Originally, I always thought that Mr. Tang, who was flowery, would be silenced because of my scare and Hu Zongren. But a few days after we received the commission paid by Manager Xiao, Manager Xiao called and said that the police had heard about the violence between me and Hu Zongren that night, but because we really helped their company solve the problem of the toilet haunted, they also blocked it for us.

After thanking Manager Xiao and his company, Hu Zongren and I kept a low profile for a few days, but we received the case transferred by the Xuanyuan Society again. After the previous four cases, I have gradually realized that the difficulty of Xuanyuan will be getting bigger and bigger, and the size of this difficulty lies not in the length of time, but in the absurdity of its own nature. And when Hu Zongren called me and asked me to accompany him out of Lu to meet someone, I realized that in the remaining 20 cases, I don't know what kind of difficulties are waiting for us.

Hu Zongren didn't tell me clearly what was going on on the phone, because he himself seemed to understand what he didn't understand. We found the client in a fast food restaurant in Jiefangbei, in a quiet corner where there were few people.

The client, surnamed Fan, was a male who looked to be about 40 years old, not tall but strong. Although the weather has gradually cooled down, it is not yet to the point of wearing a coat. The fast food restaurant is air-conditioned, and even so, it still feels a little hot because of the high flow of people. This Mr. Fan was dressed tightly, and he also wore a pair of toad glasses that covered most of his face. When I met him, my first reaction was that if he didn't have a more obvious skin disease, he must not want to be recognized.

After Hu Zongren and I sat down, we introduced ourselves. Because it was Hu Zongren's case, I left the table and ordered the fries. When I sat back with my things, I found that the two of them hadn't even started to talk about business, but were just chatting around. After Hu Zongren saw me sit down, he said to me, "This Mr. Fan's profession is a bit similar to ours, except that he is not investigating ghosts, but the living."

I looked at him again and asked him if Mr. Fan was a plainclothes policeman. Because after what happened last time, I had a sense of fear that the police would appear somewhere. Mr. Fan said he was not, he was a private investigator.

The so-called private investigation is just a rhetoric. In our country's system, non-professional functional departments are not allowed to engage in investigation and case work, so in many cases, they call themselves "private investigators", to put it bluntly, the so-called private detectives. I often see similar small advertisements on some telephone poles or building crossings or even on the body of tricycles, such as "evidence collection", "marital investigation", "professional debt collection" and so on. Strictly speaking, people like them are walking in a gray area, because after all, their profession is the same as ours, they are not above board, and their means are not necessarily upright, such as debt collection, which is nothing more than putting on a company name and hiring a legal counsel, and doing it is still a triad thing. It's just that it doesn't kill people and set fires, it's just appropriate pressure, but the essence is the same.

So when I learned about his true profession, I fully understood the reason for his unusual appearance, and because we who are also marginalized people feel a little bit of intimacy. Mr. Fan said that his job is mainly to investigate some marital news, and more ordinary, to check whether there is anyone in the husband and wife who has come out of the closet, and then take photos or audio recordings as evidence in exchange for commissions, his client is often one of the husband and wife, and when the basic trust between husband and wife no longer exists, people like him come in handy. Mr. Fan said that this is a sad phenomenon, but because of this, he has made money.

Mr. Fan also said that if it is more complicated, it will also investigate the financial situation of the couple, such as whether there is a private property, or the company's accounts. Mr. Fan told us that, in general, all of his investigations are based on mutual distrust between people, and the evidence collected in the investigation is to help the employer bring down the other, and they will not help solve the problem, but will just dig deep until the other party is helpless.

I must admit that I still appreciate this kind of work attitude, but I personally can't agree with it. At this level, there is still a difference in the nature of our professions, Mr. Fan just needs to find evidence, and even if we don't have evidence, we have to help solve the problem. Mr. Fan told us that half a month ago he received a commission for an investigation, which was originally the most common kind between husband and wife, to put it simply, his wife suspected that his husband was having an affair, so he commissioned an investigation. Mr. Fan said that the family's economic conditions are not bad, and there is a garment store of their own in the business district of Jiefangbei, and the garment store is mainly managed by her husband, while his wife provides secondary processing and production, and opens a garment factory, mainly to supply. On the surface, the division of labor between the two is very reasonable, but in fact, the economy is independent because of this, which is easy to distrust between husband and wife. Mr. Fan told us that the wife, surnamed Yang, said that her husband would come home late every night, and that the store usually closes at 6 p.m., and that she often smells perfume on her husband's clothes. At the beginning, she suspected that her husband was having an affair, so she quietly checked her husband's phone records, but found nothing.

