Chen Ge had heard the name "Linjiang Blood Prevention Station" more than once, but he had never had time to go check it out.
"Did the time of death also occur last night?" What Chen Ge had anticipated had come to pass. The Ghost Story Society seemed to be especially superstitious about the number three.
"The medical examiner estimated the time of death to be between three and four in the morning. The cause of death is undetermined for now. The victim was an employee of the Linjiang Blood Prevention Station. He had already gone home at six yesterday evening, but at eleven-thirty at night, he snuck back into the station. There were no cameras inside, so nobody can say for certain what happened afterward. All we know is that once he went in, he never came back out."
"Those psychos from the third ward kill with a strong sense of ritual. Since they chose this particular employee, it means he must have done something wrong. We can investigate from that angle."
"We already looked into it. This person was the only clean one — no criminal record whatsoever. The nearby villagers all say he's a good, honest, and loyal man. He never made enemies and had no bad habits."
Captain Yan's words made Chen Ge somewhat puzzled. In his impression, the Ghost Story Society placed extreme importance on ritual and rarely made mistakes.
"Could the honest demeanor this employee showed have been an act? Maybe he was secretly a psychologically twisted person?"
"We haven't conducted a deep investigation yet, so we can't draw conclusions for now. But one thing is certain — this victim is different from the first two. Not only were his eyes gouged out, but a picture was also carved into his back."
"Can I see that picture?" Chen Ge's heart tightened. The key to the case must lie in that picture.
"We have regulations — all photographs from a crime scene are strictly prohibited from being leaked. If you want to see them, come to the Blood Prevention Station and find me."
Captain Yan didn't agree to Chen Ge's request. The only reason he had shared the earlier information was that Chen Ge had dealt with the psychopaths from the third ward before, making him arguably the person who understood those madmen best, aside from the police.
"Fine. I'll be there right away."
After hanging up, Chen Ge sat at the entrance of his haunted house, phone in hand, deep in thought: "The first time I completed a nightmare-level mission, the Mirror Ghost wanted to kill three people, and the mirror reflecting the Blood Gate also displayed a corresponding number. Could the Ghost Story Society be doing this because of the Blood Gate too?"
He took a taxi and rushed to the Linjiang Blood Prevention Station. The area was already quite remote, with very few people coming around normally.
After getting out of the cab, Chen Ge found the officer on duty and explained his purpose.
The officer didn't let him enter the crime scene but instead led him to an adjacent building.
"Captain Yan, Chen Ge is here." No introduction was needed — the officer simply called out Chen Ge's name directly.
"You step out first." Captain Yan gestured for Chen Ge to come over and placed the photographs he had prepared on the table. "You can only look here."
Chen Ge's gaze swept across all the photographs before stopping on a zoomed-in shot of the victim's back — a rather gory image.
A portion of the victim's back skin had been torn away, and a half-open door had been carved into the flesh and blood.
Unlike the Blood Gate Chen Ge had seen on the Ghost Story Society's pamphlets, this half-open door had a little girl drawn in its center.
She had half her head sticking out past the door, smiling happily.
"Do you have any findings?" Captain Yan had agreed to let Chen Ge come precisely because he felt he might be able to glean some information from him.
"I think I've seen this little girl somewhere before." Chen Ge was not joking in the slightest. He stared intently at the rather gruesome photograph.
"The bloodstains haven't even been cleaned off. What can you possibly tell from these simple lines?" Captain Yan had studied every single photograph on the table for a long time.
"It feels very familiar." Chen Ge picked up the photographs from the table, and as he slowly brought them closer to his face, a sudden sense of familiarity flooded his mind — as though this scene had appeared before.