Based on the information gathered so far, the Medical University female ghost case seemed highly likely to be connected to the murder in Room 106 ten years ago. Therefore, we decided to head to the library to find information on the female students involved in that case to continue our investigation.
Most universities have libraries, and almost every library harbors some little-known secrets. Of course, uncovering these secrets isn't easy—otherwise, they wouldn't be called "secrets."
When we arrived at the library, there were only a handful of people inside. The vast space felt deserted rather than quiet—it seemed today's university students weren't keen on spending time studying. The librarian was nowhere to be found. According to the few students reading, she'd probably gone for lunch.
Student records were likely locked in the archives room. With the librarian absent, waiting here was a waste of time. Smashing the door down, as Zhenzhen had suggested earlier, wasn't an option either.
Anxious to find the killer, we hadn't even eaten lunch. Hungry and impatient, wasting time here seemed pointless. "Let's go eat first," I suggested.
The mention of food made Zhenzhen recall the revolting corpses in the autopsy room, killing her appetite. "You go. Just bring me some steamed buns."
"Just buns? That's no good!" A thought struck me. "Yaxian said the food at the restaurant outside the school gate is pretty good, especially their pig heart soup. They say you get hooked after one try. Want to—"
"Go die!" Zhenzhen kicked me flying.
I arrived at the restaurant Yaxian had mentioned. It was packed, filled exclusively with students, boys and girls clustered in groups. After finally finding a seat, I ordered two side dishes and pig heart soup, then quietly listened to the students chatting around me. Their topics ranged from games and dirty jokes to teachers' "misdeeds," though romance was the most popular. Upperclassmen discussed job interviews and internships. While most chatter was useless, occasionally, something potentially useful surfaced...
"Xiao Ma, do you think Professor Xiao sells the hearts from the cadavers? The dissection room has specimens of everything except hearts," said a bespectacled guy at the next table.
Xiao Ma looked disdainful. "Duh, took you long enough. Seniors say someone saw him sneak hearts out after anatomy class!"
A long-haired student asked, "Seriously? Who told you that? What use would old hearts be? Those bodies have been in cold storage for ages—they're useless for transplants. Who'd buy them?"
The bespectacled guy joked, "How should I know? Maybe he sells them to perverted collectors!"
Xiao Ma laughed, "I bet he takes them home to make soup! Haha!"
A girl at another table chimed in, "Ugh, stop being gross! We're trying to eat here!"
...
Sipping my pig heart soup, I pondered their words. Why would Professor Xiao take hearts from cadavers? Bodies used for dissection were poorly preserved, ruling out illegal organ trafficking. If he were making specimens for collectors, wouldn't eyeballs sell better? Why specifically hearts? Perhaps we should investigate this, Professor Xiao. The baby-carrying ghost always removed a victim's heart—maybe there was a connection.
Just as I was about to chat with Xiao Ma, urgent shouts came from outside: "The library's on fire!"
Zhenzhen was still inside—I needed to make sure she wasn't charred to a crisp. I yelled, "Check, please!" and threw money on the table, then sprinted out. At the door, I faintly heard a girl call, "Matron, the bill..."
The fire at the library was raging. By the time I arrived, flames lit half the sky. I finally spotted Zhenzhen in the panicked crowd, parts of her hair singed. "What happened?" I asked.
"It's hard to explain... Soon after you left..." Zhenzhen recounted the events with lingering fear:
Shortly after you left, the librarian, Pan Qiuxia, returned. I told her I needed records of the girls who lived in the dorm ten years ago. She said everything was in the archives room, but since I only knew their graduation year and not their names, finding them would take time. She took me to the archives and helped me search.
The archives were overwhelming—over a hundred square meters filled with twenty shelves, each with three tiers. Just looking at it made me dizzy. Thankfully, the librarian helped. She suggested starting with the dorm occupancy records since Room 106 had been vacant since the incident. Finding the last occupancy list would be easiest.
