Chapter 57
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Night.
The fake “Lu Guangzu”—Huang Jin, was lying in a separate guard room, staring straight at the ceiling. In the dim corner of the wall, something seemed to be surging quietly.
The situation had gotten out of control.
Time was limited. He wanted to rely on the human fragrance and demon painted skin to cause a stir so that Shian and the police would devote the maximum amount of manpower to the case.
Even if he didn’t have many clues, Shian should be able to help if it was just a few missing people. When Shian found traces of the real culprit, he would confess again.
However, behind the culprit was Sunken Society, making the current situation out of Huang Jin’s control. Should he just confess to Shian? He thought desperately, but he couldn’t give any more clues now.
Even if Shian knew that he was “Huang Jin” and found his past, it would show he was even less likely to be involved with Sunken Society. In this way, things would only get more complicated.
…No, no way.
Now that things had come to a head, “King Yama” and Yin Ren were his only hope. Those were undoubtedly two powerhouses, so they would definitely be able to find a more suitable solution.
Until then, he could only remain silent and abide by his agreement with the two.
At the same time, two figures sneaked into a corridor.
“This feeling is really good, but I feel bad for Officer Sun.” Yin Ren stood in the basement of Huang Jin’s residence. “Zhong Ge, this is the taste of being an accomplice.”
Zhong Chengshuo was holding two spray cans and was carefully mixing medicine.
“What did you tell ‘Lu Guangzu’?” he asked in the dark.
“I told him that I would investigate the way I wanted to.” Yin Ren leaned against the wall of the basement, still holding the book in his arms. “Well, now I prefer to sell him out. What about you? Did you make him any promises?”
“I just said I wasn’t going to make any more trouble than necessary.” Zhong Chengshuo replied sincerely. “Drawing out the true culprit isn’t ‘not making more trouble’, so some sacrifices are necessary.”
“Well, he’ll understand by then.” Yin Ren swiped his phone in the darkness.
If they could advance the case by “exposing Huang Jin”, Huang Jin shouldn’t make it difficult for them on the spot.
It wasn’t hard to “expose Huang Jin”. The two of them only need to prepare a few well-evidenced investigation reports and hand them in at the right time. As for how to make the report look reasonable and legal, Mr. Zhong was quite good at it.
“Speaking of which, are you done yet? You just sprayed around upstairs just now, so what is it…”
“Shh.”
Zhong Chengshuo pressed the spray nozzle.
As if a cold fire had been lit on the spot, the thick darkness was suddenly diluted.
In the small basement, Yin Ren saw the blue-purple fluorescence that almost covered the floor as it extended to every corner.
“Maybe your spirits and ghosts can’t prove this, or maybe some people can get rid of corpses in bizarre ways.”
Zhong Chengshuo leaned closer to Yin Ren and spoke in a soft voice.
“…But there will always be traces left.”
Yin Ren squatted down and pressed on the fluorescent bloodstains. This place was so carefully cleaned that even he couldn’t smell too much blood. At the moment, those bloodstains were clear and vivid. It could be seen that a very intense struggle took place here. In terms of the amount of blood loss, someone had to have died.
For example, a man surnamed Lu who had lost his face.
Click, click. Zhong Chengshuo raised his camera and quickly took photos for the report.
After taking the shots, he hesitated for a moment. “Yin Ren, do you know a similar technique for purifying extracted DNA?”
“Of course not!” Lord Ghost King replied in humiliation.
……
In the middle of the night, the ghost market gate opened, and the two turned onto the street where it was located. Yin Ren was smiling while Zhong Chengshuo took out a notebook. They went straight to the stall of Old Dog Peng and Xiao Mengpo.
Around 2 a.m., the two returned home. Zhong Chengshuo was carefully typing at the dining table while looking at the freshly released ghost market interview records. Next to the small notebook, the relevant interview materials for Huang Jin, Ding Lizi, and Lu Guangzu piled up in a precarious mountain.
The evening breeze blew, rustling the indoor potted plants. A piece of paper was blown to the ground and slid to the floor.
“Here.” Zhong Chengshuo was just about to bend over to pick it up when Yin Ren handed it back.
This was Huang Jin’s neighbor’s interview record. The above information about “Ding Lizi” was circled by Zhong Chengshuo, and a neat short timeline was marked in small print. Zhong Chengshuo glanced at the paper and put it back in its original position.
“Thank you.” His gaze returned to the screen.
When the second hand moved, the time was getting closer to 3 a.m.. Countless interviews and data were swirling around Zhong Chengshuo’s head, but he didn’t feel sleepy at all.
Zhong Chengshuo sadly found that regular work and rest were drifting away from him…
While his accomplice was pretending to wear an apron while guarding the kitchen as he swiped his phone—the stew pot in the kitchen was gurgling softly, and the smell of strewed pork wafted out. This would be served with rice noodles later, making a warm late-night meal.
Even though it was late at night, everything had a weird sense of harmony.
“Got it!” Yin Ren suddenly put down the chopsticks he stole and leaned over to Zhong Chengshuo.
Zhong Chengshuo’s typing paused.
Yin Ren put his phone in front of Zhong Chengshuo, unable to hide the smugness in his face.
On the screen was the Nightwalkers’ online chat room. The ghost pawn shop was open for business at this time. It seemed something happened recently, as many Nightwalkers came to watch the excitement, so the online chat room was a bit deserted.
This made several messages particularly eye-catching.
[Anonymous 41: Seeking to buy comfortable sitting furniture. PM if interested.] Because the user turned on the anonymous function, his ID showed a gray color, which almost blended in with the black chat background.
[Demons & Monsters: To the friend above, I suggest Furniture Imports.]
[Xingwang Repair Station (come here for all household and spiritual appliance repair): I have cheap old furniture here. I sent you the link.]
[Xingwang Repair Station (come here for all household and spiritual appliance repair): Fuck this person won’t reply to my PMs at all.]
[Anonymous 41: Seeking to buy comfortable sitting furniture. PM if interested.]
[Lao Zhang Fruit Pancake 028: Why are you still anonymous when you want to buy something?]
