Being Targeted by a Female Ghost [Criminal Investigation] - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The First Real Fight…

Before the police knocked on her door and snapped handcuffs onto her wrists, Qiu Chi never imagined she would truly end up in this position.

The interrogation room was small and sparsely furnished. She sat across from two officers, repeatedly denying things she hadn’t done. After several hours, she was exhausted. She began to waver, wondering if she actually had killed someone and simply forgotten it.

Perhaps she had been silent for too long, as the officer called Captain Gu finally stopped the questioning and ordered another officer to lead her out. Her movements were slow, her steps unsteady as she walked out; this was so far from the interrogation scenes she had imagined, and she desperately never wanted to experience it again.

As she passed the doorway, she didn’t notice the person watching her. She didn’t even lift her eyelids as she walked right past them.

Zhang Zhuo watched her expressionlessly, scanning her from head to toe. The woman looked sleepy, or perhaps hungry—exhausted, in any case, but still beautiful. The red dress complemented her skin perfectly; she was like a rose in a white porcelain vase, breathtakingly beautiful without trying.

Zhang Zhuo opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but no sound came out. As a child, she always had a thousand things to say, but now she didn’t even dare to offer a greeting.

She suddenly heard a nearby officer ask the woman, “Are you hungry?”

The woman didn’t speak, only shook her head. The officer asked if she was thirsty; she shook her head again.

Zhang Zhuo stood silently, watching her walk away until she vanished from sight. Only then did she retract her gaze and raise her hand to block Gu Xiao as she stepped out of the room.

Qiu Chi walked slower and slower, clearly trying to buy time. The corridor wasn’t long, yet she took forever to traverse it. Countless thoughts flashed through her mind.

She had no memory of the first two cases the police mentioned, yet she felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity when she saw the photos. She must have been to that place, but the car accident that day had wiped everything clean.

Regardless, she had to go there again. Maybe being there would trigger her memory, or maybe… she could catch the real serial killer herself.

She suddenly stopped in her tracks, her gaze freezing. Could the driver who hit me be the killer?

Maybe they hit her because she witnessed a murder and they wanted to silence her once and for all. Yes. That would explain why she was at the crime scenes and why she got into an accident.

“What’s wrong?” the officer asked.

Qiu Chi snapped back: “Nothing.”

She continued walking. As she passed a corner in the hallway, she spotted a ballpoint pen on a desk. Without hesitation, she lunged for it, grabbed a piece of paper, and bolted.

The officers reacted quickly, chasing her toward the elevator lobby. A crowd of people was separated from her only by a fire door. Before the footsteps reached her, she scribbled a crude, hurried sketch.

A black hole sucked her in instantly. At the same moment, the police burst through the door into the stairwell.

Someone exclaimed: “There’s something on the floor!”

The officer picked up the crumpled paper. Upon closer inspection, it depicted a lopsided building.

“Lancheng Sanatorium?”

Hearing this, Gu Xiao looked at Zhang Zhuo: “You can tell what that is?”

Zhang Zhuo scratched the back of her head: “I mean, it’s a pretty good likeness.”

Gu Xiao and the reporting officer were stunned. Likeness? It was a mess of scribbles!

Gu Xiao gripped the paper and confirmed: “You’re saying she was there one second and gone the next?”

The officer nodded: “Yes.”

“Fine, I get it,” Gu Xiao said. “Keep searching the station. Unless she can actually teleport, she can’t have gone far. She’s probably hiding in a corner.”

As she finished, Zhang Zhuo snatched the paper from her hand and turned to leave.

“Where are you going?” Gu Xiao shouted.

Zhang Zhuo waved the paper: “To catch the suspect.”

Gu Xiao chased after her: “Where are you going to catch her?”

Zhang Zhuo said nonchalantly: “The Lancheng Sanatorium, obviously.”

Qiu Chi tumbled into a patch of bushes. When she crawled out, her hair was full of leaves. As she tidied herself, she looked around. The glowing sign of a building in the distance caught her eye. Her heart leaped with joy as she headed toward it.

It was the early hours of the morning, and the sky was still pitch black. The darkness masked her movements; no one noticed a woman in a red dress sneaking into the inpatient department.

In a stairwell, she found some cleaning supplies. Using a piece of wire from a mop, she picked the lock on her handcuffs. Without time to wonder how she knew how to pick a lock, she hurriedly pulled a janitor’s uniform over her clothes, put on a mask, and left the stairwell.

Since the police hadn’t told her what the witness looked like, she had to go to the nurse’s station to dig for information. She walked past casually, noticing three nurses huddled together chatting, but their voices were too low for her to hear.

The corridor was silent. Not a soul was in sight—only the security cameras at regular intervals, their red lights glowing like eerie eyes.

Qiu Chi decisively stepped into the nurse’s station and, without a word, locked the small side door. The nurses stopped talking and turned to look. They hadn’t recognized her at first because her hat was pulled low, but now, as she looked up, they recognized her even through the mask.

This person was clearly not a janitor.

“Who are you?” one asked immediately.

“You don’t need to know who I am. Just answer my questions,” Qiu Chi said, slowly tightening her grip on a pen she grabbed from the desk. “Who was the person who died in the garden last month?”

The three exchanged glances, looks of total confusion on their faces.

Qiu Chi suddenly slammed her hand on the desk, her voice rising: “Answer me!”

Startled, one of them stammered: “It… it was a patient of ours.”

Qiu Chi asked again: “And who was the nurse with him at the time of the incident?”

The nurses fell silent again, no one speaking.

