Getting some details from Ding Junyuan was an unexpected gain. Chen Ling said, "These details are very important. Please help me with the tombstone matter. If you meet Master Sun, please ask him for me if he will take on large-scale pagoda tombs."
"Okay, he'll come to the studio later to get the stone. I'll ask him for you."
Ding Junyuan stood up to see the guests off. After watching the two young men leave, he handed a cigarette to each of the masters who helped with the decoration and asked them to help move the tombstone to his car.
After knowing the approximate address of the second deceased, Chen Ling and Wu Weiwei headed straight for Xiangyang Road.
That street is about five kilometers away from Ding Junyuan's carving studio. There is a vegetable market and a flower market nearby, and there are many pedestrians coming and going.
The two were eating noodles at a small restaurant outside the vegetable market. When they were almost done, Chen Ling called the waiter: "Hey, buddy, I want to ask you something."
The waiter smiled and said, "Ask."
Chen Ling: "Do you know the neighborhood where the incident happened two days ago?"
"It's Xiangyang Community. How could I not know about it? It's very famous recently." The waiter rolled his eyes and looked at the two people in front of him suspiciously. "Are you also from that program group?"
"You mean 018? No, we are not." Chen Ling remembered that someone mentioned this program group at the senior activity center.
He winked at Wu Weiwei and silently said with his lips: "Check it out."
The waiter curled his lips, "Then you are here for that matter too."
"Yes." Chen Ling didn't intend to play dumb. "I'm a colleague of the deceased's software company. If you're worried, I can give you a number and call our company to confirm."
Wu Weiwei: “…”
Brother Chen is really awesome. He was a little schoolboy one second ago and turned into a poor programmer the next.
He paused, and was surprised to find that his brother Chen actually reached into his trouser pocket and took out a business card while talking.
Well, Yuheshan’s business card.
The waiter was just annoyed by the fact that there were too many people asking about suicide cases recently. Seeing the other party so calm and serious, he waved his hand and said, "No, no, I believe it."
"Yeah." Chen Ling nodded seriously and put the half-taken business card back.
Wu Weiwei was typing in the homophone of "零一八". He tried over a dozen of them and finally when he entered "零", the correct associated information popped up below.
—The 018 column team will help you look at unscientific strange phenomena with a scientific perspective.
Wu Weiwei: “…”
After all this fuss, does this Zero One Eighty mean skinning the ghost
Chen Ling glanced at the phone under his eyelids, his mouth twitched, he coughed lightly, and said to the waiter seriously: "He was a key employee of our company when he was alive. His sudden death caught us off guard. The colleagues who were working with him also had their work interrupted and could not continue."
He sighed sadly, "When he was alive, he left a spare key at the company. I came here today to take the work computer issued by the company to employees from his home."
The waiter suddenly realized: "So you came to me to ask for the address?"
"Would you mind telling me about it?" Chen Ling's face was filled with sincerity, his eyes were clear and his expression was serious.
The waiter scratched his head and said, "He lives in Xiangyang Community. It's easy to find. Just follow the road outside the vegetable market and walk straight for 300 meters. Do you know the unit and floor?"
Chen Ling shook his head.
Waiter: "Room 414, Unit 3, Building 18."
Chen Ling wrote the address down in his phone, stood up and said thank you to the waiter.
Wu Weiwei walked and figured out the address. He sighed and said, "This address is unlucky. It means the eighteen levels of hell and death."
"You are a little too superstitious." Chen Ling said, "Eighteen is converted into Arabic numerals, which is 18, which can be interpreted as prosperity. Four is even easier to interpret, which means prosperity in all four seasons."
Wu Weiwei was educated and said, "What Brother Chen said is right."
Chen Ling didn't want to waste too much time on the road talking to a "Brother Chen", so he quickened his pace.
The residential complex where the office workers live is not much newer than the Lin family’s, and it also has walk-up buildings.
Chen Ling stood downstairs and looked for a long time. After confirming that he couldn't climb up with his rookie skills, he decided to go to the neighborhood committee.
He repeated the same words to the aunt from the neighborhood committee. This time the aunt was not easy to fool and actually called the software company to confirm.
Coincidentally, the company really sent two people to pick up the work computer. After receiving the call, the company thought that the people sent had arrived and repeatedly assured the aunt that they would not rummage through other things in the house.
The aunt hung up the phone, and her fierce face finally smiled: "I'll call the landlord and ask him to come and open the door."
"Does the landlord live far away?" Chen Ling asked.
