Replacing the Evil Way

Chapter 21: Confrontation

Recently, Cheng Zesheng had encountered two individuals with the surname “He.” One was He Lu, who always wore a sour expression and complained at the slightest issue. The other was He Wei, lying in the cold morgue; when he would be cremated was uncertain.

However, now facing supernatural events at home and receiving these warning-laden notes, even though Cheng Zesheng had weathered many storms, he couldn’t help but feel a shiver down his spine, his mind buzzing with memories of classic horror films from Japan, South Korea, and Thailand.

“Don’t touch what I bought.” Just a few simple words convey a strong sense of resentment. Cheng Zesheng felt a bit innocent – after all, he bought that box of instant noodles, and he didn’t even eat any!

He had always assumed that the instant noodles were bought by a neighbor he had never met. Now, he had two guesses: either the neighbor was a ghost, or the neighbor was playing tricks.

As a firm materialist and atheist, Cheng Zesheng, without hesitation, believed in the latter. He speculated that perhaps because he didn’t greet the neighbor the first two times he ate their food, the neighbor got angry and decided to scare him. The automatic opening of the fridge door might be due to some programmed setting, and the instant noodles could have been hidden somewhere, taken by someone while he was distracted.

With this thought, Cheng Zesheng suddenly felt that his reasoning was sound. He was quite self-aware that not greeting before eating was indeed his problem. Any conflicts could be resolved through a proper conversation. At worst, he could treat the neighbor and let them order whatever they liked.

He Wei was watching the surveillance footage in his room, expecting electromagnetic signal interference. As anticipated, the note that was placed on the coffee table had disappeared. He rubbed his chin, suspecting that the restless spirit had taken it. What would he do now? Would he continue to be audacious and cause chaos at home, or would he retreat and call it quits?

Knock, knock, a crisp knocking sound came from the door. He Wei didn’t immediately get up to check. This was the bedroom door, and there was no peephole. Opening the door recklessly might expose him to an unknown danger.

Cheng Zesheng cleared his throat and said, “Hello, I’m Cheng Zesheng. Could you please open the door?”

There was no response from the room. Cheng Zesheng continued, “Were you the one who took the instant noodles and fried noodles just now? I apologize for not greeting you earlier and for taking your food without permission. Here’s what we can do: you open the door, and we can have a proper conversation. I’ll apologize to you in person.”

Still, there was only silence in the room.

He Wei kept staring at the door. The knocking had happened just once and then stopped. Five minutes passed. Was the person still at the door, or had they left already?

After waiting for a full five minutes, with the neighbor not making any sound, Cheng Zesheng pressed his ear against the door. After a moment, his brow furrowed. The person was truly not in the room.

With a sense of confusion, he headed downstairs and dialed Huang Zhanwei’s number on his phone.

“Chief Huang, it’s me, Cheng Zesheng. Can you tell me which department my roommate belongs to? Could you please give me their contact number?”

Upon hearing Chief Huang’s response, Cheng Zesheng’s heart sank, and he subconsciously gripped his phone tighter.

“What nonsense are you talking about? Who arranged a roommate for you? Didn’t I tell you that the dormitory was assigned for you alone?”

——

Cheng Zesheng held two hairpins, inserted them into the lock, and began manipulating them. He had learned this technique from his mentor. In the criminal investigation, being adept at a variety of skills was essential. While it might be used to break into criminals’ homes, in his case, it helped him better understand the modus operandi, making it easier to identify suspects’ methods.

Upon confirming that there was indeed no neighbor, Cheng Zesheng breathed a sigh of relief. He had to lean towards his initial assumption, the first one he considered. But Cheng Zesheng wasn’t the type to be easily frightened. As a skilled and capable Vice-Captain of the Criminal Investigation Division at the local police bureau, his first reaction to unusual situations wasn’t to flee but to pragmatically seek solutions.

After ending the call, he stuffed the note into his coat pocket, donned plastic gloves, and retrieved tools from a small box he carried. He equipped himself with tools necessary for bypassing locks, a skill he had mastered. Returning to the “neighbor’s” door, he intended to enter and find out what was really going on.

