"Your uncle died a month later?"
"That's right. The doctor was spot on. He died a month later. I went back to my hometown for the funeral, and when I returned to work, a client placed a huge order with me. My sales shot up, I got a bonus, and I was promoted with a raise. Heh... I had a wife and child—I had a wife and child back then. We'd been married for seven or eight years. She was a good woman. I thought that now I had money, I should treat her better, so I bought her a necklace and some clothes. A few months later, it was Golden Week, so we went on a trip. We went to Yunhai Mountain and stood on the cliff, looking down at the sea of clouds. It was Golden Week, so the place was packed. I don't know what bastard shoved her, but my wife... my wife fell over the railing..."
"I'm sorry for your loss."
"Phew... After my wife died, I was miserable. I couldn't bring myself to do anything at work. Then someone invited me to go into business with him and start a new company selling products as an agent. My daughter started school that year, and I wanted to send her to a good school. Maybe she'd even study abroad someday. The terms he offered were good, so I agreed. I quit my job and started the company with him. At first, things went pretty well thanks to our connections, and then business just kept booming. I'm not bragging, and I'm not just saying that—it really did boom. Whatever we represented would sell out. People in the industry said we were miracle workers: whatever we sold became a hit. Orders from clients and suppliers came pouring in like snowflakes. In just one year, we expanded the company three times. We were thinking of really going all out, and we'd just finalized our plans when he... he got into a car accident. A truck hit him. The car was crushed, and so was he... He died on the spot."
"Mr. Zhang, are you all right?"
"I'm fine. It's just that when I think about it now, I still find it terrifying. He was perfectly fine, then suddenly he was dead. Just like... just like the others before him. It wasn't only my wife. My uncle, too. In that one year, relatives of mine... Sigh... I've lost count of how many condolence envelopes I've given out."
"So, as your career was taking off, people around you kept dying?"
"Yes, exactly! That's why I knew something was wrong! But if you're asking whether it was some kind of paranormal event... all their deaths seemed perfectly normal. I mean, look at my wife. It was crowded that day, so her falling was a perfectly ordinary accident, right? And my uncle was a lifelong smoker who died of lung cancer. That's normal, too, isn't it? And my business partner was in a car accident. There's no need to say more about that—how many people get into car accidents every day? But somehow, I kept running into these things... I can't say it was just me. People around me have kept having things happen to them over the past few years. My... my daughter... just last month..."
"Mr. Zhang, what happened to your daughter?"
"She got food poisoning... and died... She was studying abroad. She went out to eat with her classmates, and then..."
"What happened to her classmates?"
"They were resuscitated. Her classmates were resuscitated, but she... she..."
"Mr. Zhang, based on what you've told us so far, it's entirely possible that these were just coincidences."
"Really? They were coincidences?"
"Have you encountered anything strange? For example, strange sounds, eerie figures, or unusual dreams?"
"No. I started feeling uneasy when my business partner died. I mean, the feeling that people kept dying made me uneasy. I had a feng shui master come take a look, but there was nothing wrong with the feng shui at home or at the office. I even had monks come chant sutras. Look at this—these prayer beads were blessed at Pushi Mountain. My daughter had a set, too, but still... You're not the first people I've gone to. Over the past five years, I've spent quite a bit of money trying to deal with this, but people around me keep dying. The old and the young, people who are sick and people who die in accidents... It's true. There have been so many. At this rate, everyone around me will be dead!"
"Have you done anything unusual before?"
"Huh?"
"Anything that might have provoked ghosts—for example, going somewhere with heavy yin energy, like a cemetery, a crematorium, or a crime scene..."
"I... I've attended funerals. Does arranging my wife's funeral count?"
"According to your theory, this all began when you won the lottery five years ago, right? If you provoked something, it would have had to happen before then."
"Before that... nothing comes to mind. I didn't do anything, but it must have started around then. I'd never won a big prize in the lottery before. And that client! He'd already been planning to buy someone else's product. I spent over half a month chasing him, talking until I was hoarse, and he treated me like a monkey. He showed no intention of placing an order with me at all—I'm sure of it! When I heard he'd placed an order, I couldn't believe it myself. I checked the contract over and over, and I didn't even dare call him to ask, in case there'd been some mistake and he'd cancel as soon as I called."
"Those are the two reasons you think it started then?"
"Yes."
"Can you recall what you did before winning the lottery? Also, did you ever receive an unexpected financial windfall before that?"
"Nothing, really. I've gone over it in my head countless times over the years. Before I won... everything was ordinary. I went to work as usual, met with clients, and was so busy I didn't have time for anything else."
"Did you ever buy anything unusual? Something old, perhaps, or something that made you feel uncomfortable just looking at it?"
"No, nothing like that. I have no idea what could have caused this."
"In that case..."
"Mr. Zhang, when would be convenient for you? We'd like to take a look at your home and office. Have you moved during the past five years?"
"Yes. But I never sold my old place. I rented it out, so you can go take a look if you want."
"Sorry for the trouble. Could you arrange that for us?"
"All right."
June 3, 2010. Analyzing audio file. Audio file 06620100603G.wav.
"..."
"Mushroom, what do you think?"
"There's nothing wrong with it. The recording is perfectly clean. Nothing strange at all."
"So it's not a ghost?"
"It could just be a coincidence. Sometimes you just have bad luck. Nothing you can do about it."
"Can bad luck affect the people around you?"
"Boss, what do you think?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe... he's like me."
"Huh?"
"But you were born that way, Boss, weren't you? This only started for him five years ago. I still think it's a coincidence. He was in his thirties then, and now he's forty. At that age, it's normal for someone in your circle to die."
"Look into the deaths, and check his financial records. Even if it's a coincidence, there should be a limit."
"Got it."
June 7, 2010. The investigation found that 19 people in the client's social circle had died over the past five years. Eight had died of illness, and 11 had died in accidents.
Attachment: List of deaths.
June 13, 2010. Investigated the client's finances and compared the records. Found overlap with the list of deaths: whenever a large sum of money came in, someone died within two months. The frequency increased each year.
Attachment: Financial statements and comparison report.
June 15, 2010. Visited the client's company and residence. Audio file 06620100615.wav.
"This is the place."
"The house is very clean."
"Yeah. I've had good tenants."
"I mean clean as in there aren't any ghosts."
"Ah... A few of the people I hired before said the same thing."
"Let's go see where you live now."