Chapter 363: Case Closed, 'A Clear Conscience Fears No Ghost's Knock

Perhaps…

This is what it means to like someone?

What is a young person’s affection like, anyway?

Is it awkward? Or shy? Is it a whirlwind romance, or a love that flows like a gentle stream?

It’s none of those.

For a young person, to like someone is to feel inferior.

Back then, I always kept my head down. If I kept my head down, I wouldn’t have to see the strange looks from others.

But once my head was down, I would see everyone else’s shoes.

Their shiny, new shoes were a stark contrast to my tattered rubber ones. Whenever I noticed, I would always try to hide my feet under my stool.

So…

In truth, I never even saw the girl I liked very often. I didn’t dare to look up, didn’t dare to look at her at all.

The things you can’t have when you’re young will haunt you for a lifetime.

Until now.

I mustered my courage, hesitated for a moment, and finally walked to her door.

“KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK~”

As the sound of knocking echoed.

A voice emerged—one that seemed to have been stubbornly carved into the river of time, branded into my mind for countless years.

“Who is it?”

I thought for a moment. Just as I was about to say my name, the girl who opened the door looked at me, paused, and said in surprise:

“Zhang Jiayu?”

I froze.

For some reason, when those two words left her lips, a strange feeling suddenly welled up inside me.

My lips moved for a long moment before finally forming two words…

“It’s me.”

…

…

Thinking back on it now.

That time was truly wonderful.

My career was taking off, and my social circle was expanding. I was a man of my word. Even after I became financially independent, I would still personally cook for my old boss when he came to visit.

At the same time.

I sought out the girl I liked, and she came to like me too.

We shared a scarf on snowy days, listened to an MP3 player together, and built snowmen together.

I talked with her about the future. We held hands shyly. Together, we moved toward the beautiful life my Grandpa always spoke of.

I no longer kept my head down. I no longer stared at other people’s shoes.

I held my head high, looking at her face, at her incredibly gentle eyes.

Two shy, innocent souls whose gazes intertwined, gradually colliding. The warmth it generated warmed the heart and melted the snowflakes.

That period of time.

Even just remembering it…

…is enough to make me sink back into it, like a mouthful of sweet wine that intoxicates the soul.

Until later…

“Something unexpected happened.”

“It was when we were discussing marriage.”

“I built a house in her home village to be our new home after we married.”

“An eight-bearer sedan chair, a phoenix coronet and gown…”

“I was trying my best to make up for the me of ten years ago, to fill the emptiness in my heart.”

“But unfortunately…”

That day.

7:30 PM.

Five figures stealthily climbed over the courtyard wall…

…

…

“Get on your knees! Get on your knees, or I’ll kill her!”

“Heh, let me tell you guys, don’t be fooled by how successful he looks. Back in the day, he and his grandpa even crawled between my legs. At the end of the day, he’s just a coward.”

“How about you give us some cash to spend?”

I stood in the room, looking at the five men before me as a suffocating feeling squeezed my brain.

It was Wang Wei. He was the same as he was ten years ago, only now he wasn’t just following a thug—he’d become one himself, with a teenage underling by his side.

My wife was being held hostage by the five men. Her face was streaked with tears, her expression a mask of confusion and bewilderment, not understanding what was happening.

As the knife pressed deeper, a line of blood began to well up.

I slowly sank to my knees.

“THUD!”

My knees hit the floor.

“Heh, what’d I tell you? He’s a fucking coward!”

“Heard you became a great chef?”

“Go on, cook a couple of dishes for us. If you don’t, watch me kill her!”

Wang Wei held a knife in his hand, threatening me as he started to strip my wife’s clothes.

My eyes instantly turned crimson, and my fists clenched unconsciously. But looking at that smear of blood, I couldn’t bring myself to throw a punch, no matter what.

“Okay.”

I said okay.

“Just don’t kill her… I’m begging you, don’t kill her…”

I don’t know how I got to my feet, nor do I remember how I left the bedroom.

I was in the kitchen, my mind completely blank, my face numb. My hands just went through the motions mechanically.

The bedroom was right across from the kitchen.

I could clearly hear my wife’s wails, her despair, her cries for help.

“CRACK!”

The egg in my hand shattered. Veins bulged on my forehead, my eyes protruded, and bloodshot veins webbed my eyes.

As her wails reached my ears, the question I could never answer resurfaced in my mind.

‘Where… did it all go wrong?’

‘Where did I go wrong?’

I muttered to myself, my hands repeating their mechanical tasks as the sounds from the bedroom continued.

‘I’m an orphan. My relatives are dead. I was bullied as a child, and the cost of a single textbook became a mountain that crushed my future.’

‘I wanted to take the college entrance exams, too. I didn’t want to just be a cook, but my family had no money…’

‘No, that’s not right. At first, the family did have money. After a lifetime of saving, why was it all gone?’

‘I made something of myself. I got married. To the girl I’ve always loved…’

‘Why? Why? WHY?!’

When I walked into the bedroom carrying the hot dishes, I suddenly snapped to my senses, a knife somehow in my hand.

I looked at my wife in the bedroom—her eyes were vacant, dazed, like a piece of dead meat.

I tightened my grip on the knife.

“SHLICK!”

With a spray of blood, a figure collapsed to the ground, staring at me in disbelief, their eyes full of shock.

The other four, including the young Shen Fei, froze for a second before scattering like frightened animals.

“BANG!”

The door slammed shut. The four of them pressed against it, unable to believe what was happening, completely lost.

A hand appeared under the door, as if trying to claw its way out from the inside.

The pounding on the door grew more and more frantic.

The four of them still held it shut with all their might.

Until one of them set the bedroom on fire.

Snakes of fire writhed wantonly, wrapping around me like tentacles, burning me.

The person I had stabbed, struggling as death claimed them, managed to stab me in return, but I had already lost all sensation.

I stood in the fire, my eyes fixed on the peephole, like a demon’s.

I memorized the four of them.

The faces of those four…

I will remember them forever!

For lifetimes to come, even in the next life, I will remember them!!!

As the flames consumed everything…

…my inhuman eyes were swallowed by the blaze.

…

…

December 10, 2003.

10:30 PM.

“KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!”

A knock on the door.

“Who is it?”

Wang Wei walked to the door and tried to look through the peephole, but it was blackened out. He couldn’t see a thing.

He opened the door. There was nothing outside.

…

The knocking continued for many days.

Wang Wei’s initial anger turned to confusion, and his confusion gave way to panic.

He felt the knocking was familiar, but he couldn’t recall why.

And every time he opened the door, no one was ever there.

Until…

One time, when Wang Wei looked at the blackened peephole, he discovered…

…it wasn’t blackened out.

It was an eye.

Pressed right up against the peephole, staring intently back at him.

“KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!”

When Wang Wei opened the door again, he saw a face.

A hideous, blood-soaked face, like that of a demon.

He…

…had come.

…

…

(Case File: The Ghost at the Door)

[Case Closed!]