The dorm records were on the last shelf. We soon found the ledger for that year. But as I flipped through it, the book inexplicably burst into flames! We tried to put it out, but somehow... the whole archives room caught fire...
"Tsk..." I sighed. "I've seen plenty of fools, but you take the cake."
"It wasn't entirely my fault! Who knew the ledger would catch fire? And all that white smoke—I could barely keep my eyes open! Otherwise, it wouldn't have gotten this bad." Zhenzhen shuddered, then asked nervously, "Do you think it was the baby-carrying ghost? Sabotaging our investigation?"
Her words triggered a realization. "You're sure there was a lot of white smoke?"
"Yes," she nodded emphatically. "So much I could hardly see."
"Describe exactly how the fire started."
"I was just flipping through the ledger. When I reached the page with Room 106's records, I felt heat on my fingers, saw a flash of light, and then white smoke billowed out. I panicked and dropped the book. It caught fire instantly, igniting nearby materials. The floor was cluttered, and the fire spread fast. I tried stomping it out, but it didn't work. The librarian and I went for fire extinguishers, but they were all broken—useless." Zhenzhen showed me her burned fingers.
"Right. Not a ghost..." This case was hiding far deeper secrets than I'd imagined.
The next morning, I walked into the Special Cases Unit office to find Zhenzhen—now sporting a short, neat haircut—chatting with Miaomiao.
"Did you cut your hair because of a breakup?" Miaomiao circled Zhenzhen curiously.
Weige, who'd been typing furiously, paused, craning his neck to eavesdrop.
"No one's even chasing me—how could I break up?" Zhenzhen explained that the library fire made the haircut necessary. They resumed small talk while Weige yawned and returned to his keyboard.
"Morning, everyone!" I greeted, then feigned surprise at Zhenzhen. "Wow! That new haircut looks great!"
"It's hardly morning anymore. Look at the time," she retorted, rolling her eyes.
I checked my watch. "Only twenty minutes late—still early. Earlier than Xueqing, at least..."
"Were you calling me?" Xueqing materialized behind me like a ghost, nearly giving me a heart attack.
"She got here early, before any of us," Weige said, yawning again.
"Comrades, you've worked hard!" I saluted them theatrically, quickly changing the subject. "Miaomiao, any luck finding records of that ten-year-old case?"
Miaomiao smiled sheepishly. "There were so many files! And they were so boring—I dozed off after getting through less than half. Luckily, Xueqing-jie helped..."
"Wow! So Xueqing-jie is a warm-hearted Lei Feng beneath that icy exterior! Applause!" I clapped lightly, grinning.
Xueqing looked at me calmly, her eyes still and emotionless. "No case records exist. It was likely never formally filed." She paused. "I'm a year younger than you. Just call me Xueqing. No need for 'jie' (sister)."
Age is a sensitive number, whether for a young woman in her twenties or a gray-haired granny. Underestimating is harmless; overestimating can be disastrous. Even an icy beauty like Xueqing was no exception. I'd need to tread carefully around her. Getting shot over a wrong word would be crueler than Dou E's fate.
"No way! That's unbelievable! A murder case wasn't filed?" Zhenzhen exclaimed, shocked.
Having never worked in Criminal Investigation, Zhenzhen's ignorance was understandable. Time for a lesson. "'Do less, err less; do nothing, err nothing'—that's many people's motto. If the victim's family requested a private settlement, skipping a formal case isn't unheard of. Especially if the perpetrator had severe mental illness, judges often show leniency, imposing lighter sentences." I turned to Weige. "Please tell me you found something?"
"Give me fifteen more minutes," Weige yawned again. "This grunt work is so tedious. Zero technical skill required."
"I'll brief the Boss first, then come back to you." Zhenzhen and I headed into the Group Leader's office.
Inside, the Boss was staring intently at his computer screen, not looking up as we entered. I casually sat down and lit a cigarette, only for Zhenzhen to snuff it out immediately. I missed working with Xiao Xiang—he never put out my cigarettes and even shared his when I ran out. I wondered how he was now. Maybe he'd left this world... I hoped he was alive. Two years without a word.
