Hidden moth

Chapter 1: The Hidden Moth is Immortal
"Hello, is this 110? I want to report a crime!" There was an anxious male voice on the phone.

"This is the 110 emergency command center, please..."

The operator was interrupted before he could finish his words: "Our company's official seal is lost. Someone broke into the safe and stole it!"

Hearing this, the operator was relieved because this was not an emergency case involving the personal safety of the people at the scene, but she became even more curious.

She had seen things like stealing official seals in the news before, and some people even joked that business wars in reality were completely different from those shown on TV.

"Please don't rush. Tell me your personal information first, as well as the name of your company, the location of the incident, and the circumstances of the scene...Have you asked your colleagues? Did anyone forget to put it back after using it?"

The last two sentences were added by the operator himself. According to experience, many reports of theft are not real thefts. It is often the case that family members or colleagues took something but forgot to tell the person involved.

There is another situation where the person loses something or forgets where he put it. In order to shirk responsibility, he claims that it was stolen and calls the police hoping that the police will find the item back.

"The safe has been broken into, it must have been robbed!"

“Excuse me, does your company have surveillance?”

"Yes, we just checked the surveillance, and no one has ever gone in."

"Please protect the scene and the surveillance footage. Do not move anything at the scene. Police officers will be here soon."

……

"Hello, is this 110? I want to call the police!" A panicked female voice came from the phone.

Operator: "Excuse me, what happened?"

"Apples, a plate of apples!"

Operators at the police reporting center often hear this kind of incoherent talk. Many people are emotionally unstable when faced with an emergency, their thoughts are instantly fragmented, and they often don't talk about specific things, but rather about the things that most stimulated them.

Operator: "Don't panic, tell me what happened. What happened to Apple?"

"Before I showered, I cut a plate of apples and put them on the coffee table. When I came out of the shower, it turned into a plate of oranges and peeled orange slices!"

Operator: "We've recorded your number. Could you please tell me your personal information and current address... Is there anyone else at home?"

"No! I'm single and live alone on the 20th floor! I checked and the windows are closed, the door is locked, and I looked around the room and there's no one else..." The voice of the person who called the police was trembling and he was already crying.

Operator: "Since the door is locked and there is no one else in the house, you don't have to be afraid..."

The operators at the alarm center have all received on-the-job training. No matter what incredible things they hear, they must try to remain calm and guide the reporter to quickly state the key information.

To be honest, the operator was also a little confused at this moment. This kind of thing was too absurd. After taking a shower, he found that the apple on the coffee table turned into an orange, and then called the police?
But her soothing efforts had no effect. The reporter's tone became even more urgent: "I mustered up the courage to check every room and every cabinet... The more I looked, the more scared I became. I now suspect there's an invisible person in the house!"

Operator: "Does your residential complex have home surveillance? I suggest you contact the property management to check the surveillance to see if anyone has been here."

The reporter said: "I contacted the property management, and it was them who suggested I call the police... If it's someone invisible, the surveillance camera wouldn't have captured it!"

Encountering this kind of situation, the operator couldn't help but be curious: "Are you sure you're remembering correctly? For example, you thought you were holding an apple, but your mind wandered to something else and you ended up peeling an orange?"

The operator's question was somewhat inconsistent with regulations. Her job was to record the alarm and distribute it to the appropriate department. However, humans are not perfectly programmed machines; even machines have errors.

The woman's voice suddenly became shrill: "Impossible! Absolutely impossible! I bought the apples downstairs. I don't have any oranges at home, and the apple peels are still in the trash can!"

Normally, operators are not allowed to argue with the reporter and can only remind the reporter to reconfirm the facts. The operator asked again: "Can you take a look again? Are there any orange peels in the trash can?"

A few seconds later, a sharp, almost uncontrolled voice came from the phone again: "No, there is no orange peel! There is only apple peel. Where is the apple?"

……

"The case of the lost official seal happened three days ago, and my colleague answered the phone. The case of the apple-turned-orange happened last night, and I happened to be the one who answered the phone.

You told me to notify you if I encountered anything absurd, or anything that defied common sense or logic. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to explain it clearly over the phone, so I asked you to come over and meet me.

The speaker was a girl in her early twenties, quite pretty.

