320 The Exorcist

 

“It’s April 4th again?” Han Fei felt like every tenant at Ziggurat was trapped on that day, repeating the nightmare loops, waiting for a dawn that would never come.

“The woman’s name is Zhuang Wen, the reason behind her death is very complicated.” Li Xue looked at the files and sighed, “Her biological mother was a D list horror film actor, her name was Yuan Shuang. She was pretty but her acting was not that good, the films that she was in had very low reviews. Just as she planned to switch to another film genre, something broke her mind. Apparently, she was scared witless. She stopped acting altogether and disappeared from the entertainment industry. Soon she was found with a young girl, marrying a poor and ugly ‘exorcist’, the girl was Zhuang Wen.”

“An exorcist?”

“Yes, the exorcist lived in his own world and insisted on using his own method to cure Zhuang Wen’s mother. They lived together for 5 years but Yuan Shuang’s conditions didn’t improve. Instead she passed away after leaving the exorcist with a pair of twins, a boy and a girl. Zhuang Wen was there to witness and hear everything, the fanatic statements of the exorcist and the rituals performed on her mother. That made it so that Zhuang Wen was different from other children. She couldn’t fit in.

“After Yuan Shuang died, the exorcist was heartbroken. For some reason, he blamed her death on the little girl. At the exorcist’s home, only Zhuang Wen had a different surname. As the twins grew older, they started to ostracize Zhuang Wen, treating her as an outsider. Because of that, Zhuang Wen’s personality became unpredictable and hard to read. One day, the exorcist suddenly announced that Zhuang Wen was haunted and that she was carrying a ghost with her. She was going to have her mind broken like her mother.

“Zhuang Wen assumed that those were just the exorcist’s incoherent ramblings and no one would treat him seriously but she soon realized how wrong she was. The family of three saw her as a monster, a monster that was dangerous, and needed to be exorcised. That pushed the girl further, she was a normal person but was labelled by the people around her to be a possessed human.

“The atmosphere at home was just eerie. Without the girl’s permission, the family of 3 started their rituals of exorcism on Zhuang Wen. The girl didn’t know if she was possessed or not but even if she was, the ghost possessing her was much kinder than the exorcist and her half brother and sister. Zhuang Wen grew up in tragedy, she was just waiting for the day when she could leave home. But her living environment had molded her personality in such a way that she wouldn’t fit in normal society anymore.

“Soon, even her neighbours started to treat her differently. This was because Zhuang Wen had a bad EQ. But by then, shouting and howling were the only things she could do to prevent the exorcist and his children from harming her further. If she didn’t grow a spine, they would trample all over her. The conflict between them escalated. The exorcist didn’t hate Zhuang Wen, he believed unconditionally that the ghost which had possessed Yuan Shuang had now moved to inhabit Zhuang Wen’s body. To exorcise the ‘ghost’ out from Zhuang Wen, the exorcist locked Zhuang Wen up at home and forbade her from leaving. That deteriorated Zhuang Wen’s mental and physical conditions but it was one year later that she finally committed suicide.

“However, no one knew what happened in that last year because the neighbours never saw Zhuang Wen outside her home anymore. Even her shouts had stopped, the things that happened in that year became a complete mystery. After Zhuang Wen’s death, the exorcist’s family of 3 died one after another and they died in the same manner as Zhuang Wen did.” Li Xue added, “That’s all we can find for now. I can send you the details but are you sure their deaths are related to the Butterfly?”

“I notice their deaths fit the Butterfly’s mo, but beyond that, I cannot be sure. However, I believe they are connected. The same feeling came to me when I was investigating the human jigsaw case.” To increase his persuasion, that was what Han Fei said.

“Sounds like the Butterfly is a challenge that you’re destined to face in life.”

“I think so too.” After hanging up, Han Fei received the info from Li Xue. It had the record of everyone who had hurt the red dress and the jumper woman. After going through the files, Han Fei entered the room. He glanced at Zhuang Ren on the couch and he asked casually, “Director Zhuang, have you heard of a girl by the name of Zhuang Wen?”

“I have not.”

“Then do you know Yuan Shuang? She is Zhuang Wen’s mother.”

“That name sounds familiar, I believe she has starred in a few of my projects. Oh, yes, I remember her now. She doesn’t have much talent, no matter how hard I try to give her pointers, she can’t pick up the acting.” Zhuang Ren did know the woman.

“No offense but what is the nature of your relationship? Why would Yuan Shuang give her daughter the same surname as yours?”

“We had a purely professional relationship!” Zhuang Ren said firmly so Han Fei didn’t press further. He turned his attention back to the game. When he went out to take the call, he died because he stayed idle for too long. The 4 security guards became ghosts after they finished telling the ghost stories. They were the final ghost story and they worked together to kill the character.

Han Fei started from the top and entered Ziggurat the 2nd time. This time, Han Fei memorized all the ghost stories that the guards told. Han Fei frowned when they brought up the red dress. He stared close at the screen. He noticed that as the red dress’ story progressed, the toilet door would open wider. Han Fei’s experience in the cryptic world was immensely helpful. He controlled the character and left the guard room. He calculated the time in his heart. Several minutes later, he entered the guard room again. Of the 4 guards, 3 were dead. The remaining guard sat in a pool of blood and a red dress stood behind him.

‘Looks like the guards were just repeating the stories the Butterfly implanted into their minds.’ After the red dress showed up, Han Fei’s character triggered the Death Curse inside Room 1044—if you sleep, you’ll die. Both the security and the red dress went berserk and charged at the main character. Han Fei watched as he got brutally killed. ‘The security guards are the normal NPC inside the building, they seem to serve some kind of purpose. Looks like I’ll have to find a way to save them.’

As Han Fei became more familiar with the mechanics, he could now finish all the previous maps in under an hour. Zhuang Ren watched Han Fei control the character and he was flummoxed. Han Fei had an unimaginably perfect memory. He used it to memorize the sequence of the buttons and the frequency necessary to tap them. He didn’t even need to consult the maps anymore. It was like Zhuang Ren was watching a fast-forwarded video.

Han Fei returned to the guard room and instantly he charged into the toilet and pulled down the red dress. After obtaining the sleep-related Death Curse, he carried the red dress and hurried to the 1st floor. He left the red dress alone with the deliveryman and after the murder was over, he picked up the delivery box and returned upstairs with the red dress. He sold the box to the businessman. As the businessman carried the box with the red dress inside home, Han Fei controlled the character to wait in the corridor.

Just as Han Fei thought the businessman would be killed, the man’s door suddenly opened and he ran out. Han Fei entered the businessman’s room and stuffed everything within sight into the delivery box. Then he swiped the stack of paper money and slipped them into the rooms which he had not personally visited in the cryptic world. When the businessman sneaked back to his room, he realized his savings had been ‘stolen’ by his neighbours. The businessman came up with ways to enter his neighbours’ room and through this process, inadvertently earned their ire. Han Fei controlled his character and followed behind the businessman, memorizing the situation and the tenants of each individual room.