Chapter 267: Lü Zhiqiu’s Younger Brother

2022-05-20

I stared at Luo Ding’s corpse in silence, at a total loss for words. Today’s shocks kept coming one after another. First, Xing Yafang seemed to see something in the elevator and gouged out her own eyes. Then, Luo Ding was literally frightened to death by a human face in his own home.

Thinking about Luo Ding hiding in the wardrobe, it’s not hard to piece together what happened. When we called him, he probably hadn’t encountered anything supernatural yet. He left the bedroom to look for his phone after our call, but then he saw a white face drifting through his living room.

That face was three or four times larger than normal—a huge, pale human face appearing out of thin air, with empty, pitch-black sockets where the eyes should be. It looked exactly like a face with its eyes gouged out. Luo Ding was so terrified he almost lost control of himself. He grabbed the phone from the living room and ran back to the bedroom, hiding in the wardrobe.

He set his phone to vibrate, terrified that the ghost might follow him all the way in. But after days of fear and sleepless nights, Luo Ding’s body was already pushed to the edge. His nerves were strung so tight, his heart couldn’t take it anymore. Today’s events caused a huge spike of adrenaline and sent his heart racing out of control. Curling up tight, he stopped breathing just like that.

There were no wounds on Luo Ding’s body. Based on the scene and my earlier deductions, death from extreme fear and sudden cardiac arrest seems the most likely explanation.

We still had so many questions for Luo Ding, but he died right in front of us. He must have known something. Otherwise, how could he be so sure it was Lü Zhiqiu’s ghost returning for revenge? Back at the hotel, Luo Ding tried to say something, but Xing Yafang’s death interrupted him.

Zhao Mingkun spoke up: “We can’t stay here much longer. We snuck in by climbing over the wall, and now there’s a body. Whether you have an ID or not, the building security will never let us just walk out of here. If we get stopped, it’ll be impossible to talk our way out of this.”

I nodded. “All right, search the place! Someone like Luo Ding, so introverted—it’s likely he’d leave something written behind. See if there’s a diary or anything.”

Zhao Mingkun nodded and started searching every corner of the apartment.

I rummaged through Luo Ding’s clothes. I remembered he was wearing a T-shirt before, but now he’d put on a jacket. The place wasn’t cold, so why the jacket? I felt around the jacket’s inner pocket and pulled out a small notebook.

The notebook was a little bigger than a phone, just right for an inside pocket.

I flipped through it at random—the pages were covered in dense, messy handwriting.

“Got it, let’s go,” I said.

Zhao Mingkun and I left the apartment. The door lock was wrecked, so there was no way to shut it. Downstairs, there wasn’t a soul in sight, and everything was eerily quiet. This building wasn’t particularly soundproof, so neighbors upstairs and down should have heard all the commotion, but no one came out to check. That struck me as strange.

Zhao Mingkun seemed to catch my thoughts and said, “That’s perfectly normal. Most people prefer to keep out of trouble and mind their own business. They might not come out, but someone probably called the cops by now, so let’s not linger.”

We climbed back over the wall and slipped out into the darkness. It was already three in the morning.

The street was deserted. No one around.

“Where to now?” I asked. “I’d planned to stay at Luo Ding’s tonight and ask more questions, but that’s not happening anymore. This ghost must be something else—it even knew we were coming for Luo Ding tonight.”

Zhao Mingkun shrugged. “I doubt those are the only people who’ll die. Maybe what Luo Ding said is true—anyone who saw her body is marked for death.”

I scoffed. “No way. If that were true there’d be a pile more bodies by now. Wang Yikai said they only showed up after the police tape was set up.”

Zhao Mingkun raised a good point: “If that’s the case, who was the one who made the report? When we talked with the old woman, she never said anything about it. No one else has ever mentioned that either. So, who was the first person to discover Lü Zhiqiu’s corpse?”

I frowned and thought about it. “The first person to find her corpse is definitely suspicious. But it’s been seven years now—who can say for sure? We can’t even check the old case files anymore.”

Zhao Mingkun sighed. “Don’t worry, eventually you’ll be proven innocent.”

I waved him off. “Doesn’t matter anymore. Everyone knows I’m mixed up with you now. Even if the truth comes out about that case, can anyone really untangle what’s between us?”

That shut us both up.

After a long silence, Zhao Mingkun finally said, “Trust me—you’ll be cleared in the end.”

“How?” I asked, a little confused.

