The Real Awakening

I feel obligated to warn that this chapter ends in a cliffhanger…

Suicide.

The action of humans using extreme methods to cause their own deaths was “suicide”.

In Buddhism, suicide was also viewed as taking away a life, a disgraceful act. In Christianity, suicide was viewed as betraying God and abandoning their faith, their spirit unable to go to Heaven after death.

Despite this, there were still people that chose to commit suicide every day in the world.

There were many ways of committing suicide. Those from the moderate factions would go with wrist-cutting, jumping into a river, or hanging themselves; those from the radical factions would jump from a building, shoot themselves in the mouth, or light themselves on fire. Everyone’s methods were different, covering a wide spectrum. However, committing suicide by squeezing one’s head into a tiny glass fishbowl to drown themselves was something that had simply never been heard of.

When Ye Xiao first heard the forensic investigator say this, his first reaction was thinking that he had misheard. Then he couldn’t help but feel the urge to laugh as he shook his head and said, “How is that possible!”

However, upon arriving at the crime scene, he immediately witnessed this “impossible” suicide scene.

The location was inside a hospital that was part of a public healthcare system. They were on the corridor of the seventh floor in the inpatient department.

Since it was a fatal case, the entire floor was already sealed off, and the eight or nine other patients had already been transferred to other wards. Only a few of the police remained, searching the scene and collecting evidence.

There was a help desk at the end of the vacant hallway, which usually had a nurse on shift duty. However, during the time of the incident, the intern nurse had apparently been in the stairwell taking a private phone call. Now, the man’s corpse was stiffly sprawled across the edge of the counter, the upper half of his body leaning forwards in an odd position. The most laughable part was that his head and neck were stuck inside an oval-shaped glass fishbowl, making him look like the spacesuit-wearing Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story.

“What the hell…There are actually people that commit suicide like this?”

Ye Xiao circled around the help desk and walked over to the side where he curiously crouched down and attempted to take a look at the deceased’s face from below. Not looking might have been better; upon seeing it, he instantly gasped sharply. The expression on the deceased’s face was honestly so sinister that it was a bit terrifying. Since the head had been soaked for a long time in the water, the entire face was already bloated from blood congestion. To put it more crudely, it looked like a pig’s head at first glance. But where would one ever see a pig’s head that was still grinning after death?

Indeed, the lips truly were lifted upwards as though in a smile, one that gave rise to goosebumps all over the body.

Meanwhile, the two extremely resilient crimson goldfish were currently swishing their tails back and forth as they squeezed through the space between the glass and the bulging eyeballs. Then, they slowly wormed their way into the large, gaping mouth.

Such a scene could only be described with the word “bizarre”.

Ye Xiao stared. And the longer he stared, the more he felt such a means of death was inconceivable.

Su Mu strode over and hung up his call as he said, “I just confirmed it. There’s no mistake, he’s ‘Straight Flush’. His real name is Jin Hai Dong, age thirty-three, jobless, local.”

“Cause of death?”

“Drowning.”

“Tch, so it really was drowning…” Ye Xiao rubbed his chin, his stomach full of doubts. “That’s really strange then. Logically speaking, it’s impossible for a human to drown themselves like this. No matter how resolved he was to kill himself at the time or how much courage he had, he would bound to have resisted while on the verge of death. That’s a survival instinct that all creatures have.”

“That’s right.” Su Mu nodded and agreed, “Just like how a person that can swim couldn’t possibly commit suicide by jumping into a river.”

“Then why do you think this person died?” Ye Xiao glanced at Su Mu doubtfully before looking back down to examine the deceased’s head. He then asked in an uncertain tone, “Could it be that when he resisted, his neck was stuck in the fishbowl and he couldn’t pull out?”

“Impossible.” Su Mu shook his head to deny this. “If he had wanted to live, he would not have needed to pull his head out at all. He could have simply lifted his head up so that the fishbowl was upside down, as the water inside would naturally drain out. But as you see now, he doesn’t show any signs of struggle at all—”

“But that’s illogical,” Ye Xiao interrupted.

