Chapter 4: The Cry in the Elevator

  Sister Zhang continued to tell us that it wasn't just that, at first the management thought maybe it was just a mechanical failure. Since no one was injured and they couldn't find any reason for it, they could only continue using it as is. They couldn't spend a lot of money replacing the elevator just because some owners were dissatisfied, right? However, later on, some elderly residents who lived in this building said that when they took the elevator to go upstairs, they occasionally heard a woman's crying voice.

  Hu Zongren and I didn't say a word, so Zhang Dasao explained that this building is a single-family villa, developed by a small developer, so although the floor is relatively high, there are only two elevators. The merchants in the podium, such as car sales stores or supermarkets, do not occupy these high-rise elevators, at most they just have customers parking in the garage and going up to the first floor from the -2nd floor garage. Moreover, all the complaints they received were from the residential households upstairs, none came from the merchants downstairs. It wasn't until those old people mentioned the woman's crying that Zhang Dasao became attentive. She then retrieved a lot of surveillance footage from the elevators without alarming other employees to investigate.

  Hu Zongren interrupted Zhang Dajie, saying that the elevator monitor only had images and no sound, so how could she find out who was crying. Zhang Dajie nodded and said that at first, she also thought of this point, because the monitoring equipment in this community belongs to the flash memory type, which means it can record about a week's worth of video footage. If there is no theft or serious accident after a week, the system will automatically delete the previous video footage to save space, and so on. Coincidentally, during her review of the footage, several owners had their hair sucked into the elevator, with the same situation as the first complaint from the 17th floor owner.

  Sister Zhang said that when she was reviewing the footage from that day, she was shocked to discover that at the moment when one of the owners' hair was sucked up, in a corner of the surveillance video, there appeared several thin and long things that looked like fingers, flashing by. Hu Zongren said, so you suspect that this house is haunted by a ghost, which lies on top of the elevator car, looking for someone who doesn't please it, and then takes revenge by pulling their hair?

  Ms. Zhang didn't confirm or deny, but continued to say that because the elevator's surveillance camera was installed on the left rear side, its angle of view included all positions except for the blind spot at the top and the left rear corner. It was precisely because it couldn't capture the top that the few finger-like things that suddenly appeared at the top seemed especially strange. If there really was something hidden in the surveillance blind spot, then those finger-like things shouldn't have popped out from the top, no matter what.

  Sister Zhang said that afterwards, she repeatedly paused and checked the moment when the fingers appeared. In less than a second, when they appeared, the owner's hair was floating upwards, and when they disappeared, it seemed as if something had pulled them back. From then on, Sister Zhang began to believe what the old man in the building said about the elevator having a woman's crying voice.

  Hu Zongren asked Zhang Dajie, "Do you still have that video here?" Zhang Dajie said yes, knowing he was coming and had prepared it early. Hu Zongren said, "Okay, please show us."

  The surveillance screen was indeed as Sister Zhang said, if you don't pause or slow down the speed to look at it, it really looks like someone's hair is being pulled. Then we slowed down the speed and even stopped to take a closer look, and without a doubt, we found that it was just a few fingers.

  It's settled then. That means Hu Zongren has already made a profit from this deal. So, Hu Zongren suggested going to the elevator to take a look and also asked Zhang Dajie to copy all the strange videos she had on hand, so they could study them carefully. Zhang Dajie said with some embarrassment that the elevator was just at the end of the office building, and when they arrived earlier, she took them up the stairs because she really didn't dare take the elevator.

  After finishing speaking, Sister Zhang took us towards the elevator, but looking at her expression, she was unwilling to follow us into the elevator. We carefully observed the layout, this entire B1 floor, were all property management offices and security personnel restrooms, the end of the corridor was an open space, two elevator doors were lined up in the middle, and surrounding the elevator shaft on one side, was a curved driveway, presumably for vehicles coming from outside to go down to B2. After sending us to the elevator entrance, Sister Zhang pointed to the left elevator and said, "The problematic one is this one, the other one is completely fine." She asked us, "Please, you two must investigate this matter clearly for us."

  Hu Zongren asked Zhang Dajie, "Can we take the elevator to the minus two floor?" Zhang Dajie replied, "Yes, after parking their cars in the building, all owners will directly take the elevator from the minus two floor." Hu Zongren asked again, "Is this minus two floor the lowest level of this building?" Zhang Dajie replied, "Yes, if you go any lower, it's just the foundation and septic tank." Hu Zongren nodded and said, "Okay, let's take the elevator to the minus two floor."

  Then Hu Zongren pulled me along the pedestrian path, asking for a cigarette on the way. He smoked while talking to me, saying that his mother's office ashtrays were all useless and it was suffocating him.

  Walked to the minus two floor, parked a lot of cars, there was an old man who issued cards and collected fees at the elevator entrance. He was probably still wondering why these two young people wanted to come down here and take the elevator. After pressing the elevator with Hu Zongren, I extinguished the cigarette butt and waited for the elevator to arrive, and immediately got in.

