Chapter Fourteen: The Lantern of the Dead Soul

  Name: Unknown

  Gender: Male

  Age: Appearance around forty

  Occupation: Owner of Rangrangju

  Address: No. 47 Dongshi Street, Bomei District

  Robert Horns strolled through the crowd with his hands in his pockets, still chewing on a piece of gum that had lost its flavor after an afternoon of being chewed.

  His appearance was that of a typical American, with messy brown-blond hair sticking out from under his earflap hat, and his body looked unusually bloated in his down jacket. His lower half was clad in a tattered pair of jeans, stained with large patches of dirt here and there. If not for the occasional glint of sharpness in his grey-blue eyes, he would have looked like just another homeless person wandering the streets. No one would have guessed that this middle-aged man, who had been awarded a special commendation three months prior for cracking a serial murder case, was actually tracking a target as he seemed to be casually strolling around.

  "What the hell is this place!" He cautiously looked around at the situation, his mind a bit dizzy.

  The Chinatown in New York City was not his jurisdiction, but that didn't mean he wasn't familiar with the place. However, this place in front of him made him feel quite strange. From the huge red wooden sign at the beginning to the wide streets crisscrossing each other, all sorts of shops stood on both sides of the street, flags fluttered, and people bustled about, its liveliness was no less than that of Times Square in the city center, yet it had an inexplicable eerie atmosphere.

  The shopkeepers all seemed to be Orientals, and the style of the buildings was mostly the kind of Oriental wooden structure that one sees in movies. What was strange was that although each storefront was not large, looking inside gave a feeling of being unable to see the bottom, as if twisted space had been packed into a small container. Of course, this was not the fundamental reason for Robert's astonishment; what he could not imagine was the kind of goods being sold in this market.

  He had been to many black markets, but this was the first time he had come across a market that openly sold contraband goods. Whether it was heavy-duty weapons and ammunition banned by the state, or antique treasures that couldn't be found on the cultural relics smuggling market, even people were openly displayed on the shelves, in addition, there were many strange animals for sale. It's unbelievable that such a market can exist in New York without being discovered by the police!

  The target turned left in front, Robert spat out the "rubber" in his mouth and temporarily put down his plan to thoroughly investigate this market and followed him. To his surprise, after turning the corner, what appeared before him was no longer a commercial street but a two-story shop, which should not have appeared according to the previous road conditions. Moreover, on both sides of it stood two strange walls, in other words, this was the only place at the end of the dead alley. He retreated several steps in shock and discovered that the commercial avenue that should have existed had disappeared without a trace. A small river flowed from his face, with a bluestone bridge leading to the opposite bank. There were distant voices coming from there, but they couldn't be seen clearly. Out of instinctive vigilance, he tightened the trigger of the pistol in his pants pocket and carefully walked towards the building, while secretly scolding himself for putting the communication device in the car to avoid exposure.

  The shop's tone was a dark brown of mature wood, with two long lanterns hanging on either side of the high door frame, swaying gently in the wind and making a creaking sound. On the wooden signboard of the same brown color, three exceptionally beautiful Chinese characters were painted with gold paint, but unfortunately Robert couldn't recognize them. The carved door was slightly ajar, and inside it was quiet and dim, looking as if it wasn't open for business. Robert took out his beloved gun, crept up to the door, and then suddenly pushed it open.

  "Don't move!" He shouted loudly, tensely searching for his target everywhere.

  "Welcome to Ron's residence." A cold, stern voice suddenly rang out in the dimly lit room, contrasting with his tone. The lights in the room flashed on, and for just an instant, thousands of rays of light dazzled Robert's eyes. He subconsciously closed them, inwardly crying out in alarm. But the expected attack did not come, and he slowly opened his eyes to see that the room was now brightly lit.

  Indescribable shock! The exterior is a two-story building, but in fact, it's only one layer of hall inside. The dazzling ceiling sparkles like it's extremely far away, even out of sight. The same situation applies to the horizontal limit, with endless black floor tiles stretching forward without any restraint. Robert sees all sorts of lanterns in his line of sight, layered and stacked, shining brightly, making him dizzy. A man wearing a dark purple hoodie stands quietly amidst the dense light, looking at him: "Welcome to Roneng Residence." He repeats it again, with high cheekbones and thin lips that make him look like a scholar.

  "Police." Robert quickly calmed down and took out his ID for the other person to see, "What about the woman who just came in?"

  He stretched out a pale, almost sickly hand and pointed to a certain place. Robert looked in the direction he was pointing, and his line of sight appeared a plain white lantern, faintly shining with golden light.

  "What a fine lamp!" The shopkeeper said, walking over to pick up the lantern and examining it carefully, with an expression of fondness on his face.

  "Depending on your answer, I can send you to prison or a mental hospital. I'm not sure which one you'd prefer," Robert said in a low, dismissive tone, his patience was limited and he had no time for this kind of nonsense.

  "You can sit down and have a cup of tea with me, look, I still have some freshly baked Chinese pastries here." The other person said casually, taking out a delicate ceramic teapot from beside him, and also brought out a three-tiered red wooden steamer basket, placing it on the Eight Immortals table that had appeared at some unknown time. Then, he pulled out two red wooden chairs from the darkness, making a inviting gesture with his hand.

