Qin Shu did something he had wanted to do for the past half hour.
He was going to meet Du Xiao Shuang’s parents—or, more accurately, storm straight into their home.
The reasoning was simple. Since Du Xiao Shuang was trapped inside the ghost prison that was Jiangcheng No. 2 High School and could not leave no matter what… then all he had to do was bring those two people into the school.
Du Xiao Shuang provided the address. It was not particularly far away, located in a relatively new and affordable residential development. A four-bedroom, two-living-room school-district apartment measuring 140 square meters was an exceptionally good family home.
Six years ago, Du Xiao Shuang had already paid the down payment on this apartment. Now, the names on the property deed had been legally and properly transferred to her parents.
Qin Shu had originally worried that they might have moved away, but reality proved that greed had no limits.
A convex bagua mirror hung outside the Du family’s door. Its orientation appeared carefully chosen, so they had probably consulted someone about its placement.
This outward-curving bagua mirror was specifically used to reflect and neutralize baleful energy. People usually bought one to protect themselves only when deaths or injuries had occurred near the residential development, when an apartment had been used to store cremated ashes, or when residents feared their neighbors might steal their wealth and good fortune.
Large bundles of mugwort hung beside the mirror, along with a string of dried leaves shaped like a sword. Qin Shu narrowed his eyes and leaned closer to inspect them, discovering that they were calamus leaves. In Jiangcheng folk tradition, they were likewise used to ward off evil and drive away ominous things.
Not only that, but the doormat also carried an intense and complicated odor.
Qin Shu’s senses had become far too sharp over the past few days. With a casual sniff, he distinguished two different liquids… the urine of a young boy and dog urine. In addition, they had scattered poisonous cinnabar across the mat, openly mixing it into the red fibers.
Six years had passed, yet they had been unwilling to abandon this school-district apartment as its value continued rising. They had not even moved house, continuing to live as a matter of course in the large home their daughter had worked so hard to buy.
At the same time, however, they remained guilty and afraid. They worried that the daughter they murdered might become a ghost and return for revenge, so they used every possible method to protect themselves, even preferring to splash foul-smelling urine outside their own door.
Qin Shu was already beyond words. He merely smiled and pressed the doorbell.
“Wah—wah—!”
Immediately afterward, a baby began wailing loudly. Qin Shu vaguely heard a man curse, followed by shoving movements and the chaotic creaking and bouncing of a bed frame.
Right. It was late at night and already time to sleep. Qin Shu smiled again and pressed the doorbell a second time without the slightest guilt.
The baby cried even more frantically. A woman began soothing him with repeated murmurs, while a man strode toward the door in loudly slapping slippers and yanked it open. “Who the hell are—”
Before his aggressive demand could finish, there was a heavy thud. Qin Shu drove his fist directly into the man’s face, precisely shattering his nasal bone.
The man slowly toppled backward onto the floor, unconscious, his head tilted as blood streamed from his nose.
“Who—who are you? What do you want?!” The woman was badly frightened. She hesitantly tried to retreat while tightly clutching the baby boy in her arms, instinctively turning sideways to shield him.
Although she appeared full of maternal love, she was theoretically already old enough to have reached menopause. There was no possibility that she could have given birth to such a young infant.
“Hello, Auntie. I do have some business with you. Could you come with me to Jiangcheng No. 2 High School now?” Qin Shu’s eyes curved, his smile sunny and cheerful. “If you can’t, I’ll knock you unconscious too and personally drag you back to the school.”
“…”
Half an hour later.
Three people and one ghost, along with a baby who was still wailing loudly, sat in a neat row on the cold floor outside the third-floor office corridor.
It was not as though the classroom building lacked chairs, but Qin Shu naturally had no intention of making them comfortable. He had deliberately chosen the spot where Du Xiao Shuang had been hanged six years ago. The more disturbing it felt, the better.
The man Qin Shu had knocked unconscious with one punch had awakened. The instant he realized where he was, he flew into a violent rage. The slabs of flesh across his body tightened, and even the fat along the sides of his face trembled with the strain.
Only overwhelming terror could produce such extreme anger. It was a human mechanism for self-protection. Qin Shu watched coldly as the man twisted and struggled, spewing all manner of vulgarities while trying to tear apart the ropes around his wrists through brute strength, until…
Until Du Xiao Shuang finally floated slowly toward him, placed one hand upon the man’s shoulder, and pressed herself tightly against her father’s back. With her rotting single eye soaked in bloody tears, she stared directly into his eyes.
