The Judo coach family had a house in the countryside. The surroundings were wonderful but the house was very secluded. At first, the family doted on Jiang Miaomiao. However, as she grew up, the wife slowly noticed something was wrong with her. Jiang Miaomiao kept coming home with inconspicuous scars on her body, and she became more and more introverted. She was like a traumatised kitten. She was very scared of the external world.
The wife pretended to go grocery shopping and left the kids at home. In reality, she was staying near the first-floor window. The two boys asked Jiang Miaomiao to play with them. Miaomiao was unwilling, but she was dragged away. The two boys didn’t treat her as their sister but more like their house pet that could be bullied.
Seeing this, the wife was furious and came out to stop her boys. She stormed out to stop her boys and scold them. She told this to her husband. The coach was so angry that he hit the two boys. However, this only made the situation worse among the siblings. The two boys would bully Miaomiao whenever they had a chance.
The wife was stumped. The two boys were at school-age. So, she brought the boys to a rental home in the old city to be closer to their school while the husband and Miaomiao stayed in the countryside.
The days passed by. One day, the wife was packing the boys’ bags when she accidentally found her boy’s diary. Then, she realised her boys picked up their bullying habits from her husband. When she was not home, her husband would beat Miaomiao and sometimes did something worse.
The wife gave it some thought. In the past, her husband used to beat her. However, after they got Miaomiao, her husband stopped hitting her. She thought her husband had turned over a new leaf, but the reality was he had found a new target!
She rushed back to the countryside home and witnessed a horrible sight. That was when her penance started. She was too weak to be Miaomiao’s protection umbrella. Threatened by violence, she chose silence.
The wife was Miaomiao’s last hope, but that hope was shattered by reality.
To make Miaomiao more obedient and to prevent her from going around ‘talking nonsense’, the retired Judo coach discussed with his wife getting Miaomiao’s silly brother home so he could accompany Miaomiao.
The words in the penance letter became blurrier, but the content was harrowing. Gao Ming slowly frowned. Something rarely happened in his nightmares. The reality was more absurd than his dream.
After gaining an understanding of the situation, Gao Ming took out the picture frame to show Tang Qing, “I found this in the silly brother’s room. This is his own treasured item. The people inside it should be very important to him.”
Tang Qing was shocked when he saw the picture. “I know the cook with the cigarette! He was the noodle shop owner, the inmate I told you about! After he killed his neighbours, he just wanted to die.”
“Then, everything matches.” Xu Deyi analysed, “The cook lived close to the coach’s family. He must have known about Jiang Miaomiao. In his anger, he murdered the coach’s whole family.”
“It’s hard to imagine an adult doing that. Plus, why would he murder the wife and the two sons?” Xu Yajing stared at the man in the picture, “Could his wish to die be his desire to shelter the real killer? For example, could the silly brother or Miaomiao be the true culprit?”
“Of the four victims, only the Judo coach died from blunt force trauma. The others died from carbon monoxide poisoning,” Tang Qing tried to remember.
“The silly man had secrets on him too, but the police seemed to have ignored him in their investigation.” Gao Ming opened the plastic bag to reveal the broken fingers, saying, “I found these in his wooden box.”
“How old was he when the incident happened?” Tang Qing shook his head. “I’d rather believe this was a tragedy caused by an accident when the cook argued with the house owner.”
“This was not the tragedy. The owner deserved it.” Xu Deyi waved the club he held, “The old man was an animal!”
Gao Ming didn’t participate in their conversation. He noticed that when Tang Qing offered his statement, he frowned. Plus, his words sounded purposely, like he was trying his best to shift the blame onto the cook. A thought appeared in Gao Ming’s mind, “Tang Qing is different from the other testers.”
“I still don’t get one thing,” Gao Ming didn’t expose Tang Qing but changed the subject, “Based on our hypothesis, the house owner and the silly man should be enemies. However, the girl said that the ghost she saw looked like the house owner. Are you telling me the silly man and the Judo coach are now living in the same house after they came back as ghosts?”
“I think it’s strange too. Shouldn’t the house owner take revenge on the chef and the silly man after he came back?” Xu Yajing rubbed her head.
“There is also another thing helping the silly man,” Gao Ming gave it some thought, “The silly brother heard a door open on the third floor before he claimed that his little sister was home. Could his sister be living on the third floor?”
“Are we going to the third floor?” Xu Yajing was worried. “But the silly man just rushed to the third floor. If we go there, we might run into him.”
“What is so scary about a human being?” Gao Ming raised the heavy chainsaw as he walked out the door. The others looked at each other.
“The brother must have spent time in Hen Shan before,” Xu Deyi signalled the others to follow Gao Ming.
The place sank into silence.
Gao Ming encountered two more corpses on the steps that led to the third floor. These people who were still alive a few hours ago were twisted into human bows. Their eyes popped out of their sockets.
“Human strength can’t do this.” Gao Ming didn’t even realise there was excitement in his voice, “It looks like there are ghosts in this world. In that case, my nightmare might be more than a simple dream.”