Chapter 22: A Bureau within a Bureau

  This time I fainted but still had some consciousness, vaguely knowing that I was lifted into an ambulance and taken to a hospital. I also vaguely saw a nurse giving me an injection, and a doctor shining a small flashlight into my eyes from time to time.

  I reckon I was out of it for three to five days. It wasn't until one noon, when the sun shone on my quilt and forced me awake with its heat.

  I opened my eyes and looked around, finding myself lying on a bed by the window. Pan Zi's bed was next to mine, while Lu Yu Feng's bed was near the door. The three of us had taken over the entire hospital room.

  Pan Zi was still sleeping, Lu Yu Feng had woken up early and Cao Yuan Zheng was sitting beside him feeding him canned food.

  I suddenly felt it was unfair, I had been hungry for several days too, why didn't I get to eat.

  I coughed loudly, which served as a reminder for him.

  Lu Yifeng and Cao Yuan both looked over at me, Cao Yuan just took a glance and then lowered his head again, seemingly uninterested. However, Lu Yifeng smiled at me and signaled to Cao Yuan with his eyes, telling him to come take a look at me.

  Cao Yuan is really straightforward. He came over but didn't bring those canned goods, just casually asking me "How's it going?"

  I've had enough, I won't argue with him anymore. I want to eat canned food, after I recover from my illness, I'll go to the supermarket and buy a whole bunch of them.

  I thought of another thing, this time the serial murder case was solved, but many mysteries were not solved yet. I asked Cao Yuan, "Why did the murderer kill the old man?"

  Cao Yuan also had an interest in chatting with me, so he moved a chair over and sat down. "The white spirit medium you caught is named Bie Yumin," he said, "and the white-haired ghost is Zhang Zhi. They both come from a place called Yunxian County next to Longzhou. Although it's called a county, the economy there is particularly backward, with some villages still in the Stone Age. They have a custom there where when people turn sixty years old, they are abandoned in 'caves' and given only three days' worth of food, left to fend for themselves until they die. Then their bodies are taken out and reburied. These 'caves' are called 'self-death kilns,' also known as 'death kilns' or 'old people's caves.' In the past, it was an unavoidable thing because there wasn't enough grain in the village to ensure the survival of the next generation. But with social progress and economic improvement, food security is no longer a problem. However, Bie Yumin's village still adheres to this tradition of abandoning old people to die. The three old men and the monk were among those who escaped many years ago. As the village shaman, Bie Yumin brought Zhang Zhi with him to carry out 'punishment' on these people who should have died, making sure their souls ascended to heaven on the day they turned sixty."

  I savored Cao Yuan's words, and roughly understood the meaning. Although he didn't elaborate on the concept of "Yu Ren", I could guess it was a wizard's assistant or something similar. They were responsible for sending the elderly to the cave, so they needed to be light-bodied and skilled in techniques like flying and wall-climbing. They were also good at creating small mechanisms. I was certain that Zhang Zhi couldn't have been born with such a short stature; he must have taken some kind of medicine from a young age.

  I don't know what's wrong with me, but I suddenly feel a sense of sadness for those old people. They just want to live a good life, what's their crime? They even left the village early and didn't waste a single grain of food from the village. But Bie Yumin used his power to slaughter innocent people.

  I also thought of that series of bizarre murder methods and asked Cao Yuan.

  Cao Yuan shook his head helplessly, saying that when he interrogated Bie Yumin and Zhang Zhi, both of their mental states were poor. Before they could even ask about the murder method, they fell into a coma one after another and eventually died. However, based on Cao Yuan's and Ah Feng's speculation, burning the face was a form of punishment for those who tried to escape, making them die without dignity. The forensic results from the province also came out, showing that the main component of the colorless substance used in self-ignition was glycerin, while the black particles mostly contained potassium permanganate and other strange substances that accelerated the self-ignition reaction. These black particles were often hidden on the two Lei birds, which were also a tool for Bie Yumin to pretend to be possessed by spirits. When the Mandarin ducks were killed by the Feathered Man, they were also subjected to tooth extraction and finger breaking. The tooth extraction was likely meant to prevent them from speaking out in the afterlife, while the finger breaking was meant to prevent them from writing a complaint. As for the hell money, it should have been a warning sign before the murder.

  I nodded, but as soon as the Mandarin Ducks thief was mentioned, I thought of the reason they were being hunted down. It was said before that they stole something they shouldn't have, it's just that we suspected the wrong person at the time.

  I really want to get to the bottom of this, so I'll ask again.