Su Mu stared at him thoughtfully. “Indeed, it is illogical. But that is the reality.”

Ye Xiao scratched his head in frustration as he muttered to himself, “Plus, this is the seventh floor. If he really wanted to kill himself, he could’ve just jumped down. Why go through so much trouble…”

“By the way, have you investigated the hospital? Any clues?” Su Mu asked.

“None. Before dying, the deceased was always in a comatose state. He suddenly woke up and became like this.”

“Comatose the entire time? Who was footing the hospital fees?”

“Oh, his ex-wife,” Ye Xiao replied. “She’s already been contacted, and she’s currently rushing back.”

“Ex-wife?”

“Yes, is something wrong?”

Su Mu pondered to himself for a moment. “I looked into Jin Hai Dong and found that before getting into an accident, he had purchased three million in life insurance. And the beneficiary to the insurance was his ex-wife, Gu Jue.”

“Wow, three million? His ex-wife is rich now.” Ye Xiao arched a brow in surprise.

“No, the matter isn’t that simple.” Su Mu continued, “According to my investigation, this Jin Dong Hai was a gambler through and through. He had previously owed a massive sum of money to loan sharks, then he ran away without a trace. And the loan shark had his ex-wife bear joint responsibility for the debt, so—”

“So this insurance money was intentionally meant for his ex-wife to settle the debt?” Ye Xiao turned his head to glance at the man’s corpse as he sighed with regret, “Who would’ve thought that there would be a day when a gambler would have a conscious? But if he bought insurance, then that means he was willingly seeking death?”

“Yes, which is why he participated in that joint suicide activity.”

“But what in the world happened during that joint suicide activity? Why did they not die at the time, but rather returned only to end up dying in bizarre ways one after another? And why did Wu Chang suddenly become a serial killer? What exactly is going on?”

Ye Xiao was completely confused. He shifted his eyes towards Su Mu, only to see the latter shrug and reply, “If I could answer your questions, then all enigmas could be easy to solve.”

Indeed, what had the five members of the Death Poetry Society actually gone through on December 11thlast year? And where had they gone to commit suicide? These were answers that they might not be able to find unless they could locate a survivor.

Soon after, Straight Flush’s ex-wife, Gu Jue, arrived at the hospital. When she arrived, Straight Flush’s body had already been carried to the morgue. Gu Jue did not seem particularly shocked or saddened by her ex-husband’s death. She simply remained silent, her complexion pale and her expression blank.

Ye Xiao asked her a few procedural questions, all of which she replied to.

Finally, Ye Xiao looked at her and asked, “Did you know that your ex-husband, Jin Hai Dong, had previously bought three million in life insurance, with you as the beneficiary?”

Gu Jue slowly raised her head, her eyes vacant as she calmly answered, “I know.”

“When did you learn of this?”

“Before his accident.”

“Before? Did he tell you personally?”

“Yes, I suddenly received a text from him that day.” As Gu Jue spoke, she pulled out her cellphone from her bag. After a series of beeps, she found the text and passed her phone over to Ye Xiao.

Ye Xiao accepted it and checked to find that the date of the text was December 11thof last year, at 10:30 AM.

The text was extremely long, and had actually been split into two. However, the hidden connotations revealed the truth. As the saying went, “the words one says before dying always hold value”. This was likely the case here too.

After he carefully browsed through the contents, he passed it over to Su Mu.

Su Mu took the cellphone and quickly scanned through it as well.

The entire contents of the text message were:

Jue, I know I’ve wronged you. I’m a scoundrel, a gambler. Sometimes I even think that I don’t fucking act like a man at all. But please trust me, I truly do love you. I always have. By the time you receive this text, I will already be on my way to Silent Mountain Ridge to kill myself. I have already been forced into a dead end by the loan sharks. Just think of that three million in life insurance as my final surprise to you. Use it to settle the debt, and those guys won’t ever disturb you again. I hope that after I die, you will stay safe and sound from now on. Good-bye forever.”