She was wearing a light blue long-sleeved uniform shirt, which was a bit tight, making her chest look full and giving her a very energetic look. There was no police rank on her epaulettes, so she must be a civilian working in the police department.

Sitting opposite her was a man, about thirty years old. At first glance, he looked very handsome, with good facial features and complexion, but he gave people the feeling that he was a little unclear when you looked away.

This was in a coffee shop on the corner of the street. Their seats weren't by the window, but in a booth with a partition against the wall. In the afternoon, there were few customers in the shop, and the adjacent seats were empty.

The man spoke calmly, and even though the topic was rather odd, he seemed quite settled. The girl, on the other hand, was a bit jumpy, with a variety of expressions, surprise, curiosity, confusion, etc. written all over her face.

"The apple-turned-orange case is interesting, but the lost official seal case is boring. A social news reporter might be interested, but why did you specifically tell me if there were any subsequent supernatural events?"

"Yes, it's absolutely haunted! The call to the police was answered by another colleague, and I didn't notice it at the time. I only heard the follow-up news today. Their official seal was not lost at all, and other things were found in the office..."

The case occurred in an Internet finance company. The person who reported the case was the company's executive director, whose surname was Zhang, who is traditionally known as the office director.

When Director Zhang opened his office early in the morning, he found that the door of the metal filing cabinet was open and there were obvious signs of violent damage. Everything else inside was still there, only the official seal was missing.

He'd said the safe had been broken into during the call to the police, but that was a slip of the tongue. There were no safes in the administration office, only metal filing cabinets with combination locks, which were far less sturdy than safes.

When the police arrived at the scene, they initially determined that the lock had been opened with a crowbar. After questioning, they learned that the lock combination was hanging in its original location, and the key was in the first drawer of the director's desk.

It seems that the thief was not aware of the situation, otherwise there would be no need to pry it open by force. Or the perpetrator knew about it and did it on purpose to attract the police.

The police searched the office and found the stolen official seal in the third drawer of the director's desk, along with a folder and a laptop.

At this point, the girl blinked and asked, "Guess what's in that folder?"

Man: "It's definitely not a good thing. It's most likely black material about this company."

Girl: "You guessed right! The police were shocked when they opened the folder. There were more than a dozen A4 sheets of paper inside, all printed with video screenshots. They were the kind of nude photos holding up ID cards, you should know..."

Subsequent investigation revealed that the girls in the video screenshots were all students at Qingyuan University. The laptop computer next to them contained a large amount of "confidential" information from the company, of which the source video in the screenshots was only a small portion.

The laptop belonged to the boss of the company. It was not originally in the company but in the boss's home. However, for some unknown reason it appeared at the scene of the theft.

Sorting out the clues before and after the case, it seems that someone stole the company boss's personal computer, printed out the illegal contents, and then placed them all in a drawer of the administrative office. They also pried open the metal cabinet, took out the official seal and placed it there.

The most amazing thing is that it was the company’s chief executive officer who called the police himself, as if he was surrendering himself to the crime!

After listening to the case, the man nodded slightly and said, "That makes sense. When you first said that, I suspected that Director Zhang was stealing from the company and deliberately luring the police to expose the company's dirty laundry."

Girl: "Oh, why did he blow himself up?"

The man said slowly, "It's simple. A sense of justice or guilt is sometimes precious and sometimes ridiculous. It could also be bribed or coerced by a competitor. It's even more likely that he has nothing to do with these businesses and is afraid of being implicated."

Girl: "He's the executive director, how could he have nothing to do with the business?"

Man: "This situation is very common. They register a company and operate normal business on the surface, but it is a cover-up for things that are not easy to see in public. Not only are the administrative staff unaware, but even the nominal legal representative may be in the dark.

Director Zhang discovered this, but was afraid to report it directly for fear of retaliation, so he resorted to this tactic. On the surface, it was someone else's deliberate mischief and had nothing to do with him.

But with this speculation, the only thing that is difficult to explain is how he could take the boss's computer at home and put it in his own desk drawer?

This is completely unacceptable and would be better off reporting it directly, so it still doesn't make sense."

Girl: “From what I heard, this company’s main business is not lending money, but helping other loan companies to collect debts. Some of their activities are definitely illegal, but they haven’t been thoroughly investigated yet.