[BOOS Supreme Evil Emperor: Could this be some secret code?]
[Anonymous 41: Seeking to buy comfortable sitting furniture. PM if interested.]
The person continued as if they hadn’t seen the messages and swiped for almost half a minute. After swiping ten times in a row, he would pause for ten minutes, then continue. Regardless of whether the Nightwalkers taunted or ridiculed, this person had no other response, as if he were like a spam account that was posting advertisements.
Weirdos would appear every year, especially this year, so the Nightwalkers quickly lost interest and chatted about their recent work.
“It’s him?” Zhong Chengshuo took a sip of his coffee and secretly glanced at Yin Ren’s account name—he was logged in as “Favorite Sky”, which should have been borrowed from the Lu family.
“Very likely. I’ll try.”
Yin Ren pulled over a chair and sat down next to Zhong Chengshuo. He also turned on the anonymous feature and clicked on the anonymous user’s private message box.
[Anonymous 83: Bean bag, private customization.]
[Anonymous 41: Accepted. Chat outside the station.]
The anonymous user quickly withdrew the message, which was then followed by a string of URLs.
Zhong Chengshuo opened it and found it was an encrypted chat room on the extranet, which was common among the Nightwalkers. Visitors needed to answer questions from the homeroom owner online to get permission to enter.
“It could indeed be him.” Zhong Chengshuo opened the URL on his computer again, and an input box was arbitrarily placed in front of the two of them.
[Why contact me?] The question was marked in black and white above the input box, and a blood-red ten-second countdown was next to it.
As soon as Yin Ren was about to open his mouth, Zhong Chengshuo had already typed out the response: [Because you’re also interested in me.]
[Why contact me?] With a ding, the answer was approved. However, the next input box popped up immediately without giving them any time to react.
The exact same question with the exact same ten-second countdown.
[I know you are the maker of the chair.] Zhong Chengshuo answered quickly.
“Ding!” The prompt “The owner has approved” popped up again next to the answer.
[Why contact me?] Appeared for the third time, along with the ten-second countdown.
The two glanced at each other and nodded.
Zhong Chengshuo typed: [Appreciate your vivid work.]
The pleasant “ding” sounded for a third time. The interface of the chatroom finally appeared in front of the two of them. The interface was simple and rough, with white characters on a black background. There was a “2” hanging on the column of the number of people in the room, but the IDs weren’t displayed.
This was the first time they faced the “true culprit”.
More than ten seconds passed, but there was no change on the interface.
The other side remained quiet, obviously waiting for them to speak first. ID and opening remarks; they had to be extremely careful not to let this half-cooked duck fly away.
Yin Ren: “Let me think about it…”
Zhong Chengshuo simply registered the ID “skinskip”. “Just let me do it.”
[skinship: Hello.]
After a few seconds, this record was automatically destroyed by the system and disappeared from the interface.
[winner99: How do you know I want a bean bag?] The person got straight to the point.
“Keep him hanging.” Yin Ren quickly leaned over. His long hair slid on Zhong Chengshuo’s bare arm, causing the latter to subconsciously shrink his hands, which slowed his typing speed.
[skinship: Secrets have a price.]
winner99 fell silent. Across the fluorescent screen, they couldn’t sense each other’s feelings. Zhong Chengshuo’s fingers hung on the keyboard for a moment before they started clacking out a line.
[skinship: I want to make a deal with you.]
[winner99: ?]
[skinship: I make people into works, but they always rot immediately. I have never seen that kind of vividness, so I want to take a closer look.]
[winner99: What do you mean?]
[skinship: Don’t put it in the ghost pawnshop next time. Can you show it to me in another place?]
[winner99: There will be no next time.]
Yin Ren clicked his tongue. The culprit was really cautious. He knew that the more his “work” was exposed, the greater the possibility Shian would catch any flaws.
Fortunately, they were prepared. Yin Ren leaned over Zhong Chengshuo’s ear and quickly whispered the planned lines.
[skinship: The first one is a bit eye-catching, but the finished product works well. No one is looking for the next six, so it’ll be much easier.]
[skinship: Your chair is about to collapse, so you want to change to a bean bag.]
[skinship: Hee hee.] In Yin Ren’s shocked expression, Zhong Chengshuo blankly added two more words.
[winner99: ……]
[winner99: How do you know?]
[skinship: Like I said, secrets have a price.]
[winner99: I’ll make a deal. I can produce another work. You can go to the ghost pawnshop and bid on it yourself.]
[skinship: And let you find out who I am? That’s no good.]
[skinship: How about this. I don’t care who Lu Guangzu is. He claims to be the murderer. Why not just plant this on him?]
[winner99: Hmm.]
[winner99: I’ll give you the address after I’ve arranged it. Recently, there’s been a lot of searching from Shian, so it won’t take long for it to be exposed.]
[winner99: Take care of yourself.]
After typing these words, the homeroom owner ID instantly went out, and the person logged off.
The fish had bitten the hook. The two accomplices huddled together and exchanged glances. Yin Ren patted Zhong Chengshuo’s arm and curled his brows. “Not bad, Zhong Ge. I’ll give you the best stew later.”
How unfortunate that this person didn’t become a police officer. When dealing with dangerous people, Zhong Chengshuo seemed to have a natural intuition for it.
Yin Ren hummed as he headed back into the kitchen and began to fill two porcelain bowls with broth. Zhong Chengshuo relaxed his muscles and looked at the chat page again—
The time limit for the messages had long passed, so the records had been automatically destroyed.
Later, he would clear the private messages on “Favorite Sky” and the matter would be completed.
When acting as King Yama, Zhong Chengshuo had done similar work countless times. He was extremely proficient in operations. For a moment, he thought he had returned to the base below the warehouse. It was just…
“Click.”
A bowl of steaming stewed pork and rice noodles was delivered to Zhong Chengshuo.
The rice noodle bowl wasn’t large and was filled with noodle soup that was decorated with fresh, green, crispy lettuce. The stewed meat inside was all lean meat, which didn’t make it smell greasy. Yin Ren’s own bowl was full of red chili oil and didn’t have a single vegetable leaf.
