Seeing the Taoist priest named Master Liu walking towards us confidently step by step, Officer Yang and I became alert at the same time and looked at this person carefully. The villagers around us were like they had seen a savior, and they were so excited that they wanted to rush up to Master Liu to ask for his autograph.
Master Liu quickly walked into the house. Zhao Tiezhu immediately picked up an axe to intercept him, but Master Liu just smiled and said, "Don't worry, your father's body doesn't need to be burned. With me here, he can't do anything wrong!"
I turned to look at Zhao Tiezhu and found that he seemed to know this Master Liu. He had originally refused to let anyone in, but now he put down the axe in his hand, nodded slightly and made way.
The battle that was about to break out ended quietly with the arrival of Master Liu. The village chief who had been hiding aside suddenly breathed a sigh of relief and immediately stepped forward to greet Master Liu with a smile, feeling like he had met his biological father.
Lin Yingxue sighed helplessly and said, "It's really ironic. As a police officer, I don't even have as much prestige as a Taoist priest. I feel so sad."
Officer Yang also looked melancholy. He nodded in agreement and stood quietly by the side smoking.
Seeing these two people so decadent, I was a little angry and said, "What? Are you going to admit defeat? The reason why he is more prestigious than us is because he has been in this village longer than us, so he is so convincing. Cheer up, this time I want to see whether he, the Taoist priest, can suppress the 'zombies' or we can find the real culprit!"
Accompanied by the village chief and Zhang Guozhong, Master Liu came to the two corpses. He was seen with his eyes wide open, and suddenly shouted without any warning: "Monster! Look, I am here to subdue you!"
Everyone was startled by Master Liu's shout, and all turned their eyes to Master Liu. They saw Master Liu suddenly make a seal with one hand, slightly close his eyes, and mutter something. With the other hand, he took out two pieces of yellow paper from his arms. On the yellow paper, there was something painted with red paint, and he kept shaking it left and right above the two corpses.
When the villagers present saw this scene, their eyes were so bright that they almost saw stars. I watched from the side with great interest. I wanted to see what tricks he could come up with.
After muttering for a long time, Master Liu suddenly threw the two yellow talismans in his hands into the air. Before the talismans fell, he grabbed the two corpses with both hands, and with a sudden force, he separated the two corpses on the spot. Then, he quickly caught the yellow talismans that were about to fall, one in each hand, and immediately stuck them on the foreheads of the two corpses.
Apart from other things, it would probably take several years of practice for Master Liu to be able to do this. The village chief wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said, "Master Liu, what on earth is going on?"
Master Liu pretended to be deep and casually sat on the kang where the two corpses were placed. He said in a deep voice: "I just calculated with my fingers and figured out the cause and effect of this matter. Some time ago, a monster sneaked into Heishan Village and secretly killed Lao Zhao, who had the weakest yang energy, and occupied his body. I just communicated with the ancestor, and the ancestor told me that the monster had been injured by a great immortal before, and the injury had not healed. It must collect blood food, that is, absorb the souls of living people to recover, so it possessed Lao Zhao's body and came out in the middle of the night to kill people and collect souls."
Master Liu talked a lot, and the villagers listened with great interest, but I rolled my eyes, thinking, how could you make up such nonsense without thinking? And it really came out so easily. There are actually people who believe such nonsense. If you can really communicate with ghosts and gods, please help me find out what number will be drawn in tomorrow's lottery.
The villagers all praised Master Liu for his foresight, because Master Liu's words instantly reminded them of the mysterious empty package that Zhao Tiezhu received the day before Lao Zhao's death. In their opinion, the evildoer who sneaked into Heishan Village must have been hiding in that empty package!
The village chief believed it without a doubt and immediately asked, "What should we do? Please give me some advice, Master!"
Master Liu pretended to count on his fingers, and after a few minutes he said, "It's okay. As long as I can drive away the evil spirit, everything will be back to normal. However..."
When Master Liu reached this point, he suddenly looked embarrassed. The village chief, Qi Qiao, was very smart and instantly understood what Master Liu meant. He whispered something to him quietly, but I didn't hear it.
Although I didn't hear what they were talking about, I roughly guessed that Master Liu was definitely discussing the price, and judging from the village chief's expression, he seemed to have agreed.
