Ghost Fetus on New Year's Day (1)

"Some are at work, some don't know. Either way, not a single one of them has ever seen anyone from the agency." The fat man and the skinny man sighed together.

"I do have a lead," I told the two brothers.

"Ah!" they cried in unison, surprised and doubtful.

"Didn't we take some files from them? They have the names and contact details of their clients, as well as the names of people they'd dealt with. You can start with them." I opened the files and flipped to the first page. Fang Guoying's contact information was clearly printed at the top.

"Great!" The fat man jumped up happily, making the floor shake.

"Call him, hurry!" the skinny man urged.

"Wait, this man is already dead." I hurriedly stopped them.

All three of them looked at me. The fat man and the skinny man gazed at me resentfully, while Guo Yujie looked at me as though I were an idiot.

"But he has a wife," I continued. "His wife should know those people."

"Have someone at the police station look into it," the skinny man instructed again. The fat man made the call.

After lunch, the police station called back. The fat man answered, and his face fell as soon as he hung up.

"What is it?" the skinny man asked.

"His wife and daughter both went abroad. They left after he died, and he has no other family," the fat man sighed.

"There has to be someone who isn't dead, right?" I muttered, flipping through the other files.

Case No. 023

Case Codename: Ghost Fetus

Client: Yu Meng

Gender: Female

Age: 27

Occupation: Accountant at Changheng Logistics Co., Ltd.

Marital Status: Married

Address: Room XXX, No. XX, City Garden, Lin'an Road, People's Celebration City

Phone Number: 187XXXXXXXX

Case Details:

March 9, 2004. The client's first visit. Audio file 02320040309.wav.

"Miss Yu, could you describe what happened to you in detail? Online communication is rather limited, and it doesn't allow us to fully understand your situation."

"Mm, I can."

"Please go ahead."

"On New Year's Day this year, my husband and I had planned to celebrate, so we booked a hotel. I told you online—the Junli Hotel, Room 809, one of the special couples' suites the hotel offered for New Year's Day."

"Mm."

"He happened to have to work overtime that day, so I visited both our parents during the day. Then, around dinnertime, I went to the hotel. Before I got there, I called him, but he didn't answer. I called again after arriving, but he still didn't answer. Then I waited for about half an hour before receiving a text from him saying he was in a meeting and would be late, telling me to eat dinner first. The suite included dinner—a candlelit dinner—but I had to eat it alone, on New Year's Day of all days. I was in a bad mood, so I drank a little. I... I may have drunk a bit too much. Afterward, I felt dizzy and muddled."

"Take it easy, Miss Yu."

"Mm... Hah... I heard the sound of the door opening then. The suite had been booked using both our ID cards, and either of our IDs could be used to exchange for a key card at the front desk. I thought he had arrived. I really wasn't clearheaded at the time. It felt like I had just read his text, but it also felt like a long time had passed. I really thought it was him."

"Didn't you see what the person looked like afterward?"

"I don't know. I can't remember now. Anyway, at the time, I thought that person was my husband. I even complained to him and scolded him for making me eat dinner alone. It seemed like he spoke, but maybe he didn't... I can't remember."

"Miss Yu, have some tea and rest for a moment."

"Thank you..."

"Can you continue?"

"Oh, yes. When I came to, it was already the next morning. I was lying in bed alone, and he wasn't there. While I was brushing my teeth and washing my face, my phone rang. It was my husband. I answered, and heard him apologizing on the other end. He said he still had work to do and couldn't come back that day. When he said that, I thought he was apologizing for leaving me alone at the hotel that morning... After that, everything seemed normal. He was busy with work and often worked overtime. It seemed there was some sort of project, but I didn't ask. At the end of last month, I started feeling unwell. It was morning sickness. I bought a pregnancy test, and it showed I was pregnant. Sob..."

"Did you become pregnant on New Year's Day?"

"It could only have been that day! My husband had been working overtime this whole time, including before and after New Year's Day. Judging by the timing, it could only have been New Year's Day! I didn't suspect anything. I just wanted to tell my husband. We had always been preparing to have a child, and now we finally had good news... I even thought it was good news... By coincidence, after working overtime for so long, he suddenly invited me out for dinner and booked a private room. I thought I would take that opportunity to tell him. But he spoke first, giving me a diamond necklace and apologizing. He said he'd neglected me lately, left me feeling ignored, and had even stood me up on New Year's Day... I froze when I heard that. Really, I was completely stunned! My mind went blank. I asked him something, and he thought I was still angry, so he kept apologizing and praising me. He said I was becoming more and more like a good wife. He had stood me up on New Year's Day, yet I had merely refused to answer his calls that night. I answered the next day and didn't make a fuss... I really... I... I don't even know how I got home with him after that..."

"He called you on the night of New Year's Day?"

"That's what he said. I checked the next day, but there was no record on my phone. Still, I... I felt something was very wrong, so I went to the carrier's office and got an itemized bill..."

"What did it show?"

"Eleven calls... That night, between eight and twelve, he called me eleven times."

"You have no memory of them?"

"No. There was no call history on my phone either."

"You said earlier that when you woke up the next day, you received a call. Your phone had been on the whole time?"

"Yes, my phone was on, but there was no call history... I thought that person had done something to it. I really thought I'd been ****. I was shaking all over while holding that call record. The moment I left the carrier's office, I rushed to the hotel. When I saw the front desk, I calmed down a little and asked about New Year's Day. The receptionist told me... The receptionist said that on that day, only I had exchanged for a key card for Room 809."

"The hotel staff should have key cards as well."

"Right, that was what I thought too! I asked them to check the surveillance footage, but there was no one else on it! That day, I was really the only person who entered the room, and the only person who left it. I... I hadn't considered ghosts or anything like that then. Since there was no one on the footage, perhaps the hotel had tampered with it. But I couldn't call the police. How could I report something like this? I didn't have any evidence at all... I had no choice but to swallow the loss. But I couldn't keep the child. I absolutely couldn't."

"You said online that strange things began happening after you decided to get an abortion?"

"My mother fell down the stairs that day. I rushed to see her and couldn't go to the hospital. The next day, every computer at my workplace crashed. All of that day's work had to be redone, everyone worked overtime, and I still couldn't go to the hospital. On the third day, I took leave early in the morning to go to the hospital, but the bus I was on ran into someone staging an accident scam and got held up halfway there. I got off and tried to call a taxi, but there wasn't a single empty cab. I walked all the way to the next bus stop and waited for a bus, but every bus was packed full. I couldn't get on at all. It went on like that for three days. On the fourth day... in the early hours of the fourth day, I had a dream."