Chapter 3 "The Little Policeman": The Fox Spirit Murder Case
Meanwhile, the lurking, voyeuristic fans of ghost stories are still keeping an eye on this little world.
【Xiangxi Grass Demoness】is now available.
The little girl in red is now available.
[Shanghai Vampire] Invisible.
[Shanxi Tai Sui] is now online.
The "Falling Flower Cave Girl" is now available.
【The Bell-Casting Goddess】is now available.
【Minnan Guanluoyin】Invisibility.
[Owner of a tea restaurant in the New Territories North] is now online.
...
Within this space, some of the ghost stories are being discussed.
I'm more interested in knowing the cause of the old policeman's death: was it something we did, or did he kill himself?
It should be 'us', right?
I'd also like to know what happened behind this story; this is the first time I've heard of ghost stories from 1991...
[My childhood friend is definitely up to something, haha. Have you guys noticed that the local policeman's 'good brother' still hasn't come back...?]
I suspect it's that sorceress; she knows magic, so killing a mortal wouldn't be difficult for her.
The killer is so hard to guess.
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The young police officer shared similar thoughts with those discussing this matter; he had no choice but to venture into the lion's den. Before he knew it, he had arrived at the communal courtyard that the old man at the convenience store had mentioned.
Jane Dieda raised her head.
It's cold, so cold. He felt his temper had really gone down since he arrived here.
In the story, the old policeman who died here was said to have been scared to death. In the original owner's memory, apart from the patrols that had only recently resumed, Shanzha Hutong had always been known as a restricted area, and no calls were made after nightfall.
This old house complex, built in the 1990s, looks quite eerie from afar. The terrain is uneven, the roof beams clash with the five elements, and each household has two lanterns with the character "奠" (meaning "offering") at their door, giving it a feel of a period drama set in the Republican era.
His face was pale, he pulled down his peaked cap with the party emblem flashing, parked his car, and walked toward the houses.
Suddenly, Jane stopped.
It seemed to be the house on the left; he felt someone was peering at him from the doorway.
The kind of grotesque gaze that makes you afraid to turn your head, the kind that makes you have nightmares in the middle of the night, is so menacing that you'd be staring at someone with bloodshot eyes.
Jian Dieda took a look.
The door to this house was closed, and there were a few small holes in it from termites, but it was too far away to tell if someone was spying on it.
He didn't dare to go forward, thinking to himself, "There's probably a ghost waiting for me to knock on the door and ask who I'm looking for. I don't want to go over there. This kind of eye contact in the doorway is terrifying."
"This host, are you scared now?" the system replied.
Jian Dieda: "Little System, in this life-or-death situation, I think we don't need to be so formal. You keep calling me 'host, host,' which doesn't seem very intimate. How about this, I'll call you 'System,' and you call me..."
"Jianzi?"
To ease its fear, Jane tried to coax it, "No, I am your host, you should call me master."
"………………"system.
The system is very angry.
The consequences are severe.
A message popped up on the anti-baldness panel for those who stay up late:
[Newbie Trials]
"Find a way to deal with this 'ghost' in the alley and find a new clue from the surrounding area about why the deceased Dong Zhijie died."
Difficulty: The probability of baldness caused by fright is 70%.
Time limit: half an hour
Rewards: Blank Storybook x1 (can record the timeline of each clue, allowing you to re-enter the same case scene), Ghost Movie Stagehand Clapper x1 (can interrupt a ghost chase once, with a 30-second cooldown).
Failure penalty: 10,000 hairs will be deducted from the original amount.
Jane Diedda: "..."
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The night grew even darker in the latter half.
The fog made the deep alley so thick you could hear a pin drop.
The system stopwatch, running for half an hour, ticked slowly in my mind.
Closing his eyes, which betrayed his fear, Jian Dieda stood still, deep in thought. A few minutes later, after touching the hem of his pants with his sweaty hands, he pondered how to solve the initial part of the case.
The investigation still instinctively pointed to people. Jian Dieda said, "I remember... the mysterious figure—" ???" said, "Actually, I secretly made a false police report, but I won't reveal my identity..."
Jian Dieda suddenly paused for a moment. Right, all the clues mentioned someone calling the police that night. It's 1991 now; many ordinary families didn't have landlines yet. If the murderer lived in the alley and arranged to meet the victim, there should be one nearby…
“Yes, there’s a public phone booth at the very end of the road.” Jane Dieda recalled the map he had looked at during the day.
He took two steps forward, his eyes searching for the scene at both ends of the alley. The small red pavilion was not far from where he was.
Dong Dongdong did not turn back. He abandoned his bicycle and walked towards the phone booth without noticing the light on in the corner of the building behind him.
Meanwhile, the stain on the wall that's been there since last night has gotten even bigger...
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A minute later, Jian Dieda found the phone booth. Almost the instant he stepped inside, a new brown paper bag appeared in his mind: "Dong Zhijie's cause of death."
This bag has an extra line of numbers compared to the previous one: 718843, which is the police badge number that everyone in the public security system carries.
