Starting with dissecting ghost stories

"you!!!"

The sudden appearance of Shen Xing startled Li Ya so much that she jumped up, dropping the plastic bag in her hand and nearly spilling the lunchbox inside.

Li Ya instinctively tried to open the door and run away, but Shen Xing stood at the door, raising his hand and smiling to comfort her.

"Uncle Li, stop running. I'm not here to collect a debt; I just want to talk to you."

Li Ya was short and stocky, less than 1.7 meters tall. Even with Shen Xing blocking the doorway, he wasn't confident he could force his way through.

Moreover, since their foothold has already been found, where else can they run to?

"I... what do I have to talk to you about? There's nothing to talk about!" Li Ya was agitated, and her face turned bright red.

"Have a seat first." Shen Xing pointed to the long bench that had been pushed together to make a bed and said with a smile, "How could we not have something to talk about? We haven't seen each other for so long."

Li Ya stared at Shen Xing, panting heavily. After a while, her hands fell limply to her sides. Resigned, she walked to the bench and sat down, hunching her back and looking up at Shen Xing.

"You're a cop, right... here to arrest me?"

Li Ya also knew some things about Shen Xing, and learned from her mother that Shen Xing had graduated from university a few years ago and stayed in the provincial capital to work as a policeman.

Grandma Zhang didn't know what a forensic doctor was; she just thought that everyone in the police station was a police officer—and that wasn't wrong, since forensic doctors do belong to the police force.

"I quit a long time ago," Shen Xing said with a smile, shaking his head. He joked, "Why did you think I was coming to arrest you? What heinous thing did you do?"

Upon hearing that Shen Xing was no longer a policeman and was not there to arrest him, Li Ya finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and muttered to himself, "I knew it..."

Li Ya has extremely poor mental fortitude; she wears her emotions on her sleeve, and her psychological defenses crumble at the slightest touch.

If a real police officer were questioning Li Ya right now, he would probably confess everything without even waiting for interrogation.

Of course, Shen Xing wouldn't use his former police identity to deceive anyone; he was just there to have a chat.

"Where is Li Xiaohua?" After exchanging pleasantries, Shen Xing got straight to the point.

Li Ya, whose emotions had just relaxed, tensed up instantly. His gaze darted around as he asked, "She...didn't she go back?"

"Where's her birthday present?"

"What gift?"

"That child mannequin."

"What doll? I don't know!"

Before he could finish three sentences, Li Ya became agitated again.

Shen Xing reached into his bag, took out a DV camera, and started operating it.

The air fell into a deathly silence. Li Ya had already stood up as Shen Xing reached into his bag, looking ready to fight to the death and run away at any moment.

But when Li Ya saw that Shen Xing had only taken out a DV camera, he felt a moment of doubt and confusion.

Shen Xing's every word and every action caused Li Ya's emotions to fluctuate greatly, because every word precisely hit the point that Li Ya wanted to hide.

"Uncle Li, don't worry, take a look at this first." Shen Xing slowly walked forward, stopping less than two meters away from Li Ya to avoid causing him stress. He flipped the DV camera screen and pressed play.

The DV camera was playing slightly distorted wind sounds, and the footage playing on it was what Shen Xing had recorded that morning.

Upon seeing the DV camera's footage, Li Ya, who had been standing in a horse stance, felt his legs go weak. He stared in disbelief at the children's doll in the video, then got up, took a few steps forward, and stared intently at the screen.

"How is this possible... What happened...?"

Li Ya was both terrified and confused. He had no idea what Shen Xing's purpose was. He snatched the DV camera from Shen Xing and started looking through it. Shen Xing simply let go of his hand and allowed him to look through his DV camera.

"Uncle Li, don't you know? They can be photographed, but after about a day, the images in the photos will be blurred and then completely deleted."

Shen Xing spoke with as much doubt and worry as possible.

He learned a lesson in college: even when asking professors professional questions, you have to ask them indirectly, and try to appear as scared and curious as possible.

The difference between "This child is so brave" and "This child is not human" may only be a glance or the tone of voice when a sentence is spoken.

If you behave differently from ordinary people, you will be regarded as an oddball. This is why Shen Jingwei has been teaching Shen Xing how to think in a normal way.

"You've also...seen a ghost?" Li Ya slowly shifted her gaze from the screen to Shen Xing.

ghost?

Shen Xing was certain that these were not ghosts, but they certainly fell into the supernatural category.

But he continued speaking along with Li Ya, using words that fit the ghost story as closely as possible.

"Yes, besides this, I've seen other ghosts too." Shen Xing nodded and continued, "I was almost possessed by one..."

"Ghosts can't possess people." Unexpectedly, Li Ya spoke up decisively, denying Shen Xing's statement.

He really does know something.

"Why?" Shen Xing pressed.

No matter how he asked, Li Ya stopped talking. Perhaps sensing Shen Xing's "fear," Li Ya became bolder and took the initiative.

He has not yet gained Li Ya's trust.

"Ghosts can possess people, Uncle Li," Shen Xing pointed to himself and said, "I am one."

At this moment, Li Ya, who was still examining the DV camera, suddenly spoke up: "You experimented on ghosts?"

Li Ya flipped the screen over and pointed to the image above. In the image, Shen Xing was in a garage holding a bloodstained scalpel, and on his bloodstained gloves was something whose contents were obscured by black and white noise.

"Mm." Shen Xing nodded.

"You...you're also someone who treats people like dirt?"

Really? Taking people?

"Hmm." Shen Xing nodded again. "We killed five of them and used their corpses for research."

Five, baby chicks.

This time, Li Ya finally dropped all his guard. He handed the DV camera back to Shen Xing and said, "Come here."

As he spoke, he was about to lead Shen Xing to the room behind the video store.

After learning that Shen Xing had also "killed someone," he seemed to have completely regarded him as one of his own, and was certain that Shen Xing would not report him.

Because Shen Xing also has "a life on his hands," the experimental videos about "ghosts" on his phone can prove this point.

Li Ya, who was walking ahead, spoke as he went, his tone becoming increasingly excited.

"At first, I just thought I had found an ordinary mannequin and was thinking of selling it for some money. I kept it at home for the time being, but after I brought it home, my luck got better day by day. However, the mannequin also got thinner and thinner every day."

"Later, I made money, and I felt that the doll was very lucky. But then, when the doll fell over, I started losing money. I wanted to figure out why the doll changed..."

"I cut it open, and it was full of blood! It's a man-eating monster!"

"But, my luck will improve when it eats people, and the more people it eats that are connected to me, the better my luck will become."

"It can even transform into the person it eats, digest them, and then return. Nobody knows how the person disappeared; even the surveillance footage can't find anything!"

"My luck has really turned around..."

The door opened, and a stench of decay hit the door.

Inside the windowless, enclosed concrete room, there was an altar with three human heads in varying degrees of decay on it.

"But it doesn't seem to eat heads. Ah Xing, didn't you used to be a cop? What's the best way to handle this?"