This text could also be taken as Straight Flush’s final words.

After reading this, Su Mu exchanged a look with Ye Xiao. After a few seconds’ pause, the two chorused in unplanned unison, “Where is Silent Mountain Ridge?”

Gu Jue was taken aback for a moment as she stared at the two officers that had spoken oddly in sync. She shook her head in bewilderment and replied, “I-I don’t know.”

“Then how did you learn that Jin Hai Dong was in an accident?” Ye Xiao asked.

“Because someone from the police station called and informed me that he had gotten into a car accident, so they wanted me to go and identify him. I figured that since he was all alone with no relatives or loved ones, he was pretty pitiful. Regardless of everything, we had still been married for a period before. Plus he had sent that kind of text to me before his accident, so I couldn’t help it and just…”

Gu Jue let out a soft sigh and looked down at her own toes.

“Do you still remember which police station called you?” Su Mu immediately followed-up.

“It was a police station in a very remote rural area. I think it was called Bai something…oh, right, Baishui.”

“Baishui?” Ye Xiao tilted his head in through. He had the feeling that it sounded very familiar, but he could not instantly recall where he had seen or heard it before.

After completing her testimony, Gu Jue asked Ye Xiao before leaving, “May I ask if his body…needs to be dissected?”

Ye Xiao considered this briefly and replied, “There isn’t a need for the time being, since he wasn’t a victim of homicide. In addition, his cause of death is quite clear.”

Gu Jue nodded and asked again, “Then, could you let me bring his body back? I wanted to hold a funeral for him before his cremation, even though he doesn’t have any relatives or friends…”

The woman bitterly chuckled self-derisively.

Ye Xiao met her eyes and answered, “Alright, I’ll ask my colleagues from the forensics department to call you.”

“Thank you.”

Gu Jue bowed slightly, then turned to leave.

Ye Xiao watched the woman’s frail figure gradually vanished off into the distance, his heart conflicted as he heaved a sigh.

“Now what do we do? Hikikomori A and Straight Flush are both dead, so those two trails are completely cut. There’s still no trace of Wu Chang too, who knows where he’s hiding.” He scratched his head in frustration. “It’s been over a month since the first murder case, but we still don’t have a single clue. The killer’s motive is unknown, their objective is unknown, their whereabouts are unknown…everything is unknown. Damn it! How in the world are we supposed to catch him!”

Su Mu coolly shot him a look before slowly striding towards the elevator and replying, “We just have to trace back to the source to find the cause of the incident. Only then can we solve this riddle.”

“Cause?” Ye Xiao blinked. “The cause is that the five of them agreed to a joint suicide.”

“That’s right.” Su Mu pressed the elevator button and slowly stated, “Now only two remain.”

“Curtain of Dreams and Catwoman.” Ye Xiao urged, “Let’s go and find Catwoman now; hopefully she’s healthy and safe.”

Right then, the elevator arrived. The golden doors took their time opening, and the two simultaneously entered.

Su Mu drove the car very quickly. Along the way, Ye Xiao prayed that this Catwoman person was still alive and well, that she hadn’t run into any issues. However, the things that people worried most about in the world always just happened to occur.

Catwoman was ultimately unable to escape free as well.

Ye Xiao and Su Mu had still been one step behind. They had just been off by a few seconds, yet everything had already become irrevocable.

In reality, Ye Xiao personally watched the girl fall from the tenth floor window, descending straight down like a sparrow that had lost its wings. With a dull, muffled splat, her bones were instantly crushed as her flesh was torn apart and her brain was burst open.

The girl had died less than three metres in front of him. Her brain fluids mixed with the stench of blood had spattered onto his face. It was still warm, so warm, proof that she had originally been alive.

Ye Xiao closed his eyes, struggling to calm his emotions.

