Escape from the Thriller World – Chapter 9
by Little PandaVolume One: The Old Corpse in the Mountain Village
Human or Ghost
Has the whole family disappeared?
Ning Lan was half-asleep, lying in bed when she heard the sound of marbles rolling upstairs.
“Tick-tock, tick-tock…” The sound kept going on and on above her, and Ning Lan, being a light sleeper, was naturally woken up by it.
Hearing any strange noises at night was just this building’s special hobby.
Ning Lan remembered the rules, so she covered her ears and forced herself to sleep on her side.
At three in the morning, Watanabe Keiko called again. Ning Lan hung up on her. She just wouldn’t stop!
Watanabe Keiko sent another text: “Ghost… I saw a ghost, and there was a murder!”
Ning Lan didnβt take the message seriously. She sarcastically said, “Maybe she took too much melatonin and started hallucinating again.”
Ning Lan tossed and turned, unable to sleep. She kept thinking that ever since they moved into this Tong Lau, it felt like they were missing something important.
“Bang…” came the sound of something falling in the living room.
Could something really be happening?
Have the ghosts come for them?
Ning Lan kicked off the covers, put on her slippers, and decided to check it out. She opened the room door and found broken glass all over the floor. Shen Qingyou was there with a broom, cleaning up the mess.
She apologized, saying, “Sorry, my hand shook.”
Ning Lan took a deep breath and said, “It’s okay, I’m going back to sleep.”
By 3:30, Ning Lan couldn’t hold on any longer and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
In her dream, Ning Lan heard the sound of that paper doll singing a nursery rhyme again. Following the source of the sound, she saw the paper doll holding the hand of a woman in a white dress.
The paper doll whined to the woman, “Mom, my tummy hurts so much. What did you give Jia Jia to eat…”
The woman in white comforted Jia Jia, saying, “Jia Jia, Mommy gave you vitamin tablets to help you grow strong!”
“Mommy… Jia Jia hurts so much, my tummy feels like it’s going to burst,” Jia Jia’s little mouth moved as she described her pain.
The woman held a pair of scissors in her hand and grinned wickedly, saying, “Mommy will help Jia Jia take out the bad stuff from your tummy right now!”
“Mommy, no, ugh… it hurts,” the paper doll moaned in pain.
Ning Lan stepped forward to stop the woman in white, but the woman had already grabbed the paper doll by the neck, stabbing its belly repeatedly with scissors.
She turned her head and gave Ning Lan a creepy smile.
Her face was twisted and burned, stitched all over with needles. Her scalp looked as if it had been reattached, and her eyes were sunken, oozing pus.
The woman in white was different from the burned daughter in Liang Xiu’s painting; she seemed to be living in hell!
The woman in white slowly stepped forward, inching closer to Ning Lan, wielding the scissors as she lunged at her!
Ning Lan woke up startled by the dream. She reached for her phone under the lamp and glanced at it: 7 o’clock.
By 7 in the summer, it was already a bit light outside, so Ning Lan pulled open the curtains.
She then opened the window to let in some fresh air, reminding herself it was just a dream.
Looking down, Ning Lan saw a police car parked in front of the Tong Lau, with its lights still flashing.
The police had arrived at the Tong Lau and were sealing off the 10th floor.
Wearing white gloves, they were setting up yellow tape, while Watanabe Keiko, crying and pointing at the apartment on the 10th floor, said, “A ghost! I saw a ghost, it killed him…”
An officer was taking notes on Watanabe Keiko’s account of what she saw and heard, as she recalled the events of the previous night.
“He dragged me up to the 10th floor last night to do that thing… I said I wanted to go back to get some clothes, and when I came back, I turned around and he was dead in there,” Watanabe Keiko said after a moment.
Sun Er Pao, that lecherous scoundrel, took advantage of Wei Jinye’s absence while he was off enjoying himself at a high-end club, sneaking Watanabe Keiko up to the 10th-floor lounge.
Sun Er Pao, daring as ever, probably wasn’t doing this for the first time; he had brought quite a few women up there before.
The police looked at Sun Er Pao, dead on the bed, lying in a “big character” shape (resembling the character ‘倧’ which means ‘big’), with dilated pupils, as if he had seen something terrifying before he died.
Sun Er Pao’s back was stabbed more than ten times by the ghost, with ugly, gaping blood holes punctured into his back.
They couldn’t verify the truth of Watanabe Keiko’s story since the Tong Lau hadn’t installed surveillance cameras yet, but the rumors of the building being haunted had always been there.
“We still need to investigate what you said, so why didn’t you call the police at the time?” the officer asked Watanabe Keiko.
Watanabe Keiko pointed to Xu Sanduo and said, “I was so scared that I went to find the security guard for help. He told me not to make a fuss and to wait until daylight to call the police.”
Xu Sanduo stepped up and said, “Officer, that’s true. Around 4 o’clock, she came to me crying, and I told her to stay in the security room and wait until morning.”
Watanabe Keiko was still wrapped in a thick coat, trembling all over.
Terrified, she said, “Officer, you should get a Taoist priest to check out this Tong Lau!”
The officer finished taking notes and said, “Our police force will investigate this thoroughly.”
Sun Er Pao’s body was carried out by the police, with the bloody holes on his back looking horrifying. Ning Lan noticed that his limbs had also been severed, and the cuts were too neat.
Could a ghost do something like this? It might as well have just clawed out his heart for a quicker end.
Unnoticed, Ning Lan found herself standing on one side of the 10th-floor hallway, as if she could see through everything.
