The autumn had come to the Southern area, bringing with it a lot of rainfall. In theory, the water in the rainy season could wash away Yang energy, so many foul things would seize this chance to resurface and wreak havoc. It should be the busiest time of the year for me. However, these days, no one came to my shop.
It was raining, and I was too lazy to go out. I could only stay idly in my shop and wait for mold to invade my body.
Li Mazi was a man with no humanity. Two days ago, he was in my shop playing Contra with me. But as soon as he heard that Ru Xue had come back from her parents’ house, he immediately transformed into her eunuch. I was now left alone in my shop. I drank tea to pass the time.
I sat on my rocking chair and unfolded a newspaper. I thought news these days couldn’t be compared to the past. I got only articles about gossip, like this star married that star and the other star had an affair. There was nothing substantive. It was freaking boring.
I threw the newspaper aside. As soon as I was about to get up to stretch my body, I glanced at a tarrying title through the corner of my eye. It read, “The famous entrepreneur Chen Yiqing in Fujian died bizarrely!”
I had seen the name Chen Yiqing in many news articles about business and the economy. This man was in his early forties. He was an extraordinarily talented man. Along with his wife, he had created his enormous business, starting it from scratch. After only five years, he had created the most famous e-commerce brand in Fujian. His company now sold household appliances. The company’s annual mutual transactions had reached several billion renminbi. He was a genius in the industry of domestic household appliances.
I couldn’t help but pick up the paper again to read it. Soon, I finished reading the article, and I frowned.
Although the picture was censored, I still noticed that his death was horrible. His body was chopped into fingernail-sized pieces. I was sure it was a revenge case! Moreover, it was strange that the police said that they found no trace of the murderer at the crime scene. It sounded like nonsense.
These years, incidents like this weren’t new. The market was as fierce as a battlefield. A dispute during a negotiation could become a reason to kill someone. After reading the article, I didn’t keep it in my mind and moved over.
It was beyond my imagination that Chen Yiqing was just the beginning of a series of murders. A few days later, something similar happened again in Fujian. Most of the victims were famous and successful people. Moreover, the police couldn’t find any trace of the murderer at the crime scenes.
The serial murder cases had created a lot of panic in Fujian! The police issued a statement saying that the murderer was a psychopath that harbored deep hatred towards the rich. They had investigated some suspicious unemployed and low-income people. However, before their investigation made any progress, another person died.
The newest case had broken the police’s assumption about the murderer. The victim this time had an ordinary background. They were almost impoverished, to be exact.
I flipped through a thick stack of newspapers. Chen Yiqing was killed on October 21st. A new case happened every day after his death. As of the last case, seven people were chopped to death. The police didn’t find any evidence. There were no fingerprints, hair strands, or possible weapons at the crime scenes. They didn’t find any suspects in the area after checking many CCTV cameras, either.
With my years of experience working with otherworldly items, I noticed these serial murder cases weren’t simple. It was possibly the work of a malicious otherworldly item. Otherwise, it was impossible to cause seven deaths without leaving a single trace.
I held a cup of tea and took a sip. I thought about whether or not I should proactively join this case.
The deaths of those victims were even worse than the one-thousand-slice sentences in ancient times. They were literally minced, with the pieces of their remains as big as fingernails! The evil spirit behind this could be at the Ghost King level, which was the type that I should stay away from if I could.
Given the trend, there would be more deaths. Since I had seen the news, I couldn’t stay still. I didn’t want my conscience to feel guilty.
I’d thought about this matter for quite a long time. Then, I placed my teacup back on the table and made up my mind: No matter what, I had to go and see!
Before leaving, I called Li Mazi and asked him to keep an eye on my shop while he was serving Ru Xue. I didn’t want to return to an empty shop without knowing who had emptied it.
Fujian was a coastal province. Moreover, as it was autumn, there was a lot of rain. When I arrived at Fuzhou, the rain was getting heavier.
I rubbed my hands and pulled my coat close to me. Holding a dark-colored umbrella, I went to the police station.