Su Mu passed in front of him, putting on a pair of white gloves as he indifferently stated, “Notify headquarters.”

Ye Xiao let out a heavy sigh and wiped off the bloody filth from his face as he nodded.

It was not long before the forensics group arrived. This was already the second fatal case they were handling today.

After inspecting the scene and taking all their photos, Ye Xiao carefully flipped over the girl’s body.

Since she had fallen face down, her face was already beyond disfigured. In addition, the intense blow had smashed half her skull, and there was a hole in the caved-in portion of the head where blood and brain fluids were gushing out ceaselessly, covering her entire face. However, even though all her limbs had been shattered, her eyes were still wide open. Her slightly dilated pupils were gazing at the thick clouds in the sky in a stupor, and the corners of her mouth seemed to carry the faint trace of a smile.

Su Mu bent down to inspect the girl’s corpse. Then he raised his head to study the tenth floor window.

This was precisely where she had just fallen from. When they had arrived and opened the car doors, they had spotted her small figure sitting at the edge of the window in the distance. Before they could even call out to her, they had watched her jump down. While descending, she had seemingly spread open her arms, as though putting on one final performance.

“Heavens, she jumped down with her eyes open?”

Ye Xiao reached out to gently cover her eyes and help her close them. He mumbled in astonishment, “Typically speaking, someone jumping from a building wouldn’t have the courage to watch. Even if they had their eyes open while falling, they would definitely close their eyes unconsciously the instant they collided with the ground. But she…”

“Don’t you think her smile is very strange?” Su Mu asked.

Ye Xiao took a closer look at this, and immediately felt chills down his spine. “She…does look like she’s smiling. And why does her smile seem to carry the same sense as Straight Flush’s when he died?”

What exactly had they been thinking about that split second before dying? Why were they smiling?

This question was unfortunately something that the dead would never be able to answer.

Soon afterwards, the deceased’s identity was confirmed.

This girl that had died from falling off the building was precisely the Catwoman from Death Poetry Society. Her real name was Cui Ting Ting, only seventeen years old this year, still a senior high student. However, according to the school, she had already skipped school for many months now. They had been unable to contact her guardian as well.

During the time of the incident, Cui Ting Ting had been alone at home, so they could basically eliminate any suspicion of homicide. Moreover, the Cui household had a tall window frame with pretty good protective measures, so there wasn’t the possibility of having accidentally slipped down. The sole explanation was that the girl had leapt down herself.

“Suicide, another suicide.” Ye Xiao kept his eyes locked onto the body as he shook his head. “If all these people really did want to die so badly, then why didn’t they die during the joint suicide activity back then?”

Right at this moment, Su Mu finished his call and turned to say, “We’ve finally gotten into contact with Cui Ting Ting’s family.”

“Who?”

“Her mother.” Su Mu said, “She’s a lawyer and was defending in a court session this entire time, which is why she hadn’t answered her phone.”

“A lawyer, huh? Seems like a powerful woman,” Ye Xiao praised. “Cui Ting Ting’s father lives in America for work. In that case, who usually took care of this child?”

This was an extremely good question. With the powerful mother in addition to a workaholic father, who was responsible for the minor?

Half an hour later, Cui Ting Ting’s mother, Zhang Yuan, rushed back in a dark, elegant suit, her high heels clicking as she walked. Upon hearing the news that her daughter had died, she had only stared blankly for a moment. Then, shock, doubt, and disbelief replaced what should have been sadness and heartache.

She collected herself very well. She did not lose control of her emotions nor her rationale. She did not even shed tears. After a brief daze, she recovered her thoughts and asked, “Why did Ting Ting…commit suicide?”

Ye Xiao looked at her straight in the eyes and replied, “I should be asking you that question.”

Zhang Yuan answered in confusion, “How would I know why she committed suicide?”

“You’re her mother.”

“Yes, that’s right. I am her mother. But I am not superhuman, how could I know what she’s thinking? Isn’t finding the reason for a deceased’s death something that you police should be doing?”

