The Murder House 02

I stared blankly at the screen for a few seconds, wondering which bastard had changed my QQ account to this.

I quickly thought of someone and made a call, yelling after he picked up, "LaoYao, you goddamn faggot! Why did you hack my QQ account?"

"That's what you get for scheming with outsiders against me," he said over the phone. "Humph, tomorrow I'll post your nudes all over the internet."

"Hey hey, let's talk this out, let's talk this out!" I knew a shameless guy like LaoYao was truly capable of anything.

Turned out LaoYao was still hung up on that previous incident. Back then, Huang Xiaotao had promised to give LaoYao her entire reward if he helped crack the case. But in the end, Huang Xiaotao only got 10 yuan in reward money, and LaoYao felt like he had been tricked out of both his intelligence and affection. Though he didn't dare make trouble for the cops, he decided to take it out on me instead.

LaoYao whined into the phone like a nagging housewife, "You got me off with just 10 yuan? Do you think I'm that easy?"

I awkwardly replied, "The wrongdoer should be held accountable, don't drag me into this!"

"Humph, if not you then who! Song Yang, you're done for, I'm telling you. Starting today I'm going to get my revenge on you, badly!" LaoYao yelled furiously.

Once LaoYao had you in his sights, things usually ended very badly. It was said that a forum moderator once deleted LaoYao's posts, so he hacked the guy's computer and turned his private photos into weird videos that he spread all over the world.

I certainly didn't want to end up like that, so I tried to pacify him, "Cool your head. Listen, I've got some things I need investigated right now, and I need your help. I definitely won't shortchange you this time."

LaoYao's tone immediately softened, "Oh really? Let's hear it then!"

I asked him to find some background information on that ominous mansion, negotiated a price, and he left with a "Wait for my message" before hanging up.

I felt like it would be great if we could recruit a devious talent like LaoYao into the police force, rather than having to pay out of pocket each time we needed something investigated.

Not only was LaoYao skilled at hacking, his information searching abilities were also top-notch. Don't underestimate skills like that - many people think searching for information is just punching in a few keywords on Baidu. But it's actually extremely difficult to find the precise information you want, and even harder to accurately locate the original sources.

I didn't understand all these things like SCI and ISTP, but LaoYao was especially adept at them.

After a while, LaoYao sent me a text telling me to log onto QQ.

When I logged in again, I saw my QQ was back to normal, and LaoYao had sent me some files.

I opened them and yelped in surprise - he had found so much in such a short time, it was truly impressive!

It turned out that luxurious mansion had been the site of an arson fire over a decade ago. Back then, a family of three had lived there. The wife was young and beautiful, while the husband was paranoid about her cheating on him due to their age gap.

One day, the husband took their son to get a paternity test done, and the results showed they had no blood relation at all!

The husband was enraged to the utmost limit. He devised a plan for revenge! He killed their son and cooked him into dishes to trick his wife into eating, before telling her she had just consumed their child. He interrogated her on who the boy's real father was!

The wife lost her mind on the spot. The husband beat her violently and then went to bed. That night, the wife splashed gasoline all over the house and lit a raging fire, burning herself and her husband alive. Many eyewitnesses at the time claimed they saw a cackling woman engulfed in flames on the second floor - the scene was utterly horrifying!

Afterwards, the court had auctioned off the mansion. Houses with such gruesome histories were usually sold cheap, which some bold buyers exploited for profits by flipping "haunted houses."

Of course these flippers didn't live in the places themselves. They would hire professionals to stay there for a period of time first. These people were called "haunted house test residents!" It was a rather mysterious profession. They tended to be very courageous, and knew some minor spells and charms to dispel evil. After they stayed for a while, the house would be cleansed and could be resold at a good price after renovation.

But after this mansion was purchased and redecorated, several "test residents" were brought in to dispel evil, only to come and go one after another. They reported often hearing sounds like chewing beans coming from the kitchen at night, but upon listening closely, it was more like the crackling of burning wood.

Sometimes they would also see a little boy bouncing a ball, or a woman pacing back and forth covered in blisters and burns...

On several occasions, the residents themselves became possessed. One hugged a tattered doll and cried in a woman's voice, scaring his coworkers witless.

The owner immediately sold it off cheaply. It changed hands several times after that, but everyone who lived there said the place had an evil air. Sometimes at night the whole wall would burst into flames, accompanied by a woman's laughter, as if reenacting that past horrifying fire. The owners were frightened into fleeing in the middle of the night multiple times.

Currently the house was being sold by a realty company, with the owner's identity kept confidential. But LaoYao's methods were powerful, and he was able to dig up the person's information for me.

After I finished reading, LaoYao's avatar jumped up and down on QQ, urging me to pay up. I transferred him 2000 yuan - having to shell out 2000 just for some info still stung a bit.

At noon, Huang Xiaotao asked where I was. Wang Dali and I met her outside the police station. She had her hands cockily on her hips, clearly the investigation was going very smoothly. She treated us to lunch at a nearby restaurant.

Over the meal, Huang Xiaotao said they had identified the victims. The older one was Lv Liang, and the younger was Liu Wei. They were uncle and nephew, though it was unclear what their occupations were. But they had quite a lot of savings in the bank and seemed to travel all over the country each year.

As soon as I heard, it clicked. "They were probably haunted house test residents, right?"

"Huh?" Huang Xiaotao looked confused.

Wang Dali cut in eagerly, "I know, I know! I read an online novel about that profession once. So it really exists in real life too huh."

"Art is derived from reality after all!"

I relayed the intel I had gotten from LaoYao. Huang Xiaotao murmured, "The house reenacts that past horrifying fire? Then we really might not find the killer in this case."

I said, "Absolutely don't jump to conclusions. If even you as the lead investigator think this way, how can we solve it? I still don't believe ghosts can kill people, otherwise there wouldn't be so many villains in this world."

"You're right!" Huang Xiaotao nodded. "Oh right, I had Wang Yuanchao look into the history of that house. Since you got the info so quickly, I'll tell him not to investigate further."

I said, "No, let Wang Yuanchao keep looking into it!"

Wang Dali said, "We already know about it, isn't it a waste of manpower to investigate again?"

I explained, "Wang Yuanchao will use different channels than LaoYao, so the information won't completely overlap. It's like getting to know someone - people close to that person will have different impressions. The more perspectives the better to get a well-rounded understanding! Since that house is pivotal to the case, it's worth spending more effort on."