Qin Shu had yet to reach any conclusion from all his agonized thinking, but the aftermath of the Blackhearted Paper Effigy Shop came looking for him first.
The shop owner, Zhang Cong, was dead. He had committed suicide, according to the news that came that afternoon.
As Xing Yong sat with the two high school students drinking milk tea near the back gate of No. 2 High School, his emotions were still somewhat unsettled.
That was because the way Zhang Cong had killed himself felt, to varying degrees, disturbingly familiar to all three of them…
Thanks to the medical staff’s efforts, Zhang Cong, who had previously been delirious and drifting in and out of consciousness, briefly regained his normal faculties that afternoon.
He had no other external injuries, could eat and drink normally, and had not broken down even after seeing that all ten of his fingers had been severed. The doctors assessed him as emotionally stable, coherent and logical in speech, and with his memory intact. He was fully capable of undergoing further questioning.
The detective on duty immediately seized the opportunity and went to take his statement.
At first, Zhang Cong was perfectly normal during the conversation. He voluntarily admitted that he himself had been at fault and had provoked someone he should never have provoked.
He said that he was admittedly rather greedy and normally relied on heterodox arts to make money. He would use divination to “dox” people, locating clients wealthy enough to be worth targeting, then send paper effigies secretly into their homes.
Elio’s Notes: 开盒 is Chinese internet slang for “doxxing”—digging up and exposing someone’s private information. Zhang Cong jokingly applies the idea to using divination to locate wealthy targets.
In the dead of night, Zhang Cong would have those paper effigies cause disturbances inside the clients’ homes and maliciously frighten them in all kinds of ways until people with no knowledge of supernatural arts were terrified half to death. Then he would use their fear to sell them even more services.
Those included exorcising ghosts, performing rituals to ward off disaster, feng shui adjustments, and other highly lucrative services. Every previous attempt had gone smoothly; only on the final occasion had Zhang Cong truly encountered someone he could not afford to provoke and suffered the backlash of his own evil deeds.
The detective on duty recorded his confession truthfully. At that point, the nature of the incident became quite clear: it was a conflict between cultivators and no longer fell within the Jiangcheng police station’s jurisdiction.
But even if Zhang Cong had brought everything upon himself, and even if the police technically did not need to involve themselves any further, with detailed clues and a witness statement already sitting right in front of them… it was perfectly natural for the detective to continue asking Zhang Cong exactly who the client who had retaliated against him was.
Zhang Cong himself did not seem to think there was anything wrong with answering. He opened his mouth to confess, and that was when everything changed.
“He shoved his left fist into his mouth and jammed it hard into his own throat. Just held it there without moving. His neck bulged out like this—the fist really went deep,” Xing Yong said in a low voice after taking a hard pull from his milk tea. “We eventually figured he did it to stop himself from screaming.”
“Oh… What about his right hand? All his fingers were gone, so he shouldn’t have been able to hold anything sharp. How did he kill himself?” Qin Shu asked curiously, raising one hand at the same time to cover one of Pei Zhao’s ears.
Pei Zhao gave him a speechless glance but said nothing, merely lowering his eyes and continuing to drink his milk tea.
Xing Yong had absolutely no energy to comment on those two. He let out a long sigh and continued.
“His right hand was the weapon. I can’t show you the photos, so I’ll describe it. He used a tiny splinter of exposed finger bone left in his palm to peel through the flesh between his ribs, then drove it straight into his chest without hesitating. His entire palm went inside! Damn it, he shredded his left lung on the spot… and even then, he still didn’t die.”
“My god. What an absolute savage…”
“Right? Jesus. He nearly scared my colleague to death. Several male nurses stationed outside rushed in together, and even all of them couldn’t hold him down!”
Xing Yong rubbed hard at his brow. “That lunatic suddenly became incredibly strong. He just sat there without making a sound, kept his own mouth plugged shut, and ripped his heart out with his bare hand before throwing it straight onto the floor. That finally did it—dead on the spot. Even an immortal couldn’t have saved him.”
With a suicide that bizarre, either Zhang Cong had lost control during cultivation or somebody else had done something to him. Xing Yong very obviously leaned toward the latter.
Qin Shu listened seriously and naturally remembered what he and Xing Yong had once experienced at No. 2 High School.
The follow-up to the Blind Granny case had not exactly been pleasant either. Almost all the clues had already been buried by time. Xing Yong and Daoist Xu had no choice but to visit mountain spirits and wild creatures around Jiangcheng, gradually piecing together fragments of what had happened years ago.
There were another four or five known victims, all of whom had died many years earlier for various reasons. Their fate patterns had been altered and their allotted destinies stolen, overturning lives that should have been fortunate and smooth. The Blind Granny had grafted those fortunes onto herself, replacing one victim with another whenever the previous one died.
