Seeing the black oil ash words on the mirror, I immediately thought of that eerie female corpse that had escaped from the incinerator halfway through burning.
In the past two years as a corpse carrier, I had also dealt with several corpses at fire scenes and had seen this unique black oil ash on corpses.
This kind of black oil ash is not common in reality, and anyone with experience can recognize it immediately.
Once I realized what it was, I immediately ran back to the room to check on Jiang Lixin's situation.
Jiang Lixin wasn't dead. She was just in a deep sleep. I pushed her a few times and she woke up. "Chen Feng, what are you doing? I'm so sleepy."
"Let's go. It's not safe here. We need to leave right away."
"What's not safe? This is a five - star hotel. It's very safe." Jiang Lixin lay in bed and refused to get up.
I just grabbed her and pulled her up, then dragged her to the bathroom.
Seeing the words on the mirror, Jiang Lixin was wide awake. She let out a scream and ran back to the room. Before I could stop her, she called the hotel's front desk. After scolding them, she dialed 110 to report the incident.
The hotel staff originally thought we were victims of a prank by a previous guest. There had been similar pranks online where people wrote on mirrors with lemon juice.
The words written with lemon juice are invisible, and they only appear when there's steam in the bathroom after taking a hot shower, scaring the guests.
But when two hotel staff members knocked on the door and came in, they were stunned when they saw the words written in black oil ash on the mirror. They had never seen such a situation before!
Since seeing the black words, Jiang Lixin had been in a fit of rage. She bombarded the staff members who came to the room with a barrage of words, and I couldn't hold her back.
The two staff members were thoroughly scolded. One of them tried to wipe off the black words, but when he touched them, the words didn't change at all.
The room instantly fell silent, and Jiang Lixin stood there, stunned.
I stepped forward and took a closer look. A chill ran down my spine.
The black words weren't written on the surface of the mirror, but inside it. It looked as if someone had stuck their finger into the glass and written the words from the inside.
This couldn't be explained as a prank, and it defied normal scientific logic.
There is no technology that can penetrate the glass and deposit the paint deep inside the mirror, especially this sticky, paste - like black oil ash.
Just as we were all at a loss, the police from the nearby police station and the hotel manager arrived.
Seeing this strange situation, the hotel manager couldn't hold it in anymore. He suspected that Jiang Lixin and I were sent by competitors to cause trouble or extort money, and he wanted to report us to the police for deliberately damaging the hotel's property.
He also said that the hotel's mirror was a high - end custom - made product from abroad, and the amount he reported was enough for the police to open a case.
The situation got out of hand. Jiang Lixin and I were taken to the police station to give statements, and the police also called for technical inspectors to get involved.
Jiang Lixin and I were brought to the police station. Just as we walked into the corridor of the office building, we heard a familiar voice: "Chen Feng, why is it you again?!"
It was the criminal policeman. He came here to pick up some materials today and happened to run into me entering the police station.
The middle-aged criminal policeman saw me, his face looking a bit grim. "Don't tell me there's another death?"
He must think of me as a bad omen. Does it mean a death wherever I go?
"No one died. I just encountered something strange," I said helplessly.
"Tell me about it. The two cases related to you are still unsolved. Maybe this is a new clue," he said.
I was taken to the questioning room and reluctantly told the whole story. The middle-aged criminal policeman frowned as he listened.
After hearing me out, he went out without a word to make a phone call. When he came back, his face was full of confusion.
"You and your girlfriend can leave. The hotel said they'll bear the losses themselves. They'll also refund last night's room fee. They won't pursue any claims or lawsuits. The condition is that you keep today's incident a secret."
"What on earth is going on?" I got even more panicked by their attitude.
The middle-aged criminal policeman sighed and told us what he knew.
The police technicians had removed the mirror for inspection, and the results shocked them.
The black oil ash taken from the broken mirror contained human fat particles and flesh and blood tissues, and most of it was the residual protein after incineration and carbonization.
That was the substance left after a human body was roasted at high temperature.
What shocked the technicians even more, was that although the black oil ash was mainly concentrated on the silver-painted surface of the mirror, it was also distributed inside the glass.
To put it in an inappropriate analogy, it was like someone dipped their fingers in the black oil ash and wrote on the mirror. They treated the glass as clear water, simply inserting their fingers into it, writing on the inner side of the silver paint and leaving the black oil ash in the "clear water".
This description was easy to understand and vivid.
The problem was that glass was a solid substance, neither clear water nor jelly. Writing inside the glass like this was simply beyond the reach of current technological means.
No wonder the hotel suddenly changed its attitude. This was obviously a supernatural event.
For the hotel, if such an incident got out, its business would definitely take a nosedive and the losses would be huge. After all, no one would want to stay in a haunted hotel.
The immediate trouble was solved, but I couldn't be happy at all.
I originally thought that after going to Dashan Temple, everything would be settled. I didn't expect that I still couldn't get rid of the entanglement of that female corpse. Those words in the mirror must have been left by her.
Jiang Lixin and I walked out of the police station one after another. Standing on the street outside the police station, I felt so lost that I didn't know what to do next.
Jiang Lixin stared blankly at the street scene without saying a word. I knew in my heart that after such a terrifying experience, Jiang Lixin would definitely break up with me.
"Well, if you want to break up with me, I have no objection. I've gotten involved with this female corpse. You'll just have bad luck if you stay with me. It's better for you to keep your distance," I said.
Hearing my words, Jiang Lixin turned to look at me. "Chen Feng, what kind of person do you think I am? I'm just thinking about how I can help you."
"You have a way?" I was like a drowning man grabbing at a lifesaver.
"I know a very powerful witch. Let me take you to her and give it a try," Jiang Lixin said.
"Okay."
"I've got no other choices now. I'll try anything that might work."
"Should we call Huang Po? He's with me. I'm worried that the female corpse has targeted him too."
"Then let's go together."
Half an hour later, we drove to the housing estate where Huang Po lived. We picked him up and were ready to go to the neighboring city to find that powerful witch Jiang Lixin mentioned.
As the car drove out of the underground parking lot and turned the corner of the housing estate, a black cat suddenly jumped out from the flowerbed and landed on the front hood of the engine. It hissed and growled at me through the windshield.
I quickly stepped on the brake and recognized that the black cat in front of me was the one I had seen in the traffic police team's parking lot before.
The black cat kept hissing and growling at me, and surprisingly, I understood what it meant: Don't go.
I instinctively unbuckled my seat - belt, pushed open the car door, and got out to drive the black cat away.
Who would have known that just as I got out of the car, a pleasant female voice came from behind me: "Chen Feng, don't go. Whatever you do, don't go."
What the heck? Did that black cat just talk?