Chapter 72 Camera
Tu Lanxun heard Bai Chao yell, "Something's coming in!"
Tu Lanxun couldn't see it, and neither could the ghosts, but a chilling feeling frightened them.
Bai Xiaoju hid Tu Lanxun behind him, but a chilling feeling invaded from all sides. The sky outside the window darkened, and the light in the office seemed to have been turned off with a single click.
"I can't see anything." Liu Maosheng said nervously.
Tu Lanxun opened her mouth and closed it again, and she saw it.
There were four or five dark shadows crawling along the ceiling. Their shapes could not be seen clearly, but they were all ghosts without exception.
Ghosts in the field.
"There's one there, and there's one here too." Tu Lanxun gritted his teeth and said quickly.
Her words seemed to illuminate the ghosts present. They adjusted their positions instantly. N's palms crushed something, and with a "click", water suddenly gathered on the ceiling, forming a stream that dripped down like rain.
Although Tu Lanxun was not clear about it, she could feel that another field was expanding silently and devouring the original field here.
And N has the upper hand.
Something in the air was buzzing and vibrating, and even Liu Maosheng, Bai Chao and others around him began to tremble. The smell of rain mixed with the smell of actinomycetes dust and the fresh scent of lush vegetation spread throughout the space.
The originally dry and fishy place was pressed down by rain and grass.
"Do you want to run out?" Bai Xiaoju took advantage of the protection of the rain and ran to open the door cleverly.
"No need." N said with a cold face, "Continue to point out their location."
Tu Lanxun realized that these words were spoken to her. She tried to open her eyes wide. Her vision was washed extremely clear by the rain, and she saw it.
"There's one above us, two at eleven and six-thirty, and a tiny one at the door that I can't quite make out. Be careful!"
Bai Xiaoju crouched down instantly as the blurry shadow leaped over her head. N, Bai Chao, and Liu Maosheng attacked instantly, the latter two colliding with the two incoming shadows, while N vanished from the spot.
He himself seemed to have turned into a drop of black rain, constantly flashing around the rain curtain, and there was a sound of tearing and collision every time it landed.
Tu Lanxun could see clearly that those blurry human figures were knocked around like N gyroscopes, and they all dimmed a little, and retreated to the side in fear.
N said, "Show up, come out and talk now, we can still be friends."
But the ghost shadows did not move at all. They retreated as quietly as they attacked. This was their territory. Although they could not defeat N, they could not be easily left behind.
The room became bright again.
The door unlocked automatically with a click and opened a crack.
Liu Maosheng: "Surrender? Let us go?"
Tu Lanxun stood in front of his desk and shook his head: "No, they gave a clue."
There is a thin digital camera on the desk.
"It has a very dead smell." Bai Chao said, "It's a style from at least ten years ago."
Tu Lanxun raised an eyebrow. Seeing the ghosts didn't object, he wrapped his digital camera in a tissue and picked it up. The battery had long since died. He took a picture and sent it to the computer ghost. She replied, "You can find a suitable charging cable at the secondhand market."
The moisture in the air quickly dissipated, but due to the influence of the rain that had just fallen out of nowhere, there were some more traces on the ground.
In addition to the movement trajectory of Tu Lanxun and his group, there were many messy footprints, or they could not be called footprints.
Some were barefoot prints of the soles and toes; some seemed to be wearing strange slippers with triangular striped soles, slapping on the walls and the ground; there were also some scattered fish-scale marks.
"There's no mermaid here, is there?" Tu Lanxun said, "Look at that triangular shoe print. Does it look like a fish tail?"
N stood aside, his face paler because of the forced rain, but the paleness did not make him look weak, but even more terrifying.
The cracks on the surface of his eyeballs reflected a dim light, making his eyes look like dusty broken glass beads, which matched the dilapidated house very well.
"Maybe." He squeezed out three words from between his teeth, then walked to Tu Lanxun and looked deeply into Tu Lanxun's eyes with his sharp eyes again, as if trying to find some mystery in them.
Tu Lanxun raised his hands in surrender: "I really don't know why I can see."
