"Retrieve a corpse?"
"The task requires me to go to Donggang Reservoir alone and pull out 'Sister's' body — isn't that a bit too much?" Even a professional team would need several hours to retrieve a body from the reservoir, and Chen Ge only had one night.
No help from anyone, no salvage equipment or boats. He didn't even know what the person he was supposed to pull out looked like.
"All of this happened before Wenwen was born. How old was Wenwen's sister at the time? And why was her corpse sunk into Donggang Reservoir?" A swarm of questions flooded his mind, and the only person who could answer them was Wenwen's aunt.
Wenwen's father also suffered from a hereditary illness. It was clear he loved his daughter, but his intellectual impairment meant he probably couldn't recall what had happened back then. Wenwen's aunt was the only person in the family who had lived through the incident, possessed normal intelligence, and could communicate.
"That woman seemed to be dodging anything about what happened a few years ago. Asking her directly wouldn't get me anywhere — I need to find another approach." The Twin Water Ghost mission had been triggered, and if Chen Ge failed, the scene would never be unlocked. He couldn't afford to lose this unique underwater horror scenario.
He silently pocketed the black phone and turned around with the little girl in his arms. He suddenly noticed that everyone was staring at him. "Why are you all looking at me?"
"The bone is sticking out of your backpack," Xiao Qing coughed lightly, offering a helpful heads-up.
At his words, Chen Ge quickly looked back. The handle of the Soul-Skull Hammer was poking through a gap in the backpack's zipper.
This prop hammer gifted by the black phone hadn't been this large at first. But perhaps because it had been with Chen Ge as he struck ghosts and Red-clothed spirits time and again, it had absorbed something from them. Its appearance had grown increasingly grotesque, and both its weight and length had increased.
"Don't be nervous — it's a haunted house prop. I often walk alone at night, and I carry it purely to scare off bad people." Chen Ge fumbled through an explanation.
"I just can't wrap my head around it — someone like you is actually liked by children?" Xiao Qing didn't bother to inspect Chen Ge's backpack. He looked at Chen Ge's bright and genial expression, his sincere gaze, and Wenwen nestled in his arms like a little angel. All of it formed a stark contrast with the ghastly spinal-column hammer handle inside the bag.
"Actually, I'm great with kids. A lot of children like being around me." Chen Ge thought of
"Sure, if you say so." Xiao Qing and the other police officer opened the cruiser's door. "The suspect entered the school and abducted children — that's pretty serious. All of you need to come with us."
…
At ten past ten that evening, Chen Ge walked out of the police station carrying the little girl. Wenwen clutched her shampoo bottle and would only let Chen Ge hold her. She seemed extremely attached to him.
Even Wenwen's aunt hadn't expected this. She walked beside Chen Ge, watching the two of them with a complicated expression.
The three of them walked side by side — anyone who didn't know better might have mistaken them for a family out for an evening stroll.
"While the police were questioning us, I did my best to cover for you." When they reached a spot where no one was around, Chen Ge stopped abruptly. "In truth, the person who injured the teacher at the rehabilitation school was Wenwen's sister. There was never any child trafficker. Am I right?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I've already met Wenwen's sister. Her body is still sunk in Donggang Reservoir. She died horribly, brimming with hatred, and she wants to come back…"
"Stop!" Wenwen's aunt suddenly lost control of her emotions, her voice turning shrill enough to startle a passerby in the distance.
"Running away won't solve anything. She may not have harmed you so far, but that doesn't mean you're safe." He turned his head to fix the aunt with a steady gaze. "What exactly happened to this child? Maybe I can help you."
Standing by the bridge, the woman gazed at the river flowing quietly beneath the night sky. After a long while, she finally spoke. "Do you know about 'planting seeds'? It's a ritual where you trade one child's life for another child's healthy growth. I don't know the exact details myself. All I know is that my parents took Wenwen's sister away shortly before Wenwen was born. They left at midnight and didn't come back until nearly dawn."
"Wenwen's sister didn't come back with them?"
The woman shook her head. "My parents only brought back a small half-bowl of murky water full of impurities. They woke Wenwen's mother up and forced her to drink it."
"Murky water?"
"Yes. Very cloudy. There were bloodstains on the rim of the bowl."
"Wenwen's mother didn't resist? She just let them do whatever they wanted?" Chen Ge had noticed that there was very little in the household that pertained to Wenwen's mother.
"Her mother used to be from the same village as us. She'd been in a car accident and lost a leg. My parents took her in, and the condition was that she bear my brother a healthy child." The woman paused. "Using Wenwen's sister as a seed — that was my parents' decision on their own. They didn't tell anyone. Wenwen's mother didn't even know that the bowl of water she drank contained her own child's blood."
"What happened after that?" Chen Ge found it hard to keep listening. He didn't know how to judge this family.
"Wenwen's sister never came back. My parents said the child had been sent to our hometown and put in someone else's care. A few days later, Wenwen was born. The family had already been to the hospital and been told it was a boy, so everyone was happy right up until the moment the child arrived." The woman smiled bitterly. "But retribution came quickly. The baby turned out to be a girl, and her head was slightly deformed — as though she had a face on the back of it. After examination, the doctor determined she had a hereditary illness. My parents couldn't handle the shock. They left home on a rainy night."
"They didn't tell Wenwen's mother about the first child?"
"My father's mind wasn't quite right — he was physically deformed and had a terrible temper. My mother had disabilities of her own. They'd endured cold stares and mockery their whole lives, living in exhaustion and misery, and they didn't want the same fate to repeat in the next generation. But in the end, the result proved they'd been deceived. The so-called 'planting seeds' was completely useless. I don't know where they went after they left that night, but I never saw them again." The woman had started out looking pained, but as she kept talking, she grew calm — as though she had long since gone numb. "My parents and Wenwen's sister all disappeared. My husband is a fool, and the second child is a fool too. Wenwen's mother couldn't take the pressure and left with all the money in the house. That day happened to be my twentieth birthday."
Chen Ge wanted to comfort the woman, but he had no idea what to say.
"I'm almost thirty now. I don't need anyone's pity or help. I only hope Wenwen grows up healthy and strong — nothing more." The woman walked up to Chen Ge and reached out to take Wenwen. "Give her to me. I'm taking her home."