Watanabe Keiko’s deceitful trick to fool the police couldn’t hide the traces of her botched actions.
Sending a message to Ning Lan in the early hours was a deliberate move to make her believe in the existence of the “ghost”, intending to use her as a witness.
Xu Sanduo, the head of security, also became one of her witnesses. She used the “ghost” story to cover up the fact that she committed the murder.
Ning Lan had already seen through Watanabe Keiko’s flawed scheme.
“You noticed something was off too, didn’t you?” Shen Qingyao’s cold voice suddenly emerged from behind her.
Shen Qingyao, who had studied psychology, noticed earlier that when Watanabe Keiko was talking to the police, her nose turned pale.
A person’s nose can “speak” (meaning it can reveal emotions); trembling of the nose is a sign of nervousness, so expressions involving the nose can provide clues about one’s psychological state.
In psychology, a pale nose indicates that the person is experiencing guilt or hesitation.
Ning Lan turned her head to see Shen Qingyao’s face and said, “Yes. It’s not a ghost, it was done by a person.”
“Tonight, we will confront Watanabe Keiko,” Shen Qingyao said.
“The rules of the Tong Lau need her to break them; we’ll lure her into Ah B’s place,” Ning Lan said, looking up.
Ning Lan and Shen Qingyao formed a temporary strategic partnership to set a trap, waiting for Watanabe Keiko to take the bait.
Now everyone in the building is a “suspect” in the eyes of the police, and they’ve been told they can’t leave the Kowloon area of Hong Kong.
Their side mission is to get the bronze mirror from Ah B’s place on the 18th floor, and Ning Lan needs to find a way to approach the old man first.
Ning Lan remembered the helpful Aunt Wang from last night, so she bought some groceries in the city and went to visit her.
Aunt Wang, seeing Ning Lan with the groceries, beamed and said, “You didn’t have to bring anything when you came!”
Ning Lan handed the groceries to Aunt Wang and said, “It was too late last night, so I didn’t open the door. Now I’m bringing some groceries to apologize to you, Aunt Wang!”
Aunt Wang wasn’t the type to hold grudges; she kept saying that they were neighbors now, and she pulled Ning Lan inside to sit.
With a sweet tongue, Ning Lan chatted with Aunt Wang, asking about the building. Aunt Wang whispered to her, “The family in the apartment you’re staying at vanished without a trace; it’s really strange.”
Ning Lan gently asked, “Aunt Wang, please tell me more so I can have some peace of mind living there.”
Aunt Wang told the story in detail, and it was indeed eerie. The family on the 18th floor disappeared overnight as if they vanished from the face of the earth.
“What about the police? Didn’t they find any trace of them?” Ning Lan asked further.
“Back then, Kowloon wasn’t covered with surveillance cameras, so how could they find them? The police had no choice but to leave empty-handed,” Aunt Wang said, shaking her head.
A breeze came through the window, and Aunt Wang shivered.
βThree feet above your head, there are gods,β and Aunt Wang is a Buddhist.
As she spoke, Aunt Wang lit some incense and bowed to the Guanyin Bodhisattva statue on the low table in the living room.
Ning Lan chatted with Aunt Wang a bit more about the old man, who wouldn’t be back until 7 o’clock.
The whole family vanished?
With this question in mind, Ning Lan went back upstairs to find the disc she hadn’t played yet.
The disc slowly slid into the CD player, and some fragmented images appeared on the black-and-white TV.
This disc had parts deliberately erased, possibly leaving some clues.
Ning Lan gave up on the disc and searched the apartment for any other clues related to the family but found nothing.
Just as Ning Lan was feeling troubled, Shen Qingyao came out of the master bedroom holding a sketchbook and said, “You’re looking for this, right? I found it under the cabinet last night.”
Ning Lan stepped forward to check the sketchbook. It showed several twisted adults pinning a long-haired woman down on a table.
One person on the right side had a shiny diamond hanging around their neck.
This large diamond was colored in with a yellow crayon, making it stand out awkwardly.
It was clearly a simple drawing by a child.
A yellow diamond?
Could it be the gold chain that Wei Jinye wears around his neck!
“I think I know now. This Wei Jinye is definitely suspicious,” Ning Lan confidently took the disc and said.
It was still early, so Ning Lan arranged to meet Wei Jinye for some iced lemon tea.
When Wei Jinye heard that his subordinate Sun Er Pao was in trouble, he hurried back from βHeaven on Earth”.
Wei Jinye, shaking his legs nervously, didn’t dare to go up to the 10th floor anymore. Ning Lan patted him on the shoulder and said, “Wei Jinye, are you scared now? It’s time to tell me about the skeletons in your closet.β
Wei Jinye, looking tense, said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Ning Lan placed the disc on the table and said, “The family on the 18th floor recorded all your dirty deeds on this disc. Aren’t you curious?”
With dry, cracked lips, Wei Jinye said, “What are you talking about? I, Wei Jinye, have always been upright and honest.”
“The disappearance of that family on the 18th floor is connected to you, Wei Jinye. Don’t think you can deny it,” Ning Lan blurted out.
“They were all extortionists, and I just had my men take care of them,” Wei Jinye continued.
“Tell the truth, or I’ll hand this disc over to the police right away,” Ning Lan said righteously.
“What can the police do to me if you hand it over? I’m a well-known figure in Hong Kong,” Wei Jinye replied, challenging Ning Lan to go to the authorities.
Ning Lan had hoped to get Wei Jinye to confess using the disc, but it seemed she had failed.
Wei Jinye had seen all kinds of trouble before, and he wasn’t fazed by Ning Lan’s tactics.
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