“I’m relying on you, Zhong Ge. I really can’t handle things like reports,” Yin Ren said sincerely.
“I stew this meat according to a recipe. Try it.”
Zhong Chengshuo carefully picked up a pair of chopsticks and put them in his mouth. The taste was mellow and warm, not overly heavy, which was just to his liking.
It was hard to imagine that not so long ago, they were dealing with a cunning serial killer at this table.
“Why do you want to go this far?” Zhong Chengshuo suddenly asked. “This time, the Emergency Management Department has made a move. You don’t need to wade in the water.”
Yin Ren’s identity was unknown, and he was involved with evil things. Once he was exposed, he would definitely lose the peaceful life he had at the moment. Why did he want to take this risk knowing the consequences?
“Hm?” Yin Ren’s chewing paused.
“Because I get upset thinking about it. The true culprit deserves death by a thousand cuts.” Yin Ren thought for a while and replied briskly.
Zhong Chengshuo: “…That’s it?”
“Well, I think you should be able to understand,” Yin Ren said. “After all, didn’t you also wade into the water, Mr. Accomplice?”
……
Two days later, Shian Building, Foreign Object Identification Department.
A huge oil painting replaced the position of the human chair in the white observation room. The medication that stabilized its vital signs dripped down the infusion bag and slowly flowed into the picture frame.
Looking at the picture, this should have been a landscape painting. However, there was no blue sky and white clouds on the canvas; instead, it was filled with red, white, and yellow. The frame of the picture was a bit soft, the fine lines of the border were like reliefs and wrinkles, and the frame itself was bone-like to the touch. It also had the temperature of a human’s body.
A constantly stinking dirt flowed beneath the frame. The canvas swelled appallingly from time to time, like boiling water.
The second Ge Tingting pressed her stethoscope, she suddenly covered her ears—compared to the human chair, the condition of this human painting was even worse. Except for meaningless screams, the victim couldn’t even formulate a single word.
Liang Caihong, female, 49 years old, disappeared more than 50 days ago. She was the second victim to be “found” and was one of the 10 people screened by the police.
Liang Caihong was just an ordinary housekeeper. Her only daughter was diagnosed with cancer three years ago and passed away less than a year later. This consumed the family’s entire savings.
Recently, her husband suffered a sudden stroke, making Liang Caihong the only person to support the entire family. Before she disappeared, almost everyone thought she “ran away without a word”.
But several of her little sisters insisted this wasn’t the case…
“Caihong has a very good temper and would never leave without saying goodbye.”
Facts had proven that this was indeed the case.
They could only see what she looked like in photos now. Liang Caihong looked much older than her real age, but there was a shy smile on her face. The smile suppressed the coldness between her brows, and even revealed a strange girlish expression.
Another living person disappeared into the corner of society and silently turned into a “dead thing”.
Fu Xingchuan stood in front of the window of the observation room with a complicated expression. “Can Ms. Liang’s sanity be restored?”
“If we can restore her human form and then slowly recuperate, there is indeed a possibility of recovery.” The staff next to him reported diligently. “But she’s in an extremely bad state now…”
This painting was found in the basement of one of Lu Gaungzu’s ex-girlfriends.
That ex-girlfriend broke up with him a few years ago. She moved back home, and the old residence she was living in was empty. Last night, Shian’s detection drone went to that area and found abnormal fluctuations of Evil Force and quickly rescued the “human painting”.
As for when it was put there, no one could tell.
Fu Xingchuan wiped his face with both hands and let out a long sigh. “Forget it. Another one, one by one… I’ll ask the minister later.”
“Minister Fu, I’m a little curious.” Lord Ghost King innocently leaned over. “Is this a solid conclusion that Lu Guangzu is the real murderer? I heard Xiaohe Jie say before that it’s unlikely it’s him…”
Fu Xingchuan glanced at him wearily. “Evidence is greater than judgment experience. With things like this, even if he isn’t, Lu Guangzu can’t wipe his hands from this.”
“Really? Strange, it doesn’t make sense.”
“What doesn’t make sense?” Fu Xingchuan pinched the bridge of his nose.
Yin Ren presented a thick report with both hands.
“Minister Fu, this is the investigation report that Zhong Ge and I just planned to hand in… According to our investigation, Lu Guangzu died six months ago at the hands of ‘Huang Jin’.”
“Someone in the bureau is pretending to be a dead man, and someone outside the bureau is planting dead people. Isn’t this weird?”
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Night.
The fake “Lu Guangzu”—Huang Jin, was lying in a separate guard room, staring straight at the ceiling. In the dim corner of the wall, something seemed to be surging quietly.
The situation had gotten out of control.
Time was limited. He wanted to rely on the human fragrance and demon painted skin to cause a stir so that Shian and the police would devote the maximum amount of manpower to the case.
Even if he didn’t have many clues, Shian should be able to help if it was just a few missing people. When Shian found traces of the real culprit, he would confess again.
However, behind the culprit was Sunken Society, making the current situation out of Huang Jin’s control. Should he just confess to Shian? He thought desperately, but he couldn’t give any more clues now.
Even if Shian knew that he was “Huang Jin” and found his past, it would show he was even less likely to be involved with Sunken Society. In this way, things would only get more complicated.
…No, no way.
Now that things had come to a head, “King Yama” and Yin Ren were his only hope. Those were undoubtedly two powerhouses, so they would definitely be able to find a more suitable solution.
Until then, he could only remain silent and abide by his agreement with the two.
At the same time, two figures sneaked into a corridor.
“This feeling is really good, but I feel bad for Officer Sun.” Yin Ren stood in the basement of Huang Jin’s residence. “Zhong Ge, this is the taste of being an accomplice.”
Zhong Chengshuo was holding two spray cans and was carefully mixing medicine.
“What did you tell ‘Lu Guangzu’?” he asked in the dark.
“I told him that I would investigate the way I wanted to.” Yin Ren leaned against the wall of the basement, still holding the book in his arms. “Well, now I prefer to sell him out. What about you? Did you make him any promises?”
