Chapter 19 Does anyone here named Deng Shuyuan?
Time arrived one hour later.
Inside the interrogation room of the Jiangliu City Public Security Bureau.
Liu Haoyu sat on a stool, facing a completely unfamiliar police officer.
This police officer was named Ma Jianhua, and he was here to take Liu Haoyu’s statement.
“So you’re saying that you and Han Yiming personally witnessed the transaction, but Han Yiming was shot dead, and you chose to conceal the corpse as a means of self-preservation?”
“Yes.”
“Then you brought him to Panwang Mountain, and on the way, he thought you were a perverted murderer and got scared and ran away?”
“Yes.”
“Finally, you’re saying the fire axe and gas mask in your bag were all props for cosplay?”
“That’s right.”
“…”
Ma Jianhua looked at the statement he had written and felt as if he were an old man looking at his phone on the subway.
If this man in front of him hadn’t had a full video recording, he would have suspected this guy was the mastermind.
Looking at the evidence that seemed sound but felt somehow not quite right, Ma Jianhua felt like ten thousand alpacas were stampeding through his mind.
He really wanted to curse, but he was a glorious and righteous people’s policeman.
He couldn’t curse.
“Officer, I’m innocent! Your Honor, you can’t wrongly accuse such an innocent good person! I even bravely provided you with the whereabouts of the drug dealers!”
“Damn it!”
Ma Jianhua finally couldn’t help but explode, but after looking at the recording, he suppressed his desire to curse.
“Then explain this, the other party was shouting ‘Ghost! Ghost!’, what was going on?”
“How would I know? Maybe he was guilty and had hallucinations?”
Liu Haoyu shrugged innocently.
He really had no idea what Qin Liu had done to that man.
Anyway, the man was so scared he dropped his gun and ran, leaving everyone stunned.
Ma Jianhua tidied up the statement and said expressionlessly.
“I also heard that taxi drivers in Jiangliu City often encounter strange and frightening passengers. Although everyone is fine, just startled, now few people dare to drive at night.”
“Ah hahaha…”
Liu Haoyu gave an awkward yet polite smile.
He didn’t want this to happen either, after all, he didn’t have a car, so the taxi drivers had to suffer a little.
Facing Liu Haoyu’s expression, Ma Jianhua’s gaze fell on the backpack in the corner of the interrogation room.
Seeing this, he put on a mask of pain.
“What’s in your backpack?”
“An axe, a crowbar, hydraulic pliers… and a pile of meaningless talismans and paper money. If you say this out loud, who would believe you’re an innocent bystander?”
“Moreover, the places you went to were all wilderness and deep mountains and old forests. I felt creeped out just looking at those places. Would a normal person go to such places?”
By the end, Ma Jianhua couldn’t help but cover his forehead.
His head was buzzing.
If his superiors hadn’t said that this person didn’t need to be investigated thoroughly and that a simple inquiry would suffice,
Ma Jianhua would have definitely interrogated him down to the color of his underwear.
“Alright, alright, hurry up and leave. I’m really fed up. Don’t go to those underworld places again, okay!”
“Definitely, definitely. I’ll follow the officer’s orders.”
Liu Haoyu picked up his backpack and left the interrogation room.
For him, going to the police station was like going home.
It wasn’t the first or second time.
If it were back in Beiming City, he would have gone to the police station even more frequently.
So much so that the police officers there, upon seeing Liu Haoyu, couldn’t help but look at him sideways and collectively questioned in their hearts.
“Why is this guy here again?”
Presumably, the police in Jiangliu City would get used to him in no time.
After finishing his statement, Liu Haoyu came to the roadside, preparing to find a shared bicycle to go to Deng Shuyuan.
Just then, a taxi slowly stopped beside him. As the window rolled down, the driver recognized Liu Haoyu.
Both were slightly stunned, and Liu Haoyu spoke first.
“Driver, you drove away too fast that night, you didn’t even know I gave you the wrong money.”
“…”
The driver looked at the 100 yuan bill Liu Haoyu handed over, speechless.
He scanned Liu Haoyu suspiciously and asked again.
“You’re really not a murderer? But an outdoor fishing enthusiast?”
“Of course,” Liu Haoyu patted his chest and said, “The backpack is real.”
