Chapter Twelve: The Ring

Having figured this out, Lin Ran hurried toward the secret room where he had found the mask. As he passed the children's bedroom in the victim's house, he glanced in almost absentmindedly. A flash of blue light swept across, and Lin Ran suddenly stopped in his tracks. He thought he had caught something out of the corner of his eye and, puzzled, turned back toward the room.

He stepped inside, carefully surveying the furnishings. The room was simply appointed: just a large bed, a desk, and a wardrobe about two meters tall. Positioned behind the door, the wardrobe was still quite conspicuous due to its size.

A seal strip had been placed across the wardrobe, and it was precisely this that drew Lin Ran's attention. The wardrobe looked old—though well preserved and still largely intact. Yet, to Lin Ran, its design seemed odd: one side rounded, the other flat. It looked… it looked like a giant coffin standing upright. No wonder he found it unsettling.

With this thought, Lin Ran slowly raised the ultraviolet lamp in his hand and shone it over the wardrobe. When he saw what appeared on the surface, he involuntarily took a sharp breath. The wardrobe was covered in bloody handprints—women's handprints—dense and overlapping, stretching all the way to the top.

Suppressing his shock, Lin Ran fetched a chair and placed it in front of the wardrobe. Only by standing on it could he barely see the top. There, he found a large, dried pool of blood and bloody handprints, the stains deeply absorbed into the wood. Lin Ran frowned, staring at the evidence, his mind racing with possibilities—what had happened atop this wardrobe?

Could it be? Was the top of this wardrobe where the murderer hid? If so, how did the killer get in? How had they sustained their injuries? If not, then whose blood was this? Countless thoughts flickered through Lin Ran’s mind.

He lifted the miniature recorder clipped to his collar and documented everything. Climbing down from the chair, he had to admit that everything he’d seen today had shaken him to his core—none of it made sense in his eyes.

“I told you not to live here, but you wouldn’t listen. Now you’re dead! All dead! That was her place. Anyone who lives in her place will die! That place was cursed by her!”

“Heh, I told you not to stay! I warned you! Now you’re dead, but you can’t blame me! Hahaha! Heh heh!”

Her? Suddenly, the crazy old man’s words flashed through Lin Ran’s mind like lightning. Who was this “her” the old man spoke of? Could she be the one who left these bloody handprints? The thought struck Lin Ran as bizarre but plausible. Even if he wasn’t sure the handprints belonged to the woman the old man mentioned, there must be some connection.

After stepping down from the chair, Lin Ran shone the ultraviolet lamp under the wardrobe. If there were bloody handprints above, there should be blood below as well. Sure enough, he found several handprints underneath the wardrobe—though mostly, there were the footprints of two children, which partly covered the handprints. Without looking closely, they would have gone unnoticed.

Following the direction of the handprints, the trail thinned out and disappeared at the edge of the bed—precisely the spot where the two children had lain dead. Lin Ran frowned, staring at where the handprints vanished, deep in thought. Was it mere coincidence, or…?

He couldn’t figure out the crucial link. Suddenly recalling something, he quickly headed toward the room where he had found the mask.

It was still pitch black inside; nothing could be seen. Lin Ran switched on the light. The contents of the room were unchanged—the talisman papers scattered on the floor and pasted to the walls were still there. Lin Ran turned off the light and swept the floor and walls with his ultraviolet lamp.

He had expected some major discovery in this room, but to his disappointment, there wasn’t so much as a bloody fingerprint—no trace of blood at all. Of all the rooms, this was the last one he would have expected to be so spotless, and its cleanliness felt almost unnatural.

Even the spot where the mask had been placed was devoid of any marks. Unwilling to give up, Lin Ran swept the room once more, convinced he must have missed something, but the result was the same—nothing.

Just as he was about to abandon his search for clues, a chill crept up Lin Ran’s back, making his hair stand on end as if danger were near. He looked around warily. Years of police academy training had honed his instincts, and now he felt a vague unease, though he couldn’t identify its source. One thing he was sure of—it wasn’t coming from in front of him.

He shifted the ultraviolet lamp slightly, its beam falling behind him. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of something—a woman’s shadow standing right behind him. Instantly, the hair on the back of his neck bristled, and without thinking, he bolted for the door, hand groping along the wall.

Instead of finding the light switch, his hand clasped something icy cold—a hand.

“Damn!” The moment he touched it, Lin Ran felt his soul nearly leave his body. He shuddered and cursed involuntarily, instinctively retreating to the other side of the wall, the ultraviolet lamp trembling in his grasp.

A ghastly pale woman’s face flashed before his eyes. Even with all the intense training at the academy, Lin Ran couldn’t withstand such a shock; he collapsed onto the floor in terror.

Suddenly, the room’s lights came on with a snap. The glare was so intense Lin Ran couldn’t open his eyes at first and instinctively shielded them. His pupils quickly adjusted, and as he looked up at the doorway, he saw Guo Ting standing there.

“Guo Ting?”

“Lin Ran? Are you all right?” Guo Ting ran over, her face full of concern.

Seeing who it was, Lin Ran finally let out a sigh of relief. A wave of weakness swept through him, leaving him almost unable to speak. His forehead was slick with sweat, and though only seconds had passed, it felt like centuries.