Even N, Bai Chao and other ghosts couldn't see the ghosts in the field, but she could see vague shapes.
She can even use the ghost-hunting pocket watch with ease.
She also has "Mikhail's elbows."
Tu Lanxun's mind began to automatically write a novel. Could it be that she was actually a ghost even more powerful than N? For example, she took over this body midway and inherited the other person's memory, while she herself lost her memory...
Shaking off these ridiculous thoughts, Tu Lanxun realized that N had left. He bent down to look at the marks on the door for several seconds, then looked back at her and said, "Cat."
Sure enough, there was a thin row of cat's plum-shaped footprints at the door, all of which were visible due to the rain.
That was the thing that just jumped over Bai Xiaoju's head.
"Can cats become ghosts?" she asked.
Liu Maosheng smiled and said, "There's a certain probability. Animals also have souls."
After most animals become souls, they are directly "reincarnated" - they are integrated into the origin of the world's consciousness. They are not like humans who have concerns, hatreds and grudges, and are very free and easy.
But some will stay, usually in their own homes, and will not leave the range of their activities in life. They like to accompany their own human or animal companions.
So which spirit kitten left the footprints? Was it the one raised in the rising sea, or a stray one nearby?
Tu Lanxun guessed that it might be a stray cat. After all, this is a precious aquatic product viewing center. What if the cat stretches out its claws to catch fish?
"Let's go first." N said. There were still three floors that had not been explored, but since a digital camera was entrusted to him by the ghosts here, it was equivalent to a deal between the two parties.
They decided to figure out the clues first, and then come back to hand in the task in exchange for the other party's voluntary appearance.
The group went downstairs. Perhaps N's previous battle had broken the outer layer of the field, and the previously invisible dust and footprints were all revealed.
Tu Lanxun suddenly realized that the little thing that always appeared near them was the tip of a cat's tail.
They were previously spied on by a little cat ghost.
"Mimi, mimi, mimi come here." When going out, Bai Xiaoju suddenly stopped and turned around to wave.
Tu Lanxun followed suit and saw a kitten's face, half visible from behind the large fish tank, gazing at them stealthily. It was a cat with a very mixed coat, mostly gray and black, but with swirls of red, yellow, brown, and white covering its body, like a tornado sweeping through a field of wormwood.
Is this a tortoiseshell cat? It doesn't seem to be one. No one can tell what breed it is.
The yellow-green eyes looked at them warily.
"Mimi, mimi." Bai Xiaoju was still seducing the kitten.
Everyone waited for her for a while, but the two sides were like two armies facing each other. Bai Xiaoju talked until her lips were worn out, but the cat didn't move. Bai Chao patted her head and said, "Okay, you can see it again next time you come."
They continued to walk outside, stepping over the lush weeds. The hawking sounds from the distant vegetable market could be heard faintly. Outside was the world of the living. Tu Lanxun pinched Bai Xiaoju's fingers as a comfort.
Just as they were about to leave the courtyard, a "meow" suddenly came from behind them.
Looking back, I saw the mixed-haired kitten quietly following Tu Lanxun and the others, unexpectedly following them all the way. It was slightly bent forward, like a little hunter about to sneak up on big prey.
The cat stared at them with wide eyes, not embarrassed at all at being discovered, and swept its tail behind it.
Bai Xiaoju was so happy that he opened his hands and said, "Mimi!"
The mixed-haired kitten took two quick steps forward and followed the group of people, circling around and tripping them from time to time.
Until they returned to the silver-gray Jetta under the three trees and the car door opened, Bai Xiaoju looked at the little cat ghost nervously. The little cat jumped into the car very familiarly and took a seat.
They just "kidnapped" the kitten.
#
Back at the convenience store, business was as good as ever. The computer ghost was scanning the codes of the products behind the cash register. A program was running in the background of the computer, and lines of code appeared from behind the POS system page.
"Bi...the surveillance files of that place are severely damaged." said the computer ghost.
