When the thin man got the name, he almost cried. The fat man was also out of breath, both smiling so much, their eyes disappeared. The two gave a quick call to Xiao Gu, the thin man waved his hand in a special atmosphere, “There is no need to find that Duan Shishi anymore!”
In the end, Xiao Gu lost the name to the database and jumped out of the long list of dozens of pages.
In the Minqing, there are 938 people called Ye Qing, 471 people called Liu Mao, and we don’t know if they’re a native to the area. Look at the whole country, these two names each have more than 20,000 people. If we put age into consideration, the number still isn’t small.
The thin man’s happiness didn’t last long and he started to grip his hair again. The fat man had a frown on his face.
I thought of “New Year’s Ghost, Qingye checked list of 7,000 people. Look at the members of Qingye who love to work hard! I couldn’t help but despise those two men and then there was a flash of light in my head, I facepalmed.
Junli Hotel!
Didn’t the people of Qingye checked in at Junli Hotel! And booked Room 809 for so many years!
I quickly said this to the thin and fat man.
“Why didn’t you say this earlier, ah!” The thin man shouted excitedly.
“Didn’t you think of it?” I shrugged sarcastically at him.
The thin and fat man regained their energy for working.
They will have a general idea of things and me and Guo Yujie have landed in a deadend. Uncle Wang was unmoved by our persuasion, oil and salt do not enter*, if he doesn’t see his wife then no demolition, it’s going to be more difficult for us. Guo Yujie went to contact Uncle Wang’s daughter. I asked the old leader and found two psychiatrists who were well known in the government. One of them worked in a psychological intervention after a disaster, and the other is responsible for psychological treatment for the police and victims, they hold about Uncle Wang’s situation, and said that they can cooperate with the demolition office, but they had to disguise their identity, so that was different from normal psychotherapy. They have to plan it in detail. This type of professional work, I cannot help on. (*it’s an idiom that means this person is very stubborn)
I didn’t have anything to do for the afternoon, so I took out of Qingye’s files.
______
Case No. 035
The Death of a Stray Cat
Client(s): Su Zhuoqin, Fei Wen
Sex: Male
Age(s): 27, 33
Occupation: Part-time worker
Family Relationships: Parents
Address: Room XXX, No. X, Fuchuan Village, Minqing
Contact Info: 187XXXXXXXX, 188XXXXXXXX
Process:
April 2, 2006: Client visited for the first time. Audio file 03520060402.wav
“We would like to ask you to find one of our friends.”
“He’s a tenant.”
“Yes, we three share. His name is Kong Rongde, this his photo, and his ID card.”
“Did the two of you call the police?”
“We did, but the police did not find him and...the way he went missing was very strange.”
“Please tell me the matter in details.”
“Ok, ok.”
“...”
“Alright, I will say it. We haven’t seen him since last month.”
“The 11th of last month.”
“Hm, the 11th of last month. He’s a cashier at the supermarket. That day should have been a day shift for him from 7 am in the morning to the afternoon at around 3 to 4 pm. We both work, one is a chef and the other as a delivery man and start work earlier than him. When we go out in the morning, he was still sleeping and when we came back, he still hadn't come back. We called his phone, but realized that his phone was at home, the supermarket called him so many times saying that he didn’t come to work today.”
“We waited for a few more days, he still hadn’t come back, so we called the police.”
“So, Mr. Kong has been missing for less than a month?”
“The time may not be long, but it really is strange.”
“Yeah. He doesn’t have a lot of friends here and his hometown is rural, they farm. His parents wanted him to farm, but he wasn’t too happy about it, so he ran away and it’s now impossible for him to return.”
“He has no friends besides us and his coworkers at the supermarket have a normal relationship with him.”
“You two said that the ‘strange’ thing about this is the disappearance of Mr. Kong? With all due respect, we are a paranormal firm and you two told me that it had nothing to do with ‘spiritual’ things.”
“...”
“Mr. Su? Mr. Fei?”
“ *gulps*...it’s not...like it’s not related…”
“...”
“Then, can you tell me?”
“This...we three own a lot of cats and also feed wild cats.”
“Oh.”
“Those cats were never normal after Kong Rongde’s disappearance. How do I say it...they were very violent, began to fight, they use to stay inside the cages, but now they try to escape from it, making a mess inside the house.”
“And there’s one more thing. When it was the 11th, I got a call from Kong Rongde during noon. He called once, but in the call, he didn’t speak, I just heard...I heard cat noises, it sounded like cats fighting like a very big fight.”
“When we came home at night, there was a lot of blood in the house and on the cats’ mouth and body. We…”
“When the two called the police, do you not tell them this?”
“We did! The police checked it, but the blood was the cats, not Kong Rongde!”
“They fought so badly, there must have been a dead cat right?”
“Ah…”
“Um, uh...that’s right, um, there was a dead cat, we...we threw it away. We didn’t think much about it and just threw it away.”
“ ‘We didn’t think much about it’? So what do you think of it now?”
“Ah? This...we…”
“Eh...this thing…”
“Are the two of you hiding something? If you don’t tell us in details, it’s hard for us to investigate this.”
“Can you turn this recording off then?”
“Recording is one of our means of investigation. This is also to ensure both of our rights. I hope you can understand that the contents of our business is a bit special and sometimes it involves many aspects. If there wasn’t any recording, our business firm might experience hard problems.”
“This…”
“What problems can you have? We are only just want you to find someone!”
“However, Mr. Kong disappeared abnormally. The two of you also reported to the police. The police are also investigating this and overlap with our work, too. In order to avoid causing unnecessary misunderstandings, having a recording is still better for evidence, am I right?”
“This is twisting words and forcing logic*. Fei Wen, let’s go!” (*it’s an idiom meaning the use of reasoning or arguments that sound correct but actually false)
“Ok.”
April 2, 2006: The client’s recording was analyzed. Audio file 03520060402G.wav.
“We would like to ask you to find one of our friends...a tenant…”
CLICK!
“What did you hear?”
“It’s noisy, a lot of cats meowing.”
“Cats meowing?”
“Yeah, a lot of meowing. My head is starting to hurt because of this.”
CLICK!
“...Yes, we three share. His name is Kong Rongde…”
“The meowing never stopped. *breathes----* huh this time it really is troublesome.”
“Tou Er, did you also hear it?”
“Yeah, the two men have a lot of cats by them.”
“Is it…”
“What is it?”
“The abnormality of cat abuse?”
“What?”
“Yes.”
“Tou Er, those cats...were they miserable?”
“Yes.”
“Then, that Kong Rongde was killed by the ghosts of those cats?”
“This is not known. But since there is a first, then there will be a second one.”
“What you mean is, those two people…”
“It won’t take long for them to come back again.”
“Mushroom, was there anything special sounds? Besides, the cat’s meowing?”
