Dancing Neighbors (Part 2)
Xu You's guess was exactly what the two older nurses on duty had vaguely sensed was wrong.
Just like my childhood playmate and the ketchup and blood stains on the floor of the shabby house that looked like a prank, things came to an abrupt end, and Dr. Xiao Hu from many years ago did not wait for the real follow-up to that call for help.
She and the two nurses on duty called the police and tried their best to cooperate with the investigation. However, the comrade who came to investigate picked up the phone and said "ah" in confusion before he even looked up the call log. He turned around and asked her:
"You said the person who reported the crime might have called you by mistake?"
Doctor Xiao Hu felt something was wrong, "Yeah, what happened?" The numbers were all three-digit numbers. He hurriedly dialed 110 to 120. It was possible that it was dark.
The comrade was about to say something but stopped himself. He simply took out his cell phone and dialed the number on the landline. Soon the phone rang with a ringtone and an eight-digit number starting with the local area code 026.
Doctor Xiao Hu was stunned.
"I come here often," the comrade said helplessly, "Big sister, you have several landlines here. The numbers are linked to your hospital's broadband network. I have specially enabled recording. I only use it when I visit patients and handle complaints. Outsiders can't find it, so it's quite troublesome to call in."
"It's a long list, and it's not like in the past when every household had a thick yellow pages book to record phone numbers. It's a bit far-fetched to say that it was a wrong call."
The comrade in charge was probably afraid that his words might cause misunderstanding, so he comforted her in a gentle voice, "It's no wonder you didn't expect it. There's a bank branch at the end of the street that's the same. The service phone in the hall is a local landline number, which has nothing to do with the official phone number. People often mistake them for scammers, and the police station has been called there more than once or twice because of a misunderstanding."
"What I mean is, is it possible that someone has a complaint with your hospital and they called back to play a joke on you?"
Doctor Xiao Hu hadn't recovered yet and subconsciously said anxiously, "But I've received more than one or two wrong calls before. How can you just say it's a joke without even checking? What if something really happens to a child that old..."
Before he finished speaking, he was stunned for a moment. It seemed that the wrong calls he had received before were made on other landlines, not this one.
The comrade who was in charge had a good temper. He let her vent her anxiety before introducing himself as Zhang, saying that he had come into contact with many strange things and that he specialized in dealing with them. He had no intention of being negligent or perfunctory.
Seeing that the other party was not impatient, Doctor Xiao Hu calmed down and said a little embarrassedly: "So, did you find anything else?"
The comrade waved his hand to indicate that everything was fine, and explained that they had checked the late-night call and that the number that Dr. Xiao Hu and the others had reported did exist. The owner lived on the sixth floor and the phone had been in use normally.
By the way, Dr. Xiao Hu had met the other person once before. He was the unlucky office worker who came to get stitches for a broken head a few days ago.
"Him? Isn't that patient still in our hospital? He complained of dizziness and had to be hospitalized for two days, and asked us to help him write a medical record as a leave note."
Doctor Xiao Hu was surprised and checked the records at the front desk. He found that a staff member on duty had called this number a few days ago to notify the patient's family. He probably used the wrong phone. But the call was not answered at that time.
"It's normal that the call didn't go through," the clerk said. "The patient lives alone and has no children. Of course, no one was at home these two days. Moreover, his building is a single unit with a wall across the door. The neighbors' doors are all on the other side, so no one can break open the door or the wall and go in to dance in the dark."
In other words, no matter which house the little girl who made the call was in, there was no way she could get in and use the phone.
"We also sent people to check out the situation that the reporter described. The person living upstairs in his house is a night owl. He was playing online games quietly at that time that night. He was very energetic and even got up to go out and buy cigarettes. He repeatedly said that if there was such a loud noise, he would definitely notice it at the first time."
Doctor Xiao Hu was not discouraged: "What about the neighbor's house?"
"There is indeed a little girl of preschool age in the neighbor's home," the comrade in charge answered every question. "Our staff has also asked about this, and the little girl has no memory of these things. It seems that she just happened to be of the same age, and has nothing to do with this matter."