"It's not far, just in the same neighborhood." The old lady patted Chen Ling's arm, "He's also hoping that one of you can come and pick up his things. The child's family doesn't know what's going on, and they didn't even answer the police's calls. If possible, you'd better notify his relatives to collect the remains, otherwise who would dare to touch those miscellaneous things?"
"After I return to the company, I will go to the Human Resources Department to see if there is an emergency contact number." Chen Ling spoke so realistically that the aunt believed him.
The landlord is a Mediterranean guy with a beer belly, and he is a kind person.
After opening the door, he handed the key to the aunt from the neighborhood committee, said he had something else to do, and turned and left.
The aunt didn't dare to go into the house, so she took out a handful of melon seeds from her pocket and started eating them at the stairs, looking back from time to time to see what was going on inside.
After Chen Ling entered the room, he quickly glanced at the living room and went straight to the bedroom.
The bedroom is clean and brightly lit by the sunlight.
Just like Xiaofan's case, this man died without any resentment or hatred. Chen Ling searched every corner but couldn't find any evil spirit.
Wu Weiwei asked: "Could the death of the office worker and Xiaofan be caused by the same thing? Otherwise, why would they both be humming funeral music?"
"If so, then it has nothing to do with scapegoats." Chen Ling pondered for a moment and said, "Imagine if they were killed by the same thing, would Xiaofan's missing paper rose be in the office worker's home?"
Wu Weiwei was stunned and whispered a suspicious point: "But don't you suspect that Xiaofan's death is related to the ghost marriage?"
"The most important thing in ghost marriage is the horoscope, not the gender. To put it bluntly, it means to bind a soul whose horoscope matches yours to keep you company, so as to fulfill your wish of not getting married when you were alive. However, it is not easy to find a partner who is willing to die and whose horoscope matches yours in the vast sea of people, so some people have evil thoughts and cast evil spells on red paper and throw it on the road. Whoever picks it up will be the one chosen for the ghost marriage."
After talking for a long time, Chen Ling felt a little thirsty. He unscrewed the bottle of mineral water and took a sip, then continued, "So it's not impossible for office workers to be dragged into ghost marriages."
Wu Weiwei felt that his worldview had been challenged and that he was out of touch with the world. "So ghosts are also gay?"
"That's about the same." Chen Ling said vaguely, inevitably thinking of Jiang Yu.
He closed his eyes and chased away the figure that had suddenly entered his mind, and said to Wu Weiwei, "Look carefully to see if there is a paper rose in this room."
Thinking of the one hanging on his wrist, he untied the rope and put the five-zhu coin on the ground, "You go and help too."
The Wuzhu coin was most afraid that its existence was meaningless and that it would be thrown away as garbage one day. Now that it could help, it was extremely happy. It jumped twice, stood its body upright, and rolled away along the gap between the tiles on the floor.
The troops were divided into three groups, each searching a different area.
In less than ten minutes, the small one-bedroom apartment was searched thoroughly, even the toilet tank in the bathroom was searched. In the end, only a large, flat gift box was found under the bed.
Chen Ling and Wu Weiwei squatted at the head of the bed, and the five-zhu coins bounced onto the bed and circled around the paper box.
As two hands opened the lid of the box, the black suit lying inside slowly appeared.
The suit has peak lapels, which looks more elegant, refined, and classy than ordinary flat lapels. The matching trousers have straight legs and are paired with a pure white shirt with a black silk bow tie.
Wu Weiwei glanced at his brother Chen, reached out to take out the suit and spread it out on the bed.
An order invoice floated out from the lapel and fell on the bed.
Chen Ling picked up the invoice. At the beginning was the name of the store where the custom-made suit was made, which was a handmade custom studio. Below that was the price, and at the bottom was the signature of the office worker.
After carefully examining it for a long time, he finally translated the scribbled signature. It turned out that the second suicide victim was named Li Fang.
Wu Weiwei touched the collar of his suit and said, "This suit is so formal."
Chen Ling nodded: "It's a dress."
Wu Weiwei didn't understand: "He is an ordinary office worker, how many opportunities does he have to wear it? Is there a company banquet recently?"
"I'm not sure." Chen Ling had an idea in his mind, but he couldn't confirm it yet. "I'll call the company that ordered the dress and ask."
Chen Ling made a phone call, reported the name of the office worker, and deliberately spoke in a slow voice, and quickly got the matter out of the matter.
The suit is a wedding dress. In addition to the one at home, there is also a newly made, embroidered bright red Chinese-style dress in the studio that has not been taken away.
The studio asked over the phone: "Mr. Li, when are you coming to pick it up? We called you all day yesterday, but your phone was turned off every time."
