Chapter 82: The Sole Witness
Fan Yu likes coming to the haunted house because he enjoys being around ghosts?
Combining this with Gao Ruxue’s father’s deduction, Chen Ge arrived at a rather absurd conclusion.
After a moment’s hesitation, he asked, “Doctor Gao, do you think anyone could actually enjoy being around those things?”
“What things?”
“I’m not sure how to describe it—maybe resentment, or obsession?” Chen Ge phrased it tactfully, but Doctor Gao understood immediately.
He paused before replying, “Your speculation has no basis.”
“But…”
“What do you think life is? Have you truly understood life?”
Doctor Gao’s voice on the other end of the line sounded strange. Chen Ge had never pondered this question before. “A complex arrangement of cells?”
“It seems you don’t know. Let me briefly share my view. According to chaos theory, our universe began in a state of disorder and chaos, with no life at all. The fundamental particles were a mess—neither uniform nor structured. At that point, in thermodynamic terms, the universe had high entropy. Do you know entropy? It’s a concept derived from thermodynamics.”
Perhaps sensing Chen Ge’s confusion, Doctor Gao switched to simpler terms: “Among these disordered particles, some collided by chance, forming relationships, and gradually became clusters of particles with fixed motion patterns. These evolved into functional systems, lowering entropy. Life on Earth is a low-entropy system formed by those chance particle interactions.”
“Life is low entropy, but maintaining that low entropy comes at the cost of increasing entropy in the external environment. Take humans, for example. To avoid starvation, they must eat. Eating pork sustains the human form. For humans, eating is a process of taking in external energy to maintain the body’s low-entropy state. However, while humans maintain their form, the pig’s form disappears—it becomes a high-entropy, disordered state. The same applies to pigs eating grass: they absorb the grass’s energy to stay alive. Without grass, they starve. The grass dies, becoming disordered—a high-entropy entity. From a physics perspective, life’s process of absorbing external energy to sustain its form is called introducing a negative entropy flow.”
“Are you saying that negative entropy is resentment?” Chen Ge, who studied toy design in college, was completely lost.
“Since the universe’s inception, entropy increase and life formation—two opposing processes—have coexisted, intertwined, and permeated each other on multiple levels. On one side, there’s thermal equilibrium, homogenization, and disorder; on the other, energy and mass concentration, organization, or order. Their synthesis is a zero-entropy world. From a certain angle, life moves from areas of higher heat to lower heat, maintaining that form. What you call resentment or obsession is the opposite—it’s the ash left behind by life, or perhaps a flower blooming from that ash.” Doctor Gao paused. “Now you should understand.”
“Understand what…” Chen Ge forced a bitter smile. It sounded logical, but grasping it seemed difficult.
“These are two entirely different systems with no possible overlap! Would you feel sad because air exists? Would you stay with dirt because you like it?” Doctor Gao had already given his answer.
“I can’t make rash judgments about this patient. If you have time, bring him to see me.” Gao Ruxue’s father had never encountered such a patient and wanted to diagnose him in person. “Psychological disorders are complex, with uncertain causes tied to living environments, personal experiences, and even genetics. Conclusions can’t be drawn lightly.”
Chen Ge didn’t respond. As he concluded that Fan Yu liked being with ghosts, a terrifying thought struck him.
Pulling back his raincoat, he took out Fan Yu’s drawing from an inner pocket.
A black house with several red figures inside.
Before coming to Muyang Middle School, Chen Ge thought the drawing depicted one of the school’s buildings. But after arriving, he realized the three small school buildings were completely different from the black house in the drawing.
Instead, the rundown house where Fan Yu lived with his aunt bore a striking resemblance to the black house in the picture.
“If Fan Yu has been drawing the house he lives in, then these red figures…” Chen Ge’s hair stood on end. “Could it be that Fan Yu’s house is full of ghosts?!”
He recalled visiting Fan Yu during the day. His aunt had looked tense, while Fan Yu locked himself in his room, windows and doors shut, head down, drawing at his desk.
He always used red and black, drawing the same black house and red figures, but each drawing had slight differences.
