Chapter 1: Strange Phenomena in the Netherworld

  As the double-faced wall opened, two corpses suddenly appeared in front of Chen Zhenhua and others. The police officer was new to the police station and couldn't bear the scene, so he shouted and fainted on the ground. When he woke up again, Chen Zhenhua and Huo Jucai were still squatting on the ground, staring at the corpses in a daze.

  He got up and saw the corpse again, and with a wow, he vomited and rushed out of the house. Chen Zhenhua and Huo Jucui didn't care about him either.

  The two of them didn't show exaggerated expressions like the civil police, and they didn't look scared when facing the corpses. Especially Chen Zhenhua, he carefully examined the bodies without blinking an eye, which made the civil police secretly admire him. What he didn't know was that Chen Zhenhua and Huo Jucui were also ghosts, in other words, no different from these two corpses. To say more, although Chen Zhenhua had not been in the police station for long, he had seen several extremely ugly corpses, so he was no longer like before when he fainted after seeing Ruan Jiaolü's terrible dead body. On the contrary, these two corpses sparked his interest. The only surprise was why there were such two corpses in this broken house.

  Two corpses have dried up, the body has rotted, and a foul smell hits the nostrils, but from these rotting corpses, the time of death is also more than three years old, and the deceased are over 70 years old.

  "How did two corpses end up here?" Chen Zhenhua seemed to be muttering to himself, yet also speaking to Huo Jucai.

  "I was just thinking about that," said Huo Jucai, "The corpse is over 70 years old, and at this age, it's normal to die. But the body was left in this wall, which clearly suggests a suspicion of hiding a corpse. So who hid the corpse? Why did they hide it? And who are these two dead people?"

  "Could it be Wang Qinglong's parents?" Chen Zhenhua said, "But we met that old man at the village entrance, didn't he say that Wang Qinglong had brought his parents into the city?"

  "We don't need to guess here," said Huo Jucai, "I'll go find a fellow villager to identify him, you call the local police, I think this is another homicide case."

  The two of them went their separate ways, Chen Zhenhua making a phone call outside the house while He Jucai went out to find someone.

  Soon, several police cars rushed into the village, causing villagers to gather and watch curiously, with some following behind the police cars. In an instant, Wang Qinglong's old house was packed with people, and the once desolate courtyard was suddenly crowded with people, with even more people pouring in from all sides like a flood.

  About a dozen police officers got out of the police car, two of whom were carrying toolboxes. Everyone had their work IDs on their chests as they pushed through the crowd and into the yard. After shaking hands with Chen Zhenhua and He Jucai, who introduced themselves to each other, they followed Chen Zhenhua into the dimly lit house. A few police officers took out white gloves from their pockets and put them on, while the two carrying boxes walked over to the body, taking out some unknown tools and examining it carefully.

  "How is it?" The two policemen looked at each other for a while, and the man who seemed to be the captain standing behind them asked, "What's found?"

  One of the two policemen stood up and said, "Captain Luo, the bodies are a male and female, both around 70 years old. The estimated time of death is over three years ago. Judging from the degree of nail and lip discoloration, it appears to be a poisoning death. As for what kind of poison, we'll have to wait for the autopsy results to know."

  Luó Duì's nodding head said: "Hmm, the forensic expert will arrive soon, now you all take a look and see if you can find some valuable clues."

  As soon as he finished speaking, another policeman who was squatting down stood up and said: "Officer Luo, look at this male corpse's hand clutching a piece of cloth tightly. Is this not a clue? Did the deceased want to use this cloth strip to tell us something?"

  Luó duì diǎn diǎn tóu shuō: "Mùqián zhè xiànchǎng de yīqiè dōngxī dōu kěnéng shì yǒuyòng de xiànlù, bǎo bù tiáo dài zǒu."

  Translation:

  Luo nodded and said: "At present, everything on the scene may be a useful clue, take the cloth strip away."

  Then he asked other police officers: "What have you found?"

  Apart from those two policemen who spoke up, everyone else just shook their heads, it seems like nothing was achieved.

  The police came out of the house, and then the forensic doctor arrived. Two policemen wearing white coats walked into the house, carried the body out on a stretcher, and took it to the courtyard. The onlookers stretched their necks to watch the commotion. Seeing the body, the villagers were shocked and exclaimed: "Isn't this Wang Zhongren and his wife? How did they die at home and hide in the wall? Weren't they taken to the city by their son? We even envied them for having a filial son, and everyone said that after retirement, they would enjoy a peaceful life. It turns out they had already died in their own home."

  As people were discussing this, Chen Zhenhua had already figured it out that the two old men were Wang Canglong's parents. So after the police left, Chen Zhenhua and Huo Jucui went to the village to learn more about Wang Canglong's situation.

  The body was carried away, and the people also walked away contentedly, still discussing it all the way, with some even speaking with spittle flying everywhere, their expressions agitated.

  Chen Zhenhua and Huo Jucui walked into a peasant household, where an old couple lived. The old man sat at the gate, smoking a dry pipe, talking to his wife in the house about Wang Canglong's father, Wang Zhongren.

  Chen Zhenhua and Huo Jucai walked into the courtyard, exchanged a few pleasantries, introduced themselves, and then Chen Zhenhua asked: "Old man, what's the relationship like between Wang Zhongren and his son?"

