Xu Xu took the key. It was an ordinary steel spring lock key with a red coil tied on it and a card hanging on it that read "Your Treasure".
"Is this the wrong key?" he asked.
"The key should be right," Jing Chu said, "but this coil is wrong."
"Oh, what's wrong?"
Jing Chu said that she tied the coil with a double-button knot. But the knot in front of her was a single-button knot, and the color of the red thread was wrong.
"It has been almost two years since the red thread was tied up, and the color has faded, but this red thread is very bright."
Hearing what Jing Chu said, Xu Xu also felt that there might be something wrong with the key, so he proposed to try first to see if he could open the storage room door.
As a result, after trying it, the key can open the door, but it is a bit astringent.
"This key is basically never used." Jing Chu said. Because it is a spare key, this key may not be used a few times a year.
Judging from what Jing Chu said, someone must have tampered with the key. The knot is wrong, which means someone has tampered with the key. For some purpose, they untied the knot on it and then tied it again. The problem is
Why did this person do this?
The presence of a knot does not hinder the use of the key. Since this person can steal the key and return it, why bother to replace the knot?
Xu Xu thought for a moment and asked, "Can you confirm that this key is the original one?"
Jing Chu shook his head: "I can't confirm this. But this key is rarely used, so it should be very new..."
Xu Xu looked at the key carefully. The key was indeed very new. The burrs on the edge and the friction marks from repairs had not been removed. It was indeed consistent with her statement. It was a new key that was rarely used.
Then Xuancheng asked her and Jin Xiaoyu to hand over the keys. He tested the switches on the door one by one, and they were able to unlock the door normally. This meant that all three keys were there and had not been lost. Moreover, both Jin Xiaoyu and Jing Chu swore to each other.
He said he always carried the key with him and never left it.
What is this going on? If in the old time and space, there would be many possible suspecting directions for permission: a professional thief could open this kind of spring lock with tools in a few minutes; or someone might have stolen the key and made a secret key... But
In this time and space, especially in Kaohsiung, these establishments cannot be established.
Except for a few veterans, no one has mastered the technology of using tools to pry open the spring lock. This is one; second, except Lingao, there is no machine to match the key. So whether it is to slip the door to pick the lock or steal the key,
All are impossible.
Now I'm having a hard time getting permission. After thinking about it, I just want to know more about the situation.
He immediately returned to the conference room and summoned together the four secretaries, the dean of academic affairs, and the two elders Xiang and Jin who frequently visited the administration building. Xuexian asked everyone one by one about their whereabouts on the day of the incident and the two days before.
"For each track, a certifier must be provided. If it cannot be proven, just say it cannot be proven."
Jin Xiaoyu couldn't hold it anymore and asked: "Are you suspecting that we all have problems? Do you want us to provide an alibi?"
Xu Xu shook his head and said: "I can't say that I am suspicious, but after the investigation so far, it is obvious that the problem lies with the three keys. And the three keys are the most accessible to only the few here, so it must have been at a certain point in time.
A certain key has left the hands of the three of you - but you don't know it. I want to find out the time when the key was lost."
Xiang Tianying said: "I understand this. Since you have been invited, we will definitely cooperate fully. In this way, I will come first. We will tell you everything we know and try to make it clear."
"I also hope that everyone can explain the situation as clearly as possible." Liang Li's eyes roamed on everyone's face, "Many times the key to solving a case lies in the small details."
So starting with Xiang Tianying, the seven people recounted the three-day itinerary one by one. Xu Xu said: "If you can't remember or recall anything clearly, please make it clear and he will record it exactly as it is."
This conversation lasted for more than two hours. Even lunch was brought back from the canteen by Xiaoxiang, and a group of people ate in the conference room.
Xu Xu took the trouble to record all the narrative situations one by one. Finally, he asked: "Is there anything suspicious on campus recently?"
"Speaking of suspicious situations, it was the dark shadow at midnight yesterday. I just said it. But this person insists on saying that it is me who is causing trouble." Jin Xiaoyu said angrily.
"Oh, I saw it too. This shadow is indeed suspicious." Quan Quan turned to Xiang Tianying, "You told Jin Xiaoyu that the shadow is a campus legend, so you mean there have been similar shadows before?"
Xiang Tianying was helpless and nodded: "Yes, I have heard such sighting news several times. It has been a month. But it is just a rumor. I personally have never seen any black shadow.
of."
"Tell me these rumors."
Xiang Tianying turned around and went out, and soon brought a notebook.
"I specially use this to record all kinds of local weird stories. The school also collected a lot of them..."
"I didn't expect you to have such a hobby?" Xu Xu looked surprised, "Are you planning to write ghost stories in the future?"
