13
The man in the room stopped packing his camera bag.
I wasn't interested in observing his expression; it was just a disguise. All I had to do was talk at my own pace.
"I've been suspicious of you since we first met. You praised me then, saying I was worthy of being a police officer's son. How strange! To you, I'm just a potential connection to your interview subject. Is it necessary to investigate every aspect of my family connections and memorize them all?"
"It's a professional habit."
"Don't lie. You know the scene of Li Tianci's death in such detail that it's as if you saw it yourself. It doesn't seem like you were just picking around for clues and piecing it together. In fact, what you're describing is what you saw during the crime, right? You're so confident in your methods that you didn't even bother to hide it."
"But I am also very familiar with the police investigation."
"I have to admire you on this point. You must have estimated this based on the police's case handling process and speed. Remarkable, with such amazing anti-detection capabilities, how many people have you harmed?"
"You'd better go to the hospital for your delusions."
"When I first saw your posthumous photo, I honestly thought I was losing my mind. You didn't attend your own funeral, so you wouldn't have thought about it, right? Even if I cleaned up the photos beforehand, I still had your ID photo that I could enlarge. It's a little blurry, but it's enough to make out your facial features. You deliberately put on a beard, wore glasses, and created a noticeable scar with makeup, trying to use these features to blur others' impression of your features, but if you look closely, you can still recognize it as the same person."
He chuckled dryly. "I'm attending my own funeral. Don't you think it's funny when you say that?"
"Well, since you're so stubbornly refusing to admit it, I'll just have to reveal my true identity. You're the one who killed Li Kaiyi, right?"
He finally stopped laughing.
"For the past month, I've been pondering Li Kaiyi's case, and I've always had a question. Why was Li Zitong detained for so long? If the police didn't have definitive evidence, they should have released her long ago according to procedure. Only after learning your true identity did I realize that you set a trap, trapping everyone who tried to get to the bottom of the case."
"Because of a childhood misfortune, I'm particularly sensitive to footprints. The master bedroom where the murder took place was covered in dust. Anyone who enters the room will inevitably leave footprints, unless they can overcome gravity and float. The police must have realized this. After collecting new footprints at the scene after the crime, they naturally discovered that they belonged to my second uncle, my second aunt, and Li Zitong. Since my second uncle didn't commit suicide and my second aunt has an alibi, Li Zitong is the only suspect. But no one expected the murderer to be able to break away from the laws of nature and act like a ghost."
"And you are that ghost." I asserted, looking at the man in the room.
He didn't answer.
"You were the one who told me that Li Tianci's body was found in the old house. You deliberately avoided telling me which room the body was found in. But it's easy to guess. It must have been the master bedroom. Otherwise, Li Kaiyi and his wife wouldn't have asked to sleep in a different room that night. Since the body had been hanging in the room, the footprints on the ground couldn't be new, right? The criminal investigator who collected the footprints must have thought so."
"As a result, the fourth type of footprints in the room, the footprints of the real murderer, were naturally ignored."
"As for how you killed Li Kaiyi, it's practically foolproof. This house was originally yours, so you must have a spare key. Plus, you're familiar with the structure, so getting in and out would be effortless. Even if you left fingerprints and footprints, the police wouldn't be suspicious."
"But why did you pin the murder suspicion on Li Zitong? She has always been very kind to you."
The man still didn't answer. I interpreted his silence as a kind of acquiescence.
"To frame someone, you deliberately forged a fake secret room. You anticipated that after your 'death,' the police would definitely leave all the keys to Li Zitong. Since the door to the secret room can only be locked from the outside by someone holding the key, your sister would undoubtedly be suspected. But you didn't anticipate that your second uncle and aunt had already taken control of the keys. All your efforts were in vain."
There is another thing I finally figured out, which is why Li Kaiyi showed an extremely terrified expression before his death.
Imagine this from the perspective of the deceased. You're forced to spend the night in a haunted house. Lying on your double bed, you avoid the window side, knowing your brother died there. But the fear remains undimmed. The moment you look away, you sense your brother's body still beside you. Of course, you dare not turn off the lights. You stare at the room's sole source of light: the ceiling chandelier. You know it was once removed, leaving only a hook. Your nephew had hanged himself with that hook. You've just attended his funeral, and you remember his face in the portrait vividly. You can almost see him hanging from the ceiling, tongue lolling out, his eyes, formed by the whites of his upturned eyes, staring blankly back at you.
