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墨書 Inktalez
This was already the third letter of the week, and the first two had repeated the same chilling message: "Kill Shen Xu!" I stared at the brown envelope that had inexplicably appeared in my home, filled with both anger and fear. "When the first envelope arrived, my previously healthy wife suddenly died of stomach cancer for unknown reasons. When the second letter came, my child tragically died in front of me due to an accident. What is this one?! Is it my turn now?!" I mumbled to myself as I looked at the envelope.
In just one week, my closest family members had left me one after another, and I could only watch helplessly as they perished. "Shen Xu, do you really deserve to die?!" I picked up the envelope from the table and, with trembling hands, tore it open. Inside was a red card wrapped in white paper, but this time, in addition to the words "Kill Shen Xu," there was an address written below.
"Could this be where Shen Xu lives?" I thought, hesitating. Suddenly, a sharp ringtone broke through my thoughts. Startled by the unexpected sound, I hurriedly pulled out my phone to answer it. The voice on the other end belonged to my boss's secretary: "Wang Xian, there's an important meeting at three this afternoon. Prepare the proposal from last time and don't be late..." Before I could respond, she hastily hung up.
I tossed my phone onto the table and stared blankly at the letter before me, which felt like a death warrant; I had no mood for a meeting. Just as I threw my phone down, it rang again.
I impatiently set aside the envelope without looking at the caller ID and answered with irritation: "I know, I know, there's a meeting at three..." Before I could finish, a chilling scream echoed from the other end of the line, reminiscent of a wild cat's cry before death. Even though it was midday and sunny outside, I was so startled that my hands shook and the phone slipped from my grasp with a loud thud on the floor. In that empty room, even without speakerphone on, I could still hear that terrifying shriek coming from the receiver.
As I felt a chill run down my spine, that piercing scream seemed to morph into something resembling a woman's voice. Straining to listen closely, I suddenly realized that this agonizing cry sounded eerily like my deceased wife’s voice. Just as I processed this realization and bent down to pick up the phone, the sound abruptly ceased.
My movements froze as tears streamed down my face. "Could this… be a warning for me…" I sobbed softly to myself. At that moment, my mind was teetering on the brink of collapse. Yet amidst this turmoil emerged an unwavering conviction: "All of this is because of Shen Xu. I must kill him… kill him!!!"
With that thought, for some reason, my sorrow began to dissipate, replaced by a strange calmness. "If I kill him, will my life return to normal?" I muttered to myself while gathering materials for the afternoon meeting. Before leaving, I carefully placed the letter back into its envelope and took it with me.
Upon arriving at the company’s conference room, I still felt somewhat disoriented. During the meeting, all I could hear was my boss angrily calling out my name: "Wang Xian… Wang Xian! Where's the document you were supposed to prepare?!". Coming back to reality, I absentmindedly replied: "Oh… oh, I've got it right here…" and hastily pulled out some papers from my bag to hand over to him.
I don’t know how much time passed before this tedious meeting finally concluded. As we dispersed, my boss approached me and slammed a file onto the table with a loud thud: "Do you not want to work anymore? Do you realize that because of you our company lost an important client? Do you have any idea how much revenue that client would have brought us?! Now look at this—it's not just about losing money; we’re going into debt! Who do you think is responsible for this loss?!"
Hearing this made me blurt out without thinking: "It's my fault." My boss sneered: "Oh really? Then it's yours." He pulled out a pen from his pocket and grabbed a blank sheet of paper. With swift strokes he wrote something down and handed it to me: "This is an IOU; since you claim it's your fault, if you want to argue with me about it then let's take it all the way—if you're so brave then sign it."
I looked up at my boss; he held the IOU with an intimidating expression as if daring me: "I bet you won't sign it—what do you say?!"
Normally, I would have begged and pleaded in a low voice by now. But for some reason, at that moment, I snatched the IOU and pen from my boss's hand and signed my name without hesitation. Then I stood up and walked toward the conference room door. Just as I reached the doorway, something suddenly came to mind. I turned around and coldly said to my boss, who was still standing there in shock, "By the way, I'm quitting." With that, I left the company.
This series of unusual actions was so bizarre that even I couldn't believe it. As I walked along the street, I tried to question what was happening to me, but another voice inside me suppressed those thoughts. That voice kept warning me, "Kill Shen Xu, and everything will end. Nothing else matters right now; just kill him, and everything will return to normal..."