Sometimes, when Qin Shu saw someone on the street dressed similarly to Du Xiao Shuang, he would still think about it. Whenever he remembered those unfortunate sisters, his thoughts inevitably brought up other things too, such as many of the things Xing Yong had said to him that night.
So Qin Shu asked directly, “Brother Yong, are you telling us all this because you suspect… Pei Zhao was the one who made Zhang Cong kill himself?”
“Cough, cough. Kid, you really don’t beat around the bush.”
Xing Yong nearly choked on a tapioca pearl, and his expression became slightly unnatural. He had no idea where he had found the courage to admit it, but he had to acknowledge that yes, he did somewhat suspect Pei Zhao.
Among the supernatural creatures still active in Jiangcheng society, entities that specifically liked ripping people’s hearts out were actually extremely rare. Even after Xing Yong deliberately searched through folk legends, he could barely find any stories involving that kind of heart-ripping monster.
In order to figure out exactly what kind of monster Pei Zhao was, Xing Yong had already asked around everywhere. He had even specifically questioned his extremely knowledgeable wife, yet so far he had made absolutely no progress.
Even if there was nothing he could do about the truth, even if investigating it might endanger his life, Xing Yong still had to find some way to know it. It was an occupational disease. He could not cure himself of it, so he simply braced himself and admitted what he was thinking.
“You can check the surveillance footage. Zhaozhao was with me all day. Even if he really was the one who frightened you last time, he definitely wasn’t the one who killed Zhang Cong this time. Otherwise, I would’ve been able to see it.”
Qin Shu was growing increasingly confident about the range of what his eyes could perceive. He was gradually beginning to feel the reality of his own growth and could increasingly control what he wanted to see and what he did not.
And today, he and Pei Zhao had only just had an unusually intimate heart-to-heart conversation. Qin Shu had spent even more time staring at Pei Zhao than usual. No—he had practically stared at him all afternoon, leaving Pei Zhao thoroughly confused.
So when he reached this point, Qin Shu deliberately turned toward Pei Zhao and confirmed with a smile, “Zhaozhao, you didn’t kill Zhang Cong, right?”
Pei Zhao shook his head slightly and answered calmly, “It wasn’t me.”
“See, Brother Yong? I told you he didn’t do it.”
Xing Yong drew a deep breath and hid his trembling hand beneath the table, secretly gripping the fabric of his trousers to calm himself while trying his best to keep his face expressionless. “But you were the last person to… use an online shopping platform to purchase funeral goods from his store. The order was placed in the early hours of January first. You bought a standard set of everyday paper clothing and selected merchant delivery. Correct?”
“Yes.” Pei Zhao raised his eyes to look at him, his voice still completely calm. “I didn’t kill him.”
Qin Shu paused. “Was that the night you stayed at my house? Huh? Zhaozhao, why did you buy funeral goods?”
“I’ll tell you later.” Pei Zhao stirred the little cubes of milk pudding in his cup with his straw, remaining perfectly composed.
“Okay.” Qin Shu leaned a little closer. “So you really didn’t kill him?”
“…Of course not.”
“Then we’re good. When are you coming to stay at my place again? Come over next Saturday. Play that new co-op game with me, and then we can head back to school together on Sunday.”
“Okay.”
“…”
Watching the two of them inexplicably begin whispering intimately to each other again, Xing Yong was utterly speechless. He hesitated for a long time, unsure how to interrupt them.
He could summon enough courage to investigate the truth, but he did not dare casually destroy someone else’s ambiguous romantic atmosphere. According to his many years of social experience, the latter was actually more likely to get him into trouble…
“Mr. Xing.”
“Mm… hm?”
Just as Xing Yong was agonizing over the situation, something none of them expected happened: Pei Zhao actually took the initiative to speak to him.
“The milk tea you recommended is good. I’d never had milk pudding before.” Pei Zhao seemed to be in a fairly good mood, his voice measured and unhurried. “Do you need a hint?”
Xing Yong drew a slow breath, trying hard to remain composed in front of this kid, then nodded. “Yes. Please.”
“The one who killed Zhang Cong wasn’t human. It was a cow.”
“Huh?”
“…Huh?”
The two people flanking Pei Zhao exclaimed in shock at exactly the same time.
Qin Shu’s heart lurched even harder, and he immediately lowered his voice. “Wait, Zhaozhao. It’s not a cow I know, is it?”
“You don’t know it yet.” Pei Zhao lowered his eyes and organized his thoughts. “Mm… It isn’t an ordinary cow. It’s a water buffalo, and it’s fairly old.”