This immediately made me a little angry. I was about to step forward to stop him, but Officer Yang beside me suddenly pulled me back and whispered, "Our situation is not favorable right now. Don't provoke public anger. Wait and see what happens. If he wants money, give it to him. After the case is solved, I will make him pay back as much as he asked for!"
It seems that Officer Yang has more experience in this area. Indeed, even if Master Liu cheated the villagers of Heishan Village of their money, he would definitely not escape the police's sight. I was indeed a little impulsive.
It seemed that the price had been agreed upon. Master Liu cleared his throat and said, "Okay, if that's the case, I will start the ritual today. I would like to trouble all the villagers to help carry the two bodies to a spacious and secluded place."
The villagers were embarrassed to carry the two strange corpses, but Master Liu smiled and said, "Don't be afraid, the demons in the two corpses have been suppressed by my Taoist talisman and will not come out to do evil again. You can rest assured."
Master Liu's words were like a reassurance to the villagers. No one was afraid anymore and they rushed into the room one after another. They carried the two bodies and left the house, and their whereabouts were unknown. The village chief and Zhao Tiezhu also went with them. Soon, the originally bustling yard suddenly became deserted.
"Ji Wen, what do you think of this Master Liu?"
Seeing that everyone had left, Officer Yang then began to ask me.
I am naturally very disdainful. Are there still only a few people like this throughout history
"He's just playing tricks! This is an obvious murder case, but after his explanation, it turned into a fake murder. I think he's just a Taoist priest trying to cheat people out of money. Even if there's a problem again, he can probably use all kinds of weird excuses to shirk it."
Officer Yang suddenly smiled mysteriously and said, "What if he finishes the ritual, and everything really calms down?"
"What else is there to say? Just arrest him! If he is fine after the ritual, then he is the biggest suspect! First of all, this Master Liu has a motive for murder, which is to use the gimmick of faking a corpse to make money! Now that he appears by coincidence, and just now he deliberately led the source of everything to that empty bag, so I think, at the moment, this person is very suspicious!"
"Hahaha, it's just as I thought! Based on my many years of experience in handling cases, I have a high probability that this Master Liu is the murderer! We will just do as I told you just now, wait and see, find the key evidence, and then arrest him!"
I don’t know why Officer Yang is so confident, but I feel that things shouldn’t be that simple.
In my opinion, there are three suspects in this case. The first one is Zhao Tiezhu. However, after two days of observation, I have ruled him out. It is impossible for a filial son who dares to fight with others to protect his father's body to use his father's body as a cover for murder.
The second person is Master Liu. I have already mentioned the reasons before, and from this point of view, he is the most suspicious among the three suspects.
As for the third person, I don’t know why I would suspect him. He is the village chief who has always taken care of us!
I always feel that there seems to be something wrong with this person. When answering some questions about Old Zhao's past, he was vague and seemed to be deliberately concealing something. Moreover, he firmly believed from beginning to end that Zhao Tiezhu's father had faked his death and killed people. This really puzzled me.
I told Officer Yang and Lin Yingxue my opinion, and they both agreed with me. Although everything seems very messy at the moment, there may be important evidence behind this mess that we have overlooked.
I don’t know when it started, but when Lin Yingxue faced me, her face was no longer as cold as before. Although she still had no expression, I could see from her eyes that her opinion of me had gradually changed.
"I think we should first ask what happened here last night, and what the background of Master Liu is. Maybe she can tell us something."
As I said this, I pointed at the middle-aged woman with disheveled hair who was still sitting on the ground sobbing. Needless to say, this person must be the wife of the deceased Li Jianmin. It was probably her who discovered Li Jianmin's body this morning.
We walked over, but the middle-aged woman didn't intend to pay attention to us at all. She still lowered her head and cried. Officer Yang and I didn't know how to ask, but Lin Yingxue squatted down and said to the middle-aged woman face to face: "Sister, we are the police. Can you tell me what happened last night?"
Perhaps because of Lin Yingxue's words "sister", the crying middle-aged woman finally raised her head. Seeing the smiling Lin Yingxue in front of her, she shook her head vigorously, covered her head with both hands and said: "I don't know anything, I didn't see anything. When I woke up this morning, Jianmin was already... I really don't know anything, don't arrest me."
Seeing her reaction, Officer Yang and I looked at each other. I think we all understood each other, because we both saw that this middle-aged woman in front of us definitely knew something we didn't know, but we didn't know why she was unwilling to say it.