The cat ghost followed into the store with a swagger, sniffing around like a small cash register. Its arrival was welcomed by the ghosts of the customers, who immediately started to make a "buzz, buzz" sound.
Tu Lanxun handed her the digital camera and took over the cashier position. The mixed-haired cat jumped to the side, stood up, and used its claws to hook the bronze lynx behind the cigarette box.
Mikhail was so angry that he yelled, "What are you doing? Take your claws away! I'm allergic to cat hair."
It's a pity that no one in this store sympathized with him.
The store emptied out a bit after a wave of customers left. The computer ghost finally finished organizing the surveillance video files and said, "That's all."
A total of twelve videos could be recovered, some long and some short, the shortest being only a dozen hours long and the longest lasting four or five days.
All the videos were taken six years ago.
The computer ghost explained, "This type of monitoring system should automatically reappear every six months."
"Can you play the last clip?" Tu Lanxun asked. "Is it the video from the day the Bi Hai Chao Sheng incident happened?"
The computer ghost retrieved the latest period of time, which was 72 hours and 51 minutes.
"I don't know if it happened on the day of the accident." It is now a consensus that an accident occurred at the Bi Hai Chao Sheng Rare Aquatic Products Viewing Center.
A group of ghosts and Tu Lanxun gathered in front of the computer and started watching the video.
Surveillance videos are actually very boring. They are fixed scenes with only people coming in and out.
The video starts in the morning with the sun shining brightly, but when you fast forward twenty minutes, no one appears.
"Their business isn't that good," said Liu Maosheng.
The time on the screen reached eleven o'clock, and finally two women in work suits walked over together. They should be employees of Bi Hai Chao Sheng, and it seemed that they were going to have lunch.
Suddenly, a car drove in from outside the yard and a man got out.
A man also appeared at the bottom of the screen. Everyone knew him, Hu Haisheng.
The person who got off the car was wearing a mask and a hat. As soon as he appeared, he slapped Hu Haisheng hard.
The last time I saw Hu Haisheng, he was still a respectable boss on the Internet. I didn’t expect that he would be slapped in the face when he appeared this time.
The slap was very heavy, and Hu Haisheng, a middle-aged man, staggered to the side. The surveillance footage was not enough to see his expression clearly, but he just covered his face and did not show any anger.
"Pause, zoom in, can you fix it?" Tu Lanxun asked.
The computer ghost held a chocolate biscuit in her mouth and clicked the mouse. The bodies of Hu Haisheng and the mysterious man were enlarged separately. She tapped the keyboard for a while, and the picture became clear as if it had been scanned by a laser.
"There may be slight deviations in the repair." The computer ghost reported.
There was indeed no anger on Hu Haisheng's face due to being insulted. On the contrary, his expression was a mixture of three completely different emotions: fear, relief, and excitement.
It was as if he was facing something terrifying, and the arrival of the mysterious man made it possible to finally solve the problem, so he seemed to relieve all the pressure in his body.
The mysterious man's figure was unfamiliar. All that could be seen was that he was a man. The rest was hidden behind the baseball cap and mask. He also wore a hood on his coat, so even his hairstyle could not be seen clearly.
"It's morning glory." said N.
Qianniu slapped Hu Haisheng? Qianniu's status is unexpectedly high.
The video then moves on to show Qianniu and Hu Haisheng entering the gate and disappearing from the screen. Only the fifth floor of the building has surveillance cameras, but unfortunately, the latest time of the surveillance footage on the fifth floor is earlier than this video.
"See when Morning Glory left." Tu Lanxun said.
However, after fast-forwarding through the 48-hour video—they sat in front of their computers until evening—there was no sign of Qianniu leaving. Hu Haisheng also did not appear.
They either left through another exit or didn't leave at all.
Could it be that two days and two nights are not enough for Qianniu to solve the problem he came here to solve?
As of the end of the video time, there was no unusual movement in Bi Hai Chao Sheng. If there was any movement, it was probably due to the number of employees.
Bi Hai Chao Sheng had too few employees, only two women and two men, far from enough to take up half a floor of office space. They didn't have many customers either; we only had two waves, each of whom stayed in for two hours before leaving.