After reminiscing about my old partner, it was time for business. After summarizing yesterday's findings, I shared my thoughts: "This case is far more complex than we thought. It's almost certain the 'baby-carrying ghost' is a smokescreen. Someone might be using the decade-old murder to cover up something sinister."
"Explain," the Boss said, his eyes still fixed on the screen, expression unchanged.
I gently lifted Zhenzhen's burned finger. "The ledger didn't catch fire due to ghosts. It was coated with white phosphorus. Normally harmless, but when flipped to the treated page, body heat and friction from turning the page provided enough heat to ignite it."
Zhenzhen stared at her finger, suddenly understanding. "You mean someone's faking the ghost killings and tampered with the ledger? But why?"
I slumped in my chair, stretching. "Hard to say. If the goal was just to keep students out of the camphor forest, killing was unnecessary—murders attract police attention. And we found nothing significant in the woods."
The Boss remained silent, still focused on his screen. Zhenzhen pressed on, "So where do we investigate now?"
The answer seemed obvious. "Since they destroyed the Room 106 records, clues must lie with those four girls."
Feeling responsible for the fire, Zhenzhen frowned. "The whole archives room burned down! How do we find them?"
"That's where Weige's skills come in." I lit another cigarette—this time, she didn't snuff it.
"Alright," the Boss finally spoke, still not looking away. "Keep investigating that angle. Xueqing and Miaomiao will look into Professor Xiao. Report any new findings." His tone made Zhenzhen think he was distracted. As we left, she glanced at his screen.
"Why's the Group Leader day-trading first thing in the morning?" she whispered outside.
"Stocks are the Boss's forte. Got spare cash? Follow his lead," I joked.
She scoffed. "No way. It's just gambling."
"Not the same! Gambling's illegal. Stocks are legal—you even pay taxes!" After the quip, I approached Weige. "Find anything on those four girls?"
"Expecting me to find people with just a graduation year? You overestimate me." Weige's smug face begged for an unflattering description.
"So what did you find, oh Greatest Hacker of the Century?" I tossed him a cigarette.
"Glad you asked..." Weige handed me two printed A4 sheets—one a graduation photo, the other a name list. "I scoured every alumni site and classmate registry accessible to normal users. The creator of one registry mentioned a murder before graduation, matching the Room 106 case. The people you want should be from this class. The photo and list are copied directly from the registry. The site's practically dead—only one IP ever posted, and it hasn't been updated in ages."
The graduation photo was blurry even after enlargement. Thirty-one students were visible, genders barely distinguishable. Finding anyone from it was impossible. The list had thirty-three names—no contact info, not even genders. It wasn't much better. The extra two names likely belonged to the Room 106 killer and victim, meaning the photo was even more useless.
Scratching my head, I asked, "Anything else?"
"That's all for ordinary users. But I'm no ordinary user—I'm a hacker." Weige leaned back, taking a long drag, radiating smugness. "I traced the registry creators' and the commenter's IPs. The creator's IP is overseas—location still vague. I've emailed them, but no clue if or when they'll reply. The other IP is from the Provincial People's Hospital, 7th floor, a specific room. A visit there might yield something."
"Thanks!" As I turned to leave with Zhenzhen, he stopped me. "Hold up. Something else you might find interesting—probably case-related."
I paused, listening intently.
"While breaching the hospital's computer system, I found encrypted internal files. Most were about medical staff errors or negligence, like fatal medication mistakes. But one mentioned hearts being stolen from corpses in the morgue over recent years. At least thirty or forty hearts gone—one or two disappearing every month or two."
Hearts!
Missing hearts!
Hearts gone missing again!
Was Provincial People's Hospital somehow linked to the baby-carrying ghost? Threads were multiplying faster than I could grasp them. This case was getting more intriguing by the minute.