I never expected to find a woman's corpse at the bottom of the well. In our line of work, encountering all sorts of corpses is part of the job, so it wasn't the sight of the body that frightened me. It was the shock of the unexpected encounter that caused me to lose a breath. Without air in my lungs, being at such a depth meant I had to surface quickly or risk suffocating. Thanks to the buoyancy of the water, ascending was much faster than descending. Even so, I almost passed out from lack of oxygen in the final stretch. Luckily, I managed to reach the surface just as I was about to lose consciousness completely. As soon as I broke the surface, I took huge gulps of air. Despite the lingering stench of bleach and decomposing flesh, the only thing on my mind was the relief of breathing fresh air. However, as I glanced upward, my relief quickly turned to horror. The rope that had been hanging into the well was gone. Worse yet, the well's opening seemed to be blocked by something, leaving me in complete darkness with no view of the sky above. "Sis! Sis!" I shouted. There was no response from above, only the echo of my voice bouncing off the well walls. The eerie reverberation of my own voice added to the growing sense of dread. Especially when I remembered the corpse I had seen at the bottom, an unsettling chill ran down my spine. "Ge Lao! Xiao Li!" I called out again, but there was still no answer. What on earth was going on? I was starting to panic. Despite having just emerged from the cold water, sweat was beginning to bead on my forehead. "Is anyone up there? Help! Help!" I shouted desperately. But all I received in return was a long, ominous silence. Treading water, I tried to piece together what might have happened. By my estimation, only about three minutes had passed from when I dived to when I resurfaced. They couldn't have left so quickly without waiting for me. Damn it, could it be a ghost? That thought made me glance nervously back towards the bottom of the well, as if expecting the corpse to float up after me. This well was indeed strange. Most wells are only twenty or so meters deep, but this one was at least fifty or sixty meters deep. It was clearly an old well, likely dug decades ago. Back then, without modern tools, digging such a deep well would have been a monumental task, and it certainly wouldn't have been necessary. But now wasn't the time to ponder these details. The most pressing issue was figuring out how to get out of here. The diameter of the well wasn't large, but trying to brace myself against the walls to climb up was nearly impossible. My arms couldn't stretch straight, making it difficult to get any leverage against the walls. Using my feet and back to support myself, I tried pressing against the sides of the well, but my wet feet kept slipping. It finally dawned on me how those scratches inside the well had been made. The feeling of being trapped, with no help in sight, was overwhelming. I deeply regretted not bringing a climbing axe with me. With one, I could have easily scaled the well. Just as I was nearing desperation, I heard a loud clunk from above. I looked up and saw the well cover being removed. To my relief, it was my sister, Zhang Yihan, peering down at me. "What, are you trying to drown me in here?" I yelled up at her. "Oh, you've got guts now, yelling at me?" Zhang Yihan retorted with a smirk. "Do you still want to get out of there?" "You…" I knew arguing with her wouldn't get me anywhere, so I changed my tone. "Hey, sis, I didn’t realize it was you. How could I dare yell at you?" Despite my words, I was cursing her family under my breath. I had made up my mind: if she didn't give me a reasonable explanation once I got out, I'd definitely confront her. Li quickly tossed down the static rope I'd used earlier, and I eagerly climbed up. I had intended to demand answers from Zhang Yihan as soon as I surfaced, but she immediately handed me a bottle of water. "Xiao Lin, you've done a great job. Once this task is over, I'll make sure you get a commendation." "A commendation?" I echoed, puzzled. "Come on, you'll see," she said, pulling me towards the courtyard entrance. Outside, a group of villagers of varying ages, both men and women, had gathered on the path. Zhang Yihan led me to them, and as I wondered what she intended, she spoke up, "What did you all hear just now?" "I heard ghostly cries again, someone calling for help…" said a middle-aged woman, trembling slightly. Her words sparked a flurry of chatter among the villagers. "I heard someone calling for their sister…" "I heard someone calling for Ge Lao and Xiao Li…" "No, I used to hear a female ghost crying, but this time it was a male voice…" Watching this scene, I finally understood Zhang Yihan's plan. She had used me as a test subject! Clearly, these villagers had previously heard the "ghost cries" from the Guo family courtyard. She had them brought here specifically to listen to me screaming from the well. I had to admit, her method was clever. Realizing that the well had once been used to dispose of live victims explained the scratch marks on its walls. Dropping someone in and sealing the well to let them drown… the murderer was vicious. But Zhang Yihan's plan was equally ruthless. I remembered that I was planning to confront her, and now seemed like the perfect time to settle both old and new grievances. Just as I was about to lash out, she said, "You've done well. Once this mission is over, I'll recommend you for promotion." "Really?" I was overjoyed. The thought of my shoulder insignia changing from two bars to one bar and one star made me so excited that I forgot everything else. Clearly, I was no match for Zhang Yihan; she could manipulate me with ease. Of course, this wasn't the right time for an argument. The case was becoming increasingly complex, and my confidence in solving it was waning. After changing my clothes, Zhang Yihan and I took the villagers to a small grassy area at the village entrance. We sat them down and began recording their statements. Instead of using paper or computers, we used voice recorders to capture their recollections. We asked the villagers to recall when they had heard the "ghost cries" from the Guo family courtyard. After our questioning, we gathered several key pieces of information. 1.Xiao Li was right: the haunting of the Guo family courtyard began around three years ago. Most villagers recalled hearing the "ghost cries" within this timeframe. 2.Each time someone heard the ghost cries, a suicide would follow in the well within a few days. These events reinforced the villagers' belief in the "Reaper's Well." Sadly, the villagers were too superstitious and fearful to rescue those who jumped. 3.All the cries heard were female. Based on our assessment, the perpetrator targets only women. 4.When asked why people chose the Guo family well for suicide, the villagers unanimously agreed that it was the deepest well in the village. 5.The villagers also mentioned that outsiders came to the Guo family courtyard to commit suicide. They believed these people were lured by the ghost in the Reaper's Well. 6.Some villagers claimed to have seen a ghost—a woman with long, disheveled hair dressed in black standing at the courtyard entrance. A young woman named Xiao Hong even claimed to have seen this ghost the previous night. Though their descriptions seemed credible to the villagers, we didn't put much stock in the sixth point. However, for us, these details provided crucial investigative leads. Since the haunting started two to three years ago, we should start by questioning the Guo family members about any significant events during that period. It was clear someone was masquerading as a ghost to commit these murders. Next, we needed to gather all information on the victims from recent years and identify any commonalities. The fact that all the victims died in the same place suggested the involvement of the same person or group. Identifying their commonalities would be key to uncovering the perpetrator. Initially, no one anticipated that the case of a child with gouged eyes would unravel a horrific serial murder case spanning two to three years. I couldn't help but wonder what the local police had been doing all this time. How could they not notice something was amiss with so many suicides in the same village over several years? This led me to a troubling thought: could there be an issue within the local police department?

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