It's not that there are no lights in this room; it's just that the table lamps that are on don't illuminate the entire room, so it appears dim.
The doors and windows of the room were closed, relying only on the air conditioner to maintain the temperature and promote air circulation. However, these means were still no match for the human activities in the room, and the smell of burning paper, wax, and other strange things filled the air, along with some peculiar smells of unknown materials mixed, making people dizzy from the smell.
Sari then couldn't help but cover her mouth and nose, frowning as she walked in, "Auntie, are you alright?"
A woman sat in the corner of the room with her back to the door and didn't answer or turn around.
She was Sally's aunt. Sally said that although she acted crazy, she didn't have any aggressive tendencies. Sometimes, when her brother-in-law or cousin shouts at her, she will cower and run back to her room without saying a word. She and her brother-in-law have been sleeping in separate rooms for a long time, so he doesn't care what she does in her room. Or rather, the husband and the son, who are now too lazy to care about the psychological state of the family matriarch.
Middendorffi and Eli followed into this room and took a quick look around.
The room appeared cluttered, primarily because of the number of things on the floor. There were spread-out photo albums and scattered photographs, pots with unburnt paper money, piles of sacrificial offerings, candles, and bowls filled with strange liquids. If Henry were here, he would immediately spit on the woman for daring to burn something in a closed room, so much for trying to commit suicide.
And on the floor next to the woman, there was also a one-metre-square piece of cloth on which a strange pattern was drawn with crimson paint. Middendorffi didn't recognise that ghostly drawing and pulled out her mobile phone to take a quick shot and put it back in silence.
"Auntie, I came to see you." Wanting to give the two "experts" she brought more time to observe, Sari boldly walked towards the woman with concern on her lips, "Did you have lunch ..."
She reached the woman and found her holding her mobile phone in a daze. On the phone was a picture. The nearsighted Sari couldn't see well enough without her glasses today but guessed that would be the dead little cousin.
She sighed softly inwardly. Even though this aunt wasn't a blood relative of hers, it was still saddening that this was happening now. She wanted to come closer to take a look, "Auntie, you're always smothering the room to burn things, and you still don't watch it burn out; it's dangerous ..."
The aunt seemed to have only noticed her approach up to this point, turning her head to look at her warily and subconsciously stretching her mobile phone to the other side to avoid her line of sight. In the process, the aunt's finger accidentally touched the photo, and the picture retracted, revealing a message dialogue screen.
But the aunt quickly pressed the mobile phone off and put it back. This whole process was speedy and natural. Sally ignored this detail, and she couldn't see what the message interface was saying even if she did. And Middendorffi, standing two metres away, watched silently.
"What are you doing? Don't you come in here and wreak havoc. Get out!" The aunt shoved Sari, not hard, but enough to catch her off guard and make her take two steps back, "I had already seen Bao, and she disappeared as soon as you arrived. Get out!"
"Auntie, you've been looking at the pictures and getting possessed; it's not that your cousin is back!" Sally retorted, "Isn't it good for you to find living people to talk to and bask in the sun?"
"I don't want you to care; you don't understand, none of you understand; you're all stopping me from bringing Bo back!" The aunt stood up and pushed Sari back a few more steps, "Bao is calling out to me right now; she says she wants to come back! None of you can hear her; only I can hear her, and I will bring her back!"
"Auntie, you can't ..."
"What are you doing?!"
A male voice sounded at the room door, and Middendorffi turned her head to see a young man in his early twenties frowning as he walked in, "Sally, what are you doing in my house? And who are these two strange men you brought here? What do you want?!"
"I brought a designer to look at the interiors and to see Auntie on the way; your father agreed, okay?" Sally mixed the two things up and wasn't bluffed, "It's you, Peter; what kind of charms did you buy back to protect your geomancy again?"
Middendorffi heard her call out for Peter and knew the young man's identity - the cousin who brought mage home.
"Don't you mouth off here; week mage can be right here. Be careful you won't be able to eat if you offend someone." Peter snorted, "Why don't you take the people and get out of here? Don't get in the way here."
"You ...!" Sally almost wanted to curse, but she held back, still mindful of Middendorffi and Eli's presence. She approached Middendorffi and whispered, "Let's make you guys laugh ... Shall we go?"
This wants to ask if they finished watching, see clearly no, whether they can withdraw. Middendorffi also did not know whether to listen to understand, anyway nodded: "Let's go."
So, the group headed out. Peter opened the doorway but stood there, raising eyebrows to watch the three people go out.
When Middendorffi came out, he saw a middle-aged man standing behind Peter, presumably the "Mage of the Week".
He looked in his fifties and wore a pair of silk lab coats with grey and white hair combed back. He stood there with a cold face, two walnuts in his hand, half squinting his eyes, and when he met Middendorffi's eyes, he looked like he didn't care. Middendorffi looked at him for a while, and his eyes hovered around Zhou mage's head for a few seconds.
Zhou's mage finally speaks, "What do you want?"
Middendorffi asked instead of answering, "Which sect are you from?"
"Hey, I say you people, what's it to you? Are you a real designer?" Peter was the first to snap, "You don't think Sally got you to lie to Jennifer, do you?"