Instead of answering, Zhao Mingkun asked, “Do you even know where we’re headed now?”

I shook my head.

“So much for memorizing all of Dongxing City’s map,” Zhao Mingkun said with a look of disdain. “Here’s another rule for being on the run—always have an escape route. To do that, you’ve got to know the fastest ways out. Right now, we’re heading to Lü Zhiqiu’s parents’ place.”

“Her family’s place?” I asked.

Zhao Mingkun nodded. “Yeah, but it’ll take a while.”

Lü Zhiqiu’s family lived in a rural village on the outskirts of Dongxing City, about three hours away in a place called Damian Village.

When we arrived, dawn had broken. Along the road, early risers were already out in the fields. We asked around for directions to the Lü family’s house, and finally someone pointed the way.

After knocking on the door, a woman in her fifties opened up.

“Is this the Lü family?” I asked, showing my ID.

The farmer woman, speaking with a thick accent, replied, “That’s right, that’s right. We’ve been waiting for you. Come in, come in!”

Zhao Mingkun and I exchanged glances, unsure what she meant. Coming here was a spontaneous decision—we hadn’t told her in advance. Yet she greeted us as if she’d been expecting us all along.

Her enthusiasm left me baffled.

Zhao Mingkun asked carefully, “This is the Lü family, right? Lü Xiangyang’s place—Lü Zhiqiu’s parents?”

The woman nodded and invited us to sit in the main room. “Of course, I’m Lü Xiangyang’s mother. Have you eaten? You’re here so early—come, have some breakfast. Husband, come here, we’ve got guests!”

She set out bowls, chopsticks, some side dishes and steamed buns for us.

Whatever was going on, at least no one was about to poison us. At the end of the day, better to fill our stomachs before talking. I didn’t stand on ceremony, but Zhao Mingkun started, “We’re here this time looking for Lü Xiangyang…”

Just then, a man appeared and sat down at the table.

Zhao Mingkun continued, “We’re here about Lü Xiangyang.”

“Looking for Lü Xiangyang?” The man, also in his fifties, spoke up.

“Yeah,” Zhao Mingkun nodded.

The man frowned. “Weren’t you the ones we asked to find him?”

“What?” Zhao Mingkun looked startled.

The woman said, “Our son’s been missing a long time. He said he was off to see some classmates, then never came back. It’s been close to two weeks. We’re worried sick! You said you’d try your best to find our boy—so where is he?”

Zhao Mingkun and I traded a look. Lü Zhiqiu’s younger brother, Lü Xiangyang, had disappeared.

“How long has he been missing?” I asked.

“Over two weeks! Isn’t that what we already told you?” The woman was getting irritated. “Why are you asking again? Have you found him or not?”

Lü Xiangyang had been missing for quite a while, which gave him both the time and motive, if there was a crime involved. At about seventeen, he was already considered an adult. If he wanted revenge and kept his parents in the dark, it wasn’t out of the question.

“Did he say anything before leaving?” I asked.

“Just that he was heading into the city to see a classmate named Wang Kun—that’s what we told you before,” the man said. “We’ve got an apartment in Dongxing City, so sometimes our son stays there on his own. But this time it’s been over two weeks, and none of us can reach him. You can imagine how worried we are!”

The apartment they bought in Dongxing City was probably purchased with the compensation money after Lü Zhiqiu’s death seven years ago.

“What was Lü Xiangyang’s relationship with Lü Zhiqiu…” I started to ask.

But before I could finish, both parents’ faces changed. They immediately turned grim and started clearing away the food. The woman snapped, “I told you our son’s missing—what’s it got to do with Lü Zhiqiu? Just find our boy first! Why are you asking about Lü Zhiqiu?”

She actually started shooing us toward the door. “Who’s this Lü Zhiqiu? I don’t know her! Out! Find my son before you come back!”

I gave up. This woman’s mood shifted faster than a summer storm. I’d only mentioned Lü Xiangyang and Lü Zhiqiu and she was already driving us out of their house. Sometimes I wondered if these two were even Lü Zhiqiu’s real parents. Maybe Zhao Mingkun was right—maybe they never really saw Lü Zhiqiu as their own daughter.

As she yelled, the woman pushed us out the door, shouting, “You’re happy to eat, but you can’t find anyone. Some help you are!”

I looked at the bun in my hand, completely exasperated.

BANG.

The iron gate slammed shut behind us.

At that moment, a crowd of villagers had gathered, eager to watch the scene unfold.