Chapter 80

Chapter 78

The most direct threat is a declaration.

At this moment, even Yin Meng, who was standing by the side, was already considering where in the school would be a suitable place to bury someone.

Yin Meng's nature would not allow her to act so decisively.

But as long as the young man patted his leg and said, "Bury her," she would immediately grab a shovel and dig a hole.

Because she knew that the young man could tolerate Run Sheng's stupidity, but he would absolutely not give himself a second chance.

Similarly, if even companions felt it was real, then for the "threatened party," it was naturally impossible to harbor any thoughts of luck.

Sun Hongxia couldn't help but suspect that the young man in front of her, compared to the truth, was more eager to bury her alive.

"I say..."

Li Zhuiyuan turned his head and looked towards the store door that was still open.

Yin Meng walked over, closed the store door, and locked it.

Li Zhuiyuan asked, "Have you been to her room?"

"No."

"Take her to her room."

"Okay."

Yin Meng lifted Sun Hongxia up, one hand twisting around her other arm, this was the dead throw lock technique.

Before going downstairs, Li Zhuiyuan took a can of soda from the beverage rack, opened it, and drank two mouthfuls, then he took another can.

Arriving at the basement, Sun Hongxia's room door was open. The space inside was quite large, just as Xue Liangliang had said before, the only drawback of the rooms below was that the lighting wasn't very good, everything else was fine.

However, inside Sun Hongxia's room, there were two offering tables placed, making the atmosphere inside very oppressive.

One offering table was large, the other small. The large one was almost the size of a normal family dining table, the small one was comparable to a stool.

On the large offering table was a portrait of a girl, and on the small offering table was a portrait of a boy.

The two offering tables were placed opposite each other, one high and one low. Beside the boy's portrait on the small offering table, there was a meditation cushion made from old clothes.

The candles and incense burner on the offering tables showed no signs of recent use in the past two days.

Sun Hongxia leaned against the bed, half sitting, half kneeling.

Li Zhuiyuan walked in, drank a mouthful of soda, his other hand still holding the other can.

Yin Meng instinctively raised her hand wanting to take it.

But she saw the young man sit down on the edge of the bed, placing the other bottle at his feet.

Oh, it wasn't for her.

Li Zhuiyuan didn't like sweet drinks, but his head was a little dizzy now, he needed to replenish sugar.

Sun Hongxia was about to speak several times, but hesitated again.

The most taboo thing in interrogation is interruption midway, which makes it easy for the interrogated person to reorganize their psychological defense and regain the hope of continuing to argue with you.

However, Li Zhuiyuan didn't care. The "Yin Yang Phase Study Essentials" could help him distinguish whether most normal people were lying. At the same time, he preferred to maintain the initiative.

Li Zhuiyuan pointed to the boy's portrait on the small stool and asked, "What was your son's name?"

Yin Meng was slightly surprised. She originally thought the girl's portrait on the high table was Sun Hongxia's daughter, possibly related to that long-haired faceless person. She didn't expect Sun Hongxia to have a son.

Sun Hongxia: "His name was Zhao Junfeng."

"This girl?"

"Her surname is Qiu, called Qiu Minmin."

Li Zhuiyuan finished the first can of soda and opened the second: "What bad things did Zhao Junfeng do to Qiu Minmin?"

Sun Hongxia: "Fengfeng in the toilet, humiliated Minmin, and killed her."

"School student?"

"Um, yes."

"How many years ago was it?"

"Seven years ago."

"Qiu Minmin's family is also at the school, right."

Sun Hongxia pursed her lips, she seemed not to want to say, but the boy just glanced at her, she shivered all over, and finally resigned herself and said:

"Yes, her mother is here."

"My patience is limited."

"Qiu Minmin's mother, surname Ran, is the dorm aunt in your building."

Yin Meng, who was also in the room, felt her brain was not enough.

This step-by-step rather than saying the youth was asking, it's better to say the youth was finding Sun Hongxia to verify, but the problem was, how did the youth know these things?

Could it be that he knew beforehand?

This was also impossible, if he knew beforehand things wouldn't have developed to this point.