The policeman on duty snorted at my explanation of paranormal activities due to some foul thing. He thought that I was a madman who had come to trouble the police here. I had to ask him to call the Public Security Department to ask about the cases I had helped them with in the past. The policeman half-believed me. In the end, he decided to take me to see his chief.
The leader was a middle-aged criminal policeman with a medium build. He extended a hand to me and welcomed me. While shaking his hand, I knew he was good at martial arts. The policeman had a tender face, but there was a long and big scar that looked like a centipede crawling on his left cheek. It broke his gentle aura and gave him a touch of cruelty.
We introduced ourselves. I now knew that he was the captain of the Criminal Police Department here. His name was Captain Liu Feng.
I simply told him why I had come here. He kept silent for a while, then asked, “Mr. Zhang, how big is the probability that a foul thing is behind these corpse-chopping cases?”
I gently exhaled. If he asked this, it meant he believed me. I thought then answered, “Based on the current situation, the possibility could be one hundred percent. Moreover, from the frequency of these serial murder cases, there could be another victim tonight.”
After listening to me, Liu Feng excused himself and went outside to make a phone call. When he returned, he put on a serious face. He made me a little nervous. He put his mobile phone back on the desk and asked, “Do you know who I just called?”
I wore a serious face and shook my head. I rolled my eyes discreetly and thought to myself, I don’t have any superpowers. How the heck am I supposed to know who you just called?!
“Our Chief of the Bureau,” answered Liu Feng.
It turned out he had called his Chief to ask for direction. Unexpectedly, his Chief agreed. Moreover, he had asked the other police stations around Fujian to cooperate with me.
I was surprised and guessed that their Chief knew me, or that he knew something about my deeds.
However, now wasn’t the time to think about this. If the Chief agreed to support me, it would be easier to carry out the next steps.
First, I read the profiles of the seven victims. I needed to know information about them. The victims had different genders and ages. There was nothing similar about their bodies, either. I also read the oral statement of the victims’ family members. They were similar. They got up in the morning, saw a lot of blood on the bed along with the chopped bodies of their deceased family members. Feeling panic-stricken, they called the police.
These were the official investigation procedures. However, the information here was useless to me. I asked to interview the deceased’s families one more time. Captain Liu cooperated with me well. He gave me the addresses and assigned a policeman called Xiaolin to accompany me.
Before we got out of the police bureau, a red shadow stormed into the office despite the policeman on duty standing in her way.
It was a woman wearing red clothes. Her messy hair covered her face. She was wearing slippers, but one was missing.
There were small cuts on her foot, and she looked disorderly as she had run in the rain. While trying to get through the policeman in her way, she screamed. However, as she was panicking, she couldn’t produce a full and meaningful sentence. I caught some words like ‘life’ and ‘dead.’
We had to stop because of this interruption. We brought the woman to the office and poured her a cup of warm water.
“Thank you, thank you.” The woman thanked us. After drinking up the whole glass of warm water, she finally calmed down. She rubbed her shoulders, which showed that she was still frightened.
Captain Liu sat with a pen in his hand. He asked her for some basic information like her name, age, and address. It would give us the basic knowledge about this woman, and it would also ease her so that she could tell us what had happened.
Through the woman’s intermittent voice, we knew she was named Wang Ping. She was thirty-seven years old, and she resided in a high-end community not far from the police station.
When Captain Liu recognized that she could talk normally, he asked, “What happened?”
When Wang Ping heard his question, she was startled and dropped her glass. Her eyes opened wide in fear.
“So many people were crying. They cried… They wanted to kill me!” Wang Ping buried her head into her arms on the table. Her voice turned hoarse and trembled.
Captain Liu didn’t know what to write down. “Who wanted to kill you?”
Wang Ping’s absurd answer alerted me.
“There were so many crying faces… They were on my walls, on my closets, and even on my bed. I know they wanted to kill me. I ran away from home.”
Chief Liu and I exchanged looks. It seemed we had the same idea. Wang Ping could be the next victim. I wanted to know more about the situation, so I asked her to go to her house to see.
Wang Ping didn’t want to go home. I had to assure her that she would be all right. She hesitated then brought us to her home.
