Chapter 13 Chapter 5 Ghost Shadow Mystery

In Taipei City, there are few clues and slow progress in the investigation of the murder of Shen Zhaopeng; and according to the account of "Wen Zhongwen", Shen Zhaopeng learned about the "people-eating swimming pool" that fascinated him during his previous trip to Pattaya. Some new details of the incident, and he found that it was Chen Shanjun, a friend of his tour group, who stayed in the same "problem room" during this trip.Could it be that Chen Shanjun will also be plagued by bad luck... The "Third Eye" photo studio on Zhongzheng Road is mixed between a simple restaurant and a barber shop. The sign of the store is not particularly conspicuous. Youthful innovation and arrogance.

Li Daqi walked through the automatic door, and a gust of chilly wind rushed towards his face, reminding him of the scene at the light food restaurant at noon.He had just left the "Yangming Mansion", He Lifen had already carried Jiang Mengli back to the apartment, and he himself had to continue the investigation. Right in front is a tall counter, and the left and right walls are covered with photos and new photo calendars; the dazzling array of products made him dazzled for a while.Behind the counter, a good-looking woman with long hair and shawl is greeting a young man with disheveled clothes and messy hair; discourse.At first glance, it was obvious that he had paid the bill, but still refused to leave, and forcibly struck up a conversation with the customer.

Police officer Li thought to himself that if he was twenty years younger, he would definitely punch the curly monkey into the ditch with one punch.Young people these days are so depraved. The woman raised her head and glanced at Li Daqi, and the police officer said without waiting for her to speak, "I'm looking for Su Kaiyun, is he there?" "Excuse me, are you..." the woman asked suspiciously. "Police." He showed the ID in his hand. For some reason, he always felt that there seemed to be a flash of fear in the woman's eyes, and the pen in her hand was a little loose when she heard "police"; A trembling voice shouted: "Su Kaiyun, come out quickly!"

The woman maintained her turned posture and looked at the door on the inner side, as if she had no intention of greeting the sudden police officer; Li Daqi shrugged and browsed the calendar hanging on the wall.Not long after, he heard the sound of the door opening. Looking back, he found that the curly-haired monkey had disappeared, as if it had sneaked away. Instead, the door behind the counter had opened, and a figure flashed out. The man was wearing a white sportswear, He has a crew cut and a conspicuous beard, and his eyes are very cold. "You are Su Kaiyun?" The man frowned and didn't answer the question, but instead asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Li Daqi from the investigation team of Shilin Branch. I want to ask you about your partner." The other party's expression suddenly changed, that indifferent expression turned into a slightly lonely and dignified expression; he nodded to Li Daqi and said, "Please follow me." Su Kaiyun turned and entered the door where he appeared, Li Daqi followed, and at the same time felt the woman at the counter staring at him anxiously. Behind the door is a small corridor, with a door on the left and right sides, and a door standing in front of it.Su Kaiyun pushed open the front door and pressed the light switch.

The inside is a rectangular space, perhaps because there are too many items piled up, it doesn't look spacious; the air conditioner in the room is turned on, wafting a deeper coolness than before.On such a hot summer day, people use air-conditioning to create many small cold spaces, especially in metropolitan cities, there are too many such cold spaces to enumerate.The purpose of this room, apart from not being a darkroom, may be a studio, study or even a bedroom. Not only are there various photographic equipment, but also a pile of books, plus a simple bed , Su Kaiyun is like living in a mini Taipei City in Taipei City.

"Please sit down." Su Kaiyun pulled a chair over and swept off the clothes covering it with one hand; he himself sat down in front of the computer desk against the wall, reached out and took a sip from the drinking cup with a straw inserted on the desk . The hand holding the drink touched the mouse on the side, and the 3D screen saver screen on the LCD screen disappeared instantly, revealing a window of an unknown program, and the framed image in the window seemed to be a magnified corner of a photo. Li Daqi noticed a half-eaten pork rib bento on the computer desk, and it was not clear whether the bento was eaten as lunch or dinner.