“I just said I wasn’t going to make any more trouble than necessary.” Zhong Chengshuo replied sincerely. “Drawing out the true culprit isn’t ‘not making more trouble’, so some sacrifices are necessary.”
“Well, he’ll understand by then.” Yin Ren swiped his phone in the darkness.
If they could advance the case by “exposing Huang Jin”, Huang Jin shouldn’t make it difficult for them on the spot.
It wasn’t hard to “expose Huang Jin”. The two of them only need to prepare a few well-evidenced investigation reports and hand them in at the right time. As for how to make the report look reasonable and legal, Mr. Zhong was quite good at it.
“Speaking of which, are you done yet? You just sprayed around upstairs just now, so what is it…”
“Shh.”
Zhong Chengshuo pressed the spray nozzle.
As if a cold fire had been lit on the spot, the thick darkness was suddenly diluted.
In the small basement, Yin Ren saw the blue-purple fluorescence that almost covered the floor as it extended to every corner.
“Maybe your spirits and ghosts can’t prove this, or maybe some people can get rid of corpses in bizarre ways.”
Zhong Chengshuo leaned closer to Yin Ren and spoke in a soft voice.
“…But there will always be traces left.”
Yin Ren squatted down and pressed on the fluorescent bloodstains. This place was so carefully cleaned that even he couldn’t smell too much blood. At the moment, those bloodstains were clear and vivid. It could be seen that a very intense struggle took place here. In terms of the amount of blood loss, someone had to have died.
For example, a man surnamed Lu who had lost his face.
Click, click. Zhong Chengshuo raised his camera and quickly took photos for the report.
After taking the shots, he hesitated for a moment. “Yin Ren, do you know a similar technique for purifying extracted DNA?”
“Of course not!” Lord Ghost King replied in humiliation.
……
In the middle of the night, the ghost market gate opened, and the two turned onto the street where it was located. Yin Ren was smiling while Zhong Chengshuo took out a notebook. They went straight to the stall of Old Dog Peng and Xiao Mengpo.
Around 2 a.m., the two returned home. Zhong Chengshuo was carefully typing at the dining table while looking at the freshly released ghost market interview records. Next to the small notebook, the relevant interview materials for Huang Jin, Ding Lizi, and Lu Guangzu piled up in a precarious mountain.
The evening breeze blew, rustling the indoor potted plants. A piece of paper was blown to the ground and slid to the floor.
“Here.” Zhong Chengshuo was just about to bend over to pick it up when Yin Ren handed it back.
This was Huang Jin’s neighbor’s interview record. The above information about “Ding Lizi” was circled by Zhong Chengshuo, and a neat short timeline was marked in small print. Zhong Chengshuo glanced at the paper and put it back in its original position.
“Thank you.” His gaze returned to the screen.
When the second hand moved, the time was getting closer to 3 a.m.. Countless interviews and data were swirling around Zhong Chengshuo’s head, but he didn’t feel sleepy at all.
Zhong Chengshuo sadly found that regular work and rest were drifting away from him…
While his accomplice was pretending to wear an apron while guarding the kitchen as he swiped his phone—the stew pot in the kitchen was gurgling softly, and the smell of strewed pork wafted out. This would be served with rice noodles later, making a warm late-night meal.
Even though it was late at night, everything had a weird sense of harmony.
“Got it!” Yin Ren suddenly put down the chopsticks he stole and leaned over to Zhong Chengshuo.
Zhong Chengshuo’s typing paused.
Yin Ren put his phone in front of Zhong Chengshuo, unable to hide the smugness in his face.
On the screen was the Nightwalkers’ online chat room. The ghost pawn shop was open for business at this time. It seemed something happened recently, as many Nightwalkers came to watch the excitement, so the online chat room was a bit deserted.
This made several messages particularly eye-catching.
[Anonymous 41: Seeking to buy comfortable sitting furniture. PM if interested.] Because the user turned on the anonymous function, his ID showed a gray color, which almost blended in with the black chat background.
[Demons & Monsters: To the friend above, I suggest Furniture Imports.]
[Xingwang Repair Station (come here for all household and spiritual appliance repair): I have cheap old furniture here. I sent you the link.]
[Xingwang Repair Station (come here for all household and spiritual appliance repair): Fuck this person won’t reply to my PMs at all.]
[Anonymous 41: Seeking to buy comfortable sitting furniture. PM if interested.]
[Lao Zhang Fruit Pancake 028: Why are you still anonymous when you want to buy something?]
[BOOS Supreme Evil Emperor: Could this be some secret code?]
[Anonymous 41: Seeking to buy comfortable sitting furniture. PM if interested.]
The person continued as if they hadn’t seen the messages and swiped for almost half a minute. After swiping ten times in a row, he would pause for ten minutes, then continue. Regardless of whether the Nightwalkers taunted or ridiculed, this person had no other response, as if he were like a spam account that was posting advertisements.
Weirdos would appear every year, especially this year, so the Nightwalkers quickly lost interest and chatted about their recent work.
“It’s him?” Zhong Chengshuo took a sip of his coffee and secretly glanced at Yin Ren’s account name—he was logged in as “Favorite Sky”, which should have been borrowed from the Lu family.
“Very likely. I’ll try.”
Yin Ren pulled over a chair and sat down next to Zhong Chengshuo. He also turned on the anonymous feature and clicked on the anonymous user’s private message box.
[Anonymous 83: Bean bag, private customization.]
[Anonymous 41: Accepted. Chat outside the station.]
The anonymous user quickly withdrew the message, which was then followed by a string of URLs.
Zhong Chengshuo opened it and found it was an encrypted chat room on the extranet, which was common among the Nightwalkers. Visitors needed to answer questions from the homeroom owner online to get permission to enter.
“It could indeed be him.” Zhong Chengshuo opened the URL on his computer again, and an input box was arbitrarily placed in front of the two of them.
[Why contact me?] The question was marked in black and white above the input box, and a blood-red ten-second countdown was next to it.
As soon as Yin Ren was about to open his mouth, Zhong Chengshuo had already typed out the response: [Because you’re also interested in me.]