Suddenly, a ghost drifts into the room and lunges at you. His face is so close, it's your long-dead nephew, reduced to a skeleton. You feel every pore screaming, but his gloved left hand has already covered your mouth, and the sharp knife in his right is piercing your abdomen... Will your heart stop beating even before the blade enters?
After hearing what I said, the man thought quietly for a moment, then with a blank expression, he put on his camera bag, walked to the door, and turned the doorknob to go out. But the doorknob didn't budge.
He raised both hands, bent down, and used so much force that his face turned red. With a snap, the door handle broke and fell to the ground.
"I forgot to tell you." I looked at the man who might have murdered all of my relatives in the past thirteen years. "I accidentally broke the door lock last night. To be on the safe side, I even sawed off the door handle. I managed to glue it back together, but I can't open the door from the room anymore."
He turned around, his face devoid of any expression. His Adam's apple moved up and down his throat like an alien, as if trying to tear through his skin to free himself. "Was this a trap from the beginning?"
"Thank you for your cooperation."
"You said you were worried about police interference, so you asked me to film the truth. Is that also false?"
"Of course, otherwise how could I invite you?"
The man covered his head and squatted down. Soon, a smile appeared on his lips. At first, it was just a "puff puff" laugh, but then it grew louder and louder. He laughed so hard that he could hardly breathe and had to hold on to the wall to stand up.
"Don't get carried away too soon. You can't beat me!" He took off his glasses and wiped away the tears from his laughter. The scars on his face faded. "You can't guess how I cheated the DNA test, how I obtained the official death certificate, and how I turned into a ghost. As long as you can't break through this point, your reasoning is like mist, which will be blown away by the wind. No one will believe it, and you can't prove anything."
"Yes, I give up." I answered decisively.
This answer stunned him and he couldn't laugh anymore.
"Indeed, I can't beat you. Your criminal methods are too sophisticated. I can't figure out how you came back to life, nor can I be sure whether Xu Lan's death is related to you. I can't guess your motive for murder, any motive for murder." I took out my phone. "But you can always call the police. They will always find a way to pry the truth out of you."
I dialed the number very slowly.
"Wait." The man in the room's expression suddenly changed. As if he had made a tremendous decision, his face flushed red, and he gritted his teeth. Finally, through gritted teeth, he managed to say, "Let's make a deal that benefits both of us. Let me go, and Dawn Star will be yours."
This was an unexpected answer.
"I left the crown in Shanghai, in a locker somewhere. If you're willing to let me go, the key and receipt will be yours. You don't even have to let me go now. You can go to Shanghai first, get the crown, and then come back to open the door after confirming the transaction. After all, you won't starve to death if you wait for a day or two."
It's a pretty tempting offer. Admittedly, I'm just an ordinary person, and facing wealth I couldn't possibly earn in several lifetimes, I can't help but be tempted. But whether or not I'll actually act on it is another matter entirely.
"I'm not interested in your proposal." I sniffed and replied, "You're a demon, a very clever demon. Once you're released, who knows how many innocent people will be harmed. Even if I really take the crown against my conscience, I won't be able to spend the money. Sooner or later, Li Zitong and I will die at your hands."
"Everything can be negotiated and agreed upon," he denied hastily. "We can come up with a compromise solution. Okay, find me some handcuffs and I'll put them on. Or you can just lock me up here and give me some water and bread regularly. As long as you don't call the police, everything can be negotiated..."
"I can choose not to call the police, but you have to do one thing."
"Yes, anything is fine."
"There's a signal in the room, and your phone is with you. Call and turn yourself in," I advised sincerely. "When Li Zitong talked about you when you were little, her expression was always gentle. When you grew up, she always helped you and was willing to find you a job on the crew. But you want to frame her for the murder. I guess if she knew that you turned yourself in because of your conscience, she would feel better."
"Don't mention her name in front of me!" The man's face was completely distorted, and he suddenly rushed towards the window. His pupils were shaking with anger, and the hatred radiating from his eyes seemed to penetrate deeply into my body, making me tremble.
I don’t know how many times I fell out of the window again.