Actually, these things were very simple to figure out. The layout of the large and small offering tables could lead to the brain supplementing the scene where Sun Hongxia often knelt on the meditation cushion with her son to apologize to the girl.

The boy and girl portraits were of university student age. Sun Hongxia spoke as if she was local, but in fact, she had a certain outer province accent.

It was hard to get a formal worker position in school logistics, but it was still easy to be a temporary worker. The wages and benefits were better than diligently working in Xue Liangliang's store. The subsequent deduction showed she was deliberately concealing her identity, and she wasn't simply working for money.

With strong guilt, staying at the school was highly likely for redemption. Qiu Minmin was already dead, so the object of redemption should be her family.

Li Zhuiyuan only used the most normal logic to conduct reverse deduction, then found Sun Hongxia to verify the answers. That they were all correct also had an element of luck.

"You know Qiu Minmin is still in the school, and she is just here."

Sun Hongxia nodded: "Yes, she often at night when no one is around, dances upstairs. Before, she often participated in various school parties, and danced very well."

"Why didn't she retaliate against you?"

"At the beginning when I 'saw' her, I was also afraid, but I thought, this was the sin committed by my son. Even if she is a malicious ghost, killing me to claim her life and vent her anger is what she should do. I often knelt in the dance room upstairs during that period, begging her to kill me.

But... she didn't.

Later, so many years passed, I got used to it.

Perhaps she feels letting me die so easily is too cheap, so she wants to keep appearing by my side to torment me and retaliate against me, and I accept that."

"Perhaps?"

"This is my guess."

"No, this is not your guess, you don't have that kind of brain."

Sun Hongxia: "..."

"Is it Qiu Minmin's mother, that Aunt Ran in our building, who told you?"

Li Zhuiyuan remembered that the name written on her work card on her desk was: Ran Qiu Ping.

"Yes, that's right, she told me these words, I'm very grateful to her."

"Next time, think it through before you speak. I don't want to correct you a second time, otherwise, I will still bury you alive, plus that Ran Qiu Ping."

Run Sheng this time made a mistake based on his professional quality, but it was still understandable.

But the problem now was that the people he cared about and wanted to protect were not that simple, and were very likely actively targeting himself and others in the dead throw.

If people are planning to harm your life, why hesitate here.

"I, I know."

"How does Ran Qiu Ping view the matter of Qiu Minmin still being here?"

"She told me that her daughter's resentment hasn't dissipated, and she wants me to be with her, waiting for the day Minmin sees things clearly and dissipates, and my sin will also be redeemed."

Yin Meng thought in her heart: The dorm aunt is raising a corpse?

Li Zhuiyuan took another sip of soda, he felt it wasn't like that.

Qiu Minmin was controlled, and the existence that controlled her was very terrifying. This didn't seem like something Ran Qiu Ping could do, unless she was consciously acting during their first meeting.

Besides, the most fundamental contradiction was, what did Ran Qiu Ping, as Qiu Minmin's biological mother, want her tragically deceased daughter to do by controlling her?

Unfortunately, Sun Hongxia couldn't provide more useful clues here. She could be questioned further, but not much valuable information would come out.

Because she had already been brainwashed by Ran Qiu Ping into a devout redeemer.

Whether the killer's family should receive social condemnation was not a problem Li Zhuiyuan needed to think about now.

He only knew that if Ran Qiu Ping could truly 'cultivate' and 'manipulate' a dead throw of this level as her own ghost, then she fundamentally didn't need Sun Hongxia to do things for her and repent and pray for her.

There must still be a secret here, because it didn't make sense.

"How did Zhao Junfeng die?"

"He hijacked a classmate as a hostage while escaping, and was shot dead by the police at General Mountain." Sun Hongxia looked at her son's portrait, "He didn't know how to repent even when he died, and he died so easily. If he had accepted the law's trial and punishment, I might feel better in my heart. This is my fault, I gave birth to him, and I didn't teach him well, letting him become a beast and harm people."

"Who was the classmate he hijacked?"

"I don't know."

"How was his body handled?"

