The case of the "eye-digging child" that occurred many years ago is still remembered by many. This case was once referred to by netizens as a Chinese-style "unsolved mystery", but the reality was not as simple as people imagined. I dare to say this because the investigation team I was on quickly took over the case. The so-called investigation team for unsolved cases is somewhat similar to the regular major crimes unit. However, while the major crimes unit deals with various major cases, we specifically handle unsolved cases within the province that even they couldn't crack. Only cases designated as unsolved by the major crimes unit are reported to our team. Once this case was classified as unsolved and reported, the provincial authorities immediately demanded that we solve it within a week. At that time, I was just a rookie, having graduated from the police academy less than half a year ago. This case was the first one I participated in solving after graduation, so it remains vivid in my memory even after two years. For this task, our unsolved cases investigation team only dispatched three people. One was Old Ge, in his fifties. He was the veteran of our team, a forensic expert, a specialist in trace evidence, and practically a living encyclopedia in the field of criminal investigation. Another was Zhang Yihan, 24 years old, two years older than me, and a very beautiful senior colleague. She had the typical appearance of a beauty with outstanding features and long legs, but she was also known within our system for her tough personality. I was quite afraid of her because she was from the same brigade as me and often scolded me during work. Before we arrived at the scene, we had thoroughly studied the materials reported to us. Therefore, as soon as we arrived at the scene, we went straight to the scene of the crime without even going to the police station. The first crime scene we visited was where the child's eyes were dug out. Unfortunately, due to the passage of more than ten days and the large number of people who had visited the scene, the scene was severely disturbed, and the valuable clues we found were very limited. However, our unsolved cases investigation team rarely relied on the crime scene, as the cases we dealt with were usually handed over to us years after the fact. Sometimes, we went to the crime scene just to try our luck and see if we could find some clues that regular detectives might have missed. In this case, our visit to the crime scene where the child's eyes were dug out was mainly to analyze the perpetrator's psychological activities at the time. Specifically, we wanted to understand why the perpetrator brought the child here to dig out his eyes, where he intended to go after removing the eyes, and why he then discarded them in the bushes not far from the scene... Through this analysis, we could obtain many useful clues. For example, after spending some time at the scene, we could basically conclude that the previous assumption that the perpetrator was a human trafficker was not valid. The reasoning was simple: the child's eyes were dug out with nearby branches, which would not have been the case if it was done by organ traffickers. Could this trafficker, who could afford to spend so much effort, not afford to buy a surgical knife from Taobao or a fruit knife available everywhere? Furthermore, if it was done by organ traffickers, why would they discard the eyes they had worked so hard to obtain? Since they could run away, would carrying an eyeball increase their burden? Obviously, neither of these points made sense. After leaving the scene where the child was injured, we immediately headed to the well in the courtyard of the victim's aunt's house, where she committed suicide. In fact, we had already determined the direction of the investigation on our way there. According to various information we gathered, the victim's aunt was indeed a timid and honest person, and there were no conflicts between her family and the victim's family. Additionally, according to local villagers, the victim's aunt would faint at the sight of blood. How could someone who faints at the sight of blood possibly use branches to dig out a child's eyes? These clues fully proved that the victim's aunt did not commit suicide but was murdered. In other words, our main task this time was not to find out who dug out the child's eyes, but to find out who killed the child's aunt. In fact, the reason why this case was classified as unsolved mainly stemmed from the death of the victim's aunt. Otherwise, there would have been countless cases for our Unsolved Cases Investigation Team to handle, and the provincial authorities wouldn't have tasked us with solving just a child's eye-digging incident within a limited timeframe. The provincial spokesperson deliberately implicated the child's aunt's death to confuse the public, allowing the real perpetrator to lower their guard, thus facilitating our quick capture. When we arrived at the child's aunt's house, we were accompanied by a local police officer named Xiao Li. As we entered the courtyard, we noticed a well covered with canvas not far from the entrance. Many bricks were piled around the canvas, with a thick wooden board placed