But Tu Lanxun noticed that a freight van had gone in and out of here twice.
The van's windows were covered with privacy film, and the driver was a petite woman among the four employees. From the angle of the gate, I couldn't see what she was transporting because there was no cargo being moved in or out of the gate.
"Can I check the license plate number?" Tu Lanxun asked.
The computer ghost didn't know what system she had hacked into. After typing twice, she said, "Okay, deck."
There is more than one car with the same license plate in Lucheng, all of which are small cargo vans.
Tu Lanxun's heart sank.
"How about sending it to Officer Li?" Bai Chao suggested. She had already heard about Li Ao's visit. "It's better to ask the police to intervene than just blindly investigating here."
Tu Lanxun thought it made sense.
Meanwhile, Bai Xiaoju threatened a mixed-hair cat ghost to let her pet the chicken breast in exchange for some original chicken breast. The cat ghost grabbed the chicken breast and ran away. Bai Xiaoju's hand was suspended in mid-air: "Hey, there's something on its neck!"
The little cat ghost was quickly caught by N. There was indeed a loose red rope hanging around its neck with a note tied to it.
The paper was A4 office paper, tinged with yellow, and the words were written in ink, a bright red that was eye-catching.
Four words.
Don't call the police.
The mixed-haired little cat ghost looked at them and said, "Meow."
This little thing was actually sent to monitor them!
Tu Lanxun and others looked at each other in bewilderment, only to see the little traitor with a long tail jumping between the shelves, staring at them with a pair of eyes. Whenever anyone showed signs of raising the alarm, it would stretch out its legs and kick away a random item.
"It's okay if we don't call the police yet," Tu Lanxun said unwillingly. "Let's go back with our camera and find the ghost in the rising tide of the blue sea. Once we have some clues, we'll tell Officer Li."
The mixed-haired little cat ghost shook his whiskers with satisfaction.
There were still several videos to watch, and this arduous yet significant task was assigned to N, the meticulous and sharp-eyed, and Bai Xiaoju. Tu Lanxun and the computer ghost began to study the camera.
"Before you came back, I called an express delivery within the city," the computer ghost said stiffly. After waiting for five minutes, a courier arrived. But he didn't dare enter the development zone, waiting only for the recipient at the edge of the city.
Tu Lanxun drove over to pick it up and paid cash on delivery. The courier grumbled rather embarrassedly, "You were too quick! If I had seen the address clearly, I wouldn't have come even if I had paid you."
The charger was taken back, and the camera had been idle for too long. It took five minutes of plugging it in before the charging icon lit up.
The computer ghost said slowly: "This camera doesn't support plugging in. It needs to be charged for at least half an hour before it can be used."
N and Bai Xiaoju were still watching the video, the two ghosts, one large and one small, looking eerie in the light of the computer. Tu Lanxun stood up, ready to wash his hands and help Liu Maosheng make dinner.
She put a basket of tomatoes into the sink and turned on the faucet, but did not feel the water flow. She turned the knob back with one hand, and N's figure appeared beside her, and the fresh fragrance of grass and trees from the night grave enveloped her from above.
Every time I smell this scent, Tu Lanxun wants to close his eyes.
"I'll do it," he said, his sleeves rolled up above his elbows.
The surveillance video showed Mikhail being caught. Bai Xiaoju was also taken away by N to help peel garlic. Tu Lanxun was incredulous: "You use child labor to cook."
N had his back to her, chopping vegetables with a knife, his skills as precise as a machine: "Children, looking at the computer for too long will damage their eyes."
Tu Lanxun wanted to say that Bai Xiaoju’s eyes would not be damaged, and all her conditions were frozen at the moment of death, but in the end, Tu Lanxun just smiled.
Okay, then she goes to check the surveillance.
"Mikhail is very meticulous when he is serious." N's voice came, and Tu Lanxun stopped.
His voice mingled with the running water, sounding refined and clear, as he said, "Help me tie my apron."
