Chapter 1084: Black Fog [2 in 1]
Chen Ge was not going to waste any more time with the tenants. He wanted to get this over with as soon as possible, and that was why he came up with this rather incendiary suggestion. Once Doctor Li and Auntie Ding calmed down, regained their senses, and found out the truth, they would surely realize that it was Chen Ge who had been pulling the strings and the person that they needed to get rid of was Chen Ge all along.
Dancing on the tip of the knife, Chen Ge had known his condition from the very beginning, but this was the only chance he had. There was no other choice for him. He needed to remove as many tenants inside the building before Doctor Li and Auntie Ding came to. When there were too few of them to form an alliance to threaten him, he could openly take over the building already.
“Sister Ding, you’d better get a good rest inside the house. Shut your windows and doors, and take care of yourself. Big Head and I will go and take a look.” Doctor Li’s expression had not changed. Chen Ge had no idea what the man was thinking. However, there was one thing that was clear; Doctor Li was highly interested in Chen Ge’s suggestion. This was an opportunity for them to deflect the suspicion that would have landed on them. Naturally, they would not give up this chance.
Seeing Doctor Li take the bait, Chen Ge stood up and turned to Auntie Ding with concern. “I cannot be sure that the person who killed the landlord and the person who killed Qu Gui are the same person, so you have to be careful when you are staying at home all by yourself.”
“I will be careful.” Auntie Ding did not seem to key into the deeper layer of meaning behind Chen Ge’s words. She lay on the couch and appeared as weak as possible.
“Let’s go. Sister Ding needs her rest.” Doctor Li was the first to open the front door and leave. He then proceeded to whisper a few words in Big Head’s ear. Using Ghost Ear, Chen Ge managed to pick up the words ‘letter of commitment’. With no change to his expression, he followed Doctor Li slowly out of the room. In terms of cunningness and slyness, Doctor Li was a pretty good player, but he had greatly underestimated Chen Ge. Perhaps he had subconsciously placed himself in the role of a predator, and the rest of them were only the prey. The multiple kills that they had committed fed into the devil inside their heart, and normal people were merely prey to be had in their eyes. If he could successfully push the blame onto the others, that was the best, but if that failed, they would simply kill everyone who knew about their secret.
This kind of twisted psychology blinded him to Chen Ge’s suspicion toward him, and he had not been paying this outsider much attention. Then again, this was not entirely his fault. Who would have thought an outsider could manage to reconstruct most of the truth within such a short period of time? Of course, as time moved on, his suspicion toward Chen Ge would only continue to grow, and the thought of murdering Chen Ge would only get stronger.
Auntie Ding lived on the fourth floor. Big Head was Auntie Ding’s neighbor. After Doctor Li whispered to him, Big Head offered a flimsy excuse to return to his own house. Half a minute later, Big Head came out of his house and looked perfectly normal.
“Sister Ding needs to rest, so we should leave her at home.” Chen Ge scanned the group. “Has the uncle from the third floor not returned?”
“We should go and find him ourselves. That will save us some precious time,” Doctor Li said directly. He probably did not even realize that every single word that Chen Ge said was measured to purposely lead him to do certain things. He did not realize that he was being controlled. He merely thought that it was comfortable to ‘work with’ Chen Ge. It was like when he wanted to go for a nap, someone was there to hand him a pillow. The group came to the door of the house of the middle-aged man on the third floor. Chen Ge knocked for quite some time before the middle-aged man came to open the door.
“I am so sorry. My stomach is not feeling too good. I was on the toilet. Come on, which room should we go and inspect next?” Beads of sweat slithered down the middle-aged man’s face, and he was catching his breath while speaking. Honestly, he did not look like he had just come from the toilet.
“We plan to inspect the rooms one by one. Since we are already now, why don’t we start with your place?” Without waiting for the middle-aged man to agree, Doctor Li pushed his way into the room. Big Head followed closely behind him.
