Soon, the door opened.
Standing inside was a woman in her forties wearing an apron, with a few freckles on her face. She seemed to have been cooking earlier, as her hands were greasy. Wiping them on her apron, she gave a somewhat ingratiating smile. "Come in, both of you. The building's been unsafe lately, so everyone's been on edge."
"That's understandable," Chen Xue replied with an official smile, and the two stepped inside.
The woman brought two cups of boiled water and placed them on the coffee table. "So what's this all about? It's just me and my son at home—this has nothing to do with us, right?"
"Your son? Could we speak to him?" Chen Xue asked, as if a thought had occurred to her.
"My son's only eight! He couldn't have done anything wrong!" The woman's expression turned slightly sour.
"Don't misunderstand, ma'am. This is standard procedure for every household—we need to register everyone living here to make sure there are no unauthorized visitors," Chen Xue made up an excuse casually.
The woman finally nodded and walked toward the side bedroom.
While she was gone, Chen Xue shot Jiang Chen a strange look. "Earlier, when I used the security office ID to ask the building's residents, I found out that besides Zhang Meimei, there's another odd person in this building."
"A lot of people have seen a little boy often squatting in the shadows of the staircase, facing away from others and eating something."
Jiang Chen's eyes lit up—he thought of the "friend" the little girl had mentioned earlier.
"I also learned from the nearby security office that the three previous victims were all missing parts of their bodies—hands, feet, internal organs, things like that," Chen Xue added.
At this, Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed. The victim in Room 502 earlier had only been injured on the face; his body was intact. The Disfigured Ghost's killing pattern was only slashing faces. This meant something else had cut off parts of those corpses.
"Sorry, Yangyang's just too shy. How about you go talk to him in his room instead?" The woman came out of the side bedroom, looking apologetic.
"Sure," Chen Xue nodded.
"I'll get back to cooking then. You two officers have been working hard—why not stay for dinner later?" The woman headed for the kitchen.
Jiang Chen and Chen Xue entered the side bedroom.
A little boy was hunched over a desk, drawing. His face was extremely pale, as if he hadn't seen sunlight in a long time, and a faint stench emanated from his mouth.
Chen Xue gave Jiang Chen a look, signaling him to be careful—she was almost certain this little boy was the ghost that had attacked her.
Jiang Chen focused his demonic energy in his eyes. He could see faint wisps of black resentment rising from the boy's body. However, he had already tried this outside earlier—almost every corner of the 5th and 6th floors of this building was filled with such resentment, and the same was true when he looked at Chen Xue. Demonic energy couldn't help him directly identify a ghost that was trying to disguise itself.
"Little guy, have you been in your room this whole time?" Chen Xue tried to ask. She also had no way to confirm if he was a ghost right now, so she could only try to trick him into revealing a flaw.
But the boy only glanced up at her, then lowered his head again and said nothing.
"We're friends of your mom—you don't have to be scared," Jiang Chen said with a smile.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he spoke, the little boy suddenly looked up and stared at him intently. "You mean that woman outside? She's not my mom."
Jiang Chen and Chen Xue were both stunned.
"That can't be right. There's a family photo of three people outside—clearly that woman and this kid. Is he trying to confuse us?" Chen Xue whispered.
Jiang Chen nodded—he had also seen the family photo. But at this moment, his eyes turned dark, and he deliberately asked, "Little guy, did you and your mom have a fight, so you're saying that on purpose?"
"No. She used to be my mom," the little boy said with an unusually serious expression. "One night, Mom was washing her hair in front of the bathroom mirror. When Dad walked over, she suddenly looked up and asked Dad to peel her an apple."
"Dad listened and went to get a knife and an apple. I was watching TV on the sofa."
"I didn't dare tell Dad—only Mom in the mirror looked up. The real Mom didn't look up, and she never said she wanted to eat an apple."
"What?" Chen Xue froze.
Jiang Chen's eyes flickered. The woman's behavior earlier had actually been strange—there had been fighting sounds downstairs, but when the two of them came in, she hadn't asked about it at all, as if she didn't care.
"Dad has a habit when peeling apples—he peels them in one continuous strip. That night, he did it successfully too," the little boy continued.
"When he finished peeling the apple, he handed it over. This time, Mom outside the mirror turned her head and took the apple, but Mom in the mirror kept washing her hair."
Hearing this, Chen Xue's face changed.
"I didn't dare say anything, because Dad didn't seem to notice anything wrong. Then two days later, Dad disappeared. That noon, Mom cooked a lot of meat dishes, but I didn't dare take a bite."
"After that, Mom would go out sometimes and buy a lot of meat, but I never dared to eat the food she cooked again."
"When I was hungry, I'd go pick food out of the trash cans downstairs, eat it secretly in the staircase, and then go home. Sometimes Liu Xiaoyao from Room 402 would share some food with me too."
"Mom seems to know what I do, but she never cares. She still cooks a lot of meat dishes every time."
After listening to the little boy's words, Chen Xue pulled Jiang Chen aside.
"What do you think?"
"He's probably not lying," Jiang Chen said in a low voice. "I've heard an urban legend—if you peel an apple completely in front of a mirror at midnight, without breaking the peel, you'll see a Mirror Ghost."
"And if you don't do it properly, the Mirror Ghost will take over your body and steal your life!"
"The original person's soul will be trapped in the mirror forever."
"I've heard that too," Chen Xue nodded.
"But we need to confirm it," Jiang Chen said, leading her out of the room and into the bathroom of the house. What made both of their pupils contract was that faint traces of glue—used to stick a mirror—could still be seen on the wall, but the mirror itself was gone.
The two immediately confirmed their guess. Because this was also part of the Mirror Ghost legend: to prevent the soul of the person it had possessed from coming back, it would smash the mirror that had summoned it!
"Dinner's ready, Yangyang! You two officers from the security office—come get ready to eat!" The woman came out of the kitchen carrying plates—there were five or six of them, all filled with meat. Just looking at it made one feel greasy.
Jiang Chen and Chen Xue walked over, and the little boy came out too. But none of them touched their chopsticks.
"Hehe, not to your taste?" The woman smiled, seeming very enthusiastic. "Why isn't anyone eating? Go on, eat!"
Jiang Chen looked at the table full of dishes and sighed. "Sorry, I'm pretty picky about food."
The woman froze, then forced a smile. "What kind of food do you like, young man? I'll make it for you right now."
"High-end ingredients often require simple cooking methods," Jiang Chen said. "Ma'am, can you make sashimi of pork intestines?"
The woman's mouth fell open.
Sashimi of pork intestines?
Ding! A wave of nausea rose in the Mirror Ghost's heart. +20 Ghost Qi.