Chapter 249: The Madwoman

2022-05-20

Zhao Mingkun glanced at the phone again and said, “There’s a line of text here.”

I looked over and, sure enough, beside the woman’s severed head, a few bloody Chinese characters slowly appeared: “I’m back.”

“Someone programmed this into the phone?” Zhao Mingkun spoke up. “Phones are getting smarter these days, so pulling this off probably isn’t hard at all.”

Her words suddenly triggered a thought. I said, “Although this phone’s screen is pretty big, it isn’t a smartphone. Or even if it is, it’s way outdated.”

Hearing this, Zhao Mingkun handed me the phone and said, “I’m not exactly an expert when it comes to this stuff.”

I asked, “What kind of phone do you use?”

Zhao Mingkun pulled out an old Nokia. When she held it up, I felt like I’d been taken back to the early 2000s, when Nokia ran the world. It was obvious the phone had seen years of use—the numbers on the keypad had worn right off. Who knows how long she’d had it?

Noticing my surprise, Zhao Mingkun said, “I can’t use a phone that connects to the internet. I’ve heard nowadays all sorts of apps run GPS in the background. Way too dangerous. Anyway, this old phone actually means something to me, but…that’s another story.”

“So what is it?” She turned the question back on me. “Is there something strange about this phone?”

I replied, “Your words reminded me—when touchscreens first came out, every phone used a resistive screen, which just needs pressure. But as time passed, people demanded multi-touch, so phones eventually switched to the pricier capacitive screens. Those require electricity.”

Seeing the confusion on Zhao Mingkun’s face, I continued, “Capacitive screens work by creating a coupling capacitor when human fingers touch—our bodies have magnetic fields and electric current. But if someone wears insulated gloves, touching the screen won’t do anything.”

“How do you know all this?” Zhao Mingkun asked, not quite buying that someone who barely knew what factorials were would understand this tech.

I tapped my head and said, “Observation and memory. I read it in a book once.”

“What does that prove?” Zhao Mingkun pressed.

I said, “It proves this phone didn’t belong to Hu Pei. Look around—there’s a smart TV, a tablet and fitness tracker casually thrown on the coffee table, and even a robot vacuum against the wall. All signs that Hu Pei knew his way around electronics. Anyone who can afford a 120-square-meter apartment and splurge on a robot vacuum wouldn’t skimp on a capacitive-screen smartphone.”

I scrolled through the phone’s contacts, not surprised to find it completely empty. Still, it definitely wasn’t a smartphone, and installing a jump-scare-type program on an old feature phone would be tough.

“If this phone isn’t Hu Pei’s,” Zhao Mingkun continued where I left off, “then his real phone must’ve been taken by the killer. But from the look of the screen protector, this seems like Hu Pei’s style. There’s only one explanation—this phone wasn’t meant for him, but for whoever found the body. The killer could never have guessed we’d find it first.”

That made sense. I locked the phone, then opened it again. Sure enough, the scream played again.

I said, “That settles it. This phone definitely isn’t Hu Pei’s. Setting up a program like this on a non-smartphone would mean sneaking into the system itself. And from how worn the screen is, this thing’s at least several years old—even if it’s not quite as ancient as your Nokia. Four or five years, easy.”

“Also,” I shook the phone slowly, “there’s not a single contact inside. And just as you said, we haven’t found a second phone anywhere. So Hu Pei’s actual phone must’ve been taken by the killer.”

“Do you think there was something on it the killer didn’t want found?” Zhao Mingkun asked.

“There was a message on the screen—’I’m back.’ And more people will die too.” I said.

“Exactly,” Zhao Mingkun replied. “We have to find her.”

I frowned. “Find who?”

Zhao Mingkun turned and pointed. From the kitchen you could see straight into one of the bedrooms. There, hanging on the wall, was a family photo above the bed—a family of three, the daughter probably seven or eight.

