Wei Jie's facial features were originally good, but due to years of poor sleep and neurasthenia, his face looked a bit fierce, serious and tired. Wei Guangming asked him to come down to meet Chen Yang and others. In front of his father, Wei Jie's attitude was quite good. As soon as Wei Guangming left, he showed an unwelcome expression.
Wei Jie held a bunch of keys and said, "Come on, I'll take you to the fifth floor to see the painting." He then walked upstairs, reminding them as he walked, "You'd better not touch the collections on the fifth floor. They are very precious and rare. If they are missing or damaged, it will be difficult to get them again."
Chen Yang followed behind him and asked directly, "Mr. Wei, it seems that you don't like outsiders to visit the collection hall?"
"Just call me Wei Jie. No one likes those greedy rats who covet their own property. As long as they see the things in the collection hall and understand the value of the things inside, even fear will quickly turn into greed." Wei Jie seemed to remember the greedy faces of those people in the past, and he was disdainful and disgusted. He continued: "I know that old man Wei invited you to come to deal with the murderer who killed the security guard, but if you ask me, the security guard deserved to die. Who made him covet the things in the collection hall and even wanted to steal those treasures!"
Chen Yang: "He died in such a strange way, it's very likely that an evil spirit was at work."
"It's just words that can be spoken, who knows whether it's true or not. Ha, of course you are all heavenly masters, so it's normal that you would first suspect evil spirits. But if it's really an evil spirit, then why haven't we who go in and out of the collection gallery every day died yet? The painting has been hanging in the collection gallery for nearly a month, and nothing has happened to us who live in the gallery." Wei Jie sneered and stepped onto the stairs to the third floor.
Chen Yang glanced at the door of the collection room on the third floor. The door was locked with an ordinary big lock. But there was an anti-theft door and an electronic lock behind the door, so even through the door, the collection inside could not be seen. He looked away and said, "I heard that you often hear hallucinations."
"Just taking medicine. Those medicines for treating neurasthenia can cause hallucinations," he stopped and turned around and said, "Qi Yin told you?" He could guess without waiting for the answer: "She always likes to show her motherly side in front of outsiders. Tsk, she is younger than me and she is rushing to be a stepmother. Did she describe me as a mentally ill patient with hallucinations in front of you with a pitiful and innocent expression? I just have trouble sleeping, and it has nothing to do with those supernatural events. She claims that she does not believe in supernatural ghosts and gods, but she likes to play tricks."
Wei Jie continued to walk up the stairs: "There is only the old man in the house who is talking nonsense, and there are two little brats who pretend to be ghosts every day to attract attention. You'd better not be misled. You won't find anything in the museum."
Kou Xuanling and Chen Yang looked at each other and asked, "Before we accepted the order, Mr. Wei mentioned to us that there have been many strange supernatural events in the museum in the past month. Specifically, things that were originally placed fell down or appeared in another place for no reason, or electrical equipment that was originally turned off suddenly turned on again. Especially the dead security guard, his death was so weird, don't you have any doubts at all?"
"Of course I doubt it, but I won't blame it on ghosts. I will only suspect people with ulterior motives. Qi Yin manages the electrical appliances in the house. She said it herself. Who knows if it's true or not. As for things falling for no reason or appearing in another place, it's easier to say. Wei Zhizhi is uneducated. It must be her doing."
Mao Xiaoli frowned: "Zhizhi is still a child under five years old. Even if she is playing tricks, she doesn't have the energy to do this every day." She didn't like Wei Jie pointing all the conflicts at Qi Yin and her son because of personal feelings, especially pushing those supernatural events onto a five-year-old child and throwing dirty water on her without hesitation.
Wei Jie looked back at Mao Xiaoli with a strange look in his eyes, then smiled, which was short-lived and quickly disappeared: "Wei Zhizhi has a mother like that, she is smarter and more cunning than anyone else."
