, I flipped over and turned on the light, causing the clothes hanging on the wall to fall to the ground.
There was no one there. Yet something felt off; the creaking from next door had stopped. This was my clothing, and just moments ago, I had experienced a terrifying dream.
Unable to sleep, I picked up my phone to check the time and realized Qin Jian had called me several times.
Should I call back now? Absolutely, because Qin Jian was not just anyone; if he called, it must be urgent.
The phone rang in the dead of night until I finally heard Qin Jian ask, "Ma Qi, where are you?"
"In Xinfeng Town. What's wrong?"
"Something happened to Fatty; you need to come back quickly."
"How can I? At this hour, I can't find a ride!"
"Just give me your exact address; I'll come pick you up. We'll discuss the details when we meet."
"Okay." Fatty was in trouble—what kind of trouble could he possibly be in? Not long after leaving the Funeral Home, I had deleted his number and added him to my blacklist because I truly didn't want any involvement with him. Reflecting on what he had done before, it wasn't that I, Ma Qi, lacked loyalty; it was just that his actions were too extreme.
As for my grandfather, I had done all I could for him!
Daydreaming, I was reluctant to leave the warm bed I had finally settled into, but I eventually got up, dressed, and went to the front desk to check out.
The clerk was a thin old man. I casually asked, "What kind of people are staying next door? They seemed to be having quite a good time last night."
"You have an empty room next door; no one is staying there," the old man replied as he handed me my change. I was taken aback. If the room next door was empty, then where did those sounds come from? My presence alone could scare off most things. I couldn't just walk away after being disturbed all night by something that didn't even have the decency to show itself.
"Boss, I want to take a look next door."
"That'll cost you extra."
"How much?"
"Fifty bucks."
"You're asking for too much; it's outrageous..." My room only cost thirty. Why should I pay fifty just to peek into the next room?
"Young man, that room is not clean. I don't want you going in there, which is why I'm charging a high price. If you really want to see it, then pay up."
This old man was clearly trying to mess with me. However, his words piqued my curiosity even more. Without hesitation, I paid the fifty and took the key, heading straight for the adjacent room.
I was staying in one room while the other was right next to it.
What would I find when I opened the door? An empty room, or perhaps a bed like in other rooms? As these thoughts crossed my mind, I unlocked the door and was hit by a gust of cold air. I shivered and reached for the light switch when suddenly a voice emerged from behind me: "The light's broken."
It was the thin old man again, now holding a flashlight. He led the way inside while explaining, "Some time ago, a skinny young man came here looking for a place to rent. He specifically asked for the darkest room available, so I rented him this one. He stayed here for several days without eating or drinking and never came down. I don’t even know when he left; he just paid a lot of rent upfront. I thought he might come back to this empty room and ask about it later."
As he spoke, we stepped into the room together.
A foul odor hit me as we entered. The floor was littered with crumpled papers and leftover cans of food; the bed was in disarray with piles of blankets thrown about. As I walked over and pulled aside some of the piled-up bedding, I was horrified to uncover a skeleton beneath it. The old man gasped and turned to run away in fright.
I grabbed him to comfort him, saying, "Don't be afraid, I'm a police officer... from the bureau, an Outsider..."
The old man seemed uninterested in my title of Outsider and didn't seem to know what it meant. He trembled as he pointed at the bed, saying, "There's a dead person. What should I do?"
"I'm an Outsider from the police, and I'll notify my superiors right away."
The old man watched as I called Qin Jian, trembling and at a loss. I reassured him and asked him to hand me a flashlight. Without disturbing the scene, I carefully examined the situation.
The skeleton looked ordinary but was not that of Zheng Kai's stepfather. This was a fresh corpse; its moisture had been drained by something, clinging tightly to the bones, making it appear like an ancient skeleton at first glance.
Qin Jian had initially come alone, but upon hearing about this incident, he brought along two other capable officers.
The corpse was taken away, but I couldn't understand how much significance a corpse could hold; the noise from last night was entirely another matter. I mentioned this to Qin Jian, who joked that I was getting too excited and thinking too much about women.
The customer that the skinny old man mentioned had to be Dengke Qi.
Whose corpse was this?
Now the City Bureau had its work cut out for it. Qin Jian and I still needed to continue investigating cold cases, and this Xin Feng Skeleton Case was quite a headache.
At that moment, the bureau dispatched people to investigate any recent missing persons in Xinfeng Town. While continuing our investigation into cold cases, Qin Jian and I also searched for Dengke Qi and Zheng Kai's stepfather's remains.
What a wasted night!
I sat in the car, rubbing my nose bridge, feeling so sleepy that I couldn't help but yawn.
Qin Jian was summarizing the events surrounding Fat's incident for me. "The owner of Leishi Car Shop had a funeral yesterday that Fat attended. After he came back, he went to sleep but kept feeling like there was some noise in the house. At first, he thought it was Peng Yan making a fuss. Later, when he saw Peng Yan sleeping soundly, he assumed it was Peng Hai stealing something from his home. He tiptoed up to check. Guess what he saw?"
"What else could it be? Just a false alarm!"
"Wrong, he saw Boss Lei."
"Haha! Serves him right." He messed up, and Boss Lei was really angry. The more I thought about it, the funnier it became.
"Lao Qi, stop laughing. This is serious," Qin Jian said angrily.
"You." I continued to doze off.
"Fatty didn't just see Boss Lei; he saw something else too."
"What?"
"He saw a big hole under the bed, and there was light coming from it. Then he saw Boss Lei. He was so scared that he couldn't shout; even if he wanted to, he couldn't make a sound. Then he saw Boss Lei crawl into the hole."
Without needing Qin Jian to explain further, I could imagine Fatty's reaction upon seeing Boss Lei crawl into that hole. He must have been dumbfounded, maybe even tentatively peeking down, only to gasp in shock. The hole was so deep and dark that you couldn't see the bottom, like a deep well in the Forbidden City. Baymax looked down and saw stones; at night, it appeared as a pool of dark, clear water. This hole under the bed was comparable to that eerie ancient well with no visible bottom, and it would surely terrify Fatty for a long time.
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