Three people and one ghost solved 43 mysterious cases.

The city of longing.

There are rows of villas built on the coast. They look like houses from the 70s. They are patrolled by security guards wearing shirts and shorts and armed with electric batons. This is a wealthy area.

Death cannot change destiny, and those who are rich will still be rich after death.

The balcony is filled with beautiful flowers and plants, and the wind blows along the curtains into the living room. The TV in the living room is black and white and plays Cantonese fragments.

There is a tea table with expensive teapots and fine tea leaves on the ancient shelves.

There is also a bookcase in the living room. There are various books on the bookcase, such as "Dress Matching", "24 Tea Art Studies", "Flower Language" and "Gourmet Recipes".

It can be seen that the owner who lives here loves life, has been studying tea art, flower art, and food, and pays great attention to his own image.

Smoke drifted from the kitchen. The kitchen was spacious, with gold-rimmed tableware, and red date and black-bone chicken soup was simmering on the stove.

Ye Lili scooped up a spoonful of soup with a wooden spoon, put it in her mouth and tasted it.

Although people living in the city of longing have no sense of taste, the sense of ritual must be there.

She fantasized about the taste of this red date and black chicken soup, and after swallowing it down her throat, she could see a dark red scar on Ye Lili's neck - she had been strangled to death.

There was a "ding dong" doorbell sound.

Ye Lili walked out of the kitchen and opened the door. Standing outside the door was a woman with pink hair and an astonishing appearance, Yao Ruolan.

"Excuse me, I am the ferryman from the City of Missing." Yao Ruolan said.

Ye Lili invites Yao Ruolan into the house.

The two sat at the tea table, Ye Lili selected tea leaves, boiled water, and made tea.

"Have you lived here for a long time?" Yao Ruolan asked.

"It's been a long time, but not a long time." Ye Lili poured the tea into two teacups, handed a cup of tea to Yao Ruolan, and made a gesture of invitation.

She said she lived here from the time of her death in 1965 until 1972.

Then one day he suddenly disappeared like smoke, until yesterday, inexplicably, he reappeared in the city of longing.

This is understandable, Yao Ruolan explained:

You died in 1965. After your death, your father Ye Changdeng kept thinking of you. He paid tribute to you on the memorial platform and prayed for you every day, so you lived a worry-free life in the city of missing you.

But in 1972, your father was executed. After his death, no one in the world missed you, and you disappeared.

It is now 2022, that is, yesterday, I asked my colleagues in the world to look at your photos and miss you, so you came back.

"It turns out that it's been 50 years. It's been so long." Ye Lili felt a little regretful. She thought of something and asked Yao Ruolan, "I want to ask you a question."

"Please say."

"Do you know a man named Yuan Junsheng? Is he okay? Is he still alive?"

"He just passed away a few days ago."

"Is he here?"

Yao Ruolan nodded.

Ye Lili's facial expression was complicated and exciting, but with a hint of melancholy, she murmured to herself, "It's been 50 years. In these 50 years, he really hasn't thought about me once."

Indeed, Yuan Junsheng lived well from 1972 to the first few days of 2022.

Whenever he misses Ye Lili even a little bit, Ye Lili will never disappear for 50 years. After all, she was also his fiancée.

"How long can I live in the City of Missing?" Ye Lili asked.

"I can let my colleagues miss you for seven more days and use these seven days to do something happy."

"Thank you."

After thanking her, she turned her head and glanced at the ancient mirror on the wall. In the mirror was her face in her early 20s, beautiful, but...she straightened her collar, trying to cover up the red bruise on her neck. .

Yao Ruolan said, "The purpose of my visit this time is to ask you a question."

"Please tell me, if I know, I will definitely tell you."

"How did you die?"

Ye Lili sighed, "It's really inexplicable. I was killed by a man."

"Did Yuan Junsheng kill you?"

"Of course not." She shook her head.

If this is the case, Fang Junsheng is really not the murderer.