Chen Ge’s lips turned pale. He remembered clearly that in all the boy’s drawings, the red figures were in different positions.
He had thought it was just random doodling, but now he realized it was the dirty things in that house moving.
“Can Fan Yu see them?”
Chen Ge took a cold breath. He recalled several details from Fan Yu’s time in the haunted house. When the boy spoke to Chen Ge, he would look behind him, his gaze landing on Chen Ge’s shadow.
Fan Yu had only said two things in the haunted house, both directed at Chen Ge. Chen Ge had thought he was just good with kids, but now he understood—the boy probably saw him as a “kindred spirit.”
“No wonder he fears sunlight and loves playing in the haunted house. This child’s perception is severely distorted.” Chen Ge gripped his phone. He didn’t know what caused Fan Yu to become like this, but based on his abnormal behavior and the thin, dark woman’s testimony, he had a terrifying guess.
Years ago, on another stormy night, the boy had gone missing, and his parents died searching for him. To kill two adults in a rainstorm, hide the bodies, and clean the scene without a meticulous plan was nearly impossible.
Even if someone had targeted Fan Yu’s parents that rainy night, why would a killer capable of perfectly hiding bodies and erasing all traces spare Fan Yu?
After his aunt said his parents had gone to heaven, Fan Yu searched for heaven in the well. Clearly, he knew his parents were hidden there. He had seen everything—he was a witness. The killer had no reason to let him live.
Chen Ge narrowed his eyes, feeling a chill run through him. “Unless the killer knew the boy, or the killer was the boy himself!”
Either speculation was chilling.
The aunt herself was highly suspicious. Her words had holes, and one odd detail was that when she went to the kitchen to pour water for Chen Ge, she rummaged through cabinets as if searching for something. Pouring water shouldn’t require such effort.
Also, during their conversation, including when Chen Ge was about to leave, she subtly mentioned water, hoping he would drink some.
At the time, Chen Ge was focused on his task and didn’t suspect a living person. But looking back, that glass of water might have been problematic.
“If the aunt killed Fan Yu’s parents, what was her motive?”
That thin, dark woman doted on Fan Yu to the point of indulgence. She was pretty but never took care of herself—dark-skinned and gaunt. It was clear she struggled to raise Fan Yu alone, managing his daily life and taking him to therapy, sacrificing her own future. Could such a woman really be a killer?
Honestly, the thin woman had left a good impression on Chen Ge—independent and strong.
But the second speculation was harder to accept. If the aunt wasn’t the killer, the prime suspect was the boy himself!
He was the sole witness and survivor of the murder scene. Chen Ge hadn’t suspected him before because he thought a child couldn’t kill. But after seeing Fan Yu’s drawings, he realized he had severely underestimated the boy.
Fan Yu had special eyes. He lived with ghosts and thrived. This child was deeply problematic. Chen Ge even suspected he could command ghosts.
Anyone else wouldn’t think this way, but Chen Ge was different—he was a favored one of the vengeful spirits.
“The boy is likely the killer, but what’s his motive?” The motive was the hardest part for Chen Ge to grasp. Neither the aunt nor Fan Yu had reason to harm their family.
“What really happened that day? Fan Yu’s parents were hidden in the deep well of Muyang Middle School. How does this connect to the school?”
Chen Ge put away Fan Yu’s drawing and suddenly realized he hadn’t hung up the phone. He quickly apologized to Doctor Gao. “Sorry, I got lost in thought.”
“No problem. I was just reviewing materials. I’m very interested in this patient now. How about we set a time for you to bring him to see me?” Gao Ruxue’s father had patiently stayed on the line.
“Sure, I’ll bring him when I can.”
“Good. This number is my contact. Let’s arrange it then. Finally, I have one more thing to tell you.” Doctor Gao hesitated, as if unsure whether to speak.
“What is it?” Chen Ge was grateful for the psychologist’s help.
“We need the right approach and patience with psychological patients. But it’s undeniable that some severe cases can be dangerous. When dealing with them, remember—never provoke them.”