[Why contact me?] With a ding, the answer was approved. However, the next input box popped up immediately without giving them any time to react.
The exact same question with the exact same ten-second countdown.
[I know you are the maker of the chair.] Zhong Chengshuo answered quickly.
“Ding!” The prompt “The owner has approved” popped up again next to the answer.
[Why contact me?] Appeared for the third time, along with the ten-second countdown.
The two glanced at each other and nodded.
Zhong Chengshuo typed: [Appreciate your vivid work.]
The pleasant “ding” sounded for a third time. The interface of the chatroom finally appeared in front of the two of them. The interface was simple and rough, with white characters on a black background. There was a “2” hanging on the column of the number of people in the room, but the IDs weren’t displayed.
This was the first time they faced the “true culprit”.
More than ten seconds passed, but there was no change on the interface.
The other side remained quiet, obviously waiting for them to speak first. ID and opening remarks; they had to be extremely careful not to let this half-cooked duck fly away.
Yin Ren: “Let me think about it…”
Zhong Chengshuo simply registered the ID “skinskip”. “Just let me do it.”
[skinship: Hello.]
After a few seconds, this record was automatically destroyed by the system and disappeared from the interface.
[winner99: How do you know I want a bean bag?] The person got straight to the point.
“Keep him hanging.” Yin Ren quickly leaned over. His long hair slid on Zhong Chengshuo’s bare arm, causing the latter to subconsciously shrink his hands, which slowed his typing speed.
[skinship: Secrets have a price.]
winner99 fell silent. Across the fluorescent screen, they couldn’t sense each other’s feelings. Zhong Chengshuo’s fingers hung on the keyboard for a moment before they started clacking out a line.
[skinship: I want to make a deal with you.]
[winner99: ?]
[skinship: I make people into works, but they always rot immediately. I have never seen that kind of vividness, so I want to take a closer look.]
[winner99: What do you mean?]
[skinship: Don’t put it in the ghost pawnshop next time. Can you show it to me in another place?]
[winner99: There will be no next time.]
Yin Ren clicked his tongue. The culprit was really cautious. He knew that the more his “work” was exposed, the greater the possibility Shian would catch any flaws.
Fortunately, they were prepared. Yin Ren leaned over Zhong Chengshuo’s ear and quickly whispered the planned lines.
[skinship: The first one is a bit eye-catching, but the finished product works well. No one is looking for the next six, so it’ll be much easier.]
[skinship: Your chair is about to collapse, so you want to change to a bean bag.]
[skinship: Hee hee.] In Yin Ren’s shocked expression, Zhong Chengshuo blankly added two more words.
[winner99: ……]
[winner99: How do you know?]
[skinship: Like I said, secrets have a price.]
[winner99: I’ll make a deal. I can produce another work. You can go to the ghost pawnshop and bid on it yourself.]
[skinship: And let you find out who I am? That’s no good.]
[skinship: How about this. I don’t care who Lu Guangzu is. He claims to be the murderer. Why not just plant this on him?]
[winner99: Hmm.]
[winner99: I’ll give you the address after I’ve arranged it. Recently, there’s been a lot of searching from Shian, so it won’t take long for it to be exposed.]
[winner99: Take care of yourself.]
After typing these words, the homeroom owner ID instantly went out, and the person logged off.
The fish had bitten the hook. The two accomplices huddled together and exchanged glances. Yin Ren patted Zhong Chengshuo’s arm and curled his brows. “Not bad, Zhong Ge. I’ll give you the best stew later.”
How unfortunate that this person didn’t become a police officer. When dealing with dangerous people, Zhong Chengshuo seemed to have a natural intuition for it.
Yin Ren hummed as he headed back into the kitchen and began to fill two porcelain bowls with broth. Zhong Chengshuo relaxed his muscles and looked at the chat page again—
The time limit for the messages had long passed, so the records had been automatically destroyed.
Later, he would clear the private messages on “Favorite Sky” and the matter would be completed.
When acting as King Yama, Zhong Chengshuo had done similar work countless times. He was extremely proficient in operations. For a moment, he thought he had returned to the base below the warehouse. It was just…
“Click.”
A bowl of steaming stewed pork and rice noodles was delivered to Zhong Chengshuo.
The rice noodle bowl wasn’t large and was filled with noodle soup that was decorated with fresh, green, crispy lettuce. The stewed meat inside was all lean meat, which didn’t make it smell greasy. Yin Ren’s own bowl was full of red chili oil and didn’t have a single vegetable leaf.
“I’m relying on you, Zhong Ge. I really can’t handle things like reports,” Yin Ren said sincerely.
“I stew this meat according to a recipe. Try it.”
Zhong Chengshuo carefully picked up a pair of chopsticks and put them in his mouth. The taste was mellow and warm, not overly heavy, which was just to his liking.
It was hard to imagine that not so long ago, they were dealing with a cunning serial killer at this table.
“Why do you want to go this far?” Zhong Chengshuo suddenly asked. “This time, the Emergency Management Department has made a move. You don’t need to wade in the water.”
Yin Ren’s identity was unknown, and he was involved with evil things. Once he was exposed, he would definitely lose the peaceful life he had at the moment. Why did he want to take this risk knowing the consequences?
“Hm?” Yin Ren’s chewing paused.
“Because I get upset thinking about it. The true culprit deserves death by a thousand cuts.” Yin Ren thought for a while and replied briskly.
Zhong Chengshuo: “…That’s it?”
“Well, I think you should be able to understand,” Yin Ren said. “After all, didn’t you also wade into the water, Mr. Accomplice?”
……
Two days later, Shian Building, Foreign Object Identification Department.
A huge oil painting replaced the position of the human chair in the white observation room. The medication that stabilized its vital signs dripped down the infusion bag and slowly flowed into the picture frame.
Looking at the picture, this should have been a landscape painting. However, there was no blue sky and white clouds on the canvas; instead, it was filled with red, white, and yellow. The frame of the picture was a bit soft, the fine lines of the border were like reliefs and wrinkles, and the frame itself was bone-like to the touch. It also had the temperature of a human’s body.