"What does the police officer want to ask?" Su Kaiyun took out a pack of cigarettes, "Do you mind if I smoke one? You want one too?" He handed out a cigarette to Li Daqi.Li Daqi made a gesture of refusal, so the other party began to swallow his clouds.When Su Kaiyun opened the door just now, there was a smell of smoke coming out of the room. It seemed that the other party was a smoker who might be on the road to lung cancer. "How long have you and Shen Zhaopeng opened this photo studio?" Officer Li asked. "Almost five years. After I got out of the army."

"The one outside is..." "My girlfriend, she will come over to help occasionally. In the future, I'm afraid she will come more often." He thoughtfully puffed a cigarette towards the ceiling.Li Daqi couldn't read his mind.Su Kaiyun seems to be a person who is good at hiding his feelings. At this time, he can't see the obvious pain after his friend's death. "I'm very sorry...about Shen Zhaopeng. If you can answer some questions truthfully, the case will come to light soon." "I want to catch the murderer more than anyone else," he suddenly drew his unlit cigarette from his mouth; the beard around his lips made him look like a king, "if possible, I would kill it myself That scum."

"Well, then I'll cut to the chase and ask you, has Shen Zhaopeng had any grudges with others?" Before Officer Li finished speaking, Su Kaiyun began to shake his head, as if he asked a stupid question. "No, according to his personality, it is difficult to argue with others; but he is a person who only pays attention to all the things he is interested in, so he often ignores small details in human interaction, but I don't think this will lead to Anyone's killing intent." "How is his financial situation?" "Ordinary, spent a lot of money on photography. If anyone kills him for his money, it must be mentally ill."

