episode_0059

After filling our bellies at a Chinese restaurant, we began our search in Chinatown. The reason we traveled to Incheon was to find a mysterious street. Sarah and I each took out bronze mirrors from our bags.

“Jinwoo. Didn’t you say you can reflect your surroundings with a bronze mirror?”

“Yes. Then the hidden space will be revealed. But aren’t you calling me baby now?”

“Why? babe. Do you regret not calling me?”

“Who is regretful?”

Sarah has now stopped calling me baby. Sarah must have been embarrassed to call her childhood friend “baby,” but before she knew it, she had secretly changed the title back to the original. I was able to focus on searching the mysterious streets.

“Where should we start?”

“Let’s start from here.”

Chinatown’s main tourist attractions were Chinatown, various historical buildings, parks, and Mural Street with Chinese-style murals. Besides that, there were several other places to visit. Sarah and I slowly looked around the tourist attractions in Chinatown, starting from Junghwa Street where there was a Chinese restaurant.

“It will take some time to look through everything.”

“I can’t help it.”

If I had just walked down the street normally, I would have been able to quickly look around and pass by the tourist attractions. But we had to look at each one in a bronze mirror. Fortunately, it was a bronze mirror with a handle, so it was easy to carry around.

Before I knew it, it was afternoon.

We arrived at Mural Street, which had paintings related to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Because it was Saturday, there were many tourists on the streets to see the sights.

There was a Chinese woman handing out leaflets among the tourists.

As we passed nearby, a Chinese woman tried to give us a leaflet as well. At first, I thought it was a store promotion flyer so I didn’t want to receive it. However, when I looked at the contents, I saw these words written in large letters on the leaflet.

“We are looking for a missing child.”

After seeing the flyer, I became interested.

I remembered the story the old lady who worked at the Chinese restaurant told me earlier.

‘Did you say there are disappearances happening here these days?’

It was a story about disappearances that have been occurring frequently in Chinatown recently. It was an incident where boys and girls of our age went missing.

“Please give me a flyer.”

I received a leaflet from a Chinese woman and read it. The leaflet contained a photo and description of the missing child. What went missing was a female student wearing a school uniform.

The name is Yeon-gyeong. Age 14. He is 150cm tall. Wearing school uniform.

Sarah and I were looking at a flyer.

A Chinese woman spoke to us in an earnest tone.

“This is my daughter. If you see a blind person, please contact the police or me. Please… .”

“Are you this child’s mother?”

“Yes.”

The Chinese woman was the mother of the missing child. They were out on the streets handing out leaflets to find the child. The face of the Chinese woman who lost her daughter looked gaunt and thin.

“You must be worried. If I see him, I will contact you right away.”

“Thank you.”

“But when did the blind man go missing?”

“It’s been about a week. It might still be around here. When I came home from school, he suddenly disappeared.”

Other than us, hardly anyone took the leaflets. I spoke to a Chinese woman about the disappearance.

“They say there are a lot of children going missing in this neighborhood these days. We are worried because we are students too.”

“Students, please be careful too. I think there may be a kidnapper roaming around my neighborhood. He’s a kidnapper who only targets blind children.”

The Chinese woman let out a deep sigh as she told us to be careful. As I listened to those words in silence, I felt a little uncomfortable. The grandmother I met at the Chinese restaurant, as well as the Chinese woman here, thought that someone had kidnapped the children.

Is there any clue?

A kidnapper was seen kidnapping a child.

“Is there a kidnapper walking around? Was there anyone suspicious nearby when the children were kidnapped?”

“I didn’t see any suspicious people. The children suddenly disappeared and no one saw anything.”

“Then is it just a rumor that there is a kidnapper?”

“It’s not a rumor.”

The Chinese woman looked at us and cautiously opened her mouth.

“… These days, strange things happen in this neighborhood before children go missing. There’s blood on children’s clothes. Was there blood on the laundry or on a child’s clothes after playing outside?”

“There was a trace.”

“That’s right.”

It wasn’t a baseless rumor.

Before they went missing, the children’s clothes always had blood on them. The same thing happened to the blind man who went missing a week ago.

“How was the blind man?”

“My house is the same. There was blood on the veranda. I discovered it late because I was working outside… .”

On the day the blind man went missing, the laundry that had been hung on the veranda at the mother and daughter’s house was soaked with blood. There was no sign that anyone had entered the house. Afterwards, Sogyeong went missing like other children who had experienced the same thing.