Stray strands of hair fell across his brow. Jian Dieda opened the bag first, then his dark pupils seemed to contract in shock: "Young Master Fox Fairy...murder?"
The bag contained photos of the body from the alleyway murder. Dong Zhijie's death was very strange, and an examination revealed dozens of bloody scratches on his back from being attacked by wild animals.
Not a single word was mentioned about the sound of gunfire.
The case ultimately reached another conclusion.
【notice】
Based on the identification of multiple witnesses, the police suspect, and cannot rule out, the possibility that the nine-tailed fox spirit was responsible for the murders.
Out of respect and reverence, the higher authorities ultimately decided to classify this matter as a gray area.
So, Chunlan, Dong Dongdong, and the old man said there was a fairy living nearby, referring to a fox spirit? Is this the reason why the police station dared not investigate such a special case?
He had goosebumps creeping up his neck.
The system makes no sound.
Jane Dieda: "Fox spirits...do they exist?"
The system replied, "You'll need to make that judgment yourself."
Jian Dieda remained silent. In the early 1990s, the secluded alleyways had no broadband or surveillance cameras, so the ghost stories left by the grandparents might not necessarily be false.
Just then, he noticed something was wrong.
Since last night, the 'stain' that always followed him has appeared on the wall not far away, and has changed from an irregular shape into a long shadow with a head and legs...
Could this thing be a ghost...?
His body shuddered instinctively. Jian Dieda ducked down in the phone booth, observing the situation through his reflection. The 'stain' on the wall lay quietly beside the red slogan, motionless in Jian Dieda's direction.
About four or five seconds later, the 'stain' seemed to twist, it grew larger, and the distance between the two decreased.
Jane's hands and feet were even colder.
He also recalled when these 'stains' usually appeared on the ground or walls... It was a murder. Whenever a body was discovered in a movie, the police would draw a faceless human outline with a piece of chalk. Was he now being haunted by something similar? But who could it be?
After a brief discussion, Jane decided to take a risk and introduce the 'stain' onto the wall of a house to see what would happen.
3, 2, 1, he rushed out of the phone booth and ran towards a narrow alleyway surrounded by three walls. The 'stain' paused, then slowly followed, splitting into three smaller 'stains' along the way, which then surrounded him and continued to follow.
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When the video feed was shared across all dimensions for the second time, the "little police officer" from the "Grandma scaring her grandson" channel entered the second episode, and the movie scene froze on that empty screen.
The onlookers, now shrouded in mystery: "..."
They reside in higher planes, responsible only for creating the ghostly and divine fears of their own worlds and spreading the horrors of strange tales to humans; they rarely come into contact with new planes that offer excitement.
A pair of bloodshot, ghostly eyes watched with keen interest as the young policeman's death drew near.
The more bizarre the scene, the more it resembled a bottomless pit with no chance of survival, the faster the content in the ghost story chat group scrolled by. Even though the police officer was still alive, the other ghost stories in the group had already begun to instruct him on how to reincarnate, burning paper money and incense.
[He's doomed now. I'll give him a reward if he dies.]
[That reckless fool will be scared to death!]
[Insufficient Yang energy will definitely make you feel cold; that's what happens when someone enters a ghost story that has no beginning or end.]
[The sponsor is here; he must die, he must die! If he dies, we'll send him ghost money.]
Let's all die together! He's doomed!
I also hope he dies soon. It would be so much better if he were dead; then I wouldn't have to worry about losing hair from staying up late anymore...
The evil spirits' twisted sense of humor is as described above.
During his escape, Jian Dieda witnessed these gossips firsthand, and couldn't help but tug at his pants, which he could wear and take off at the same time. But rather than feeling useless fear, he wanted to see some professional analysis.
Jane Dieda felt that to get the next clue, he would have to deal with this ghost.
Using ghostly methods to catch ghosts is a clever way to outsmart them.
His idea was exactly what he wanted, as some of the group members who were online were indeed quite knowledgeable about feng shui and shamanistic practices.
For example, the cat-faced old lady, in her own timeline, is currently in an old shack where elderly women live. Her floral boxer shorts are hanging outside the window. The room, less than 19 square meters, is cramped and damp. The small, windowless toilet is wide open, and the latrine is full of urine stains. Right opposite the toilet is a Buddhist altar, where a Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is depicted wearing a necklace and a Vairocana crown.
As for her, as a strange tale from Northeast China, she was once known as one of China's top ten unsolved mysteries and a queen-like figure in the world of corpses.
This powerful cat-faced old lady is watching a live stream from a lower dimension, and she has her own insights into the development of the case.
"Meow--"
The sounds coming from her throat were all strange cries. The cat-faced old woman couldn't speak human language, but her blackened, rotting face and the terrified, turned-out cat lips protruding from her fangs revealed the horrors of the lower plane at a glance.
"...on the wall,"
“It’s ‘karma’; someone is setting up a formation and performing a ritual.”
"...Oh no, this little policeman is going to be eaten by the fairy!"
A note from the author:
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A flirtatious fox spirit has come to scare her future sweetheart, a police officer—
(Yes, I am bald in real life. This is not a draft box; this is what I post myself every night. You didn't expect that, haha!)
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