Netherworld Investigator

After wearing the masks, Huang Xiaotao and I sat on both sides of the table. She took the lead and began, “Honey, did you enjoy the food?” Then she burst out laughing.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she said, “It just feels like when I played house as a kid. Okay, I promise I won’t laugh this time. Let’s try again.”

She took a deep breath to clear her mind and got into the role.

“Honey,” she said again, “did you enjoy the food?”

“Your cooking is getting better and better, darling,” I replied casually, and then thought about what to say next. “By the way, did Mom go out to play mahjong again today?”

Huang Xiaotao nodded. 

“Uh huh, she even won twenty yuan today! She was so happy about it!”

I couldn’t help but smile. “She usually loses hundreds of yuan though! You shouldn’t let her go out and play mahjong all the time! Let her watch TV at home!”

“You tell that to your mother yourself!” said Huang Xiaotao. “I don’t have the heart to stop her, it’s her little hobby! Do you want to deprive her of the little fun she has?”

“Ah, but I’m worried about her getting up and down the stairs!” I said.

At first it was obvious that we were ‘performing’ our conversation, and every time we talked, we paused a little and thought about how to pick up the next sentence. But gradually, the two of us seemed to get into our roles more and more, and the conversations came to us naturally, exactly like a real couple.

We talked about some daily chores, and Huang Xiaotao also acted out the action of eating with her hands. Then something magical happened. The dark room inexplicably turned bright. There was sunshine coming in through the window, the sound of cooking was heard coming from the neighbors’ house, and I could even hear the crying of the children and the barking of the dogs. From time to time, it would sound like cars were passing by.

It felt like I was caught in a realistic dream. The consciousness and the body were completely separated. Without thinking about it, these words came out of my mouth, “Honey, you’re pregnant, you should take better care of your body. You shouldn’t cook these greasy dishes anymore.”

Sitting opposite me was no longer Huang Xiaotao with a mask, but the dead wife. She was in her forties, but she didn’t look old at all. She wore a purple knit sweater and her hair was neatly combed. She looked like the perfect housewife.

She sighed, “Every time I made chicken or pig's trotter stew, you’d complain that they were tasteless. Besides, I know you like these fried dishes and a little rice wine to go with your meal after work!”

I looked down and saw that the table was full of delicious food. In front of me there was a small pot of hot rice wine, with a small cup beside it. I poured the wine and took a sip. The spicy taste of alcohol permeated my mouth and and warmed my throat. Shit, this felt a bit too realistic!

“But for our baby, I’m willing to eat tasteless food for a few months,” I said. “Also, I’ll quit smoking because second-hand smoke is bad for the baby.”

“I don't know if it’s a boy or a girl,” she replied. “But I’d prefer a boy. We already have a daughter. It would be nice to have a daughter and a son!”

I heard a chewing sound next to me and turned to look at it. An old lady, the mother of the deceased, sat there wordlessly.

How could it be this realistic? I could clearly witness the exact situations on the day of the murder—every detail, every movement was so vivid!

I thought of the recipe for the potion in the book—devil’s trumpet, longan fruit, Asian sage, wolfsbane… Shit! This wasn’t a potion that evoked emotions or anything like that—it was clearly a hallucinogenic concoction! Ancestor, you lied to me!

But by that time, I was completely trapped in this hallucination. Even my own consciousness began to blur and I felt like I was losing control of my mind. 

As ‘I’ was enjoying my wine, a piercing noise rang in my ears. It felt as if the sound was drilling into my skull. I subconsciously covered my head with my hands to protect myself.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” my ‘wife’ asked with concern.

“Perhaps it’s getting too cold in here…” ‘I’ replied.

“Didn’t I tell you?” said my ‘wife,’ “It’s getting colder this time of the year. I told you to wear an extra pair of autumn pants, and you never listen!” She then got up and was about to shut the windows. But before she got any further, she sat back down suddenly. Even my ‘mother’ stopped eating and was sitting there with her head buried under her hands.

