Chapter 14 The Information Left Behind by the Dead

  Greedy Smiley said with a smile: "Just now when the dish came up, I tasted a mouthful, and the taste was not bad."

  I also smelled the fragrance of the dishes and my stomach growled with hunger. The three dishes and one soup were devoured by us like fallen leaves in a gust of wind. After filling our bellies, we felt much better.

  After eating and drinking enough, I told Gray about the phantom I saw in the bathroom earlier. At this time, I especially need someone to help me analyze it.

  "Damn it all to hell, that old coot won't bother you again." Grey cursed in indignation.

  There were other people in the small restaurant, and Gray's voice was a little loud with excitement, so everyone else turned to look at us.

  "This isn't a place for talking, go back and talk!" I walked out of the small restaurant.

  There aren't many pedestrians on the streets outside. The police station is surrounded by office buildings, so there are more people during the day, but at night, there aren't many people left on the streets.

  We walked under the streetlights, the orange-yellow streetlights quietly illuminating the empty streets. The light passed through the gaps in the leaves, leaving mottled tree shadows on the ground. A night breeze blew by, and the leaves gently swayed, making a rustling sound.

  If it were an ordinary day, I wouldn't think much of it. But today, I find it somewhat terrifying, always feeling that some evil creature is lurking in the shadows by the roadside, ready to pounce and devour people at any moment.

  "Dude, are you okay?" Grey noticed that my reaction was a bit off.

  "I might have gotten possessed!" Although this time's feeling is different from last time's, but this time it's even more dangerous.

  "The old immortal gave you a talisman, it should be useful."

  I took out the yellow talisman and looked at it, but there was no change. I carefully put away the talisman paper and the exorcism money. This time is much better than last time, when the situation was even more dangerous, we didn't understand anything, and we didn't have any magical tools on hand, yet we still managed to get through it.

  "Maybe it's just that your nerves are too tense, seeing a corpse corrupted to the point of being gigantic, I also can't take it." Grey tried to comfort me.

  "Let's keep walking!" The street was really too empty and desolate, making it hard for people to feel at ease.

  The two of us quickened our pace as we walked back. The small restaurant was not far from the police station, just a ten-minute walk. We sped up.

  After walking for a few minutes, I slowed down my pace. Every time I passed by the streetlights, I would shudder and my heart would inexplicably quicken, as if there was something that didn't want to be illuminated by the lights.

  There was a street lamp right in front of us, and I stopped in my tracks.

  "Why aren't you leaving?" Grey asked.

  I don't know how to explain it, I walked step by step under the streetlight, my eyes vigilantly staring around, actually I myself didn't even know what I was looking for.

  Gail retreated to one side, staring intently around, I walked under the streetlight, looking at my own shadow, nothing out of the ordinary. I thought of the scene in the mirror, looked at myself, there was nothing.

  "Do you see anything on my back?" I turned around and let Gray look at my back.

  "What's going on?! What happened?!" Grey exclaimed in surprise.

  "That's it, let's head back to the dorm!" The shadow seemed useless if there was really something behind me. Looks like I can only see it in the mirror.

  We walked back to the police station entrance, where there were no streetlights. The silver moonlight shone from behind us, stretching our shadows very long. I stared at my own shadow, and it wasn't until a few seconds later that I realized something was off - we were only two people, but there were three heads on the ground!

  In an instant, a chill enveloped us. I gently nudged Fatso and whispered, "Look at our shadows!"

  "What's so great about shadows." Grey still hadn't realized there was a problem.

  "Look for yourself..." I hadn't even finished speaking when the extra head that had appeared on the ground disappeared from view. It seemed like the other party didn't want a third person to see it.

  Gail was still waiting for me to finish my sentence, but I didn't say anything. She looked around blankly and asked: "What am I supposed to be looking at?"

  "It's all right, you go back first, I want to be alone for a while." It's still early, I plan to try again.

  "Be careful then." Grey was a bit uneasy, but seeing my firm attitude, he went back to the dormitory alone.

  In front of the police station's office building, there was a vacant lot that served as a parking lot during the day. At night, only three or four police cars were parked there, and there were no streetlights around. The pure white moonlight illuminated everything around, making every detail visible.

  I walked to the middle position, bathed in the moonlight, and let my spirit relax. Slowly closing my eyes, I whispered: "Xie Ping'an, I know you're around here, now that it's just me, come on."

  It's very quiet all around, so quiet that I can hear the rustling of leaves in the night wind, the chirping of summer insects, and even my own heartbeat accelerating. I just stared quietly like this, one minute passed, nothing happened.

  My breathing became somewhat labored, and it felt like at least five minutes had passed, yet nothing had happened.

