Thriller Night Talk

Translator- Rhapsodite

Editor-PerpetualMreow, Proofreader-Ghostie

“This is no different from seeking your own death!”

Wei Fuyuan complained in his heart until he felt like his heart was about to burst.

He didn’t have the slightest sympathy for Liu’s death-seeking party.

For Young Master Wei, who had never lacked anything when it came to material wealth since childhood, even if a diamond-encrusted Rolex fell into the sewer, he would never think it was worth enough to lift the lid, let alone risk falling into a sewer and dying for it!

“Really?”

Bei Quan put his hand on the table and smiled at Wei Fuyuan, “Then look at this again.”

He pushed a piece of paper with his other hand.

Wei Fuyuan took a look and found that it was an enlarged print photo of a screenshot of the surveillance recording.

The video’s quality was subpar: the sky was gloomy and the light was insufficient. The whole screen was filled with mosaics after being expanded to A4 size, giving the appearance of 3D naked-eye stereograms, which had been popular in the past.

However, although the picture was lacking in quality, Wei Fuyuan could still see that it was a picture of the man bending over to lift the sewer cover——it should be the monitoring screenshot of Liu moving the sewer cover.

Bei Quan asked, “Do you see anything wrong?”

After Bei Quan mentioned this, Wei Fuyuan quickly found the problem.

Although the man in the photo was not short, he was very thin: he had a typical bamboo figure.

According to Wei Fuyuan’s visual observation, the man’s weight was about 120 Jin, but the manhole iron cover he carried must be at least 200 Jin! And judging from the posture of the screenshot, the man didn’t even have difficulty removing it!

120jin=72kg 𝘣𝘦𝘥𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝑐𝑜𝑚

“This…”

Wei Fuyuan was speechless.

Unless the sewer cover Liu lifted was a hollow fake lid, this person was comparable to a national weightlifter.

“It’s weird, isn’t it?”

Bei Quan asked with a smile.

Wei Fuyuan reluctantly let out an “um”.

Bei Quan wrote the second line on the paper:

“On February 9, Liu, male, 34 years old, cause of death: fell into a sewer.”

“Okay, next let’s look at the third one.”

Bei Quan took out a third newspaper.

Wei Fuyuan had entered the reference room next to the study on the first floor before, and he knew that there were a large number of local newspapers, all organized according to their publishing date and placed on the shelves in stacks.

It was only now that he realized collecting and organizing newspapers was not only a hobby of Sāntúchuān company’s but also a habit that could prove to be really useful.

The third newspaper was dated March 4th. Like the previous two newspapers, the page circled with a red pen recounted a weird accident.

After taking a look, Wei Fuyuan noticed he had also heard about this accident.

Because the person’s way of death was similar to that of a certain male star a few days ago, the news had been hyped by major marketing companies. Young Master Wei had also eaten two mouthfuls of melon in his spare time, and he could recall the story even without reading the newspaper.

The person who had died in the accident was called Meng Mouchang, who was 32 years old and worked in the product sales department of a beverage company.

On that day, he had gone out for business, got drunk at a social gathering and then drove home intoxicated on a narrow road in the middle of the night.

Consequently, Meng’s Mitsubishi car broke down in a remote alley. He got out of the car to check for the issue but had forgotten to turn off the car. When he walked behind the car, it suddenly reversed, flinging him on the fence of a residential courtyard wall; the fence’s iron spikes pierced through his chest from the back. When he was found by a passerby, he was already cold.

“On March 4th, Meng Mouchang, male, 32 years old, cause of death: iron rod piercing through his chest.”

Bei Quan wrote the third line on the paper.

——Wei Fuyuan’s face turned pale at this time.

Pretending to be unbothered, Wei Fuyuan asked, “There couldn’t be a fourth death in this collection, right?”

“Congratulations, you’ve guessed it right.”

Bei Quan handed him the fourth newspaper, “There is truly a fourth.”

Wei Fuyuan had also heard of the fourth accident.

However, unlike the previous three accidents, the accident had occurred in a neighboring city that was about an hour away by train.

According to the report, the victim in the accident was named Lin and was a 26-year-old corporate female.

On the 30th of last month, Ms. Lin’s company organized a short vacation. She and her colleagues had gone to a scenic spot in a neighboring city, but it wasn’t until the park’s closing time, her colleagues finally realized that she was missing.

After receiving the news of a missing tourist, the park organized several staff to search and everyone busied themselves with the search to find Ms. Lin in the middle of the night.

No one expected that Ms. Lin——who had been missing for a long time——would sneak up to the closed glass trestle in the early hours of the morning.

The trestle bridge, which was claimed to be capable of supporting the weight of 5-ton trucks, broke and collapsed from under the weight of a running petite woman. Ms. Lin and countless shards of broken glass fell into the canyon.

Under the tremendous impact from the plummet, Ms. Lin was sliced into pieces by the broken glass: her neck was cleanly cut off, and her head ended up in a different place from the rest of her body. It took the police a long time to find her head that had landed in the grass more than ten meters away from her body.

This bloody way of dying was beyond Young Master Wei’s psychological endurance. He couldn’t help but turn his head to the side and cover his mouth to retch as he felt the sour liquid rising in his throat.

