chapter 16

At this point, I didn’t care about my life or death. I just wanted my daughter to be safe.

According to Old Hu, as long as those two bells were tied to Jia Jia’s feet, Jia Jia would be saved. His claim seemed trustworthy enough because she had been shouting about her feet hurting from the moment we found something wrong with Jia Jia. The bone density in her feet was also much lower than anywhere else. There should be a connection between the two bells and feet.

I was taken straight to the criminal squad and kept in a small dark room. Ten minutes after I was locked in, two men came in and started interrogating me. Their primary purpose was to ask me where Hu Thirteen is. If I were to say that I was not an accomplice and give an account, they would have no reason to hold any longer.

A policeman with a cross-faced face said, “Xing Yun, according to our investigation, you and Hu Thirteen didn’t even know each other before this incident. Will you tell me how you two met, please?”

I reached my hand out and said, “Give me a cigarette. That’s how it plays out on TV. Give a cigarette, and the criminal will confess everything!”

This cop gave me a cigarette and kindly lit it for me. I took a deep breath and said, “I have to see my daughter, or I won’t say anything.”

“You’d better be honest and not think of any tricks!” He said.

I looked at him and said, “I suppose you have a daughter, too!”

The man tapped the table impatiently, saying, “Hu Thirteen killed your whole family! Why do you insist on defending him?”

I knew that statement was false. Hu Thirteen was with me on that fateful day. It wasn’t Hu Thirteen who killed my family, but the coffin. It was the coffin that turned my house into a prison, and it was I who killed my family. I laughed as I listened and said, “I want to see my daughter! I’ll tell you what I know as soon as I see her safe and sound!”

The officer, surprised at my determination, took a look at me and consulted another cop before leaving the room. About an hour later, the door opened, and I saw the female medic come in. I was wearing handcuffs that were attached to the table, so it was impossible for me to reach out to Jia Jia.

The two policemen came in again and closed the door as soon as they entered, saying, “Xing Yun, we’ve brought Xing Jia Jia. Now you’ve got to talk!”

The medic placed Jia Jia on the ground. Instead of walking towards me, Jia Jia looked at me silently from the sidelines. The moment I saw Jia Jia, tears came out unbidden as I asked, “Jia Jia, does your foot still hurt?”

Jia Jia looked at her feet and I saw that she already had those two small gold bells around her neck. Instead of answering my question, she replied with, “Why did you ask for me to be brought in when you know I’m not your daughter?”

When these words came out, everyone in the room was stunned. The female medic said incredulously, “Don’t be ridiculous, Jia Jia! This is your father! Didn’t you know? Your father is sick!”

I looked at Jia Jia and smiled, but her face was full of embarrassment.

The cop stared at me impatiently. “Well, now it’s time for you to talk! Xing Yun, you tell us, where did Hu Thirteen go?”

The female medic interjected before I could speak. “He’s out of his mind, it’s not appropriate for you to treat him like this!”

The passionate policeman exclaimed, “It’s important to solve the case. He must know where Hu Thirteen is! I need to catch that bastard with my own two hands. Come on, how did you meet Hu Thirteen?”

I laughed at that and hooked my fingers at him, “Come over here, I’ll tell you!”

The cross-faced policeman stuck his head over, and I whispered, “I was afraid you wouldn’t believe me. My house was haunted, and I invited him to my house to exorcise it.”

“Looks like you’ve been pretty sick!” The cop snapped back immediately, slapping the table.

I wasn’t scared but smiled instead.

He pointed at me and shouted, “Don’t you remember how your family died? They were all killed by Hu Thirteen! Don’t you hate him?”

I shook my head. ”Hu Thirteen had been with me the whole time, there is no way he could have killed my whole family. My whole family was killed by me.”

The medic interrupted, ”Enough of you. Xing Yun has a very serious problem with his perception of things. He’s paranoid, delusional, and a severe schizophrenic. You guys should get him to the hospital now! Don’t torture him anymore.”

She was taken out by the two policemen and didn’t return. When these two policemen came back in, they brought in a doctor who gave me an injection, and I soon fell asleep.

I woke up in a cell with all my limbs bound. When I opened my eyes, all I saw was a white ceiling. The two policemen came in again and untied my arms. I sat up.

The same policeman who had questioned me earlier asked, “Do you remember anything? Tell us where Hu Thirteen is. As long as we capture Hu Thirteen, we will be able to avenge your parents and wife. Did he kill your whole family? Oh, do you want to see the bodies of your parents and wife,, by the way?”

I nodded, and the two untied the straps on my feet. They led me out a thick, wrought-iron door into a hallway full of incandescent lights. I walked all the way down the corridor and into the morgue. Another police officer pulled out three drawers containing the bodies of my parents and wife. I stopped in front of my wife’s corpse, reached out and cradled her head, wailing and calling her name, “Dai Yue, it’s all my fault! Why wasn’t it me who died instead of you!”

The officers dragged me away and pushed my wife’s body back in. The moment I saw my wife’s body, I knew I had lived enough. I broke free of the cop and slammed into the large drawer containing my wife. I knocked myself out straight away with a thud.

