INHA Chapter 40

The person was momentarily surprised, then replied, “It’s in the shopping street across the road. The owner always says she hears the toys giggling, but none of the staff ever heard it. She got so scared she closed the shop and went home.”

Xu Dongyou was now fairly certain that this doll shop was the one mentioned in the mission he had seen on his spiritual energy watch.

A month had passed, so there should have been someone sent to handle it by now.

Xu Dongyou thought for a moment and asked, “What happened after that?”

The person sighed and said, “The owner stayed at home for half a month, and then she came back and reopened the shop. But then she said she heard the dolls giggling again, and this time, one of the dolls even moved. She described it in detail, which is really creepy, but we don’t know if it’s true or not.”

Xu Dongyou listened intently, but with the current information, it was impossible to determine what was causing the disturbance.

The person didn’t know much more, so Xu Dongyou went to the shopping street. He quickly found the doll shop, as it was in a prime location at the center of the shopping street with good foot traffic.

However, the shop was closed, and the windows were covered with thick curtains, preventing anyone from seeing inside.

Xu Dongyou went next door to a store that sold various household items and even cosmetics. The place was busy, mostly with young women and students.

He went straight to the cashier and asked about the doll shop owner. The cashier shared what she knew.

It was similar to what Xu Dongyou had heard. After the first time the owner heard the dolls giggling, she was so scared that she temporarily closed the shop and went home to rest. When she finally came back to reopen the shop, things only got worse.

The dolls in the shop supposedly moved, but as before, the other employees didn’t see anything, and even the store’s cameras showed no movement.

The staff started getting scared.

Some thought it was something supernatural, while others suspected the owner might be having mental issues and hallucinating.

Either way, the situation made them very uncomfortable. One employee quit because of the fear, and another followed, feeling even more uneasy being left alone with just the owner.

The owner’s mental state deteriorated. She became paranoid, eventually closing the shop and going home again. Some people said she might be planning to sell the shop.

However, many were unsure if the shop’s eerie occurrences were real or just rumors. Even though the shop was in a prime location, people were hesitant.

After gathering all this information, Xu Dongyou checked the mission on his spiritual energy watch and saw that it was still unassigned.

He immediately accepted the mission. Both the chief and Tian Ze were promptly notified of his decision.

Tian Ze sent a message.

【Tian Ze (4th Division, 8th Squad Leader)】: I remember this case. When the owner reported it to the police, almost a week had already passed. Typically, in supernatural or resentful spirit incidents, progressively terrifying events occur within this seven-day period. However, in the doll shop case, there were no changes, only the owner’s claim of hearing laughter.

Xu Dongyou quickly replied to Tian Ze:

【Li Dong (8th Squad)】: Captain, after half a month, the owner not only heard the dolls laugh but also saw them move.

This suggests that either the owner’s mental state has deteriorated, leading to more severe hallucinations, or it indicates an actual supernatural event.

The owner’s mental state might have collapsed. She hadn’t reported the incident again, so the handling bureau didn’t update the task’s status.

Tian Ze immediately sat up and asked Xu Dongyou if he needed assistance.

Xu Dongyou thought about it and agreed.

He wasn’t the type to play the hero alone, especially since this involved a potential supernatural event, unlike the previous case with the strange fish attacking the ship. With the captain’s rich experience, having an extra person to help would be beneficial.

Tian Ze didn’t call anyone else over, considering they still weren’t sure if it was a supernatural event. Besides, two people were enough for the task.

The mission included the owner’s temporary address and phone number. Xu Dongyou waited at the owner’s apartment complex entrance until Tian Ze arrived. Xu Dongyou waved to him, saying, “Captain, over here.”

Tian Ze quickly walked over, pulling out a special agent’s badge from his pocket and handing it to Xu Dongyou. “I forgot to give you this.”

Xu Dongyou opened it to find his photo and code, along with an official stamp.

“Thank you, Captain.” Xu Dongyou carefully put away the badge, knowing it might come in handy for future missions.

***

Lin Jingyun huddled at home wrapped in a thick blanket, despite the approach of summer, with no air conditioning on.

She didn’t dare turn it on, as any slight noise in the house would startle her like a frightened bird.

The prolonged mental stress and lack of sleep soon led to a weakened state. Even when she finally managed to fall asleep, she’d quickly wake up, startled by the wind outside and plunging back into fear.

The cause of all this was the doll shop she opened three years ago.

Three years ago, she chose to resign and start her own business, fulfilling her long-held dream of opening a store. Her parents owned a toy factory, and she was a design major, allowing her to design dolls and have them made at her family’s factory to sell in her shop.

She also wholesaled her original dolls to other toy shop owners, bringing additional revenue to her family’s factory—a win-win situation.

For example, the teddy bear she designed sold very well, becoming popular in many cities. Kids and young girls loved it, and it even inspired spin-off products like teddy bear-themed backpacks and water bottles.

Her parents were proud of her, and she was able to fulfill her dream. Everything was going well.

Soon after, she used the money she earned to buy a shop in a commercial street, even though it was newly established and didn’t have many visitors.

However, she had a feeling that the area would become a popular spot in the future, so she chose the best location. Within a year, the commercial street indeed became increasingly popular, attracting more and more people.

But all this happiness was shattered a month ago.

It started with her hearing a toy’s laughter. She thought someone had accidentally turned on a voice-activated doll, but when she went to the section with those toys, there was no one there!

So where did the sound come from?

At that time, she wasn’t scared, just confused, suspecting a malfunction in one of the toys. But a few hours later, she heard the laughter again.

There were very few customers in the store, and the staff were busy. She asked the staff member who was in the voice-activated section if they could identify where the sound was coming from.

To her surprise, the staff member looked puzzled and said, “Boss, what sound are you talking about?”