Qin Shu understood better than anyone how bizarre and incomprehensible that bone-piercing cold felt. It was like carrying a heavy corpse upon one’s back, its wet chill boring into every pore like countless densely packed needles.
That prickling sensation rising beneath the skin during mortal danger could torment someone until they could no longer breathe.
The stench of urine spread once again. The man’s roaring gradually died away, turning into quiet sobs on the verge of collapse.
As for Du Xiao Shuang’s mother, after personally witnessing her husband’s strange ordeal, her complexion had long since become paler than a ghost’s.
But her mental fortitude was clearly stronger. She still managed to gather her courage and speak to Qin Shu. “S-student, could you release us a little sooner? If you want money, we have it. Isn’t it going too far to bring an innocent baby here in the middle of the night? You’re still a student. It won’t be good if the school finds out, right? And there’s a police station just beyond the back gate. The officers could discover us at any moment…”
“The police are already on their way,” Qin Shu replied without losing his smile, his gaze settling on the baby boy’s pink, plump face. “I reported you myself—for child trafficking.”
“…Nonsense! This is my son! Mine! You’re not allowed to take my son away!!” The woman’s eyes widened, and a vicious expression unconsciously appeared on her face. Her previously calm voice abruptly became shrill and trembling.
Both hands clutched the baby’s swaddling clothes so tightly that faint blue veins stood out across the backs of her plump hands.
So this was what she feared most. Qin Shu became thoughtful and began to suspect that this beautiful baby boy… was not merely a trafficked child.
“Since you want to keep your son, then talk to me. What exactly did you do to Du Xiao Xue on June sixth, six years ago?” Leaning against the wall, Qin Shu took out his phone and activated the recording function. “Auntie, friendly reminder—I’m recording this. And I’ve read the police files on the missing-person case, so don’t try to deceive me.”
The woman’s lips trembled as her timid gaze lingered upon Qin Shu’s arms.
Physical exertion made him feel warm, so Qin Shu had already rolled up his sleeves, revealing a section of his firm, powerful arm. The smooth lines bore clear traces of training. Now that the muscles were slightly tense, it appeared as though he could shatter her nasal bone just as easily at any moment.
“…I can’t say it. Please show mercy. I truly can’t say… It—it will get me killed, and it will kill you too.”
“You’ll die even if you don’t tell me,” Qin Shu said, tilting his head with remarkable honesty. “I brought the two of you into No. 2 High School specifically so Du Xiao Shuang could personally take revenge and claim your lives. If you explain the entire story clearly, perhaps your daughter will understand her parents’ hardships and good intentions. Right?”
The second half was naturally nonsense. Du Xiao Shuang’s resentment had already become terrifyingly profound, spreading over No. 2 High School like roaring black clouds. It was nearly cursing the man on the floor to death.
Yet this logic, which could only be described as supremely self-centered, happened to work exceptionally well on the woman. Her eyes lit up, and she eagerly agreed with Qin Shu’s supposition.
“You’re right. Xiao Shuang will understand. Xiao Shuang was always the most sensible and obedient… Six years ago, we hired a spirit medium.”
The story that followed was thoroughly clichéd.
After being brought to the big city, the parents leeched from their adult daughter while restlessly attempting to have another child—a son.
But because of their advanced age, conceiving was difficult, and obtaining a son was even harder. They finally managed to become pregnant twice, secretly checked the ultrasound scans, and discovered both fetuses were girls.
The couple refused to raise any more daughters and chose abortion both times. This severely damaged the woman’s body, making it nearly impossible for her to become pregnant again… The situation abruptly reached a dead end, like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
“We tried many folk remedies and kept researching. Eventually, we finally found that blind spirit medium. She had genuine abilities. I saw her identification card—she was already over a hundred and twenty years old. Her back had long since become too bent to straighten, but she could still walk faster than me…”
Even while recalling the scene, the woman could not help marveling, her voice filled with nearly fanatical worship.
It was this blind old woman who claimed that she had a method to make an infertile woman conceive a son—and that he would certainly be an auspicious child capable of bringing good fortune to the entire family.
