June 24, 2003, contact with Hu Jie. Audio file 02020030624.wav.
"Hello, Mr. Hu."
"..."
"Mr. Hu?"
"You... really have a way to help?"
"Yes. We can see the yin energy around you right now. You must have encountered a ghost, and been in contact with it for quite a while."
"..."
"Could you tell us what happened? We've already heard from your two classmates, Wu Xue and Miss Hong Xiao'ai, about what happened on the highway that day, and we've seen the footage. At the time, the woman you encountered, Ms. Tao, was still alive. And the thing your car hit wasn't a person. It was just a tire."
"I know... I know... Sigh... I was driving that day, and we were telling ghost stories... I've never been afraid of that stuff. I'm not even scared of horror movies. I didn't believe in it. I'd never encountered anything supernatural. I didn't believe in any of it... That day, when I was driving, I was only worried that I might have hit someone. If I'd killed someone... pedestrians aren't allowed on the highway. No one should've been walking there. If something had happened, I might not have been held responsible in the end, but killing someone would still have caused a lot of trouble. That's what I was afraid of! At the time, while I was driving and for several days afterward, that was all I was afraid of!"
"Mm."
"Sigh... When I saw the newspaper, I was terrified. I even considered the worst-case scenario—whether I should turn myself in or something. I watched the footage over and over, and went over everything in my head again and again. I was completely sure I hadn't hit anyone. Tong Ranran... Tong Ranran kept screaming and shouting. After that, she was acting crazy,