Number 023—New Year's Day Ghost Fetus (6)

"According to the information we found, your wife's suicide was reported in the newspapers at the time. Many witnesses at the scene saw and heard it—the ghost fetus cried and crawled out of her stomach."

"..."

"Mr. Zhou?"

"Yes, I... I saw it too... When Yinan jumped, her clothes flew open and she landed on her stomach. Her whole belly split open like a watermelon. Red... The ground was covered in red... I... I heard a child crying then... It was faint, but close. It was obviously crying, but I don't know why, I thought of Yinan talking about a child laughing. Something was moving in that pool of blood. I couldn't control myself. I kept thinking, Don't look, whatever you do, don't look, but I still looked. That child... a full-term child, crawled out of Yinan's stomach..."

"Did anyone touch the ghost fetus?"

"No. Everyone was terrified. They were screaming and running; some were so scared their legs gave out. Me too... I didn't dare go over... It was cold that day. My whole body felt frozen stiff. The ambulance came, then the police. An officer came to talk to my mother and me, and only then did I look away. When I looked at Yinan again... the child was gone."

"We found that in the reports as well. After discussing it, many people believed it was a mass hallucination."

"It wasn't a hallucination. It definitely wasn't. I got into the police car and sat pressed against my mother, both of us shaking. I remember that crying perfectly. I definitely heard it, and I saw Yinan's stomach... During that time, lots of people said Yinan had gone crazy, that my mother and I had lost our minds too. They said there had never been any pregnancy, that we were making up nonsense about some ghost fetus... But it was all real!"

"We believe you really did encounter a paranormal event, and that it really was a ghost fetus."

"Mm..."

"After your wife died, did anything else strange happen?"

"No. Hah... Nothing happened after that."

"Have you been back to People's Celebration City?"

"Ha, how could I ever go back there?"

"And you haven't had any contact with the Junli Hotel where you stayed?"

"Hm? Did... did something happen at that hotel again? So it really was that hotel's problem!"

"We simply think it is a good lead to investigate."

"I never contacted that hotel again. Yinan was dead. It should have ended there."

Wei Yinan, confirmed as one of the victims. The incident occurred in 2002; the root cause is presumed to predate this.

April 28, 2004. Contacted Pan Ping, boyfriend of the third deceased, Shi Wenshan. Audio file 02320040428.wav.

"Yes, we checked into the Junli Hotel on New Year's Day in 2001. We wanted to watch the New Year's fireworks. A lot of people booked suites there to watch the fireworks and celebrate New Year's. A friend had stayed there the year before and recommended it to us. I was planning to propose to Shanshan that day."

"What happened that day?"

"I can't really explain it... We watched the fireworks, and after midnight, I proposed to Shanshan. I held the engagement ring out to her. She was so happy. She put it on and hugged me, kissing me. I... I didn't notice at first. Later, she was happily admiring the wedding ring, and that was when I felt something was wrong. That ring... I didn't really know much about it. I just listened to the saleswoman's introduction, and my sister helped me pick it out. I didn't understand the differences between rings. But I remembered that the ring I bought was round, and the diamond was round. The one Shanshan had on her hand was square. The diamond wasn't very big, and Shanshan quickly pulled her hand back... She was excited and kept talking to me. Before we knew it, we had fallen asleep. That night, I dreamed that Shanshan's hand was waving in front of me, that ring swinging before my eyes, along with a very loud noise. I couldn't make it out, but it was loud. When I woke in the morning, I was still groggy and exhausted. I found the space beside the bed empty. Shanshan... Shanshan and all her things were gone."

"Did you look for Miss Shi afterward?"

"Of course! Of course I did! I thought she had gone to breakfast first, so I went to the hotel restaurant. She wasn't there. Then I asked a hotel employee. He helped me ask the restaurant and then the front desk. Then the front desk... the woman there looked at me with this strange expression and told me Shanshan had left the hotel at around three in the morning. The hotel had even called a taxi for her. I was completely baffled. Why would she leave at three in the morning for no reason? I thought maybe Shanshan was feeling unwell, so I asked the front desk again, but they ignored me. I went to Shanshan's house. Her parents looked at me strangely too, and they even told me to get lost. I really didn't know what had happened..."

"You never saw Miss Shi?"

"No, I didn't see her. For the next two weeks, she didn't go to work, answer her phone, or leave the house. I went over several times. Her parents were acting strangely, saying things I couldn't understand."

"What did they say?"

"They said I was an animal. Heh... I really didn't know what had happened then..."

"Mr. Pan, as far as we know, you kept looking for Miss Shi for over a month."

"Mm, yes. For over a month. Her parents eventually called the police. Even the neighbors looked at me like I was some kind of hooligan. After the police came, Shanshan finally agreed to see me once. She didn't say anything. She threw the ring at me and went back into her room. I held the ring, and my heart felt hollow. That police officer seemed to say a lot, but none of it registered. My sister picked me up and took me home, and she said a lot too... In the end, she asked what I was holding. I opened my hand, and it was that ring. My sister asked where it had come from. I said it was the wedding ring. She recognized it. It wasn't the one she had picked out... She thought the jewelry store had made a mistake. It looked like my marriage to Shanshan was off, so she wanted to return the ring. She handled all that. I was completely out of it during that time. One day, she came home from work and suddenly pulled me over to sit facing her. Then she put a ring on the coffee table. It was the wedding ring I had bought. My sister hadn't returned the ring. The square one had disappeared somewhere. Then, the day before, hotel staff had been cleaning and found the ring I bought beneath the carpet in a corner. When I booked the room, I told them I was proposing and asked them to prepare flowers and things like that... The call came to our home, and my sister answered it. At first, she thought there had been some mistake, but when she went to the hotel, it really was the ring I had bought..."

"They found the ring under the carpet?"

"Yes, under the carpet. That was why it took so long to find."

"In other words, there were two rings."

"Yes, there were two rings. I'm certain that before I gave it to Shanshan, I had never touched that ring, and neither had anyone else. But the ring in the box had been switched, and my ring ended up in such a hidden place... My sister and I thought it was strange, but we couldn't figure it out. But afterward, afterward I got a call. It was Shanshan's father. He said Shanshan was pregnant."

"That wasn't your child, was it?"

"Mm, it wasn't mine. The two of us had never... We were going to wait until after we got married... But she was pregnant. I... I was furious at first. I thought Shanshan had betrayed me. I hung up and prepared to sell both rings. I didn't want to think about Shanshan anymore. Sell the rings and start a new life, but... But that night, I saw the news... Shanshan... Shanshan killed herself..."