  Robert was almost dumbfounded by his opponent's magical movements, which were like a conjuring trick, and he couldn't tell whether it was Chinese magic or something else.

  "As for the matter of that lady, we can discuss it while having tea." The slender middle-aged man lifted the lid of the box, and a refreshing aroma wafted out. Robert's stomach growled a few times before he realized he had only eaten one hot dog since morning, aside from smoking an entire pack of cigarettes.

  "Alright, then I won't be polite." He heavily sat down on the red wooden armchair, casually removing the fur hat from his head, revealing a sinister scar above his left eyebrow.

  The shopkeeper's gaze seemed to linger on that scar for a moment before quickly shifting his line of sight, pouring Robert a cup of tea.

  "Sorry, I'm not quite used to Chinese tea." Robert eyed the delicious spread on the table warily and hesitated to dig in.

  The shopkeeper smiled slightly, picked up a piece of pastry and put it in his mouth, then took a little of each style and made another inviting gesture. Robert finally felt at ease to enjoy the delicious food, and soon found himself unable to stop.

  "You must be looking for our guest, Mrs. Rieski." The shopkeeper said in a gentle tone, seemingly not worried at all that getting involved with the other party would bring trouble to himself.

  "It was her." Robert stopped stuffing his mouth with pastry and looked at the shopkeeper, "You must have heard about the case of seven people who died two weeks ago."

  "Yes, I read the newspaper and heard that they were all members of the Flying Car Party. The cause of death was cardiac failure due to cardiovascular rupture. It's said that their bodies were quite gruesome."

  "According to the police investigation, those seven people had killed an innocent middle school student two months ago for the purpose of entertainment, and that child was Mrs. Ryskina's only son." Robert said while observing the shop owner's expression, trying to catch a flaw.

  "So, are the police suspecting a connection between this case and Mrs. Ryskiewicz?"

  "At least she had a motive for the crime."

  "Don't you think a weak woman like her can't commit such a heinous murder?"

  Robert smiled and said mysteriously: "It doesn't matter if I tell you, I have some evidence in my hands."

  "Then congratulations on another successful case." The shop owner smiled slightly and took a sip of the tea in his hand, his expression calm and unruffled.

  Robert rubbed his hair in slight disappointment, as the other party's calm demeanor seemed as if they really didn't know anything.

  "If the case can be solved, why do I have to follow that woman and sleep in the wind and rain?" He took out a pack of crumpled cigarettes from the inside pocket of his down jacket, pulled out one that had been smoked halfway, put it in his mouth, habitually lit the lighter, and then stopped as if he thought of something and asked, "You don't mind me smoking a cigarette, do you?"

  The shop owner shook his head and handed over an ashtray.

  "Ah, thank you." Robert took it with some embarrassment, brushing off the ash. "I found two eyewitnesses who can prove that Mrs. Rysky was seen going to that abandoned warehouse where those thugs gathered on the night of the incident. The problem is, no one can prove how she killed those seven people. There's no sign of struggle or fight, it's as if they all lost their lives in an instant. You see, without finding the murder weapon and method, even if we caught Mrs. Rysky at the scene of the crime, the law couldn't convict her. Honestly, this case has really got me stumped."

  "Has your witness ever mentioned whether Mrs. Rysky had anything special with her that night?" The shopkeeper put down his teacup and looked at Robert with clear eyes, only to discover that the Oriental's eyes were golden, like those shining flower lanterns - was he a mixed-blood?

  "Something special?" Robert collected his thoughts and pulled out a notebook from his pocket, flipping to the pages where he had recorded the testimony.

  "Something special, something special..." His fingers searched through the dense records, and then he found it, something special was... "Huā dēng..." He couldn't believe his eyes and looked again several times. Why didn't he have any impression of it? He had clearly seen it many times before but never noticed it once. He looked at the shop owner sitting across from him with a puzzled expression.

  "It's indeed an item sold in our store." The shop owner said, bending down to pick up the plain white lantern from earlier, "It's this one." He handed the flower lantern to Robert.

  Robert took the letter with a skeptical look and examined it carefully, but couldn't find anything wrong.

  "What's the relationship between this lantern and the case?"

  "Have you heard of a thing called 'dead soul lamp'?" The shop owner said calmly, with an expression on his face that suddenly became profound and mysterious.

  Robert shook his head honestly: "What is that thing?"

  "It is a dwelling place for the unexplained fire that burns with human obsession and anger as its nourishment, if taken good care of, it can fulfill people's wishes. The shopkeeper smiled and stood up, just slightly raised his hand, the leftover food on the table disappeared without a trace, leaving only Robert who was at a loss, unable to react for a moment."

  "This lamp will be lent to Mr. Horns, you, within a hundred days, the murderer who killed your daughter must..." As the voice faded away, the entire store hall suddenly darkened again, with only Robert's solo sitting hand holding that plain white lantern emitting a faint golden light.

  He stroked the sinister scar at the corner of his left eye and sat quietly for a while, then stood up with the lantern and left without looking back.

  Welcome to Bomei Market, the world's largest market, selling unbelievable goods!