Chapter 509: Recording |
“What’s wrong?” Standing under an old building, Lin Wan ‘Er turned to ask Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng held the phone with a weird expression. He looked around. Eventually, he turned back to say, “Things are moving too smoothly.”
They used Kui Yi’s money to take a cab. Jiang Cheng was very wary. The taxi dropped them off and drove away. Nothing happened.
Lin Wan ‘Er thought about something. “Do you mean… Xiang Nan?”
“Yes.” Jiang Cheng nodded as his voice darkened. “This is an important part of the mission, but Xiang Nan hasn’t shown up. That doesn’t make sense. I want to know where she is and what she is doing. What is more important than stopping us from getting the clues?”
Lin Wan ‘Er offered, “Is it possible that she has gone to look for Director Qi?” Killing Director Qi would solve the problem at the source.
The hypothesis sounded reasonable, but Jiang Cheng shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“Stop overthinking it. Let’s look for the clues first,” Lin Wan ‘Er suggested.
“Okay.” They found the address Kui Yi provided. They reached the 13th floor and stood before a black iron door. Unit One Room 1302. This was Zhang Zhaowei’s home. He had no children, and his wife passed away a long time ago. The iron door looked old, like it hadn’t been used for a long time. There was probably no one home.
Lin Wan ‘Er removed her hairpin. It didn’t take long for her to open the door that hid many secrets. The place was dark. Lin Wan ‘Er and Jiang Cheng took out their phones.
“Okay.”
The place was sparsely decorated. From the living room, they could see the bedroom. There was a bed in the room. It matched Zhang Zhaowei’s description. They entered the bedroom. Jiang Cheng glanced at the door. He gauged where Zhang Zhaowei was kneeling and knelt in the same spot. Zhang Zhaowei had a simple lifestyle. Despite his wealth, his room looked like any other elderly person’s room. The bed had a normal cotton mattress. Jiang Cheng lifted it easily. He found nothing. Could it be… under the bed?
Jiang Cheng changed his posture. He leaned down to look under the bed. The space under the bed was very clean. There was nothing. Nothing was stuck to the underside of the bedframe either.
Nothing… How could there be nothing?
While Jiang Cheng pondered that question, Lin Wan ‘Er walked over. She touched an inconspicuous spot on the mattress. A few seconds later, she suddenly announced, “It’s here.”
Jiang Cheng reached out. He found something protruding. He took a closer look and noticed needle stitching around the area. Zhang Zhaowei had sewn something into the mattress.
Jiang Cheng found a knife in the kitchen and sliced through the mattress. Between the layers of yellow sponges lay an envelope. Jiang Cheng pinched it and felt something hard and rectangular. The envelope opened to reveal a cassette tape. Alongside the tape was a folded handwritten letter. For some reason, most of the handwriting was illegible. Only the last paragraph was readable.
The words spoke of his fear and regret. Accepting Xiang Nan at the hospital was the biggest regret of his life. She was the reason the doctors were dead.
“When the day arrives, it will finally descend, and more people will die. No one can stop her anymore. She has returned…”
This missionary-style of speech confused Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng could understand ‘she has returned’. She was probably Xiang Nan. When the mad nurse lost her mind, she said the same thing.
But… ‘It will finally descend…’
Jiang Cheng didn’t get it. What was ‘it’?
Zhang Zhaowei feared ‘it’ more than he did the ghost. At that moment, Lin Wan ‘Er passed over a radio the size of a small box. There was no wire, so it should be battery-operated. Jiang Cheng gave it a try. It was still working. He put in the tape. The tape started with a bunch of white noise. Then, a man’s voice appeared.
It didn’t sound like Zhang Zhaowei. It was someone much younger, probably around 30. The thing that caught Jiang Cheng’s attention was the man’s tone. His voice trembled. He was in a small space because the echo was quite obvious.
“She did it… She did everything… Xuanxuan didn’t… die from wild dog bites. I’ve asked around. She has been married. She had a child before. However, the child also died. I checked the child’s file. They also died from wild dog attacks.”
Tsk…
“I saw the pictures. It was just like Xuanxuan!
“Their necks broke, and their heads disappeared. Those idiots told me that Xuanxuan’s head was taken away by the dogs.”
Tsk… Tsk…
Static kept interrupting the man. Jiang Cheng frowned. This felt familiar, and it unsettled him.
“Something is seriously wrong with her. I once woke up at night, and she was not in bed. I heard sounds coming from outside, so I went to check. The sounds came from the bathroom.
“As I walked over, the voice became clearer. It was her. It was Xiang Nan talking.
“I was about to ask her what she was doing up so late when I heard another person’s voice!
“Xiang Nan was not the only one inside the bathroom!
“The person’s voice was strange. It sounded like their vocal cords were damaged.
“I caught words like body… door…
“Xiang Nan sounded scared. She was begging it to let her go.
“I couldn’t hear the person’s age. I couldn’t even tell their gender.
“I was furious. I was about to barge in when I heard the toilet flushing. A few seconds later, the bathroom door opened, and Xiang Nan walked out.”