It wasn't until the police arrived that the boss realized his computer had been stolen. Even the password had been unlocked and canceled. Furthermore, the company's surveillance records were complete; no one had entered the office from the day before to the day after work.

Man: "Where's the window?"

Girl: "That office is on the third floor. There's a surveillance camera on the street corner outside that happened to capture the window. There's no sign of anyone entering or leaving. If it wasn't Director Zhang who did it, then it must be haunted!"

The man laughed and said, "Ghosts have a strong sense of justice, even caring about this kind of thing... I'll check Director Zhang's background. Let's talk about last night's case. Apples turned into oranges. Did you respond to the police call?"

Girl: "The police are dispatched. Notify the on-duty police officers in the area and they are at the scene."

Man: "You're calling the police for something like this?"

Girl: "There are many more outrageous situations than this!"

Man: "What's the situation at the scene? You should ask about it, right?"

Girl: "The result is quite strange, and a little scary..."

The complainant claimed that after making the call, she hid in her bedroom and didn't dare come out until the police arrived. When she came out, not only were there no apples on the coffee table in the living room, but even the oranges were gone, and the plate that held the orange slices was gone too.

The man narrowed his eyes slightly. "The oranges are gone too! That means there's no evidence at all. Why should the police believe her?"

Girl: “No one said they believed her. If she hadn’t taken a photo when she reported the case, I’m afraid everyone would have thought she was talking nonsense.

The photo was taken in the living room. There was a fruit plate on the coffee table with peeled oranges arranged in the shape of petals. The photo was taken at 1:03 in the morning.

Man: "Can the photo be trusted?"

Girl: "I can't guarantee that, but the police at the scene judged that the photo should not be fake... Actually, it's not difficult to verify its authenticity. You can take it for appraisal."

It is possible to determine whether a photo has been modified, and the original photo taken by a mobile phone contains not only the image, but also the time, approximate location and various other parameters.

Man: "Assuming the photo is real, how do the police explain it?"

Girl: "There's no conclusion yet. We checked the neighborhood surveillance footage and found that the person who reported the incident arrived home around 9:30 p.m., bought apples downstairs, brought them in, and hasn't come out since. Apple peels were indeed found in the trash can next to the coffee table, but no peeled apples were found. The person who reported the incident insisted that the apples had turned into oranges, but the oranges are gone, too. There's only a photo the person took at the time.

If the photo is real, the only explanation in my opinion is that the person who reported the crime is lying."

The man's mouth curled up slightly: "You think so?"

Girl: "That's not what I think. One of our detectives here thinks so. During breakfast after the night shift, we were chatting in the cafeteria and mentioned this matter. Someone made a few comments."

Man: "If the reporter is lying, what is her purpose?"

The girl said, "The person who reported the case might have something wrong. She wanted to leave evidence of mental disorder so that she could apply for a mental evaluation. With a diagnosis of mental symptoms, she could escape certain punishments... We've encountered this kind of thing in the criminal investigation department as well."

The man smiled and shook his head. "You just said the only explanation is that the reporter lied. That's too arbitrary! Why not assume that what the reporter said is true and there really is a perpetrator?

Interesting, so interesting that it can be used to make a psychological profile of the perpetrator.

If he just wanted to scare the reporter, it would have been enough to replace the apples with oranges. There was really no need to take away the plate of oranges after the other party reported the case and before the police arrived, leaving clues for no reason and arousing suspicion.

The girl didn't quite understand and asked, "What are you talking about?"

Man: "Think about it carefully. If the plate of oranges hadn't been taken away, and the person who reported the case simply claimed that the apples had turned into oranges, and the surveillance didn't show anyone else entering the house, it would be a farce! That's enough to prove his mental disorder."

But the plate of oranges disappeared again, and the reporter took a photo of the scene with his mobile phone. If it was the reporter who did it, the photo would be superfluous.

Let's analyze the perpetrator hiding in the dark. If this person really exists, what is his purpose? Is there any benefit to provoking law enforcement officers and increasing the risk of exposure?

The girl was listening intently and asked subconsciously: "Yes, what are the benefits?"

