Chapter 25: Scene Start
On the wooden table lay several used chopsticks, a bottle of water, and an unopened bread roll.
The young police officer sitting at the other end of the table set down the voice recorder, pulled out his phone, and opened a folder. "Take a look—is this the person?"
Chen Ge glanced at the photo. Several men were walking out of a restaurant with their arms around each other's shoulders. The tallest among them had a peony tattooed on the back of his hand.
"Yeah, that's him!"
"Peonies bloom, fortune arrives. This guy's name is Zhang Peng, a gambler who owes hundreds of thousands in loan shark debt. He's suspected of burglary and robbery." The officer continued flipping through photos. "Now look at this one."
The next image was a still from some surveillance footage. After zooming in several times, Chen Ge could make out a panicked, chubby man in the driver's seat of a minivan. His face was eight or nine parts similar to the short, stout man from the apartment building.
"Looks familiar."
"Based on your description, we cross-referenced the public security database. The driver in the picture is Feng Chunlei, from another province. He drove drunk, caused an accident, and fled the scene—extremely egregious behavior." The young officer put away his phone and organized the papers in his hands. "I've finished the preliminary statement, but you can't leave just yet. Someone from the city branch's criminal investigation unit will be coming to question you in more detail later. I hope you'll cooperate with the investigation, since you're the only witness."
"Of course." Chen Ge sat in the chair, his emotions finally beginning to settle.
When Wang Qi had appeared behind him, he'd felt a chill on the back of his neck and vaguely glimpsed a girl of about seventeen or eighteen through his phone screen.
"Who was that girl? A projection from the black phone? A large-scale holographic game? Or maybe aliens?"
"She must have appeared out of nowhere, reflected on the phone screen. Could parallel worlds really exist?"
Chen Ge had read reports long ago about physicists observing quantum states and finding them different each time. Since all matter in the universe is made of quanta, some scientists speculated that if every quantum has a different state, then the universe might not be singular—there could be multiple similar universes.
"Maybe, under the influence of the black phone, two parallel worlds briefly overlapped." Chen Ge rubbed his forehead, constantly speculating about the truth.
Hours earlier, the West City Police Station had received a report that a suspected homicide had occurred at the Ping'an Apartment on the western outskirts. The police immediately mobilized. On the road near the apartment, they encountered Chen Ge. After basic questioning, the West City station split into two teams.
One team followed Chen Ge to the cabin in the back mountain to pursue Wang Qi; the other entered the woods to search for the apartment's tenants.
Pushing through the dense forest, when Chen Ge reached the cabin again, only a pool of blood remained on the ground. Wang Qi was nowhere to be found.
Only after the West City officers discovered fresh blood and found a large number of the deceased's clothes in the cabin did they finally believe Chen Ge's story. They immediately requested reinforcements from the city branch, mobilized more police, and sealed off the mountain for an overnight search.
As a key witness, Chen Ge received close protection. Originally, the police decided to send him directly to the branch station, but to complete the black phone's task, he told them there were more important clues hidden in the apartment building and insisted on giving his statement there.
That led to the scene earlier. Under the protection of two officers—one inside the door, one outside—Chen Ge lay comfortably in the haunted house, waiting for the task time to pass.
Around three in the morning, the door opened, and a middle-aged policeman in his forties walked in. He took off his cap, grabbed the water bottle from the table, and gulped down several mouthfuls.
"Uncle Sanbao, that's my water." Chen Ge looked at the man and climbed out of bed.
The man's full name was Li Sanbao, deputy director of the West City Police Station. Coincidentally, he was the one who had handled the investigation into Chen Ge's parents' disappearance back then. At the time, Chen Ge had been desperate and anxious, and this uncle had run around helping him with many things.
"You little rascal, 'Sanbao' is what you call me? How many times have I told you—call me Director Li or Captain Li." Li Sanbao put down the bottle, a barely concealed smile on his face. "Forget it, since you've done a great deed this time, I'll let it slide."
"Did you catch him?" Chen Ge jumped to his feet.
"The criminal investigation team isn't a bunch of pushovers. They caught Wang Qi, and the other tenants in the apartment have been arrested one after another. Only Zhang Peng is still at large."
"Great!"
"Wang Qi's fiancée's body has also been found and handed over to the forensic team. If you have any questions, ask quickly—I've got other things to do." The captain had only come to give Chen Ge some reassurance.
"Zhang Peng and Feng Chunlei are fugitives. Are the other two also criminals?" Chen Ge didn't hold back and asked directly.
"The woman is Zhang Peng's wife. At most, it's a charge of harboring a criminal. The landlord's situation is a bit complicated. He was originally just a caregiver, but he got greedy and conspired with the others to take over the old man's apartment. That said, he didn't abuse the old man—at least we didn't find any obvious injuries on him." Li adjusted his cap. "Why are you asking?"
"Nothing much." Chen Ge put on a simple, honest smile like Heshan's. "I heard there's a reward for risking your life to help the police catch fugitives."
"We'll send the banner to your house once the case is closed. See you."
"Hey, wait!"
Seeing Chen Ge's deflated expression, the young officer chuckled. "Captain Li's just messing with you. If Wang Qi really is the culprit in that five-year-old massacre, the reward you'll get should be over thirty thousand. But that money comes from the local government. Also, the old man in the apartment had put out a personal reward—five thousand for anyone who provides key clues."
"There really is a reward?" Chen Ge's lips curled up at the mention of cash. "I was just asking. My original intention for stepping up wasn't for the money. Contributing to the city's harmony and stability is every citizen's duty."
The young officer smiled without rebutting and dutifully stayed by the door.
Later, Chen Ge was questioned again by the city branch's criminal investigation unit. After giving two more statements, the West City station planned to send him home. But to complete the task, he came up with all sorts of excuses to stay in the haunted house—first saying he needed to get his backpack from room 408, then insisting on taking the police to the third floor to see the second crime scene. He dragged things out until six in the morning, when the black phone showed the trial task was complete, before finally getting into the police car to leave.
Watching the scenery rush past outside, Chen Ge felt no sleepiness at all. He secretly pulled out the black phone and began checking the task rewards.
"Player arrived at the task location within the time limit, successfully identified the culprit, and survived until dawn. Midnight Escape trial task complete! New horror scene 'Midnight Escape' unlocked. Player can freely control all mechanisms in this scene from the scene interface!"
"Trial task completion rate exceeds ninety percent. Obtained hidden item for this task—Wang Qi's Missing Person Notice."
"Wang Qi's Missing Person Notice (Resentment Value: Eleven): Every day, I search for the person I killed. I kill her over and over again, yet she always seems to find me. Every dawn, when I open my eyes, her things appear on my bed. I clearly sealed her into the wall, but it feels like she's burrowed into my heart..."