When I entered her house, I saw a little boy around six or seven years old sitting on the sofa. When he heard the noise, he lifted his head and shot us a faint glance. His face was full of disgust.
I was surprised. He’s just a little boy. How could he have such extreme emotions?
Subconsciously, I turned to Wang Ping. As I was just a stranger, the boy’s hatred wasn’t directed at me. I guessed he was looking at Wang Ping.
Wang Ping saw the boy and frowned. “Boy, go to your room or I’ll beat you up.”
The boy said nothing and held his head low. He grabbed a cloth tiger doll and quietly went upstairs. Before leaving, he shot me a glance. I felt so strange. The little boy had something odd in his eyes, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
Wang Ping gave me a reluctant smile. “Please don’t mind him. He’s just a kid.”
I smiled and said nothing. The odd feeling grew higher in my heart.
Wang Ping had rushed to the police station to ask for help and had left her son at home. Then, she threatened her son right in front of us. I felt a little disgust toward Wang Ping already!
Anyway, it was her family’s business, and I shouldn’t put my nose in it. After she showed us around, I started to assess her house.
The living room in this house was vast. There were an authentic leather sofa and a crystal coffee table that faced an LCD TV. It occupied half the opposite wall. Next to the TV was a photo frame. I saw a man and a boy. I recognized the boy, who was Wang Ping’s son. The man was probably her husband.
There were two bedrooms upstairs. One was open and the other was locked. I guessed the locked one was the boy’s room.
After taking one round, I found nothing of interest. I didn’t see the crying faces Wang Ping had reported.
We went back to the living room. I asked Wang Ping to tell us about the situation. Wang Ping had adjusted herself. She had dried her hair and changed her clothes. I finally saw her face clearly.
She was thirty-seven years old, but there was not a single wrinkle on her face. Her skin was well-maintained. Since she was frightened, her small and pale face looked strangely attractive. She could entice men well with such a face.
I knew my evil desire had arisen, so I had to hurriedly read the sacred text of Daoism. Then, I pulled myself together and listened to Wang Ping’s story.
The autumn had come to the Southern area, bringing with it a lot of rainfall. In theory, the water in the rainy season could wash away Yang energy, so many foul things would seize this chance to resurface and wreak havoc. It should be the busiest time of the year for me. However, these days, no one came to my shop.
It was raining, and I was too lazy to go out. I could only stay idly in my shop and wait for mold to invade my body.
Li Mazi was a man with no humanity. Two days ago, he was in my shop playing Contra with me. But as soon as he heard that Ru Xue had come back from her parents’ house, he immediately transformed into her eunuch. I was now left alone in my shop. I drank tea to pass the time.
I sat on my rocking chair and unfolded a newspaper. I thought news these days couldn’t be compared to the past. I got only articles about gossip, like this star married that star and the other star had an affair. There was nothing substantive. It was freaking boring.
I threw the newspaper aside. As soon as I was about to get up to stretch my body, I glanced at a tarrying title through the corner of my eye. It read, “The famous entrepreneur Chen Yiqing in Fujian died bizarrely!”
I had seen the name Chen Yiqing in many news articles about business and the economy. This man was in his early forties. He was an extraordinarily talented man. Along with his wife, he had created his enormous business, starting it from scratch. After only five years, he had created the most famous e-commerce brand in Fujian. His company now sold household appliances. The company’s annual mutual transactions had reached several billion renminbi. He was a genius in the industry of domestic household appliances.
I couldn’t help but pick up the paper again to read it. Soon, I finished reading the article, and I frowned.
Although the picture was censored, I still noticed that his death was horrible. His body was chopped into fingernail-sized pieces. I was sure it was a revenge case! Moreover, it was strange that the police said that they found no trace of the murderer at the crime scene. It sounded like nonsense.
These years, incidents like this weren’t new. The market was as fierce as a battlefield. A dispute during a negotiation could become a reason to kill someone. After reading the article, I didn’t keep it in my mind and moved over.
It was beyond my imagination that Chen Yiqing was just the beginning of a series of murders. A few days later, something similar happened again in Fujian. Most of the victims were famous and successful people. Moreover, the police couldn’t find any trace of the murderer at the crime scenes.
