Chapter 1
"Recently, several university students were visiting a valley at the northern foot of Mingzhu Mountain when they discovered a rare patch of wild red spider lilies. Shockingly, human remains were found at the base of the flowers. Upon receiving the alert, local police immediately cordoned off the scene and launched a criminal investigation. The age and identity of the remains are currently being determined..."
Chen He leaned on the sofa and read the news on her phone.
When there was a knock on the door, she slid her finger up and closed the news page.
There were two policemen, a man and a woman, standing outside the door.
"Excuse me, are you Chen Hehe?" asked the male police officer.
"It's my pen name." Chen He didn't open the door very wide. His thin face was stuck in the shadow between the cracks in the door, and his expression looked blurry.
The male police officer held up his phone in front of her and asked, "Is this comic, 'Prophecy of the Other Shore,' published three years ago, your work?"
A black and white cartoon was displayed on the screen, showing a sinister scene.
The red spider lily sways its long, tentacle-like stamens, and rotten finger bones are exposed in the soil at the bottom of the flower stem.
The black and white lines do not show the unique scarlet color of the flowers, but inexplicably make people feel that they are the color of blood.
"Can we come in and talk?" The male police officer smiled.
The short female police officer behind him poked him in the spine and whispered, "Master, show me your ID first."
The male police officer hissed at the prodding and pulled his ID from his pocket, flashing it. Chen He glanced over and saw the name on it: Chang Ting.
The policewoman held up her ID at the back: "Zhou Zhengzheng, we are from the Municipal Criminal Investigation Detachment."
Chen He opened the door wide: "Come in."
The two entered the room and sat on the sofa. Chang Ting sat casually, his legs long, taking up half the two-seater sofa. He casually placed his phone on the black marble table, took off his police hat and buckled it on his knees, revealing his spiky crew cut, and looked around the room.
He felt a chill as soon as he entered the house.
This was an old house, perhaps a century old. The windows were narrow, the glass hazy with age. Therefore, the light that came in was limited, making the room somewhat chilly.
Moreover, most of the furniture in the room is black, white and gray, which increases the feeling of coldness.
"Please have some water." Chen He placed two cups, one black and one white, in front of the two people.
Chang Ting looked at Chen He and noticed that her dress was wide and big, with strange layers on the left and right, and was also black and white.
Her long black hair was parted in the middle and hung on both sides of her pale face. Her facial features looked like they were painted, with cold and beautiful lines.
Even people are black and white.
Chang Ting was a little curious and blurted out, "Are all of you artists so unique?"
My leather shoes were stepped on. I turned around and saw my apprentice sitting next to me mouthing to me: Be polite!
Chang Ting sat up straighter reluctantly.
"Let's get back to the point." He reached out and turned his phone on the table so it faced Chen He. "Can you explain this?"
Chen He sat on the chair opposite and glanced at the screen of his mobile phone.
The phone was unlocked, still displaying the comic strip, with lines of text popping up like bubbles. These were the comic platform's unique barrage, readers' comments:
[Have you watched the news? This scene is exactly like what’s shown on TV!]
[I read that correctly, the body was just discovered, and the comic was released three years ago!]
[How did the artist come up with this kind of burial ground? Is it such a coincidence?]
I have a wild guess...
[The author is not the murderer!]
[Author, please say something! You didn't kill that person, did you?]
[Wow, that's scary! I'm getting goosebumps...]
[Quick Fight One One Zero…]
…
“It’s just one of my works.”
Chen He lowered her gaze, her long eyelashes covering her exceptionally cold eyes. "The data is a disaster, it's already been ruined."
“Now it’s hot.”
Chang Ting pointed at the barrage of comments that kept popping up. They were becoming more and more dense, like a group of panicked little people, gradually covering the hand bones under the flowers. "You saw the news too, right?"
A flicker of anxiety flashed across Chen He's previously calm eyes. "I saw it. It's just a coincidence. We comic book artists have very rich imaginations."
"Coincidence?" Chang Ting said expressionlessly, "Then let's talk about your work. Zhou Zhengzheng, haven't you finished reading it? Share your thoughts."
Zhou Zhengzheng had his notebook spread out on his knees, taking notes seriously. He was stunned for a moment when he heard this: "Me?"
"There's a generation gap between me and you young people. I don't really understand comics. You come."
He was only twenty-nine years old, but since he took on an apprentice, his mental age had suddenly increased to that of an elder.
"Yes." Zhou Zhengzheng tucked his short hair behind his ears. "This comic is a rare black and white strip comic. It has an old-fashioned style, with smooth lines full of tension, and the contrast between light and dark is very visually profound.
“Although it lacks the directness of color comics, stripping away the emotional interference of color allows people to face the grayness of human nature more directly.”
A rare smile appeared on Chen He's pale lips: "Well said."
Zhou Zhengzheng was a little embarrassed: "To be honest, you really draw well."
"Hey," Chang Ting frowned, "Did I ask you to talk about this? Tell me what it's about!"
Zhou Zhengzheng muttered, "That's called summarizing the main content, not a reading reflection..."
"Stop talking nonsense!"
"The comic has only been released for five chapters." She explained, as if the elderly person didn't understand, "One chapter means one episode. It tells the story of a girl named Qiu Yue who was bullied and humiliated by several bad classmates at an art training base.
"Another girl came to her aid, and the two became good friends. This girl's name was... Chen He."
Zhou Zhengzheng couldn't help but glance at Chen He. Chen He looked calm, as if naming a character after himself was the most normal thing.
He uses a pseudonym to sign his work, but uses his real name in his work. Comic artists are really weird. Zhou Zhengzheng continued:
"The two had a quarrel, and Qiu Yue accused Chen He of stealing her boyfriend. From then on, they ignored each other.
"Later, Qiu Yue suddenly disappeared, and then the training base was destroyed by a fire.
"At the end of episode five, the sea of fire transforms into pitch black, and when the pitch black reaches its lowest point, this is the frame."
Zhou Zhengzheng gestured with his chin to the phone on the coffee table. "Blooming red spider lilies and hand bones sticking out of the soil. There's also small writing on one side: Five years later."
"And then?" Chang Ting urged, but his eyes were always fixed on Chen He's face.
"There's nothing more," Zhou Zhengzheng said. "That was the last update, which stopped three years ago."
"That's a good summary," Chen He commented. "It's really concise."
It turns out that such a long time can be summed up in just a few short sentences.
"That's great." Chang Ting nodded. "Even better, three years after the comic was published, a week ago, a corpse was found under a patch of red spider lilies in the valley at the northern foot of Mingzhu Mountain."
Chang Ting picked up his phone and scrolled through it, finding a news photo. The white bony knuckles exposed at the base of the flower were slightly curled, which perfectly matched the composition of the cartoon.
One can imagine what the reaction of the group of college students would be when they discovered the red spider lily, happily took a bunch of photos, and then turned around to see the human hand bones.
Chen He sighed: "Maybe it's an unknown force in the dark."
"In the dark? Imagination is not enough. Are you into metaphysics?"
Chang Ting scoffed slightly, "There's something even more mysterious. The identity of the corpse has been basically ascertained. It's a girl named Qiu Yue who disappeared from the Zangmo Art Training Base in our city five years ago."
Chang Ting flipped through his phone for a few times, found an old news page from five years ago, and showed it to Chen He.
Chen He looked at the person in the photo. Qiu Yue smiled gently, still eighteen years old.
"It's only been a week since we found it. How did you identify the remains so quickly?"
"The details of the case cannot be disclosed."
"Did they find the pacemaker?"
Chang Ting looked at Chen He suddenly, and his casual sitting posture tensed up.
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