“So can you tell me what that fire axe in your bag is for?”
“For chopping wood. The fish I just caught are fresh, so it’s better to cook them. And it’s so dangerous outdoors, what if I meet some bad guys? Wouldn’t this be useful for self-defense?”
Liu Haoyu’s words were plausible and convincing.
Finally, with the help of the kind driver, Liu Haoyu returned to the underground parking lot of the Binjiang Hotel.
A team of police officers was collecting evidence there.
When the taxi stopped and Liu Haoyu got out, all the police officers nodded knowingly.
“Look, that young man over there is said to be very skilled at dismemberment and covering up crime scenes…”
“Not only that, but it’s said that his stare alone scared away an armed drug dealer, who is now in the hospital in a coma.”
“Amazing, amazing…”
The whispers of the police officers were clearly heard by the driver in the taxi.
The driver’s face stiffened, and then he quietly stepped on the gas pedal. The taxi, like a large yellow mouse, shot out of the underground parking lot.
“…”
Liu Haoyu felt like he was being slandered.
And the young girl beside him was laughing with great happiness.
If it weren’t for the police officers here, she might have actually burst out laughing.
After the man and the ghost entered the elevator, Liu Haoyu sighed.
“Alas… my reputation for a lifetime.”
“Hahahaha!”
When the two were alone, Qin Liu finally couldn’t hold back. She held her stomach and laughed happily.
However, before she could laugh enough, Liu Haoyu grabbed her by the cheeks.
“You little brat…”
Liu Haoyu said nothing, just kept pinching Qin Liu’s little face.
“Mmm mmm mmm!”
Qin Liu was being so rubbed that she couldn’t speak properly. Fortunately, she seized an opportunity, escaped Liu Haoyu’s devilish claws, and floated into the air.
Seeing Qin Liu escape, Liu Haoyu felt a bit regretful.
Not to mention anything else, the little ghost’s face was soft and jiggly, like jelly.
The texture was absolutely wonderful.
“Were you just taking advantage of me?”
Qin Liu’s little head seemed to have a radar, instantly sensing Liu Haoyu’s thoughts.
Unfortunately, the man whose skin was as thick as a city wall just shrugged and said.
“How could that be? Do I look like that kind of person?”
“You do.”
Qin Liu’s ruthless teasing had almost no effect on Liu Haoyu.
For him, it might even feel a little good?
The elevator slowly ascended and soon reached the floor where Deng Shuyuan was.
However, as the elevator door slowly opened, a strange and eerie aura rushed towards them.
The hotel, which should have been bustling with activity, was now empty.
A chilling, suffocating gaze, like a viper’s flicking tongue, stared intently at them from the dimly lit corridor.
Seeing this situation, Liu Haoyu frowned and said.
“This place… has a problem.”
As Liu Haoyu was pondering, a cleaning lady walked out of the restroom.
She was carrying a bucket of dirty water and seemed to be mopping the floor?
“Qin Liu, come in.”
“Oh… okay.”
Qin Liu felt that this place was creepy, making ghosts uncomfortable, so when she heard Liu Haoyu say that, she naturally didn’t refuse.
Besides, sleeping in Hong Yu was really comfortable.
After confirming that Qin Liu had entered Hong Yu, Liu Haoyu quietly followed the cleaning lady.
Seeing that no one else was around, Liu Haoyu spoke.
“Auntie, is no one staying here today?”
The cleaning lady was startled by Liu Haoyu’s sudden voice.
She hadn’t noticed at all that someone was following her.
After carefully looking at Liu Haoyu, she patted her chest, still somewhat shaken, and said.
“Young man, how do you walk without making a sound?”
“Good quality shoes, they have silencing.”
The cleaning lady was quite surprised to hear that.
“Is technology so advanced now that there are such shoes?”
“Auntie, you should look at your phone more often. There are so many new tricks these days.”
Liu Haoyu chatted casually while the cleaning lady sized up Liu Haoyu’s sturdy body, seemingly confirming his identity.
“Of course people live on this floor. Although it’s not the peak tourist season, many people live on this entire floor.”
Many people…
Liu Haoyu carefully observed the dark corridor, the rooms with no lights at all.
There might not be people, but there seemed to be something else.
“But young man, why would you come to a place like this?”
“What do you mean?”
