The population of North City is over 20 million. Finding a person who doesn't know he is about to commit suicide is like looking for a needle in a haystack. We need to seek help from other forces.
"Call Li Hongyu and tell him our clues. See if he can get the Special Investigation Department to help find the next victim." Chen Ling's face looked bad, with anger and anxiety in his eyes.
Wu Weiwei understood the seriousness of the matter and immediately called Li Hongyu and explained everything to him in no time.
Li Hongyu: "I will report it now."
Wu Weiwei urged: "Hurry up, Li Fang found the paper rose the day after the first victim died, and the third person may have taken it home."
Then that person will be affected by the evil magic like Xiaofan and Li Fang, and immersed in the illusion of an upcoming wedding.
Li Hongyu: "I understand."
He didn't say any more nonsense. After hanging up the phone, he reported the matter. The team leader asked him to be patient, then called everyone and held a general meeting. In less than half an hour, everyone was assigned to a task. At the same time, they contacted the police, hoping that more people would go and look for him.
Until the sun was about to set in the afternoon, there was still no news from Li Hongyu.
Chen Ling dragged his tired body back to Yuhe Mountain. Zhao Xunchang knew that they were both very tired, so he prepared the meal early and sat in front of the stone table with his hands folded on his chest.
Hearing footsteps, he looked up and smiled kindly: "You're back."
Chen Ling nodded weakly, and when his eyes swept across the large table of dishes, he immediately became alert.
He bent down, stared at the cursive writing on the edge of the dish, and asked, "Master, did you do this?"
Zhao Xunchang knew that his apprentice had seen through it, so he stopped pretending and took his hand out of his arm. "You... someone from Jiang Yu sent it here."
Four dishes and one soup, all of which are signature dishes of a famous local restaurant. The restaurant is a membership-based restaurant, and the current chef is the eighth-generation disciple of the former imperial chef, who holds a secret recipe book. I don't know if it's true or not, but the taste of this restaurant is praised very much on the Internet. Chen Ling was bewitched and wanted to eat there a long time ago, but the threshold was too high and he couldn't get in.
He didn't even bother to wash his hands. He just sat down, picked up the chopsticks and started putting the food into his mouth.
The ordinary dish of blanched choy sum actually tastes extraordinary, with the fragrance of vegetables mixed with the lingering fresh aroma of being boiled in chicken broth. It has just the right amount of saltiness, and is crisp and refreshing when you bite into it.
Seeing Brother Chen eating with such relish, Wu Weiwei couldn't help it either. He rubbed his rumbling stomach with one hand and picked up the spoon with the other to drink the soup in big gulps.
Zhao Xunchang looked distressed, "You haven't eaten for a day?"
"Everyone had a bowl of noodles at noon, and each person had an ice cream as a snack in the afternoon." Chen Ling had something stuffed in his mouth and spoke unclearly.
Zhao Xunchang picked up some food for his young apprentice, and then added a piece of meat for Wu Weiwei. Once you enter a family, you are family, and you cannot favor one over the other and make Wu Weiwei feel like an outsider.
He said, "Aren't we going to the antique city? Where's the incense burner?"
Chen Ling choked, stiffened his neck and patted his chest, drank a mouthful of soup, then took off the backpack on his shoulders and took out an incense burner wrapped in newspaper from it.
Zhao Xunchang tore open the newspaper, revealing a pair of animal ears embedded on both sides of the incense burner. He rubbed it with his thumb a few times and raised his eyebrows, saying, "It's not cheap."
"It's not too old, three thousand yuan." Chen Ling took a mouthful of rice and chewed it twice, "I think the style is square and it's quite suitable for Jiangyu."
Wu Weiwei, who was sucking fans, was dumbfounded. The words sounded strange, but he was hungry now and filling his stomach was the most important thing.
So I continued to work hard.
Zhao Xunchang smiled without saying anything, and said meaningfully: "You are quite willing to give it up."
Hearing the teasing in his master's words, Chen Ling adjusted his sitting posture unnaturally and tightened his grip on the chopsticks. "Jiang Yu has been very good to us, so isn't it only right that we buy him something better?"
"Of course, of course. As long as you're happy." Zhao Xunchang felt a little relieved, but also a little worried. The little disciple's attitude towards the Jiang family's ancestor had changed. He used to despise and reject him, but he even said that he was the ancestor.
Now, he gave his roast chicken to his fiancé to honor him, and even paid for a small incense burner out of his own pocket.
Actually, there is nothing wrong with this. After all, the boy has finally fallen in love and is showing signs of wanting to fall in love. But Zhao Xunchang just feels lost. He always feels that his little disciple will one day follow that old man and run away far away, and it will be difficult for him to see him.