  "Aren't you coming? Then I'm leaving!" My last attempt at communicating with Xie Ping'an was still useless.

  I waited patiently for a while longer, but nothing happened, and I slowly opened my eyes.

  Under the moonlight, my shadow is perfectly normal and the surroundings are also very quiet. It seems that my plan has failed, Xie Ping'an's vengeful spirit did not come to find me.

  I walked back while thinking about the problem, where did I go wrong? I thought through the case from start to finish on my way home, not letting any details slip by me. When I recalled last night's experience, I suddenly stopped in my tracks.

  If I'm not mistaken, Lao Shen Gun tried to summon the souls of the two deceased thieves, but failed because their souls were gone and had disappeared at the time of death. If that's the case, Xie Ping An's soul should have also disappeared under the same circumstances.

  So what's been haunting me all this time if it wasn't Xie Ping'an's soul?

  A gust of cold wind blew by, and I shivered. Looking around, I could only see the scenery nearby, but a little further away, everything was blurry and unclear. I couldn't stay outside any longer, so I quickly hurried back to my dormitory.

  Tonight was unusually quiet, even the corridors were eerily silent. I stomped my foot and the lights in the corridor went out. The moonlight shone through the windows, casting a thin veil over the corridor, giving off an air of mystery.

  There aren't many people living in single dormitories, walking in the corridor, you can hear your own footsteps.

  Daaa... Daaa... Daaa...

  The sound has been around you all the time, I think the footsteps are a bit strange. Speed up. When I reached the floor of the dormitory, I slowed down my pace, counted silently in my heart, took three steps, and heard three footsteps.

  Just as I was about to take my fourth step, a strange cry came from the darkness behind me.

  Daaa...

  With an extra sound of footsteps, I was certain that something was following me in the darkness. I turned around, my eyes wide with fear, and the distant darkness seemed to grow even thicker, only a vast expanse of blackness visible.

  Just as I was hesitating whether or not to chase after him, a creaking sound came from behind me, and the door opened!

  "Hey, I can tell it's you just by the sound of your footsteps. What are you doing standing at the door? Come on in!"

  I took big strides and walked into the dormitory, closed the door, made a silencing gesture, then pressed my ear against the door.

  It was quiet outside, very still, I listened for a few minutes, there was no sound at all.

  As I turned around, Gray asked, "What are you listening to?"

  "I'm not sure either, it seems like there's something following me." Tonight is going to be a sleepless night.

  At my words, Grey rummaged through the back room for something handy.

  "No need to look for it anymore, even if we really find it, we can't stop it. And I think it may not want to come in anyway."

  This really proved me right, we waited in the dorm for over an hour and nothing happened. Grey couldn't bear it several times, opened the door to look outside. There was only darkness.

  Grey lost his patience after a while and fell asleep on the bed. I hated this feeling of waiting, things were beyond control, not in my grasp.

  Time was approaching midnight, Ge Lei had fallen asleep, and I was also about to fall asleep. After midnight, it's the most dangerous time, I held the evil-warding money in one hand and the yellow talisman given by Lao Shen in the other.

  I held my phone and watched as the seconds ticked away one by one during the autopsy, the screen displaying a string of zeros, a new day had begun.

  Everything is quiet, still very quiet. The curtains are slightly swaying, the moonlight is pouring in from the gap of the window, and the room is bright and dark. There was a bit of drowsiness just now, but it's gone this moment.

  After waiting for a while, still nothing happened. My spirit gradually relaxed, staring at the door made my eyes blurry, but still nothing happened. Not even the chilly aura that appeared before the ghost arrived.

  Another hour passed and I got sleepy again, slowly closing my eyes and fell asleep.

  Everything was beyond my expectation. I slept very well and didn't have any nightmares. When I woke up, it was already daylight, and I felt a bit better, full of energy.

  I sat up and stretched, while Grey was still snoring away. I took out my phone to check the time, 7:30 the next morning, almost time to go to work.

  "Wake up!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

  Grey stretched and said: "Sleeping is so comfortable!"

  He soon realized something was wrong and sat up with a start, saying: "How did I fall asleep? Nothing happened last night, did it?"

  "Do I look like something's happened?" I jumped down from the bed and flexed my joints a few times.

  "It's nothing, then," Grey said with a sigh. "But how come I smell blood?"

  "How could there be a bloody smell in the dorm?" I laughed twice and then stopped laughing, because I also smelled the bloody smell.

  I took a quick glance around and didn't see anything suspicious. I looked up and saw a line of bloodstained characters on the rooftop.

  "Quickly go and save my wife!"

  This tone seems to be left by Xie Ping'an, this is a message from the dead to us.