Chapter 95
Whenever Suningna recounted this bizarre incident in Central Park—a story she had told countless times over the next six months—she would always say: "The ending wasn't bad." Then, as usual, she would clasp her hands together in front of her chest and add, "Although it was the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced in my life, wasn't it, Pengfei?"
Sun Pengfei, of course, agreed. Every time Su Ningna recounted this story with great emotion to visiting relatives and friends, Sun Pengfei would sit quietly to the side, playing the role of an observer. He would sit silently in an inconspicuous corner, staring gloomily at a certain spot in the house, occasionally shaking his head or nodding, only complying when Su Ningna asked him to corroborate some small details. Sun Pengfei was very happy that Su Ningna took the initiative to shoulder most of the task of telling the story—to be precise, initially, during that autumn and winter, he was very happy that Su Ningna did so. However, after the Spring Festival of the following year, and at the same time, after he was officially promoted to general manager of the company, he began to hope that Su Ningna could talk about other things with the visiting guests.
So, on a weekend evening in May of the following year, when Suningna recounted the bizarre incident to her new friends, Sun Pengfei could no longer bear it—their new friends, the couple "Pipilu's Pi and Luxixi's Lu," were the new owners of No. 5 Napa Valley.
This oddly named couple is around the same age as Sun Pengfei, but their fame far surpasses Sun Pengfei's. While 10 years ago no one knew what this self-proclaimed "director and producer" couple did, they are now well-known content creators on Bilibili, famous for their mockuments. Even more unusual is that their mockuments specialize in haunted houses, adventures, mysterious events, and urban legends, giving the two an eerie aura. Although Sun Pengfei finds their mockuments boring, they have an incredible tens of millions of followers.
This is why they bought the "haunted house" No. 5 Napa Valley - now, in addition to the movies they filmed years ago that no one has ever seen, and the awards they won that no one has ever heard of, their Bilibili profile now includes the nonsensical phrase "Pi Ru Hu Xue Lu De Hu Zi".
In reality, ever since this internet celebrity couple signed the contract to buy No. 5 Napa Valley from Xie Yiling a few months ago, they've been constantly posting about the "bizarre" deaths that occurred in that villa on Bilibili. They repackaged the story, making it seem more like a cold case, and they've made several mockumentaries tagged with things like "#BeijingFilmAcademyBeauty", "#MafiaYoungMistress", "#MiddleClassTragedy", "#ParkMystery", and "#SoulCalling". But these mockumentaries are less about analyzing the "bizarre" cause of death of the Central Park female homeowner and more about fabricating horror stories and promoting feudal superstition.
What upset the Central Park residents even more was that the influencer couple went live on the day they moved into 5 Napa Valley. They hung red ribbons and burned incense all over the neighborhood, making it look like a movie or TV show opening ceremony. And that day, many strangely dressed visitors—like Conan, Sherlock Holmes, or even Lam Ching-ying—crowded the entire Napa Valley driveway. The new residents were completely unaware of the long-time residents' discontent with them turning Central Park into a cosplay event. The couple not only showed these oddballs on camera during the live stream, but also constantly interrupted the broadcast with jarring advertisements for the escape room game they were working on, creating chaos throughout the entire day.
Sun Pengfei loathed the internet celebrity couple, who were his age. He thought they were wasting their lives—at their age, they hadn't had children, and instead of focusing on their careers, they spent their time on Bilibili (a Chinese video-sharing website) with young people. He also felt their mockumentaries were exploiting Huang Ruoyu's fame. Furthermore, what infuriated Sun Pengfei even more was that these two had accumulated in just a few years the property and assets he had worked himself to the bone, even selling his mother's inherited school district house. Therefore, he concluded they were complete nouveau riche. This thought made Sun Pengfei even angrier: what right did they have to live in Central Park, a neighborhood frequented by the middle class?
Beyond all that, what was even more important was that when Sun Pengfei heard Su Ningna tell them the story again, he felt it was a betrayal and desecration of Cheng Shi and Huang Ruoyu. What angered him most was that Su Ningna's narration was too vivid—she was undoubtedly enjoying the pleasure of storytelling, and he even felt that Su Ningna secretly harbored a desire to become an internet celebrity.
"...The next morning, around 4 or 5 a.m., before dawn, Pengfei and I were completely stunned. Where was Xiaocheng? He wasn't answering the phone, he just wouldn't answer, and then he turned it off. We could only keep calling the town's central hospital, trying to see if Xiaocheng had gone there to complete the necessary procedures. And we had to pretend nothing was wrong in front of those two kids, it was incredibly painful. The two Cheng kids took after Xiaocheng, they were very clever, and they immediately noticed something was wrong. When I took them to breakfast, their little girl asked me, 'Auntie, is my mom coming to pick us up today?' She asked that with such a smile, you know? It was as if she knew asking that question was pointless, but she had already promised her brother so she had no choice but to ask. I almost cried then, and I could only force back my tears and say, 'Sweetie, I don't know what your mom's plans are.' That was a terrible answer, but I didn't know what else to say."
“Around 2 PM, we called the town's central hospital again. They said Xiao Cheng had just left. He had already finished all the paperwork at the hospital—the documents and procedures that need to be signed after someone's death. Then, not long after, he came to our house. He drove here; he must have gone back to the company to take care of some work-related matters. You know, Xiao Cheng holds a high position at the company, so he must have had a lot of official business to handle. As soon as he came in, I went up to him and asked, ‘Xiao Cheng, is there anything we can do for you? Don't be shy, please tell us if there's anything you need.’”
"He said it wasn't necessary, he could handle it himself. He also told us he called his older brother in Shenyang. All we knew was that his older brother was a full twelve years older than him, nothing else, because he hadn't mentioned him much before. We initially thought it was because his hometown was too poor or something, so he didn't want to talk about it, but... his older brother came the next day, driving what was that car called again? Pengfei? Cullinan, right? He had a driver, and there was another car following behind, with four or five men getting out, all in black suits and sunglasses, looking like they were there for a funeral, but it turned out they were gangsters. His brother was clearly not a respectable person. Although he looked almost exactly like Xiao Cheng, he had a murderous aura on his face, unlike Xiao Cheng's gentle demeanor. If you ask me, you two really need to be careful when you're making videos again, that Cheng Guo is definitely not someone to mess with."
"Let's not talk about that. That day, I told Xiaocheng, 'You can stay at our house tonight. You can't take the children home alone.' He agreed. He said he would stay, but before that, he wanted to drive them around to tell them about Xiaohuang. Then he took the two children away. To be honest, this was a scene I've never witnessed in my life. It was so painful, I'll never forget it. You know what? That night, after Xiaocheng brought the children back, Shanshan actually told me, 'Auntie, I have something to tell you. My mom went to heaven, and my dad took us to the city for dinner.' The two children were already in bed, and I was putting them to sleep. Do you know that feeling? That girl is already nine years old, not a little kid who doesn't understand anything, but when she said that, it was so... so light and airy..."
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