Arriving at the fifth floor, he stopped in front of the door and used the key to open it. Then he used fingerprint and facial recognition to open the electronic door and said proudly as he walked in, "The old man and I are the only ones in the family who can use fingerprint and facial recognition to open the door to the fifth floor. Others can only open the doors to the third and fourth floors. Qi Yin, that woman, doesn't even have the qualifications to step onto the third floor. She tried so hard, but who knew she was nothing in the old man's heart."
Hearing him belittling Qi Yin every three sentences, it seemed that there was a grudge. Chen Yang whispered behind him: "Guess... what's the grudge?"
"Cheating.", "Being cuckolded.", "Former lover became stepmother.", "Thought they were children, but turned out to be siblings." Everyone's answers were almost the same, and Chen Yang high-fived them in tacit understanding.
They walked into a three-meter-long corridor with a door inside. Wei Jie opened it and walked in, followed by everyone else. It was pitch black inside, and the light came on with a click. Mao Xiaoli took a step back when she saw what she was facing, and couldn't help but curse: "Fuck!"
Chen Yang's face was not looking good either. No wonder Mao Xiaoli swore. Anyone who looked up and saw a soapy female corpse would be upset. In front of him was a two-meter-long and one-meter-high glass box, in which was a soapy female corpse. There was also a sign outside the box introducing the origin and value of the female corpse.
The soap woman corpse is considered a type of mummy, and the body is well preserved. The formation of a soap corpse requires a special environment. When the soil, humidity and temperature are suitable, the fat and water of the body decompose to form corpse wax. The corpse wax squeezes out the water in the human body, making it impossible for the fungi that decompose the corpse to survive, thus perfectly preserving the body. However, the formation of a soap corpse requires the whole body to be covered with corpse wax, so enough fat is needed, that is, the body must be obese.
The soap woman corpse in front of us was dug out from a tomb and is three hundred years old. The more well-known soap woman corpse was stored in an American museum a hundred years ago and according to investigation, it is only two hundred years old.
Wei Jie said happily: "This soap woman corpse is the treasure of the museum, and it was also obtained by accident. Ten years ago, the old man went on a business trip to a remote mountainous area, and unexpectedly, the villagers there dug up this soap woman corpse. They thought it was ominous and wanted to burn it. Fortunately, the old man rescued it in time, spent money to buy it, shipped it back and put it on the fifth floor. Every time the museum is open, those people must come to appreciate the soap woman corpse."
The body of the soap woman was covered in corpse wax and lay on her back in a glass box. Her mouth was wide open and her facial expression was twisted and painful, as if she had been tortured before her death. She was displayed in a glass box in the collection hall, and under the dim light and dead silence, it looked scary and weird. But Wei Jie's eyes were full of appreciation and love, and most of the words he blurted out were praises, which made it look even weirder.
Zhang Qiudao came to a wall covered with human leather masks. He stood there quietly for a while and asked, "Are these all true?"
Wei Jie said, "Of course they are real. These are human face slices with a history of hundreds of years. I dare say that no one's collection can be as complete as this one. These human face slices include men, women, young and old, and come from all regions. They are very valuable for research. Of course, if you don't want the research value, you can just waste them as porn. They can make you become another person without plastic surgery." He walked to the other side of the wall and looked at the human face slices above with fascination: "Here are ten human face slices, all of them are beautiful faces with all kinds of charm."
Mao Xiaoli touched her arm, feeling creepy. She frowned and asked, "I really want to know. The Wei Collection has only been established for fifteen years. Where did you get these facial slices that are more than a hundred years old?"
Wei Jie smiled and said, "The collection hall has only been established for fifteen years, but our Wei family has been collecting these things for more than a hundred years. Perhaps it's genetic, or perhaps it's the influence of being exposed to them since childhood, we all like to collect these strange things. Of course, in the eyes of ordinary people, they look scary and they think we are all perverts. But we just like to be different. You only see their horror, but we appreciate their unknown beauty."
Mao Xiaoli whispered: "You appreciate their unknown beauty, do they agree?" Even if it is a corpse or a slice of human face, are they willing to be displayed in the exhibition box to satisfy people's inner curiosity and taste? To put it nicely, it is to discover their advantages and appreciate their beauty, but in essence, it is to satisfy the inner curiosity.