I stood up and rubbed the scratches on my hands. Suddenly, I heard a series of "bang" and "bang" noises coming from the window. It was Li Tianci banging on the door.
I rushed to the corridor entrance and returned to the room. Fortunately, the door was not broken open and remained motionless despite the waves of "dong dong" banging.
Thinking about it carefully, the bedroom door opened inwards, so it would be difficult to force it open from the inside. But I was still worried, so I brought wardrobes, bedside tables and other bulky furniture from other rooms and piled them against the door until there was no more room in the hallway.
I finally felt relieved and slumped down, leaning against the closet to catch my breath. My chest vibrated, and for a moment I thought my heart was failing, but then I remembered it was the phone in my coat pocket.
I pressed the call button and heard Li Zitong's voice.
"You haven't returned to Shanghai yet, right? Do you want to take the high-speed train together?"
I was a little confused, remembering she said she was leaving yesterday.
"I didn't leave. Out of courtesy, I went to visit my second aunt before leaving." She paused, "and a small conflict arose..."
"Why bother?" I sighed. "They insist you're the murderer."
"It's their business what they think. I just do what I think is right. By the way, where are you? It sounds like you're at a construction site."
It's actually your dead brother banging on the door. But of course you can't just explain it as, "Something's wrong."
"What's wrong?" Her voice suddenly became tense.
Thinking it over, I realized this matter was closely related to Li Zitong, and she certainly had a right to know. Under her questioning, I carefully chose my words and told her everything.
I heard slow, deep breathing coming from the receiver. It lasted for a long time, and then she finally opened her mouth and begged, "Can you please not call the police yet?"
"No, this is not something that can be handled privately." I politely declined.
"Please don't get me wrong," she said firmly. "I'm not trying to stop you from calling the police and letting your brother go unpunished. In fact, if he truly committed the heinous crime of parricide as you say, I would be the first one to not let him go. But before that, I want to talk to him first and ask a few key questions. If you call the police now, it will be difficult for me to see him again."
"It's better not to do it. I know how important this matter is to you, but it's too dangerous," I advised.
"Don't worry, there's no need to meet. Isn't he already locked in the room? I can just talk to him through the door. Please."
The banging had stopped by then. I put down my phone and listened for a moment. The room was completely silent; the trapped beast might have given up. So I picked up my phone again and agreed to Li Zitong's request.
About an hour later, Li Zitong came hurriedly.
Her hair was disheveled, and her face was pale and haggard. I couldn't bear to continue looking at her expression, so I turned and led her into the house. I pointed to the blocked bedroom door and said, "He's behind it."
Li Zitong nodded, but didn't say anything. She lowered her head and said hesitantly, "If possible, I'd like to talk to him alone..."
Only then did I realize I was an outsider after all, and I quickly agreed. To ensure I couldn't hear their conversation, I closed the door. Before closing the door, I saw through the gap that Li Zitong's expression was very serious.
I turned on my phone in the hallway and scrolled through the news, but didn't really read anything. About twenty minutes later, there was a soft knock on the door. It was Li Zitong.
Her expression was heavy and confused. “Are you sure Li Tianci is in the room?”
"Why, he denies it?"
She shook her head. "As soon as he opened his mouth, I could tell from his voice whether it was him or not. But the problem is... no matter what I said, there was no response from the room."
I also became confused and accompanied her back inside. Sure enough, no matter how much I called out, the bedroom remained silent.
I walked around to the east window, stepped on a chair, and peered in. I was stunned. The room was empty, save for scattered cardboard boxes. The man who had been there just a moment ago, whether it was Yang Chunhui or Li Tianci, had vanished like a ghost.
It felt like falling into an ice cellar. I reached out and tugged at the iron bars, but they didn't budge, showing no signs of damage. Looking inside, the door was still locked.
Li Zitong also came to the window. She anxiously asked me what happened, whether Li Tianci had committed suicide. I shook my head and told her the situation. She also looked incredulous.
Neither of us gave up. We called the police first, then worked together to move the furniture blocking the bedroom door and searched inside. We searched under the bed, under the desk, in the lockers, and even in the corners of the floor and walls. Not even an ant could hide, let alone a living person.
I sat on the edge of the bed in a daze. Could that man really be a ghost?
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