"No, I just have a collecting habit. I like unprocessed first-hand materials." Xiang Tianying said proudly, "Not only all kinds of weird stories, but also nursery rhymes and the like. I also collect them. Just say
Our Kaohsiung National School has a very short history, and there are quite a lot of strange stories. I have collected more than 20 of them. Some of them are quite interesting, such as this one: 'The 17th Step'
, and this 'flying pineapple with human head', 'the fourth torch cage on the playground'..."
Jin Xiaoyu couldn't help but interrupt him: "Stop talking about this now, let's talk about the black shadow!"
"Sorry, sorry, I got distracted just talking about this." Xiang Tianying apologized, "I'll just say it. It happened about two months ago..."
At that time, the Kaohsiung City Police Department sent a letter informing them that the West Third Alley of Guanghua Road, which is just outside the school gate, has been frequently haunted recently. Passers-by often witness black shadows flashing in the alley after sunset, because West Third Alley of Guanghua Road is actually the west side of the school.
Outside the wall, the Kaohsiung Police Department said that there may be gangsters or "protest" activities. They were afraid that it would be unsafe for day students to leave school and walk at night, so they suggested that the school cancel evening self-study and let students go home early.
In addition, the school has seniors living there, and the security force should be strengthened. The Kaohsiung Police Department proposed to send more security police to the school to strengthen the security force.
The cancellation of evening self-study classes and the increase of police officers because of "haunting" were of course flatly rejected by Xiang Tianying, a materialist.
The chief refused flatly, so the police station was naturally unable to use force. However, because this matter might involve senior officials, the police station also reported it to Wei Bachi.
Wei Bachi knew Xiang Tianying's temper, so he didn't force it anymore. The matter was over.
"It just passed like this? This is a major safety hazard." Xu Xu was surprised, "I didn't even know!"
"What's going on? I'm either a fool or a thief walking at night." Jin Xiaoyu said, "How can the school cancel the evening self-study because of such mysterious things?"
Xu Xu didn't think so and continued to ask, "Tell me carefully what's going on with this haunting."
Xiang Tianying flipped through his notebook and continued
It first happened when a vendor who went to the school's snack street to sell wontons closed his stall and passed by the entrance of West Third Alley of Guanghua Road with a load. Suddenly he saw a dark shadow flashing in the alley. He originally thought it was a wild cat or something, but he didn't.
He took it seriously. But then there was a scream in the alley, which was extremely sad. The vendor quickly put down his burden and went to the police. When the police came, they searched the alley and found nothing.
On one side of West Third Alley of Guanghua Road is the west wall fence of Kaohsiung National School, on the east side is the wall of the warehouse of Kaohsiung Monopoly Bureau, and at the bottom of the alley is wasteland. In order to facilitate security work, the city government blocked the bottom of the alley with a bamboo fence, so this
It's a dead end alley.
The police did not find any injured people, corpses or blood stains or any other remnants in the alley. The police thought that the vendor was hallucinating, but when they asked the teachers and students in the school and the personnel on duty in the warehouse, almost everyone said they heard the noise.
screamed.
Now the police, who were originally dealing with the incident, had to devote their energy to the investigation. However, there was no breakthrough in the investigation from the beginning.
Whether it is the west wall fence of the Kaohsiung National School or the warehouse wall of the Kaohsiung Monopoly Bureau, the height is more than three meters. The fence is made of rotary bricks and is very strong. There are bamboo thorns on the top of the wall. Let alone climbing with bare hands, you can only climb with a ladder.
It is difficult to climb over. The bamboo fence looks simple, but the thick bamboos are intertwined and very strong. And the gaps between them cannot allow people to pass through. In the end, the top of the fence wall is completely sharpened and baked hard. Climb over it.
If you are not careful, you may break your stomach and intestines.
Obviously, the person who screamed did not climb over the wall to enter the school or warehouse. As for the fence at the back door of the alley, the difficulty of climbing over was not necessarily lower than that of the school.
Of course, this alone is not enough to prove that it is "haunted." The problem is that it rained on the night of the incident, and there were no traces on the unhardened alley except for the footprints of the police who went in to search.
.
Two days later, something strange happened again in the alley. There was a strange "totototo" sound in the evening, as if someone was hitting something with a wooden stick. It happened that two or three students got up in the middle of the night and heard
The young man's heart was like a newborn calf, not afraid of tigers. He remembered the "haunted" legend a few days ago, so they went to the west wall to check it out.
This sight was incredible. According to their incoherent and frightened description afterwards: there was a huge ghost standing in the alley that was more than ten feet tall and with arms six feet long. As soon as the "ghost" saw him, he ran towards him and took a step forward.
Just a few feet away, some of them were so frightened that they fled all the way back to the dormitory, locked the door, got into bed and trembled. The next day, one of them was so frightened that he became seriously ill.