Chapter Thirty-Two: Facial Makeup

  Qin Zhong's eyebrows were raised high, his heart muscle tightened, and a fierce light burst forth from his eyes as he stared intently at the video. Behind Old Geng in the video, there was nothing, but Qin Zhong noticed that what seemed to be a wisp of black smoke had drifted into the receiving room through the mail slot window. However, if it weren't for the reflection of light on the camera lens from this angle, the smoke would have been invisible.

  But the video seems to have been tampered with, just when Qin Zhong was sitting behind Old Geng, Old Geng seemed to be squatting and busy with something. When Old Geng turned his face around, it was clearly different from what Qin Zhong saw at that time. Old Geng's entire face was black, with only a few white painted Beijing Opera masks, also known as "big flower faces".

  And that big flower face seemed to have deliberately opened the first floor's mailbox window towards the video direction and laughed wildly, that kind of laughter was so arrogant, so cheap, so complacent: "Little boy, no matter if you can find out who I am, I just want to let you know, just because you don't think you can fulfill your grandfather's wish, haha."

  Qin Zhong listened carefully to the voice, and suddenly felt that this voice was not what the late Old Geng had said? But if this video was recorded by Old Geng, then he might be that bald man, but he's already dead, how could it be.

  No, Qin Zhong suddenly thought of a question, if Old Geng hadn't died, then it would make sense that he was the one who did this. He immediately fast-forwarded the video, and what's even more unexpected is that Old Geng actually knew how to change his face. Within a few minutes, he somehow managed to change into over a dozen different faces, each with a hint of Japanese sumo wrestler-like markings.

  Qin Zhong couldn't help but curse in his heart: "Bastard, so that's what he meant by saying Grandpa was good to him for nothing. This guy actually dares to come back and block me, is he the Japanese descendant that female fierce ghost mentioned?"

  He didn't stop the video immediately after seeing this, but instead watched this section thoroughly. After Lao Geng left, Da Ya, Fang Shu, Lao Gui, and at least three others from the hotel entered the mailroom, seemingly doing nothing, mostly sitting for a while, smoking a cigarette, pouring some hot water, reading the newspaper, and then leaving.

  Qin Zhong felt that at this moment, it was what Old Geng had done. All the evidence pointed to Old Geng, and because of his baldness, he usually wore a wig. This point could be said to be consistent. It was possible that the bald man was him. Moreover, everything he did after leaving, including his son's reaction, was very unusual, which made Qin Zhong suspect Old Geng.

  Qin Zhong watched the DV of him in the Korean army's house again, and seeing Da Ya Gui's possession made him feel uncomfortable too. After all, he was a person possessed by a ghost, that expression, that dark and gloomy complexion really made people unbearable to watch.

  But he looked up at the window on the first floor and found something very special, which was a row of very neat shapes, all of them were triangles, only each triangle's direction was very symmetrical.

  "This is strange, what's going on? I'd better go to Han Jun's place and take a look." Qin Zhong tidied up his things, locked the archive room tightly, hailed a taxi and went straight to Han Jun's home. When he arrived at Han Jun's place, he happened to catch him admiring flowers in the courtyard, with a bunch of yellow and white fresh flowers already picked in his hand.

  Qin Zhong stood outside the door and called out in a low voice: "Uncle Han, what are you doing?"

  "Oh? Xiao Zhong, how come you have time to come over? I'm picking some flowers for your aunt. It's been a while, and ever since you opened her door that day, my mood has been much better, no longer as entangled in thoughts as before."

  "Hehe, okay." Qin Zhong said as he walked into Han Jun's large courtyard: "I came to see you mainly because I wanted to take a look at you, and also there are some things about the Ghost Doctor's Handbook that I'd like to ask for your advice on."

  "Oh? Alright then, let's go inside and talk."

  "Alright, never mind, you go pick flowers first, don't keep Aunt waiting, that wouldn't be good." Qin Zhong was quite eloquent.

  Han Jun smiled brightly: "It's okay, I promised him that even if it's late tonight, she won't blame me for a few more days. Let's go, let's talk inside first."