The serial murder cases had created a lot of panic in Fujian! The police issued a statement saying that the murderer was a psychopath that harbored deep hatred towards the rich. They had investigated some suspicious unemployed and low-income people. However, before their investigation made any progress, another person died.
The newest case had broken the police’s assumption about the murderer. The victim this time had an ordinary background. They were almost impoverished, to be exact.
I flipped through a thick stack of newspapers. Chen Yiqing was killed on October 21st. A new case happened every day after his death. As of the last case, seven people were chopped to death. The police didn’t find any evidence. There were no fingerprints, hair strands, or possible weapons at the crime scenes. They didn’t find any suspects in the area after checking many CCTV cameras, either.
With my years of experience working with otherworldly items, I noticed these serial murder cases weren’t simple. It was possibly the work of a malicious otherworldly item. Otherwise, it was impossible to cause seven deaths without leaving a single trace.
I held a cup of tea and took a sip. I thought about whether or not I should proactively join this case.
The deaths of those victims were even worse than the one-thousand-slice sentences in ancient times. They were literally minced, with the pieces of their remains as big as fingernails! The evil spirit behind this could be at the Ghost King level, which was the type that I should stay away from if I could.
Given the trend, there would be more deaths. Since I had seen the news, I couldn’t stay still. I didn’t want my conscience to feel guilty.
I’d thought about this matter for quite a long time. Then, I placed my teacup back on the table and made up my mind: No matter what, I had to go and see!
Before leaving, I called Li Mazi and asked him to keep an eye on my shop while he was serving Ru Xue. I didn’t want to return to an empty shop without knowing who had emptied it.
Fujian was a coastal province. Moreover, as it was autumn, there was a lot of rain. When I arrived at Fuzhou, the rain was getting heavier.
I rubbed my hands and pulled my coat close to me. Holding a dark-colored umbrella, I went to the police station.
The policeman on duty snorted at my explanation of paranormal activities due to some foul thing. He thought that I was a madman who had come to trouble the police here. I had to ask him to call the Public Security Department to ask about the cases I had helped them with in the past. The policeman half-believed me. In the end, he decided to take me to see his chief.
The leader was a middle-aged criminal policeman with a medium build. He extended a hand to me and welcomed me. While shaking his hand, I knew he was good at martial arts. The policeman had a tender face, but there was a long and big scar that looked like a centipede crawling on his left cheek. It broke his gentle aura and gave him a touch of cruelty.
We introduced ourselves. I now knew that he was the captain of the Criminal Police Department here. His name was Captain Liu Feng.
I simply told him why I had come here. He kept silent for a while, then asked, “Mr. Zhang, how big is the probability that a foul thing is behind these corpse-chopping cases?”
I gently exhaled. If he asked this, it meant he believed me. I thought then answered, “Based on the current situation, the possibility could be one hundred percent. Moreover, from the frequency of these serial murder cases, there could be another victim tonight.”
After listening to me, Liu Feng excused himself and went outside to make a phone call. When he returned, he put on a serious face. He made me a little nervous. He put his mobile phone back on the desk and asked, “Do you know who I just called?”
I wore a serious face and shook my head. I rolled my eyes discreetly and thought to myself, I don’t have any superpowers. How the heck am I supposed to know who you just called?!
“Our Chief of the Bureau,” answered Liu Feng.
It turned out he had called his Chief to ask for direction. Unexpectedly, his Chief agreed. Moreover, he had asked the other police stations around Fujian to cooperate with me.
I was surprised and guessed that their Chief knew me, or that he knew something about my deeds.
However, now wasn’t the time to think about this. If the Chief agreed to support me, it would be easier to carry out the next steps.
First, I read the profiles of the seven victims. I needed to know information about them. The victims had different genders and ages. There was nothing similar about their bodies, either. I also read the oral statement of the victims’ family members. They were similar. They got up in the morning, saw a lot of blood on the bed along with the chopped bodies of their deceased family members. Feeling panic-stricken, they called the police.
