Short, Light, Free

Chapter 122: Daytime Lady Ghost III

Chapter 122: Daytime Lady Ghost III

I brought the bag down to the car and drove to a corner lot.

After making sure that I was away from monitors and people, I put the bag down and opened the boot slightly.

I moved the transparent plastic bag containing the girl, into the snakeskin bag and zipped it.

I surveyed the boot and noticed that the corners were soaked in blood. It looked like the plastic bag wasn’t sealed after all.

Frustrated, I removed the whole lining and dumped it into the snakeskin bag.

A neighbor passed by and greeted me.

I was shocked witless.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“There are too many things at the back of my car. I’m going to store them at home,” I explained.

He smiled and walked toward his own car.

I calmed myself down. The boot was now empty.

While I could vaguely see the iron sheet, there wasn’t a trace of blood anymore.

I carried the snakeskin bag with much effort and went back up, glad that she was a skinny girl. I knew for sure that I wouldn’t be able to carry it if it were a man or someone slightly more chubby.

I didn’t even dare to take the elevator and instead carried it up the stairs to the seventh floor. I managed to only stop twice to rest.

Each time I took a rest, I avoided the cameras. If I had to pass one by, I would speed up.

I was half dead by the time I reached the seventh floor.

I had no choice, though.

I had to handle the body and the only safe place to do so was in my own home.

The corridor was exceptionally quiet.

Nevertheless, I still feared that I would bump into one of my neighbors. My disability to remain calm and speak without stammering would prove difficult if that were to happen.

Once I’ve finally entered my house, I locked the door and lay on the floor, gasping for air.

After a few seconds, however, I got up and immediately closed all the windows.

I took out both her phone and mine.

My battery was at 63% and hers was at 27%.

I had to keep her phone switched on.

By this time, there were already over 40 messages on her phone.

I used her thumb to unlock her phone.

The messages were mainly sent by fans.

There were seven private messages asking why she wanted to stop her pranks.

I ignored them and tweaked the settings so that the phone would never automatically lock again. I then put it down and plugged it into a charger.

I thought about a plan on how to get rid of this corpse, one that cut off all ties of her death to me.

It was going to be difficult, but there was definitely a way.

The world is so huge; people go missing every day and corpses are found without explanation every day as well.

Yet, I had no idea how to deal with the one in front of me.

All I knew was that the girl was Wang Xiaomei, an Internet celebrity who had over 200,000 fans.

I had her corpse, her stained gown, and her phone.

How the f*ck do I do this?

The only way to solve it was through her phone.

iPhone privacy settings seemed to be able to display the locations user usually visited, so I decided to check it out.

I went into her settings, privacy, location, system, key locations.

I was grateful for the advancement of the technology. If it were some years back, I wouldn’t have been able to find out anything about her through the phone.

Then, it suddenly occurred to me that I could just check her Taobao address!

I looked at the map to find out the places she frequented and also opened her Taobao to check for her address.

Not only did I to retrieved her home address, I also managed to dig out her work address.

I opened her home address with the map and noted every corner around her house.

Her street was filled with bungalows and it was part of the region that had been omitted during the city remodeling.

She must’ve been living alone because it wasn’t possible for her family not to be worried about her safety when she was out and about even before the crack of dawn.

It was too challenging to forge an accident near her place.

Her office was another story. I was rather shocked by the fact that she worked for a newspaper company.

Now that I thought about it, it actually made sense since reporters loved exaggerating their news.

Disguising as a ghost to gain fans...

I discovered that the office building was tall and could be considered as a landmark construction within that area.

How could I get in there? And with a corpse, nonetheless?

Most importantly, I had to think of a case to deceive the masses into thinking that she had committed suicide.

It was already past 10 in the morning and I killed her some time between four to five.

I would have to hurry in order to trick the coroner. If I leave her corpse until nighttime, it would be too late.

The thought of the girl’s disguise struck me.

I ran to the storeroom.

My wife cut her hair short a year ago, but she ended up hating it so she wore a wig for half a year.

I found it after some time, along with a white bedsheet. I tossed them over a mirror and it did look similar to a female ghost.

A female ghost committing suicide sounded like a good idea.

I grabbed a handbag to store these items before dragging her corpse into the bathroom.

I put her stained clothes back on and gave her a thorough wash.

I removed the boot lining and the plastic bag and hid them in a spare cabinet. I was going to dispose of them after this was over.

I stuffed the girl back into the snakeskin bag before carrying it together with the other handbag and her mobile phone.

I walked down the fire escape to get to my car.

I retrieved the spare tire from the hidden compartment and hid the snakeskin bag in there.

I switched the tires and kept the punctured one in the boot. It was almost 11 by the time I finished.

My first destination wasn’t her office but the bustling business street.