“You can do that, of course, but please do not mess with my stuff. I have many valuable collections here.” The middle-aged man appeared to have dealt with his ‘secret’ already, so he was not worried that Doctor Li would be able to find anything to expose him. Looking at the incredibly confident middle-aged man, Chen Ge shook his head. If there was no secret to be found, a secret could be planted. Since both of the parties in this twisted game were unrelated to him, Chen Ge felt more like an observer. The group of people entered the room. The middle-aged man’s room was very messy. Many beer cans and everyday trash littered the ground. The cleanest spot inside the house was the wall filled with posters of beautiful girls in skimpy clothing.
“There are so many pairs of eyes staring at you at all times. Don’t you feel uncomfortable sleeping at night?” Chen Ge’s att.i.tude was completely different from when they were searching the electrician’s room. He kept staring at the posters on the wall and engaging the middle-aged man in conversation, creating opportunities for Doctor Li and Big Head to plant the evidence.
“Why would I be afraid looking at them at night? In fact, wouldn’t that be a source of joy?”
“What is so joyful about staring at a bunch of posters?” Chen Ge glanced at the sofa and realized that the female underwear was still haphazardly tossed on the sofa. They had not been cleaned away, so it meant that the middle-aged man did not mind others noticing them. The underwear was not part of his real secret. Initially, Chen Ge thought that the middle-aged man was a fetis.h.i.+st, but now he realized that things were not that simple. This salacious middle-aged man collected more than just female underwear; his secret went deeper than that.
“Hey! Guys, come and take a look!” Doctor Li’s voice came out from the middle-aged man’s bedroom. He attracted everyone’s attention, and they were squeezed outside the bedroom door. Peeling back the black cloth that covered the cupboard, Doctor Li opened the cupboard door. It was filled with various p.o.r.n videos and books that had incredibly suggestive covers on them.
“This is my personal collection. I keep them to myself and have not shared or sold them to any underage kids. That is not against the law, is it?” the middle-aged man argued confidently as he leaned against the door.
“Is it possible that there are some other recordings that are mixed among these?”
“If you do not trust me, feel free to peruse them on your own, but it will probably take month to look through all of them, right?” The middle-aged man walked over to close the cupboard door, but suddenly, Doctor Li reached out to grab his hand. “Open this locked chest under the bed for us to see. We want to know what is inside.”
“Don’t push it! How is that any of your business?”
“You do not wish to be mistaken for the killer, do you? Just open it up. If it has nothing to do with the murders, we will naturally leave you be,” Doctor Li said with an expressionless face. His tone was cold and caused the middle-aged man’s spine to tingle with fear.
“Fine, I will cooperate with you for now. When we reach your place, I will also remember to give it a good search.” The middle-aged man retorted with an empty threat. He took out the key from his pocket and opened the wooden box that was previously hidden under the bed. A female body model was placed inside the box. It was very well made. From afar, it looked no different from the body of an actual female.
“This is my wife. She has accompanied me for many years.” The middle-aged stood next to the wooden box and refused to let anyone touch the model. For those amateurs who were not familiar with the making of mannequins, they would only be impressed by the technical beauty of this model, but unfortunately, Chen Ge was a master of mannequin production. He was familiar with all the materials that were involved in the making of a mannequin.
There was no material in the world that could mimic human skin so perfectly… expect the person who was using human skin as his material. Compared to a factory-made mannequin, this model was more like a reproduction of a human female body. It had more than ten different parts. The head, the face, and the skin could be changed at will. The middle-aged man showcased the mannequin in the box, but he only allowed the tenants to see but not touch it. Other than the mannequin, there was nothing else inside the box, and as promised, the other tenants did not comment on the man’s private interest.
“Are you done now? Can I put her away now?” The middle-aged man was about to close the box when Big Head’s voice suddenly came from the bathroom. “What is this‽”
The group rushed out from the room. The middle-aged man slowly and evenly locked up the wooden box. The expression on his face was one of ease, like he had survived a big ordeal. The middle-aged man was the last to leave his bedroom. When he came to the living room, he realized everyone was looking at him. “What are you guys looking at me like that? What is going on?”
