Chapter Eight: The Past, the Lost, and the Investigator

"I'm... I'm the student you gave the postcard to earlier today."
Chen Qing frowned as he tried to explain to the woman on the line, but the police officer's expression remained strange.
"Of course I remember, but that's not what I'm asking! I want to know who stole the surveillance cameras on campus! You said you were the last one to leave!"
Chen Ci was silent for a long time, the file in his hand wrinkling from his grip.
"I have a lead. Could you come to the school? I'll wait for you at the gate."
"The school? Right now?" There was a pause on the other end before she finally agreed.
"I'll be there in half an hour."
Chen Qing nodded and sat back down at the dining table.
Half an hour later, a figure hurried toward the school gate from the roadside.
Chen Qing looked up, recognizing the weary figure as the one he'd been waiting for.
"Over here." He waved, calling the officer over.
"I hope you really have something for me. I gave up a rare day off for this—I'm exhausted." She sat down quickly, strands of hair disheveled around her ears.
"I want you to repeat the details of the case."
She frowned, watching Chen Qing intently.
"I'm serious."
"So am I."
Chen Qing looked at her and placed a drink in front of her. "I wouldn't wait half an hour for the police just for amusement. That's illegal."
She gazed at the young man in silence, then nodded.
"Last night, we received a report—all the cameras in your school were destroyed. According to the footage, you were the last one recorded."
"What did they capture me doing?"
The officer hesitated, her fingers tightening around her drink.
"They caught you on the rooftop, talking animatedly to thin air.
They caught you in the corridor, smearing the wall with blood from your forehead."
"But that can't be real. Otherwise, I wouldn't be sitting here with you. At the very least, we'd be meeting somewhere else."
"This case is bizarre... that's the only reason I gave up my personal time." Jiang Wan put down her drink, tucking her hands into her pockets.
But as she spoke, Chen Qing smiled. "Do you know, in my memory, this isn't why you found me and gave me your number."
"What do you mean?!"
Chen Qing shook his head. "First, the camera blind spots at my school are: thirty meters ahead of the west wall, under the east parking shed, and beneath the camera behind the teaching building."
"What are you getting at?"
"If that really was me, there's no way you'd have seen me."
He pointed to the camera at the gate. "Second: faking surveillance footage is easy, especially for a rather unprofessional security office. Did you analyze the footage you captured?"
Jiang Wan frowned, her hand in her pocket sweating a little.
"Of course we analyzed it! The entire recording is intact and unaltered! It—"
"Even the resolution is the same?" He leaned forward over the table, locking eyes with her.
"Of course it's the same! How could it..." She almost said, "How could it not be," but Chen Qing interrupted her.
"That's exactly the problem! The campus cameras are old—most videos are noisy or low-res. How could those videos be 'perfectly' fine?"
She froze, her expression turning awkward.
"What are you trying to say?"
"The reason you gave me your card wasn't because of a trivial case like this." His face was grave as he looked at Jiang Wan.
"I know you're puzzled." He handed her the file he was holding.
"What's this?" the young woman asked, frowning.
"Vacant houses in this area—places with signs of occupancy but no one coming or going."
"What are you trying to say?" She put down the file, her fingers twitching in her pocket.
"You can pause your recorder for what I'm about to say. Let it be a secret between us—it's a gamble. Do you dare?"
Chen Qing leaned in, smiling as he asked.
"So you've figured it out?"
"I used the same trick on the grade director before."
She took a deep breath and nodded.
"Why?"