Zhang Yuan’s attitude was somewhat overbearing.

Ye Xiao crossed his arms, unwilling to debate with her. Instead, he compromised by saying, “Fine, fine, fine. Then let me ask you, have there been any abnormalities in Cui Ting Ting’s mood recently?”

“Abnormalities?” Zhang Yuan considered this for a moment. “I’m not certain. I rarely run into her. Usually by the time I come back from work, she’s already asleep. And I’m at work during the day, while she’s at school.”

“At school? Did you know that Cui Ting Ting has already been missing from school for many months now?”

“What? Missing from school?” Zhang Yuan’s eyes widened in astonishment. “You mean, she’s been skipping school the entire time?”

“Yes, that is what the school said.”

“That’s ridiculous. Why didn’t they contact me if my daughter was skipping class?”

“Your cellphone was always either disconnected or no one answered. They could not contact you.”

“What a joke, something like that can be used an excuse to shirk their responsibilities?”

Anger formed on Zhang Yuan’s face.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Zhang, but at the moment, I’m afraid the one shirking from their responsibilities is you.” Ye Xiao bluntly asked, “How much do you know about your daughter? How much effort did you put into her growth and education?”

“These questions aren’t something an outsider like you should be asking. I have no obligation to answer you.” Zhang Yuan crossed her arms in front of her chest and furiously spat out, “What else do you have to ask?”

Ye Xiao looked at her in exasperation and stated, “One last question. Do you know where your daughter, Cui Ting Ting, went last year on December 11th?”

“Last year on December 11th?” Zhang Yuan furrowed her brows in thought. “Oh, you’re not referring to that incident, are you?”

“What incident?”

Zhang Yuan took a step back and sat at the edge of the dining table. “I don’t remember the exact date anymore, but it was some night over a month ago or so. When I came back from work, I saw a letter on the table written by Ting Ting. On it, she had said she was leaving home, never to return again.”

“And then?”

“And then? What then?”

“Did you go searching for her, or report to the police?”

“Report to the police?” Zhang Yuan huffed back in annoyance. “Children in puberty rebel all the time with running away from home or whatever. It’s just for play, simply going to stay over at a friend’s house for a few days before coming back themselves.”

“So, she did end up coming back by herself?”

“No.” Zhang Yuan struggled to recall as she replied, “I no longer remember the details, but I suddenly received a phone call from the police station a few days later, saying they had found my daughter.”

“Then after that?”

“After that? There’s nothing else after that. What exactly do you want to know? Did my daughter not commit suicide?” Zhang Yuan suspiciously stared at Ye Xiao.

Ye Xiao replied, “No, what I mean is, after your daughter returned, did she ever talk about it?”

“I am very busy with work. I do not have much time to waste on her. Besides, she had locked herself inside her room the entire time since coming home. I figured she didn’t seem very willing to speak with me. That’s all, are you done asking?” Zhang Yuan gave Ye Xiao one final look, then pulled out her cellphone from her purse and dialled a number as she added, “If you’re done asking, then I’m going to call Ting Ting’s dad. Seriously, it’s not like I’m the only one this child belongs to. Now that something like this has happened, is all the responsibility supposed to fall on me?”

She stood and walked over to the window to make her call.

Ye Xiao sighed and shook his head. With a bitter smile, he said to Su Mu, who had just exited the room, “I think I more or less understand why Cui Ting Ting wanted to commit suicide.”

Su Mu glanced at Zhang Yuan’s back, then raised a thick notebook in his hand. “This is Cui Ting Ting’s diary.”

He opened the diary and directly flipped it to the last page, tossing it at Ye Xiao.

Ye Xiao smoothly caught it and lowered his head to find only two lines on the page.

The first line had a time and weather: December 11th, 7 o’clock, clear.

The second line only had three words: Silent Mountain Ridge.

Silent Mountain Ridge? It’s Silent Mountain Ridge again!