Before I knew it, I found myself at a market where I bought a knife. Then I followed the address written on a card and arrived at the area where Shen Xu lived.
Standing at Shen Xu's doorstep, I pressed the doorbell without a second thought. A moment later, the door opened to reveal a woman with a delicate and pleasant appearance. My intuition told me she couldn't possibly be Shen Xu, so I asked, "Is Shen Xu home?"
The woman looked at me with suspicion and asked, "What do you want with him?"
"Well, I'm an old friend of his and need to discuss something personal that might not be convenient to talk about in front of you. If he's home, could you please call him for me?" I forced a smile. Seeing that I was insistent on meeting Shen Xu, she replied, "I see. However, he has gone out and isn't home right now. Would you like to come in and wait for him?"
With that, she stepped back two paces to invite me inside. Not wanting to be polite any longer, I thought to myself, "I guess this is how it has to be," and entered the house. Once inside, I noticed there was another man present—a bespectacled gentleman who appeared refined. "He shouldn't ruin my plans," I thought. Originally thinking there would only be one woman was fine, but with an additional man present, a hint of concern crept into my mind.
Seeing me enter, the man stood up from the sofa and asked, "Would you like something to drink?"
"No thanks," I replied dismissively as I sat down on another sofa a bit farther away from him. After that, they didn't ask me anything further; they simply let me sit there.
Time ticked by slowly. Whether it was due to nerves or anxiety, my hand in my jacket pocket began to sweat from holding onto the knife for too long. Just as I was about to lose all patience, the front door suddenly swung open and a man walked in.
The woman who had greeted me rushed over as soon as she saw someone return. The man who had just come back spoke quietly with her while occasionally casting puzzled glances in my direction, making me feel quite uncomfortable.
After a while, it seemed their conversation concluded; the man who had just entered dismissed both the woman and the other man in the room before sitting down next to me.
At that moment, I felt a surge of agitation within me; my consciousness began to fade as if something were eroding my soul. In an instant, I could no longer sense my own existence.
"Quick, go downstairs and see what happened!" I shouted anxiously to Li Zhisheng and Hu Fang. Hu Fang still looked dazed, her expression blank. Meanwhile, Li Zhisheng had already rushed to the balcony as the gunshot rang out. He pointed downstairs and yelled, "It looks like that person from earlier! He seems to be dead. Hu Fang, take care of Shen Xu; I'm going down to check..." With that, Li Zhisheng dashed out.
Hu Fang snapped back to reality upon hearing Li Zhisheng's words. "Huh? Oh... okay, you go," she replied. I glanced at Hu Fang's bewildered face and sighed helplessly.
After about ten minutes, I started to worry as Li Zhisheng hadn't returned yet. I was considering sending Hu Fang down to check when suddenly, Li Zhisheng appeared at the door, panting heavily. "That... that guy stole a police officer's gun and committed suicide!"
"What?!" Hu Fang, who had been tending to my wounds, gasped in shock. Startled by his words, she accidentally spilled alcohol all over my injury.
In an instant, it felt as if my wound was being torn apart. I rolled on the ground in pain. "I... I can't take this anymore! If you keep this up, another life will be lost!" Seeing me in distress, Li Zhisheng hurried over to help me up and used some medical cotton to wipe away some of the alcohol. He looked at me seriously and said, "People are dying, and you still have time for games."
I shot him a glare, gritting my teeth. "Who’s playing games?" Hu Fang stood beside us with her head down, looking like a child caught doing something wrong. I didn't blame her any further and continued to ask Li Zhisheng, "What exactly happened? What did you see when you went down?"
Li Zhisheng cleared his throat. "When I went down, the guy who tried to kill you was already dead. He took advantage of the police's distraction to grab a service weapon and then shot himself. Oh, by the way, I found this next to the body..." He pulled out a brown envelope.
It was an unopened envelope with an intact wax seal on it. I took the envelope and asked, "How did you get this?!" Upon hearing my question, a smug look crossed his face. "I saw some things scattered around the body, including this one. It looked similar to the envelope you had before; I thought it might help you, so I picked it up secretly."
After hearing this, I gave Li Zhisheng a thumbs-up. "You're really clever!"
"Do you want to see what's inside?" Li Zhisheng asked without acknowledging my compliment. Although I was eager to find out what was inside right away, I remembered what was mentioned in that text message: no one else could know about it; otherwise, they would be doomed. Moreover, I firmly believed that what was stated in that text message was far more than just a simple threat.
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