Chapter 599 - If I Say [2 in 1] (1/2)

Translator: Lonelytree  Editor: Millman97

The theme park opened at 9 am, so Chen Ge did not have much time left. He decided to continue to investigation right there and then.

“Inspector Lee, don’t let your guard down. This man is very dangerous, and he is definitely not as harmless as he makes himself out to be. It is unwise to treat him like a normal mental patient.” Chen Ge had no idea when Jia Ming would wake up. He shared a few words with Lee Zheng and then left the hospital.

He hailed a taxi to get to Jia Ming’s first rental home. The sun was just coming up, and there were few people on the street. Occasionally, a few cars would pass by, but that was all. Chen Ge had not caught any sleep the previous night. He had first gone to the special education school to chase after the water ghost and then dived into the Eastern Jiujiang Dam to salvage the body before finally going to the hospital to help with the police’s investigation of Jia Ming. In other words, he had put his night to optimal use. There was not one second that had gone to waste.

His head was feeling light as drowsiness came at him like waves. Chen Ge got a quick forty winks in the cab, and the driver woke him up when they arrived at the destination. Alas, the quick nap did not prove to be useful; if anything, it only made Chen Ge feel heavier and slower. It was as if his brain was filled with lead.

He rubbed his face and walked into the small alley. A draft of cold wind buffeted his face. Perhaps it was how the buildings were built, but the sun had a hard time showering its rays into the alley.

“No wonder Jia Ming did not dare stop even for a moment after he escaped from his building. He only dared do so after he ran out into the main street.”

This was an old residential area, and the surrounding buildings were generally quite low. Most of them were buildings with only two or three stories. They looked worn and old, and some of them even had the term ‘to be demolished’ painted on the walls in red.

“The story that Jia Ming told at the hospital should have happened a few years ago. I hope the old lady hasn’t moved and the building is still there.”

He followed the address provided by Lee Zheng and moved in and out of the alleys for a long time before he found the old lady’s home. The neighbors on the left and right had already moved away, and there was a large hole in one of the walls. From the looks of it, this place had been abandoned for a long time already.

“This place sure was not easy to find.” Chen Ge entered the corridor and noted the pots of flowers placed in the corners. However, due to the lack of sunlight, most of the flowers had wilted, and the stems were old, thin, and yellow.

“Is anyone home?” Chen Ge knocked on the door on the first floor, and he called out softly. There was no answer, but his own echo reverberating in the first-floor corridor. He turned to look up the stairs. For some reason, Chen Ge felt like there was something off about the place. He tried to pull on the door, and the security door was pulled back just like that.

“It’s not even locked?” Curious, Chen Ge pulled the door completely open. A heady wave of mold rushed out from within. The room was filled to the brim with old furniture. The sofa was the type that had been in fashion twenty years ago, the type with cloth upholstery. Even the cuckoo color on the wall and the low dining table looked quite worn already.

“There is no dust on the doorknob, and the clock in this room is wound to be able to run punctually, so there should be someone who still lives here.”

Without getting the permission, Chen Ge would not be rude enough to trespass into someone’s home. He called again at the threshold of the door, but there was still no reply. However, there was a strange noise that came from the ceiling. It sounded like a deflated rubber ball rolling on the ground.

“That came from the third floor.” Chen Ge walked up the stairs. When he passed the second floor, he noticed that the door of the second-floor room was opened, but no strange smell drifted out from it, like the place was regularly cleaned.

After stopping for a while at the second floor, Chen Ge continued to move upward. The window at the corner of the stairs was covered up by a black cloth. There was no light on the wall, so even though the sun was already up outside, it was still as dark as night inside.

“Is someone there?” A strange voice drifted into his ears. Chen Ge was like the hapless main character of those horror movies as he took one step after another toward the source of the strange noise. Stepping on the creaking steps, his body moved gradually into the darkness. He gripped the handrail, feeling the chill that came from the center of his palms.

There was no light at all on the third floor of the old building. Chen Ge took out his phone and activated the flashlight. He shone the light at the place that the sound came from. When the light fell on the spot, there was something that slithered past in a flash.

Chen Ge tensed up as he scanned the entirety of the third floor. The doors on the floor had all been removed from their hinges, and the place was filled with various items. The most conspicuous object of all was a piano covered in a layer of dust. There were many keys that were missing, and it looked like an old man with many missing teeth opening his lips.

“They should be a quite well-off family. After all, they own a three-story building and could even afford a luxury item like a piano.”

Having walked up to the piano, Chen Ge pressed on a few of the keys. The melody that he expected to come from the piano did not show up.

Chen Ge looked into the piano, and a bunch of hair was stuck inside it. Perhaps he had imagined it, but for a moment, Chen Ge felt like the hair was moving as it curled deeper inside the piano.

Reaching into the piano, Chen Ge calmly pulled out a handful of hair. “There is white hair and black hair. The ends are all neat and clean, so they should have been cut off, not pulled off. Is this the old landlady’s special collection? But why would she collect these?”

The landlady’s daughter-in-law was young when she died, so her hair had not gone white.

“Why would the old lady shove so many reams of hair into the piano?” Chen Ge tossed the hair that he was holding back into the piano. As he pulled his arm back, the corner of his eyes caught the vision of a gray face amid the sea of hair. It seemed to be watching Chen Ge from the cover of the hair.

“What was that?” The third floor was reserved for the souls, so it was not unusual for him to encounter something supernatural. Chen Ge did not panic. He placed his phone to the side, aiming the flashlight inside the piano. Then he reached into the pile of hair with his two hands and started to search. “Are you still in there?”

No one knew what was hiding under the pile, and no one knew what kind of treasure he could come up with. However, the feeling of bare skin touching against the hair did not feel so good. He rummaged through it for a long time, but Chen Ge failed to find the person. He pulled back and looked at the clock sitting at the side. The clock looked similar to the one in the old lady’s room on the first floor, but for this one, only the second hand on the clock face was moving.