“I see. That’s strange.”

“… I think there is definitely a kidnapper.”

“Okay. If I find a blind person, I will definitely contact you.”

The story of the Chinese woman ended there.

This was not an ordinary disappearance case.

Something happened other than finding the mysterious street.

Sarah and I talked as we walked down the street.

“I heard the kidnapper got blood on his clothes?”

“I did something like that, but I haven’t been caught by the police yet.”

“Why do you cover children with blood before kidnapping them?”

“Well… .”

It was difficult to identify the kidnapper just by walking around with blood on his clothes. But I had read an account of a similar incident some time ago. The incident record I had read in my notebook naturally came to mind.

This was the Kamikakushi incident that occurred in Japan.

An incident in which a young woman went missing in a rural village in Hokkaido.

Like the children in Chinatown, a young Japanese woman disappeared without leaving any trace of resistance. Villagers and police searched but could not find the young woman. This was because the young woman was taken by a tengu to a space far from reality.

‘Isn’t it similar?’

The kidnapper in Chinatown left blood stains on the children’s clothes. But other than that part, there were many similarities to the incident that occurred in Japan. I told Sarah my guess.

“Isn’t it similar to the incident I read about in the note last time? I’m talking about the Kamikakushi incident.”

“Ah… . It’s similar. At that time, it was said that it was a tengu that kidnapped people.”

“Yes.”

What if the kidnapper could freely enter and exit the mysterious space called Ghost Road? You could take children to the ghost road and kidnap them without a trace. In addition, there were reports from people in Chinatown who said they had actually visited a ghost road.

‘A mysterious street that exists somewhere in Chinatown.’

‘An incident in which children were kidnapped in succession.’

Maybe the two incidents were connected.

What if a kidnapper is going in and out of Ghost Road and kidnapping children?

Sarah shrugged her shoulders and said to me.

“Anyway, we should be careful too. It’s a perfect target for kidnappers.”

“That’s right. Because we are alone.”

“I think I would get goosebumps if I suddenly saw blood on my clothes.”

“Let’s check.”

Sarah and I looked at each other’s clothes. I took off my coat and checked my other clothes, but there was no trace of blood. However, it was impossible to feel at ease.

We were on a trip as students and were wandering around the streets.

It was no wonder that I became the target of a kidnapper targeting children.

“There is no blood on it.”

We continued our search through the streets of Chinatown.

*

It was sunset.

We had a simple dinner of street food and sat on a bench to rest for a while. I’ve searched while carrying a bronze mirror, but I haven’t found anything.

“Are you sure you can find the ghost path by tomorrow?”

“I don’t know.”

The bronze mirror could reflect what was hidden, but we had to find the place where the ghost path was. It felt a little daunting to have to find a suspicious path on this wide street.

It was when we were sitting quietly on the bench and resting.

There were people suddenly talking to us.

“Oh my. See you guys here again?”

I saw the female manager I met at a Chinese restaurant during the day. There was also a young man working as an employee next to the lady boss. A man and a woman passing by on the street saw us and pretended to know us. I also said hello to the female boss and the young man.

“Hello, boss.”

“Hello, Jinwoo.”

The lady boss waved her hand and approached us with the young man. The lady boss still remembered my name. I also remembered that we said we were a couple.

“What are you two doing here? Are you going on a date?”

“Okay… You can say yes.”

“Children have fun playing.”

The female boss smiled and nudged the young man next to her. The young man just smiled without saying a word. It was a young man with a red scar on his neck. The lady boss tapped the young man on the shoulder and introduced us.

“This is my younger brother Jang Geol. I can’t speak well because I hurt my neck.”

“Oh, there was a reason why you didn’t say anything.”

“We are also playing. Have fun here. If you’re hungry, come to our store again.”

That was all the conversation was about.

The female manager and the young man greeted us lightly and passed us by.

It was soon time for us to start searching again.

Sarah held up a bronze mirror.

“Shall we go?”

It was right then.

What was reflected in Sarah’s bronze mirror caught my eye.

The bronze mirror illuminated the street where the female manager and the young man were passing.

The streets of Chinatown are crowded with countless people.

A female manager and a young man walking among the crowd.

‘uh… ?’

But the mirror reflected something strange.

It was not the female boss and the young man who were mixed in the crowd.

A huge bird and a man with pale blue skin were walking down the street.