My name is Chalk; I have a car and a house.
I am an employee of a state enterprise and my wife is extremely beautiful.
However, I have a secret. I am different from everyone else.
I have murdered a woman.
….
My job was rather unique. I worked at the shipyard.
I am a pilot in charge of testing the ships.
I have to pay attention to rising and falling tides since they have an enormous impact on the body of the ship.
I worked for a state enterprise, but the company was very poor.
It was poor mainly because our boss is magnanimous. Whenever we receive subsidies for governmental projects, they would be immediately converted into the employees’ salaries.
This was also the reason why the company was still unable to afford an indoor wave machine for testing purposes even after 10 years.
As such, we could only rely on the rising and falling tides to do our job.
Every ship and yacht has to be tested before it was put up for sale.
The tide usually rises at around 6 to 9 am.
If it rises at 6 am, I would set out from home at 3 am to the designated site to proceed with the safety tests.
It all started yesterday.
I checked for the timing of the rising tide.
6:30 am.
This meant that I had to set my alarm for 3:30 am before hugging my wife to sleep.
I remembered hearing the alarm twice, but it was already 3:40 am when I got out of bed.
I was done preparing by four and quickly drove to the company.
It has always been quiet and desolate by the seaside, unlike in the bustling city.
The speed limit of the highway along the coast was set at 80km/h but it has always been my habit to drive at 120km/h.
Not once was I fined since there weren’t any speed cameras.
The highway was completed last year, but the street lights weren’t ready yet.
It was four in the morning and I was still feeling sleepy.
Amidst my groggy state, I saw something.
A floating white silhouette appeared before my eyes.
I took a careful look and saw that it was a lady ghost dressed in a white gown.
My mind went blank.
The lady extended her hands toward me as a long red tongue rolled out of her mouth.
I snapped out of my daze but I couldn’t steer away in time.
I don’t know what I was thinking back then but I stepped on the accelerator without hesitation.
The next moment, a pool of fresh blood surfaced on my windshield.
The impact of the collision gave me pain since I had my seatbelt on and the airbag wasn’t activated.
I braked and sat rooted to my seat, staring at the bloodstain on my windshield and forcing myself to calm down.
I looked out and saw the lady lying motionless on the ground not far away.
I could see her legs; they were fair as if telling me that she was a real human.
Upon realizing that, I got off the car, my knees feeling weak.
I noted a rather big dent in the head of the car.
My first reaction was to call 110 but no one picked up.
The police were probably still asleep since it was still very early in the morning.
I thought about my future. I had killed somebody.
Plus, I had been driving at 120.
I thought about the court trial, my wife, and my child.
I switched off my mobile, got back into the car, and tried starting the engine.
It worked.
I drove forward and stopped beside her body.
I alighted and examined the lady carefully.
She had a thick layer of makeup on, but I could tell that she was still a girl.
Quite young and petite.
I touched my index finger to her nose. She wasn’t breathing.
There wasn’t anyone around at all.
I looked for cameras but I found none.
I opened the car boot and took out a freshly cleaned western suit.
I removed the plastic bag that came with it.
It was big enough for the lady to fit inside.
I took off her white gown and put her into the bag before moving it into the boot of my car.
Upon closing it, I heaved a sigh of relief.
I started wiping the bloodstain on the ground with her white gown.
After about five wipes, the red pool became a black patch.
It wasn’t as eye-grabbing as the blood, but it was still noticeable upon closer observation.
I prayed for rain and went back to the boot to stash the gown into the bag as well.
After making sure that there weren’t any stains on myself, I hopped back into the car, only to be reminded that the window was still filled with blood patches.
I activated the water ejector and wiper before getting off the car with a cloth.
I started wiping the stains until there was no trace left at all.
Of course, it was impossible to clear all evidence since the dent at the head was quite big and unconcealable.
I opened the bonnet and stained the cloth with black engine oil.
The cloth was no longer blood red in color so I figured that no one would suspect a thing.
I walked over to the shrubs, about to toss the cloth away, when I spotted a tripod.
There was a mobile phone secured on top of the tripod.
There was an ongoing recording, the angle at which it was placed captured the accident site well.
I separated the phone from the tripod. The phone casing was adorable and I was convinced that the phone belonged to that lady ghost. I shut the video recording off.
It was an iPhone 6 and since I was using an iPhone 5, navigation wasn’t difficult.
I activated Siri and asked,
Who am I?
Siri’s voice rang clear,
Easy. Wang Xiaomei.
Siri also read out her messages and emails.
I tried going to the home menu but the phone was locked.
The lady ghost must have started the recording from the locked screen itself.
Frustrated, I moved the tripod into my car boot and used the lady’s thumb to unlock her phone.
I was about to delete the recording when I found many other videos.
All were of her, disguised as a ghost, scaring drivers on the road. There were at least 10 of such videos inside.
I erased her whole photo album before clearing the deleted section as well.
I opened her Weibo and discovered that she had over 200,000 fans.
After watching her videos, I finally understood her motive for appearing on the road.
She played pranks on people to gain followers. I was just her target this morning.
I quickly sent a new post:
How meaningless. I’m done with the pranks.
I set the phone to silent mode and stuffed it into my pocket.
I looked at the grass heap along the road and wondered if I should dump the tripod in there.
I turned back to the car and noticed the brake marks on the road. Shaking my head, I decided that it was better to keep the tripod with me.
I walked around the whole site once more, observing that I had done a good job of tidying up the scene.
I looked at the lady in the boot one last time.
It was fortunate that the road was by the sea and newly built, hence the lack of facilities and installations. I had a chance of getting away with this.
I returned to my car and drove, back and forth, over the track a few times before making an abrupt brake to create new track marks.
I got off the car and observed the road again.
At that point, it no longer looked like there had been a collision, simply just drivers who were drifting along the road.
Feeling reassured, I hopped back into the car and gave my colleague a call.
Are you going to work today?
I asked.
It’s already 5:30, why aren’t you here yet?
he questioned instead.
My wife is facing some problems so could you request a leave on my behalf and get someone else to replace me? 500 dollars a day, thanks,
I requested.
500 a day? Since when have you become so generous?
Knock it off. I gotta go.
I started the car and made a U-turn.
Not long after, my phone buzzed.
On the screen flashed the number 110.
