216 Missing Guan Zhenglin

 

Gu Chen stood where he was and turned to me. I explained, “Sister Mary said there was a village at Dong Xing City called Wang Hu Village. In this village, people who died from unnatural death would be offered black paper money. But I believe all of you have noticed an interesting detail. When Wu Xiufen left her home, she burned normal paper money. Only when she arrived at the mountain that she swapped to black paper money.”

Wu Xiufen’s body kept slipping. As Guan Zhenglin held the body, she said, “I did see that. Wu Xiufen probably did that to confuse the villagers. She burned normal paper money when she was near the village but only switched to black paper money when no one was around.”

I looked at Wu Xiufen on Gu Chen’s back. “That is a possibility. But have you considered another possibility? She was mourning two people. One died of natural causes and the other unnatural causes.”

“You mean two people have died?” Gu Chen asked, “But if that was the case, who was the other victim?”

I sighed and said, “I don’t know, but I believe this has to do with the story-telling killer. Of course, we’ll need to expend a lot of energy to look into this unless Wu Xiufen behind you suddenly decide to open her mouth to tell us the truth.” The joke didn’t get any laughs but made the atmosphere quite awkward.

Guan Zhenglin huffed. “Don’t you think that joke is rather out of place in a situation like this? If Wu Xiufen does start talking, you’d be the first to cry from fear.”

“I am not afraid of living people, so why would I be afraid of the dead…” I was about to counter when there was a woman’s cough. The cough made it feel like there was someone watching us from the dark. Gu Chen heard it as well. After he shared a look with me, we both turned to Guan Zhenglin.

“What are you looking at me? It wasn’t me.” Guan Zhenglin stood there.

All three of us heard the cough, and we could tell it was a woman coughing. However, there were three or four of us on the mountain. If the cough didn’t come from Guan Zhenglin…

Wu Xiufen’s head was leaning on Gu Chen’s shoulder. He only needed to turn around to have a ‘close encounter’ with the dead. All three of us stopped to try to pinpoint the source of the noise. Did Wu Xiufen come back to life?

It was so quiet that we could hear each other’s breathing.

There was a second cough, and then it turned into shrill laughter. It sounded like someone giggling after being tickled. Then it sounded more like nails scratching the board. Tt became shriller and shriller. The sound clearly didn’t come from Wu Xiufen.

I raised my flashlight and waved it around. This was not the first time I heard this giggle. It was the same giggle that I heard from the story-telling killer. However, there was no one captured by my flashlight.

“It’s the killer!” I shouted.

Gu Chen undid the tie around his chest and placed Wu Xiufen’s body on the ground. The giggling was sharp then weak. It was hard for us to tell where it came from.

“This way!” As I waved the flashlight about, I heard Gu Chen calling. Gu Chen then charged down a direction. Seeing that, Guan Zhenglin and I chased after him. As we ran, we could still hear the giggle, and it was getting closer and closer.

I had no idea why the killer was there. I had no idea the nature of the relationship between Wu Xiufen and the killer. However, all that would be answered once we captured the killer. However, the killer could move unimpeded in the dark, and I could not.

In less than a few minutes, with the flashlight wavering, I finally lost Guan Zhenglin and Gu Chen. Leaning against a tree, I slowed down to catch my breath. I felt like coughing up blood. I aimed the flashlight around. There were trees everywhere. Cast by the light, the branches looked like claws of monsters.

I rubbed my eyes. Instead of losing my way in the forest, I decided it was wiser to return to Wu Xiufen. However, I only took a few steps when a hand reached out from the dark to grab me. I was about to scream when I felt the burly muscles on the arm. “Gu Chen?” I asked. “Why are you here?”

Gu Chen explained, “I followed the killer back to the tombstone, but he just disappeared. I looked around but couldn’t find him, so I came back here to wait for you. Where’s Guan Zhenglin? Isn’t she with you?”

I frowned. “With my physique, you know I would be running dead last. But shouldn’t Guan Zhenglin with you?”

“No, I thought she was with you.”

A bad feeling rose in my heart.

“Call her!” I quickly dialed Guan Zhenglin's number. When the system said ‘the number you are calling is currently unavailable’ came, my heart chilled.

“It won’t go through?” Gu Chen was nervous. “Yes.” I said, “The line is on, but I can’t get through. The call was ended moments after I made the call, so there can only be one explanation.” Gu Chen’s voice was light. “You mean it was the killer who ended the call.”

I nodded as I felt my whole body shake. “The killer has Guan Zhenglin. The killer is a heartless person. If we don’t find her soon, she’ll be in great danger…”

“Fuck.” Gu Chen punched a tree, causing it to shake.

“Where did you lose the killer?” I asked him.

Gu Chen shone his flashlight down the distance. “Near the tombstone. The killer is like a shadow in the dark. The forest ground is filled with roots and stone. If you run too fast, it’s easy to trip and fall, but the killer is not affected at all.”

“Say, do you think humans can really get used to extreme darkness?” I asked. “We aren’t nocturnal creatures.”

Gu Chen answered. “I don’t know, but the killer was indeed not affected.”

Certain people were born for darkness. Humans were not nocturnal creatures, but they could evolve into one. While I spoke with Gu Chen, I never stopped calling Guan Zhenglin. At first, the line was still open, but eventually, the line or the phone was switched off.

“Guan Zhenglin has been captured by the killer,” I said.

“What should we do now?” Gu Chen said. “When you first called her number, we didn’t even hear her phone ring, so she must be very far away from us. The killer might not even be here anymore. The mountain is so big, and there are only two of us. What can we do?”

I was anxious, but my rationality told me that it was not the time to panic. The more dangerous the situation, the calmer one should be. If anxiety could solve problems, then there wouldn’t be that many antidepressants. I took several deep breaths to force my heart to calm down.

“You’re right. The night is the killer’s best tool. In this kind of environment, we won’t be able to capture him. We need to go back to the station and apply for reinforcement. Even if we turn the whole mountain upside down, we need to find Guan Zhenglin!” I tried my best to suppress my anger as I told Gu Chen. “Carry Wu Xiufen down the mountain. The villagers said the mountain was haunted. It looks like the ghost is the killer. There has to be some kind of unique relationship between the killer and Wu Xiufen. We need to look deeper into the old lady.”

Gu Chen nodded.

I continued, “Sister Mary hasn’t sent me the 4th story, so it means that the killer hasn’t uploaded it onto the internet. It’s now about 10 pm. Even if one drives back to Dong Xing City, it’ll take at least 4 hours. The killer won’t have time to kill.”

After some time, Gu Chen and I finally reached the location where we abandoned Wu Xiufen, but there was nothing there.

“We did put the body here, didn’t we?” Gu Chen asked, “How could a dead body disappear just like that? Was she taken by some beast?”

I looked at the empty ground. “If the beast is the killer, then yes…”