Old Wang nodded and took a long while to compose himself. "The instant those elevator doors opened, I was absolutely terrified. My mind went completely blank."
"What happened after that? Did the white figure attack you?"
"She saw me and just ran. The thing that's been bothering me ever since is that she made absolutely no sound when she ran!" Old Wang's eyes kept darting toward Chen Ge's phone — these were the last things he ever wanted to revisit.
"Could it be that you were just too nervous to notice the footsteps? Normally, even if someone were running barefoot, they'd still make some noise." Chen Ge was afraid of giving Old Wang a deeper psychological shadow, so he didn't voice what he was truly thinking.
"Maybe." Old Wang hadn't figured it out himself either. "The white figure turned and ran the moment she saw me. I watched her, and for some reason I wasn't scared anymore, so I chased after her."
"She didn't get far. In the end, I watched with my own eyes as she slipped into that woman's apartment. By the time I got there, her door was already locked."
"The tenant who'd been harassed called the police. But when they pried open the woman's door, there was nobody inside."
"The police came to talk to me afterward. There was just no way I could explain it clearly. Ever since the white figure slipped into that woman's apartment, I'd been standing right there at her door, and I never saw her come out."
"The woman didn't come back until the next day. She told the police she'd been staying at a friend's place the whole time and had never come back at all."
Old Wang's voice carried a bitter edge. "Because of this whole thing, I got hauled down to the station and locked up for a night. Everything I said was the truth, but nobody believed a word of it."
Chen Ge could understand Old Wang's frustration. Any normal person encountering something like that would have panicked and been completely lost. Even he himself had been a little shaken the first time he'd encountered the Mirror Ghost. Later, after seeing more and more, he'd gradually gotten used to it.
"Did you ever see the white figure's face? Were there any other notable features about her body?" Old Wang was Chen Ge's breakthrough point. He'd already found something useful the moment he arrived at Fanghua Yuan — his luck was holding up nicely this time.
"I was scared witless — you think I was going to notice what she looked like?" The wrinkles on Old Wang's face bunched together, making him look many years older.
"Fanghua Yuan is a fairly decent complex in Jiujiang. Didn't your security cameras ever capture the white figure's image?" Chen Ge was eager to see the surveillance footage. There might be some unexpected discovery in the recordings after midnight.
"When that building first started having ghost rumors, the property management told the residents they wanted to install cameras at every stairwell landing. But the two sides couldn't agree on who should pay for the installation — the management wanted the residents to split the cost, and the residents accused the management of shirking their responsibilities. They went back and forth on it, and in the end, they only managed to install a single camera on the floor where that woman lived."
"One is enough. Did that camera capture anything strange?" Chen Ge was growing more and more curious.
"Whether it was a technical issue or something else, that camera would inexplicably go black every night. It'd stay dark for ten or fifteen minutes before coming back on by itself. Nobody can explain why now." Old Wang glanced at his phone. "I'm telling you the truth — yesterday when the police came, I told them the exact same thing. It's getting late, so I'm going to head back."
Anyone could tell Old Wang was brushing him off. He didn't want to continue this conversation.
"Wait — can you tell me which apartment that woman used to live in?" Chen Ge stepped in front of Old Wang to block his path.
"I'm really not messing with you. That's a place we don't even go near on night patrol anymore. Pretty much all the residents on that whole floor have moved out." Old Wang spoke with earnest concern. "The police already came and asked questions yesterday. Before their investigation reaches any conclusion, you'd best not go running over there and stirring things up."
He turned and walked toward the exit, though his steps were a little unsteady.
Just before reaching the door, Old Wang waved Xiao Gu over and whispered a few words in Gu Feiyu's ear before finally leaving with a look of relief.
"Got it. Don't worry."