Chapter 12: Approaching the Truth X Fear

  He Jiali secretly took a photo of Yang Hong, which was taken from a high-angle perspective. Yang Hong sat on a white mattress, hunched over looking at a newspaper.

  Kui Ruo Lan leaned in and said, "Thirteen, what new clue is hidden in this photo? At first glance, it doesn't seem to be any different from the other stolen photos... Ah, I see it now, really, so that's how it is..."

  Her high-pitched shriek almost shattered my eardrums, I said: "Yulan can you be a bit more elegant and refined? Others might think someone has taken liberties with you."

  "What secrets is this candid photo hiding?" said Chen Qiuyang.

  I held up the photo and said seriously, "The location of this photo is not somewhere else, but in Yang Hong's bedroom. He Jiali used some method to secretly take a picture of Yang Hong's bedroom in 1201 from her 1301 room."

  Chen Qiuyang suddenly realized, "So that's it, it's actually not difficult at all. Just tie the camera to a stick and pass it down outside the window to take pictures. But thinking deeper, He Jiali is really terrifying, I firmly believe she is the murderer!"

  I continued: "Based on this photo, it can be inferred that He Jiali often secretly took pictures of Yang Hong in her own home. The video she mentioned should be the one she took with a camera when Yang Hong encountered an accident that night, so she captured the scene of Yang Hong's encounter. This video must be very eerie, which is why He Jiali's mental state is abnormal. As long as we find this video, all the mysteries will be solved."

  Chen Qiuyang stuck out his tongue and said, "I don't really want to see that video. If it can scare He Jiali into a coma, then the images in this video must be extremely frightening, unbearable for ordinary people. I'm afraid if I watch it, I'll also go crazy like He Jiali."

  "It's useless, let's first think of a way to find this video, it's like finding a needle in the ocean."

  "I couldn't help but ask, 'Just how terrifying will this video be? Will there be a terrifying murderer appearing in Yang Hong's room and dissecting him alive, or will some mysterious and frightening aliens appear to perform an autopsy on Yang Hong?'"

  "Ha ha, President, you're saying this but it's not scary at all, it's actually quite interesting. Aliens, ha ha ha."

  I said: "Why are you so sure that Yang Hong was murdered by someone? Can't it be aliens? I remember when I was a kid, many magazines said that aliens came to Earth and treated humans as dissection experiments. This bizarre case might be like that, the one who killed Yang Hong wasn't human, but an alien from outside of Earth. If the murderer is an alien, then all the unexplainable things can be explained."

  Zou Guanjia, who had been wiping the silver wine cup all along, interjected: "Thirteen, your imagination is indeed very rich. Since you can assume that Yang Hong was killed by an alien, why don't you assume that the one who actually killed Yang Hong was a ghost from hell?"

  "Zou Guanjia, you finally deigned to reason with me? The reason I didn't assume it was a ghost is that I'm an atheist, I don't believe in the existence of ghosts in this world. And even if there really were ghosts, they could have instantly killed Yang Hong, instead of using a fruit knife to slash open his belly and pull out his intestines."

  I suddenly noticed another issue and said: "In the forensic autopsy report, was there any mention of whether fingerprints were found on Yang Hong's intestines?"

  Zou Guanjia said, "No. Because when those intestines were pulled out, the blood was still fresh and sticky, and there was no way to detect fingerprints. But you can ask such a question, which shows that you are increasingly showing your detective mind."

  It's rare for Zou Guan to praise me, but my mood didn't improve at all. Now that it has been confirmed that the key to solving Yang Hong's murder case is the video taken by He Jiali, where should we look for this video?

  We also told the clues we got to the police officer. The police conducted a thorough search of He Jiali's home, but did not find any relevant videos. It turned out that He Jiali had a habit of going back to Hong Kong for 2 days every week, so all her traces of obsession with Yang Hong were taken to her old house in Mong Kok, rather than being left in Room 1301 of the Rich Hotel. However, at that time, we also searched carefully in Mong Kok and did not find the video card.

  By the third day, a lead came from the Dongying police: in Longcheng, He Jiali had a distant relative who lived in the suburbs, but since He Jiali's death in Hong Kong, no one had seen this distant relative again.

  I and Kui Ruolan and Chen Qiuyang also searched for He Jiali's distant relative: Su Yongshou, 67 years old, living alone, rarely coming into contact with people.

  Longcheng suburb, west side. The western town is an industrial zone with large tracts of land built up with chemical plants, tall chimneys standing upright for years and months spewing out black thick smoke, the air is filled with fine dust all year round, wearing a white shirt to walk on the road here for an hour, the shoulder position will all turn gray.

  I held the faxed photo from Officer Dong and said, "This Mr. Su looks quite kind-hearted, could he have also had an accident? What if He Jiali gave him that video card and he accidentally saw it, wouldn't he be scared to death?"

  Chen Qiuyang, who was standing beside me and holding my shoulder, said: "President, you've been constantly hinting that this video is terrifying. I found myself being hypnotized, thinking that this video must be extremely frightening and scary. It's highly likely that after watching it, one wouldn't just become mentally disordered, but would directly die of fright."

  I let out a sneeze and said, "Autumn Sun, it's not right for you to say that. I've been constantly reminding you all and giving you psychological hints, the purpose is to make you mentally prepared, to give you a preventive shot in advance."

  "Ailian shouted: "I told you two to stop arguing, okay? You're even more talkative than girls. From the time we left Wu Xie Society until now, you've been arguing about how scary this video is. If you have so much free time, why not think about how to find Su Yongshou instead?"

  Chen Qiuyang said: "Actually, it's not that I look down on us, I just think that the Dongjing police haven't found Su Yongshou yet, can we three people really do it?"

  "I said: 'You can't say that, the Dongying police have their own way of searching for people and are easily constrained by various factors. But we can be called idlers, and we also have our own local methods.'"

  My approach is to wait for the rabbit beside the tree stump, since Su Yongshou lives alone, he can't go too far, people of his generation are more attached to their hometown, Su Yongshou disappeared during the day and couldn't be found, but he will definitely show up at night.

  We waited under a big tree near Su Yongshou's house, and in the process, poor Ailuo Lan was miserable - there were especially many mosquitoes in the suburbs at night, and thousands of mosquitoes surrounded us three people. Ailuo Lan kept slapping mosquitoes, and finally she couldn't bear them anymore, so she took out an electric baton from her small bag and swung it wildly in the air, zapping a lot of mosquitoes to death.

  "Shh - someone's coming this way."

  A figure emerged stealthily from a stack of straw by the side of the road and crept towards this direction. Under the dim street lamp, the face revealed was that of Su Yongshou.

  Just as Su Yongshou was about to arrive at his doorstep, we appeared in a timely manner. I got straight to the point and stated my intention.

  Su Yongshou looked at me with a suspicious expression, saying: "I knew you'd eventually find your way here. Alas, poor He Jiali that unfortunate child. Yes, before He Jiali returned to Hong Kong, she gave me a video card."

  Chen Qiuyang couldn't help but say: "Grandfather Su, have you seen that video?"

  Su Yongshou didn't say he had seen it, nor did he say he hadn't. He just let out a long sigh, his throat extremely dry, so the sigh was also dry and intermittent. He said: "He Jiali handed me this video card and asked me to choose whether to keep it or destroy it. In the end, I didn't destroy it, perhaps that's fate."