The Curse of the Ancient Tomb Eleven

  That policeman was very young, about twenty-three or four years old, and had just started working for a short time. When Su Yingzhen was sleeping, Xue Pinhan asked him if there were any strange things in the police station.

  "What did you think of?" Xue Pinhan asked.

  The policeman nodded: "It's just unknown whether it will be useful."

  "Let's talk about it."

  "Last month, our department received a strange phone call saying that someone was smuggling antiques. We rushed over and apart from seeing some local thugs, there were no antiques in sight. Director Li said it was just a prank and the matter was dropped."

  "Why would you think it's a clue?"

  "Weren't you asking where Li Huan's family got their money from? Those few rascals are very close to him, what if they're smuggling antiques?"

  "Hurry! Go to Li Huan's house quickly!" Xue Pinhan ordered.

  When they arrived, Li Huan's house was empty. Xue Pinhan angrily punched the wall.

  "Head over to his new place and search it," Shen Zhiyuan said.

  "They've already cleaned up after themselves and left clues for us to catch them."

  "What's that?" Su Yingzhen saw something flashing in the corner, picked it up and took a look, it was a ruby ring, put it on her own hand, showing them: "Isn't it pretty?"

  Want a ring? Marry me and I'll buy you a diamond one. Dong Yiqi grinned mischievously as he leaned in.

  "You're really a toad who wants to eat swan meat!" Before Su Yingzhen could react, Shen Zhiyuan launched an attack.

  Old Yang took a closer look: "It can't be an antique, can it?"

  "It's very likely," Su Yingzhen carefully examined the ring on her hand, "I can confirm that this is a real gemstone. However, there are no cut surfaces and it's dull without any luster, so it shouldn't be a product of modern craftsmanship."

  "How did you know?" Shen Zhiyuan asked.

  "Look," Su Yingzhen said, pointing to the blue sapphire necklace around her neck. "This gemstone has many cutting surfaces, so it's very bright. Nowadays, all gemstones are processed like this, and sometimes the number of cutting surfaces can determine the price of a gemstone."

  "Are you familiar with jewelry?" Xue Pinhan asked.

  "We can't really understand each other, my brother is in the jewelry business."

  "It seems that Li Huan may indeed be smuggling antiques." Old Yang said.

  A group of people arrived at a small restaurant in the town to have dinner, Su Yingzhen said: "It's already time for dinner so soon, I feel like I only slept for a few minutes."

  "Only a few more minutes? A full four hours! We didn't dare disturb you until dinner time. When we passed by your room, we weren't even allowed to speak loudly, saying that you had just arrived and encountered such a big criminal case, all dead bodies, and must have been mentally exhausted. Yesterday was also a sleepless night, afraid of not sleeping well. So it's only natural to have a headache and need a good rest. It's just that it's almost six o'clock and we haven't seen you come out..." Dong Yiqi stopped talking here. Su Yingzhen's face turned red as she pretended to eat.

  "Head, you said if Li Huan is really smuggling antiques, then where did his antiques come from? Could it be tomb raiding?" Shen Zhiyuan guessed.

  "Hmm, it's possible. We'll go to the archaeological team tomorrow morning."

  "If there really was someone smuggling antiques that time, why did the police end up with nothing when they went to catch them? Who could have leaked the information?" asked Dong Yiqi.

  "Director Li." Xue Pinhan remained calm and continued eating his meal in big mouthfuls.

  "What about Li?" The other four asked in unison.

  "Why was he so sure it was a false alarm? It means that the one who leaked the news is him, which further proves that someone is indeed smuggling antiques. On the other hand, it also proves that Li Suo Chang is involved in this. Now I suspect that on that night, he mistook his own wife for Li Huan, so he made a move." Xue Pin Han analyzed.

  "Are you saying Li Huan's ghost is haunting him?" Dong Yiqi asked.

  "Yes. Otherwise, when Little Su asked him why he was being so secretive, he thought we were helping him but didn't dare to tell the truth because he knew that telling the truth would land him in jail."