Straight Flush had also mentioned this location in his text to his ex-wife. And between the time Catwoman had returned from this place and when she had jumped to her own death, she had never written any other entries. These few words were clearly and profoundly left on the very last page of the diary, like the final words on her deathbed.

When they left the Cui household and returned to the police station, it was already evening. Curtain of Dreams’ real identity was still being checked. Thus, Ye Xiao And Su Mu began investigating the alleged “Silent Mountain Ridge”.

According to the clues supplied by the family members of the deceased, “Silent Mountain Ridge” was likely some mountain in a remote area called “Baishui”. Per Impermanence’s past description on the Death Poetry Society’s forums, it was “a scenic place that usually did not have any people, where no one could disturb them after death, peaceful and natural”.

But how could no one have heard of such a great place before? We can’t find this mountain on a map either. Maybe it’s just a name that people use by word of mouth?

When Ye Xiao finally found the number for the police station located in the remote mountain area “Baishui”, he called them to ask. However, the people at the Baishui police station remained tight-lipped, as though hiding something about the name “Silent Mountain Ridge”. When asked about the car accident from the past December, they only stated that they had found an overturned car at the bottom of the mountain and rescued five people out from it. Then they had identified them by searching their belongings and contacted their respective families. They refused to say anything else aside from this.

This bizarre car accident was extremely suspicious. However, when Ye Xiao wanted to inquire further, the other end abruptly cut the call.

“Tch, no matter what, we’re still colleagues, aren’t we? Yet they won’t show any respect at all.” He muttered in complaint as he stowed his phone away. After some thought, he added, “Why do I keep thinking that Baishui sounds super familiar?”

“Because a bizarre disappearance incident occurred there in the past. There were multiple news outlets reporting about it at the time.”

Su Mu turned his laptop around and pointed at the screen.

Ye Xiao leaned over to take a look and found that it was an old article from three years ago. The headline on top written in large black letters was: After Entering Baishui, Investigation Team 3’s Eleven People Disappeared Without Trace.

“Investigation team…disappeared…ah, I remember now!”

Realisation dawned on Ye Xiao. He snapped his fingers and said, “At the time, the investigation team had split into two groups: one with five people and one with six people to enter Baishui and conduct an inspection. But not long after, these eleven people went missing, their whereabouts unknown. To this day, they still haven’t been found. But if I remember correctly, they seemed to…seemed to have found three people afterwards?”

“Yes, a year later. Of the missing eleven people, three returned. Two of them were in some state of dissociative identity disorder, and one died.”

“Died? How?”

Su Mu turned his laptop back around and replied, “Overeating.”

“Pfft, what? Overeating?” Ye Xiao stared in disbelief.

Su Mu nodded and answered, “He ate non-stop for an entire twenty-four hours, eventually dying from overeating.”

“Fuck, it’s actually possibly for a person to eat to the point of death? Isn’t that too ridiculous? Does that also count as suicide?”

“Yes, at the time, it was closed as a suicide case.”

“Eh…” Ye Xiao was speechless. He tilted his head back to gaze up at the ceiling, unsure of whether to laugh or cry. “It’s like a response to that old saying where you shouldn’t become a starving ghost after you die….so this guy mysteriously ate until he died…But these people’s conditions seem to share some similarities with the five from the Death Poetry Society.”

“Actually, as a general conclusion, these people all began to show abnormalities after returning from some place.” Su Mu leaned back against his chair and lightly rapped the table with his knuckles. After some contemplation, he added, “In addition, their abnormal actions do not have any common points.”

Ye Xiao sprawled across the desk, his fist propped under his chin as he somewhat dejectedly intoned, “Yeah. At the moment, there are four people aside from Curtain of Dreams. One got poisoned from eating a dead rat, one drowned in a fishbowl, and one died from falling off a building. And the most bizarre case goes to Wu Chang, who somehow turned into a homicidal maniac—”

Right as he was pondering this, the cellphone in his pocket suddenly vibrated. When he answered it, he immediately heard a cheerful and melodious voice come from the other end.