"Ah." Zhao Xunchang sighed unconsciously, his whole body stiff. In order to prevent his little apprentice from noticing anything, he replied very naturally, "The incense burner is good, but it doesn't take a whole day to make it."
Chen Ling put away the incense burner and poured soup into the bowl: "Master, something happened in the old city."
"What's the matter?" Zhao Xunchang was particular about health preservation. He would not eat until he was 70% full at night. He put down his chopsticks and looked at Chen Ling's face seriously.
"There have been two suicide cases, and I think it's related to ghost marriages. I'll leave after dinner," Chen Ling lowered his head and drank a sip of mung bean soup, and a cool feeling seeped into his esophagus and stomach.
He put down the spoon, looked up and said to Zhao Xunchang, "By the way, take some things with you. Tonight is the seventh day after the death of the first victim. I want to wait for her at her home and ask her what happened before the accident when she comes back."
"Ghost marriage?" Zhao Xunchang laughed out loud, mockingly, "There are still people who believe in it these days, how pedantic."
Wu Weiwei only half understood and asked in a low voice: "Brother Chen, what do you mean?"
"The person who arranges a ghost marriage is not in his right mind." Chen Ling said, pursed his lips, the mung bean soup was sweet, lowered his head and drank two more sips.
Wu Weiwei rubbed his stomach and asked, "Why is your mind not clear? If you die early and don't get married, you will have regrets after death. The living relatives probably don't want the people below to worry about you, so they do this."
"After death, those who have no grudges will be summoned by the netherworld and automatically go to the underworld. Those who have attachments and resentment will not go to the underworld. Those who do evil will be taken in by Taoist priests, and those who do not do evil will not be able to survive the burning of the Yang energy in the world of the living and will be reduced to ashes sooner or later. If you promise to find a wife or husband for the deceased, won't that make him more attached to the world of the living?"
"…" That's the truth. Wu Weiwei asked again, "What if the deceased didn't leave and asked for it?"
"Only the dead can be married to the dead. There is only one result when a living person and a dead person are married. They will be haunted by Yin Qi and become a dead person." Chen Ling's lips were pursed into a displeased line, and wrinkles appeared between his brows. "If this is the dead person's own request, do you think a kind ghost will ask his family to help him find a living person for a ghost marriage? This is already a bad intention, it has become evil."
Yes, just like a kind person will never take things by force regardless of the wishes of the person concerned.
How could a kind-hearted ghost have the heart to kill two people in succession just to satisfy his own selfish desires
Wu Weiwei was terrified and had mixed emotions. The people, ghosts, and monsters in this world... are all good and bad, and nothing is absolute.
Just when I was about to sigh, I suddenly found that Brother Chen was stunned. I don’t know what he was thinking about. His eyes were wide open and he glanced at Zhao Xunchang from time to time, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.
Knowing that this meant that he had something to say in private, Wu Weiwei took the initiative to stand up, patted his belly that was swollen from the food and said, "I'm going to go for a walk."
Chen Ling pursed his lips and nodded.
When Wu Weiwei disappeared outside the courtyard gate, he looked at Zhao Xunchang hesitantly and said, "Master, I was born to be married to Jiang Yu, and now I often stay with him. Does this mean that I will die one day?"
"Are you scared?" Zhao Xunchang didn't answer, but just asked with a smile, "But marriage is destined by heaven and cannot be severed."
"I'm not afraid." Chen Ling held the chopsticks, his eyes fixed on the soup bowl. His drooping eyelashes were thick and curled, like two black butterfly wings.
"Who doesn't die in this world?" Zhao Xunchang sighed casually, turned around and patted his apprentice on the shoulder, "But you, I think, are a special case. After all, Jiang Yu is different from ordinary ghosts. He is a Yin God. And since you two have been together, I haven't felt the intensified Yin energy in you, which means he has no effect on you."
"Since the Jiang family can thrive thanks to his luck, it means that he has something extraordinary. Disciple, hold on to Jiang Yu's thigh, it will be good for you."
"Master..." Chen Ling rubbed his forehead, a little irritable, "Can you stop surfing the Internet? Where did you learn these words? This is not good. It goes against your dignity and solemnity."
"Majesty and solemnity are just pretending to be in front of outsiders. Master, you don't need to go out now. You just need to enjoy your life. You don't need those false things."
Zhao Xunchang sat up straight and whispered, "You young people's stuff is quite interesting. If Master can put it into practice, he can also look younger, right?"
The old child is always a child. As he gets older, his personality becomes more childish.
Chen Ling dragged his voice and said with a smile, "Okay, do whatever you like."
Wu Weiwei walked around the house to the back. In just one day, the vast and empty abandoned land had been cut into different areas by lines made of lime powder. Once the large equipment arrived, they could start digging the foundation directly.