"Can you think of a reason why he should have been killed?" "This is the most incredible thing. Unless it is a person with abnormal psychology or a ghost, I can guarantee that he is the least likely person in the world to be killed." "Why do you mention ghosts in particular?" "Zhaopeng likes to do some supernatural things, and he went to many dark places to take supernatural photos. Friends often warned him that he would provoke ghosts." He shrugged, "Of course, I don't believe that. I don't believe the police officer either." "Here...before I talk about the supernatural photos, I want to confirm one thing. On the night of the incident—Monday, July 3rd, Shen Zhaopeng went home at eight o'clock. Is that his normal off-duty time, or is it something temporary?" "The two of us have assigned working hours to look at the store, and he was on duty until eight o'clock that day." "Understood." Li Daqi nodded.If the murderer had investigated the routine of the deceased in advance, then he obviously invaded the house knowing that there were people in the house. In other words, killing Shen Zhaopeng was one of the murderer's goals. "Then let's talk about the supernatural photos. I heard that Shen Zhaopeng has a website?" "Yeah, he's basically the station master, and I've been responsible for a lot of the assisting work." "What is the origin and purpose of this website?" "It should be said to be a pure interest. Not long after the joint venture opened, I found out that he had this hobby. Later, it was really so-called 'obsessed', and I gradually became interested. He suggested that he want to open a website, so the two worked together. , to operate together, and I often help to answer some photography questions on the message board. Zhaopeng even printed the URL of this website on his business card. I heard from him that he met a ghost when he was traveling in Thailand last month. The tour guide also gave him a copy. His website will only be known to people who like supernatural beings, and will not be easily exposed to others. After all, not everyone likes this kind of thing, and he doesn't want to provoke resentment," Su Kaiyun moved his hand to Mouse, "I don't know if the police officer has seen this website? I can open it right away." "Great." Li Daqi moved his body closer to the computer.Su Kaiyun minimized the window of the unknown program, opened the IE browser, and the home page was the website "Ghost Shadow Building".The entire screen design is extremely horrifying, using black and red to create a background background, and then matching with blurred ghost images and sound effects; the timid people will really be scared. "There is an update message on the homepage," the photographer explained, "The webpage will be updated on the 5th and 20th of every month. We usually sort out the data batch by batch, and then put them together on a fixed date. After all, photos are different from other The data is not available at all times, and it is more systematic and time-saving to put them together; and in this way, our regular customers do not have to wait for when the webpage will be updated every day, wasting time in vain clicking on the webpage to see the new data.” "It's really a humane operation." The police officer said the only comment he could think of. "The link is here," Su Kaiyun pointed the cursor to the left side of the webpage, "There are many options, but the content of this webpage is mainly photos, supplemented by explanatory text. The link to the photo gallery is the option of this 'spiritual portrait'." With the click of the left mouse button, a checkerboard-like arrangement of photos immediately appears on the screen, and there is an explanatory text at the bottom of each photo; It's a grotesque horror picture. "Let's just take a look at one." He clicked on one of the pictures, and the picture was enlarged immediately; the scene seemed to be a corner of the campus, and two female high school students stood side by side and smiled at the camera; from the picture, the two people The arms of the two are hanging down, but there is a hand on the left shoulder of the female student on the right; it is obvious that there is no one hiding behind the two of them, and it can be clearly seen at a glance Chu, that hand is completely unreasonable. A red circle circles the hand that shouldn't appear, so that the viewer can see at a glance what is wrong with the photo; the text below the photo explains the shooting location, time, situation and supernatural place. This level of spooky photos is not enough to scare Li Daqi, but his heart is still terrified. After all, facing such a large number of weird pictures in a closed space still has a certain degree of horror. Su Kaiyun showed him a few more pictures.These photos are nothing more than some hands, feet or faces in impossible places, or some strange lights and shadows, lines, and spots of light; at first glance, it is scary, but when you look at it too much, it starts to have a rather unreal feeling. feel. "Are these photos real or fake?" Li Daqi asked wearily. "Ninety-nine percent of them are fake, and the remaining one percent may be fake, but the reason for the formation is temporarily unknown." "So, how did it form?" "Basically, ghost photos can be divided into deliberate and non-deliberate. The latter is mostly caused by some negligence in photography. For example, the lens was blocked by foreign objects when taking pictures, but the photographer did not know it. Mistakenly thinking that I took a supernatural photo, there are too many such examples. For example, this one..." Su Kaiyun clicked on a picture from the website to enlarge it. It was a solo photo of a woman, but the lower body part was An oval-shaped white strange light appeared, with fuzzy pink borders inlaid on the edges. It seemed that the person in the photo was possessed by a ghost, which was quite terrifying. "This picture is a typical example of foreign object occlusion. The traditional professional camera adopts a 'monocular' design. The scene enters from the lens. After being imaged on the reflective screen due to the pinhole principle, it is reflected multiple times from the pentaprism and let through the viewing window. The photographer's eyes see. The point is that the eyes and the lens capture the images in this way are consistent, that is to say, it is impossible to take pictures that cannot be seen by the eyes. "In this way, if a finger or other foreign object blocks the lens, it is impossible for the photographer not to notice it. However, in order to be thin and light, the popular point-and-shoot cameras omit the design of the