"Here." Sun Hongxia bent down and took out an urn from under the bed. "Do you want to see?"

"Open it."

Sun Hongxia opened the lid, Li Zhuiyuan reached in and grabbed a small handful, it was ashes, no mistake.

"Do you have any other relatives?"

"His dad died early, I have no relatives here."

"Tie her up, control her first."

"Okay." Yin Meng picked up the net for trapping dead throws and controlled Sun Hongxia. Before she could take something to block her mouth, Yin Meng stood up and walked to the youth's side and softly asked, "It seems we haven't asked why Qiu Minmin wants to attack us?"

"You ask then."

Yin Meng turned her head and looked at Sun Hongxia: "Say, why does Qiu Minmin want to attack us?"

Sun Hongxia said blankly: "I don't know."

Yin Meng: "You don't know?"

Sun Hongxia looked at the offering table: "Could it be because you all came and live next door to me, making me unable to light incense and burn paper for her these past two days?"

Yin Meng blocked Sun Hongxia's mouth.

Obviously, she also didn't believe this reason.

Li Zhuiyuan walked out of the room. Yin Meng locked the door from the outside and immediately followed him, asking, "Why did she want to attack us?"

"If you want to think in a complex way, then it should be our arrival, or specifically some actions by you, Run Sheng, and Xiao Hei, that offended her."

"Then if it's a simple way?"

"You are a hidden criminal. Suddenly one day, you discover that the neighbors on the left and right are all police who have moved in. Won't you feel they are here just to catch you?"

"Just that simple?"

"It's not important why she attacked us, what's important is that she has already attacked us. If we hadn't arrived in time, Run Sheng might have died in her hands.

What we need to do now is counterattack."

Yin Meng's face changed and she said, "Then we should hurry now and catch that dorm aunt."

"Qiu Minmin has already run, do you think Ran Qiu Ping knows now? No matter how fast you are, it's too late."

Yin Meng suddenly felt that she shouldn't say so much in front of the youth. Aside from proving she was very stupid again, it had no other effect.

The two returned to Building Nine. The dorm office was still dark. Yin Meng tried to pry open the window.

"Pa!"

The lights inside came on.

Yin Meng, who had just pried the window open, saw Li Zhuiyuan walk in from the office door. The door was not locked.

The youth glanced at her and said, "Put the window back."

"Oh, okay."

The office area was not large, with one office desk, one bed, one cabinet, one wardrobe, and a cloth bag hanging on the wall with the dorm number written on it and keys placed below.

The only valuable clue was a large teacup at the foot of the desk with traces of burning black.

Li Zhuiyuan lifted the teacup and sniffed it closely, it smelled like paper ash.

Yin Meng walked in after fixing the window, looked around, and said, "She ran?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "I was really afraid she would stay here waiting for us."

If that were the case, it would indicate that Ran Qiu Ping had something to rely on.

And their team's strength was greatly damaged after losing Run Sheng and Tan Wenbin.

Li Zhuiyuan walked to the cloth bag and reached below their dorm number, there was no key.

It seemed they needed to change the lock.

"Yin Meng."

"Um!" Yin Meng straightened her chest, waiting for instructions.

"You go back to the store now, guard Sun Hongxia, then early tomorrow morning, go to the medical room and bring Tan Wenbin back."

Compared to her, Zhuangzhuang was much better at investigating things than Mengmeng.

"Then you?"

"There's no one on your side, I'm worried about your safety."

Li Zhuiyuan pointed upstairs: "It's late, I'm going up to sleep."

"Sleep?"

"Um, my head is a little uncomfortable, I need to rest."

"Then in case..."

"No in case, Qiu Minmin has been beaten to the point of being almost scattered. If Ran Qiu Ping still has other means, she won't run. We are very safe now."

As Li Zhuiyuan walked out of the dorm office, he reminded her again: "Remember to turn off the lights."

Back to his own dorm, Li Zhuiyuan carried the basin, placed the whip at the bottom of the basin, and walked towards the washbasin. There was no reason to be on guard every day. He should rest when he should rest, and bathe when he should bathe.