  Qin Zhong followed Han Jun into the grand hall on the first floor. As soon as they sat down, Han Jun's eyebrows relaxed and his mouth curled up slightly: "You came to see me, it's not just about this little matter, is it? You've read the Ghost Doctor's Handbook more thoroughly than I have, so you don't need to be in such a hurry to come. You must have other things on your mind, but regardless of whether you do or not, I have something to discuss with you."

  "Do you still have something to ask me?"

  "Yes." Han Jun said, taking out a pair of eagle claws from the drawer of a desk in the hall and placing them on the tea table: "Do you know what this is?"

  "Qin Zhong carefully observed: 'Flying eaves and walking walls?'"

  "Haha, you little guy is really knowledgeable about history. This is the eagle claw used for flying eaves and walking on walls, specially designed to grab onto walls and pull people up with a rope."

  "Where did you find this?" Qin Zhong asked hastily.

  The Korean military didn't answer directly and took out another thing: "Look, this is a Japanese facial makeup chart. I don't know if these two things can make you think of something, but I think the behind-the-scenes story of this 137 cave trip is getting more complicated."

  Qin Zhong stared at the two objects on the table, and he was stunned for a long time. His mind seemed to be replaying a movie, going through all the previous events again, and also replaying most of the shots from the video, but he still didn't say anything.

  "Little bell, you're just about to take over, looks like someone's going to give you a baptism by fire."

  "Ah, never mind, but I'd like to know where this hook and mask came from."

  Han Jun thought for a moment, then began to recount to Qin Zhong that the eagle claw was taken from the roof, and it was clear that after sneaking in, he couldn't take it down when he left, so he jumped over the wall and escaped. Moreover, this guy seemed to have deliberately avoided all the surveillance cameras in Han Jun's house, but the mask was found on the grass in the backyard, which looked like a new painting.

  After Qin Zhong listened to Han Jun's introduction, he became even more suspicious of Lao Geng and shared his thoughts with Han Jun. The two men coincidentally thought of going to Lao Geng's house to investigate further.

  "Lao Geng's two sons are not kind masters, if we go, we must be extremely careful, otherwise, we will have no way to catch them." Qin Zhong deeply knew the unkind expressions of Lao Geng's sons from before.

  But in Qin Zhong's eyes, unless it was someone he respected, he seemed to have never feared anyone when it came to martial arts. However, there is currently no more direct evidence to prove that everything was done by Old Geng, so they must be cautious and go to Old Geng's grave to take a look, mainly to see if Old Geng's body is still there.

  From that moment on, Qin Zhong and Han Jun reached a verbal agreement. From then on, whenever Qin Zhong had something to do, Han Jun would follow him together, just like when Han Jun used to work with Qin Zhong's father.

  "With Uncle Han's help, I think Qin Zhong's future will be much easier."

  Han Jun avoided the pleasantries, and the two of them discussed how to dig up the grave. They began preparing things, but what surprised Qin Zhong was that Han Jun's home actually had a lot of goods, with all sorts of tools for digging graves.

  Qin Zhong laughed and said: "Uncle Han, what are you doing with all these things? Where did they come from? Did you rob a tomb?"

  "Don't spout nonsense, I got all these from my senior brother. To help him walk the right path and cultivate his skills properly, that's why I agreed to buy these things for him. But he used them for tomb raiding instead! Damn it, in a fit of rage, I took everything back. It just so happens that they'll come in handy this time, what a wonderful coincidence! You keep them, maybe you'll find use for them someday."

  "Yeah, I think so too, it should be usable. Let's go, anyway, we'll make use of it this time," Qin Zhong said as he walked out the door and waited for Han Jun to bring his car out. The two quickly headed towards Lao Geng's village, Wa Yuan Cun, and stopped at a village road outside the village before turning off the engine. They waited until nightfall before entering the village and heading up the mountain to start digging for evidence of the corpse.

  The sun sets in the west, and the sky gradually turns black.