Chapter 4: The Haunted Mansion

  The little security guard's face turned white, and his voice trembled slightly as he spoke to us in a very serious tone: "This isn't something that just happened to me, every brother who has worked the night shift has encountered it. The cries were so mournful, they made your hair stand on end. Some people say that Mr. Xie's head still hasn't been found, and that he's a wrongly killed soul come back to look for his head. If he can't find his own head, then he'll use someone else's."

  The more he spoke, the more suspicious it became. Grey didn't even want to listen anymore and asked: "We need to go take a look at the victim's home, can you lead us there?"

  "I'm not allowed!" The little security guard waved his hand and said: "The key is with our captain, I'll take you to find him."

  "Go!" The entrance was still some distance from the property's security room. After walking for a short while, Xiao Baoan suddenly slapped his own head and muttered to himself: "How could I have forgotten this?"

  "What's wrong?"

  Xiao Baoan said seriously: "I recorded the miserable screams of the ghost house, you can listen."

  "Haunted house?" Grey asked.

  The security guard realized he had misspoken and quickly added, "We all call that house a haunted mansion in private. Please don't let our captain know, or I'll get my salary deducted."

  "Go on, definitely won't tell. Can you let me hear your recording?" I know it's not easy for the security guard to make money either.

  "Here!" The little security guard took out his own mobile phone and handed it over to me.

  I turned up the volume to its maximum and pressed the play button. The audio was only about a minute long, so it finished playing very quickly. I didn't hear anything.

  "You're wrong, there's nothing!"

  "Impossible!" Little Bao'an took over the phone and checked it again, then handed it back to me saying: "You listen again, this time you'll definitely hear it."

  I'm quite sure I didn't hear anything earlier, so to humour the little security guard, I put my phone up to my ear. The first few seconds were very quiet, with nothing audible at all. A few seconds later, a rustling sound could be heard, like the sound of a gentle breeze blowing through a field of grass.

  Just as I was relaxing, a strange noise came from my phone.

  "Ah...... Waaaah...... Oooooh!"

  I heard it very clearly, it was really a mournful cry, not just one person's voice, most of them were men's voices, but in the middle there were also women's voices, all of which were heart-wrenching howls, just by listening to the sound, I knew it was very painful.

  The scream was really too loud, and Gray on the side also heard it. This guy's nerves were extremely thick, and he even asked, "How can there be a woman's scream?"

  The little security guard shook his head, indicating he didn't know either, he was just a small security guard.

  "Can you send me a copy of this audio?" I returned the phone to Little Security Guard.

  "Of course." The security guard sent me the audio and also got my phone number.

  "If anything happens in the future, give me a call, my phone is on 24 hours."

  As we spoke, we had already walked to the entrance of the property, and the security guard took us to see the head of the security team. A man in his 40s with a balding head listened to our introduction as investigators of a murder scene and directly handed me the keys.

  "I still have something on, let Xiao Wu take you there." We were entering when he was clearly playing with his phone.

  "Me?" Little Wu was just the little security guard we met at the entrance, with a face full of unwillingness.

  The captain said: "I'll count it as overtime for you, double pay!"

  The little security guard finally agreed to take us there and took out the key.

  They hadn't walked far from the entrance when they arrived in front of a two-story small villa. The security guard said, "This is Mr. Xie's room, you can go in, I'll wait for you at the door."

  The little security guard refused to come in, it seems the house really left a psychological shadow on him. Actually, whether he comes or not doesn't matter, what's important is us. As soon as I approached the house, I felt gusts of cold wind and shivered.

  Greg took out the key and opened the door. With a creak, the door swung open, and a gust of cold air hit me in the face.

  I involuntarily took a few steps back, and the moment I opened the door, a strange illusion occurred - the house seemed like a gigantic man-eating monster with its huge mouth wide open, full of sharp teeth.

  "Go!" Grey saw I didn't move and gave me a push.

  "Wait a minute!" I grabbed Gray, the entrance was a dark hall, and the light in the room was very dim. The air was filled with a terrible smell. A faint light came through the gap in the door, and as the curtains swayed, the light moved with it.

  A house where someone has died, even the wind blowing in through the door crack feels especially suspicious, let alone a case of wrongful death.

  The security guard was very curious and also looked inside, I asked: "Why are all the curtains in the room closed?"

  "It was you police who instructed us!" The security guard said, "The detective who came that day said that nothing in the room could be moved, and everything had to remain as it was at the time of the incident."

  It seems like everyone has to go in, I took a deep breath, lifted my leg and stepped into the so-called haunted house, with Grey closely following behind me.

  Passing through the entrance is the living room, and from the arrangement of the room, you can see the host's taste. Xie Ping'an likes Chinese style very much, and the living room is decorated with old-fashioned red wood furniture. Just this set of furniture, I estimate that relying on salary, I won't be able to afford it in my lifetime. Winning the lottery still has a bit of possibility.