These were the official investigation procedures. However, the information here was useless to me. I asked to interview the deceased’s families one more time. Captain Liu cooperated with me well. He gave me the addresses and assigned a policeman called Xiaolin to accompany me.
Before we got out of the police bureau, a red shadow stormed into the office despite the policeman on duty standing in her way.
It was a woman wearing red clothes. Her messy hair covered her face. She was wearing slippers, but one was missing.
There were small cuts on her foot, and she looked disorderly as she had run in the rain. While trying to get through the policeman in her way, she screamed. However, as she was panicking, she couldn’t produce a full and meaningful sentence. I caught some words like ‘life’ and ‘dead.’
We had to stop because of this interruption. We brought the woman to the office and poured her a cup of warm water.
“Thank you, thank you.” The woman thanked us. After drinking up the whole glass of warm water, she finally calmed down. She rubbed her shoulders, which showed that she was still frightened.
Captain Liu sat with a pen in his hand. He asked her for some basic information like her name, age, and address. It would give us the basic knowledge about this woman, and it would also ease her so that she could tell us what had happened.
Through the woman’s intermittent voice, we knew she was named Wang Ping. She was thirty-seven years old, and she resided in a high-end community not far from the police station.
When Captain Liu recognized that she could talk normally, he asked, “What happened?”
When Wang Ping heard his question, she was startled and dropped her glass. Her eyes opened wide in fear.
“So many people were crying. They cried… They wanted to kill me!” Wang Ping buried her head into her arms on the table. Her voice turned hoarse and trembled.
Captain Liu didn’t know what to write down. “Who wanted to kill you?”
Wang Ping’s absurd answer alerted me.
“There were so many crying faces… They were on my walls, on my closets, and even on my bed. I know they wanted to kill me. I ran away from home.”
Chief Liu and I exchanged looks. It seemed we had the same idea. Wang Ping could be the next victim. I wanted to know more about the situation, so I asked her to go to her house to see.
Wang Ping didn’t want to go home. I had to assure her that she would be all right. She hesitated then brought us to her home.
When I entered her house, I saw a little boy around six or seven years old sitting on the sofa. When he heard the noise, he lifted his head and shot us a faint glance. His face was full of disgust.
I was surprised. He’s just a little boy. How could he have such extreme emotions?
Subconsciously, I turned to Wang Ping. As I was just a stranger, the boy’s hatred wasn’t directed at me. I guessed he was looking at Wang Ping.
Wang Ping saw the boy and frowned. “Boy, go to your room or I’ll beat you up.”
The boy said nothing and held his head low. He grabbed a cloth tiger doll and quietly went upstairs. Before leaving, he shot me a glance. I felt so strange. The little boy had something odd in his eyes, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
Wang Ping gave me a reluctant smile. “Please don’t mind him. He’s just a kid.”
I smiled and said nothing. The odd feeling grew higher in my heart.
Wang Ping had rushed to the police station to ask for help and had left her son at home. Then, she threatened her son right in front of us. I felt a little disgust toward Wang Ping already!
Anyway, it was her family’s business, and I shouldn’t put my nose in it. After she showed us around, I started to assess her house.
The living room in this house was vast. There were an authentic leather sofa and a crystal coffee table that faced an LCD TV. It occupied half the opposite wall. Next to the TV was a photo frame. I saw a man and a boy. I recognized the boy, who was Wang Ping’s son. The man was probably her husband.
There were two bedrooms upstairs. One was open and the other was locked. I guessed the locked one was the boy’s room.
After taking one round, I found nothing of interest. I didn’t see the crying faces Wang Ping had reported.
We went back to the living room. I asked Wang Ping to tell us about the situation. Wang Ping had adjusted herself. She had dried her hair and changed her clothes. I finally saw her face clearly.
She was thirty-seven years old, but there was not a single wrinkle on her face. Her skin was well-maintained. Since she was frightened, her small and pale face looked strangely attractive. She could entice men well with such a face.
I knew my evil desire had arisen, so I had to hurriedly read the sacred text of Daoism. Then, I pulled myself together and listened to Wang Ping’s story.
