Chương 12: Private Message

An ordinary two-bedroom apartment.

The living room directly opposite the entrance hall features the outline of a corpse drawn with a yellow marker.

The movements were bizarre and distorted, making it hard to imagine that they were made by a human body.

"Preliminary examination revealed no signs of external sprains on the body, no evidence of violence suffered before death, and no bloodstains were found under luminol test."

Yu Xin crossed her arms and explained that this posture made her assets particularly obvious.

indeed so.

The door lock showed no signs of damage, and the furniture inside the room was intact. If there had been a fight, the scene wouldn't have been so tidy, and there was no blood.

Unless the perpetrator is a powerful martial artist, such a situation cannot be judged by common sense.

What's odd is the landline phone next to the two corpses lying on the ground.

The receiver dangled to the ground, stretching the telephone cord very long.

"We speculate that the deceased tried to call for help but was unsuccessful."

A reasonable speculation... but wouldn't it be more convenient to use a mobile phone? Perhaps the deceased was closer to the landline when in danger.

"And what about the television? Is there anything unusual about it?"

Lin Shuxuan pointed to the black-screened television in the center of the living room and asked.

At the scene of the fifth murder, the television in the room, which was supposed to be powered off, was still on; Yu Xin also noticed the anomaly.

"No, I can't find any connection or logic between the five murder cases. I even doubt whether I've made a mistake myself."

Yu Xin deduced the anomaly based on the television overheating; however, there are many possibilities for overheating.

For example, the battery may bulge due to aging.

Lin Shuxuan actually saw the black and white noise on the TV, but he didn't record it, and no one would believe him if he told them.

He patted the television set in the center of the room.

No response.

Was it really just a normal accident that the TV turned on?

He ignored the television and considered the case from another perspective.

If the murderer is a powerful martial artist, perhaps clues can be found in the victim's network of relationships; it might be a revenge killing or something similar.

After all, the idea of a novel protagonist enduring ten years of hardship to seek revenge is not a new trope.

He walked toward the bedroom, where the computer light was still on.

"I checked the computer myself, and there's nothing suspicious about it."

Yu Xin, you're a girl, there are some things you don't understand... Lin Shuxuan gently clicked the mouse.

Show hidden folders.

There really wasn't much there.

He was about to go to other places for exploration when a red dot caught his attention.

There are unread messages on social media apps. Could they be clues to the killer?

Click on it.

A tremendous chill exploded in my chest.

Lin Shuxuan was horrified The sun was sinking below the horizon, and the earth was losing its last rays of sunlight; the dark night enveloped the house where people had died.

The surroundings suddenly became quiet, and water droplets dripped from the toilet pipe like the ticking of a second hand.

The distance between the bedroom and the living room seemed to be stretched out by a hand, and in the extra darkness, there seemed to be ghostly creatures twisting and writhing in the shadows.

Tap, tap, tap.

Footsteps approached from afar.

"What are you spacing out for? It's dark and you haven't turned on the lights."

Yu Xin turned on the switch with a click, walked to Lin Shuxuan's side, put her arm around his shoulder, and together they examined the computer screen.

Lin Shuxuan's brown wavy hair fell across her face, and the air around her nose carried the rich fragrance of a mature woman.

Bai Shasha was right, Yu Xin did smell really good... He mentally slapped himself for thinking about this at a time like this.

"What are you looking at?"

"I knew the deceased; he was messaging me just two days ago."

Lin Shuxuan stared at the familiar profile picture in the private message.

The person who died last night was none other than "Wind and Rain," who frequently left comments on his urban legend posts.

"Someone help me! The phone really rang at midnight last night."

"The ringing has been getting more and more urgent lately, and I'm getting scared. I'm always worried I won't be able to answer it."

The messages he had left back then played out in his mind like a replay.

Isn't this a prank...? But someone really died.

"What are you thinking about? Tell me quickly." Yu Xin nudged his shoulder with her elbow.

Let's examine the comments on the post in connection with the murder case.

The wavy-haired mature woman pondered for a long time after hearing this, then looked up and asked seriously:

"Do you want to be detained again?"

Lin Shuxuan was furious. He pulled his phone to the post interface, swiped to the comments section of "Turbulent Times" and handed it to Yu Xin.

After waiting for a while, she looked up with a complicated expression.

"That's impossible!"

But that's how it happened... Lin Shuxuan walked into the living room.

When you look into his urban legends, all the mysteries in the room have a reasonable explanation.

The television's malfunction and the inexplicably scattered telephone lines all fit together logically from this strange tale.

The deceased was killed by a monster that crawled out of the television after he tried to answer the ringing landline phone but failed.

Scaring people to death also fits the style of urban legends.

Moreover, reasoning in this direction... Lin Shuxuan walked towards the television in the living room, fumbled around for a while, and then pulled out a disc.

The Ring

"Check if this item was involved in the previous cases."

Yu Xin looked at him with a complicated expression, her bright eyes filled with regret.

"So you're the mastermind behind this serial murder? Detention might not be enough for this kind of crime; you'd be riddled with bullets."

I couldn't refute it... Lin Shuxuan thought about it and found that Yu Xin's words made a lot of sense.

Aside from the fact that he was a psychopathic killer who recorded the details of his crimes and then wrote them into urban legends, what reason could he possibly give for this coincidence?

"Perhaps the murderer was a fan of mine, and therefore imitated this ghost story to commit the crime?"

"Stop patting yourself on the back. Do you really think your post is that good?"

"Sigh, I wonder who's been urging me to update every day..."

He looked up at the ceiling and sighed.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yu Xin, who looked ashamed and indignant, raising her hand to hit him, and he quickly begged for mercy.

Although I haven't seen Yu Xin make a move, being a captain in the Public Security Bureau means he must have considerable cultivation. Before he finished his "Opening Stance," I estimate one punch would be enough.

"But there's another possibility."

Lin Shuxuan's expression was strange. After thinking for a moment, he decided to voice his guess.

"Maybe this urban legend is true. Anyone who watches this movie will receive a phone call at midnight, and the person who can't answer it..."

A gust of cold wind blew by, and Lin Shuxuan saw goosebumps rise on Yu Xin's fair neck.

Are you afraid of ghost stories?

"Who... are you scared?"

After a while, she finally composed herself.

"This reasoning is even less likely. A story is just a story. It uses coincidences to trap our thinking. We will never be able to solve this case."

"But what if it's true?"

At this point, the two of them looked at the disc in Lin Shuxuan's hand at the same time.

As we all know, the best way to verify a ghost story is to actually do it.

"Let's talk about this later. It's getting late, you should go home."

What you're saying sounds exactly like a jerk, but it's true. Judging by the time, he should be having dinner now, or his aunt will go ballistic.

"Sister Yu Xin, remember to check the discs from the previous cases."

He reminded him.