chapter 11

I took the photo and drove to the neighborhood near Meng Yifan’s house.

When I arrived, he was standing at the entrance of a small restaurant, waiting for me.

From a distance, I could see his face was frighteningly pale, with dark circles under his eyes-exactly the same as me!

And he was holding a black plastic bag in his hand. I had no idea what was inside.

A bad feeling immediately crept into my heart.

“Chen Mo, we’ve really gotten ourselves into trouble this time.”

Meng Yifan spoke weakly, hurriedly showing me what was inside the black plastic bag.

I only took one glance, and my face changed drastically from fright. Instinctively, I took a step back.

“Whose… whose is this?”

Inside his bag was a red high-heeled shoe.

“How the hell would I know!”

Meng Yifan’s eyes were a little red: “Last night, someone came knocking on my door, looking for Li Xiumei. They knocked the whole night. I didn’t dare open the door again, was tormented all night without sleep. As soon as it was light, I wanted to find a master to check things out, but when I went out, I found this high heel at my door.”

My scalp tingled as I listened. So what Meng Yifan wanted to tell me was the same thing that happened to me.

“What a coincidence, someone came knocking on my door last night too, knocked all night…”

Hearing this, Meng Yifan almost lost his balance.

We both fell silent. Faced with something like this, we had no idea what to do.

If it were some criminal, we could call the police and let them help us. But how could we report something like this?

We’d installed surveillance cameras in that house before, and already handed the footage to the police. The police had questioned us, asking why we opened the door at midnight.

Meng Yifan and I told the truth, and they immediately suggested we see a psychiatrist.

“Wait a minute.”

I looked at Meng Yifan and asked, “Isn’t your girlfriend living with you now? Wasn’t she at your place last night?”

Unexpectedly, Meng Yifan’s face grew even uglier. He said, “She was there, but she didn’t hear anything at all. To prove no one was knocking, she even wanted to open the door. I wouldn’t let her, no matter what. She said I was being neurotic.”

“I could only hide in another room, stayed there until dawn.”

I felt a chill run down my spine, even in broad daylight.

So that knocking sound-only Meng Yifan and I could hear it?

“Did you call Xie Peng or Li Xingyang…” I asked again.

Meng Yifan wiped his face: “I did. They’re perfectly fine. It seems only you and I could hear the knocking. I suspect… it’s because I opened the door that night that this happened. Chen Mo, what do you think we should do…”

I said, “It might not be that simple. Even if it’s because you opened the door, we should have only attracted one ghost. How could this ghost be knocking at two places at once, and for the whole night?”

As I spoke, I handed the photo to Meng Yifan.

His reaction was just like mine. The moment he saw the woman’s outfit in the photo, it was as if he’d been electrocuted.

He stared wide-eyed and asked, “Where did you get this photo?”

“Same as you, found it at my door.”

I sighed, “I’m afraid we’ve really run into something supernatural. This ghost won’t let us go. She left us this photo and a high heel, probably to make sure we don’t stay out of it.”

Meng Yifan said irritably, “We’re just real estate agents, not Heibai Wuchang from the underworld. What does this have to do with us?”

I said, “There’s no reasoning with a ghost. The most important thing now is to find out the identity of that mummified corpse. Otherwise, we might not have many days left.”
After just one night, the two of us felt half dead.

If things kept going like this, nobody knew what would happen next.

We walked into a restaurant and each ordered a plate of fried rice, discussing how to investigate the identity of that mummified corpse.

To look into someone’s background-especially a dead person’s-only the police could do that. But how could the police possibly tell us anything?

“I remember the buyer of the house you sold in Garden Villa was a police officer. Do you still keep in touch with him?” Meng Yifan asked me.

I was stunned for a moment, then quickly recalled.

I had indeed sold a house before, and the buyer was a police officer.

The owner was in a hurry to go abroad, so he sold it cheap-900,000 yuan would do.

I listed it for 1.05 million, but eventually sold it to that police officer for 1.02 million, giving him a 30,000 yuan discount. All in all, I helped Meng Yifan earn 120,000 yuan, and he split half the commission with me.

In the end, that police officer thanked me profusely and said he wanted to be friends.

Afterwards, we went out for dinner twice, and that was it.

Although we weren’t close, my life was at stake now, so I had no choice but to ask him for help.

After dinner, I immediately contacted this police officer and asked him to help find out the identity of the mummified corpse.

I won’t say his real name, but he has a bit of authority at his workplace. I call him Brother Liu.

After hearing my request, Brother Liu sounded a bit troubled and said over the phone, “Brother, it’s not that I don’t want to help you. I know about the case you mentioned-it’s already been filed. Any information about the case that gets leaked will get me fired.”

“But you’re my brother, so I’ll do my best. Just, smoothing things over might cost some money.”

I’m no fool-I understood what he meant.

I said that wasn’t a problem; I had to find out the identity of that mummified corpse no matter what.

After some flattery, I invited him to dinner at Yuxiang Lou that evening.

It’s a high-end restaurant, and Brother Liu is probably an old hand-he understood my intentions.

That night.

Meng Yifan and I arrived at the restaurant first and waited for more than an hour before Brother Liu showed up.

Of all the professions, none are better at pleasing people than us salesmen.

Meng Yifan immediately took out a good pack of cigarettes and respectfully handed it to Brother Liu: “Brother Liu, Chen Mo told me you’re a heavy smoker. Let’s be friends-this is just a small token, hope you don’t mind.”

Brother Liu took the cigarettes and weighed them in his hand.

He seemed satisfied with the weight, laughed, and said, “No need to be so polite. Chen Mo’s friends are my friends too. It’s the thought that counts-I’ll accept you as a brother.”

After accepting the cigarettes, he said, “I’ve looked into what you asked me about. But this case-how should I put it-it’s a big deal. It overlaps with a major Massacre Case from many years ago. So what I’m about to tell you, I hope you two will keep to yourselves. Otherwise, you’ll be putting me in danger.”

Meng Yifan and I quickly promised, “Once we walk out that door, we won’t remember a thing you said tonight, Brother Liu.”

Brother Liu nodded, his expression suddenly turning serious: “The female victim you asked me to look into-her name is Li Xiumei. She was one of the perpetrators in the Massacre Case fifteen years ago. The police have been searching for her for fifteen years, but it turns out she’s been dead all along.”