Xing Yong stared blankly for several seconds. After carefully studying Pei Zhao’s expression and remembering that this was absolutely not someone who joked around, he finally asked weakly, “Student Pei… how do you know who the killer is?”
“Because that water buffalo was trying to kill me. It killed the wrong person.”
“Why was it trying to kill you?! Who is it? What’s its name? Where can I find it? Why didn’t you tell me in advance that someone wanted to hurt you? Do your parents know? No, Zhaozhao, you can’t keep staying alone in the dorm for now. I’m worried. Winter break is only a few days away anyway, so just come stay at my house.”
Naturally, that rapid-fire barrage came from Qin Shu, who gave Pei Zhao absolutely no opportunity to refuse. At first, he was simply incredulous, but the longer he spoke, the more frightened he became when he thought about what could have happened.
He never should have let Pei Zhao stay in the dorms. No. 2 High School had never been a safe place to begin with. Ordinary wandering ghosts quietly hiding in corners were one thing; as long as nobody had any grievance with anyone else, those could be left alone and dealt with gradually. But somebody deliberately trying to harm Pei Zhao was completely different.
Pei Zhao silently listened to Qin Shu’s long stream of words, threw his empty milk-tea cup into the trash can beneath the table, then picked up Qin Shu’s drink and took another sip.
“…You’ll meet it soon enough. If you say its name anywhere in Jiangcheng, it can hear you. Troublesome.” Pei Zhao was unusually patient today and was even willing to explain a little more. Of course, he still did not directly answer the question of whether he would move into Qin Shu’s house.
“Troublesome?” Qin Shu frowned. “Wouldn’t it be easier to lure it over and kill it directly? Or can I not beat it…? Fine. Then I’ll endure it.”
“Yes, endure it. What is wrong with you two kids? Why are your heads constantly full of killing and setting things on fire? That’s not a good sign. It’s unhealthy.”
Xing Yong finally found an opportunity to cut in and hurriedly suppress Qin Shu’s rising momentum. “First, figure out the cause and effect. Find out exactly what happened and determine the nature of the situation. Only then do you decide how to handle it. Safety first, understand? You don’t just kill something because you feel like it.”
Qin Shu had been scolded, but the lecture actually made sense. He became thoughtful. “Zhaozhao, you understand what happened better than anyone. What do you want to do?”
Pei Zhao tilted his head slightly and thought. “It really isn’t evil, and it doesn’t have any grudge against me. But it isn’t mentally stable. If there’s an opportunity later, treat it first and then see what happens.”
“Zhaozhao, you’re so kind!” Qin Shu could not help exclaiming, though he had not forgotten his ultimate objective. “But can you still stop staying in the dorm? I really don’t feel safe leaving you alone there.”
“…”
“Stay at my house. Come on, stay with me. Yuanbao likes you too, right, Yuanbao? Please? Okay? Zhaozhao, Zhaozhao…” Beneath the table, Qin Shu grabbed Pei Zhao’s hand and rubbed it insistently between his own.
Pei Zhao had no way to withstand that kind of pestering. After hesitating for a moment, he said, “Not this week. We’ll talk about next week.”
“Yes!”
By the time their chaotic conversation reached this point, they could no longer stay in the milk-tea shop. As Qin Shu grew louder and louder, more customers began turning their heads whenever they passed, and even the employees started casting curious glances in their direction.
Xing Yong was equally sensitive to being watched. Unable to sit there any longer, he led the two kids away from the noisy commercial street and walked with them for a while along a quiet riverside path.
They had far too much hostility in them. They ought to spend more time looking at the evening sunset, admire the rippling river that remained unfrozen even in deep winter, and focus their attention on beautiful things… cultivate their temperament and calm themselves down. It might not accomplish anything, but Xing Yong had to at least try.
Once he confirmed there was nobody around, Xing Yong added a few more concrete details about Zhang Cong’s case and glanced at his phone.
“That’s basically the situation. I know the detective who questioned him. He’s reliable. There was absolutely no outsider in the room at the time. Daoist Xu just inspected the scene too, and there were no obvious traces of any technique being used. That means whoever did it used extremely advanced methods. Definitely not somebody easy to deal with.”
Since the culprit had intended to hurt Pei Zhao, Qin Shu listened far more seriously than he had the previous night. “Can I go look at the scene? I promise I won’t touch anything, but maybe I really could see something…”
“No. I don’t have the authority to take you in there. This is already as much as I can tell you. If either of you has any other… cough, any other clues you’re actually able to talk about, please tell me immediately. I still need to go back to the station and work overtime later, so consider this my official notification.”
Xing Yong refused decisively and pulled his car keys from his trouser pocket as he spoke. “Neither of you has eaten dinner yet, right? Where are you going? I’ll drop you off on the way.”