There was a shed not far away, and the workers inside were eating.
Wu Weiwei did not disturb them. He walked past them and went around to the other side of the courtyard.
The saplings that were weak when I first arrived have grown taller again, and they are changing every day. The Yuhe Mountain in the distance is no less impressive. The green has covered the entire hillside and is showing a tendency to spread to the surrounding areas.
Looking closely, I saw that not far from the foot of the mountain, someone had already cleared the weed-filled fields and was preparing to plant crops.
A yellow shadow flew past. Wu Weiwei blinked and looked again. The little weasel had already run up to him, carrying a fat rat in its mouth.
The weasel found a paradise in Yuhe Mountain. The mice were big and fat, and the newly grown grass was green and tender. It was so comfortable to roll around on it.
It put the dead rat on the ground and scratched it forward with its little paws.
Wu Weiwei's mouth twitched, and he squatted down and said to it: "I don't want to eat this, you can eat it yourself."
The weasel glanced at him with disdain, as if to say that he didn't understand delicious food, silently picked up the dead mouse, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Estimating that the time was about up, he turned around and walked back. About one kilometer away from the courtyard, a black business car drove up from behind.
The passenger window was lowered, revealing a half-familiar face: "Get in the car."
Wu Weiwei rubbed his eyes, thinking he was hallucinating. He got in the car as he was told. When his butt touched the seat, he remembered something and asked, "Why are you here?"
Li Hongyu turned around and said, "I came to talk to Chen Ling about the paper rose."
There were two rows of seats in the back of the business car. The fat and thin brothers sat in the second row. One of them leaned forward, grabbed the back of the seat in front and asked, "Our junior brother said that the thunder from Sifang Mountain was not invited by him, but by Chen Ling. Is it true or not?"
"Of course it's true." Wu Weiwei was quite proud and was about to brag about it when Li Hongyu in the front passenger seat said, "Which way are you turning?"
Wu Weiwei: “Right.”
The business car continued to drive on the relatively flat mountain road. Knowing that the people in the back seat were confused, Li Hongyu said without turning his head: "This case is more complicated than we thought. I was afraid that I couldn't explain it clearly over the phone, so I came here by myself."
This was his first time to Yuhe Mountain. There were almost no trees on the mountain, but the light green grass attracted his attention. This was not a fertile land, but it was definitely not a lifeless barren mountain.
In less than a month, the mountain came back to life, from dead to alive. What happened
Li Hongyu couldn't figure it out for a moment, so he stopped thinking about it. Everything has its own miracle. As long as there is no foulness hidden in it and no one is doing anything malicious, there is no need to delve into it.
After three to five minutes, they arrived at the courtyard. Li Hongyu got out of the car first and asked his two senior brothers to wait outside.
Fat Senior Brother: "Is it not possible to follow in and take a look?"
Li Hongyu: "You guys don't know how to speak, I'm afraid you might offend the old man unintentionally."
Senior Brother Thin: “…” Although the words were not directed at me, the word “you guys” made me feel insulted!
Li Hongyu lowered his head to tidy up his clothes, and took out a few gift boxes from the car. Then he raised his chin to Wu Weiwei and said, "Lead the way."
"Oh." Wu Weiwei walked forward blankly, pushed the door open and shouted into the yard, "Brother Chen, a guest is here."
Chen Ling was walking around the yard with the parrot on his head to help digest the food. When he saw Li Hongyu behind Wu Weiwei, he was startled and quickly took Xiao Lan off his head and put it on the parrot stand beside him.
He casually ruffled his hair that was messed up by the parrot's claws, "Li Hongyu, why are you here?"
"I came to talk to you about the case in person." Li Hongyu put the things in his hand on the stone table and turned around to look around, "Where is your master?"
"In the room." As soon as Chen Ling finished speaking, Zhao Xunchang walked out of the room with his hands behind his back, his chin slightly raised, his face stern, and a serious and unapproachable look, completely different from the old man who had kindly picked up food for the younger generation before.
It was the first time that Wu Weiwei saw the old man being so strict. He became nervous and dared not even breathe. He went into the kitchen to pour tea for the guests.
Li Hongyu nodded to the old man and said, "Mr. Zhao, nice to meet you. I am Li Hongyu from Qingxuan Temple, and I am also the deputy leader of the first team of the Special Investigation Department."
He was very curious about Master Chen Ling, but he had no way to find out. The white-haired old man seemed to be covered by a layer of diamond body, making it impossible to see through him, and he couldn't even sense the presence of any fellow practitioners.
But he also knew that the person who could teach Chen Ling was definitely not an ordinary person. Putting away his inquiring eyes, he smiled and handed over the gift box, "I came to visit and brought a little gift. I hope the old gentleman can accept it and don't despise it."