  "It's worse than being imprisoned, it can cost you your life."

  Xue Pinhan furrowed his brow: "This is also what I don't understand, his family doesn't lack money to use, why would he do something illegal?"

  After dinner, when Su Yingzhen was about to enter her own room, Xue Pinhan called out to her. He looked at her hesitantly for a moment before saying, "If you want to do criminal police work, it's best not to wear skirts on the job." After speaking, he turned and entered their shared dormitory.

  "What Little Xue said is all good advice. For people in our line of work, we may have to fight for our lives with thugs at any time. Wearing a short skirt makes it easy to expose ourselves, and wearing a long skirt makes it hard to engage in combat." Old Yang advised.

  Su Yingzhen lowered her head and took a look at herself, she was now wearing a long skirt.

  She walked into her own single room, reached under the pillow with her hand, and immediately froze: the peach wood dagger was gone! Scared out of a cold sweat, she rushed to their shared room, where four high and low beds were arranged. Tired from the day, the four of them were undressing for bed, seeing her burst in, they all turned around and quickly put back on the clothes they had just taken off.

  "What's going on?" Xue Pinhan asked.

  "My peach wood dagger is gone."

  "Shen Zhiyuan, you immediately go and check who came to our place today. The rest of the people go into Su Ying's room to help look for it, maybe we remembered the wrong place."

  "I didn't misremember. I even lifted the pillow to check when I was about to leave." Su Yingzhen was so anxious that she almost cried. The dagger had been entrusted to her by the old man with great importance, and it might be related to the life and death of the people in this village, but now it's gone, how could she feel at ease.

  "Something so important should be carried with you at all times, how can it be left lying around? If a gun was taken away from you, wouldn't you be even more anxious?" Old Yang rebuked in a soft voice.

  "Alright, don't say anymore." Xue Pinhan stopped him.

  Shen Zhiyuan rushed in: "Boss, no one came to our place today."

  "How can it be gone?" Old Yang said in puzzlement.

  A loud, mournful cry of "ah" came from outside, and a group of people rushed towards the source of the sound. A policeman was lying in a pool of blood, and with great effort, he pointed to the top of the wall before his head slumped to one side, dead.

  Four people agilely flipped over the courtyard wall, and a figure flashed by in front of them. The four of them pursued tirelessly, running into a small alley, where the figure disappeared. They automatically divided into two groups, chasing towards the two forks of the alley.

  Xue Pinhan and Old Yang rushed to the fork in the road ahead, where they heard the sound of fighting. Running over, Su Yingzhen somehow took a shortcut and ran to their front, blocking the figure and engaging in combat with him. It was a man, who at this moment had Su Yingzhen pinned against the wall, raising his gleaming dagger to stab her chest.

  Xue Pinhan flew up and kicked the man several meters away. Old Yang followed up and took out handcuffs from his body to cuff the man.

  "How are you?" Xue Pinhan asked Su Yingzhen.

  "If you were a second later, I'd be dead." She laughed heartlessly: "I was top of my class in every subject at police academy, except for hand-to-hand combat."

  Xue Pinhan looked at her and thought, born so delicate, how can she fight?

  "Xiao Xue, the peach wood dagger is here!" Old Yang exclaimed excitedly, holding the peach wood dagger in his hand.

  Su Ying was overjoyed and ran over to take it from his hand.

  "Don't lose it again." Old Yang said kindly.

  "Hmm!"

  "Why did you steal this thing?" Xue Pinhan lifted up the man with one hand and pressed him against the wall.

  "I...I don't know either, there was a voice that ordered me to steal that dagger and burn it as soon as I got it."

  "Is it a man's voice or a woman's voice?"

  The man suddenly hugged his head, letting out a mournful howl like a ghostly wail. His head was like an inflating balloon getting bigger and bigger until it burst with a loud "bang", splattering brain matter everywhere.