memory hole

memory hole

Author: Yixin Works

horror clock

1.

The rain has stopped.An hour ago, the torrential rain came suddenly, and the big raindrops hit the windows like a cannonball, and the loud sound continued for a long time like a panic bell.Zhong Xian once breathed a sigh of relief, maybe this can be a good reason not to go out.

But, no matter how unwilling, some things must be done.

The green space in Honghu Park is wet, and the sky after the rain is still covered with thin clouds like silk. There is a smell of hot and humid leaves in the air, and the metal benches beside the stone road are covered with drops of water.After waiting for more than 20 minutes, Zhong Xian saw the man holding a checkered umbrella on the other side of the green space.Zhong Xian waved to him.It was a tall young man, his skin had been tanned by the July sun, and he was holding a large paper bag with the trademark of a certain clothing brand printed on it.

"Dake, here." Zhong Xian stood up from the bench, put his left hand in his trouser pocket, and shook his right hand a few times like a beckoning cat.

Dake walked over quickly, started to look at Zhong Xian from a distance, and whispered in his mouth: "Hey, Zhong, you look good, you don't seem to have walked through the grave, Hehe, ha..." He spoke with the characteristics of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, and his speech was very fast.He walked over in a few steps, put the bag on the metal bench, and gasped a little exaggeratedly, as if he had just finished a long-distance run.Zhong Xian picked up the bag and opened it to look.

"It's much better." Dake asked.

"I can't die." Zhong Xian replied flipping through the bag.The bag contained some scattered office supplies, two pens, a small notebook, glasses, sticky notes, a sketchbook, a book on sales psychology, some materials in transparent folders, etc.

"How many A4 papers are there, not here? On the top of the first drawer of my desk..." Zhong Xian gestured with one hand.

Dake stared at a pair of small eyes with single eyelids, and nodded at the same time: "Ah, I saw it, and thought it was waste paper."

"Then I have to trouble you..."

"Oh, you won't let me go again. It's just a few sheets of paper. There seems to be a line or something on it. I thought it was useless...I threw it away."

"Where did you throw it?"

"It's in the paper lollipop."

Zhong Xian closed the bag, "Then... that's fine. It's okay."

"Is it really something important?" Dake tried to smile.

Zhong Xian explained with a smile: "That's how I am. I can't just throw away anything I've handled, I always have to give it a result..."

"I know I know!" Dake interrupted him: "How could I not know you? But it seems that there are really just a few lines drawn on the paper..."

"Yes...you think it's best."

"You are getting more and more..." Speaking of this, Dake suddenly remembered something, and immediately became energetic, "By the way, there is something very strange. You still remember Xiao Zhu. She is always the one who likes to brag."

Zhong Xian folded the mouth of the bag down again and again, and nodded.Xiao Zhu was a former colleague. Zhong Xian's memory of him is very vague, but he still remembers him as a thin and small guy.Da Ke with thick lines can remember such an unremarkable person.

"He has been away from the company for a long time." Dake said thoughtfully, "But what is interesting is that the police came to the company to investigate today. Guess what? It turned out that he disappeared. There was no news of him at home for half a year."

2.

After saying goodbye to Dake, Zhong Xian didn't go home directly.In the days of work, I look forward to finishing work early every day.But now, I don't want to go home.There is no destination, just wandering around.Until the legs seemed to be filled with lead.I received a few calls in the middle, two were selling real estate, one was selling insurance, one was congratulating him on winning a prize, and the other two didn't understand what they were selling. When he answered the phone, he just hung up when he heard polite words. .I don't know what's wrong with the current society, it seems that everyone is driven crazy by life.

Maybe I should change my number, Zhong Xian thought.

Just after returning home, the phone rang again, only to notice that this number had been called three times.

Zhong Xian answered with a sigh, and said directly, "I'm a policeman. You don't want to..."

Zhong Xian was taken aback.Finally, he didn't hang up the phone again.

At noon the next day, there were cars passing by on Shennan Avenue, KFC next to SZ Bookstore, suddenly there were more people at noon, and a line gradually formed in front of the order counter. Zhong Xian sat near the door, twisting and turning. Staring at the billboard above the dining table, the lunch special is only 15 yuan, which looks like a good deal.He never ate.

"Zhong Sheng?"

Zhong Xian heard a somewhat lazy voice.He didn't react for a moment.

"Are you Mr. Zhong Xian?" the voice asked again.