  "The relationship between him and his father is not very clear to us, all we know is that Xiaolong doesn't speak outside, but at home he often quarrels with his father Wang Zhongren, even the two of them have fought physically. I remember one time Xiaolong almost beat his father to death, his weak and sick mother was also beaten by him and had to lie in bed for several days. The villagers couldn't bear it, but they couldn't intervene."

  "That Wang Qinglong is a student, since he beat his father, why did his father still support him in school?" Chen Zhenhua asked.

  "Of course not," said the old man, "This Wang Qinglong is indeed hateful at home, but this child studies very well and is the only one in the village who reads university books. This point is quite impressive. However, the more he reads, the more fiercely he quarrels with his father. I really don't know why they want to fight. But later, it was still three years ago, Xiaolong seemed to have changed into a different person, and he actually came home to pick up his parents and take them to the city, saying that he wanted to let the two old people enjoy their twilight years. We were just admiring him, but unexpectedly, he died at home."

  Chen Zhenhua listened carefully, then bid farewell to the old man and went with Huo Jucun to the local police station. At the police station, Chen Zhenhua learned from a policeman in charge of household registration that Wang Zhongren and his wife had died, but their relatives did not come to the police station to obtain a death certificate. Based on these circumstances, both Chen Zhenhua and Huo Jucun believed that Wang Zhongren and his wife were murdered, and it was highly likely that the killer was Wang Zhongren's son, Wang Canglong.

  The two left the police station, and there was nothing more to investigate for now. They drove back to Haizhen City. On the way, Chen Zhenhua called Huang Aiguo, who said they would discuss it together when they got back, so they didn't talk along the way.

  Back in Haichuan City, the three of them gathered at Chen Zhenhua's residence with great eagerness.

  "How is it?" The three of them sat down, and Chen Zhenhua asked eagerly.

  "I inquired about it in Bijie and even went to Qiaotou Village several times. The locals all said that there was no such person in the village, and the name couldn't be found on the police station's household registration records either. So now we can confirm that Xiong Lengbing's ID card is fake. What about you guys?" Huang Aiguo asked after taking a big gulp of tea.

  "Wang Canglong is indeed real, and there is such a person in Zhenning. Moreover, this time we went to Zhenning and made another major discovery," said Chen Zhenhua.

  "What's new?" Huang Aiguo said.

  Chen Zhenhua said: "We arrived at Longyan Village and found Wang Canglong's home, but discovered that one wall of the house was double-layered. Upon opening it, we found two corpses hidden inside, which were later identified as Wang Canglong's parents who had died from poisoning."

  "King Canglong's parents? Died from poisoning?" Huang Aiguo furrowed his brow, remained silent for a moment before saying, "What was the relationship between King Canglong and his parents like?"

  "According to local people, Wang Canglong was introverted in the village and never spoke to anyone. However, he had long-term quarrels with his parents at home and even beat them," said Huo Jucui.

  "If that's the case, then Wang Canglong is not a good person either, maybe he's the one who killed his parents," said Huang Aiguo. "But now we're also in a dilemma, Xiong Lengbing's ID card clearly shows his address as Bijie, Guizhou, but when we went there to investigate, there was no such person. Could it be that Xiong Lengbing's ID is fake?"

  "Let's call him in for further questioning at the police station tomorrow," said Chen Zhenhua.

  "I don't think that's necessary," said Huo Jucai, "I have a way to test it. If Xiong Linbing is indeed Wang Canglong, he will definitely reveal his true nature."

  "What method?" Chen Zhenhua asked.

  Huo Jucai took a glance at Chen Zhenhua, but he didn't answer Chen's question. Instead, he slightly glanced at Huang Aiguo with the corner of his eye. This movement made Chen understand and stop asking questions. He also thought of what Huo meant by "the method".

  The three of them talked for a long time, Huang Aiguo was tired from driving for a long time, so he left early. Only He Jucui was left, and Chen Zhenhua asked him what method he had.

  "I think we should disguise ourselves as the girl killed by Wang Qinglong and go find him. If Xiong Lengbing is indeed Wang Qinglong, then the Xiong Lengbing in front of us will be afraid," said Huo Jucai.

  "What if it isn't?" Chen Zhenhua said.

  "It's only after we've tried it out that we'll know," said Huo Jucai.

  Chen Zhenhua agreed, and the two began to discuss how to dress up and when to do it. After all this was discussed, Huo Jucai asked Chen Zhenhua if he wanted to let Huang Aiguo know.

  "He is also one of the most professional in the police station, I think we can let him know." Chen Zhenhua said, now he only has a good relationship with Huang Aiguo in the police station, which may be because both of them are very concerned about Ruan Jiaolü's case.

  "I think we can also tell him, as long as he doesn't know our identities," said Huo Jucai. "Right, how do we tell him?"

  "We just say we met her disguised as a girl, and he won't care how we knew that girl. Even if he suspects us, as long as we say we saw the girl before she was killed, it's fine." Chen Zhenhua said.

  "Alright, I'll do as you say," said Huo Jucai.

  The two of them consulted with each other and then lit another incense stick together.

  Just as they were about to take a breath, two objects floated in. Chen Zhenhua and Huo Jucui felt a chill on their backs and couldn't help but shiver. They turned around to see a male and female ghost hovering in mid-air, staring at them.

  "I know you," Chen Zhenhua said, "aren't you Wang Canglong's father and mother?"

  The two ghosts nodded and let out a sigh.