As written in Wei Zhengdao's book: We represent orthodoxy.

Whose orthodoxy makes itself nervous and cautious every day.

Just after receiving the first basin of water and pouring it down, he was applying shampoo when he heard footsteps behind him.

Li Zhuiyuan washed his hair as usual, his ears were good, he could remember some people's footsteps even after hearing them only once.

"Aiya mom ya, Godchild bro, what a coincidence!"

Lu Yi, one meter eighty-five tall, a standard northern big man.

"You're good."

"Godchild bro also wants to bathe, huh? Me too, what a coincidence, Godchild bro is also bathing, huh?"

"Um."

"Godchild bro, why did you come to school to report so early?"

"Catch ghosts."

"Hehehe, Godchild bro, you are really humorous."

Li Zhuiyuan soaped himself.

"Hua la!"

Lu Yi also poured a basin of water over himself.

"Phew, refreshing!"

Then, Lu Yi looked at Li Zhuiyuan, rolling the towel tightly in his hand:

"Godchild bro, let me scrub your back."

"No need."

"It's okay, we always scrub mud for each other in the bathhouse there."

Saying that, Lu Yi was about to step forward.

"Bro, really no need."

"Pa!"

Just at this moment, the whip that Li Zhuiyuan had placed at the edge of the washbasin slid down.

Lu Yi stared with wide eyes and said naively: "Godchild bro, do you southerners all use this when you bathe, huh? How do you use it, is it useful?"

"Bro, I'm done washing."

"Oh, okay. Had a midnight snack? I'm boiling dumplings in the dorm, want a bowl?"

"Won't it trip the electricity?"

"Coincidentally, I'm a professional, the electricity we use in the dorm won't trip the switch."

"No thanks, bro."

"Then come to my dorm tonight to play, I can play the guitar."

"Aren't you making up classes tomorrow?"

"No classes tomorrow, it's a rest day."

"Then rest early."

"Hey, Godchild bro, you still haven't said where you're catching ghosts, huh?"

"In the dorm."

Li Zhuiyuan carried the basin and walked away.

"Hehe, Godchild bro is really good at joking." Lu Yi carried the basin, not pouring it yet, just shivered, then quickly finished and immediately ran back to his own dorm.

After returning to the dorm, Li Zhuiyuan first pushed two chairs behind the door to block it, then opened the dorm window, and finally lay on the bed.

Closed his eyes, and slept.

Slept until dawn, the discomfort in his head was significantly relieved.

Got out of bed, got dressed, moved the chairs to wash up, returned and sat in front of the desk, and started writing the investigation plan.

Just finished writing, when he heard Tan Wenbin's footsteps outside.

The dorm door was pushed open, Tan Wenbin poked his head in: "Little Yuan bro, I brought you breakfast."

Small cage buns, fried dough sticks, and soy milk.

While eating breakfast together, Li Zhuiyuan handed the plan to Tan Wenbin. Tan Wenbin took it and scanned it, and after confirming there were no doubts, he folded it and put it in his pocket.

There were only two things on the list, one was to investigate the Zhao Junfeng and Qiu Minmin case from that year, the other was to investigate Ran Qiu Ping.

The latter only needed a visit, the former needed to find files, and it would be best to contact the police who participated in handling the case that year.

"Binbin bro, does your dad have connections?"

"Should have, right. Your dad was transferred to Shi Gang later. His previous classmates and colleagues network is quite large. Besides, even if your dad doesn't work, you still have your grandpa and your grandma, they are all old police. But I need some time, Yuanzi bro."

"No hurry, that dead throw from yesterday won't recover anytime soon, we have plenty of time, we should be able to wait until Run Sheng bro recovers."

"Run Sheng is recovering well. This morning when the doctor came to check his wound, he said his body was stronger than a cow. And when Yin Meng came to replace me, she also brought some medicine ointment, which was left by Aunt Liu."

"Um."

"Do we need to contact Liang bro?"

"There's no relation with Liangliang bro."

"No, I mean, with such a fun thing, shouldn't we call Liang bro to join?"