Suddenly a thought crossed my mind. When we’d found the body, the victim had already been dead for six hours.

But in those six hours, the door had only been left ajar, and the body still lay on the floor—meaning no one had come home the entire time. That was odd. It was around noon now, so the victim must’ve died before six in the morning. Where were the wife and kid at that hour?

So where had the woman and child gone?

Zhao Mingkun wiped the phone screen with her cloth, then walked outside and placed the phone back into the victim’s pocket. She told me, “Our top priority now is to find his wife and son.”

I said, “If we can find them, maybe we’ll finally figure out what Hu Pei was so afraid of.”

“Still—” I looked at the body. “Where are we supposed to start looking?”

Zhao Mingkun tapped her head with a smirk. “I noticed earlier—his ID address doesn’t match here. But that address is still in Dongxing City. Hu Pei’s daughter is in elementary school, so they couldn’t have gone to hide out in the countryside. Odds are he sent them over there.”

I snapped my fingers. “That’s it!”

Zhao Mingkun scanned the room once more to make sure we hadn’t left any evidence, then said, “We’ve wasted enough time here. If your coworker has half a brain, they’re probably already on the way. We can’t stick around. Let’s go.”

I nodded.

We hopped on the motorcycle again, and Zhao Mingkun took me to the address on Hu Pei’s ID.

“Do you think any of this is connected to Wu Zui?” I wrapped my arms around Zhao Mingkun and asked.

Zhao Mingkun let out a sigh. “Honestly, I have no idea at this point. But if that photo is any indication, there’s some deep-seated grudge involved.”

I agreed. “Yeah, and the resolution of that image isn’t great. You can tell it was taken years ago. Who even knows who the woman in it really is? If I were still team leader of the Special Investigation Team, I’d have Sister Mary look into it. But now, it’s just up to us.”

Then I asked, “So, do we really get involved in all this, or not?”

Zhao Mingkun paused before answering. “You already know the answer. Hu Pei is dead, but you still need to find those original blueprints, don’t you? A project that size had to have a whole crew—it couldn’t have been built single-handedly.”

I said, “Right. The villagers never saw any workers, so there must be another underground exit. Let’s dig in. We’ve already come this far.”

“Let’s dig in, clear your name, and then get the hell out,” Zhao Mingkun muttered.

We were now on the outskirts of Dongxing City. Looks like after Hu Pei made it as a designer, he bought himself a place downtown. By the time we arrived, it was already 2 p.m. Since last night, I’d had just half a bowl of congee. Now my stomach was growling like crazy.

Zhao Mingkun put on a mask and ducked into a small shop, coming back with two buns and a couple bottles of water. “Eat up. If we’ve thought of it, the others probably have too. So hurry up. Thankfully, you still have that expired ID, otherwise things could’ve gotten a lot messier for us.”

I said, “I know the whole process inside out. They won’t be faster than us.”

Zhao Mingkun sneered, “The most important rule on the run—never assume you’re the smartest person out there.”

While she spoke, she wolfed down a bun in a few bites. “Come on.”

We reached what the locals called a ‘residential complex,’ though it barely deserved the name—there was no gatehouse, and who knew if there was even any property management. Just as we walked up to the building, about to go upstairs, a woman with wild hair suddenly burst out.

She ran straight at us, shouting, “Red! Red! Black! Black! Haha! Red, black—ghosts! There are ghosts! Ghosts are here! Haha!”

The sight startled me. She clung tightly to Zhao Mingkun’s wrist, screaming, “Eyes! She doesn’t have eyes! She’s standing there—she’s dead! There’s a ghost! A ghost!”

Even as Zhao Mingkun stood unfazed, the woman kept crying and eventually ran off into the distance.

Zhao Mingkun frowned, glancing back at the woman as she left.

“Let’s go,” I said. “What are you standing around for?”

Zhao Mingkun kept watching her for a few seconds, then finally joined me as we went upstairs.