However, he was unaware that there was only one door separating He Wei and himself. With an emotionless expression, Captain He stared at the door lock. Upon hearing a crisp “click” sound, he quickly twisted the cylindrical knob and re-locked the door.

Cheng Zesheng’s momentary triumph was extinguished as quickly as it had ignited. The door was locked again in an instant, and there was a strong possibility that the suspect was hiding inside.

This news was both nerve-wracking and thrilling. Cheng Zesheng attempted it again, this time holding the doorknob as he attempted to unlock it. But He Wei reacted even faster, pressing his knee against the door and ruthlessly re-locking it.

“…,” Cheng Zesheng stood up, speaking to himself and seemingly to the person inside the room, “If you’re good at scaring people, then have the guts to open the door.”

He Wei crouched down, peering out through the gap in the door. There was nothing outside. He knew he didn’t possess any “yin and yang eyes” to see spirits, so he couldn’t determine whether the person was still outside the door.

As seconds ticked by, He Wei contemplated for a while, eventually overcome by curiosity. His intense desire to understand what was happening got the better of him. He reluctantly twisted the lock, slowly opened the door, and stared at the void of empty air outside.

Meanwhile, Cheng Zesheng was considering whether he should force his way in when, by some miracle, the door opened on its own. There was no suspect at the door. Cheng Zesheng’s initial instinct was that the person might be hiding behind the door. He used the two hairpins he had used to pick the lock, now turned into concealed weapons known as “palm needles,” and slipped them between his fingers.

He gripped the door with one hand, sliding into the room while positioning his right arm in a defensive stance. Unexpectedly, there was no one behind the door. More accurately, there were no signs of habitation in the entire room.

The room’s layout mirrored his own: a bed, a wardrobe, and a desk. Cheng Zesheng didn’t dare to relax just yet. He opened each wardrobe door, checked under the bed, and pulled open the window to examine the outside. He was certain that there were no traces of human activity, intensifying his sense of unease.

Meanwhile, He Wei stood at the door, silently witnessing the supernatural phenomenon unfolding before his eyes. He knew Cheng Zesheng had entered because the wardrobe doors were being opened one by one, the drawers beneath the bed were pulled open, and even the window was pushed open halfway. The sequence of movements felt somewhat familiar, resembling the order in which he conducted his own crime scene investigations.

Cheng Zesheng closed the window. There were no climbing aids on the exterior wall of this bedroom, not even pipes. If someone were to leave through here, they wouldn’t find a foothold.

Rather than believing someone had left, Cheng Zesheng was more inclined to think that he was still inside the house. Perhaps using some mechanism to divert his attention and make him leave the room, before swiftly moving to another hiding place.

He once again surveyed the room, sighing in frustration. He had thought he had gained a good neighbor, but it turned out he had attracted someone who played tricks. Tonight had been quite the ordeal. If he managed to catch the person, they would spend a good ten days to half a month in detention, that was for sure.

Cheng Zesheng closed the door and proceeded to inspect his own room once again. With his small flashlight in hand, he began his examination from the foyer, leaving no corner untouched. By the bathroom sink, Cheng Zesheng picked up a strand of hair. It was brownish in color and had a soft texture, clearly not his own. He immediately placed it in a ziplock bag that he had temporarily repurposed as evidence storage.

Shining the flashlight onto the kitchen’s storage cabinet, an unusual reflection caught his eye. Cheng Zesheng stared at the cabinet handle. It was made of metal, with two symmetrical round sections of tea-colored glass at the bottom. However, one of them… he squinted and leaned in for a closer look, his surprise evident: it was a miniature camera!

This was a new dormitory assigned by the bureau. The fact that there was a hidden camera here made Cheng Zesheng wonder who was monitoring his every move – was it Chief Huang or his father?

The thought of this possibility kindled a burning anger within Cheng Zesheng. He searched the entire house and found a total of five hidden cameras. Using a pointed knife, he expertly removed the camera disguised as glass. The device was no larger than his pinky finger and bore a code, far from being a cheap product on the market. It appeared to be internally developed within their police system.