"Forget it, I'm afraid he'll find an excuse to go back south to investigate again."

"Pu... hahaha!"

After Tan Wenbin finished laughing, he suddenly thought of something again and asked, "Little Yuan bro, aren't you alone then?"

"There are people."

After Tan Wenbin left, Li Zhuiyuan packed some things into his backpack, then carried the backpack to a dorm door and knocked.

Soon, the door was opened, Lu Yi seemed to have just woken up.

"Yo, Godchild bro."

"Bro, name your price, I'll hire you for a day, you follow me."

"Ha!" Lu Yi bent slightly at the waist, one arm around Li Zhuiyuan, "What kind of talk is that, bros have matters to discuss, what money are you talking about? Wait, I'll brush my teeth."

Lu Yi quickly washed up, locked the dorm door: "Let's go, Godchild bro, where are we going?"

"General Mountain."

...

General Mountain was originally named Guanyin Mountain, later renamed General Mountain because Yue Fei once resisted Jin here.

It wasn't a very famous scenic spot, but it had mountains and water, beautiful scenery, and was a very good vacation spot on the outskirts of the city.

Coming here, Li Zhuiyuan didn't have any specific purpose. Mainly, Tan Wenbin could handle things on his side by himself, he just simply came here to try his luck.

If he had really anticipated danger, he wouldn't have temporarily called Lu Yi to join the team.

Li Zhuiyuan climbed up a hilltop, took out his compass, and began to observe the feng shui here.

Lu Yi, who was beside him, originally thought Godchild bro had called him for an outing. Seeing the youth even took out a compass and was seriously observing, he suddenly thought of what the youth had said last night again.

Damn, there really won't be a ghost in the dorm, right?

Li Zhuiyuan continuously changed positions on three hilltops to observe, except for observing several auspicious spots, there was nothing abnormal.

But when he walked to the fourth hilltop position to observe, he found a very peculiar area.

Nine curves through quiet, hidden dragon in the abyss, worship the main city, borrow the king's qi.

This could almost be called a standard water burial place.

But because it was really too standard, whether a warlock looked at it or a water monkey looked at it, it was all very normal.

So, there was a temple there.

It was an ancient habit to build a temple on top of places that were prone to problems, such as haunted areas, chaotic burial grounds, or ancient tombs.

Now, they could build schools.

Li Zhuiyuan walked to the temple gate. The temple was very small, with a plaque that read: General Temple.

Inside were Buddhist things and Taoist things, but no monks or Taoists, only a few management personnel, and they didn't collect tickets.

However, shortly after walking in, Li Zhuiyuan sensed something was wrong. Although this temple was a bit impure, no matter what temple it was, there was no lack of a sense of uprightness and harmony inside, only a distinction between strong and weak.

But inside this temple, it gave people a greasy, sticky feeling, and faintly, Li Zhuiyuan still smelled a faint stench of water corpse.

His nose wasn't as sensitive as Run Sheng's, but since he smelled it, it was probably not wrong.

But what kind of dead throw would actually hide inside a temple?

Li Zhuiyuan hesitated. If the person following him at this moment was not Lu Yi but Run Sheng, he could openly continue the investigation.

However, he had come to try his luck after all. Since he encountered some special things, it would be a pure waste of effort to avoid them and retreat.

He would still take a look, just look, not make a move, he was a tourist.

Following the concentration of the water corpse stench, Li Zhuiyuan gradually walked to the main temple hall entrance.

Lu Yi also sniffed and even sneezed. He pointed around and said, "There are many ginkgo trees planted inside this temple, ah, I always thought this thing smelled very fragrant before."

Li Zhuiyuan ignored him and stepped into the hall entrance. Inside, there was a majestic general statue, with a metal sign hanging below it, on which was written "Great General" in three words.

This was not Yue Fei, because this was clearly Mo Liqing, one of the four heavenly kings holding a sword from "Investiture of the Gods".

Li Zhuiyuan walked to the meditation cushion and sat down on his knees.

Lu Yi, seeing this, also knelt down.