"What did you say?"
Mao Xiaoli said calmly: "Nothing."
Perhaps because he could see that everyone present looked indifferent and not very interested, Wei Jie put away his boasting and led them to the other side: "I will take you to see the painting now."
The collection hall also collected many strange things, including corpses, human bones, and sister drums made of human skin, thangkas, skull bowls, and other very bloody and brutal things. But when you walk to the other side, you will see other collections, no longer human specimens. When passing the soap woman corpse, Mao Xiaoli suddenly felt a hair on her back, and turned her head to look over. After a thorough inspection, she found nothing wrong.
The museum was so quiet that even footsteps could not be heard when no one was talking. It was completely silent. A blanket was laid on the floor. According to Wei Jie, it was because he was afraid of disturbing the things in the museum. Mao Xiaoli originally mocked him for not believing in ghosts and gods, so why would he be afraid of disturbing the things in the museum? Wei Jie answered her that in his heart these things were alive and full of charm.
This answer made Mao Xiaoli feel creepy. She turned around slowly, thinking that it might be her own psychological effect. She shook her head and followed Chen Yang and his group. Therefore, she did not notice that when she turned around, the head of the soap woman in the glass box tilted to the left with a "click", just in time to see the backs of the group leaving. And the face slices on the whole wall seemed to come alive in an instant, staring at the backs of Chen Yang and his group leaving.
Go around a wall to the east room of the collection room, and you will see the painting in the center. The painting is called "Grotesque", and it is said to be a self-portrait of the painter himself, a murderer who was shot, mixed with blood and paint. The person in the self-portrait is more like a devil, with sharp, jagged teeth, and a bloody mouth as if he had just eaten human flesh. The big ears shaped like saw teeth, the eyes like the devil, the bald head, and the appearance are grotesque and terrifying.
Just standing in front of the portrait, you can feel the bloody smell coming through the glass. Typical ominous things, the Wei family dared to collect them! But when you think about it, they can even collect soap female corpses and human face slices, it’s not surprising.
Wei Jie: "How is it? What did you figure out?"
Chen Yang pointed his finger at the glass and asked, "When did this drop of blood get on it?"
"What blood?" Wei Jie leaned over to take a look, and found a drop of scarlet blood next to the bloody mouth of the self-portrait through the glass. He was stunned for a while and then said, "It's probably the artist's original blood. This painting was originally painted by mixing his own blood with paint, so it's normal to have blood stains."
He became less confident as he spoke, and his eyes began to flicker. Since the portrait was moved into the collection room, he had come to look at it almost every two or three days. He had memorized the portrait's appearance, and he had indeed never seen this drop of blood before. He stared at the portrait carefully, and it seemed as if the portrait's mouth opened wider and the smile became more ferocious. Even the blood stains on the lips, which had long been black, seemed to have turned bright red, as if it would open its mouth in the next second to bite off the man's head and then gnaw off his body bit by bit.
He shook his head and took a few steps back: "I may have taken too much medicine and had hallucinations. There is absolutely no supernatural event. This painting is just an ordinary painting." Wei Jie was very confident and quickly convinced himself: "This drop of blood has existed before. It's nothing special."
Chen Yang: "Really? I think it was acquired later."
"Your illusion." Wei Jie suddenly turned cold and said in a sharp tone, "You can't assume that this painting can kill people just because the artist is a serial murderer! In your eyes, anything used by a dead person is ominous and evil, and a house where someone has died is a haunted house. There are often accidents on the main road outside. Can you still not cross that road just because there are accidents?"
Chen Yang's tone was still gentle: "Don't be too excited, calm down." He suddenly raised his eyes and looked at Wei Jie, who regained his composure in an instant, but felt a little regretful for his loss of composure.