pentaprism and adopt a 'binocular' system instead. The captured scene cannot be reflected to the viewing window, and an independent viewing window must be set up on the camera so that the viewing window and the picture captured by the lens can be approximately synchronized. Just because what the eyes see through the viewing window is not the lens As you can see, if the lens is blocked, the photographer will not know it. Like the picture just now, the white and pink light group is actually a finger, and the blurred image is formed due to light reflection and out-of-focus. Many supernatural photos That's how it came about." Li Daqi nodded, "What about the deliberately created situation?" "There are many ways to subdivide deliberate production, and now the popular one is computer synthesis. Basically, as long as some image processing software with basic functions can create good supernatural photos, but if you want professional and realistic levels , you need to use some more advanced software, like the one that is now shrunk down on the toolbar of my computer." It turned out that just before Li Daqi came in, Su Kaiyun was eating and making supernatural photos. It seemed that he was no less poisoned than Shen Zhaopeng. "In addition to computer compositing, you can also use darkroom techniques, look at this." Su Kaiyun took out a thick book from the bookshelf next to the computer desk and handed it to Li Daqi. "Spiritual Photos Encyclopedia".The cover is composed of several horror pictures, and the art design is a bit rough. Police officer Li flipped through it casually, and each page contained more than four supernatural photos, the types of which were similar to those seen on the website just now, all of which were strange images of ghosts, third hands or feet, ghost faces, etc.; Black and white photos account for the majority of the proportion. Su Kaiyun pointed to the book and explained: "Darkrooms can be divided into black and white darkrooms and color darkrooms. Playing with color darkrooms is more expensive. This book was published more than ten years ago. Most of them are supernatural photos made with darkroom techniques, and many of them are amateurs. Therefore, most of the photos are in black and white. Most of the color photos are the result of unintentional fabrication.” It turns out that some are the works of amateur players, no wonder the quality seems to be uneven.But as long as the name of supernatural photos is used, how many people will believe in it? "Look at this one," Su Kaiyun stretched out his right hand, quickly flipped through the book in Li Daqi's hand, pointed to a photo on a certain page, and said, "It looks scary, right?" In what looks like a corner of the living room, a short table with a telephone on top is placed on the left half of the picture; a standing lamp stands on the side, and the whole picture looks hazy; in the center is a long-haired woman with most of her face All covered by hair.The most frightening thing is that the woman's lower body is in the shape of hazy smoke, like a swaying will-o'-the-wisp.It certainly looks like an impossible photo of a ghost. "As I said just now," Su Kaiyun put on a professional face again, "these are all photos made by darkroom techniques, and this one is no exception. In fact, these three films were superimposed and developed when enlarged. In order to make the photo The characters in the picture look more like ghosts, and the focus is deliberately blurred, so it looks more realistic. As for the original three pictures, they are a photo of the living room, a half-length photo of a woman in the dark, and a photo of blurred light and shadow in the dark .To put it bluntly, it’s nothing, but people who don’t know it will be shocked at first glance. Repeated exposure and overlapping development in the darkroom are common techniques; other techniques include camera repeated exposure, glass reflection synthesis, Special filter effects and other methods. Have you ever heard of Lang Jingshan? He is a famous photographer. He often uses darkroom techniques to produce many special photos in the style of traditional Chinese painting. His "collection photography method" is quite famous. In short , as long as you understand the principle, there is nothing strange about it.” Absorbed too much for a while, and Li Daqi was speechless.He handed the book back to Su Kaiyun and said, "Since these are all fake, why would anyone want to read them?" The photographer shook his head and took the book, "No, most people are interested because they don't know; most people have almost no doubt ability at the beginning of receiving information. And they would rather believe that these photos are real than Reluctance to believe that they are false. This blind queerness is akin to belief in those monstrous religions. Human folly is as unfathomable as desire." After finishing speaking, he turned to the copyright page of the book, pointed to a small line of words on it, "Look, this was published ten years ago, this is the fourth printing, and it is considered a bestseller," he said with a mouthful. There was an unlit cigarette, and the tone suddenly turned apologetic, "It turned out that a publishing house asked me to cooperate with Zhaopeng to publish another book like this, but now that Zhaopeng is no longer here, I can only do all the work. He compared the image processing program in the computer, "To be honest, I have seen too many photos, and sometimes I really think the ghost faces in them are Zhaopeng." Li Daqi didn't know what Su Kaiyun meant by this sentence, but he felt that it was time to leave this "ghost place". He asked one last question before leaving. "What does SOI or SOL mean to you? This may have something to do with Shen Zhaopeng." "SOL?" Su Kaiyun looked confused, "This should be a movie he often watches. The title seems to be something like "Sickness of Carnality"." "Thank you, I think that's the end of the question." Li Daqi stood up, feeling a numbness in his thigh. Just when Su Kaiyun reached out to help him open the door of the room, the photographer said in a cold but firm tone: "Officer, please promise me one thing, don't let out the truth about the supernatural photos. I am not A moralist who maintains the practice of truth. It is not my job or obligation to break the stupid superstition, but the ignorance of others is a necessary existence for some people. I hope you can understand." Li Daqi stared at the majestic bearded face of the other party, and replied slowly: "I will make sure to catch the murderer as soon as possible." After finishing speaking, he left the photo studio without looking back.