Chapter 6: Soul Mail

  When I heard the security guard say that, my heart skipped a beat. Suddenly, I thought of that mysterious package again, the one we received before going to Suifeng Village. It's been so long, and the mysterious person on TV hasn't contacted us yet. If it weren't for the security guard mentioning it, I would have almost forgotten about him.

  Pan Zi also reacted and we looked at each other before walking into the security room together.

  The security guard was here last night and knew that we came with Cao Yuan. He looked at us in confusion, not knowing what we were doing here.

  I had my ID card in my pocket all along, so I took it out and showed it to him, saying that I was Du Rui.

  The security guard understood my intention and handed over the package, but his eyes showed some displeasure. I had no choice, because I didn't want to blindly send things to a mysterious person either.

  The package wasn't very big, and it was tied with a beautiful bow. Pan Zi picked it up casually, and we went upstairs again. I thought I'd wait until we got back to the conference room before opening it.

  When they arrived at the third floor, Cao Yuan and several police officers were discussing the case around a table. At first, he just glanced at us casually, but then he suddenly turned around, pointing to the package and said, "Give me this!"

  I didn't know how he suddenly came up with this, Panzi and I both looked gloomy, Panzi even held the package tighter, and bluntly asked, "What's the basis for that?"

  I also think Cao Yuan did a good job. But Cao Yuan didn't come up with a strong start, he had to grab someone's mail package. He changed his approach and told us, "You guys wait in the conference room, I'll call Luyu Feng, let's have a meeting together."

  I realized something was up and didn't bother arguing with him anymore, so I took Panzi over first.

  Not long after, Lu Yifeng also came in. This was Cao Yuanhao who had called Lu Yifeng out of the morgue. I found that Afeng looked a bit haggard and was still wearing a pair of latex gloves stained with blood. But what really got to me was that as soon as he walked in, I caught a whiff of the smell of blood, which made my stomach turn over the breakfast I had just eaten.

  Lu Yufeng took off his gloves and threw them into a trash can in the corner, then sat down on a chair and asked Cao Yuan what he was doing.

  Cao Yuanyi let Panzi put the package on the table, and told us that the bow on the package was particular, it was the technique of female Mandarin ducks thief, if we didn't believe him, just try it, there were four threads on the bow, pulling the shortest one could untie the bow at once.

  As he was speaking, I stared at the package and tried it out in secret. I found that what he said was not wrong at all. Normally, when tying a bow, two thread ends would come out, but where's the logic in having four? However, when I pulled on the shorter one, the bow really did open with just one pull, and I also discovered an extra useless silk thread inside.

  I was entangled in my heart, feeling that this package was like a mystery. According to Cao Yuan's words, it should be the stolen mail sent by Yuanyang, but didn't those two thieves just die? How could they possibly send something by mail? On the other hand, if we say that this is the mysterious person from TV who sent it, what does he have to do with Yuanyang thief?

  Lu Yufeng shouted a sentence at this time, telling me not to be stunned, open the package and take a look, what's inside.

  Last time I received a mysterious package, inside was a DVD disc and a snake bone bell, this time, it's actually a cassette tape.

  Nowadays, we listen to songs with MP3 and MP4, but when I suddenly saw a cassette tape, none of us could find our Walkman.

  Cao Yuan walked out of the conference room, opened his mouth and shouted for a police officer to come and handle it. Then he stood at the door, gave Lu Yifeng a signal, implying that there was something to say, and asked him to come out for a while.

  I and Pan Zi definitely won't move, but Lu Yu Feng also didn't leave, waving his hand to signal Cao Yuan, "Just say it directly, Xiao Bai and Pan Zi aren't outsiders."

  Cao Yuan was slightly irritated by these words, but he didn't care and laughed, calling another police officer to bring over the materials.

  There's quite a lot of material here, including files and projectors.

  I was completely stunned by this scene. Not long after, the projector turned on and Cao Yuan showed us a few clips, all of which were about two old men. At first, I really didn't notice anything, but as the bodies of these two old people appeared, I discovered something suspicious.

