I guessed that Qiao Tianlu was probably Guan Tianhan's little follower in university. He went on the adventure with his girlfriend and brought him along.
Right now, Qiao Tianlu was still sleeping. We shouldn't have disturbed him, but if he continued sleeping, we would waste too much time, so we had no choice but to wake him up.
The doctor told us that since Qiao Tianlu came here, he had been sleeping a lot. When he woke up, he would ramble incoherently, saying things like, "She's upstairs, she's on the third floor, I'm too scared to go up. You guys go ahead." The doctor advised us not to stimulate him, otherwise, we might face a situation like Guan Tianhan's.
Of course, we understood. As police officers, unless absolutely necessary, we wouldn't want to see any more victims.
"Qiao Tianlu, why are you here?" I asked in a different tone as he had just woken up.
"The doctor said I should come here for treatment, but I'm not sure," Qiao Tianlu replied, looking confused. Unlike the other two, he didn't seem agitated. He appeared dumbfounded, likely scared out of his wits by the events in the old house.
But this seemed easier to deal with than someone completely mad. Zhao Simeng gently asked, "Have you been to the third floor of the old house? I noticed you've mentioned it often."
At the mention of the old house, Qiao Tianlu's emotions tightened, and he started panicking. The muscles on his face twitched, and I even saw a dark aura gather on his forehead. He no longer looked like a college student but rather like a frightened child.
After hesitating, he trembled and said, "The old house, don't go, don't go. Everyone will die! Everyone will die!"
"Why?" I asked.
"Because of the third floor, the third floor..." I saw that Qiao Tianlu's emotions were becoming unstable again and didn't dare to press further. At that moment, Zhao Simeng took out a yellow talisman from her inspection box, drew some characters with a cinnabar pen, and began chanting.
I didn't know what she was doing, so I curiously asked, "What are you doing?"
"I'm driving away evil spirits. My ancestors once said that when a person is contaminated with dark energy, their face will look abnormal. Didn't you see the aura gathering on his forehead? That's the omen of a disaster star. If I don't help him with an exorcism chant, he'll probably meet with an accident in the next few days."
"Do forensic assistants really believe in these things?" I asked.
"My ancestors said, 'Better to believe than to doubt. There are gods three feet above your head.' This isn't superstition; it's a set of rules based on many years of ancestral experience."
It sounded quite reasonable, similar to feng shui or metaphysics, which may seem mystical but often holds some truth. After Zhao Simeng finished chanting, Qiao Tianlu's face indeed improved significantly, and the dark energy on his forehead disappeared.
If an ordinary person saw it, they probably wouldn't even notice the dark energy on his forehead, but I have deep-set eyes, and Zhao Simeng is also a forensic assistant, so we could see it naturally.
From Qiao Tianlu's words, we learned that there was something wrong on the third floor of the old house. He had gone up alone, but Guan Tianhan and Zi Qiaoxiang hadn't.
I didn't expect Qiao Tianlu, this thin guy, to have such courage. No wonder he was so terrified that he became like a child, almost mentally frozen. It seemed that even if he recovered, he might still become mentally impaired.
It was kind of pitiful. After buying some fruits for Qiao Tianlu and Zi Qiaoxiang, we left. On the way, Zhao Simeng asked, "When do you plan to visit the old Qing house again?"
"Tonight. I can't wait. Let's bring Gao Qiang along. He's really good with forensic investigations," I replied.
"Okay."
I immediately called Gao Qiang, and since it was my request, he arrived quickly, praising me for solving the previous two cases so brilliantly. I said, "This one will be even more interesting."
Hearing this, Gao Qiang became very excited, saying, "Then I'll definitely learn a lot from you, Captain He."
"Let's learn from each other," I answered modestly. After dinner, we went straight to the old Qing house. After getting out of the police car, Gao Qiang and I took out our flashlights and walked inside, with Zhao Simeng following behind us.
Before we left, Zhao Simeng had asked me to buy some sugar. I thought she might want something sweet, so I bought some.
Arriving here late at night, the place felt even more eerie and frightening. But I thought it was only at night that the "female ghost" would appear. I really wanted to know what kind of entity scared the three college students so badly, and I was eager to meet this ghost and figure out who or what it was.
As we approached the building, Gao Qiang started trembling, saying, "Is there something wrong with this house? It feels like winter as soon as we entered."
I purposely said with a grim tone, "It's haunted, probably the ghost's presence."
"Whoa, Captain He, don't scare me!" Gao Qiang almost jumped. I didn't expect him to be so easily scared.
"Hehe, what are you afraid of? Aren't we the police?"
"But police are human too! Before I came here, I heard that Captain Yang died here!" Gao Qiang said.
"That's right, looks like you did your homework," I responded.
Gao Qiang grinned and said, "As you said, we're police officers. Why not just have the technicians help us investigate? It's simple."
I nodded and told him to stop talking and follow me into the old house's main hall. Zhao Simeng was silent, as though observing something.
When we approached the spirit table, Gao Qiang took out his precision instruments to check for traces nearby. Zhao Simeng and I moved toward the TV cabinet, where we had previously found some European bullet ants. Their nest was still there, but there were no more bullet ants.
We could still see their bodies. When Gao Qiang came over and found the bodies of the European bullet ants, he exclaimed, "What are these?"
"European bullet ants. Both the first female corpse and Captain Yang were killed by them."
"No way, are there really such things as bullet ants?" Gao Qiang asked in disbelief. I explained to him, and Zhao Simeng seemed a bit impatient as she headed toward the stairs to the second floor. I was worried she might be unsafe, so I quickly went over and said, "Don't go up alone!"
Zhao Simeng didn't answer. Just as we started to go up, we suddenly heard a strange scraping sound from upstairs, as though someone was sharpening a knife. Then that eerie voice echoed, "Don't come up, do you want to die?"
Hearing that, Gao Qiang immediately hid behind me. I hadn't realized he was this much of a coward. Didn't he handle the earlier cases well? I was starting to doubt whether something had happened to him recently.
Just as I was about to scold him for being so scared, that strange voice echoed behind us, "Why don't you try coming up?"