035 - Death of the Wild Cat (1)

The skinny guy was so happy he could have cried upon getting the name. Even the fat guy let out a long sigh, grinning from ear to ear. They immediately called Xiao Gu. The skinny guy even magnanimously waved his hand, "No need to look for Duan Shishi anymore!"

As a result, when Xiao Gu entered the name into the database, dozens of pages of results popped up.

There were 938 people named Ye Qing in Minqing City and 471 named Liu Miao. And we didn't even know if these "Ye Qing" people were locals. If we looked nationwide, each of these names had over twenty thousand people. Even filtering by age wouldn't significantly reduce the numbers.

The skinny guy's brief joy evaporated, and he started pulling at his hair again. The fat guy also wore a worried frown.

I remembered the "New Year's Day Ghost Fetus" incident, when Qingye had to screen a list of seven thousand people. I couldn't help but feel contempt for these two, thinking about how dedicated Qingye's members were! Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck me, and I slapped my forehead.

Junli Hotel!

Didn't Qingye's people register at the Junli Hotel? They even booked room 809 for several years!

I quickly told the skinny guy and the fat guy about this.

"Why didn't you say so earlier!" the skinny guy shouted excitedly.

"I just didn't think of it until now," I spread my hands.

The skinny guy and the fat guy regained their drive.

While they had a lead, Guo Yujie and I were in a stalemate. Old Man Wang was being stubborn, refusing to budge. He wouldn't agree to the demolition unless he saw his wife, which was making things incredibly difficult for us. Guo Yujie went to contact Old Man Wang's daughter. I requested permission from my old leader and found two psychologists registered with the government. One specialized in post-disaster psychological intervention, and the other worked with the police department to provide psychological treatment for officers and victims. After I explained Old Man Wang's situation, they both agreed to cooperate with our demolition office. However, they needed to disguise their identities, which would be different from regular psychological treatment and required detailed planning. I couldn't help with the professional aspects.

With nothing else to do in the afternoon, I took out Qingye's files.

Case Number: 035

Case Alias: The Death of the Wild Cat

Client(s): Su Zhuoqin, Fei Wen

Gender: Male

Age: 27, 33

Occupation: Laborer

Family Relationship: Parents

Contact Address: Room XXX, Building XXX, Fuchuan Third Village, Minqing City

Contact Number: 187XXXXXXXX, 188XXXXXXXX

Case Description:

April 2, 2006: Clients visited for the first time. Audio file 03520060402.wav.

"We'd like to ask you to find our friend."

"He's also our roommate."

"Yes, the three of us share a place. His name is Kong Rongde. Here's his photo and ID."

"Didn't you report him missing to the police?"

"We did, but the police have been looking for a while and haven't found him. And... and his disappearance is very strange."

"Please explain the situation in detail."

"Okay, okay."

"..."

"Well, I'll tell you. We haven't seen him since last month."

"The 11th of last month."

"Yes, the 11th of last month. He works as a cashier at the supermarket. He was on the morning shift that day, from about seven in the morning until three or four in the afternoon. The two of us are a chef and a delivery driver, so we leave for work earlier than him. He was still asleep when we left in the morning. By the time we got back, he still wasn't home. We called his phone, and it was at home. The supermarket called him several times, saying he hadn't come to work."

"We waited a few more days, and he still didn't come back, so we reported him missing."

"So, Mr. Kong has been missing for less than a month?"

"It hasn't been long, but this is really strange."

"Exactly. He doesn't have many friends here. His hometown is in the countryside, and his parents wanted him to farm. He didn't want to, so he had a falling out with them and ran away. He wouldn't go back."

"Besides us, he really doesn't have any friends. His relationship with his colleagues at the supermarket is also just average."

"When you say 'strange,' are you referring to Mr. Kong's disappearance itself? If I may be blunt, we are a supernatural investigation agency, and what you've described doesn't seem to have anything to do with the 'supernatural'."

"..."

"Mr. Su? Mr. Fei?"

"Grrr... it's not... not entirely unrelated..."

"..."

"Then, could you elaborate?"

"This... the three of us kept several cats, and we also fed stray cats."

"Oh."

"Those cats have been acting strangely since Kong Rongde disappeared. How to put it... they've become very aggressive, started fighting. They used to be kept in cages, but now they escape and make a mess of the house."

"One more thing. On the 11th, I received a call from Kong Rongde. He called around noon, but didn't say anything. I just heard... I heard cats meowing all over the house, like cats fighting, fighting really intensely."

"When we got home that evening, there was a huge pool of blood in the house. The cats also had large patches of blood on their mouths and bodies. We..."

"When you two reported this to the police, didn't you mention this?"

"We did! The police investigated, but the blood wasn't Kong Rongde's, it was the cats'!"

"If they were fighting that hard, some cats must have died, right?"

"Ah..."

"Mhm, mhm... Yes, mhm, some cats died. We... we just threw them away. We didn't think much of it at the time, so we threw them away."

"'Didn't think much of it at the time'? So, what are you thinking now?"

"Ah? This... we..."

"Uh... this matter..."

"Are you two hiding something? If you don't tell us the details, it will be difficult for us to find any results."

"Can you turn off the recording?"

"Recording is one of our investigation methods. This is also to protect both of our rights and interests. We hope you understand. The services our agency provides are quite specialized and can sometimes involve many parties. Without recordings as evidence, our agency could get into trouble."

"This..."

"What trouble could you get into? We're just asking you to find someone!"

"But Mr. Kong's disappearance is not normal, and you two have already reported it to the police. The police are investigating, which overlaps with our work. To avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings, it's better to have a recording as evidence, right?"

"This is sophistry! Fei Wen, let's go!"

"Okay."

April 2, 2006. Analyzing client recording. Audio file 03520060402G.wav.

"We'd like to ask you to find our friend... also our roommate..."

click!

"Did you hear anything?"

"So noisy, so many cat meows."

"Cat meows?"

"Yeah, so many cat meows, it's giving me a headache."

click!

"...Yes, the three of us are roommates. His name is Kong Rongde..."

"The cat meowing hasn't stopped. Haaah... This is really troublesome this time."

"Boss, did you hear it too?"

"Mhm. There are a lot of cats following those two."

"Could it be..."

"What is it?"

"A cat-abusing pervert."

"Huh?"

"Yes."

"Boss, were those cats... suffering?"

"Mhm."

"Then, was that Kong Rongde killed by the ghosts of the cats?"

"I don't know about that. But since there was a first, there will be a second."

"You mean, those two people..."

"They'll probably be back before long."

"Mushroom, did you notice anything unusual? Anything besides the cat meows?"