“Then thanks, Brother Yong! Come on, let’s go freeload dinner at Tang Rui Cheng’s place tonight.” Qin Shu had no intention of politely refusing. He threw an arm around Pei Zhao’s shoulders and followed Xing Yong directly. “He’s the friend who likes Liang Ming Yue. Perfect chance to give him the autograph.”
“No problem. Where does he live?”
“No. 1 Mingheng Road. My house is there too. Brother Yong, when are you bringing Sister-in-law over to my place? We can all get acquainted.”
“Hey, what could my wife possibly have to talk about with you?” Xing Yong adjusted the rearview mirror and raised his voice. “Boys, you still have to wear seat belts in the back. Don’t break traffic laws inside a police officer’s car.”
Qin Shu naturally had no objection. He obediently fastened his own seat belt, then turned sideways and casually helped Pei Zhao buckle his as well. At the same time, he quickly examined Xing Yong’s utterly ordinary-looking “personal car.”
There were firearms in the trunk, the left-side air vent in the back seat was broken, and there was a faint trace of tobacco in the air. Several gaps beneath the floor mat revealed flashes of conspicuous yellow.
Curious, Qin Shu secretly lifted it for a look and, sure enough, found several yellow evil-repelling talismans—the familiar handiwork of Daoist Xu.
Xing Yong’s wife had probably never ridden in this car. At the very least, Qin Shu could not detect any scent traces left by spirit creatures or yao cultivators, which was enough to show that Xing Yong was normally fairly cautious.
So Qin Shu spoke frankly. “Brother Yong, what you said earlier makes a lot of sense. Safety first, right? Then can you actually put safety first yourself? You’re a married man. Shouldn’t you pay more attention to staying alive?”
“…Cough. Why are you suddenly talking about me?” Xing Yong was driving and did not turn around, but his voice sounded noticeably guilty.
“A snake scale alone isn’t enough protection, Brother Yong. If you’re going to keep working on Zhang Cong’s case, then according to the rules, your wife really should step in. Besides, I want to meet Sister-in-law too. I won’t feel reassured until I know she can actually protect you.” Qin Shu smiled. “And to be completely honest, I’m also curious what kind of child a human and a snake yao would have…”
“Don’t underestimate that snake scale. It isn’t just some protective talisman. If I really run into a ghost while walking at night, my wife can use the scale to possess me directly and fight for me. Pretty impressive, right?”
Xing Yong seriously clarified the matter, then casually complained, “You’re already thinking about our kids? Neither of us is in a hurry, so what are you rushing us for? Seriously, ever since meeting you two, I don’t even want children anymore. I’m now terrified of teenagers.”
“But it’s already too late to regret it, isn’t it? Sister-in-law is pregnant already.”
Qin Shu laughed along with him, only for Pei Zhao to lightly poke him without warning. At almost the same instant, Qin Shu saw Xing Yong’s face change in the rearview mirror, his eyes widening.
Screeeeech—!
Bang!
The tires dragged across the road with a piercing shriek, followed by a deafening impact from the rear of the car.
The driver behind them rolled down his window and roared furiously, “Are you %&*ing insane?!”
Nobody had time to answer him.
The completely unexpected emergency stop produced enormous inertia, compounded by the rear-end collision. Qin Shu’s backpack instantly flew into the front windshield, spilling stationery everywhere with a series of clatter-clatter-clatter noises.
Fortunately, Xing Yong had specifically reminded them to wear their seat belts. Otherwise, there might have been two more things flying into the front seats along with Qin Shu’s backpack.
At the same time, a woman lay sprawled across Xing Yong’s hood, her hair disheveled and her deathly pale face pressed tightly against the windshield until her normally gentle features were crushed into a distorted, horrifying shape.
Thick blood flowed from the corner of her mouth, winding strand by strand down the curve of the glass and forming an ominous, glaringly strange pattern.
“Wait, Qin Shu, did you just say my wife is pregnant? Forget it, forget it—we’ll talk about that later. You two stay seated and don’t move. I’m checking whether she’s dead!”
Xing Yong released his seat belt as quickly as possible and scrambled out of the car. He found Liang Ming Yue’s extremely weak pulse, then immediately checked her airway and injuries.
“Spine looks fine. Broken arm, clavicle’s probably shattered… You two, get out and help me move her into the back seat. Lay her flat and secure her with the seat belt. We can’t wait for an ambulance. I’m taking her to the hospital now!”
“Brother Yong, this… this is Liang Ming Yue, right?”
Qin Shu had already ignored the instruction to stay put and gotten out of the car. After moving closer to look, he widened his eyes in disbelief.
“You didn’t hit her. I saw it clearly—she fell out of the sky!”
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