"Sorry, I've been a little worried lately, and my mood has been fluctuating." Wei Jie stepped aside and tried to calm himself down. When he leaned against the wall, he suddenly heard someone calling him, "Lean to the left." He subconsciously took a step to the left, and the next second he heard a slight "huh" sound. He quickly turned around and found that the candlestick hanging on the wall had fallen down and was stuck on the ground.
If no one had warned him, the sharp tip of the candlestick would have pierced his head directly. Wei Jie stared at the candlestick on the ground, and panic gradually spread from his heart to his throat, blocking his throat and making him feel suffocated in an instant. He vaguely remembered that similar situations to today had happened many times this month, and even his second sister and second brother-in-law could not stand this kind of life-threatening accident and moved out of the collection hall yesterday.
Wei Jie reached into his pocket, took out a sedative pill and swallowed it, then took a deep breath to slowly suppress the panic that almost overwhelmed him. Then he looked at the person who reminded him, a handsome young man. He had always had little presence in the crowd, but he had a good relationship with another young man. After reminding him, he turned his back and whispered to the young man.
Wei Jie touched the medicine bottle and thought for a moment, then moved closer to Lu Xiuzhi and tried to get close to them. Chen Yang and Kou Xuanling looked at each other, secretly made a "leave it to you" gesture, and then gently signaled Zhang Qiudao and Mao Xiaoli to go to the corner to chat.
Chen Yang said to them, "Wei Jie is not mentally normal and often in a trance. He seems to have experienced the situation just now more than once. He looks panicked but surprisingly calm. But he attributed all the supernatural events to human beings, and he believed that it was Qi Yin who did it. But he is not important. The yin energy in this collection room is heavier than the yin energy on any floor of the museum. Those corpses, human face slices, human skin drums, thangkas, etc. are all entangled with wronged souls. But the most terrifying thing is the painting. The serial killer who was shot may really use blood and paintings as a medium to hide himself in the painting to escape the pursuit of the Yin Messenger. Xiaoli, try to find out if you can find the previous owner of this painting."
Mao Xiaoli: "No problem."
"Qiudao, please pay attention to Wei Zhizhi."
Zhang Qiu said, "Don't care about Qi Yin?"
Chen Yang shook his head: "Don't worry about her. Her thoughts and calculations have nothing to do with us, including her relationship with Wei Jie. The conflicts among the Wei family members have nothing to do with us, so just don't get involved." Anyway, their goal is to catch the evil spirit that is causing trouble in the collection hall, not to help the Wei family solve the puzzle.
"good."
After giving the order, Chen Yang went to look at the painting again. The more he looked at it, the more he felt that it was evil. However, he knew that there was something wrong with the painting, but he could not solve it violently. The Wei family must hope to subdue the evil spirit without damaging the painting. Faced with this situation, they could only wait for the evil spirit in the painting to run out by itself before they could solve it completely.
When thinking this, Chen Yang inadvertently saw a glass cabinet next to the painting, with a parchment scroll inside. There were scarlet characters on the parchment scroll, and a closer look revealed that the characters were all written in the Japanese language. The name of the parchment scroll was written in front of the cabinet: "Tomino's Hell", and below was a brief introduction, a horror ballad, and if you read it from beginning to end, you will be taken to hell by Tomino.
Chen Yang didn't know Japanese, so he couldn't read it even if he wanted to. Wei Jie followed Lu Xiuzhi and came over. When he saw the parchment scroll next to him, he said, "It's just a lie, a horrible song. It's just a rumor. Even if you read it from beginning to end, you won't be taken to hell. Nothing happened."
Hearing this, Chen Yang looked up and asked, "Have you read it before?"
"Of course. I understand Japanese." He read it again and said, "Look, nothing happened. The value of its collection lies in this human skin scroll. I heard that it is the skin from the back of a boy named Tomino. In the background of the horror ballad, a boy named Tomino was tortured to death by his father, and the skin from his back was scraped off to make a human skin scroll. The background may be true, but the curse is not true."
"Do you think the murders you encountered were all accidents? Isn't your fear and trepidation a reflection of being in hell?" A child's voice suddenly appeared behind them. They turned around and saw that it was Wei Zhizhi.
