MidReal Story
Whispers of the Beyond
Scenario: My name is Chen Feng. I am a psychic. I can talk to the dead. One of my childhood friends is Shen Tu. She is a criminal policeman. At present, she is working as an intern criminal police in a county in the northeast. Her father is the director of the provincial public security department. On this day, she came across a strange case, and there was no progress for more than a month. She picked up her mobile phone and dialed my phone.
Create my version of this story
The night Shen Tu called me, I was sleeping.
In fact, I was sleeping very soundly.
The call woke me up.
I rubbed my eyes, searching for my phone in the dark and bringing it to my ear, my voice thick with sleep, “Shen Tu?What’s up?”
If it were anyone else, I would have been annoyed.
But it was Shen Tu, my childhood friend.
She was several hundred kilometers away as an intern criminal police in a county in the northeast.
Even though we were so far apart, we talked on the phone every day.
But today was different.
Her voice sounded urgent.
I could hear the strain in her tone and the tears she was desperately trying to hold back.
“Feng, I … I don’t know how to tell you this.”
I felt a chill run down my spine.
Shen Tu paused for a moment before continuing, sobbing pitifully, “I’m sorry, I can’t say anything right now.”
“Shen Tu, you’re scaring me.” My voice was tinged with panic.
She took a deep breath and continued speaking, trying her best to control her emotions.
“Feng, you have to listen to me.”
“Of course I will.” I sat up and leaned against the headboard of my bed, bringing my knees up to my chest.
“I want to tell you about a case.”
She paused again for a moment.
Her voice was clearer now.
Just as I was about to say something else, she spoke up again.
“I’ll call you back after I calm down.”
Before I could say anything else, she hung up.
I stared at the phone in a daze.
Why did she call me so late at night?
What was she trying to tell me?
The only thing that I could be sure of was that something had happened to her and that it must have been serious to make her act this way.
She never called me at such an hour unless it was something important.
My name is Chen Feng.
I’m twenty-four years old and have medium-length black hair.
I am a psychic.
I can see, hear and talk to the dead.
I live in Guiyang and work from home.
Shen Tu is my best friend.
We grew up together.
Our village was small and remote, so the two of us were always together.
We went to the same elementary school, middle school, and high school.
After we graduated from high school, Shen Tu went on to attend a police academy, while I chose to stay in Guiyang.
Since I was unable to get into a university, I decided to work from home.
Ten minutes later, my phone rang again.
I answered it immediately.
Shen Tu was still crying, but she seemed calmer now.
“Feng, I’m sorry for calling you so late.”
“It’s alright.Don’t worry about it.Tell me what happened.”
Shen Tu hesitated for a moment before finally speaking up.
“I don’t know how to say this, but… Feng, are you free tomorrow?”
I frowned, somewhat puzzled by her question.
“Yes, I am.Why do you ask?”
She paused again before continuing.
“Could you come to where I am?There’s something that I want to show you.”
Shen Tu’s family lived in our village.
She was an only child, and her parents doted on her.
Her father, Director Shen, was the director of the provincial public security department.
He was tall, with greying hair.
He had a strong personality and was very protective of Shen Tu.
He had high expectations for his daughter.
I remember when we were in middle school, he used to tell us that he wanted Shen Tu to grow up to be a civil servant when she was older.
Although our families were very different in terms of financial status, it didn’t affect our relationship at all.
Shen Tu never looked down on me because of it.
We were very close friends.
After we graduated from high school, Shen Tu chose to attend a police academy.
She wanted to become a policeman like her father.
But when she graduated from school, she was assigned to a remote county in the northeast to work as an intern criminal police.
It was more than 2,000 kilometers away from home.
It was an extremely difficult decision for her to make, especially since she was still so young and had never been away from home before.
However, if she wanted to become a criminal policeman, she had to go where she was needed.
She couldn’t choose where to work.
Shen Tu’s parents tried to persuade her not to go, but she insisted on doing so and finally left home alone.
After arriving at the county, she discovered that it was very different from what she had expected.
The place was backward, and people here were uneducated and ignorant.
It was quite common for people to drink and drive or even fight on the streets at night.
The police station where Shen Tu worked was no exception.
The people there were lazy and corrupt, and they didn’t get along well with her as an outsider and a woman.
Shen Tu’s colleagues often made things difficult for her, but she didn’t complain at all.
Although I missed her very much, I knew that she would be fine because she was strong and determined.
She had always been like this since we were young.
I didn’t know what happened during this period of time to make her cry like this.
I couldn’t even imagine it.
I remember how I sent Shen Tu to the train station that day to see her off, and I looked at the back of her leaving until she disappeared from my sight, and I didn’t know when we would meet again.
In the cold wind of the early winter, the train slowly left the train station, and I looked at Shen Tu’s back from behind, feeling extremely sad and helpless.
I clearly remembered the day Shen Tu received a call from her father, Director Shen, informing her that she had been assigned to work in this remote county in the northeast, and she would leave the next day after receiving her certificate from school.
Shen Tu answered the call, and her face changed several times, but she didn’t say anything before hanging up the phone with an unspeakable expression on her face.
She told me that she didn’t want to go because the place was too far away from home and the climate there was too cold and harsh, and she wouldn’t be able to adapt to living there as a woman who had never been away from home before.
She told me that she had never been to such a cold place before except during winter vacation at school, let alone live there for three years, and she felt that it would be difficult for her to survive there because the people were too rough and the customs were too strange!
However, when she asked Director Shen if he could change his mind, he answered only one word—No!
He added that this was a good opportunity for Shen Tu to train herself because it was difficult for women to become criminal policemen and she would face more difficulties than men in the future.
Hence, she must seize the opportunity and work hard, no matter how difficult the situation was!
When I saw the helplessness and bitterness on Shen Tu’s face, I knew that she had no choice but to leave without saying goodbye to everyone else!
The northeast was indeed a harsh place to live in, as it was extremely cold and the temperature could drop to minus thirty degrees Celsius when there were snowstorms and sandstorms in winter.
The people there were also different from what we had imagined.
Although they were rough and candid and liked drinking and fighting, they were also very hospitable and kind to their relatives and friends and didn’t like to bother with others’ affairs unless they were wronged or bullied by others.
Initially, Shen Tu had a hard time adapting to the weather and the food there, but she gradually got used to them after a while.
She threw herself into her work after being transferred to the criminal police team of the local public security bureau as an intern because she wanted to prove herself to everyone there and her parents who loved her so much, and she wanted to solve cases that she could handle on her own instead of being a burden to her colleagues all the time!