In his eyes, Godchild bro, who was holding a compass, was already tainted with a mysterious color.

Li Zhuiyuan sniffed carefully, he had already confirmed that the source of the water corpse stench was at the bottom of this general statue.

The general statue stood on a stone platform, and there was an open seam directly in front of the stone platform, proving that there was likely a push-pull interlayer inside.

At this time, the normal process should be to walk Yin and continue the in-depth investigation.

But Li Zhuiyuan endured it.

This water corpse stench was emitted very uniformly, proving that even if there was a dead throw lying inside, it was in a deep sleep.

It couldn't be guaranteed that it wasn't like the peach forest in front of the big beard's old house, which was a suppression layout made by previous people.

Li Zhuiyuan straightened up and suddenly heard Lu Yi beside him already kowtowing, asking the general to bless his parents' health.

Li Zhuiyuan could only interrupt him: "Don't bai."

"Ah?" Lu Yi was stunned for a moment, "Then..."

"Follow me." Li Zhuiyuan performed a set of receiving gift actions, which were a bit complex, and he did them very slowly.

Lu Yi watched and learned, finished, then followed the youth and stood up from the meditation cushion.

It was fine to bai in ordinary temples and Taoist temples to seek emotional value, but dead throws were inherently evil. Even if they didn't actively harm you, just being relatively close to you, you might be stained with bad luck, unless you had deep fortune, which meant you didn't need to worry about it.

As for saying bai a dead throw to seek protection, that was actively seeking causal involvement, which was too inauspicious.

Li Zhuiyuan began to observe the general statue, Lu Yi followed behind the youth.

The youth was not old, but his body had a special temperament that made people unconsciously want to listen to him and feel that what he said was right.

After observing a circle, Li Zhuiyuan found something was wrong.

The pattern here should have originally been a very standard [break evil], but now it had been modified by someone.

Li Zhuiyuan used the tip of his shoe to touch a crack on the ground, which was later chiseled out by man.

This couldn't help but give the youth a sense of familiarity, because it was as if he was using the original feng shui layout to make modifications.

However, the person who modified this place later wasn't on the right level.

He only broke the effect of [break evil] to allow himself to operate, and could directly change it to [gather yin].

However, now he had only drawn a circle on the map, and he didn't know whether the things inside here were related to Qiu Minmin. It wasn't suitable to branch out at this time.

Everything would wait until Tan Wenbin got specific case news before making the next decision.

"Let's go, Lu bro."

"Okay, good."

Just as the two were about to walk out of the hall entrance, two people, both male, one old and one young, just happened to walk past under the opposite corridor outside. Both were wearing work cards on their chests and should be staff here.

The old man's hair was white, and he walked with his hands behind his back, but his overlapped hands were inwardly cupped, and at the same time, both shoulders were sunk and his shoulder blades were shrugged.

This was the posture of carrying a corpse.

And it was a kind of action inertia developed through year-round practice of carrying corpses. Even every day, he would naturally maintain this body posture.

Qin Shu had said when teaching him basic gong that he didn't need to set aside time to practice gong, he could practice it during his daily work.

That old man was one who had mastered this gong.

The young man also had some of this tendency, but it was not yet obvious. It was very obvious that he should be the old man's successor.

Li Zhuiyuan didn't expect to actually encounter salvage corpse peers here.

However, he probably didn't have the idea of going up to greet them, because perhaps the gap in the pattern here was made by them.

The old man and the young man separated after walking a long distance. The young man continued forward and stopped at a door similar to an office, knocking on the door.

The door was opened, and a woman stood at the door and spoke very excitedly to the young man. The young man seemed to be comforting her, but his hand behind his back was clenched, obviously feeling very impatient dealing with the woman in front of him.

However, neither of the speakers knew that this scene had already fallen into the sight of others.

Li Zhuiyuan pulled Lu Yi's clothes, signaling him to follow him out the back door of the hall entrance.

After the two walked out of the hall entrance, they quickly walked out of General Temple. When they came outside, Lu Yi finally couldn't help but ask:

"Godchild bro, wasn't that woman just now our dorm aunt?"

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