Jennifer is the aunt's name; Peter calls his stepmother and cousin by their first names to show their character.
"I heard that Zhou mage is high-ranking and wanted to ask." Middendorffi said, "Maybe we can talk later if we can."
His tone had no waves; it couldn't be said to be respectful, but it didn't sound like a lie either. Peter was still snorting, "You can invite ..." Zhou Mage returned, "It's nothing that can't be said, Castle Peak Cloud Hidden Sect, know?"
"Do not know." Middendorffi calmly replied, "Out of respect, goodbye."
Said he turned around and left. Once Middendorffi left, Eli naturally followed, and Sari also followed without a word of explanation, choking Zhou mage to death. Peter can have no scruples, looking at the back of the three people straight scoffed: "Some people are bold; their offence should not be offended by people, but also bring others together with bad luck. Some other day, something happens; don't blame others for not reminding."
"People have their destiny; Mr Bale doesn't have to be so concerned." Zhou Mage said, "Solving the filth in the mansion first is important."
"mage is right. You go this way, please ..."
Sari was furious as she listened to their dark sarcasm, holding it in until she couldn't hold it after returning to the car.
"As you two teachers can see, that man, my cousin, is so lawless that he can't control anyone. He dared to curse me to my face; God knows if he designed his cousin and aunt in private so that one can grasp the family property of his little uncle!" She first said a bunch of bad words, and only then a little settled, asked, "two see clearly? Is there anything wrong with my brother-in-law's family or with my aunt?"
Middendorffi and Eli looked at each other, and then Middendorffi said, "Nothing."
"Surely there's nothing?" Sally's spirits lifted, "When we went in, Auntie said that her cousin was right there, calling out for her. It was just her fantasy. There's nothing there!"
"No visions were seen around her." Middendorffi returned with certainty, "Nothing was calling to her."
"But that week, mage said that my aunt was being haunted by a spiteful spirit impersonating her daughter ... Well, Peter is using his cousin's death to deceive people!" Sally said, "The two teachers, can you please take the trouble to go to my grandfather's place again? My grandpa condones Peter's messing around in the house and doesn't listen to my advice. The two of you have official endorsements, so my grandfather should listen to your words."
Middendorffi thought momentarily, "Perhaps you should call the police."
"... Huh?" Sally was stunned for a moment, then remembered something, "Oh, is it because Zhou mage is a liar?"
"Whether he's a liar or not, I don't know yet." Middendorffi said, "But on Jennifer's phone, someone is sending messages urging her to go on a death wish."
Sally was confused, "What?!"
"I saw the messages on her phone." Middendorffi sat in the back seat, her tone light.
"Someone said, 'You must die. If you die, your daughter will come back.'"
***
"So this is still turning into a case within a case?"
Lupin sighed as he listened to Middendorffi's description, "By the looks of it, this Jennifer may have stumbled upon one of those 'remote suicide' perverts from the internet. She was so unlucky: her daughter died, her stepson despised her, her husband didn't care about her, and finally, she ran into a pervert who takes pleasure in tempting others to commit suicide. If Bear hadn't had good eyesight and seen the message screen, she might have succeeded in committing suicide and been mistakenly thought to have gone mad and caused it."
Middendorffi asked, "What's a 'remote suicide'?"
"How can I put it? It's when there are people who, using language and words on the internet, grab onto people's mental weaknesses and constantly hypnotise people that they should go and cut themselves." Lupin said, "For example, forming a group where a bunch of people with depression spread negative energy amongst each other, and then some pervert mixes in and suggests that since they're in so much pain, they might as well meet up and kill themselves. The pervert will step in and get the target to gradually prepare according to what he says and then commit suicide.
"These perverts take pride in manipulating other people's lives and deaths or just simply feel that they are doing a good deed by helping others to solve their troubles once and for all. In short, inducing someone to commit suicide is a crime, and you should never investigate out of curiosity, lest it affect you."
Middendorffi was puzzled, "An ordinary human can manipulate someone's life and death with words?"
"Generally speaking, no, but people with weak psyches - such as Jennifer, who died her daughter - have a gap in their hearts, their reasoning wavers, and are easily influenced and hypnotised. The human psyche, or the human brain, is that complex." Lupin said, "If you follow the clues you give and catch a culprit who pushes someone to commit suicide, then you're doing a great deal of good."
"And what about that week mage thing!" Laura, who had been listening in, poked her head out from behind the monitor and said, "Although the Aoyama Cloud Hidden Sect does exist and is still a major sect, who knows if that Zhou mage is real? I used to take Bear's 'manually printed' style portrait and match it with members of the Green Mountain Cloud Hidden Sect that had been recorded in the system, and none of them were. It's hard to say if it's new, but I've sent the portrait to the Cloud Hidden Sect's matchmaker for confirmation anyway. I guess we'll hear something in a few days."
Lupin nodded, "Let's wait for news then. The avatar that Bear drew must have distinctive features anyway."
Middendorffi said, "Actually, he has another feature."
"What?"
"He's got a strange shadow here ...," Middendorffi raised his hand and drew a circle above his right shoulder, "There's a strange shadow. Possibly, the 'ghost' you guys were talking about?"
"Huh?!"