Chapter 4: Five Questions

The door was tightly shut, and I stood beside the offering table, my forehead unknowingly drenched in cold sweat."Mr. Gao, are you alright? May I continue asking questions?" The voice was cold, lacking warmth, coming from beneath a paper mask. It sounded like a question, but also like a subtle urging."I'm fine, I'm fine, please continue." Something was off. I redirected all my attention to planning an escape route, as for the Hell Show host... no sane person would want to be one."Mr. Gao, the following questions are crucial. I need you to answer them carefully. If your answers fail to satisfy us, you may never leave here." The voice paused, and then, as if emphasizing the gravity of the situation, it picked up a crumpled flyer from the table and added, "Just like the true owner of this card—Xia Chi.""Xia Chi! Xia Qingzhi's brother! So he was killed here!" My heart raced. "Are the police in Jiangcheng useless? How could they not find a missing person?"Xia Qingzhi hadn't lied, but why was there no record of her brother in the household registration? Even her family had no memory of Xia Chi. Too many unanswered questions, no leads."Mr. Gao, please focus on my question." This time, the voice came from the man on my left. They looked similar in size, but their paper masks were clearly different in age and condition."When I was thirteen, I killed my sister because I found her crying too loud, then I dumped her body into the well outside. The next day, when I went to check, her body was gone.Five years later, after a minor argument, I killed my friend and threw his body into the same well. The next day, his body had disappeared as well.Ten years later, after getting drunk, I killed a woman who had become pregnant because of me, and dumped her body in the same well. Again, it vanished the next day.Fifteen years later, after a reprimand from my boss, I killed him and threw his body into the well. The body disappeared the next day.Twenty years later, I grew tired of caring for my disabled mother, so I killed her and dumped her body into the same well.This time, when I went to check, her body didn't disappear. The third day, the fourth day, and every day after that, her body stayed in the well.""Mr. Gao, your first question is: Why didn't my mother's body disappear?""What kind of question is this?" I focused, trying not to miss a single word, but after hearing it, I had no idea how to respond. Their questions didn't seem like a test of skill, but more like a psychological analysis of crime.The speaker's tone was flat, almost emotionless, but it had an unsettling quality that gripped me. It was as if an invisible hand was slowly tightening around my throat in the darkness."Thirty seconds have passed. Please provide your answer."By now, I had no choice but to force myself to reason through the limited clues."Every time you kill and dispose of a body, it mysteriously disappears by the next day. At first, it seems the well might be the issue. But after killing your mother, her body stayed. The only reasonable explanation is that, each time you kill someone and dispose of the body, it's your mother who has been secretly taking care of it for you."After I spoke, I stole a glance at him. His paper mask betrayed no emotion."Now, please listen to the second question." He didn't confirm whether my answer was correct and simply continued."Have you ever heard of snuff films? They're underground films with scenes of extreme torture and killing, known only to a select few. Some say these films are made by the killers themselves, capturing real-life murders.One day, I was drinking with a friend. He told me he had such a film. Curious, and thinking I had the guts to watch it, I expressed my interest.He invited me to a secluded cabin in the mountains. I arrived on time, but he was thirty minutes late.'Sorry, sorry. My third child suddenly got a fever and refused to take medicine.''Ah, kids... I understand.''Haha, let's get started.'He played the film, and it was full of heartbreaking cries and trembling laughter. A child, around ten years old, was tortured by a masked killer for twenty minutes before dying. It was so brutal I couldn't bear to watch it. I turned off the TV halfway and shouted at my friend, 'How can you watch this? You have kids of your own, don't you?'He responded casually, 'Yeah, I have two. So what?'Mr. Gao, your second question is: Do you think the person in the film, me, will walk out of the cabin alive?"Compared to the first, this question had an even more sinister edge."Watching a film together shouldn't cost me my life, right? Though... this film..." I suddenly noticed a detail. The friend said he had two children, but his excuse for being late was that his third child had a fever. If his first and second children were around, where was the third?"His friend was late for thirty minutes, and the child was tortured for twenty minutes before dying. Could it be... that the masked killer was his friend?" I was startled by my own deduction. The more I thought about it, the more chilling it became."Mr. Gao, please pay attention to the time.""I believe the person in the story won't make it out of the cabin alive. His friend likely plans to turn him into the second snuff film."The atmosphere in the room grew heavier. I unbuttoned the first two buttons of my shirt and slid my hand into my pocket, gripping the self-defense tool tightly."Correct. Please listen to the third question.""They were childhood sweethearts, believing they'd grow old together, watching the sunset. But at 35, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Holding the diagnosis, she cried, then laughed, then cried again. She didn't smoke, had no bad habits. How could she get lung cancer? She came to his office and found a bag of her favorite dried fruit in his drawer, next to a bottle of medicine. She realized something was wrong, and tears filled her eyes. Three days later, she lit candles for his birthday. He wasn't there. She lit 34 long candles, one short candle, and whispered, 'You've really lost weight.'Please tell us, why did she say he had lost weight?"This question seemed familiar, though I couldn't place it at first. After some thought, I gave a wild answer."The man had betrayed the woman. He smeared carcinogenic substances on her favorite dried fruit, intending for her to die. After she found out, she killed him, turned his body into oil, and made candles from it. There weren't enough to make 35 candles, so she said he had really lost weight.""Very imaginative. Please listen to the fourth question.""Because of an affair, I pushed my girlfriend from the sixth floor and staged it as a suicide to fool the police. But due to my guilt, I always felt she would come back for me.I lived in constant fear until the seventh day after her death. I met a semi-shaman. He said a vengeful spirit would return, and to survive, I had to hide under the bed and not be seen by her.I did as told. After midnight, I heard the 'thud, thud, thud' of basketballs bouncing on the floor in the living room. When the bedroom door opened, I realized I was as good as dead.""Mr. Gao, do you know what I saw that caused me to feel so hopeless?""Isn't she already dead? This question doesn't make sense." The premise of the question assumes the girlfriend isn't dead, but it could also imply another possibility: she has become a ghost."You just need to answer."My mind raced, but my thoughts were consumed by a deeper question: Why were they asking me these four questions? What was their true purpose?"Assuming the premise holds, after the girlfriend fell from the sixth floor, she likely landed head-first, and that's how she crawled up. This explains the 'thud, thud' sound in the living room. When the bedroom door opened, the person hiding under the bed was immediately spotted by her, who was now upside down, and that's when they realized they were doomed.""Very impressive. Now, there's only one last question."At that moment, the three of them spoke in unison, their harmony unnerving me to the core.Cold sweat trickled down my jaw to my neck, my Adam's apple involuntarily bobbing."Mr. Gao, the final question is...""Do you believe in ghosts?"