The reason their family had never been able to obtain a son was also very simple: there were too many women in the household, making its yin energy excessively heavy. Furthermore, both elder sisters’ destinies clashed with that of a younger brother and would doom any baby boy to death. They were therefore exceptionally unsuitable to remain in the family during the attempt to conceive, which was why the couple could never have a son.
The husband and wife believed every word. They became even more devoutly obsessed with obtaining a son, only to receive the answer that… neither girl could be allowed to remain.
As long as the elder sisters lived, their younger brother could not survive. Even if he was born, he would be destined to die young.
The blind old woman said that she was compassionate and willing to take away the younger girl. By allowing her to become someone else’s daughter, she could preserve her life, so long as the two families never met again.
But the couple had to personally dispose of their eldest daughter, who had already reached adulthood, severing the bond between parent and child with their own hands. From that point onward, their family would overflow with fortune and wealth would pour in endlessly.
Then, after patiently waiting six years, six months, and six days, they would receive a healthy boy born with good fortune.
Thus, six years later, while using the toilet, the woman somehow pushed out a baby boy.
The child fell directly into her underwear without causing any pain. He was beautiful, fresh, and delicate, exactly as the spirit medium had promised—a boy capable of bringing good fortune to the entire family…
“Wait. She told you all that, and you believed her? Then you actually did exactly as she said?” Qin Shu’s brows knitted tightly in disbelief.
“The blind old woman is the reincarnation of the Child-Giving Guanyin. Of course we had to believe her! Ever since Xiao Shuang left, our family has continuously made money. We’ve been far luckier than before. She should understand that she was the one bringing misfortune upon us. There was no bond between us as mother and daughter. Sending her back to heaven was also for her own good.”
“…”
Qin Shu was rendered speechless. He no longer knew whether to become angry or laugh. So people this extraordinary truly existed—people capable of forcibly twisting their logic beyond recognition and still somehow making it internally consistent.
He endured it and deliberately asked in a calm voice, “Where is this blind old woman now? Since she’s the reincarnation of Guanyin, I would very much like to meet her too.”
“She’s naturally cultivating at the Temple of the Child-Giving Guanyin. But—but…”
The woman suddenly became anxious. “Oh, what should I do? I wasn’t supposed to reveal these secrets. The blind old woman will become hated by the underworld deities, and they’ll curse all the pitiful parents praying for sons. It might even kill my son! No, no, I need to hurry to the temple and worship…”
Qin Shu genuinely laughed aloud. “You still want to visit the temple? Do you think I’m going to let you leave this place?”
“I—I told you everything! You can’t go back on your word! Now that you know my son is an auspicious child, you should understand that breaking your promise will bring divine punishment upon you!” The woman became increasingly frantic, trembling as she clutched the infant more tightly.
Qin Shu raised an eyebrow slightly. “Even if I were willing to let you go, would Du Xiao Shuang agree?”
“Mom… Mother…”
A cold and hollow female voice immediately followed, repeatedly calling for her mother. Her tone sounded both like laughter and weeping, filled with resentment and grief.
The woman shuddered and sprang to her feet, intending to flee, only for her movements to suddenly halt. Her trembling gaze slowly lowered toward her husband lying beside her.
The man had already stopped breathing. His bloodshot eyes were opened impossibly wide, as though he had personally witnessed something unimaginably horrifying and suffered such extreme terror that he had been frightened to death.
Blood flowed from all seven openings of his face—thick, pungent black blood. His cheeks were swollen high, as though an invisible giant hand had slapped them until they became deformed. The viscous blood slowly consumed his face, releasing a cold, decaying, and unnatural stench.
“It—it’s an underworld deity… The underworld deity is here! It followed us here! Ahhhh!!! Son, save me! Old Mother, save me!!” The woman was so frightened she could no longer move. Only her throat remained capable of producing sharp screams as she violently trembled, clutching the child.
“Qin Shu, stop!”
At that moment, another anxious male voice rang out from the far end of the corridor, accompanied by rapid, powerful footsteps.
Xing Yong was still wearing police-issue leather shoes and loose uniform trousers, yet he ran exceptionally fast. Within seconds of shouting, he had already charged up to the three people.
But after reaching the scene, he instead became completely at a loss.
Everything before his eyes violated the common sense and understanding he had accumulated over more than twenty years of life.
Qin Shu remained seated upon the cold floor with his back against the office wall. Wearing an innocent expression, he smiled.
“Good evening, Brother Yong.”
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Futile Devices Scans 
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