Episode 9 Chapter 87 Mirror
That night I temporarily stayed at my grandma's house. There was a gloomy mirror in her house, hanging in the center of their main hall. I was shocked when I saw it for the first time, wondering what kind of weird custom it was to hang a mirror in the center. And because it was dark at the time, even the mirror looked gloomy. I remember that in my hometown, they all hung pictures of Guanyin, the God of Longevity and so on. It was the first time I saw a mirror.
I was arranged to sleep upstairs in her house because the old lady's house was an old wooden structure. The stairs, corridors, porches and other things were all made of wood. Because of its age, there would be a "creaking " sound when walking on it. It was okay if there was someone next to you, but it sounded creepy when you were alone.
But after I fell asleep, I felt quite soundly. It might be because the thing in my body was driven away, or it might be because I moved to a new place. In short, this was the first time since the incident with Old Man Liu that I slept soundly and peacefully without having any dreams or waking up in the morning. If a person sleeps well, he will feel happy when he wakes up in the morning.
Both the old lady and Master Nan were very enthusiastic. After I got up, I was wondering why it was so quiet all night and there were no calls or messages on my phone. When I took it out to look at it, I realized that it had been turned off at some point. I thought it was because it ran out of battery, but I tried to press the power button and it turned on by itself. After it turned on, text messages came one after another, all of which were call reminders. There were no less than twenty of them, and they were all from the same number, Dan Rankin.
Only then did I realize that I must have made him very anxious, because the time displayed on the call reminder basically continued from the time I left to just now. Sure enough, the phone rang while I was looking at it. It could be someone else but Shan Lanjin. So I picked up the phone. Shan Lanjin didn't seem angry at all, and his voice was still flat. He asked me where I was and whether I had encountered any danger.
When Shan Lanjin asked this, I found it difficult to answer. I told him that it was okay and that I had come down before the fire broke out last night. I was just hesitating whether to tell her that I was with the old lady. As I was speaking, Master Nan came over and told me without saying a word to tell the truth and that it was okay.
So I told Shan Lanjin that I was at the old lady's place on Huguo Road, and Shan Lanjin asked me why I came so far. It was difficult to say more on the phone, and Shan Lanjin knew that I was fine, so he didn't ask any more questions. He told me not to go anywhere else, and he would come over with someone right away, and he needed to verify what happened last night with me.
After hanging up the phone, I came downstairs. Master Nan said that he could not meet Shan Lanjin directly, so he had to avoid him. After all, he was still missing, and the matter of forging police documents was not over yet. In fact, I was very curious about how Master Nan escaped the police pursuit and investigation. Master Nan said it was very easy, but he didn't say how easy it was.
After that, Master Nan left first. I found that only the old lady and her daughter-in-law lived in this house. When I asked, the old lady said that her husband had been dead for more than 20 years, and her son also died a few years ago. Only the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were left in the house. Fortunately, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law got along like mother and daughter, otherwise I don’t know how the whole thing would be turned upside down.
I didn't expect that my casual question would turn out like this, so I could only tell the old lady to mourn, but she said that everyone will die, and it doesn't matter if you die early or later. Maybe the old lady has reached such an age that she has become indifferent to life and death, but I can't fully understand what she said.
Grandma's daughter-in-law made breakfast and I ate some. But after all, I was in someone else's house, so I felt a little restrained and uncomfortable talking. Later, Shan Lanjin came over alone. Grandma and her daughter-in-law both greeted Shan Lanjin politely. Shan Lanjin didn't say anything or ask me how I got here. He just said that I was fine. He also said that the concussion on my head needed to be observed and I should go back to the hospital first.
But I felt fine , and my head wasn't dizzy anymore. Shan Lanjin said that even if we didn't go to the hospital, we had to go back first. Besides, so many things happened last night, and I was involved in some of them, so my statement was needed to confirm them. After that, I said goodbye to the old lady and the others. I insisted on not going back to the hospital, and Shan Lanjin couldn't persuade me and went back home.
When we got home, Shan Ranjin asked me what happened to the person who jumped from the building in the hospital last night. I heard him ask this and I said I didn’t know what happened and I wasn’t there at the time. He should ask the hospital staff, why did he ask me? Shan Ranjin tried to ask again, “I know it was a dead person who jumped from the building, but don’t you know?”
I felt that Shan Lanjin must know something, otherwise he wouldn't ask me like a trap, so I asked him directly what he wanted to ask, without beating around the bush. Shan Lanjin finally asked if I had seen Shi Hu last night. So that's what he wanted to ask. I said he came to see me and told me about the man who jumped off the building, and also told me that it was a dead person in the morgue.
Shan Lanjin listened but didn't say anything. Finally, he said to me that I would kill him. I looked at Shan Lanjin in confusion. Shan Lanjin said that Shi Hu had been acting strange recently. He thought that he and I were too close, so some things around me had infected him. Just like last night, someone said that they saw Shi Hu at the scene and witnessed the whole process of jumping off the building. It was as if they knew something like this would happen and were waiting there.
I was shocked to hear this. Master Nan had implicated me and I felt bad about it. Now Shi Hu was also...
As I was saying this, I remembered what Master Nan said about Shi Hu having a handprint on his body, so I was worried. I asked Shan Lanjin if Shi Hu was okay now, and Shan Lanjin said that as long as he stayed away from me like Ma Yipin, these things would naturally disappear. But after hearing Shan Lanjin say this, I told him that he was now in charge of my affairs, so wouldn't he also...
But Shan Lanjin said categorically that he would not. I asked why, but Shan Lanjin just looked at me and said in a very clever way that if he would, these things would have been haunting him a long time ago. I knew that Shan Lanjin was deliberately avoiding the main point and just didn't want to talk about it, so I didn't continue to ask. So Shan Lanjin told me that if I saw Shi Hu again next time, I should pay more attention to him and see if I could see anything strange. It would be better for me not to see him, but according to the current situation, even if I didn't see him, he would come to me, because the things that haunted him would automatically lead him to me.
I secretly sweated for Shi Hu. After Shan Lanjin finished talking about Shi Hu, he talked about what happened last night. He asked me how I knew that the ward I was staying in would catch fire and left early. Shan Lanjin said that I was not alone at the time, right? Someone must have helped me. But I shook my head and said that I did run down by myself. The reason was that I saw something different behind the door of the hospital, and that thing sat on the bed. In addition, Shi Hu came to find me later, so I felt that something was wrong. I always felt that the ward was not safe, so I came down from upstairs. Sure enough, I saw a fire upstairs when I came downstairs. It can be said that my intuition saved my life.
I never mentioned the text message, and Shan Lanjin didn't doubt it. He just questioned why I went to grandma's house without saying anything. Before I came back, he said that Master Nan took me there. He said someone saw Master Nan in the hospital. I saw that Shan Lanjin had guessed it, and I knew that quibbling would only make him more suspicious of the truth of my words, so I admitted, "Indeed, he took me there."
Shan Lanjin didn't say anything else. He just asked me if Master Nan had told me anything. I said no. Shan Lanjin asked again and said really no. I said really no. Shan Lanjin said if it's no, then it's no. Anyway, I had the look of disbelief. Then he said these were all small matters. He came to me specifically because he had something else to tell me, and it was also a more important and difficult matter at the moment.