A constantly stinking dirt flowed beneath the frame. The canvas swelled appallingly from time to time, like boiling water.
The second Ge Tingting pressed her stethoscope, she suddenly covered her ears—compared to the human chair, the condition of this human painting was even worse. Except for meaningless screams, the victim couldn’t even formulate a single word.
Liang Caihong, female, 49 years old, disappeared more than 50 days ago. She was the second victim to be “found” and was one of the 10 people screened by the police.
Liang Caihong was just an ordinary housekeeper. Her only daughter was diagnosed with cancer three years ago and passed away less than a year later. This consumed the family’s entire savings.
Recently, her husband suffered a sudden stroke, making Liang Caihong the only person to support the entire family. Before she disappeared, almost everyone thought she “ran away without a word”.
But several of her little sisters insisted this wasn’t the case…
“Caihong has a very good temper and would never leave without saying goodbye.”
Facts had proven that this was indeed the case.
They could only see what she looked like in photos now. Liang Caihong looked much older than her real age, but there was a shy smile on her face. The smile suppressed the coldness between her brows, and even revealed a strange girlish expression.
Another living person disappeared into the corner of society and silently turned into a “dead thing”.
Fu Xingchuan stood in front of the window of the observation room with a complicated expression. “Can Ms. Liang’s sanity be restored?”
“If we can restore her human form and then slowly recuperate, there is indeed a possibility of recovery.” The staff next to him reported diligently. “But she’s in an extremely bad state now…”
This painting was found in the basement of one of Lu Gaungzu’s ex-girlfriends.
That ex-girlfriend broke up with him a few years ago. She moved back home, and the old residence she was living in was empty. Last night, Shian’s detection drone went to that area and found abnormal fluctuations of Evil Force and quickly rescued the “human painting”.
As for when it was put there, no one could tell.
Fu Xingchuan wiped his face with both hands and let out a long sigh. “Forget it. Another one, one by one… I’ll ask the minister later.”
“Minister Fu, I’m a little curious.” Lord Ghost King innocently leaned over. “Is this a solid conclusion that Lu Guangzu is the real murderer? I heard Xiaohe Jie say before that it’s unlikely it’s him…”
Fu Xingchuan glanced at him wearily. “Evidence is greater than judgment experience. With things like this, even if he isn’t, Lu Guangzu can’t wipe his hands from this.”
“Really? Strange, it doesn’t make sense.”
“What doesn’t make sense?” Fu Xingchuan pinched the bridge of his nose.
Yin Ren presented a thick report with both hands.
“Minister Fu, this is the investigation report that Zhong Ge and I just planned to hand in… According to our investigation, Lu Guangzu died six months ago at the hands of ‘Huang Jin’.”
“Someone in the bureau is pretending to be a dead man, and someone outside the bureau is planting dead people. Isn’t this weird?”
Night.The fake Lu GuangzuHuang Jin, was lying in a separate guard room, staring straight at the ceiling. In the dim corner of the wall, something seemed to be surging quietly.The situation had gotten out of control.Time was limited. He wanted to rely on the human fragrance and demon painted skin to cause a stir so that Shian and the police would devote the maximum amount of manpower to the case.Even if he didn't have many clues, Shian should be able to help if it was just a few missing people. When Shian found traces of the real culprit, he would confess again.However, behind the culprit was Sunken Society, making the current situation out of Huang Jin's control.Should he just confess to Shian?He thought desperately, but he couldn't give any more clues now.Even if Shian knew that he was Huang Jin and found his past, it would show he was even less likely to be involved with Sunken Society. In this way, things would only get more complicated.No, no way.Now that things had come to a head, King Yama and Yin Ren were his only hope. Those were undoubtedly two powerhouses, so they would definitely be able to find a more suitable solution.Until then, he could only remain silent and abide by his agreement with the two.At the same time, two figures sneaked into a corridor.This feeling is really good, but I feel bad for Officer Sun. Yin Ren stood in the basement of Huang Jin's residence. Zhong Ge, this is the taste of being an accomplice.Zhong Chengshuo was holding two spray cans and was carefully mixing medicine.What did you tell Lu Guangzu'? he asked in the dark.I told him that I would investigate the way I wanted to. Yin Ren leaned against the wall of the basement, still holding the book in his arms. Well, now I prefer to sell him out. What about you? Did you make him any promises?I just said I wasn't going to make any more trouble than necessary. Zhong Chengshuo replied sincerely. Drawing out the true culprit isn't not making more trouble', so some sacrifices are necessary.Well, he'll understand by then. Yin Ren swiped his phone in the darkness.If they could advance the case by exposing Huang Jin, Huang Jin shouldn't make it difficult for them on the spot.It wasn't hard to expose Huang Jin. The two of them only need to prepare a few well-evidenced investigation reports and hand them in at the right time. As for how to make the report look reasonable and legal, Mr. Zhong was quite good at it.Speaking of which, are you done yet? You just sprayed around upstairs just now, so what is itShh.Zhong Chengshuo pressed the spray nozzle.As if a cold fire had been lit on the spot, the thick darkness was suddenly diluted.In the small basement, Yin Ren saw the blue-purple fluorescence that almost covered the floor as it extended to every corner.Maybe your spirits and ghosts can't prove this, or maybe some people can get rid of corpses in bizarre ways.Zhong Chengshuo leaned closer to Yin Ren and spoke in a soft voice.But there will always be traces left.Yin Ren squatted down and pressed on the fluorescent bloodstains. This place was so carefully cleaned that even he couldn't smell too much blood. At the moment, those bloodstains were clear and vivid. It could be seen that a very intense struggle took place here. In terms of the amount of blood loss, someone had to have died.For example, a man surnamed Lu who had lost his face.Click, click. Zhong Chengshuo raised his camera and quickly took photos for the report.After taking the shots, he hesitated for a moment. Yin Ren, do you know a similar technique for purifying extracted DNA?Of course not! Lord Ghost King replied in humiliation.In the middle of the night, the ghost market gate opened, and the two turned onto the street where it was located. Yin Ren was smiling while Zhong Chengshuo took out a notebook. They went straight to the stall of Old Dog Peng and Xiao