  That day was a weekend, and it was almost noon, so there were basically no people around. After getting into the elevator, Hu Zongren started from the LG floor and pressed all the way to the 22nd floor, which seemed to be the top floor of this building. After pressing all the buttons, he shamelessly made a V-shape with his hand in front of the surveillance camera, looking like a lobster. I carefully observed the interior of the elevator car. The walls were plastered with various small advertisements, mainly for unclogging drains and making licenses. On one side of the screen display, there was something that looked like a radio hanging from the ceiling, which played advertisements when the elevator moved, such as emotional intelligence education or English training. The floor of the elevator was made of stone, and the surrounding walls were matte stainless steel plates, eliminating any reflective surfaces and greatly reducing the possibility of ghostly occurrences in this type of elevator. The top of the elevator was quite shabby, with the light cover completely gone, revealing

  The bare fluorescent tube, around the tube is a ventilation hole in the shape of a "mouth" character with small bars. I suppose this was where the barber sucked up the customer's hair back then.

  We arrived at the LG floor, no one took the elevator, so after closing the door, Hu Zongren said to me, use your compass to take a look and see what's wrong. So I took out my compass and started searching around, but strangely, I didn't find any ghostly traces at all.

  This shouldn't be the case, if the video Zhang sister showed us at that time was not fabricated. Even if the ghost wasn't in the elevator at this moment, it should have appeared here before, and since it has appeared before, I shouldn't be unable to find its trail. But the elevator went all the way to the top floor without any unusual signs. So we took the elevator back down to the minus one floor, during which other owners got on the elevator, and our compass needles didn't come out to scare them. After returning to Zhang sister's office, Hu Zongren said that we had carefully checked the elevator and not only did the phenomenon of sucking hair not appear, but we also couldn't find any ghostly traces inside. Hu Zongren said this was strange, but he still couldn't figure out why.

  Then Hu Zongren said to Zhang Dasao, "Let's borrow your computer and take another look at this video." So for almost an hour afterwards, I and Hu Zongren crouched in front of the computer, repeatedly comparing those few segments. As we looked, it seemed that both of us had found some problems, because in these existing segments of tape, we discovered several common points.

  The first commonality is that all the female owners who were affected by the hair-sucking phenomenon are young, looking to be under 30 years old. Among them, there are several who have a similar appearance to Hu Zongren's taste, judging from his expression when he spoke about it.

  Secondly, all of these female victims have long black straight hair that is at least as long as their own height, reaching the top of the elevator.

  Thirdly, whether it was the female owners or the elderly people who later reported hearing crying sounds, the time when the hair-sucking incidents and the crying sounds occurred were all at 7:48 pm.

  Apart from this, Hu Zongren and I also noticed that on one of the evenings at around 7:48 pm, someone else took the elevator. It was a middle-aged man with a young boy who looked like an elementary school student. The man was very tall and stood in the exact spot where it's easiest to get your hair sucked into the gap, but he didn't seem to be affected at all and got off on his own floor. The fourth common point, which we think is the most crucial one, is that all of the residents who were affected or heard the crying sound lived above the 10th floor in this building.

  It must be said that this greatly narrowed the scope of our investigation. So, Hu Zongren and I made a relatively reasonable guess, which is that this ghost specifically targets women, and they are all young and not bad-looking. Secondly, since it allows those old people to hear its crying voice, if it's not to harm or scare the old people, then it must be to attract their attention.

  But why choose the old man? There are many possibilities for this, and so far, Hu Zongren and I have not figured it out. Although children and the elderly belong to both ends of the life trajectory and are also the easiest group to see ghosts, if we just make a conclusion like this, it seems that there is still a lack of persuasive power.

  I glanced at the time, it was just past 1 o'clock. There's still a long way to go before 7:48 tonight, because both Hu Zongren and I thought of it at the same time, if we want to track down this ghost, we probably have to wait until nightfall. After a moment of silence, Hu Zongren nudged me and said, "Let's go out for a walk."

  After finishing speaking, he stood up and said to Zhang Dasao, "Zhang Dasao, we're going out now to prepare some necessary things. Don't rush off after work today, wait for us in the office. We'll be back around 5 o'clock, and at that time, you might need to cooperate with us." Zhang Dasao asked curiously, "What do I need to cooperate with? If I understood, why would I ask you to come?" Hu Zongren said, "Just need to put the maintenance fence of the elevator down to the ground floor when the time comes, and then change the line control so that people can't press the elevator."

  Hu Zongren and I walked out of the office, then strolled to Ping Street. He asked me for a cigarette again and lit it up. I asked him, "You've got all your stuff with you, what else do you need to prepare?" Hu Zongren said, "Do you know where in Chongqing they sell opera costumes and props?" I was still puzzled and replied, "I know, there are many places around the two intersections near Pipa Mountain. What's the point of going there?" He didn't answer me again, then thought for a moment and asked, "How much money do you have on you?" I patted my butt, not because I was satisfied with its shape, but because my wallet was habitually placed in my back pocket. I said, "Just a few hundred yuan." I added, "I'm telling you, I won't lend you any money!" He chuckled and said, "Haha, that's okay, a few hundred is enough."

  I continued to ask him, what exactly are you going to do?

  He spat out a mouthful of smoke, then reached out to dig his nostrils and said casually, we're going to buy wigs and dress up as women.