Chapter 274 - Fatal Message [2 in 1] (1/2)
Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
At 11:34 pm, Chen Ge received a call from Captain Yan when he was still inside the police car.
“The situation is not looking good. The opponent is on high alert; they seem to have discovered us.” Captain Yan sent Chen Ge a picture on his phone. “After our investigator entered the elevator, they discovered a phone that was left inside it. There was this message that they discovered inside the phone. It was still typing.”
The picture was of Xiao Gu’s phone. There was a weird paragraph in the typing space.
“Daddy killed us and placed us on the stairs.
“Big brother is lying behind me.
“Little brother is lying in front of me.
“Can you find us?”
“What is the meaning of this?” Chen Ge looked at the message on Xiao Gu’s phone, and he frowned with confusion. He did not quite understand the message that it was trying to say.
“I suspect they have noticed us, and that’s why they purposely left us this message to find in the elevator.”
“Your team has entered the third building?” Chen Ge had already warned Captain Yan, telling them not to make such a huge commotion.
“The two teams of plain clothes haven’t entered Fang Hwa Apartments yet. Their vehicles are parked at the junction about 150 meters away from the building, but they are fully ready, just waiting for the command.”
“Then, how could you have been discovered? Did the scouting investigator slip up or something?”
“Impossible, the investigator that entered the third building to scout is our senior officer. He has seven years of experience and has helped us clear many impossible cases.” Captain Yan did not think the problem lay with his men. “Furthermore, the phone was the first thing he saw when the elevator opened. If they wanted to place this phone without anyone seeing, they needed at least three minutes, and three minutes before this, our teams had not even entered Fang Hwa Apartments yet.”
“I understand what you mean. In other words, the suspects had placed the phone before you arrived.” When Chen Ge understood that, his face shifted. “Where is the investigator that found the phone now?”
“He’s still inside the third building; it was he who sent me the picture.”
“Damn it! Get him out immediately!” Chen Ge understood that the reason the ghost stories society trapped Xiao Gu was to deal with him! So, the phone with the weird message was probably meant for him as well!
After dealing with many ghosts, Chen Ge had discovered some rules about them. Including the Red Specters, most ghosts needed a medium if they wanted to do something in the physical world. For example, Zhang Ya’s love letter, Xu Yin’s tape, and the Pen Spirit’s ballpoint pen. In turn, normal people needed these ‘special items’ as a trigger to allow them to interact with the other world.
The message left on Xiao Gu’s phone was probably one of these triggers. After reading the message, it meant that the person was targeted by one or several unknown ghosts.
“Understood.” Captain Yan did not ask for details. He used the internal communication device to ask for the investigator to escape the scene immediately, but to his surprise, even though only minutes had passed, the investigator had already lost contact!
“This is bad!” Captain Yan did not hang up, so Chen Ge could hear him clearly.
“I still need 3 to 4 minutes before I arrive. Do not send any more people into the building!”
The few officers on the other end of the phone were discussing plans. After several seconds, Chen Ge heard the door being open. It sounded like someone was looking for Captain Yan. After their brief conversation, Captain Yan told the man to stay in his vehicle while he picked up his phone to inform Chen Ge, “The trainee of the investigator that I told you about just came to find me. He said that his instructor just sent him a WeChat message.”
“But weren’t you unable to reach the investigator when you tried to contact him earlier?” Chen Ge was intrigued. “What did the message say?”
“Just three words—Are you there?”
“Are you there?”
“This message is definitely not sent by the investigator.” Captain Yan’s voice turned serious. “An experienced investigator would know not to send meaningless messages to his trainee when he is in the middle of a mission. If he needed any assistance or anything happened to him, the first person he should call is the chief commander.”
Looks like something bad has already happened to that investigator. Chen Ge did not say that out loud, but he did think it.
“No matter what has happened to him, we have prepared for the worst scenario.” An investigator could be in mortal danger. This meant that Captain Yan could not just wait outside the residential area anymore. “Contact Team 1 and Team 2, we move out immediately! Go into the third building!”
“Captain Yan, don’t act rashly! The mental patients hiding in that building are very dangerous!”
“The situation has changed. We can only do this now. Give your phone to Ol’ Wu. Have him drive the car here to meet up with me.”
People’s lives were on the line; Chen Ge knew he would not be able to persuade Captain Yan, so he compromised. “Captain Yan, you have to make sure the officer who received the message from the investigator does not step close to the building; he might have been targeted already.”
After the investigator saw the message on Xiao Gu’s phone, some tragedy befell him. After that, he immediately sent a curious message to his trainee. Chen Ge had a feeling there was something problematic about this. He thought back to what Xiao Gu told him when he made the call. The first thing he said was related to Ol’ Wong.
He tried to arrange the information in his mind. After Xiao Gu got his job at the Haunted House, the chances of him returning to Fang Hwa Apartments for night patrol were extremely low. So why did he return to the third building?
Xiao Gu’s incident is probably related to Ol’ Wong! Perhaps Ol’ Wong sent him a message as well! Chen Ge wanted to tell Captain Yan something else, but Captain Yan had already ended the call to command the teams. Three minutes later, Chen Ge finally arrived at Fang Hwa Apartments.
“Have you found the missing investigator?”
“Yes, thankfully, we found him at the corner of the staircase leading up to the second floor. Physically, he’s fine, but he’s unconscious. According to the men that found him, his eyes were unfocused, and his face was pale.” Captain Yan stood beside the fleet. Holding their internal communication device, his brows were creased deeply. “Now I’m curious; how did the culprit manage to knock out a perfectly healthy adult male with fighting experience in less than a few minutes?”
When the two were conversing, said investigator had been taken out. There was a specialized unit looking after him. Chen Ge glanced at the investigator’s apparel. Without taking off his shirt, thus revealing the police undershirt, he looked just like a normal citizen. His identity would not have been discovered so easily.
“The ghost stories society probably took him as a stranger who accidentally walked into their trap. They see human lives as disposable and won’t hold back even when facing an innocent, but this time, they have made a regrettable mistake.”
When Chen Ge arrived at the 24th floor for the first time, Zhu Xiu had once requested the ghost stories society to help him evade the law enforcement. However, the ghost stories society had firmly rejected him. This little detail proved one important thing. The ghost stories society would not dare start an open conflict with law enforcement. They were like rats living in the shadows of the city, creating chaos and rot, but they would never face the light.