Chapter 4: Five Questions

The door was tightly shut, and I stood next to the tribute table, my forehead soaking with cold sweat without me realizing it.

“Mr. Gao, are you okay? May I continue with my questions?” The voice, devoid of warmth, came from beneath the paper mask, sounding both inquisitive and urgent at the same time.

“I’m fine, please continue with your questions.” Something was definitely amiss, so I diverted more of my attention towards planning my escape route. As for being the host of this underworld show, the devil himself could have that job.

“Mr. Gao, I hope you’ll answer the following questions seriously. If your answers do not satisfy us, you may never be able to leave here.” He paused for a moment, picking up the crumpled little advertisement from the table as he added, “Just like the true owner of this card—Xia Chi.”

“Xia Chi! Xia Qingzhi’s brother! So he was really killed in this place!” My heart started racing. “Are the police officers in Jiangcheng all useless? How could they not find a missing person?!”

Xia Qingzhi hadn’t lied, but why was there no information about her brother in the household registration records, and why did her family have no memories of Xia Chi? There were too many doubts and no leads.

“Mr. Gao, please listen carefully to my question.” This time it was the person on the left speaking. The three of them looked similar in physique, but their paper masks varied in age and condition.

“When I was thirteen years old, I killed my sister because I found her crying too loudly, and then I threw her body into the well outside. But the next day, when I went to check, the body was gone.”

“Five years later, due to a minor dispute, i killed my friend, and the body was thrown into the well outside. But the next day, when I went to check, the body was gone. “

“Ten years later, due to drunkenness, I killed a woman who I had accidentally gotten pregnant and threw her body into the well outside. But the next day, when I went to check, the body was gone. “

“Fifteen years later, due to my boss’s scolding, I killed him and threw his body into the well outside. But the next day, when I went to check, the body was gone. “

“Twenty years later, tired of taking care of my mother, who now had limited mobility, I killed her and threw her body into the well outside.”

“When I went to see the well again the next day, the body had not disappeared. On the third day, the fourth day, and every day after that, I went to see… but the body still hadn’t disappeared.”

“Mr. Gao, your first question is to explain me the reason why my mother’s body hasn’t disappeared.”

“What kind of question is this?” I concentrated and didn’t miss a single word in his question, but after listening to it fully, I didn’t know how to answer. Their questions didn’t seem to be for selecting talent, but more like a criminal psychology test.

The other person spoke in a plain and simple tone, but unexpectedly, it made me feel nervous. It was as if a large hand was gripping my throat in the darkness, slowly suffocating me.

“The thirty-second thinking time is over. Please state your answer.”

At this point, I had no choice but to analyze the limited clues in the story and reason it out.

“Every time you kill and dispose of a body, the body mysteriously disappears the next day. At first glance, it seems like there’s something wrong with the well. But when you killed your own mother, her body remained. The only reasonable explanation is that every time you kill and dispose of a body, it’s your mother who is helping you to dispose of the corpses.”

After speaking, I stole a glance at the person, but there was no emotional fluctuation beneath the paper mask.

“Now please listen to the second question.” He didn’t tell me whether my answer was correct or not and continued to ask.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of murder tapes. They’re underground movies that include a lot of scenes of brutal killing that only insiders know about. Some say that these videos are real footage of murders filmed by the killers themselves.”

“One day, I was drinking with a friend who claimed to have these strange tapes. Being someone who considers himself brave and curious, much like a gourmet who will risk their life to eat delicacies like pufferfish and poisonous scorpions, I expressed my desire to watch them.”

“So he invited me to a secluded cabin on the mountain, and I arrived on time as planned, but he was thirty minutes late.”

Sorry, sorry, my thrid child suddenly got a fever and refused to take his medicine no matter what.

Ah, kids. I understand.

Haha, let’s get started then.

“My friend played the eagerly anticipated video, filled with poignant cries and trembling laughter in the background. After about twenty minutes of torture by the masked killer, a child of about ten years old died. Because the plot was too brutal, I regretted watching halfway through and turned off the TV, questioning my friend in a very loud voice, How could you watch these kinds of movies? Don’t you have kids yourself?”

“In the face of my outrage, my friend casually replied, Yeah, I have two. But so what?

“Mr. Gao, your second question is to guess whether the ‘me’ in the story can survive and leave the cabin alive.”

Compared to the first question, this question was equally hysterical and sinister. “How could watching a video together lead to losing your life? Although this video…” As I was thinking, I suddenly noticed a small detail. In the story, my friend’s excuse for being late was that his third child had a fever, but he had previously mentioned having two children. So where was the third child?

My friend was thirty minutes late, and the child was tortured for twenty minutes before dying. Could it be… that the masked killer was my friend? My own deduction scared me to the bone.

“Mr. Gao, please pay attention to the time.”

“I personally think that the ‘me’ in the story would not be able to walk out of the cabin alive. He might become the second victim in my friend’s murder video…”

The atmosphere in the room became increasingly oppressive. I unbuttoned the first two buttons of my shirt, put one hand in my pocket, and clenched the self-defense tool tightly.

“Very well, please listen to the third question.”

“They were childhood sweethearts, and thought they could watch the sunset together everyday and forever. But at the age of 35, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Holding the diagnosis report, she cried and laughed, laughed and cried. She didn’t smoke, had no bad habits, how could she get lung cancer? She went to his office and saw a bag of her favorite dried fruits in his drawer, with a medicine bottle next to it. The scene was heart-wrenching, and she burst into tears. Three days later, she cried and lit birthday candles for him, but he was not there. She lit 34 long candles and one short candle and said with a low laugh, ‘You’ve really slimmed down.’”

“Can you tell us why did the woman say he slimmed down?”

I seemed to have seen this question somewhere before, but couldn’t remember. After thinking and pondering, I came up with a wild answer.

“The man in the story betrayed the woman by putting cancer-causing drugs on the dried fruits she loved to eat. He wanted her to die. When the woman found out everything, she killed the man and turned his body into oil and wax. The result was not enough for 35 candles, which is why she said he really had slimmed down. “

“Your answer is very creative. Please listen to the fourth question.”

“Because of my affair, I pushed my girlfriend off the sixth floor and disguised it as her suicide to deceive the police. However, perhaps due to my guilty conscience, I always thought that my girlfriend would come back to me.”

“I was anxious all day long until the seventh day of her death, when I met a half immortal. He said that if I wanted to live, I had to hide under the bed tonight and not be found by her.

“I followed his instructions, and as soon as it passed midnight, I heard the sound of a basketball hitting the ground in the living room, “thump, thump, thump.” When the bedroom door opened, I realized that I was done for.”

“Mr. Gao, do you know what ‘I’ saw that made me so desperate?”

“But didn’t his girlfriend already die? This question seems contradictory.” The premise of the question is that the girlfriend did not die, but it could also be another situation where the girlfriend turned into a ghost.

“You just need to answer the question.”

My mind was racing, but what I was thinking about was a deeper question: why did they give me these four questions? What is their purpose?

“Assuming this narrative is valid, the girl in the story fell from the sixth floor. She may have landed on her head and broken it, so when she climbed back on, she had her head down on the floor, which matches the sound of the ‘thump, thump’ sound in the living room. When the bedroom door opened, the person hiding under the bed was immidately discovered by the girlfriend, who was hanging upside down, so he knew he was done for.”

“That’s brilliant. Now there’s only one question left.” The three of them spoke in unison, their coordination reaching a frightening level.

Cold sweat slid down my jaw and onto my neck, and my Adam’s apple involuntarily rolled.

“Mr. Gao, the final question is…”

“Do you believe ghosts exists in this world?”