"Excuse me, ma'am, I'm a detective. This is my business card. The person on the back is my assistant. We are assisting the Sheriff's Department in investigating a case. I have a few questions to ask you."
Jiang Chenchuan lied calmly, regardless of how cold the atmosphere of the conversation was.
The wife did not respond and lowered her eyes, seeming to be thinking about something.
"Ma'am, if you don't cooperate, I won't be the one who comes next time. You don't want to see the whole neighborhood surrounded by mounted police."
Under Jiang Chenchuan's words, his wife was a little shaken. She was silent for two seconds before speaking in a hoarse voice:
"come in."
The door opened, and the room was dark, with no light at all.
"Sorry, Mr. Detective, there may be a power outage at home."
The wife groped for the wall and walked inside, took out an oil lamp from somewhere, lit it quietly, and placed it on the table.
The light and shadow swayed, and he used the faint light to observe the surroundings, and finally stopped before entering the living room.
The door behind was still open, and only the moonlight shone on the floor, like a layer of bright silver.
"Where are your children?"
The wife's movements suddenly stopped, and she tilted her head to look at Jiang Chenchuan. In the darkness, this posture looked extremely strange.
I only heard her reply in the darkness: "Sleep upstairs."
"Go to bed so early."
Jiang Chenchuan followed her words, seemingly unaware of the strangeness in the room and the faint smell in the air.
"Yes, my child is young and has to go to school tomorrow. She feels that she has not been in good spirits these past two days, so I told her to go to bed early. This is for her own good, otherwise why would I care about her..."
As soon as the child was mentioned, the wife began to chatter endlessly, as if this kind of verbosity was a common problem among mothers.
Jiang Chenchuan ignored her words, but during this short conversation, he observed the environment in the room and quickly came up with a rough result.
Married, a family of three, probably giving birth to a girl, overall living conditions are good...
He picked up a photo frame, pointed at the man nestling next to his wife in the photo, and said:
"Where is your husband? He hasn't gotten off work yet?"
"It's time to get off work. I'm putting the kids to bed upstairs." His wife cleaned up the mess in the living room and invited Jiang Chenchuan to take a seat, but he waved his hand and refused.
"No, I want to see Karen."
Jiang Chenchuan acted on a whim.
"He is very busy. He still has to work after coaxing the children. If you have any questions, just ask me directly."
As soon as she heard that Jiang Chenchuan wanted to see her husband, she seemed a little anxious.
"Going upstairs from here?"
As if he didn't hear her words, Jiang Chenchuan picked up the oil lamp and moved to the stairs. As soon as he finished speaking, he strode up the stairs.
has a problem!
There is definitely something wrong here.
The second floor was even darker and deader than the one below, as if no one was there. An unpleasant smell filled the air. Seeing Jiang Chenchuan running upstairs, his wife panicked and she followed anxiously.
"Ding-deng-deng."
The footsteps going upstairs seemed unusually noisy in the silence.
With the light of the oil lamp, the doors on the second floor were opened one by one.
There was not even a single piece of furniture in the empty room, and as soon as the door opened, dust flew all over the sky.
"Mr. Detective, please leave my house immediately!" the wife shouted loudly on the stairway, and the sharp voice even attracted the attention of Yulia outside.
She looked at the dark door warily, paying attention to the movements in the room. The darkness was like a hole that would swallow humans, leaving Jiang Chenchuan inside forever.
"Mr. Evel...will you be fine?" Yulia said to herself worriedly.
"哐——"
Jiang Chenchuan opened the last door on the second floor. The room where he thought there was nothing turned out to be a different scene.
The room was decorated warmly and cutely, and a small oil lamp was lit. In the beating light, Karen sat on the bedside, gently patting the quilt with one hand, and their daughter's cute and peaceful sleeping face was revealed under the quilt.
Jiang Chenchuan stopped in place.
"Mr. Detective, you are so unreasonable!"
The wife who came later said in a low voice and angrily.
Hearing the noise, Karen raised her head and looked at Jiang Chenchuan, her eyes widened, and she raised her index finger to her mouth. Then she looked at the little girl, signaling for silence and not to disturb her daughter's sleep.
"sorry for disturbance."
The situation was completely different from what he expected. Jiang Chenchuan sincerely apologized to Karen and his wife in a low voice.
"Please leave immediately!"
As soon as the door was closed, the wife immediately said sternly.
"I'm sorry, but my investigation is not over yet."
I was about to turn around and go downstairs. Before I took two steps, I felt something kicked at my feet. I lowered my head and looked at the ground and saw something that looked like a diary.
Jiang Chenchuan bent down and picked up the notebook.
"What's this?"
"I don't know, please leave quickly! Mr. Detective, don't ask anymore."
The wife couldn't help but urge.
"Okay, if I leave now, can I take this away?" Jiang Chenchuan waved the notebook in his hand.
"Okay, okay, whatever you want." The wife's patience seemed to have been exhausted, and she urged anxiously.
There were only sporadic lights on the dark Belfa Street, and most of the houses, like the Cullen family, had no power.
Yulia looked at the time. Jiang Chenchuan had been in there for a while, but there was no news yet.
After thinking for a moment, she pushed open the door to the courtyard. When she was about to approach, she saw a light floating in the air. After a while, Jiang Chenchuan walked out of the door.
"Mr. Ewell..."
He hasn't finished speaking yet.
The door behind him slammed shut without mercy.
Yulia was so frightened that she shrank her neck. She leaned closer and asked weakly:
"Mr. Ewell, have you found anything out of the investigation?"
"Look at this first."
Jiang Chenchuan held the diary in his hand and opened it. The notes were immature, probably written by Karen's lovely daughter.
Yulia held up the oil lamp and illuminated the contents of the diary:
"I went home on Friday and didn't see my grandpa. He used to stay on the second floor and sit by the window in a daze for the whole day. My mother told me that my grandpa was sick and had to go to the hospital for treatment. He was studying at school recently. I have learned a lot of new knowledge. When grandpa comes back, I will share it with him..."
"On Monday, there was a treasure box in grandpa's room. There seemed to be a very expensive treasure in the box. Mom liked it very much, but grandpa didn't want to give it to mom. He said he wanted to leave that thing to me..."
"On Saturday, I secretly went to see grandpa and bought him his favorite fruit with my pocket money. However, when I was at the door, I saw my mother taking off the instruments from grandpa. Grandpa seemed to be in pain... This Yes, what's wrong..."
"On Tuesday, my father told me that my grandfather passed away. I didn't understand the meaning of death. My mother explained to me that people go to far, far away places and never come back again..."
"Thursday, I'm so sad...My grandpa used to tell me stories before going to bed. I like grandpa's stories so much, but my parents ignored me..."
"Wednesday, I didn't fall asleep today. My parents quarreled again downstairs, so I had to go to grandpa's room to sleep..."
"On Sunday, my mother became more and more unhappy. Why? Is it because I mentioned grandpa? However, I feel that grandpa is still there, and he is still with me..."
"Wednesday, my mother is very strange today, and so is my father. They are getting more and more strange...Why is this?..."
"On Friday, I seemed to see grandpa in the room..."
…
Something came through the paper.
Yulia felt it. This was her first mission, so she couldn't help but feel a little panicked.
"Mr. Evel!"
The diary at the back felt wet and sticky. Jiang Chenchuan gently tore it open and saw large pages with red blood stains.
