My House of Horrors

“Stay close to the wall and away from the rails. Be careful of your step.” Captain Yan found Room 104 and entered it. The biggest difference about this room was that there was plenty of old furniture inside, and the wall had many children’s drawings.

“It feels like a family of three once lived here.” Chen Ge followed behind Captain Yan. With his Yin Yang Vision, he did not need the flashlight and started wandering about the room. “What is this?”

Beside the wooden table, which was missing a leg, there were many dried apples, and there was one under the table that had a bite mark on it. “The tenant here must have loved apples.”

Chen Ge used a piece of paper to pick one up. The apple had gone rotten, and seeing this, he was suddenly reminded of the apple that he had seen inside the underground morgue. Apples seem to have a special meaning to dead people. If I have time, I should consult the few doctors.

“Look at this!” Tian Lei, who had been silent, suddenly opened his lips. He shone the flashlight on the left wall of the living room. The cracked wall had a weird painting on it. Two adults and a girl were talking, and not far away from them was a boy drawing.

“These two adults should be the parents, and that makes the girl their daughter. The boy was the one who painted on the wall.” Lee Zheng tried to analyze the painting. “So, it’s actually a family of four.”

“When we interviewed Jia Ming, didn’t he say that they didn’t want kids because of Huang Ling’s physical condition?” Tian Lei raised his brow. “Did this man find a mistress, or was he lying to us?”

“He definitely lied to us, but he probably wasn’t lying when it comes to the issue of children.” Captain Yan walked out from the kitchen. “The house isn’t completed. It wasn’t Jia Ming and Huang Ling who lived here, and the kids probably had nothing to do with them.”

“Are they homeless children?” Lee Zheng stood next to the window and looked out. “But why would they choose this room? The building does not have elevator—wouldn’t it be easier to stand on the ground floor?”

“The answer is probably hidden in this room.” Chen Ge tilted his head back to look at the ceiling, and he did not look away. The three officers saw that and also looked up. On the ceiling of Room 104, someone had used a sharp stone to carve out four human faces. They were placed at all four cardinal directions. They surrounded a girl in the middle, and the four faces bit on her limbs. “What is this painting trying to represent? It doesn’t look like a children’s painting.”

The faces of the two adults had the names Jiang Long and Zhang Chuyu. The two children’s faces had the names Jiang Bai and Jiang Xiaohu. “Jiang Long? Isn’t that the name of the investor who jumped from the building? Why would his name be here?”

“This looks like the name of his family.” Tian Lei thought about it and said, “This was probably the owner venting their frustration on Jiang Long. After all, he is the developer.”

“As angry as people can be, they would not vent on a dead person. Furthermore, in this picture, it is Jiang Long who bites someone else.” Captain Yan looked at the painting. “The handwriting looks young, like it’s written by a child. But a child wouldn’t have reached the ceiling, and there are no stools in the room.”

The three officers were thinking of various possibilities while Chen Ge entered the bedroom alone. He had to control his expression. Only he knew that Jia Ming had been taken over by Jiang Long, and the discovery of Jiang Long family’s name in this room only heightened that suspicion. Jiang Long had taken over Jia Ming’s body for this Room 104.

But what is so different from this room? Chen Ge looked for a long time but found nothing. He stood up and looked out the window. Standing there, he could see the buildings in the distance.

Li Wan City?

In the dark, Li Wan City had no lights, like a dead city.

I really don’t understand what Jiang Long is after. If Captain Yan did not insist of coming here, I would have detained Jiang Long already. Chen Ge looked at the other buildings, and he realized a problem. Four buildings were placed at the four cardinal directions, and they all had nineteen floors. The tenth floor was the middle and had four rooms, and Room 104 was on the westernmost side.

The layout of the four buildings matched the location of the four faces perfectly. Jiang Long’s face was at the western side, and it matched the location of this Room 104 nicely. Chen Ge walked out to look at the painting. Why would they bite the girl? If each face is related to a building…

Chen Ge did not understand it, but he walked to the most west side of Room 104. After moving the trash away, Chen Ge realized that the color of the ground was different. He found some items to clear the area, and under the clueless gazes of the police, he cracked the top layer of cement.

It really is hollow. Chen Ge reached his hand into it and felt like he had touched something. It was not soft but not hard either. He pulled the thing out. When he raised his hand, everyone was stunned.

The shadow morphed into the shape of a woman, but Chen Ge did not realize that. He looked at the thin arm, which was wrapped in food wrap, that he had pulled out. With difficulty, he turned around to look at the officers. Honestly, he did not expect that it would be hiding an arm.

“Don’t move! Put it down slowly!” Captain Yan took over the scene. He walked closer to Chen Ge with the flashlight raised. He took the arm, and with just a glance, he was certain about something. “Tian Lei, have your people come here in twenty minutes! Lee Zheng, contact team one and have them come over to Eastern Jiujiang Ming Yang Residence now to take over the body dismemberment case!”

“Yes, sir!”

After giving the order, Captain Yan’s face softened. He asked for a cigarette from Lee Zheng and passed it to Chen Ge. “Are you okay? Why don’t you go for a smoke break?”

“I’m fine.” Chen Ge did not accept the cigarette, and his face was ugly. “Captain Yan, do you still remember the question that I asked Inspector Tian when we first arrived here?”

“What question?”

“Why the number for this room is 104 when it’s on the tenth floor. If that’s the arrangement, how are the rooms for the other buildings numbered?”

“Yes, I remember. What about it?” Captain Yan was befuddled.

“Four buildings, and all have nineteen floors. Each floor has four rooms, and normally, they should be numbered with four digits. Like the first room on the eleventh floor at the first building should be 1111, but according to Inspector Tian’s explanation, these four buildings are one entity, and the developers even planned to connect them with bridges. This means that the numbering is completely messed up.” Chen Ge tried his best to explain.

“What are you trying to say?”

“Look up.” Chen Ge pointed at the painting above them. “We found the body’s left arm at this building that was on the west side. It matches the painting perfectly. If the four buildings are a whole entity, then doesn’t this mean that Ming Yang Residence represents the girl that was bitten by human faces in the picture? And her other parts are hidden in the corresponding rooms of the other buildings?”