Wei Zhizhi held the clown doll and stared at the human skin roll in the display case expressionlessly. After hearing what she said, Wei Jie was so angry that his face trembled slightly. He roared, his voice getting louder and louder: "Wei Zhizhi, you are so weird all day long, haven't you had enough?! Who taught you this? Is it Qi Yin? Is it her!!"
Wei Zhizhi suddenly smiled and stuck out her tongue at Wei Jie: "Lululu." Wei Jie was so angry that he wanted to hit her, but she ran out. Wei Jie was so angry that he chased after her. After running out of the collection room, Wei Zhizhi slipped out from the corner and laughed, mocking Wei Jie for being a fool. She ran to Chen Yang and said seriously: "Although you lied to me that adults can't play hide-and-seek, I still like you."
Chen Yang squatted down: "Why do you like me?"
"Eh? Aren't you going to ask me who taught me to say that? They would ask when they hear me say something strange." Wei Zhizhi tilted her head in confusion, looking innocent. But the words that came out of her mouth sounded much colder: "But even if they ask, I won't tell them."
"You won't tell me even if I ask?"
Wei Zhizhi showed an embarrassment: "How about I ask them?"
"No need." Chen Yang knew from this sentence what taught her to say those evil words. He patted Wei Zhizhi's head and smiled, "Zhizhi is very obedient and very good."
Wei Zhizhi's eyes widened, and she suddenly turned around and ran out. She bumped into Wei Jie who was coming back, and he grabbed her and stopped her from running away. Wei Zhizhi struggled and cried, but Wei Jie was determined to teach her a lesson, so he grabbed her arm and asked Chen Yang and others to leave the collection room, and he was going to lock the door.
Chen Yang walked over and picked up Wei Zhizhi. His eyes were calm and oppressive, forcing Wei Jie to let go of his hand unconsciously. "Zhizhi is only five years old, so it's inevitable that she likes to play. Mr. Wei is an adult, so there's no need to vent your anger on a child."
Wei Zhizhi hugged Chen Yang and whispered, "It hurts." Her arms were bruised from being pinched.
Wei Jie: "Just let her fool you. She's just as good at lying as her mother." Wei Zhizhi was scared and nestled into Chen Yang's arms, burying her face in the crook of Chen Yang's neck. Wei Jie continued: "I can't control you. Let the old man teach you a lesson himself."
After saying that, he went downstairs, probably in a hurry to tell Wei Guangming. Chen Yang comforted him gently: "It's okay, don't be afraid."
Wei Zhizhi whispered, "I didn't mean it. I was just reminding him."
"I know."
Wei Zhizhi's voice was so low that only she could hear it: "It really was a reminder, but it's a pity that he didn't listen..."
When Chen Yang and others arrived on the first floor, they found chaos downstairs, with a mixture of cursing and wailing. They also heard Wei Guangming scolding Qi Yin: "Who told you to call an ambulance? Call my private doctor and call him again quickly!!"
Qi Yin hung up the ambulance call and called Wei Guangming's private doctor instead. When Wei Guangming saw Chen Yang and others coming down, his eyes became a little complicated when he fell on Wei Zhizhi, but he quickly returned to normal and invited them to the living room.
Chen Yang asked: "Mr. Wei, what happened?"
"It's nothing. Ajie accidentally fell from the upstairs and suffered some minor injuries." Wei Guangming described it lightly, but the actual situation was much more serious than these two casual remarks.
Later, Chen Yang and the others learned that when Wei Jie tripped and fell on the third floor, he pulled off a decoration hanging on the side in order to save himself, and the decoration fell directly to the ground below. When Wei Jie rolled down the stairs, his leg happened to be pressed on the decoration, and it was directly pierced.
The author has something to say: "Tomino's Hell" is a horror ballad. Legend has it that one will be cursed after reading it. And its background is fictitious, because there is too little information about this ballad, which is equivalent to nothing. So I made up the background.