Hu Zongren said that if today's men really want to steal food, how can they leave phone records. I know that when he said this, he thought of the matter of Mr. Tang some time ago, and what he said was that this kind of man with money, just like a cat, how can he guarantee that he will not steal fish. Mr. Fan went on to say that after that, she secretly followed her husband, only to find that he was locked in the store after it closed, and no one knew what Lu Dao was doing inside. Ms. Yang told Mr. Fan that the store had a back door, and outside the back door was a small alley with not many people, and she suspected that her husband secretly let women in through the back door to cheat during the period after the store was closed. But she said that if she rashly questioned her, she might be startled, so she entrusted Mr. Fan to investigate.

Hu Zongren and I didn't speak, because it was not part of our area of expertise. Mr. Fan went on to say that when he took over the business, he also asked Ms. Yang if her husband had any other abnormal behavior besides coming home late at night and the strange smell of perfume on his body. Ms. Yang said that there was nothing else, it was normal to talk or something, but the relationship between the husband and wife seemed a little cold, after all, she had been married for more than ten years, but when she had doubts in her heart, these signs were very specific. Mr. Fan investigates after receiving half of the commission, and he lifts his coat to show us that there is something pinned to his suit that looks like a Walkman, which he says is a secret tape recorder. After following up and investigating for several days, he found that this man did not have any abnormal behavior, and as a professional, if it was really as Ms. Yang said, if her husband let the woman in after closing the store, he would not be able to detect it. Moreover, in the voice recorded by the tape recorder, during the time when the store was closed, only Ms. Yang's husband's voice seemed to be talking to someone, and his words were indeed very ambiguous, but he didn't hear the woman's voice.

Mr. Fan took out his tape recorder, took out another pair of earplugs, plugged them in, and handed the two earbuds to me and Hu Zongren respectively, and asked us to put them on. He said listen carefully to this voice, and that's why I'm looking for you both.

After Hu Zongren and I put it on, Mr. Fan pressed the play button and turned up the sound to the maximum, and a man said in a very gentle voice: "Don't be upset, I'll stay with you for a longer time today, I'll go back later" After a while, he said: "You look so good in this dress, it's so beautiful." After a while, he said, "I don't have anything to do, I just want to spend more time with you and see you more." ”

These words did not match the preamble, which made Hu Zongren and I feel at a loss, so I asked Mr. Fan, where did you record this voice? He said that during the day, he would find an opportunity to sneak into the store when Mr. Fan was about to close, and then put a pinhole microphone in a pocket in the nearest row of clothes to the cash register and back door, and then find a chance to get it back the next day. If I were to analyze it, I would think that Ms. Yang's husband was secretly calling a woman after closing the door, otherwise I could only hear his voice alone. I told Mr. Fan about my suspicion, and Mr. Fan said that he thought so at first, and privately retrieved the call records of this gentleman through his own connections, although it is difficult to guarantee that he has other mobile phones, but from the records he obtained, it seems that he did not make calls during this period. So for several nights in a row, Mr. Fan has been analyzing the original recording, and finally he found a very frightening phenomenon.

At this point, Mr. Fan rewinds the tape recorder by a few dozen seconds, which is about the same length we just heard. Then I pressed the button of noise cancellation and FM repeatedly, and after some tossing, let us listen again. After he pressed play, I heard the gentleman's tone in the headphones had become very strange, very much like the feeling of being very low and slow when I was playing a cassette tape when I was a kid and the battery was out. So I carefully discerned that after the gentleman finished the first sentence, a normal, small but clear female voice came: "It's good that you can accompany me, so that I won't be lonely." ”

Then there was a burst of the gentleman's voice after changing his voice, and then a female voice: "No matter how beautiful it is, I don't have a chance to wear it." It was another gentleman's, and the female voice reappeared: "Come and hold me, okay?" ”

This was followed by another rustling of electricity, and then a woman's sneering voice was heard:

"Hmph...", the voice is a little louder, and it feels like it's close at hand.