“Wow, I can tell you’re from out of town. This hotel is really weird,”
“It’s been around since the 1960s, but some strange things happened back then. The residents around the hotel could always hear strange howling sounds,”
“And… from time to time, people saw black shadows jumping off the top floor of the hotel, but when people went to look for the person who fell, they found nothing,”
“Over time, the hotel went bankrupt. But then a group bought the building and renovated it, but… the renovation work was always plagued with problems. Either workers fell from the building or something caught fire,”
“Later, they invited a master to exorcise the evil, and then things improved a lot.”
Liu Haoyu listened to the cleaning lady’s rambling and subconsciously said.
“Auntie, you seem to know this place very well?”
“Of course, I’ve been working here for over ten years, so I’m naturally very clear about these messy things…”
The cleaning lady seemed like she hadn’t spoken to anyone in a long time, and she stopped her work to chat with Liu Haoyu.
Meanwhile, Liu Haoyu’s gaze fell on the tiles on both sides of the corridor.
These tiles were very bright and white, with excellent reflective effects.
Liu Haoyu could clearly see his own reflection… but the cleaning lady beside him cast no shadow at all.
“Drip…”
In the corridor, there was no faucet, but there was a sound of water dripping onto the floor.
This sound was very clear, as if it were right beside Liu Haoyu.
Liu Haoyu could also feel his body temperature rapidly dropping.
A nauseating, rotten smell began to permeate the air.
Finally, the cleaning lady stopped her incessant chatter.
She lowered her head, her body trembling uncontrollably, unsure if it was from excitement or fear.
“So, young man, this is not a place for the living.”
Finally, the cleaning lady spoke.
At this moment, her sallow skin was disappearing like snowflakes, melting into a viscous, yellowish liquid, dripping onto the floor bit by bit.
The dripping sound before was made by these liquids hitting the ground.
She stretched out her withered hand, which was now devoid of flesh and blood, leaving only bone-white bones.
Liu Haoyu was still looking at the reflective tiles, seemingly unaware of the strangeness behind him.
“Is there a person named Deng Shuyuan here?”
As he spoke, Liu Haoyu turned around.
He looked at the decaying face of the cleaning lady with indifferent eyes, showing no reaction.
“?”
This scene completely baffled the cleaning lady.
What was wrong with this young man?
Didn’t he see that she was a ghost?
She shook her head, and her fragmented soul couldn’t understand the situation before her.
Although she couldn’t understand, her hands didn’t stop. She continued to approach Liu Haoyu, emitting a sinister and terrifying laugh.
Then she saw Liu Haoyu pull out a blood-stained fire axe from his backpack.
The cleaning lady’s decaying face froze.
“Let me ask again, is there anyone named Deng Shuyuan here?”
Liu Haoyu’s expression was even more impatient than the cleaning lady’s.
“…”
After a moment of stunned silence, the cleaning lady continued to approach Liu Haoyu, undeterred.
The flesh and blood on her body kept peeling off, and even her eyeballs fell to the ground, rolling around.
It was clear that a mere fire axe couldn’t subdue the evil spirit in front of them.
“You, you always manage to come up with something new for me.”
Liu Haoyu calmly took out two Zhenlei Talismans from his pocket.
As soon as these Zhenlei Talismans appeared, the cleaning lady’s intelligent mind took over again.
“Are you behaving now?”
Qin Liu also couldn’t resist peeking her little head out of Hong Yu.
Indeed, fear came from the unknown.
The situation just now was quite scary, but after the cleaning lady turned into this monstrous form, she wasn’t scary anymore, just a little disgusting.
Of course, the most important thing was… having a powerful ghost exorcist beside her.
She felt very safe.
A terror far deeper than that of the cleaning lady appeared in the corridor.
At this moment, the cleaning lady, who had been flailing wildly, completely calmed down.
She retracted her withered hands and revealed a smile filled with fear, despair, and a hint of awkwardness.
“Sorry to have disturbed you. I’ll go back to sweeping now.”
Saying that, she picked up her bucket and was about to run away. Unfortunately, Liu Haoyu grabbed her shoulder.
Her haggard face, his cold tone.
He looked more terrifying than a ghost.
He continued to repeat the same question.
“I asked… is there anyone named Deng Shuyuan here?”
