False evidence

Chapter 56 Fu Bo
Meng Chao glanced at me, hid the Heavenly Ruler behind his back, and went into the room.

"Get out of here!"

He roared and yanked the blanket off.

The person on the bed immediately screamed, "Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"

"What are you wailing about!" Meng Chao went up and slapped him twice.

The man stopped shouting after being slapped by Meng Chao. He just huddled on the bed like a shrimp, his eyes glazed over, trembling.

Meng Chao tried to make another move, but I quickly went over and blocked him.

I had a general idea that the person in bed was Gu Haitao, but I didn't expect him to be so frightened.

When the electric light was shone on his face, his pupils only contracted slightly, without any other expression.

I told Meng Chao to quickly pinch his philtrum. Meng Chao pinched it hard for a while as if to get revenge, and Gu Haitao finally let out a "uh" sound and started crying.

I was annoyed by what I saw, so I frowned and said, "What's with all the crying, you big man? Aren't you going to find a girlfriend or not? Get up if you have nothing else to do!"

Gu Haitao sat up shakily, shaking his head repeatedly, and said in a tearful voice:
"Stop looking... Let's go! This place is haunted, there are ghosts here!"

"I just don't understand how someone like you can have a girlfriend!" Meng Chao spat.

I tucked the stick under my arm, took out my phone and checked it. "Stop dawdling, if you're going to leave, you have to go downstairs first."

As I left the room, I handed the stick to Meng Chao and told him to follow my example and smash the windows as I went.

When we got to the top of the stairs, Meng Chao asked me if we should go look on the other side.

I shook my head and went straight downstairs.

Back down the stairs, the body from before was indeed gone.

Gu Haitao ran to open the door immediately, but it wouldn't budge.

I looked out the window, and the outside was still shrouded in thick fog.

Gu Haitao ran back and said, "The door is locked, we can't get out, what should we do?"

I told him to calm down and asked, "Did Fan Xiaoyu only send you one WeChat message?"

Gu Haitao nodded frantically, "She only sent me that one message. I went to her school to ask, and it turns out that it wasn't just her and her classmates who came here that day, but also several unemployed people. Her classmates said they didn't see her the next day and thought she had run off with someone else... That kind of woman isn't worth the risk we take for her. Let's figure out how to get out of here first!"

"That's not what you said before!" Meng Chao's temper flared up again. "You screwed me and Sanqi over, and now you're backing down? What a load of crap!"

Bai Jing suddenly asked me, "Corpses don't move on their own. Guess who moved the body? And where did they move it to?"

"Of course, a corpse won't walk on its own."

I walked to the door, turned around and pointed to the corridor on the left: "I don't know where the body went, but if Fan Xiaoyu is still alive, then she should be here."

"How did you know?" Bai Jing asked.

I waved my phone at her. "I checked the time before I came in, and the signal was already very weak. The left side is closest to the villa, which means that if there was no Wi-Fi at the time, and Fan Xiaoyu was sending WeChat messages from this building, the only one that could be sent would be the far left side."

Meng Chao followed and asked, "If that's the case, then she might also be on the second or third floor?"

"Not very likely."

As I walked forward, I said, "Her last WeChat message was sent in the early hours of the day after the party. Let's assume she encountered a maze like we just did. Even a man would be on the verge of collapse after wandering around in the building all night. The windows on the second and third floors don't have security bars. If it were me, I'd rather jump out of the window than be trapped."

Meng Chao nodded: "That's true, you definitely won't die if you jump from the second floor."

I said, "There's another possibility: we can wait until dawn. We can stay on the first floor, try to contact the outside world, and wait. The fog will eventually clear. When it gets light and the fog clears, we'll find a way to get out."

Bai Jing said, "I think your opinion is a bit far-fetched."

I asked, "Do you really think that the disappearance of four people on two separate occasions was caused by ghosts?"

Bai Jing was taken aback: "You think it was man-made?"

"I believe there are many things in this world that I don't understand, but I don't believe that ghosts can actually kill people. If they really exist, well, that person must have a terrible conscience." I continued walking forward while looking at my phone. Meng Chao hadn't forgotten to smash windows; wherever he went, every piece of glass he could reach was destroyed.

He suddenly stopped, sniffed, and said, "Why do I think I smell dried plum vegetables? Can you smell them?"

"nonsense!"

I glanced at him sideways and reached out to push open a door at the end of the alley.

Inside was a kitchen, complete with a gas stove and an old-fashioned earthen stove with a wood-fired pot. Behind the stove, on the steel wire, hung a lot of dried vegetables, dried green beans, smoked meat, and the like.

Bai Jing sniffed. "Judging from the smell, they must have cooked here in the last few days."

I said, "Of course, the first floor is where the owner of the house lives."

"Who owns this building?" Meng Chao asked blankly.

"The owner of this place should be called Ah Sheng."

I raised my voice: "Uncle Fu, there's no need to hide anymore, come out!"

After a moment of silence, a soft sound came from behind the stove.

A tall figure slowly stepped forward.

Upon seeing this ghost-like face, Gu Haitao retreated repeatedly, "Ghost...there's a ghost..."

My heart skipped a beat. There were no lights in the kitchen either, and Uncle Fu's disfigured face, illuminated by the flashlight, was even more terrifying than a ghost.

"It's him?!" Bai Jing was somewhat taken aback.

Fu Bo glanced at us gloomily, then his expression softened, and he asked in a hoarse voice:
"Why are you all here at my house so late at night instead of sleeping?"

Meng Chao stepped forward, blocking my way, pursed his lips, and remained silent.

I pointed at Gu Haitao and said to Uncle Fu:

“This isn’t his first time here, of course you know we’re here to find someone.”

"Looking for someone? Oh, I remember now, this young man came here last time saying he was looking for his girlfriend..."

Uncle Fu grinned. "I'm just an old man living alone at home. How could you possibly think the person you're looking for is at my house?"

Meng Chao glared at him: "Old man, still pretending? Just tell me, what are you doing hiding in the kitchen all by yourself in the middle of the night?"

"Why would I hide in my own home?" Uncle Fu said with a smile, taking a step forward.

I raised my voice and asked, "Ah Sheng?"

Fu Bo paused, then asked, "How do you know my name?"

I countered, "Fu Sheng?"

Uncle Fu looked at me suspiciously. "My name is Fu Ansheng. Most people in the village have forgotten this name and call me 'Ugly Ghost' behind my back. How did you know my name?"

I breathed a sigh of relief, because of my accent, I still misheard the name.

It wasn't Ah Sheng, it was Ah Sheng...

Seeing his face darken again, I steeled myself and raised my voice once more:

"We're not only here to see Fan Xiaoyu, but also to help Ya Cai with some things on his behalf!"

"Child's vegetables!"

Uncle Fu shuddered violently as if he had been electrocuted, and as if he couldn't stand steadily, he staggered back two steps.

How do you know about baby food?

I pointed to Bai Jing: "She's a spirit medium who looks after people. In your area, she's called a 'shell carrier.' You should understand what I mean, right? We know that Ya Cai died a long time ago, but he died unjustly and was very resentful, so he came to us, asking us to seek justice for him!"

(End of this chapter)