Chapter 207: She's My Sister
"Captain Li, I found the suspect in the rehabilitation center confinement case. She lives in Xinkang Apartments in the old city district." Chen Ge described the woman's physical features to Captain Li.
"Are you sure you're not mistaken? The person you're describing doesn't match the notice we received at all. She shouldn't be capable of committing crimes like confinement."
"Her information closely matches the patient in Room 2 of the Third Psychiatric Ward. She might be an accomplice. I'm about fifty percent sure." Chen Ge kept his voice low, afraid the taxi driver might overhear and cause unnecessary misunderstandings.
"Alright, I'll go keep an eye on her myself."
After getting Captain Li's response, Chen Ge hung up and returned to Fanghua Yuan residential complex.
Entering the complex through the back gate, Chen Ge deliberately avoided the surveillance cameras.
"The drunk in the elevator saw the white figure again a few months ago. Running without making a sound—that thing definitely isn't alive. There's a ghost living in the hallway, yet there haven't been any reports of casualties in Fanghua Yuan in recent years. Was the incident covered up deliberately, or is there something else going on?"
Sneaking into Building 3, Chen Ge placed the butcher knife wrapped in red cloth within easy reach. If anything unexpected happened, he could pull the knife from his backpack in an instant.
Following the emergency stairwell all the way up, it took Chen Ge half an hour to figure out the building's layout: "Building 3 has no basement and only twenty-three floors, so why are there twenty-four numbers on the elevator?"
This question had been bothering Chen Ge. Because of Wang Xin's foster mother's warning, he didn't dare casually take the elevator.
After making a full round, Chen Ge returned to the thirteenth floor. With Captain Li watching Xinkang Apartments, he didn't need to worry about that. For now, he just had to stay inside Building 3.
"If the resident of Room 3133 is the patient from Room 2, then the white figure the security guard saw is probably the unclean thing attached to that patient."
For a monster inside a door to linger outside, it had to latch onto a living person. Their relationship was something like symbiosis.
Walking down the hallway, most of the rooms on either side were unoccupied, eerily quiet.
"I wonder if I'll run into the white figure tonight."
Looking further ahead, one room's door was open, its interior light spilling into the corridor.
"Someone's there?" Chen Ge walked toward that door. The closer he got, the stranger it felt: "Isn't this Room 3133?"
The white paper pasted on the door had been torn off, crumpled into a ball, and thrown on the ground.
Chen Ge glanced inside. The floor was tiled, with sparse furniture, and a curtain divided the living room in the middle.
"The owner's back?" Chen Ge had left Xinkang Apartments and wandered around the building for another half hour, so it was possible timing-wise.
He stood at the doorway for a minute or two. No sound came from inside, and no one was visible.
Chen Ge pulled the wooden handle of the butcher knife out from his backpack zipper, quietly pushed the door open, and slipped inside.
He restored the door to its original angle, made sure he hadn't left any footprints, and then moved deeper into the room.
The apartment wasn't large, but two things stood out: a huge bathtub in the bathroom, and a locked freezer in the kitchen besides the refrigerator.
"Hiding a corpse?"
It wasn't that Chen Ge had a dark mind, but under these circumstances, he couldn't think of any other possibility.
All the doors in the room were open. After leaving the kitchen, Chen Ge went straight into the bedroom. A few dark-toned coats hung in the wardrobe, and on top of the cabinet sat a large black suitcase.
The suitcase looked old. Chen Ge stood on tiptoe, trying to take it down, but before he could touch it, he heard the sound of high heels clicking on the floor in the hallway outside.
He looked around, then slipped into the wardrobe with his backpack.
"If I get caught, this is going to be bad."
Chen Ge peered through the crack in the wardrobe door. Before long, the security door was pushed open, and a man and a woman walked in.
The man held a makeshift baton and walked in front, wearing a security uniform. He looked to be in his early twenties.
"Did you really see the white figure?"
"About half an hour ago, I was opening the door when I suddenly saw a white figure walk out of the elevator! I was so scared I didn't even bother closing the door and ran straight for the stairs." The woman following behind wore a pair of red high heels, dressed fashionably, with a slim build and thick, glossy black hair. The only flaw was her mask, which hid her face.
Chen Ge had seen both people at the door tonight. The man was the new night-shift security guard, Gu Feiyu, and the woman was the one who had taken the elevator from the thirteenth floor and rushed into the underground parking garage.
"Stay here for now. I'll go check the elevator." Gu Feiyu was straightforward and quite brave.
"Don't leave. I'm scared staying here alone." The woman grabbed Gu Feiyu's uniform.
"I won't go far." Gu Feiyu didn't care much about the woman's feelings. He took his baton and flashlight and ran over to the elevator, thoroughly searching every corner of the hallway but finding no white figure.
"Could you have been mistaken?"
"Absolutely not." The woman's voice trembled. "What if that thing got into my house?"
She stood behind Gu Feiyu, staring at her own home, too afraid to step inside.
"The captain said this room is haunted. If you're really scared, you'd better move out." Gu Feiyu said whatever came to mind without much thought. "The previous owner was a crazy woman. You might have been scammed when you bought the place."
"I didn't buy this house. That crazy woman you're talking about is my sister. After she went missing, the house came to me." The woman's expression darkened as she mentioned her sister. "You all say she's crazy, but to me, she was the best person in the world."
The woman entered the room, her high heels clicking sharply on the tiles. "Don't just stand outside. Leaving the door open like this, I feel like something might sneak in."
"No need, I have to patrol."
"First, help me check if the white figure is hiding in the house. If it's not here, then you can go." The woman pulled Gu Feiyu inside and immediately closed the security door.
"Alright..."
Gu Feiyu crossed the living room and walked onto the balcony, while the woman went straight into the bedroom.
Seeing the woman approach, Chen Ge held his breath. If she opened the wardrobe door now, it would be a "surprise" she'd never forget.
Closing the bedroom door, the woman walked to the vanity mirror and took off her mask. She rummaged through some bottles and jars in the drawer and touched up her makeup.
After that, she slipped a small plastic bottle into her pocket and turned to leave.
"I've checked the bedroom. The white figure isn't in there."
As the woman turned, Chen Ge caught a glimpse of her face—pale skin, with a strange sense of familiarity.