“That should be our question. How do you explain this?” Big Head opened his palm, and inside it sat a seriously worn-down tooth. “I found this inside your bathroom’s underwater pipe.”
“Impossible! Such thing couldn’t exist in my house!” The middle-aged man stared at the tooth in Big Head’s palm, and a very bad feeling started to bloom in his heart.
“This was discovered inside your bathroom. You’d better give us an excuse that we can believe,” Big Head said in a soft tone, but combined with his strange voice, it was a chilling effect.
“I will repeat again! Such thing couldn’t exist in my house!” The middle-aged man got into a stalemate with Big Head, neither willing to back off. Seeing the atmosphere chilled, Chen Ge walked over.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions. Finding a tooth is no big deal. You are a fan of mannequins. Perhaps this tooth is meant for your mannequin.”
“A mannequin’s mouth does not need teeth,” the middle-aged man explained to Chen Ge, the amateur.
“So, you tossed their tooth down the drain? Is that mannequin really just a mannequin?” Big Head used this opportunity to take another shot at the middle-aged man.
“What are you going on about this time?” The middle-aged man glared at Big Head. He tried his best to explain, but no one was willing to pay him any real attention.
“A single tooth is not enough to prove anything. We should all calm down for now.” Chen Ge turned to Big Head with a question. “Did you find anything else other than this tooth?”
“Well, if a single tooth is not enough, what about a whole slew of teeth?” Big Head pointed at the drain in the bathroom.
“A whole slew of teeth?”
Everyone, including the middle-aged man, turned to look at the drain. The iron cover had been lifted open, and the spot where the drain curved had a few human teeth stuck in them. Some of them even had decayed flesh stuck to them.
“Why would these things be here?” The middle-aged man sensed the unfriendly gazes that were directed his way, and his forehead broke out in cold sweat. “I really have no idea why there are so many teeth in the drain. Perhaps some other people’s things have gotten stuck in my drain while they were going down the pipe. You guys have to trust me!”
“The teeth were all found stuck in the U-bend. If they came from another house, they would have been washed away by the main pipe.” Doctor Li’s voice came from the other bedroom. His cold and icy eyes stared right at the middle-aged man. “I suggest all of us stay away from this man. I have found something else.”
Doctor Li raised a mannequin production direction manual in his hand. It was filled with the middle-aged man’s writing on every page. He flipped through the book and took out a piece of paper with splotches of dried blood on it.
“Take a look at what is this.” Xiao Sun and Qu Yin were the first to walk over. When they saw the content of the paper, their expressions both s.h.i.+fted.
“A letter of commitment?”
“I swear I will not…”
The whole paper was filled with blood. This proved that the person who wrote this letter was not in a good physical state when he penned this. He appeared to be heavily injured. The handwriting was very uneven, like the writer’s fingers had been broken and snapped when he was forced to write this letter. Some of the content was too blurred out by the blood to be seen clearly. They could only see the beginning of the letter of the commitment and the signature of the landlord at the bottom.
“Why would you have a letter of commitment that is signed by the landlord? What did he promise you?”
“How would I know? This does not belong to me at all!” The middle-aged man by then realized what was up. Two people had just died in this building, and the culprit was on the loose. Evidence related to the crime had been found in his room; it was clear that someone was trying to frame him. A deep feeling of fear engulfed the man. He leaned against the wall. His pupils were shaking as he scanned everyone in the room. “That was purposely planted in my room! It is just like the teeth in the drain! They were the doing of the real killer! Someone is trying to frame me!”
“There are so many of us, but the killer chose to frame you? Why is that?” Doctor Li held the letter of commitment in both hands, just in case the middle-aged man darted forward to s.n.a.t.c.h it away from him.