The man took a sip of water and said, "It's not enough that he scared the person who reported the case, he even provoked the police. This shows that he doesn't care whether the other party reports the case to the police or not, and he is not afraid of the police investigating.

This will cause a greater psychological impact on the reporter, but that is not his main purpose. More importantly, he can get greater pleasure."

The girl looked up in confusion: "Pleasure?"

Man: "What does it feel like to be able to do something that no one else can even imagine? It's the thrill of subverting cognition and breaking the rules. It's like taking on some kind of challenge, over and over again, getting more excited each time.

He didn't want to be discovered, but subconsciously he couldn't help but leave some traces, finding satisfaction in others' shock, confusion, misjudgment, and speculation. He enjoyed the feeling that only he possessed the truth.

Girl: "Listen to you, you sound like a pervert!"

Man: "I can't say he's a pervert. He's just an ordinary person with weaknesses, just like most people in this world. In fact, many criminals commit crimes without being discovered, but eventually they accidentally expose themselves. It's probably the same reason."

Girl: "Do you really think someone did this? Who could do such a thing?"

The man suddenly asked, "Have you heard of the hidden moth?" As he spoke, he typed two words on his mobile phone and showed them to the girl.

"What is a cryptic moth?"

"Hidden Moth is a person who is said to be able to appear and disappear from nowhere. People cannot detect him, and no one knows how he does it."

"Is it so magical?"

The man's tone was somewhat unfathomable: "Records about the hidden moth can be found in official history.

More than 1,100 years ago, a woodcutter who was enlisted with the army sneaked into the enemy camp, cut off the head of the enemy commander who was sleeping in his tent, and brought the head back.

But the historical records only record that a woodcutter sneaked into the enemy camp, cut off the commander's head, and brought it back at night. There is no other description. No one knows how he did it, and it feels very far-fetched.

Girl: "Isn't this just a skilled assassin? That doesn't prove anything!"

Man: "Think about it carefully. Isn't this quite similar to the two cases you mentioned? The enemy commander's head is like the computer and the apple.

As for the woodcutter, some have investigated him, including the sorcerer of the Guan Shen Sect at that time, whom we should call the founder. Our Guan Shen Sect also has a very long history, at least longer than 1,100 years.

The results of the ancestor's investigation showed that this person had not practiced any special skills or secret techniques, and had not even practiced martial arts. Apart from his great strength, he was just an ordinary person.

Girl: "What happened to the woodcutter later? Was he taken back by the master for study?"

Man: "There were more than one person secretly investigating it at the time. The woodcutter was taken away by another sect. Later, the master and a group of people went to find them to inquire about the matter, but they said that the woodcutter disappeared inexplicably, and a conflict broke out among them."

Girl: "How did the woodcutter disappear?"

Man: "No one knows. It is said that the man disappeared after he lost sight of him. This incident is not recorded in public historical records, but it is recorded in the sect's internal texts."

Girl: "Is he the hidden moth?"

The man took a sip of lemon tea and nodded, "Yes, that woodcutter is the earliest recorded cryptic moth."

Girl: "The earliest cryptic moth? So there were many cryptic moths later?"

The man took another sip of lemon tea in his hand and said, "Yes, there is an old saying that the hidden moth never dies."

The girl was surprised and asked, "The hidden moth is immortal? Could it be that the woodcutter has lived for over a thousand years and has lived until now?"

The man shook his head and said, "The woodcutter is the hidden moth, but the hidden moth is not the woodcutter. Because of this woodcutter, many people later began to collect information about similar strange events, and found that every once in a while, the same thing would always happen.

This is not a conclusion reached by one person or one generation, but a continuous summary of historical information.

It seems that there are always people who can inexplicably appear somewhere and then disappear inexplicably. Although no one has seen it with their own eyes, this is the only way to explain what happened. Those who know the situation call such people "hidden moths."

The girl suddenly realized something and reminded him, "So, the hidden moth should refer to a group of people or a type of people, but I remember you just said that the hidden moth is a person?"

The man frowned slightly, as if his lemon tea tasted a bit sour. "According to ancient records, the hidden moth must be a single person. If it is confirmed that a certain person is the hidden moth, then no other hidden moth has been discovered in the same period."

A cryptic moth can be caught, killed, or even suffer an accident. But after one cryptic moth disappears, another one will appear after a longer or shorter period of time, like a new life.