  Cao Yuan didn't guard against so many, and casually explained, "Bie Yumin mentioned it before, the stolen data of the Mandarin Duck thief was that of a customer from another place, an outside policeman. He had done many shameful things and couldn't live with his conscience, so he found a spiritual medium to confess and wanted to absolve some of his sins. But for Bie Yumin, even if the thief stole something unrelated to him, it's still unforgivable. So he sent Zhang Zhi to find an opportunity to kill the Mandarin Duck thief."

  As soon as I heard that the police were doing something fishy, I immediately linked it to the incident in Suiyuan Village. And I guessed that the Mandarin Duck Thief must be working for the mysterious TV person, who led us to Suiyuan Village and sent us a tape at a critical moment. He must be using us to do his bidding. But what exactly is his identity, I still can't figure it out.

  I've got a bit of a headache now, and I tentatively continued to ask Cao Yuan, "What's the name of that police officer?"

  Cao Yuan wanted to respond, but the words reached his lips and ultimately didn't come out. Lu Yifeng suddenly started coughing violently at a critical moment and waved his hand at Cao Yuan, saying "I'm not feeling well, can you help me call a doctor?"

  Cao Yuan didn't care about Lu Yufeng anymore and ran out quickly without saying anything to me. But as soon as Cao Yuan left, Lu Yufeng stopped coughing and turned his head to look at me with a smile.

  He was clearly laughing on the inside, meaning I shouldn't ask so many questions. I let out a sigh in my heart, knowing that my attempt to pry had failed again.

  In this way, we both recuperated in the hospital for half a month and were discharged together one afternoon.

  I and Pan Zi were transferred, no need to report anything to Li Feng, all subsequent matters are handled by Lu Yifeng, he went home and took out the wireless communicator, saying to contact the superior.

  I and Pan Zi didn't want to disturb him, and also had a bit of an intention to avoid him, so we found an excuse to slip out for a stroll.

  Panzi had no purpose and just wanted to wander around, but I wanted to go somewhere.

  We rode that motorcycle together and went to the Ghost Building, which was where we followed Hei Lingmai on the night of the elevator incident.

  It's been a while since we last saw each other, and things have changed around here. When we arrived at the elevator door, two maintenance workers were busy working on it.

  I asked casually, and the master told me that the elevator in this building has long been out of warranty, and it is being repaired urgently now.

  I let out a sigh of relief, realizing that Panzi and I had been scared for nothing that night. The 18th floor, the ghost in the elevator... it was all just because the elevator was malfunctioning due to a programming error.

  Before we left, a man came out of the corridor and greeted us.

  I turned around and saw Hei Ling Mei, he must have gone into this building again to exorcise evil spirits for some family.

  We've been wrong about him all along, I suddenly felt a bit embarrassed, thinking that we were deceived by this "black devil's" appearance. Sometimes those who look evil aren't necessarily evil, and those who look kind aren't necessarily good people.

  Hei Lingmei didn't say much, but instead made a joke and took another photo of us with his phone. He showed it to the two of us and said, "Your bad luck is gone now, you can go out freely."

  He smiled and walked out as he saw us being awkward and not continuing the conversation.

  I looked at his back and finally couldn't help but ask, "Master, do you know Zhang Zhi? Why is there a shrine in your home?"

  "Hei Ling stopped in his tracks, didn't turn around, just tilted his head and thought for a moment before saying, 'I don't know any Zhang Zhi. All I know is that my fellow spirit medium friend has evil thoughts in his heart, and the bad kid from his family isn't good either. I have no right to stop them from doing evil, so all I can do is try to dispel their evil thoughts and let them come to my house more often, even stay overnight.'"

  I don't know what else to say, this dark spirit walks out of the building with a stride.

  My heart says that at the moment we went to find Hei Ling Mei, he must have known a lot of things, but chose to remain silent. From this perspective, he is also guilty, but he didn't do evil, and instead tried to make Bai Ling Mei and the others slowly become better. From this aspect, he still has some merit.

  I'm just a cop, I couldn't tell if he should be considered a criminal or not, in the end I was too lazy to think about it, thinking that since there's the Longzhou police, they can deal with whatever happens next.

  Next I didn't have anything else to miss, so I called out to Panzi and we walked out of the Ghost Building together.

  Although it seems that the Lingmei curse case has come to an end, I know that Panzi and I are getting deeper and deeper into it. The entire situation outside of the case has already tightly tied us up with Lu Yifeng and those people.