“Hello? Xiao-gēge? It’s me, Ling Dang. I’m going to attend a friend’s birthday party tonight, so I can’t eat dinner with you. I just wanted to call to let you know. Make sure you take care of yourself. Don’t let your stomach go hungry.”

“I know, I might have to work overtime tonight anyways.” Ye Xiao chuckled and teased, “Oh yeah, whose birthday party is it? A boyfriend’s?”

“As if I-I have a boyfriend!” Ling Dang’s voice suddenly went up an octave.

Ye Xiao couldn’t help but snigger as he replied, “Alright, no need to be embarrassed. You’re not little anymore, so it’s completely normal to have a boyfriend! Don’t worry, I won’t tell your secret to the old head.”

“So annoying! I already said I do-not-have-a-boy-friend!” Ling Dan seemed a bit angry.

“Haha, ok, ok, no more joking around.” Ye Xiao reminded, “By the way, don’t play until too late. Come back earlier. Also, make sure to be safe on your way back.” He still felt uneasy after saying this so he added, “If you end up going past nine, give me a call and I’ll go pick you up.”

Ling Dang was silent on the other end. After a while, she quietly mumbled, “Please, don’t keep treating me like a child. I’m already an adult. I’ll be fine.”

She ended the call with a click.

“Damn brat!” Ye Xiao helplessly shook his head and put his phone away.

Su Mu across from him was giving him a strange look. He smiled and explained, “Oh, that’s my little sister. Her school’s on break right now, so she’s temporarily staying at my place.”

“Oh, I never would have thought someone like you could actually be an older brother.”

Su Mu chuckled mockingly, then lowered his head to continue pattering away at his keyboard.

“Oi, what’s that supposed to mean. What do you mean by someone like me?”

“You want me to explain?”

“Of course. You’d better give me a clear explanation. What’s wrong with someone like me?”

Su Mu let out a snort and replied, “Your emotions are even cruder than a sewage pipe.”

“What did you say?”

“Your skin is thicker than the bottom of an earthenware pot.”

“You—”

“Your brain is simpler than a woodpecker’s.”

“Fuck! Are you done yet?”

Ye Xiao slammed the file down and stood up, provocatively glaring at Su Mu.

Su Mu coldly glanced at him and expressionlessly asked, “What, want to fight?”

“As…as if I’m that senseless! Dead Fish Eyes!”

Ye Xiao blurted this out in his anger before plopping back down into his chair and burying his head into flipping through documents.

The two of them did not realise that their colleagues were currently staring at the “freak duo” as though they were monsters.

Time passed bit by bit. The sun was already starting to set outside the window.

When it was time to leave work, the people in the Special Crimes unit left one after another until only Ye Xiao and Su Mu remained, nailed unmovingly in place. The sky gradually darkened, yet the office lights were still on. The two stayed busy until 10:30 before they finally reaped a very tiny reward.

Ye Xiao found Curtain of Dreams’ real identity and address, while Su Mu found a roadmap.

It was a roadmap that had been prepared by the investigation group that had disappeared three years ago while entering Baishui area for an inspection. Since it had been scanned before being spread around on the internet, there were many parts of the map with illegible writing. However, based on the markings in red pen that lined out the main route, it was still possible to clearly discern the path they had advanced through and their camping spots along the way.

After printing out the map, Su Mu and Ye Xiao crowded around it.

“The map doesn’t seem to have any place marked as ‘Silent Mountain Ridge’. Could it be that the investigation group didn’t go that year?” Ye Xiao’s face was practically glued to the paper as he carefully scrutinised it.

“Perhaps they did, but it was called a different name,” Su Mu replied.

“That’s true too. There are so many things crammed on this paper with a bunch of foreign terminology.”

“This path is a bit complicated. If we don’t personally try going ourselves, I’m afraid we’ll never know where they eventually vanished.” Su Mu glanced at Ye Xiao and asked, “How’s the status on your end”?