Chen Ling: "I have something to do these few days, so put the things here first. I'll go over there when I'm done."
Anyway, the money has been paid, so even if the buyer doesn’t want it in the end, the studio won’t lose money. It can still sell it to someone else and make two profits at once.
The studio owner said calmly, "Okay."
After hanging up the phone, Chen Ling's eyes became strange, and he turned to Wu Weiwei and said, "It's a wedding dress."
"Ah?" Wu Weiwei thought of Xiao Fan, "Could it be that these two knew each other before? Did they agree to commit suicide together to express their love?"
"Impossible, don't forget, Xiaofan's death is related to the ghost marriage."
"That's why they said they had an agreement. A ghost marriage doesn't necessarily have to be between a living person and a dead person. It can also be between two dead people." Wu Weiwei thought about it and could only think of this.
Chen Ling folded his suit, shook his head and said, "No, according to what you said, if they really knew each other, why did Li Fang only make the man's suit? And the paper rose that disappeared, ordinary office workers don't have the ability to make things disappear out of thin air."
The most important point is that shouldn't people who agree to commit suicide to become ghost couples hold hands and set out on the journey together? They would never do what Xiaofan and Li Fang did, choosing such a bloody way of committing suicide in two different places.
Wu Weiwei scratched his hair, still a little bit unbelieving: "What is going on? Is Li Fang really being dragged into a ghost marriage? He is the second victim. Is it the Sea King who is going to have a ghost marriage?!"
Chen Ling didn't know whether he heard what he said or not. He frowned and was distracted, not knowing what he was thinking.
Wu Weiwei didn't dare to disturb his thoughts. He carefully put the suit folded by his brother Chen into the box and closed the lid.
"Here it comes." Chen Ling suddenly spoke.
Wu Weiwei was stunned and was about to ask who was coming when he heard faint voices in the corridor.
"Those two who took the computer?!" Wu Weiwei looked at Chen Ling nervously, "Brother Chen, should we run now? If those two talk to the lady from the neighborhood committee, we'll be exposed."
"I'm going out, you stay in the room." Chen Ling walked out quickly, and when he looked up, he saw two men wearing glasses and plaid shirts who had walked to the door.
Before the two could ask the aunt a question, Chen Ling suddenly shouted, "You're here!"
The aunt was at a loss: "Who is this?"
Chen Ling pulled the two of them into the house, and after they were inside, he returned to the door and said to the aunt, "We are colleagues. I have called the Human Resources Department and have contacted Li Fang's family, so the company sent two more people over to help pack the things in advance."
"You are so thoughtful." The aunt believed her and said, "Put it away. I'll go downstairs and find you some cardboard boxes."
"Thank you for your hard work, Auntie." Chen Ling was so sweet. As soon as the aunt left, he gently closed the door and turned back to the small room.
Li Fang’s colleagues are also programmers, one tall and one short.
The two men did not hear what Chen Ling said to the neighborhood committee aunt in the living room, and thought that the two were Li Fang's family members. They took the initiative to talk to Wu Weiwei and asked him if he had seen Li Fang's computer.
Wu Weiwei slapped his forehead, he really had seen it, "Under the coffee table in the living room."
The short man nodded to Chen Ling and went out to get his notebook. The tall man stayed in the room and said to Wu Weiwei, "You must be Li Fang's family. There are still some of his belongings in the company. If it's convenient, go get them. Otherwise, they will be thrown into the trash can tomorrow."
It seemed that the company had been very considerate by allowing three days to retrieve the remains. The tall man walked in with a laptop, turned it on, and checked the information and half-edited code inside.
Wu Weiwei couldn't make a decision and turned to look at Chen Ling.
Chen Ling then said, "Okay."
The shorter man nodded and glanced at the taller man, "Have you checked it out?"
"There is a power-on password and it cannot be opened for the time being." The tall man closed the computer and planned to go back to the company to find a way to decipher it.
"Are you going back to the company now?" Chen Ling asked, "Can we go with you to pack up Li Fang's things?"
"Okay." The short man walked out first, followed by Chen Ling, and the tall man and Wu Weiwei were at the end.
Without anyone noticing, a five-zhu coin rolled along the corner of the wall, and when Chen Ling passed through the door frame, it jumped into the palm of his hand hanging by his side.
The software company is not very large, with a total of more than 30 people, and the project team has 10 employees, accounting for one-third of the entire company's population.
After entering the company, the tall man took Chen Ling to Li Fang's desk.
"It's here. Take your time to help him clean it up." After saying that, he left. After a minute or two, he came back and placed a small cardboard box on the desk.