The latter may know the former or have nothing to do with each other. The only thing they have in common is that they are both hidden moths, have the same abilities, and can do the same things.

That's why there's the saying "The cryptid moth never dies." Even if the only cryptid moth is destroyed, it won't stop new ones from appearing. Looking at this situation the other way around, it seems that only when the old cryptid moth disappears can new ones appear.

The girl noticed another problem and asked, "If the hidden moth has such a capability, how could it be caught?"

The man thought for a moment before answering, "No one has ever seen how the Hidden Moths use their abilities. We can only infer that they possess such abilities."

But the moth can indeed be caught, perhaps because this ability is restricted, like some kind of rule of use."

Girl: "How can you be sure he's a hidden moth if you haven't seen it with your own eyes?"

Man: "It's very simple. Just make sure he did something, like what he did last night. You don't have to see how he did it, as long as you can be sure it was him who did it.

In fact, the story of the woodcutter is just a historical record, and the most recent documented hidden moth appeared in this city twenty years ago. The man was named Zhou Du..."

The Zhou Du case was reported online 20 years ago, but the news was quickly suppressed, and related posts gradually disappeared. However, many of the people involved are still alive today, and the police have archived files available for review.

On the surface, it was just an attempted theft. One day during business hours, a staff member on duty at the Qiyuan City Commercial Bank branch glanced at the surveillance camera and noticed someone in the safe deposit box storage area. He immediately notified the security guard.

The guards caught Zhou Du in the warehouse.

If we look at the public information available today, including the bank's internal communications, we'll find only this much, and it doesn't seem particularly surprising. But if we delve into the details, we'll find this case quite bizarre.

A bank safe deposit box service involves renting a safe deposit box at a bank to store important documents and valuables. Access to the safe deposit box requires both a primary key (held by the customer) and a secondary key (held by the bank).

After taking out the safe deposit box, there is a dedicated small room in the warehouse where customers can enter the password to open the safe deposit box and access it. There is no one else in this small room except the customer to ensure privacy.

There were no customers entering at the time, but the staff on duty noticed that the surveillance showed that there was someone in the warehouse, so they notified the security guard.

The strange thing about this case is that no one knows how Zhou Du got into the warehouse. Surveillance records show that he actually walked out of the small room dedicated to storage and retrieval operations, but there is no record of him entering.

Why during daytime business hours? Some speculate that this is because the bank's automatic alarm system is activated during other times of the day, but it is turned off during business hours. As long as no one saw him, he would not be discovered at that time.

Even more bizarre was the fact that after Zhou Du was apprehended by the guards and taken to the police station, his hands cuffed behind his back, several of the escorts got out of the car and then looked back inside, only to find that he had inexplicably disappeared.

No one knows how he escaped. He was clearly still there when the car was parked. It's really weird!

But finding clues to someone's whereabouts is much easier nowadays than in ancient times. The police quickly apprehended Zhou Du again, which showed that he was just an ordinary person with no ability to resist detection or arrest.

This time, Zhou Du couldn't escape. Two policemen handcuffed him and themselves together, one on each side, and sent him to the detention center, where they were under surveillance by a special person...

Hearing this, the girl couldn't help but interrupt and said, "You can interrogate him. What did he confess?"

The man shook his head and said, "He didn't confess anything. The police interrogated him for several days, but he just wouldn't say anything. He didn't say why he broke into the warehouse, nor how he got in.

The police speculated that he was trying to protect an accomplice, who was likely a mole inside the bank; otherwise, there was no explanation. A week later, Zhou Du died in custody, never having been tried and convicted, and the case was dropped.

The girl moved the coffee in front of her away and asked, "How did he die? Was he silenced?"

Man: "I don't know about that. I can't rule out the possibility of him being silenced. But as far as I know, the forensic examination showed that he died of heart failure. It is said that this person's health was not good to begin with.

Among the documented cases of cryptids in history, many were frail and died young.”

Girl: "You just said that the hidden moth is immortal, but now it seems that the hidden moth has a short life."

Man: "I've said so much, have you thought of anything?"

The girl's eyes widened as she said, "Three days ago or last night, a new hidden moth appeared!"

**
(End of this chapter)