“Oh, I’ve already found it.” Ye Xiao picked up some data and said, “Curtain of Dreams, birthname: Xie Jing Yun. Female, twenty-five years old. Originally a receptionist at a training agency, but resigned in the middle of November last year and never worked again. She has a retired father and a little brother in university. Her mother passed away six years ago from stomach cancer.”

After stating this, Ye Xiao closed the data folder and added, “At the moment, we haven’t found any proof of Xie Jing Yun’s death. She should still be alive. We’ll go to her house tomorrow morning to take a look. She might know of Wu Chang’s whereabouts.”

Su Mu did not comment. He merely leaned back against his chair and flatly stated, “Rather than Wu Chang’s whereabouts, I’m more interested in knowing what exactly happened to them at Silent Mountain Ridge.”

“Oi, are you misunderstanding something?” Ye Xiao frowned and shot back, “Don’t forget the original intention of our investigation. If we can’t find Wu Chang, who knows how many more people that guy will murder.”

Su Mu only gave a cold snort in reply as he turned his head to stare out the window. There was only profound darkness outside. There was no expression on his face, but there was a hint of thoughtfulness behind his eyes. After a few seconds, he calmly asked, “There are violent crimes that occur in this world every day. It’s impossible to capture all the criminals. Don’t you think that compared to something like this, pursuing the mysterious incident hidden behind the truth would be more intriguing?”

“Huh? What are you saying?” Ye Xiao was dumbstruck.

Su Mu only shot him a sideways look before quietly replying, “Nothing.”

Then he began to tidy up his desk in preparation to head out.

Ye Xiao kept staring at him in bewilderment while putting on his jacket. He tilted his head in thought and muttered to himself, “Seriously, what a weird person.”

“Heh, that’s not something you have the right to say.” Su Mu brushed past with both hands in his pockets.

“Oi, wait for me, let’s go together!” Ye Xiao noisily shouted and hurriedly switched off the lights and closed the door. But by the time he had run out of the station’s front door, Su Mu was already nowhere to be seen.

A chilling wind blew down the empty street, a thin layer of mist carried with the cold air. The temperature at night had already dropped below zero degrees; the winds seemed to pass straight through his bones. Ye Xiao tightly clutched his jacket as he shivered from the cold.

It’s already so late. I wonder if that brat Ling Dang is home yet?

As he thought this, he pulled out his cellphone from his pocket. However, after feeling around his pockets for a while, he discovered that his phone wasn’t there. He then patted through all his pockets to no avail.

Crap, don’t tell me I forgot it in the office?

He quickly rushed back to check and discovered that his cellphone had at some point dropped under the desk without him noticing.

He walked over and picked it up. When he flipped through it, he saw that there were three missed calls, all from Ling Dang. The notification light for voice messages flickered non-stop. The messages had been from an hour ago.

“Ah, it was set to silent mode. No wonder I didn’t hear it earlier.”

As he mumbled this to himself, he pressed the replay button and held it up to his ear to listen. However, he instantly froze.

It was Ling Dang’s voice that came from the phone, but why would her voice sound so panicked, so urgent? As though she was calling while running…

“Xiao-gēge, it’s me. I…I’m already on my way back…but I feel like someone’s following me…What do I do, do I call the police? But I’m not sure…”

“Xiao-gēge, where are you…why won’t you answer the phone? Can you come pick me up? I’m a bit scared…it seems like-like there really is someone following me…What do I do…”

“Xiao-gēge…I’m so scared…that person keeps following me…I can’t run anymore…Ah, I see him! I think he’s even holding a knife in his hand…No! Don’t come over here! Help! Hel—ah…”

Ling Dang’s voice abruptly cut off midway, leaving only the ear-piercing beep, beep, beepof the busy tone.

With a clatter, the cellphone slipped from his palm.

Ye Xiao staggered backwards and gripped the corner of the table as he mumbled in shock, “How…”