Qiu Chi nodded, reached out to grab one of the nurses, and pointed the tip of the pen at her eye: “Talk.”

The woman screamed. The other two shrank into the corner, trembling. Qiu Chi covered the woman’s mouth, manually silencing the scream, then turned to the other two and asked coldly: “Was it her?”

They shook their heads frantically: “No, no!”

“Was it you?” Qiu Chi asked the second one.

“No, no!”

“Then who was it?” Qiu Chi asked impatiently.

With trembling voices, they gave her a name. Qiu Chi noted it down, but a name wasn’t enough; she needed an address. She demanded their contact information as well.

Once she had the address, Qiu Chi finally released the sobbing nurse, grabbed a pack of tissues from the desk, and stuffed it in her pocket. She scanned the room and muttered: “Don’t call the police.”

The nurses huddled together, nodding fervently in agreement.

Qiu Chi turned back into the corridor. She couldn’t teleport with just an address, so she pulled out a tissue and began to draw with the pen, intending to send herself home first.

But she drew several pictures in a row, and nothing happened. She remained standing exactly where she was.

Damn it. The power failed.

Of all times. She sighed and hurried downstairs. Just as she ran out of the building, she saw headlights on the mountain road in the distance. After watching for a moment, she was certain the car was heading for the sanatorium.

She hid in the shadows. Half an hour later, the car pulled up outside the main gate. Under the streetlights, she recognized the detective as soon as she got out of the car.

Her again.

Zhang Zhuo didn’t notice she was being watched. She hurried to the gate and woke the dozing guard. Pressing her ID against the window, she said quickly: “Police. Open up.”

The guard jolted awake and opened the gate, asking what was wrong. Zhang Zhuo didn’t answer, asking as she walked: “Has anyone come by before me?”

“No, who would come here at this hour?” the guard said.

Zhang Zhuo looked around, her gaze suddenly fixing on a spot in the distance. The guard followed her eyes: “What is it?”

Again, no answer. Zhang Zhuo just threw back, “You don’t need to follow,” and sped toward the inpatient building.

The guard turned around, confused. As he passed the spot Zhang Zhuo had been looking at, he scanned it again but found nothing. However, the police presence made him uneasy; he couldn’t help but think of the patient who died last month and the killer who was still at large.

It was time for his patrol anyway, so he took out his flashlight and walked slowly over. The beam swept across the bushes—no one—then through the trees, where the silent trunks stood like soldiers in a row. He shook the light, seeing nothing unusual, then turned and headed deeper into the garden.

He didn’t know that Qiu Chi was standing behind a tree just half a meter away from him.

Once the guard was gone, she breathed a sigh of relief and tried to draw on the paper again in the dark, desperate to get away. But after drawing one after another, she remained rooted to the spot. In frustration, she gave up.

Inside the building, the nurses were stammering and unable to speak. Zhang Zhuo didn’t push them; she sat at the computer and pulled up the surveillance footage. After seeing the footage from the nurse’s station, she understood why they were so terrified.

She hurried into the hallways, finding no notes and no sign of Qiu Chi. Stepping out of the building, she checked the time, her brow furrowing. Even if Qiu Chi could fly, she shouldn’t have been able to get here so quickly.

She turned to the main gate. Only one car was parked there—hers. There were no others. Gu Xiao’s words flashed through her mind, but she shook her head, dismissing the thought.

She’s not a ghost. Teleportation is impossible.

Just then, the patrolling guard shouted. Zhang Zhuo ran over to find him pointing at a patch of grass, eyes wide.

“Officer, look! Is this a footprint?”

Zhang Zhuo took the flashlight and leaned in. Her frown deepened. Can she actually teleport?

As dawn approached, Zhang Zhuo returned to her car. She didn’t turn on the lights or start the engine; she just sat there.

A strange noise suddenly came from the backseat. She looked into the rearview mirror, and for a split second, their eyes met. She froze.

That brief hesitation gave Qiu Chi the opening she needed. She looped a makeshift rope made from twisted clothing around Zhang Zhuo’s neck.

The rope tightened, cutting off her breath. Zhang Zhuo’s eyes widened as she instinctively lunged backward. The lack of oxygen made her mind go blank; she forgot to struggle, staring wide-eyed at the person in the mirror.

Qiu Chi was wearing a mask, so her expression was hidden, but judging by her crinkled eyes, Zhang Zhuo thought she was smiling.

Smiling?

Zhang Zhuo gritted her teeth, reached up to grab the tightening fabric, and yanked downward with all her might.

Qiu Chi nimbly wrapped the fabric around her hands to pull even tighter, then braced her feet against the seat and leaned back with her whole body weight.

Zhang Zhuo was pinned against the seat. Along with the pain, a wave of intense suffocation crashed over her. Along with it came an uncontrollable surge of rage.

Determined, she started the car with one hand and slammed the gas pedal. The car roared forward. At the peak of its speed, she suddenly slammed on the brakes. Feeling the grip on her neck loosen slightly, she jerked the handbrake and unbuckled her seatbelt. As she turned around, she caught Qiu Chi, who had been thrown forward by the inertia.

Qiu Chi was half-standing, half-lying across the middle of the car seats, the panic in her eyes not yet faded. Zhang Zhuo ripped the fabric from her shoulder, quickly looped it around Qiu Chi’s neck, pushed her back into the rear seat, and scrambled in after her.

The sequence of events was so sudden that Qiu Chi didn’t have time to react before she was pinned against the seat.

“You actually…” Zhang Zhuo’s voice was full of disbelief, “…tried to strangle me?”

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