Zhong Xian turned his head and saw a man standing by the dining table. He was wearing a bright gray and expensive suit on a hot day. You'll feel like a kid who just graduated from college.Zhong Xian was stunned again and again, the person he was waiting for should be wearing a police uniform. "Are you the one who called last night... that Officer Zheng?"

The man in the suit said in a straight voice, "My surname is Deng."

"Hello, hello. Is it Deng? Sorry, my memory is not good." Zhong Xian said hastily. "My mind is like a mess lately." He said and moved a seat inside, wanting Officer Deng to sit down.

The tables in the restaurant were almost full, and although there were few people making any noise, it was still full of people.Officer Deng did not sit down, he looked around, "Let's talk in another place."

Zhong Xian didn't want to move, he smiled and said: "I plan to go to the bookstore after we finish talking. Actually, I am not familiar with Xiao Zhu, and I don't even think I can provide you with any clues."

Officer Deng had no choice but to sit down. Because of his tall stature, his body seemed a little uncoordinated on the small round stool of KFC: "First of all, I would like to thank you for your cooperation." Officer Deng briefly introduced the basic situation of the case: Xiao Zhu's parents reported Yun Yun to the police without hearing about Xiao Zhu for half a year, and then suddenly asked Zhong Xian, "Mr. Li said, Xiao Zhu was your assistant before."

Li was always Zhong Xian's boss, but it was already in the past tense, he didn't have to worry about anything anymore. "Absolutely not." He replied emphatically.Because the two were sitting side by side, he tried his best to turn his body to face Officer Deng's gaze, "I work as the marketing director and assistant to the general manager of that company. You can tell how informal the company is from the job arrangement. Li Always a talkative person. Xiao Zhu has almost no intersection with me at work."

"I also got confirmation from your company's customers." Officer Deng said calmly.

"How could it be?" Zhong Xian was stimulated to fight back, and his heartbeat accelerated unconsciously.He immediately covered it up with a smile. "As a marketing executive, many clients will meet with me in the end, maybe they are impressed with me, but..."

Officer Deng looked at Zhong Xian: "They said, maybe you can provide some deeper information. By the way, you are from the north, right? Where are you from?"

Zhong Xian replied: "I'm from the north, and there are really very few things I can think of about Xiao Zhu."

Perhaps because the atmosphere was a bit stiff, Zhong Xian changed into an enthusiastic tone and said, "Let's order a drink first, I invite you."

"I don't drink anything. It won't take up too much of your time."

"Go ahead and ask. When did Xiao Zhu disappear?"

"The exact time is unknown. When was the last time you saw him?"

Zhong Xian turned his gaze to the desktop: "I have to think about it, it's been a long time. And my recent brain...I only found out about his resignation later, because I basically don't get in touch with him at work. The last side may be just One day, I met someone who said hello in the office. Then I heard that he left."

"Do you remember when he left?"

"It's been more than half a year. He must have left before the Chinese New Year, specifically in December or November."

"What was unusual about him at the time?"

"No. I can't see it because I'm not familiar with it." Zhong Xian tried to recall, "There was a small incident, probably at that time, he once commented loudly on a certain colleague in the office, and that colleague borrowed money from him. Borrow. He felt that the colleague had a problem with his character, and he would never return the money he borrowed. The reason why I remember this is that the colleague also borrowed money from me, and because Xiao Zhu was usually reticent, but that day Talked a lot in high spirits. Still, that couldn't be the reason for his disappearance. Just a little thing I remember about him."

"Who is that colleague? He borrowed money from you."

"Ou Hang. A local, he left after Xiao Zhu."

"A native of Shenzhen?"

"No, the locals I'm talking about are Cantonese. The locals in Shenzhen aren't that poor, right?" Zhong Xian smiled.

"So he borrowed money from each of you?"

"I don't know. I can only confirm that he has borrowed money from me, and Xiao Zhu has also been borrowed." Zhong Xian said seriously.

"Do you have the phone number of that colleague -- Ouhang..."

"I'll look for it." Zhong Xian took out his phone and found it from the address book. "I'll send it to you via WeChat."

Officer Deng also took out his mobile phone.They scanned each other's WeChat codes.

Zhong Xian noticed that Police Officer Deng's WeChat profile picture was a chrysanthemum, old-fashioned.

"He has two mobile phone numbers?" Officer Deng stared at the WeChat message sent by Zhong Xian.

Zhong Xian explained: "One of them is the number that the company gave him. When he left the company, the company should have stopped. The company is in the new