Mengpo.Around 2 a.m., the two returned home. Zhong Chengshuo was carefully typing at the dining table while looking at the freshly released ghost market interview records. Next to the small notebook, the relevant interview materials for Huang Jin, Ding Lizi, and Lu Guangzu piled up in a precarious mountain.The evening breeze blew, rustling the indoor potted plants. A piece of paper was blown to the ground and slid to the floor.Here. Zhong Chengshuo was just about to bend over to pick it up when Yin Ren handed it back.This was Huang Jin's neighbor's interview record. The above information about Ding Lizi was circled by Zhong Chengshuo, and a neat short timeline was marked in small print. Zhong Chengshuo glanced at the paper and put it back in its original position.Thank you. His gaze returned to the screen.When the second hand moved, the time was getting closer to 3 a.m.. Countless interviews and data were swirling around Zhong Chengshuo's head, but he didn't feel sleepy at all.Zhong Chengshuo sadly found that regular work and rest were drifting away from himWhile his accomplice was pretending to wear an apron while guarding the kitchen as he swiped his phonethe stew pot in the kitchen was gurgling softly, and the smell of strewed pork wafted out. This would be served with rice noodles later, making a warm late-night meal.Even though it was late at night, everything had a weird sense of harmony.Got it! Yin Ren suddenly put down the chopsticks he stole and leaned over to Zhong Chengshuo.Zhong Chengshuo's typing paused.Yin Ren put his phone in front of Zhong Chengshuo, unable to hide the smugness in his face.On the screen was the Nightwalkers' online chat room. The ghost pawn shop was open for business at this time. It seemed something happened recently, as many Nightwalkers came to watch the excitement, so the online chat room was a bit deserted.This made several messages particularly eye-catching.Anonymous 41: Seeking to buy comfortable sitting furniture. PM if interested. Because the user turned on the anonymous function, his ID showed a gray color, which almost blended in with the black chat background.Demons & Monsters: To the friend above, I suggest Furniture Imports.Xingwang Repair Station come here for all household and spiritual appliance repair: I have cheap old furniture here. I sent you the link.Xingwang Repair Station come here for all household and spiritual appliance repair: Fuck this person won't reply to my PMs at all.Anonymous 41: Seeking to buy comfortable sitting furniture. PM if interested.Lao Zhang Fruit Pancake 028: Why are you still anonymous when you want to buy something?BOOS Supreme Evil Emperor: Could this be some secret code?Anonymous 41: Seeking to buy comfortable sitting furniture. PM if interested.The person continued as if they hadn't seen the messages and swiped for almost half a minute. After swiping ten times in a row, he would pause for ten minutes, then continue. Regardless of whether the Nightwalkers taunted or ridiculed, this person had no other response, as if he were like a spam account that was posting advertisements.Weirdos would appear every year, especially this year, so the Nightwalkers quickly lost interest and chatted about their recent work.It's him? Zhong Chengshuo took a sip of his coffee and secretly glanced at Yin Ren's account namehe was logged in as Favorite Sky, which should have been borrowed from the Lu family.Very likely. I'll try.Yin Ren pulled over a chair and sat down next to Zhong Chengshuo. He also turned on the anonymous feature and clicked on the anonymous user's private message box.Anonymous 83: Bean bag, private customization.Anonymous 41: Accepted. Chat outside the station.The anonymous user quickly withdrew the message, which was then followed by a string of URLs.Zhong Chengshuo opened it and found it was an encrypted chat room on the extranet, which was common among the Nightwalkers. Visitors needed to answer questions from the homeroom owner online to get permission to enter.It could indeed be him. Zhong Chengshuo opened the URL on his computer again, and an input box was arbitrarily placed in front of the two of them.Why contact me? The question was marked in black and white above the input box, and a blood-red ten-second countdown was next to it.As soon as Yin Ren was about to open his mouth, Zhong Chengshuo had already typed out the response: Because you're also interested in me.Why contact me? With a ding, the answer was approved. However, the next input box popped up immediately without giving them any time to react.The exact same question with the exact same ten-second countdown.I know you are the maker of the chair. Zhong Chengshuo answered quickly.Ding! The prompt The owner has approved popped up again next to the answer.Why contact me? Appeared for the third time, along with the ten-second countdown.The two glanced at each other and nodded.Zhong Chengshuo typed: Appreciate your vivid work.The pleasant ding sounded for a third time. The interface of the chatroom finally appeared in front of the two of them. The interface was simple and rough, with white characters on a black background. There was a 2 hanging on the column of the number of people in the room, but the IDs weren't displayed.This was the first time they faced the true culprit.More than ten seconds passed, but there was no change on the interface.The other side remained quiet, obviously waiting for them to speak first. ID and opening remarks; they had to be extremely careful not to let this half-cooked duck fly away.Yin Ren: Let me think about itZhong Chengshuo simply registered the ID skinskip. Just let me do it.skinship: Hello.After a few seconds, this record was automatically destroyed by the system and disappeared from the interface.winner99: How do you know I want a bean bag? The person got straight to the point.Keep him hanging. Yin Ren quickly leaned over. His long hair slid on Zhong Chengshuo's bare arm, causing the latter to subconsciously shrink his hands, which slowed his typing speed.skinship: Secrets have a price.winner99 fell silent. Across the fluorescent screen, they couldn't sense each other's feelings. Zhong Chengshuo's fingers hung on the keyboard for a moment before they started clacking out a line.skinship: I want to make a deal with you.winner99: ?skinship: I make people into works, but they always rot immediately. I have never seen that kind of vividness, so I want to take a closer look.winner99: What do you mean?skinship: Don't put it in the ghost pawnshop next time. Can you show it to me in another place?winner99: There will be no next time.Yin Ren clicked his tongue. The culprit was really cautious. He knew that the more his work was exposed, the greater the possibility Shian would catch any flaws.Fortunately, they were prepared. Yin Ren leaned over Zhong Chengshuo's ear and quickly whispered the planned lines.skinship: The first one is a bit eye-catching, but the finished product works well. No one is looking for the next six, so it'll