Early this morning, someone went missing. You received a report, so you came to find me."
"Is that... so?"
"He died in front of me."
She was stunned.
"He died before my eyes. So when you told me he'd gone missing, I already knew."
"And then?"
"Then, after an afternoon, you all forgot. You forgot why you came, his family forgot why his room was allocated. All evidence of him remains, but everyone will forget him. Like ignoring a blade of grass."
"Why are you telling me this..."
"Because I found there are many others like him. I think their deaths are too pitiful, and since I have some clues, I'd like to do something good for once."
Chen Qing stirred his drink with a smile.
Jiang Wan frowned, staring at the table.
"What about your answer? If you act officially, you probably can't investigate this."
"So you want me to go with you?"
He nodded. "Having a strict officer who cares about students along would be best."
"Heh. You really don't seem like a student."
"What a coincidence," Chen Qing shrugged. "A lot of people have said that—and so do I."
"Your lead?"
Chen Qing pointed behind her—the hospital's entrance was lit up.
"This."
"This?" She smiled. "You're not going to tell me someone hypnotized us, are you?"
"It's really there." Chen Qing repeated, not moving his finger.
"Are you serious?" She stopped smiling.
"Things aren't always as complicated as you think," Chen Qing said, shaking his head. "Ether overdose, for instance, causes short-term memory loss.
It's not that you couldn't imagine it—you just didn't dare believe it."
Jiang Wan was silent a while, seemingly persuaded. "So what did you find?"
"In half an hour, thirty-two ambulances came in, thirty-two left."
"How many people?"
"Seven per ambulance, but only one came out."
She was silent, touching the hard object at her waist.
"Going as a civilian?"
"Of course. Will you take a risk with a kid?" He grinned at her.
"I lost count of how many times I snuck out of the academy!"
The young man smiled, snapping a device into place.
"Shall we go?"
"What did you turn off?"
"A small EMP—just disables recording."
Her face changed, but then she broke into a smile.
"Is that good news?"
"For what we're about to do, it is."
Their conversation was quiet as they crossed the street like any two passersby.
After reaching a corner and waiting a few moments, they circled toward the hospital's back entrance from the opposite side.
"This is a residential area. Over this wall is the hospital."
She glanced at Chen Qing, a little disdainful. "Need my help? Students always brag about climbing walls but end up half-crippled."
He shook his head, braced his arm on the wall, and with his fingertips, flipped himself over.
But as he landed, his brow furrowed slightly.
"Should be fine..."
He was silent for a moment before Jiang Wan had already vaulted over, much faster than him.
"So, where do we start investigating?"

He pointed to the parking garage. "Cameras here have a 270-degree view, virtually no blind spots. We have to take one out from behind to get in."
As he finished speaking, he moved forward through the shadows, set up his device, and returned to Jiang Wan.
"Now I believe you when you said they couldn't have seen you."
She glanced at him but said nothing more.
The two slipped into the hospital garage.
Rows of ambulances were parked neatly. He crept over, pulling open the latch on a door in the dark and slipped inside.
Standing beside the boy was someone watching the shifting shadows in the night—she studied him, thoughts racing.
"What are you looking for?"
The more he examined the objects, the more puzzled he became.
"Opened LEDs, a dozen vials of sedative, two rows of reused needles. Is this a hospital? It must be a joke—the slaughterhouse downstairs from my place is more sanitary."
Jiang Wan's expression changed and she hurried to Chen Qing's side.
"This dosage... Red vials... The bottles just tossed in the ambulance?!"
Chen Qing paused, realizing the bottle in his hand was red.
"Well."
"Maybe you haven't picked the wrong place."
She frowned, though it was too dark to see clearly.
"And now?"
"Keep looking. If it's like before..."
Before Chen Qing could finish, the door outside the garage opened.
Their hearts skipped a beat—they ducked under a cover in the ambulance.
No sooner had they hidden than the garage door opened.
As the light came on and then went out, three minutes passed in uncanny silence.
Jiang Wan signaled with her eyes, but saw Chen Qing staring fixedly at something.
Only when the light went out again did Chen Qing lift the cover and say to Jiang Wan, "Come on, the entrance is by the toolbox."
Before she could react, he was already leading her out of the ambulance.
They moved quickly, bodies pressed to the wall. After a few seconds of searching, Chen Qing twisted a tool and the cabinet door inside slid open.
"You saw it?"
She frowned.
"Yeah, from there I could see the ambulance's rearview mirror." Chen Qing paused. "It's deliberate. The people lying in the ambulances... can watch themselves being taken farther and farther from home through the mirror."
"Lunatics."
"But it's almost artistic," Chen Qing said with a smile, gesturing for her to go first.
Jiang Wan shot him a look but didn't refuse. Her hand at her waist, she quietly pressed a mechanism.
"This place reeks of blood."
He followed her down the steps—over a hundred flights now.
"The smell's getting stronger... Something's wrong. There's a stench of rot too."
She frowned, and her service weapon was no longer hidden.
"Someone's dead." She hadn't finished speaking.
"A lot of people," he said, pointing ahead.
At the end of the staircase, in a domed hall, hundreds of corpses hung in silence.
Their flesh was dried, skin clinging to brittle bone.
They watched, their gaze fixed on those who approached.
Chen Qing froze, feeling a subtle warmth in his pocket.
"This... this is the Backrooms."
He spoke softly, his finger tracing a triangular mark on the rail.
"This is the Backrooms I've been to before."