Yao Ruolan said, "Miss Ye, I came here under the entrustment of Fang Junsheng's family. I want to find out who is your murderer. After all, this case made Fang Junsheng suffer five years in prison. He After that, I lived a very depressed life. Some things must be solved even after death. The murderer cannot go unpunished and must be convicted even after death. I hope you can tell me the cause and effect of the whole thing in detail. I will give you and Yuan Junsheng justice."

Ye Lili picked up the tea cup, took a sip of tea, and said sadly:

I have loved Yuan Junsheng since the first moment I saw him.

My father Ye Changdeng had some business dealings with the Yuan family, and I was from a wealthy family in the city, so the two families arranged the marriage and we were soon engaged.

At first, Yuan Junsheng didn't object, but I knew he didn't love me.

Yuan Junsheng is filial. He is the heir of the Yuan family. He understands that this marriage is based on interests. Regarding the importance of the family, he can only obey.

We kept going on dates once a week, eating, watching movies, and walking. Everything was very routine, but I could see that Yuan Junsheng was unhappy.

I worked hard. I learned tea art, flower arrangement, and cooking. I always wanted to become a person worthy of Yuan Junsheng and make him fall in love.

However, with the appearance of a singer, everything changes.

"Singing girl?" Yao Ruolan asked.

"Yes." Ye Lili smiled bitterly, "A singer at Paramount Nightclub."

One night, Ye Lili and Fang Junsheng went to the Paramount Nightclub to drink. There was a singer singing on the stage. She was the red card singer of the Paramount Nightclub.

From the first moment he saw this singer, Yuan Junsheng was fascinated.

He looked at the singer infatuatedly. It was really hard to explain feelings. Ye Lili fell in love with Fang Junsheng at first sight, and Fang Junsheng fell in love with the singer at first sight.

Yuan Junsheng fell into an inextricable obsession and went to Paramount Nightclub every night to listen to the showgirls singing.

In order to pursue this singer and show his single-minded determination, Fuan Junsheng told his family that he wanted to break off the engagement and be with this singer.

"What's the name of this singer?" Yao Ruolan asked.

"My name is Chen Manzhu."

It turned out to be her. The late singer Chen Manzhu was a singer at Paramount Nightclub before her debut.

Ye Lili glanced at the ancient mirror on the wall again and said, "I know that Chen Manzhu is prettier than me, more charming than me, and sings better than me. There is no way I can compare to her."

"But", her words were full of jealousy, "but my net worth is better than hers, I...I can play music, chess, calligraphy and painting, I can take him out to meet people, but she, she is just a nightclub The singer, she, she is not worthy of Yuan Junsheng."

"I understand, so when you found out, you wanted to win back Fang Junsheng?" Yao Ruolan looked at Ye Lili.

Ye Lili blinked and pressed her head with her hand, and then the incident process of the bizarre murder case was revealed in her words:

On the night of July 7, when I left home, I wanted to find Fang Junsheng and talk to him.

Yuan Junsheng's home was in a mansion in the middle of the mountain. I walked along the mountain road alone. There was no one on the mountain at that time.

Suddenly a man came out from behind and dragged me to the woods nearby. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't, so he covered my mouth.

"Have you seen his appearance?" Yao Ruolan asked.

"I saw it, a young man, strong and strong."

"do you know him?"

"do not know."

"What did he do?"

"He covered my mouth and put his other hand on my neck. He kept pinching... and pinching. His strength was so strong that I couldn't resist, so he strangled me to death. ”

Yao Ruolan stood up and came to Ye Lili, "Can I see the injury on your neck?"

Ye Lili exposed her neck, and the scars were obvious. Sure enough, the murderer was a strong man.

Yao Ruolan checked and asked, "What did this young man do to you? For example, violated you, or took away your valuables?"

"Nothing. He didn't say anything. He was like a madman who wanted to kill me."

"Have you ever offended anyone?"

Ye Lili hesitated for a short second, then raised her voice and answered, "No."

Ye Lili's answer made Yao Ruolan suspicious. Why did she pause? Have something to say? Why did she raise her voice again to answer in the affirmative?

When people want to hide something, they often deliberately emphasize the answer in a strong tone.