“This is the fourth one.”

Bei Quan didn’t seem to have noticed Wei Fuyuan’s expression. He bowed his head and wrote the last line:

“March 30, Lin Mou, female, 26 years old, cause of death: falling from high altitude.”

Then he pushed the paper to Wei Fuyuan. Bei Quan’s eyes curved and he asked with a smile, “What do you think?”

Wei Fuyuan was stunned by this question.

“Just… It’s really weird…” He gave a dry smile, “Haha, it feels like a live-action version of ‘The God of Death is Coming’.”

Bei Quan, “Do you think the story Mr. A told last night was true?”

Wei Fuyuan shook his head.

“Although these four accidents share some similarities with the events in the dreams that Mr. A had, the boss…”

He turned to look at Bei Quan with a serious expression.

“Mr. A called the hotline fifteen hours ago, but these accidents, even the most recent one——” Wei Fuyuan tapped twice on the last line with his fingers. “This Ms. Lin had an accident on the 30th of last month! That person——I mean, Mr. A, could have made up his dream according to these accidents to create a fake story about his ‘prophetic dreams’!”

As a staunch materialist, Young Master Wei firmly believed that all of the strange and seemingly unexplainable things in the world could be “explained by science” if studied carefully.

“Well, your words are also very reasonable.”

Bei Quan did not refute Wei Fuyuan’s belief.

“In that case…”

He smiled, stood up and placed a hand on Young Master Wei’s shoulder.

“Let’s investigate and find out for ourselves if what Mr. A said is true or false!”

———————————

Half an hour later, Wei Fuyuan found himself waiting in the living room to set out with Bei Quan.

Bei Quan wore a dark gray high-collared shirt, a knee-length black windbreaker, slim black pants and black boots. People couldn’t move their eyes away from him.

Wei Fuyuan looked at Bei Quan in a daze, unable to speak for a while.

Normally, ordinary people who dressed like this usually only had two purposes: they were either pretending to be fashionable but failing or they were a pervert.

But Bei Quan’s figure was very well proportioned: with wide shoulders and a thin waist, a long face, and long legs. Furthermore, his complexion was whiter than that of Easterners and cooler than that of Westerners. The contrast between black and white made Bei Quan not only pleasing to the eyes but even gave him the temperament of a celebrity.

——Young Master Wei swallowed secretly.

Young Master Wei himself was very handsome and had seen many astonishing beauties; however, it was the first time that he had met someone who could wear a black windbreaker so beautifully.

“Come on, send an email to this mailbox and copy the contents on this note.”

Bei Quan did not rush out and handed Wei Fuyuan the notepaper.

The note had an email address and had three words written: “Hong Nan Zuo”.

Wei Fuyuan: “???”

Bei Quan shrugged, “You know I don’t have a smartphone.”

Indeed, as soon as Wei Fuyuan applied for the job, he had asked his boss for his WeChat.

At that time, Bei Quan had taken out a Nokia brick that was said to be used for survival in the wild and told him that it was only used, so they could only make phone calls and send text messages.

“I get so frustrated trying to figure them out, that I can’t even stand high-tech products anymore,” Bei Quan explained earnestly.

Wei Fuyuan initially thought that Bei Quan was just teasing him, but after a week’s observation, he found that the other party really was like an 80-year-old man and did not use a smartphone at all.

Since Bei Quan didn’t have a smartphone and he needed to use an email address, Wei Fuyuan, his employee, could only do it for him and send an email of unknown meaning to someone using his own email address.

The reply, unexpectedly, arrived within a minute after the letter was sent.

Wei Fuyuan clicked on it to take a look, and was immediately shocked.

There was no text in the reply, but there were four pages of pictures attached——they were the stubs of the death certificates of the deceased from the four odd accidents.

Young Master Wei looked at Bei Quan suspiciously.

The household registration stubs of death certificates were under the control of the Public Security Bureau. You couldn’t easily get these just by sending an email, so he could only conclude that there was someone “higher up” who was helping Bei Quan.

“It’s reasonable to investigate the most recent accident first.”

Bei Quan didn’t take Young Master Wei’s mobile phone. He just asked him to click on the attachment, then put his head close to the other side’s shoulder and quickly scanned it.

“However, the place of Ms. Lin’s death was a scenic spot in the next city, so we may not be able to make it in time to be allowed into the park even if we leave now. ”

As he spoke, he patted Wei Fuyuan’s arm.

“Then, let’s begin the investigation of the third deceased instead.”

Wei Fuyuan clicked on the third death certificate and studied the columns carefully.

In the newspaper, the name ‘Meng Mouchang’ had been changed to ‘Meng Li Chang’ to respect the privacy of the victim. He was married and had died at the age of 32. His registered residence was in Room 303, Xiling Hutong 23, Xizhimen Avenue, in Fèng Xīngchéng City.

Young Master Wei was not familiar with the old city and quickly turned on the navigation help on his phone. He found that Xiling Hutong was not far from the Sāntúchuān Broadcasting Company——only about a 20 minute drive from where they were.

“Okay, let’s go now.”

Bei Quan smiled in satisfaction, picked up a black suitcase, hung a black umbrella on his elbow and went out.