Netherworld Investigator

I looked out towards the source of the voice and saw two female university students there. One of them was slightly chubby, and the other one was skinny. The one who spoke was the skinny one. She was still pouting and tears kept streaming from her eyes.

Huang Xiaotao approached them and asked, “Do you know the deceased?”

The skinny girl cried even harder when she heard the question.

“Of course she does,” explained the chubby girl. “Fangfang has been dating Zhang Kai for two years!”

The skinny girl was extremely sorrowful, she looked as if she couldn’t keep her composure any longer, so Xiaotao ordered someone to get a chair for the girl to sit on and calm herself down. The girl refused to sit, though, so we waited until she finally stopped crying.

“When was the last time you saw the deceased?” Xiaotao asked.

“We all hung out together last night,” said the skinny girl. Soon, tears were rolling down her cheeks again. “But I know for sure that what killed him was a ghost!”

And so, she began to relate the events of last night—

The girl was called Fangfang, her chubby friend was called Tiantian, and the deceased was called Zhang Kai. There was another guy too, called Deng Chao. The four of them were a tight-knit group of friends who always hung out together.

Recently, Deng Chao won a scholarship from the college, so he invited the other three to a big celebratory dinner. Everyone drank alcohol during the meal and the conversation turned quite rowdy. For some reason or another, they started talking about the legendary haunted abandoned building on campus.

According to the legends, a popular college girl had died there ten years ago. Her body was cut up into pieces and hidden in a piano there. From then on, during the quietest hours of the night you could always hear bone-chilling piano music playing in the building.

When listened carefully, those who were familiar with classical music realized that it was Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata – a piano sonata that the popular girl loved to play the most![1]

Once, there was a security guard who went into the building with a flashlight to investigate the source of the piano music. But minutes later his piercing scream rang through almost half the campus, and after that, he lost his mind and would only mutter the words, “A ghost is playing the piano, a ghost is playing the piano.”

Soon enough, the university found some random excuse to seal off and abandon the building, although it was an open secret that it was actually abandoned because it was haunted.

As the common saying went, men would get more courageous with wine in their bellies. When Zhang Kai and Deng Chao got drunk last night, they suddenly made a bet between themselves that as long as Deng Chao dared to go to the legendary haunted abandoned building, Zhang Kai would give him five thousand yuan.

And so, the four of them ventured into the old building together. They even found the exact piano that was said to have hidden pieces of the dead girl’s body in a music room. Deng Chao proudly demanded Zhang Kai the money that he promised, but Zhang Kai refused, saying that it would only count if Deng Chao spent one whole night there.

Deng Chao had always been a hotheaded and stubborn guy, so he agreed to Zhang Kai’s terms despite protestations from the girls. Nothing the girls said could change his mind, so they eventually had to leave him there alone.

But the minute they stepped out of the music room, that terrifying music started to play – it was indeed Moonlight Sonata! They ran straight back into the music room and saw a ghost of a long-haired woman sitting on the piano bench playing the piano, while Deng Chao was standing right beside the piano with a blank expression on his face. Zhang Kai tried to rush to Deng Chao to help him, but he was prevented from reaching his friend because something had slashed his arms!

It turned out that the room was filled with countless piano wires, dancing in the pale moonlight as if they were the strands of hair of the ghost!

Once the last note of the sonata was played, Deng Chao’s body suddenly trembled, and after that his head fell off his neck and rolled across the floor. The three was so shocked and scared they almost flew out of the building!

The two girls were so petrified by they’d seen that they went straight back to their room and huddled together under the blanket that whole night. Until this morning when they were about to lodge a police report of the incident, they heard that a body was found on campus.

Initially, they assumed that it was Deng Chao’s body, but to their horror, it was Zhang Kai instead who was found dead hanging from a tree!

Fangfang was so affected by this discovery that she almost collapsed, but then when she saw how I discovered palm prints that seemed to belong to a woman on Zhang Kai’s body, she became convinced that it was that ghost who had forced Zhang Kai to commit suicide. She had heard from her senior once that anyone who interfered with the ghost’s performance of Moonlight Sonata would rouse her ire and always come to a horrifying end!

Fangfang paused for a few seconds, then continued saying, “First it was Deng Chao, and then Zhang Kai followed him to the grave. Next, I’m sure she’d come for me and Tiantian too! There’s no escape! There’s no escape…” And then she wept again while Tiantian patted her back and consoled her.

We were all in shock and speechless. This simple case of suicide had turned out to be such a mysterious and complex case with such a harrowing tale in the background.

“Are you sure you saw that ghost cutting off your friend’s head with your own eyes?” Huang Xiaotao asked.

“Yes!” answered Fangfang, firmly nodding her head.

“Do you think Deng Chao’s body is still in that abandoned building?”

“Yes, it should still be there!”

“Song Yang,” said Huang Xiaotao, suddenly turning to me, “let’s go search that place.”

“Can I go too?” asked Dali.

“Who are you?” Huang Xiaotao asked bluntly.

“M-My name’s Wang Dali. Um… I’m Song Yang’s...”

