Chapter 89: The Deep Well
“Then what was your brother’s reaction when he heard that?”
A person whose mental state was already unstable due to being haunted by a ghost might easily resort to extreme actions when threatened. Fan Yu’s aunt’s next words confirmed Chen Ge’s speculation.
“My sister-in-law threatened to report him to the police if he didn’t agree to a divorce. After hearing that, my brother actually calmed down. He thought about it for an afternoon and finally agreed to the divorce.” Fan Yu’s aunt’s expression was complicated. “Looking back now, what my brother was really thinking about that afternoon probably wasn’t whether to divorce, but how to silence my sister-in-law.”
“What happened next all went according to my brother’s plan. On the day of the incident, it happened to be pouring rain. My brother locked Fan Yu in his office and went home alone. When we realized Fan Yu was missing, we thought he had wandered off, so everyone went out to search for him. My brother and sister-in-law went together to Muyang High School.”
“I got home around nine and found they still hadn’t returned. Thinking something might have gone wrong, I went to Muyang High School to look for them.”
“There was a dry well behind the school. A few days before the incident, heavy rain caused a landslide, and the well’s opening was buried. When I arrived, I saw my brother clearing the mud near the well.”
“At first, I didn’t see my sister-in-law and didn’t think much of it. I ran over and called out to my brother. It was only when I got closer that I saw my sister-in-law’s body wedged in the well’s opening.”
“I never imagined my brother would do something like this. He usually came across as gentle and refined, and most importantly, he truly loved my sister-in-law.”
“My brother had gone mad. From the moment he came home with that group photo, saying he was haunted and something was out for revenge, I could tell he had lost his mind.”
“After I stumbled upon the murder, my brother gave me two choices: help him cover everything up, or be killed by him.”
“To save my own life, I had to obey him. I followed his instructions, inflicted wounds on my sister-in-law’s body, and helped him dig open the dry well.”
Fan Yu’s aunt leaned against the wall, her face twisted in pain. “I became an accomplice. What’s even more terrifying is that I never knew when my brother might kill me. He definitely wouldn’t let me live. He probably planned to get rid of me as soon as my sister-in-law was buried.”
“So you struck first and killed your brother?” Chen Ge listened quietly to Fan Yu’s aunt’s account. In his eyes, this whole family was unhinged. The husband was a madman with peculiar obsessions, and the wife, instead of reporting him, only thought to use it as leverage for a divorce.
“If I hadn’t killed him, I might have died. By killing him, I became Fan Yu’s only relative. No one would compete with me for his love.” At this moment, Fan Yu’s aunt finally spoke the truth.
“Fan Yu was never your child. If anyone’s competing, it’s all in your head.” Chen Ge only believed half of what Fan Yu’s aunt said. The events of three years ago had no witnesses left; right and wrong were entirely her story.
“You’re wrong. My two dead children have possessed Fan Yu. That’s how he knows all my children’s habits! Fan Yu isn’t just my brother and sister-in-law’s child—he’s mine too!” Veins bulged on Fan Yu’s aunt’s face, and her lips were bitten bloody.
Seeing her like this, Chen Ge chose not to provoke her further.
This woman claimed her brother was insane, but in Chen Ge’s view, she was a patient herself. Perhaps the accidental deaths of her husband and two children were too much for her to bear, and because Fan Yu could see the ghosts of her younger brother and sister, she twisted her love and forced it onto him.
Watching the woman writhe on the ground in pain, Chen Ge suddenly recalled the prompt at the start of the black phone’s mission—*In everyone’s heart lies a deep, unfathomable well, buried with unspeakable, unbearable memories.*
“Get up. Take me to where your brother hid the body.”
“It can’t be found anymore. After my brother stuffed my sister-in-law into the well, I pushed him in too. He stayed in there with her corpse, cursing and screaming, but the rain was so heavy no one could hear him.” Fan Yu’s aunt grabbed her own hair, her arms trembling uncontrollably. “I filled the well with dirt and restored everything. Three years have passed—that well is impossible to find now.”
“Just give me a general idea of the area.” Chen Ge’s tone was perfectly normal, but Fan Yu’s aunt’s reaction grew even more intense.
“No one can find it!” Memories stabbed into her heart like knives, and her expression twisted savagely. “I’ll raise Fan Yu. I’ll give him all my love!”
“If you truly cared about Fan Yu, you wouldn’t have done this. Your love only moves yourself.” Back at the haunted house, Chen Ge had noticed that Fan Yu would rather talk to him, an outsider, than acknowledge his aunt. Their relationship was clearly terrible.
“You said yourself that after your husband and children died in the accident, when you were at your lowest, Fan Yu drew pictures of your younger brother and sister to cheer you up. He acted out of genuine kindness, but you killed his father.” Chen Ge thought of the room full of red figures. If he hadn’t intervened, this might have spiraled into something even more brutal. “You should be grateful Fan Yu is just a child.”
Facing legal punishment would be a good thing for both Fan Yu and his aunt. Fan Yu searching for heaven in the well meant he had witnessed everything and knew his aunt was a murderer.
If he grew older, he might one day inflict the same fate on his aunt that she had dealt to others.
Killing someone would destroy Fan Yu’s life too.
“Let this tragedy end here.” Turning off the livestream, Chen Ge dialed the police. What punishment Fan Yu’s aunt would receive was not for him to decide.
“Living with the murderer of your own parents—no wonder Fan Yu developed bipolar disorder at such a young age. You are the cause of his illness.”
As Chenge called the police, Fan Yu’s aunt shook her head frantically, muttering something under her breath, and desperately tried to flee toward the bathroom.
“Stop struggling.” Chen Ge followed behind, afraid she might do something reckless in a fit of impulse.
They reached the first floor. As they passed the last classroom, Fan Yu’s aunt collapsed without warning, unable to get up for a long time.
It was as if someone had yanked her down for no reason—eerily strange.
Chen Ge stopped a few meters away, slowing his pace. She had fallen right at the entrance to that last classroom, a room that made even him uneasy.
Pressing himself against the opposite wall of the corridor, he glanced inside. Midnight had passed, and the once-empty classroom was now filled with students, with a short, stout old man standing at the podium.