"Have you really not offended anyone?" Yao Ruolan asked again.

"No." Ye Lili answered firmly this time.

Maybe he was overly worried, Yao Ruolan said, "Can you draw the appearance of the murderer?"

"can."

Ye Lili took a pen and paper and drew a portrait of the young man.

"Does he have any other characteristics?"

"Features?"

"Like his accent, like his smell."

Ye Lili thought for a while and answered:

The man didn't say a word, but he had a very special smell, the smell of cigarettes, but it didn't look like ordinary cigarettes. I could smell the smell of ordinary cigarettes. The smell of cigarettes on that man seemed to be like a cigarette. There was a particularly pungent smell, and, Ye Lili said, he also smelled of alcohol.

cigarette? What cigarette? A particularly pungent cigarette?

Yao Ruolan thought, could it be crow smoke? At that time, this thing was available outside. If you smoke it, you will become addicted and it will also make people bankrupt.

Therefore, the murderer was a smoker and alcoholic.

Yao Ruolan picked up the portrait that Ye Lili had drawn. A man in his early 20s with messy hair and a dull expression appeared in the painting.

She roughly guessed the murderer's motive——

This is not a madman or a psychopath.

Psychopaths generally commit crimes with a certain purpose. For example, the target of the assassination matches the appearance and clothing of a certain type of person that the murderer particularly hates.

Ye Lili is a dignified girl, and it is difficult to inspire the hatred of a psychopath in her.

At the same time, if psychopaths commit crimes, most of them will say things like, "I fucking hate people like you."

They will also look ferocious, sneer, and resort to violent murder as a way to vent their anger.

But this young man had a clear goal and calmly killed Ye Lili, and he also buried the body.

This is even more incompatible with the characteristics of perverted people who commit crimes. Those kind of people kill people and then run away.

Maybe the murderer had the habit of smoking opium and robbed because he had no money?

No, he didn't rob for money, he just robbed for money. Why take his life?

The person who robbed would also choose to cover his face with a hood or the like, but this person had nothing. He was just sure that he would kill Ye Lili on the night of July 7.

Therefore, the murderer is a person with clear goals and careful thinking.

He knew Ye Lili's whereabouts very well. He followed Ye Lili secretly. He was not Ye Lili's secret pursuer. Ye Lili did not know this person.

Therefore, this is most likely a case of paid murder.

Someone paid this murderer to kill Ye Lili.

Not only did he kill Ye Lili, the murderer also buried Ye Lili's body. However, he deliberately buried the body very shallowly. As long as it rained, the body would be exposed with the soil.

At the same time, the murderer followed another person - Fang Junsheng a few days later, on July 7.

Yuan Junsheng once said that on July 7, he met a mysterious young man in the dining car on a train, and the man bought his Y-shaped cufflinks.

It seems that this is true.

He did sell his Y-shaped cufflinks to the murderer for 500 yuan.

After the murderer took the cufflinks, he returned to the scene of the crime, buried the cufflinks, and then waited for a heavy rain, waiting for the body to "reappear in the light" along with the Y-shaped cufflinks.

His purpose in planning all this was to frame Fang Junsheng for killing Ye Lili.

Paying a murder to kill someone, Yao Ruolan affirmed again.

Who is it, who is the mastermind behind all this, and what kind of benefits can they get?

At this time, a suspect appeared in Yao Ruolan's mind, and he was going to visit "her".

Yao Ruolan stood up and said goodbye.

After she left, Ye Lili closed the door, went up the stairs to the second floor, took a shower, and then started putting on makeup, applying foundation thickly to cover up the scars on her neck.

Put on lipstick, put on a beautiful outfit, change again and again, look left and right in front of the mirror.

There are only 7 days left, who does she want to see?

Yuan Junsheng, he is here too.

He is 79 years old, will he fall in love with me?

Ye Lili thought, she changed herself, she worked hard to become a more decent version of herself, just for the last look and the last meeting with Yuan Junsheng.

I don’t know when love arises, but it remains unchanged until death.