No one knows how she felt at that moment—like all the blood in her body froze, and her mind went blank. She turned to the other staff members, sharply asking, “You didn’t hear any toys laughing?”

“Ha ha ha—”

The eerie laughter echoed in the quiet store again.

She jumped up, terrified, “Didn’t you hear it? That laugh again.”

The other staff members felt uneasy too, though they genuinely hadn’t heard anything.

Perhaps it was the daylight or the occasional customer, but Lin Jingyun soon calmed down, though her nerves remained on edge. Not long after, she heard the laughter again. But as before, no one else did.

Desperate, she began to wonder if she was suffering from auditory hallucinations due to stress. However, the next day and the day after, she continued to hear the laughter, noticing it occurred every four hours.

She tried recording the sound on her phone and played it back, still hearing the laughter.

This seemed to confirm she wasn’t hallucinating—the sound was real!

In terror, she played the recording for her staff, but oddly, they all said they heard nothing; the phone was completely silent.

Frightened, she called the police. But despite their repeated listening, they also heard nothing. The staff believed that the owner was simply too stressed from overwork.

She decided to close the store and go home to rest.

During this time, the eerie laughter ceased, and she thought it might all have been due to stress. After a month of rest, she returned to the shop.

But the laughter returned, and worse, she saw a toy dart out from a corner. When she rushed over, she found nothing.

The shelves were full of motionless toys, all smiling.

She forced herself to stay in the store until closing time, noticing that, as before, a toy would dart from a corner after the laughter stopped.

Again, every four hours.

Lin Jingyun recorded the scene with her phone, capturing a blurry image of a toy bear darting across. The image was faint, but when she slowed down the video, she saw the toy bear in a red dress, with blood-red eyes.

The slowed-down video showed the toy bear crawling on all fours like a person, suddenly turning its head to look at the camera with its red eyes and a creepy smile.

It was as if the toy bear had noticed Lin Jingyun filming.

Lin Jingyun screamed in terror, dropping her phone. The other staff members, startled, rushed over to see what was wrong.

Lin Jingyun, trembling, pointed at the phone, unable to speak and drenched in cold sweat.

One of the staff picked up the phone and saw the paused video. They played it, looking even more confused.

Lin Jingyun, finding her voice, asked, “Did you see the toy bear in the video?”

The staff members shook their heads, each trying to convince Lin Jingyun to rest, thinking she was overworked.

Lin Jingyun felt a chill; the fleeting image of the toy bear couldn’t just be an illusion.

She sensed that she might either be hallucinating or that something strange was targeting her.

And only she could see it.

She bravely stayed in the store, capturing the eerie laughter and the toy bear’s movements on video for several days, saving all the footage.

Lin Jingyun’s strange behavior frightened the staff, leading them to quit.

Lin Jingyun no longer cared about the staff. She closed the store and returned home, hiding under her covers, which felt like the safest place.

She didn’t even call the police again, thinking she could avoid everything by staying home.

***

Meanwhile, Xu Dongyou and Tian Ze went straight to the doll shop owner’s apartment, knocking on her door on the third floor.

After a few minutes, they heard footsteps and a hoarse voice from inside, “Who are you?”

Tian Ze immediately showed his credentials, speaking through the peephole, “Special officers handling unusual cases, here to ask about the doll shop.”

Perhaps Tian Ze’s stern appearance made him seem intimidating, and despite showing a genuine police badge, the term “special officers” sounded dubious. After a brief silence, the voice inside said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please leave, or I’ll call the police.”

Tian Ze frowned, his already fierce expression becoming more impatient. “We are the police. Didn’t you report this to the police a while back?”

Xu Dongyou quickly intervened, showing his credentials and removing his hood to reveal a friendly face, smiling warmly. “Hello, we really are special officers, here to handle unusual cases. Please trust us, Miss Lin.”

“She won’t believe us. Better to let her call the police,” Tian Ze muttered, having dealt with many cases like this where people were highly suspicious and only trusted official police officers.

To their surprise, the door opened slightly, revealing a pale, frightened face with dark circles under the eyes, clearly indicating a lack of sleep.

Lin Jingyun, still wary, asked, “Why are you suddenly investigating this?”

Xu Dongyou smiled reassuringly, speaking gently, “We specialize in handling unusual cases. Your situation seems unusual, so we’re here to ask some questions.”

Tian Ze remained skeptical, still questioning the situation.

“Why did she open the door for you and not for me when we both showed our special police IDs and said the same thing?” Tian Ze couldn’t hide his confusion and asked Lin Jingyun directly.

Lin Jingyun paused, then replied, “Because he’s good-looking.”

She seemed to believe that someone as attractive as Xu Dongyou couldn’t possibly be a fraud, even more so than a celebrity.

Tian Ze felt like he’d been stabbed multiple times and, after a moment of speechlessness, said seriously, “There are good-looking con artists too.”

Lin Jingyun gave him a knowing look, “But he’s better-looking.”

Tian Ze was left speechless.

Xu Dongyou, feeling a bit embarrassed, quickly steered the conversation back on track. “Miss Lin, would you mind if we conducted an interview and investigation? We could go to a teahouse or café if that’s more comfortable.”

He was concerned that Lin Jingyun might feel uncomfortable with two men entering her home, so he suggested meeting outside.

However, Lin Jingyun shook her head and stepped aside, allowing them in. “It’s fine, come in. I actually feel less afraid at home.”

Xu Dongyou was slightly taken aback, not quite understanding her reasoning.

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Moonlit: I have this feeling that I will get chills again in the succeeding chapters… ( ╥ ᴗ ╥) Ahh, I can already feel it ( ╥ ᴗ ╥) imagining that toy bear scene made me scared ( ╥ ᴗ ╥) and I did this at night ( ╥ ᴗ ╥)