be much easier.skinship: Your chair is about to collapse, so you want to change to a bean bag.skinship: Hee hee. In Yin Ren's shocked expression, Zhong Chengshuo blankly added two more words.winner99: winner99: How do you know?skinship: Like I said, secrets have a price.winner99: I'll make a deal. I can produce another work. You can go to the ghost pawnshop and bid on it yourself.skinship: And let you find out who I am? That's no good.skinship: How about this. I don't care who Lu Guangzu is. He claims to be the murderer. Why not just plant this on him?winner99: Hmm.winner99: I'll give you the address after I've arranged it. Recently, there's been a lot of searching from Shian, so it won't take long for it to be exposed.winner99: Take care of yourself.After typing these words, the homeroom owner ID instantly went out, and the person logged off.The fish had bitten the hook. The two accomplices huddled together and exchanged glances. Yin Ren patted Zhong Chengshuo's arm and curled his brows. Not bad, Zhong Ge. I'll give you the best stew later.How unfortunate that this person didn't become a police officer. When dealing with dangerous people, Zhong Chengshuo seemed to have a natural intuition for it.Yin Ren hummed as he headed back into the kitchen and began to fill two porcelain bowls with broth. Zhong Chengshuo relaxed his muscles and looked at the chat page againThe time limit for the messages had long passed, so the records had been automatically destroyed.Later, he would clear the private messages on Favorite Sky and the matter would be completed.When acting as King Yama, Zhong Chengshuo had done similar work countless times. He was extremely proficient in operations. For a moment, he thought he had returned to the base below the warehouse. It was justClick.A bowl of steaming stewed pork and rice noodles was delivered to Zhong Chengshuo.The rice noodle bowl wasn't large and was filled with noodle soup that was decorated with fresh, green, crispy lettuce. The stewed meat inside was all lean meat, which didn't make it smell greasy. Yin Ren's own bowl was full of red chili oil and didn't have a single vegetable leaf.I'm relying on you, Zhong Ge. I really can't handle things like reports, Yin Ren said sincerely.I stew this meat according to a recipe. Try it.Zhong Chengshuo carefully picked up a pair of chopsticks and put them in his mouth. The taste was mellow and warm, not overly heavy, which was just to his liking.It was hard to imagine that not so long ago, they were dealing with a cunning serial killer at this table.Why do you want to go this far? Zhong Chengshuo suddenly asked. This time, the Emergency Management Department has made a move. You don't need to wade in the water.Yin Ren's identity was unknown, and he was involved with evil things. Once he was exposed, he would definitely lose the peaceful life he had at the moment. Why did he want to take this risk knowing the consequences?Hm? Yin Ren's chewing paused.Because I get upset thinking about it. The true culprit deservesdeath by a thousand cuts. Yin Ren thought for a while and replied briskly.Zhong Chengshuo: That's it?Well, I think you should be able to understand, Yin Ren said. After all, didn't you also wade into the water, Mr. Accomplice?Two days later, Shian Building, Foreign Object Identification Department.A huge oil painting replaced the position of the human chair in the white observation room. The medication that stabilized its vital signs dripped down the infusion bag and slowly flowed into the picture frame.Looking at the picture, this should have been a landscape painting. However, there was no blue sky and white clouds on the canvas; instead, it was filled with red, white, and yellow. The frame of the picture was a bit soft, the fine lines of the border were like reliefs and wrinkles, and the frame itself was bone-like to the touch. It also had the temperature of a human's body.A constantly stinking dirt flowed beneath the frame. The canvas swelled appallingly from time to time, like boiling water.The second Ge Tingting pressed her stethoscope, she suddenly covered her earscompared to the human chair, the condition of this human painting was even worse. Except for meaningless screams, the victim couldn't even formulate a single word.Liang Caihong, female, 49 years old, disappeared more than 50 days ago. She was the second victim to be found and was one of the 10 people screened by the police.Liang Caihong was just an ordinary housekeeper. Her only daughter was diagnosed with cancer three years ago and passed away less than a year later. This consumed the family's entire savings.Recently, her husband suffered a sudden stroke, making Liang Caihong the only person to support the entire family. Before she disappeared, almost everyone thought she ran away without a word.But several of her little sisters insisted this wasn't the caseCaihong has a very good temper and would never leave without saying goodbye.Facts had proven that this was indeed the case.They could only see what she looked like in photos now. Liang Caihong looked much older than her real age, but there was a shy smile on her face. The smile suppressed the coldness between her brows, and even revealed a strange girlish expression.Another living person disappeared into the corner of society and silently turned into a dead thing.Fu Xingchuan stood in front of the window of the observation room with a complicated expression. Can Ms. Liang's sanity be restored?If we can restore her human form and then slowly recuperate, there is indeed a possibility of recovery. The staff next to him reported diligently. But she's in an extremely bad state nowThis painting was found in the basement of one of Lu Gaungzu's ex-girlfriends.That ex-girlfriend broke up with him a few years ago. She moved back home, and the old residence she was living in was empty. Last night, Shian's detection drone went to that area and found abnormal fluctuations of Evil Force and quickly rescued the human painting.As for when it was put there, no one could tell.Fu Xingchuan wiped his face with both hands and let out a long sigh. Forget it. Another one, one by one I'll ask the minister later.Minister Fu, I'm a little curious. Lord Ghost King innocently leaned over. Is this a solid conclusion that Lu Guangzu is the real murderer? I heard Xiaohe Jie say before that it's unlikely it's himFu Xingchuan glanced at him wearily. Evidence is greater than judgment experience. With things like this, even if he isn't, Lu Guangzu can't wipe his hands from this.Really? Strange, it doesn't make sense.What doesn't make sense? Fu Xingchuan pinched the bridge of his nose.Yin Ren presented a thick report with both hands.Minister Fu, this is the investigation report that Zhong Ge and I just planned to hand in According to our investigation, Lu Guangzu died six months ago at the hands of Huang Jin'.Someone in the bureau is pretending to be a dead man, and someone outside the bureau is planting dead people. Isn't this weird?