Cheng Zesheng worked skillfully, dismantling all five cameras and neatly arranging them on the table. He took pictures and sent them to Huang Zhanwei.

Finally emerging from his room, He Wei had lost the signal for the surveillance footage on his computer. He hadn’t expected that a deceased person could be several times shrewder than the living. He managed to locate and dismantle all the discreetly positioned cameras. Even if his current colleagues had come, it would have taken them a lot more effort to find them all. Yet he had accomplished this feat within a short time frame, showcasing impressive skill.

It was now the middle of the night, and Chief Huang, being older, had likely gone to sleep and hadn’t responded to Cheng Zesheng’s messages. Cheng Zesheng then sent the pictures to Xiao Chen from the technical department, asking if the batch of miniature cameras came from their department.

Chen responded: [“? Where are the cameras? Cheng-ge, why did you send me a picture of an empty table?”]

Perplexed, Cheng Zesheng opened the images and indeed saw five black miniature cameras arranged side by side on the table. However, after sending the pictures to Chen, the image showed nothing but an empty coffee table.

Cheng Zesheng was taken aback. He immediately called Chen, setting aside the supernatural events for a moment, and inquired, “Has your forensic team recently distributed a batch of miniature cameras with the prefix ‘SZQ’ in their serial numbers?”

“Huh? Cheng, how did you know? We just received that batch last week! We haven’t even announced it publicly yet.”

“Never mind how I know. Did anyone come to collect them? Did Chief Huang ask you for any?”

Chen quickly replied, “No, this batch is a new product developed internally. We haven’t even tested its performance yet. How could we have distributed it to others?”

The hour and minute hands of the quartz clock aligned, pointing at the number “12,” and the piano chime struck at the exact time.

As the piano chime rang, invisible ripples spread throughout the apartment, as if calm waters were disturbed by a slight breeze, creating ripples.

He Wei stood on the staircase, feeling that something was off. The midnight chime was different from before. Typically, at this hour, he would either be at the bureau or already asleep. This was the first time he had heard the midnight chime, and it wasn’t pleasant. The melody was casual and absentminded, unlike the usual hourly chimes.

Cheng Zesheng also noticed it. The tune was somewhat familiar, and in an instant, he realized that it was the same melody that was on He Wei’s phone! It was the musical notation that Lian Jingyuan had played multiple times, unintentionally leaving a lasting impression on Cheng Zesheng despite his lack of musical talent.

“Cheng-ge, what do you want by calling me so late? It’s in the middle of the night…” Xiao Chen yawned on the other end of the call.

“Wait a moment,” Cheng Zesheng replied as he tiptoed to the quartz clock, lifting the clock face to reveal a USB port on the back. “Xiao Chen, could you come over tomorrow? I need you to take a look at something.”

He Wei suddenly raised his head, staring in the direction of the quartz clock, his eyes widening.

He had heard it.

A deep and distinct male voice, in the eerie stillness of the night, was unusually clear. The clock’s face had been lifted at an angle, as if someone were standing there and examining it. The voice didn’t sound like one muttering to oneself; it was more like a phone call with someone.

“…Cheng Zesheng?”

Cheng Zesheng froze, slowly turning around. There was nothing behind him, but at that moment, his name had been called out by a slightly cold voice.

“Is it Cheng Zesheng? Answer me.”

Cheng Zesheng slowly lowered his phone. This time, not only was there a voice, but he also heard the sound of footsteps drawing nearer, steadily approaching his side.

Warm breath reached his ears with each inhale and exhale. Judging by the clarity of the breathing sounds, the distance between the two was less than ten centimeters.

Cheng Zesheng had never been this nervous before. In the past, he had faced guns pointed at his forehead without losing his composure, even managing to curse casually. But at this moment, his heart felt like it was about to leap out of his chest, and the adrenaline was surging within him. He pinched his wrist hard, forcing himself to stay calm. “Who are you?”

“He Wei.”

Captain He pulled out a chair, sat down, faced the empty space, and adopted the tone of an interrogator. “Tell me, what are you doing in my house?”