  These two old men died at the scene of a fire and in a pond, respectively. At first glance, it seemed like an accident, but their faces were gone. The old man who was burned by the fire had his body charred at most, but his face was sunken in a large chunk, while the drowned old man's face was pockmarked, as if he had been eaten by fish.

  Cao Yuan explained, "These were two cases from a year ago and half a year ago. One was from Longzhou and the other was from a neighboring city. Before they died, both had expressed anxiety to their friends, saying they might die unexpectedly. At the time, their friends didn't take it seriously, but both of their predictions came true. Additionally, hell banknotes were found on both bodies, with the exact date of death written on them accurately. This phenomenon also appeared in the case of the Mandarin Duck tomb raiders."

  Then Cao Yuan opened the folder and showed us four sheets of hell money in plastic bags.

  We both gathered around to observe, Panzi just took a casual look and immediately lost interest and withdrew. I and A Feng looked for quite a long time.

  A Feng fiddled with it for a while, and then expressed his views. "There is a dirty spot on the forehead of the Jade Emperor on these four hell notes, which proves that the printing machine was not good. They should be printed in the same batch. Moreover, the date of death written later, looking at the handwriting, especially the direction of one hook and one stroke, should also come from the hand of the same person. Just based on these two points, it can be concluded that the murder case of the two old men is directly related to the Mandarin Duck theft case."

  I thought of that white-haired ghost again, it also threw me a spirit coin, only to blame the spirit coin for being gone in the end, otherwise I would have picked it up and compared it with these four spirit coins to see if all these people were killed by that white-haired ghost.

  We returned to our seats, Cao Yuan turned off the projector and looked at Lu Yufeng, asking if he had found anything after participating in the forensic autopsy.

  Lu Yifeng rubbed his temples, looking slightly headache-prone, and closed his eyes as he muttered to us. He said that according to the autopsy results, both thieves had their fingers forcibly broken off, and their teeth were all pulled out with pliers or similar objects. As for why there were strange burn marks on their faces, there was still no accurate conclusion at present. What puzzled him even more was that breaking fingers, pulling teeth, and burning faces were all very severe forms of torture, each belonging to different modus operandi. Logically speaking, a killer, no matter how terrifying or bizarre, should have some limits, and shouldn't use different methods on the same person when killing them.

  I felt a bit tight in my heart after listening, and I thought this case was absolutely a real and terrifying murder case. Also, I was curious about how Lu Yufeng, a special informant, knew so much about criminal cases, especially forensic pathology.

  I couldn't ask him directly either, so I had to bury the question in my heart for now. At the same time, I also took a glance at Panzi, wanting to see his reaction.

  I found Panzi to be quite formidable, at this time he was calm and composed, with a look of an old monk in meditation, it seemed that he had been using this state of mind to avoid our conversation all along, not hearing anything.

  The whole conference room suddenly fell silent, except for Panzi who was still "meditating", the rest of us lit a cigarette and started smoking.

  Cao Yuan suddenly became a bit arrogant, scolding himself for a few sentences, saying that he originally wanted to catch the Mandarin Duck thief, but ended up like this, making the case even more complicated.

  Lu Yifeng was very calm and thoughtful for a moment, then pointed to the tape and said, "Let's do this, since we're both involved in this case, let's continue to cooperate with the police to dig up clues. Let me take this tape back and listen to it first, see if there are any new discoveries."

  What surprised me was that Cao Yuan showed great respect for Lu Yifeng's words as a special informant. Not only did he very supportively push the tape over, but also took the initiative to ask, "A Feng, what else do you need from the police? Just speak up and I'll get it all done."

  Lu Yifeng shook his head. With this tape, he didn't want to go to the forensic room to join in the excitement either, so he put it in his pocket and called for us to get up and leave.

  We're finally back home, but deep down, I don't have any feeling of being home at all. I silently muttered a sentence, hoping that there won't be any more strange and weird sounds on this tape anymore.