He pointed to the landline phone and said, "I need to take this one back and have a look at it. I also need to pull out the recordings."
After that, he called his colleagues to record the interrogation of Dr. Xiaohu and the two nurses on duty, sealed the phone and was about to leave.
Doctor Xiao Hu shuddered, and his body was one step faster than his brain, and he had already caught up with him. "Who... who are you? You're not from the police station, right? Are you going to just label this a misunderstanding and let it go without a conclusion?"
The man stopped and looked at her, suddenly revealing his evil nature, and said in a teasing tone, "Sister, things have really stopped when it comes to you."
Doctor Xiao Hu couldn't let it go, and she felt a little breathless when she asked herself. She studied hard to save lives, but now, a call for help directly to her is hard to respond. Knowing that a child might be in danger, can she just give up? How can this be worthy of the oath she made when she studied medicine?
She made up her mind and asked seriously, "What should I do so that I can continue to participate in this matter?"
The clerk surnamed Zhang was a little surprised. He looked at her deeply, as if he remembered an acquaintance with a similar temperament. He said meaningfully, "When you are destined to meet someone with the surname Zhang."
"——When you are destined to be born, you will also be surnamed Zhang," Wu Chou interrupted suspiciously, "Who is this big-tailed wolf who doesn't speak human language? Doctor Hu, is this how you were abducted to our Zhang family and sent to the instructor's hands?"
Dr. Hu was very thorough in her work. She explained everything in an orderly manner and told me that the child was eventually rescued and was fine, but the mystery still remained and she still didn't know the cause and effect.
Then he said unhappily: "The one who showed me the way? He's in the car."
We all said "oh" and the atmosphere became relaxed. Without any hesitation, we turned our eyes to Xu You with condemnation on our faces.
The old thief blinked his eyes and pretended to be dumb, "What? My nephew's surname is Xu. What does the surname Zhang have to do with me?" He shamelessly pointed at Zhang Tianyi who was concentrating on driving, "Why don't you say it was him? Is this guy honest?"
How old were you at that time? Are you trying to pass the buck to the elementary school students?
I was speechless. Zhang Tianyi's laughter told me to stop quibbling. He was the only one who cheated and deceived people and brought them back. Who else would go out without using their real name? In our car alone, at least three people were cheated by him.
Sure enough, I heard Doctor Hu say coldly: "The team leader patted his chest and told me that his name was Zhang Jia."
The top henchman Zhang Jia was not surprised at all and said "oh" and looked at Xu You quietly, as if he had no idea that he was being impersonated again.
At this point, we finally caught someone who could confess. We all became more alert, our eyes wide open, and demanded that Xu You confess quickly so that we would be rewarded with leniency.
Lian Sanyi looked at Xu You silently several times. I understood that look. The general meaning was that he was criticizing: a person who had personally experienced it, who just pretended to be discussing it with us enthusiastically, is just sitting there guessing. Is this person immoral?
“…I didn’t say that.”
Sanyi looked at me in silence, feeling helpless and confused. I waved my hand generously and said, "Why are you being polite? We are a family and I think what you think. It's about the same as rounding off."
Sanyi had no choice but to shut up again, feeling a little tired, and it seemed like he was forced to be silent by me.
I was quite satisfied when I saw him, and thought to myself that bastard like Zhang Tianyi talks too much and is always laughing for no reason. He is like a villain who may turn evil and perverted at any time, which is not good for the future development of our team.
This is great, as a brother, Sanyi has no choice but to take on the image of a cold and cool brother. He can also act evil and crazy occasionally if he has the chance. You can tell at first glance that he is an expert among experts, and it is so intimidating to take him out.
The "indifferent cool guy" ignored me and was so anxious that he went to touch the cat, like a tired and world-weary office worker who resisted attending meetings. He touched Dongzai so hard that he was so happy that he purred and burped.
As the little fat cat burped, that old fox Xu You was still making excuses, saying that he really didn't know the truth. When the matter was investigated to that point, they had indeed lost all clues.