  Gre said with a tongue-in-cheek tone: "This old Xie really has money."

  I walked around the living room and saw a shelf with some small antiques on it, including small bottles and jars. I picked one up and looked at it, and there was only a thin layer of dust on it, which had accumulated over the past two days. Some items had a thin layer of varnish on their surface, indicating that the owner had been particularly fond of playing with the antiques on the shelf when he was alive.

  I noticed a detail, the largest place in the middle of the shelf was left empty, apparently the owner intended to put a new item in it, and what can be placed in this position must be the owner's beloved thing.

  "What's missing is an antique?" I asked, pointing at the gap on the shelf.

  The little security guard looked at him and said, "I don't know about that. After Mr. Xie was killed, Mrs. Hu was taken away by your people. The only key is in the captain's hand, I don't know anything else."

  I nodded and took a photo with my phone. Gray checked the doors and windows of the room, but there were no signs of forced entry. This point was also seen in the case record issued by the criminal police team, which basically ruled out the possibility of an outsider entering and committing a crime.

  "Where is the scene of the crime?" Gray asked.

  "The little security guard pointed upstairs and said: 'In the bedroom on the second floor!'"

  We turned and walked to the stairs, and a small security guard's voice came from behind us, "You be careful, the second floor is particularly fierce!"

  The stairs were only a dozen or so flights, and by the time we reached halfway, we could see the general situation on the second floor. The second floor was even dimmer than the first floor, and we had to take out our phones to light up. The fluorescent light from the phone cast an eerie glow on our faces, making them look deathly pale, which was a bit unsettling.

  "What's this smell?"

  The smell on the second floor is indeed very unpleasant. It's summer now, and the room has poor ventilation, making the air extremely foul. Adding to that are the smells of blood and something rotten, which makes it even more unbearable. There's no way around it, we can only endure it.

  I recalled the records on the document, the first scene was in the bedroom, the corpse faced the door, lying on its back, with only one foot wearing a shoe, and the other shoe still at the bedside. It is speculated that it may have been in a state of panic and fled, just reaching the door, when the head was gone, and then fell to the ground at the door.

  The scene is right in front of me, and with just a glance up, I can see the bedroom door closed, and the smell inside the room must be even more unbearable.

  Gregory felt for the switch in the hallway and flipped it, but the light didn't come on. Guess he'd have to use his phone instead.

  We took a deep breath in unison and stepped forward to the door. My hand was about to open it, but before I even touched the doorknob, the door swung open automatically. The smell from the bedroom wafted out, and indeed, it smelled even worse.

  I hesitated for two seconds, then took my phone and walked into the bedroom. I have to say, rich people's bedrooms are really big, almost as large as a small conference room. Our phones could only illuminate a small area.

  As soon as I entered, I saw a white human-shaped mark on the carpet. The deceased Xie Ping'an was lying in this place, and there were black bloodstains on the carpet that had dried and solidified into hard black lumps.

  I lifted my leg and stepped over, Ge Lei stood at the door, imitated the deceased's movement, and said: "It seems that the deceased wanted to open the door, but how did his head fall off?"

  The deceased must have been frightened by something, and there should only be the couple in the bedroom at that time. I quickly glanced around, everything in the bedroom looked normal, and there was nothing suspicious.

  I bowed my head and prepared to replay the scene in my mind. If my head were to fall off, where would it go?

  As soon as I crouched down, a chill ran down my back, and an intense sense of fear shot up my spine to my brain. My scalp was numb with terror. Behind me, there was something that made my hair stand on end.

  I had clearly seen that there was nothing in the bedroom, but when I glanced back, the corner of my eye caught a glimpse of a black figure crouching at the head of the bed.

  My first reaction was an illusion. When I turned my eyeballs and looked again, the black figure was still at the head of the bed. I felt that I had been locked in and became a prey that could not escape.

  Danger was just around the corner, but Greg still knew nothing. "Hey, what are you looking at? Speak up!" he asked.

  I took a deep breath and suddenly stood up, looking towards the bed.

  Just as I turned around, the black shadow on the bed moved and pounced on me suddenly. The speed was so fast that I couldn't react at all.

  A dark shadow crashed onto my body. In that instant, I saw the dark shadow seemed to have no head. I only managed to defend myself in time, and the dark shadow vanished after crashing into me.

  I felt a chill run down my spine as a cold breath landed on me, sticking to my skin and seeping into my body.

  "What's wrong?" Gray came over and grabbed me.

  "Let's get out of here first." I pulled Grey and ran downstairs.

  In less than a minute, we ran out of the house and onto the open space outside. I still felt a chill on my body, that icy breath kept piercing into my skin.

  "What's going on?" Gray didn't see the black shadow and knew nothing.

  The little security guard came over and asked: "I didn't say wrong, did I? This house must be haunted, you guys have encountered it too, right?"