“Assistant!” I finished his sentence, poking him with my elbow.

“Yes, that’s right!” said Dali. “I’m his assistant! He never goes anywhere without me! I can’t leave his sight for a second, that’s how much he needs me!” 

I couldn’t believe how naturally self-aggrandizing lies came to this idiot friend of mine. I secretly hoped that Huang Xiaotao didn’t take Dali’s word the wrong way and think that we’re a gay couple.

“Oh, okay,” said Huang Xiaotao, “You can come too, then. But both of you must remember that if you want to work on this case, you must always abide by my rules!”

“Okay,” I said, nodding. “What are the rules?”

“Three rules,” Huang Xiaotao began. “Firstly, before the case is solved, you are not allowed to tell anyone that you are working on it. Secondly, you are not allowed to disclose any information about our progress to anyone, not even to another police officer. And lastly, you are not allowed to conceal any information or clues regarding this case from me! Understood?”

“Yes, sir!” replied the idiot Wang Dali, mimicking the police officers in Hong Kong police dramas.

Initially, I had the impression that this woman was rather bossy. But when I considered it from her perspective, it did make sense to act this way. After all, the both of us were civilians who butted into the case suddenly, and she was the responsible officer for this case. If any problems turned up, she would have to shoulder all the blame.

In any case, being able to participate in a criminal investigation excited me to no end. Although I had solid theoretical knowledge both through Grandpa’s training and my own reading, I never had any opportunity to practice them, so I wasn’t about to waste this chance.

Huang Xiaotao called for a quick meeting with a few of her officers and then took official statements from the two girls. Meanwhile, I decided to take another good look at the dead body.

Dali, on the other hand, didn’t know anyone else there, so he followed my every step like a loyal canine companion.

I’d never seen Dali stopped talking for more than a few seconds when he’s not sleeping, so even when I was busy working, tapping gently on the deceased’s ribs while simultaneously putting my ear on the deceased’s chest and trying to listen through the body bag, he was blabbering on right there beside me. Did I think that we should get help from another friend? Would we get free lunch from the police now that we’re working with them? And, of course, was Huang Xiaotao single? It amazed me how much he could talk without ever saying anything of substance.

I glared at him and zipped my fingers across my mouth, signaling him to shut up. Thankfully, he got the message and co-operated.

I kept tapping on the dead body continuously with my fingers and listening intently at the sound produced in the belly. After that, I turned the body over and repeated the process, this time tapping the spine.

“W-What are you checking for, dude?” Dali asked nervously. “His heartbeat?”

“I just heard him say, ‘Help me avenge my death…’ Wanna hear?”

“No, no, no, no, never mind!” said Dali, waving his hands frantically. “I’ll leave that to you!”

What I was actually doing was a secret technique of the Song family that I learnt from the book Chronicles of Grand Magistrates. It was called ‘organ echolocation’, and it involved tapping the ribs and spine of the deceased and listening to the echoing sound produced in the belly. Similar to the echolocation used by bats, this echoing sound produced in the belly would provide the priceless information about the condition and position of the internal organs in the deceased’s body, which was infinitely helpful when solving a case.

Judging by the sound produced, the time of death was about seven to eight hours ago; there were signs of contraction in the lungs, and tears in the spinal nerves. The cause of death was asphyxiation. I knew all of this, of course, I just wanted to verify it one more time. Grandpa had always emphasized the importance of seeing everything with my own eyes and hearing everything with my own ears before coming to a conclusion. Only then could I become a good Traditional Coroner.

Once I was done with that, I opened the body bag and examined the right hand of the deceased. I noticed earlier that there was a slight cut wound on the back of the deceased’s right hand. There was even a trace of glue on the cut, possibly left over by a band-aid. Most likely that band aid had been removed by Dr. Qin.

The first time I saw it, I didn’t observe it very closely. But now that I re-examine it, I realized that the cut had been caused by a sharp object. Could it really be the piano wire that the two girls talked about?

I placed the hand right in front of my eyes. Then I closed my eyes for a few seconds and then reopened them, this time adjusting to Cave Vision to examine the cut as thoroughly and as closely as possible.

I’d forgotten that Dali was right beside me and saw the whole process, and he was so startled he fell on his ass.

“Dude!” he exclaimed. “What’s wrong with your eyes? I think I saw a flash of red light in your eyes! Are you tired? Should I go get you some eye drops?”

“Go away,” I said, chuckling. “Stop bothering me.”

I then observed the hand even more closely, and everything on the back of the deceased’s hand rapidly got magnified to a degree where I could clearly see each of his pores and the details of the gash of the tiny cut wound. I saw then that the cut was filled with tiny particles, which looked rusty red on closer inspection.

Now it was clear that what caused the wound was probably made of metal; and if it was indeed caused by a piano wire, then it made sense that it would leave rust particles on the wound.

But what puzzled me was the depth of the wound. It was deep on one end and shallow on the other. Judging by the position of the wound on the hand and the direction of the difference in depth, it looked like the deceased was cutting himself!

1. For even better reading experience, why not listen to Moonlight Sonata while you read this chapter and the next few chapters as well?