Chapter 26 of Volume 1 Answer

  "Was the little girl scared to death? But you just said that she would get up in the middle of the night to look in the mirror, which proves that she's very brave. How could she be scared to death?" The woman retorted, not convinced by Jiang Qi's confident answer.

  "That's right! It's precisely because she has a big heart that ordinary natural phenomena can't scare her to death. But do you know, in this world, there is something even more terrifying than the combination of wind, rain and thunder? It's called human nature!"

  Fatso sneered: "Damn it, why don't you go talk about philosophy?"

  Jiang Qicai ignored him, seemingly lost in thought, and muttered to himself: "Because humans can utilize everything that can be utilized, even wind, clouds, thunder, and lightning, as well as wandering spirits and ghosts, all of which cannot escape the grasp of humanity!"

  The lady's eyebrows furrowed slightly, "What exactly do you want to say?"

  Jiang Qicai suddenly changed the subject and finally got to the point, "Just now, the principal mentioned in this story that everything the little girl did was seen by her stepmother... what an important detail, didn't you all notice?"

  The fatty continued to sneer, "What's it to you? Does it have anything to do with you?"

  The lady and the science-educated man seemed to have thought of something together, and fell silent.

  "Your brain is just like your body, completely stuffed with fat, no wonder you can't think!"

  "Fatty angrily said: 'You... damn it, wait for me at the school gate after class!'"

  This fatty's mouth was full of vulgar language, and at this time, even the principal and the other man and woman couldn't help but feel a kind of disgust towards him.

  Although Jiang Qicai is afraid of trouble and doesn't like to cause unnecessary disputes, he is a low-key person. However, when trouble comes knocking on his door, Jiang Qicai will not show weakness. He just gave the fat man a cold glance and said calmly: "I hope that at that time your skills will be stronger than your brain!"

  After saying this, Jiang Qi stopped paying attention to him and continued with the previous topic: "Since the stepmother saw all the strange behaviors of the little girl, how could she suddenly die? In fact, thinking carefully, there is only one answer, that is, the stepmother deliberately pretended to be dead! The purpose was to cooperate with the so-called curse of the little girl, and the timing was just right on Easter!"

  The lady finally understood a bit, "So on Easter Day, this bold little girl saw something extremely terrifying, far beyond the power of nature, so she was scared to death?"

  Jiang Qicai nodded and said, "The highest state of killing is formless! Because the stepmother had a motive to kill the little girl before, we can be sure that all the dead ends were set up by the stepmother!"

  The principal's eyes flashed with a hint of approval, saying: "Then please come and break this deadlock!"

  "OK! Let's take a look at the important clues given in the story, 'the villa with a flower garden', 'mirror', 'carved statue', and 'doll outside the window'. What do you think of when you put these together?"

  The lady and the science man shook their heads together. The fat man sneered, "Pretending to be mysterious, can you see ghosts in the mirror?"

  Jiang Qicai clapped his hands loudly, "That's right! The little girl was scared to death only because she saw the so-called 'ghost' in the mirror!"

  Everyone except the principal moved together.

  "If the doll is hanging in a window, and by chance its reflection in the mirror coincides with the statue in the garden, then if someone deliberately plucks a rose from the garden and places it in the statue's hand, at night the rose will appear to be heart-shaped!"

  Fatso said: "You say it's like, but I insist on saying it..."

  "Don't believe me? Try it yourself!" Jiang Qicai smiled slightly and continued, "So, this riddle is actually very simple. On that Easter night, when the little girl was awakened by thunder, the rain soaked the doll, and the area around its eyes, which had been pierced with a needle by the little girl earlier, began to ooze out some red dye. Of course, this dye had been put there by the stepmother beforehand. As I just mentioned, the doll and the statue in the garden overlapped. Then, when the little girl woke up, she had the habit of looking into the mirror, and soon discovered that the statue's eyes, which were originally closed, were now bleeding. The statue's hands also held a bright red human heart (red rose). Adding to this, on a stormy night like this, the doll would inevitably be blown back and forth by the wind, so in the mirror, the statue's head would appear to be swaying back and forth as well. Of course, all these things together were still not enough to scare a brave little girl like her to death, but don't forget, it was Easter that day. When the little girl saw such a strange thing, she must have thought that her deceased stepmother had suddenly come back to life..."

  Jiang Qicai said up to here, all the puzzles have been clearly revealed.

  Three candidates who were as talented as Jiang Qi stared in amazement, as if the scene from that night reappeared before their eyes, with thunder and lightning crackling in their ears.

  The scene fell into a dead silence for a moment.

  After a while, the principal smiled and said: "You three can go out. Sorry, I think this gentleman can stay, let's have a good talk!"

  Watching the fat man, the lady, and the science man leave in a daze, the room was left with only Principal and Jiang Qicai. The principal's eyes showed a hint of admiration, stretched out his hand to shake hands with Jiang Qicai, "May I ask how to address you?"

  "My name is Jiang Qicai!"

  "Haha, looks like you're very clever, but I think you must be quite strange, why did our school clearly recruit security guards, yet insist on coming up with such a topic during the interview!"

  "It's no wonder! Because your purpose was never to find a real security guard, but to find someone to uncover the strange things that have been happening in school!"

  The principal looked at Jiang Qicai with surprise, wanting to say something, but ultimately only hesitated.

  After a long while, the principal said, "Anyway, you can come to work tomorrow! The monthly salary will be as we previously discussed, and I hope that when you're working, your eyes will shine brighter and you'll be able to help us..."

  "Actually, Principal, in that story just now, you missed a point! I think this little girl has another answer besides being killed by her stepmother..."

  "Oh? What else?"

  "Have you ever thought that even if the stepmother calculated everything very accurately, how could she have predicted that it would definitely be a rainy night on Easter? If she didn't know it was going to rain, what's the point of putting in the red dye? Moreover, if she pretended to die and then came back to life, what would the little girl's father think? Would he still give her his property?"

  The principal thought for a moment, and his forehead inadvertently broke out in a cold sweat. "Do you mean to say..."

  Jiang Qicai mysteriously smiled, his right hand gently touched the wheel of reincarnation in his pocket, and slowly said: "There is also a possibility that... this world really exists - ghosts!"

  "Bang!"

  The principal's teacup suddenly fell to the ground and shattered into pieces!

  A gentle breeze crept in from outside the window, eerily cold, sending chills down everyone's spine!