Chen Ling packed everything very carefully, fearing that anything would be missed.
He stood on the floor and tidied up the things on the desk, while Wu Weiwei squatted down and tidied up the things in the cabinet. Seeing how carefully Chen was looking, no matter how stupid he was, he knew that he was looking for paper roses.
It was not until now that he understood why Brother Chen denied his bizarre conjecture, because from the very beginning, Brother Chen's direction was paper roses and ghost marriage.
As long as the paper rose is found, it can be proved that Li Fang and Xiao Fan both died in a ghost marriage, died because of that gorgeous, bright red paper rose.
The two packed everything on the desk, even a discarded note paper, into a cardboard box, but the thing they were looking for seemed to be hidden on purpose and was nowhere to be found.
Chen Ling pushed the box and asked the tall man sitting at the next table, "Have you seen Li Fang's paper roses?"
"You knew that too?" the tall man asked in amazement, "Was he going to tell his family about such a small matter?"
Chen Ling exhaled, nodded and said, "That thing is very important."
"I don't know where it is." The tall man said, "Li Fangtai treasures that paper flower. I have only seen it once."
Chen Ling asked: "When did he get the rose?"
The tall man looked at him suspiciously, "He told you about the paper rose, didn't he tell you anything else?"
"No." Chen Ling said, "The paper rose contains clues to Li Fang's death. If possible, please tell me in detail."
When the tall man heard this, his face turned pale. He glanced at his colleagues who were busy typing on the keyboard and gestured to Chen Ling, "Come with me."
There are too many people in the office and it's not convenient to talk.
The tall man took Chen Ling and Wu Weiwei to the rooftop, where flowers and plants were planted, and there were tables and chairs, as well as parasols. It was the employees' favorite place to go during lunch break.
Pulling open a stool under the parasol and sitting down, he said, "Li picked up the rose at the crossroads. I saw it with my own eyes."
Chen Ling: "When?"
"Five days ago, which was the day before Li Fang died." The tall man said, "It was at an intersection in front of the company. It was around eight in the morning, and there were many office workers coming and going. No one bent down to pick up the thing, except Li Fang."
Five days ago, which was the day after Xiaofan’s accident.
Chen Ling pinched his fingers and nodded seriously, "Then what?"
"Then he took the flowers back to the office." At this point, the tall man frowned, obviously not happy with Li Fang's behavior of picking up things from the ground. "There is a saying in my hometown that things on the ground, especially red envelopes, red paper, and money, are best not to be picked up, so I am more sensitive to this. Li Fang was like a demon at the time, and he insisted on putting the paper flower in the ink bottle."
"Ink bottle?" Wu Weiwei was surprised. "Then it will be dyed into a black rose."
"No, for the paper rose, he deliberately poured out the newly bought ink and then inserted the rose. That's not all, he also placed the rose right in front of him, so when he was working at his desk, he could see it. When he looked up at the computer, he could also see it by lowering his eyes. In addition, when he went to the cafeteria for lunch during the lunch break, he would also bring the paper rose with him."
The tall man paused and asked, "Do you think he is crazy?"
Chen Ling shook his head: "Li Fang's precious thing is not at home, nor on the desk. Do you know where it is?"
"How would I know?" The tall man waved his hands and said in a taboo tone, "It's better if that thing is gone. It feels weird and strange just looking at it."
Wu Weiwei hissed and leaned forward, "What's wrong?"
"I can't really put my finger on it, but it just feels weird."
"Something has to happen to make you feel this way."
Hearing Wu Weiwei's suspicious tone, the tall man was not convinced and said angrily: "Li Fang said he was getting married, and that someone was waiting for him at home. He also said that he would treat us to a wedding banquet after the wedding was decided. Isn't this strange? Everyone in the company knows that he is single."
"Okay, we got it." Chen Ling stood up, "Thank you for today."
The tall man calmed down a bit and shook his head. "We were all colleagues after all... Seeing how tragically he died, everyone has been in a bad mood recently. To be honest, some people say that Li Fang was possessed by a ghost, and some say that he died because of too much work pressure. No matter what the reason was, it's a pity that he died at such a young age."
These words have been circling in Wu Weiwei's mind, and he began to understand vaguely that if Chen Ling could have been stopped earlier from saying those things, many tragedies could have been avoided.
Looking at Chen Ling who was rushing forward, he quickened his pace and called out to him, "Brother Chen, slow down. Where are we going now?"
Chen Ling held the relics in his hands, his expression grim. "The paper rose disappeared. It must be hidden somewhere waiting to be picked up by the next person. We must find it, otherwise there will be another victim."