All three members of the family sat there at the table, feeling an inexplicable feeling that they couldn’t shake off.

I suddenly realized that this weird noise I heard was the key to this case!

“My head...” complained my ‘wife.’

“Get up and shut the window!” ‘I’ shouted.

“No! I have a headache and I can’t stand up!” replied my ‘wife.’

“Get up and shut the window now!!!” ‘I’ yelled, slamming the table.

“Don't yell at me!” My ‘wife’ suddenly smashed a bowl. “You always order me around! Do you think that my life is easy? I quit my job to take care of your old mother! Look at how shriveled my hands are!”

“You ungrateful bitch!” ‘I’ shouted. “Don’t you know that I had to work like a dog outside all day, nodding my head like a slave in front of my customers? I had to go out and drink with them very late at night till my stomach bled, but did you ever understand me? No! You even suspected that I had an affair with someone else!”

My ‘wife’ was furious. “Stop spewing nonsense! You come home late every night; you even have a secret phone that you hide from me! Do you think that I’m an idiot? God knows what you’re doing out there!”

“How dare you talk to me like that?” I stood up and pulled out my belt. “I never even raised my voice at you all these years, that’s why you’re getting more and more ungrateful! I must teach you a lesson today!”

“Go ahead! Hit me if you dare! I have your child in my belly!” After that, my ‘wife’ shoved the table till it fell on its side in a fit of rage. The dishes on the table spilled over like torrential rain.

‘I’ protected my face with a hand, then flung my belt in the direction of my ‘wife’. My ‘wife’ clawed on my arm and was determined to smack me, ‘I’ kicked her away…

At that moment, the old lady trembled and repeatedly slammed her hands on the armrest of her wheelchair. She shouted, “Stop! Stop it now!”

Seeing this old lady, ‘I’ was suddenly overcome by a feeling of disgust that I had never felt before I yelled at her, “It’s all your fault! You’re a burden to me! When will you die? I now have to take care of my kids and you too! All of the responsibilities in this house are on me! Because of you I had to use the money I saved to buy a house to pay for your medical bills! And you even have the nerve to play mahjong every day!”

In a fit of fury, ‘I’ picked up a pair of chopsticks from the floor and stabbed them into my ‘mother’s’ eyes. Because ‘I’ used too much force, the splinters in the chopsticks stuck to my fingers. ‘I’ could feel the chopsticks going through the eyeballs and straight into the brain.

The old lady’s horrifying screams almost pierced my eardrums, and her two hands were struggling in the air, scratching my arms. Her fingers dug so deep into my skin that when she pulled away it took pieces of flesh with it.

‘I’ was furious. ‘I’ didn’t know where ‘I’ had gotten the strength from, but I lifted the wheelchair with the old lady still sitting on it, and threw her out the window.

With a loud crash, the old lady fell and hit the ground.

‘I’ then felt a complex mix of emotions. There was pleasure, remorse, and confusion. I had no idea what happened to myself. How could I kill my own mother? How did I end up like this?

At this moment, ‘my’ arm felt cold. I turned around and saw my ‘wife’ who looked like she was the devil from hell. She held a kitchen knife in her hand, and she was using it to stab me again and again.

'I' desperately backed away, my feet trampled on the dishes and cutlery on the floor. 

My 'wife' screamed, “I’ll kill you!”, and with very quick movements she stabbed ‘my’ arms and shoulders. The wounds were deep, ‘my’ blood gushed out, and ‘my’ flesh was exposed.

Perhaps the knife was too sharp, because I couldn’t feel the pain at first. But then, the burning pain penetrated my bones. This severe pain caused ‘me’ to be as furious as a wild beast. I kicked her off and rushed into the kitchen to get a kitchen knife.

Suddenly, an invisible fist hit ‘my’ face, and something flew out of ‘my’ mouth.

Then my vision blurred. The kitchen, the blood, the screaming ‘wife’ slowly disappeared before my eyes…

“Song Yang, wake up!” Wang Yuanchao grabbed my shoulder and shook it violently.