“You have to believe me! These things really do not belong to me!” The middle-aged man was so desperate that his forehead was covered in sweat. Earlier, he had been desperate to hide his own secret that he did not imagine that someone would plant evidence to frame him.
“I suggest we apprehend him for now. This man is too dangerous.” Big Head looked around. “The bed in the electrician’s house can be used to secure his body, and there are electrical devices in his room. I believe they will be helpful in making the man speak the truth.”
“What do the rest of you think?” Doctor Li turned to the other tenants. Chen Ge was stunned and did not speak like he was still caught in shock.
Xiao Sun shook his head. “How does that make us any different from the killer? I still think we can talk this out peacefully. Perhaps there is really a misunderstanding.”
“I agree with Big Head’s suggestion. The person who killed the landlord is in possession of all the room keys. We have to find out the keys’ location, or else we would not be able to sleep peacefully at night!” Qu Yin and his girlfriend did not care whether the middle-aged man was framed or not. They did not care about the torture and pain they would put the man through. They only cared about themselves.
“Me, Big Head, and the couple—the four of us have voted us. The majority wins, so that is what we shall do!” Doctor Li carefully put the letter of commitment away. He, Big Head, and Qu Yin slowly surrounded the middle-aged man. The latter knew that someone wanted him to die on the stake as the scapegoat.
“Listen to me! I am really not related to the landlord’s death! If you do not believe me, you can go and ask Wu You! The boy knows who the real killer is! He has seen people wandering outside the landlord’s room at midnight!” The middle-aged man was truly desperate. He knew how unhinged these tenants were. Once he was strapped to the bed, even if he was not the killer, he would be tortured until he died.
“Wu You has a habit of lying to get the adults’ attention. That is what you told us yourself. Why did you suddenly change your story? I realize that you are as big of a liar as that boy, but no worry, in a minute, we will get you to speak the truth.” Doctor Li took one step forward. He did not need the man to tell the truth; he only needed the middle-aged man to say the things that he wanted to hear. If the middle-aged refused to do so, he would be slowly tortured until he surrendered.
“Why are you pus.h.i.+ng this on me?” The middle-aged man’s eyes wandered between Doctor Li and Big Head. “It was Big Head who found the teeth and you who found the letter of commitment…”
His eyes suddenly sharpened, and the middle-aged man shouted, “It is you two who are framing me! Big Head has been your patient since he was young. He listens to your every word! You two are the real killers of the landlord!”
The middle-aged man shouted from the core of his heart. He turned to Chen Ge and Wen Qing, who had not stated their stance. “You have to believe me! I am telling the truth! These two are the real murderers!”
At that moment, Chen Ge and Wen Qing were the middle-aged man’s only hope. He had forgotten not too long ago, he was the one who had been giving Chen Ge all sorts of problem.
“I personally want to believe you, but with so much d.a.m.ning evidence, I’d suggest you stop resisting.” Chen Ge raised his head. His words became the last straw that broke the middle-aged man. “Ever since Qu Gui was discovered, you have been affecting my train of thought. Can you tell me honestly why you have been trying to derail my thoughts?”
“Stop wasting time. We’d better apprehend him.” Doctor Li and Big Head pounced at the middle-aged man at the same time. The latter struggled literally for his life.
“You will all regret this! You will all be killed by the real murderer!” Being strapped to the bed equaled death. It was not safe inside the building anymore. After the man shook Big head and Doctor Li off, he did something that no one expected. He rushed to the living room window and whipped it open. Just as he prepared to jump, the shape of a jaw materialized from the black fog.
“Ah!” The middle-aged wailed for mercy. Fresh blood splashed on the windowsill. The mouth crunched and snapped his neck. The black fog pulsed, and moments later, the middle-aged man disappeared into the fog. The rest of the tenants were frozen inside the room.
“What was that?” Chen Ge had Yin Yang Vision, so he had the best sight, but even so, he failed to see the thing clearly. “Is there a man-eating monster inside the black fog?”