N does not take off his black leather gloves when cooking. He puts on a pair of cooking gloves over them and is currently stirring the sauce in the bowl.
Tu Lanxun was stunned for a moment, walked over, took the apron off the hook, held the neck strap in his hand and passed it through the side of his ribs. He lowered his head slightly and let Tu Lanxun put the strap around his neck.
This angle worked very well. Tu Lanxun gently raised her arm, and N's head slipped through it. The cool ends of her hair brushed across her right wrist. Tu Lanxun shrank back, but her left hand was touched by something cool and smooth, and then separated in an instant.
Those were N's ears and cheeks, she realized later, and there were some stubble from the temples, which was a bit prickly.
Why isn't it getting cold? Instead, it's strangely getting hot.
Tu Lanxun withdrew his hands, and N tapped his waist with his elbow, indicating that he should help him tie the belt.
She carefully picked up the two thin straps and tied them in a loose bow at the back of his waist.
N was actually a little dissatisfied: "Tighter."
Tu Lanxun was speechless and could only untie and tie it again. This time she put in a lot of strength, just like putting a whalebone bra on an ancient European noble lady, and squeezed out the clear waistline.
This guy even complained: "You want to tie me up to death..."
Are evil spirits also afraid of pain?
So hard to please! This ghost is just a big black cat wagging its tail and finding fault with everything.
"Just focus on cooking." Tu Lanxun completely ignored him and turned to watch the video. Mikhail looked up from his computer chair and laughed, "That Nightingale guy is always a troublemaker."
"Did you find anything?" Tu Lanxun saw Mikhail's computer stopped at a certain screen. "What is this?"
The picture shows the surveillance scene on the fifth floor of Bi Hai Chao Sheng. Two people are coming from the building connection direction, carrying a large box.
There was a bunch of things hanging and swinging at the seam of the box lid. Because the angle was blocked by the box body, only after Mikhail played it twice at an extremely slow speed and the computer female ghost processed it more clearly, could Tu Lanxun see clearly that the bunch of things was not a seal or plastic cloth.
It was a bunch of long hair ends.
There was undoubtedly a creature with long hair in the box. The texture did not belong to any other creature, it was just human hair.
"Could it be a model? A hair model or something like that?" Tu Lanxun tried to guess in the best possible way.
Mikhail smiled brightly: "It's possible, but look down."
He clicked to continue playing, and the box was carried by the two male employees in a direction away from the camera's range.
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
Suddenly, the camera flashed, and an incongruous object appeared against the white wall background. It could be said that the white wall made its shape more recognizable.
Mikhail clicked to enlarge, and Tu Lanxun could barely make out a translucent ghost face, also with long hair.
If you look at it as a human face, you will have an easily understandable expression: a crazy smile, with the eye sockets and the shadows of the nose bridge connected into one, forming a terrifying concave dark block; and the mouth is wide open, as if laughing, a malicious and resentful laugh.
The ghostly face stared into the camera, coldly contemplating what it represented.
"Oh. What time is this?" Tu Lanxun scratched his face, feeling that he was gradually desensitizing to these things. "So half a month before the last video, the rising tide of the blue sea had already shown signs of a strange invasion."
Mikhail laughed helplessly: "Little boss, you can't generalize ghosts as weird. At least I'm not interested in invading the earth."
Tu Lanxun calmly analyzed, "That ghost has a grudge against Bi Hai Chao Sheng, and he's deeply involved in the downfall of Hu Hai Sheng's business."
It is known that Bi Hai Chao Sheng is engaged in the smuggling business of rare aquatic animals.
There were even traces of fishtails in the office.
Tu Lanxun pinched the paw pad of the mixed-haired kitten next to her: "Mimi, did that place harm many people... and fish?" she added in time.
The little kitten retracted its claws and scratched the air warningly, without speaking in kitten language.
She sighed deeply and looked up at the sky: "There can't really be mermaids in that rising blue sea..."
On the other side, the pot was bubbling and the aroma of tomato beef wafted through the restaurant. N was silently stirring the spatula.
The computer ghost suddenly said, "The camera can be turned on!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