I got off my car, walked toward Vivo mobile specialty store, and pulled their mascot, an inflatable doll, aside.

“What are you doing, brother?” the man in the costume asked.

“Do you wanna sell your costume? ” I asked.

“This belongs to the company, not me. What do you want it for?” he questioned.

“I’m planning a proposal with this. Can I borrow it for a day? Just today?” I pleaded.

“Fine, but let me ask my boss first, okay?” he said.

...

A few minutes later, I managed to rent the costume with 2500 dollars.

1500 was the deposit, 500 was the rental fee and another 500 for the salary of the mascot.

I was taken aback by the size of the air pump that came with the costume.

I stuffed the items into my car and drove to the newspaper company, eventually stopping outside a snack shop.

I paid the shopkeeper 50 dollars for electricity and also parking.

I plugged in the air pump, put the costume on, and opened the back of my car.

I stuffed the tripod, snakeskin bag, and the handbag into the inflatable costume.

Passersby looked on curiously but ultimately dismissed me.

The air started to fill up and the shopkeeper shouted for me to plug the air pump out.

I closed the boot and walked toward the newspaper company, carrying the snakeskin bag vertically inside my suit.

I was stopped by the guards.

“What are you doing?” they shouted.

“The advertisement photograph wasn’t approved so I’m here to retake it. I’ve already worn my costume to save some time,” I explained.

“Show your face, give your contact, name and identification card,” they demanded.

“I don’t have the pump with me, brother. My costume will deflate if I remove the top. Time is precious, as you know. My name is Wang Dazhuang, my identification number is 3303*********0629 and my contact number is 158*****5678. News wait for no man,” I threw out some numbers, somewhat reversed from my own personal details.

“Who’s receiving you?” they asked.

“Wang Xiaomei. Must I tell you her phone number as well?” I asked as I attempted to fish her phone out of my pocket.

“I know her. Tell me your name, contact and ID number again, and I’ll record them. Did you wear this all the way here? Impressive,” they said.

I repeated the numbers and entered the building successfully.

As expected, there were many people inside but practically none outside of the building.

I found a blind spot outside amidst the shrubs.

After double checking that there really was no cameras, I opened the seal of the inflatable costume.

I opened the snakeskin bag slightly and threw the girl’s body into the shrubs.

The coast was clear so I got out of the costume, stuffed it into the handbag, and took the tripod out.

I entered the office with a handbag in one hand and the tripod in another. No one came over to question my identity. They were too busy discussing what to have for lunch.

I figured that the canteen was on the second floor so I took the lift, alone, to the top floor.

Upon arriving at the highest level, I entered the toilet room.

There weren’t cameras in there for sure so I started changing.

I draped the white bedsheet over my body and put the wig on before going back out, carrying the tripod.

I hung my head low and walked to the roof access, only to find that it was locked.

Annoyed, I fiddled with the knob before kicking the door forcefully.

It created a lot of noise, but no one noticed.

It was already 12 pm and everyone was in the canteen having lunch.

I arrived at the roof with the tripod.

I pointed the tripod in the general location of her corpse, but I made sure that it was deliberately away from the position where I was going to jump off.

When that was done, I secured her unlocked phone on top of the tripod.

I opened the company chat group and sent, “Work is too exhausting. I’m sorry, everyone. I’m going to jump. Don’t stop me.”

The chatroom blew up instantly.

I tried adjusting the phone upward, but the view was limited.

I started the record button and made myself enter the shot for a few seconds before hiding at a corner of the roof to keep the disguise.

I knew that I couldn’t go down immediately since there were cameras pointing toward the roof entrance.

The ‘girl’ had already jumped and I would be instantly exposed if I were to go down right away.

I waited for a short while and a group of people swarmed to the roof.

“Did she really jump?”

“But there’s no one here?”

“Look at that tripod. She has one, too.”

“That’s her phone!”

“It’s recording right now. Go save it.”

“Quick, take a look.”

“Look down. Call the security.”

“Wait, is that a body in the shrubs?”

As the crowd was focusing on the phone, I snuck out from the side to join them.

People started calling the cops and soon enough, police cars and an ambulance arrived downstairs.

It was about time. The police’s first reaction was to seek out a firsthand witness.

They had the crowd go down and I blended in with them.

Because there were many of them, I was easily concealed.

I quickly left the company with my handbag, returned the costume, and drove to the car repair shop.

I dropped my car off and flagged down a cab to pick my wife from work.

The next day, the news reported that the girl had killed herself because of work pressure. I read the headlines in satisfaction.

...

Half a month has passed and everything has quietened down.

People are spearheading a campaign to reduce working hours and stress.

No one knows the truth.

That is my story.

My secret.

“Why’s there a bag of things in the toilet cabinet, Hubby?”