Later, seeing that there was no result, he handed the matter over to his black-faced evil old captain Yan Mo, and went out again to look for mountains and rivers to coax good seedlings.
When I mention Old Yan, I feel a little guilty.
My omnipotent housekeeper is so busy every day that he almost flies. He works hard for everything and even sends people to manage my shop to make it prosperous.
Last time, he promised me that he would give me half an hour to check and compare the bodies in the morgue. But the banyan tree appeared and the ground shook. It was said that at the same time, there was a slight tremor in the ground at Zhang's Hospital. When everyone came to their senses, the walls were cracked everywhere and the remains of the dead disappeared like wandering rats.
Although I have speculated that some of the rats in the wall came from the dead in the morgue, the wanderers and their experimental victims, it is ultimately my conjecture and not hard evidence.
Now the matter has been investigated with great effort but there is no result, and it has become an unsolved case. Although Yan Mo did not show any abnormality, he must be in a very bad mood.
By the time all of us were rushed to the hospital with bleeding bodies, according to Doctor Hu, Yan Mo also found a ward and rested alone for two days.
Now I have to go to the trouble of mobilizing a large number of people to trouble Old Yan for a long-standing unsolved case. Even I feel a little guilty. I asked Captain Yan how he was feeling and whether he was still depressed. I felt indescribable remorse and shame in my heart.
Xu You looked at me strangely:
"Why should he be depressed when he is resting these days? When he was Yan Er, he was busy one day and rested five days. It was not easy for you to rescue him. Since then, he has been busy like a top all day long and can't save his face. That's why he is depressed."
You're welcome to help me call Yan Mo.
Five minutes later, Yan Mo answered the call. His face was still cold and expressionless during the video call, and he looked like the kind of behind-the-scenes boss who would never retire.
But his face seemed to be much rosier, and he was still very concise at the beginning, asking me what I wanted.
Now I turned my head to look at Sanyi who was forced to be aloof, and then looked at Dr. Hu who was actively leaving work. Suddenly, I was inspired and thought, God, no way, Xu You is not fooling me? Could it be that Old Yan is the first victim of image burden? In order to prevent my beautiful expectations from being shattered, how much did he endure alone?
It turns out that the dignified Yantou has always been quiet, not because he doesn't like to talk, but because he is always tense and doesn't have the energy to say more. Is this the heavy price to pay for the transformation from Yan Er to Captain Yan and for not being a greasy middle-aged man?
Yan Mo was somewhat puzzled: "Consultant?"
I quickly shook my head, shaking off all of Xu Youda's nonsense, and quickly gave him a summary of our reminiscing session.
He thought for a moment. "That's true, and it's been resolved. But it may not be what you think."
"The case of the child was just an ordinary kidnapping and missing case. She didn't dare to call the police because the man deliberately wore a security patrol uniform to confuse people when he sneaked into the residential building. For a child of that age, it is difficult to tell the difference between a police uniform and she didn't dare to describe the man's features in detail."
"It was the first time for that group of people to commit crimes on the run, and they were very panicked when they were caught by our guys."
I was surprised and asked, if that was the case, what were those gods and ghosts that didn't correspond to each other? Why were these strange people so panicked?
"That's where the problem lies. They are ordinary people with flesh and blood, and they don't have any magic. They were even in a state of panic and confronted the little girl for a long time. They also didn't know what the so-called dancing neighbors and various strange phenomena described by the little girl were about."
The muscles on Yan Mo's face moved, as if he wanted to laugh. He said that from the perspective of that group of stupid thieves, what they told him was an absurd, terrifying, funny and stupid game.
Before telling me this stupid thief farce, he asked me a question.
Ask me if there is some kind of murder in this world that is more arbitrary than the miracle of the banyan tree, just like the cartoons that children watch, where people can come back to life and return to their original state, enemies who were fighting with each other a second ago can instantly reconcile and become as close as family, and wounds that were fatal can be wiped away with a single touch.
Even the blood of the dead on the ground can be warm and sour and sweet, just like ketchup.
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