on top, and notably, a large stone weighing over a hundred pounds was placed on the board. After removing the covering, the true appearance of the well was revealed. It had a diameter of only about one meter, surrounded by several bricks forming a full circle about twenty centimeters high. It was already dusk, and the courtyard was deserted. According to Xiao Li, the victim's uncle had been at the hospital with the child's father since the aunt's death, so the courtyard had been vacant. We spent nearly an hour and a half inspecting the house and the well, and it was getting dark. Xiao Li urged us to come back the next day after it became fully dark, but Old Ge and Senior Officer Zhang Yihan remained silent. As a rookie, I didn't dare to say anything. Later, Xiao Li suddenly said, "Gentlemen, this, this courtyard is often haunted..." We all smiled at his words. Our Unsolved Cases Investigation Team had solved many cases involving supernatural elements, only to find them baseless. No one would believe such nonsense. Seeing our disbelief, Xiao Li continued, "It's true. People around here know that this courtyard is very eerie. Many people in the village have committed suicide by jumping into this well, and sometimes you can hear cries for help and women crying in the courtyard..." "Brother, you're also a policeman, how can you believe such things?" I sneered at Xiao Li. However, Zhang Yihan suddenly became interested after hearing Xiao Li's words. She smiled at me and said, "Xiao Lin, I think what Xiao Li said is a very important clue. There might be something wrong with this well. You should go down and check it out..." Hearing Zhang Yihan's suggestion, both Xiao Li and I were dumbfounded. We stared at Zhang Yihan with disbelief, as if she had grown a second head. Seeing my reluctance, Zhang Yihan's expression changed. "Are you going or not? If not, leave tomorrow!" That's how she was. She may look like trouble, but in our entire provincial public security department, few dared to provoke her. I knew Zhang Yihan wasn't joking with me. If I didn't go down obediently, I would really be sent packing tomorrow. I glared fiercely at Xiao Li, questioning why he had spouted such nonsense. Why would Zhang Yihan ask me to go down the well in the dark? But I didn't dare to say much, quickly preparing the rope and portable headlamp to go down the well. I secured the rope to a tree trunk in the courtyard and then slid down the well. Just as I was about to reach the bottom, I caught Xiao Li looking at me strangely, as if he were afraid. At that moment, I scorned him for being so timid. But as soon as my head entered the well, I felt a chilling sensation, especially behind me, where I suddenly felt a cold draft. This made me think of what Xiao Li had said about this courtyard being haunted. Initially, I didn't believe in such things, but now, alone in this dark well, and with someone having died here just a few days ago, I couldn't help but feel a little scared. I glanced around and noticed that the upper part of the well was quite dry, but it became increasingly damp as I descended. I just wanted to quickly inspect the well and leave this eerie place, so I hurried down until I was close to the water's surface before stopping. The well wasn't very deep; the distance from the ground to the water's surface was less than ten meters. I knew exactly what Zhang Yihan had asked me to check for, so I carefully examined the surroundings at the bottom of the well. Sure enough, I soon made some discoveries. I found deep scratches on the walls of the well, some even with traces of fresh blood. This alone confirmed that the child's aunt was murdered rather than having committed suicide. If it were a suicide, she wouldn't have struggled so desperately, leaving such deep fingernail marks on the well walls. Wait a minute, when we reviewed the forensic examination results after the child's aunt's death, didn't they mention any issues with the fingernails? Although I was somewhat puzzled, I didn't have time to dwell on it. I quickly reported the situation to Senior Officer Zhang Yihan: "Senior, there are deep scratches on the walls of the well, likely made by the deceased." "Is that so?" Zhang Yihan crouched by the well, her voice icy. "Take a few photos with your phone and send them up..." Knowing that I only needed to take two more photos to complete the task, I quickly freed one hand to reach for my phone in my pocket. However, just as I was about to retrieve my phone, the hand holding onto the rope slipped. In my panic, the phone suddenly slipped from my grasp... I hurriedly reached out to grab it, but the hand holding onto the rope slipped again, and then I plummeted into the well with a thud. The well was deep, and I didn't touch the bottom when I fell into the water. The sudden turn of events frightened me, and I frantically struggled to the surface. However, as soon as I surfaced, I felt something fuzzy behind my neck. I glanced back and saw that there was suddenly another figure in the water behind me. I could feel that it was a woman with long hair, her back turned to me. The fuzzy sensation I felt was her hair floating in the water...

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