Right now, the only thing I want to do is go and reunite with my wife. No one else can understand how much I love my wife.

When I woke up again, I was still in the house with the big heavy iron door. The first thing I saw when I woke up was the policeman with the big face, who looked at me, bent over and said: “Do you remember where Hu Thirteen is? We’ve checked. The car you drove went to Jinzhou. What did you do in Jinzhou? Hu Thirteen is a murderer. Do you know how many lives he has on his hands? Your whole family, his wife, and several of his wife’s colleagues, including the couple upstairs with you, died at his hands. Xing Yun, think about it, maybe you can figure it out!”

I laughed. “There’s no way. He’s my friend. We’d been together the whole time. Besides, the matter is not what you think! You’re just guessing without any evidence. Hu Thirteen is unjustly accused.”

Another policeman said, “Xing Yun, who is good and bad, is a matter for the court. We need to catch him first. If he’s good, the courts will give him justice, and if he’s bad, let him stand trial by the law!”

I said, “No way, he didn’t kill my whole family, much less the couple upstairs. By the way, the couple upstairs was killed by an old ghost who was wearing a pair of blood-stained shoes and holding a candle. In fact, this old man is lying on the back of the medic’s boyfriend. You guys should go find that medic’s boyfriend and protect him.”

“Xing Yun, will you stop making up stories?”

“I’m not making up stories, I’m telling the truth. There’s nothing I can do if you don’t believe me. By the way, Hu Thirteen did kill his own wife and some people, but there was a reason for it. Hu Thirteen had been humiliated. It’s the people who drove Hu Thirteen crazy who deserve to die!”

The cross-faced policeman looked at me and shook his head.

“I see you are really crazy, but whether you are crazy or bewitched, you need to tell us where Hu Thirteen is! This murderous maniac can’t be caught. It’s like a ticking time bomb – and he’s going to make a new one at any moment! To put it bluntly, he’s already crazy, you know? It’s no wonder you two lunatics got together.”

I didn’t answer, but asked. “Where’s my daughter? I want to see my daughter.”

“Given your current situation, your daughter already has a new guardian. By the way, I have good news for you. Your daughter is well.”

I was stunned to hear that and said, “Well? What’s wrong with my daughter?”

“Precocious sickness. What exactly did you feed your daughter? She’s only three years old, how could she develop like that? After half a month of treatment, she’s basically recovered.”

The cross-faced cop pulled a chair over, sat down at the head of my bed, and said, “You almost got your daughter killed, you know?”

I was determined to get an answer, replying with, “Where have you taken my daughter? Give her back to me. I’m not crazy, I’m more normal than anyone else!”

“The court has revoked your custody unless you can be declared sane again.”

I looked at him with rounded eyes and said, “I’m not sick! It’s you guys who are sick, you know? What I said is true; there are ghosts! There are ghosts you know?”

The two cops glanced at each other, watched me sigh helplessly, and then went outside together.

Regardless, I’m still a little glad that Jia Jia is well. Is it proof that what was inside Jia Jia’s body has been driven out? Thinking about it, I breathed a sigh of relief and felt my nose itch. I was going to reach out and rub my nose, but with my arms tied up, there was nothing I could do about it. So I shouted, but there was no response. I saw a camera in the corner of the room and knew that the cops had been watching me.

The door finally opened after an hour. The female medic came in, and I smiled when I saw her.

She sat down at the end of my bed and asked me, “Xing Yun, what are you smiling about?”

I said, “Didn’t you see a ghost that night? Didn’t you see the yellow beans that Hu Thirteen scattered on the floor of your house along with the dried up legs of the old ghost?”

“That’s because you and Hu Thirteen drugged me, and I hallucinated!”

I looked at her with disdain. “Sure, you could have hallucinated, but how could I possibly have known what was in your hallucinations? Sister, do you have any logic? Can I see your hallucinations too? There are ghosts, you know? Let me out now. I want to get my daughter back.”

“Don’t worry about Jia Jia, she’s gone to a very wealthy family. Do you remember the person who went to my house that day? His big brother is infertile and willing to adopt Jia Jia! It’s better for Jia Jia to be wherever she is now, rather than by your side right now!”

I said, “Nobody loves Jia Jia as much as I do, you bastard! You give my daughter back!”

She didn’t speak and slowly stood up with a familiar dismissive grin. I looked at her and froze, muttering, “It’s you! You….”

She smiled flirtatiously at me, revealing a mouth full of big white teeth. She whispered, “Quiet. I know you recognize me! That’s right, it’s me. Don’t worry. I will raise her as a kind of repayment for you for bringing me out!”

I immediately yelled at the camera, with my body lunging forward like a fish. The two policemen came in, as I stared at the medic and shouted, “Sh-she’s the female ghost! She’s the female ghost that came out of the coffin! Get her now!”

No matter how much I shouted, no one answered me.

I knew that the female ghost had invaded the medic’s body. But who would believe me when I say it? Everyone would just think I’m crazy!