The atmosphere was not right. The master sat on the ground like a wooden stake, neither extending his hand nor speaking.
Chen Ling spoke up to break the tense atmosphere: "Come if you want, you don't need to bring anything."
Zhao Xunchang then coughed lightly to ease the embarrassment and said, "You youngsters can have fun by yourselves. I'll go to the mountain to check the progress of the construction."
Chen Ling sent the old man out of the courtyard, returned to the stone table, and asked Li Hongyu to sit down and chat.
Li Hongyu: "Your master is a bit serious." He even had a vague feeling that he was somewhat unwelcome. The other party looked at him with a not-so-obvious sharpness in his eyes.
The old man is indeed a bit cold to outsiders, especially his colleagues. Chen Ling said "hmm" and changed the subject, "What do you want to talk to me about?"
Li Hongyu took out a folder from the handbag she brought, spread it out and pushed it in front of Chen Ling.
The folder contained scene photos and case descriptions of two consecutive cases.
No matter which case it was, the scene was covered in blood.
Chen Ling picked up a photo and saw Xiaofan lying in a pool of blood, bleeding from her neck. The blood from her mouth and nose flowed into her ears, blurring her young, smiling face.
This scene was almost exactly what he had imagined.
The second photo was a photo of the scene after Li Fang's death. The person in the photo was kneeling on the stairs with his back to the outside, his back hunched, and his forehead fit perfectly with the corner of the stairs. Red and white sticky paste spurted out and splashed on the stairs and walls.
From the shooting angle, Chen Ling could see the corners of his lips raised.
It is not the fear or panic of death, but the yearning and happiness.
Li Hongyu took out a handheld player with a palm-sized screen. He inserted the memory card he got from the police, and the picture appeared on the black screen.
Behind the black and white snowflakes, a person appeared on the screen.
It’s Li Fang.
Li Fang came up from downstairs, his body was like a puppet without strings, his movements were stiff and slow, the corners of his mouth were raised, and his eyes, hidden by his glasses, were full of excitement.
Chen Ling noticed that he even jumped up a little while walking, and then stopped at the next stairwell.
This time, he did not continue to walk up, but knelt down and kowtowed.
He kowtowed with great sincerity, with his back straight. He then leaned forward, supported his hands on the stairs in front of him, lowered his head, bent over, and kowtowed hard.
After knocking his head, he stood up, took two steps upward, and knocked his head for the second time, and then the third time.
The difference from the previous two times was that after he kowtowed for the third time, he never stood up again. He kept repeating the kowtow mechanically, as if possessed.
One, two, three... Chen Ling couldn't count how many times he had hit his head, until his forehead was smashed and his skull cracked. His body fell down with a bang, and the dent on his forehead hit the bloody concrete edge.
Wu Weiwei was standing behind the two of them, so he naturally watched the video from beginning to end. It was a hot summer day, and although the sun had already set, the heat from the ground was still rising.
It should have been hot, but he couldn't help feeling cold.
It was cold, really cold, my heart was cold, my back was cold, and my arms were covered with goose bumps. This weird scene was even more terrifying than the faceless evil ghost before.
But Brother Chen was very brave. He dragged the progress bar of such a strange thing and rewound it.
Li Hongyu accompanied him and read it again from the beginning, and asked, "What did you find?"
"There is something behind him." Chen Ling frowned and dragged the progress bar again.
This time, he paused. He tapped the back of Li Fang's neck with his fingertips: "Did you see it? There's a hint of black energy here."
Li Hongyu came here specially because he discovered this and heard Wu Weiwei mention the ghost marriage.
He then took out a separate enlarged picture from the file bag, which was the back of Li Fang's neck when he kowtowed before his death.
Now it was clearer. There was indeed a black thread wrapped around that place. The black thread was very thin, but it was like a dragon swimming through the neck and into the back collar.
Li Hongyu tapped the blueprint with his finger and said, "If it was a scapegoat looking for a substitute, or if other ghosts were harming people, what was accidentally photographed should be a shadow or a human figure, not a wisp of black smoke. And considering the clues you got about the paper rose... It is certain that the two cases are indeed related. Someone must be secretly practicing evil magic. And the carrier of the evil magic is that paper rose."
Paper roses are beautiful and fragile, but they can control people's minds and kill people invisibly.
After watching the video, Chen Ling had the same idea as Li Hongyu, but the problem was, "We can't find the third victim. Only when we find the person who is about to be victimized can we find the paper rose and trace the source."
Li Hongyu was silent. He also knew that this was a big problem.
Chen Ling asked: "Do you have any clues about the third person?"
"No." Li Hongyu said, "We have contacted the traffic control and the police station, and the special investigation department is still watching the surveillance at the command center."
The disparity between their manpower and the amount of work to be done is huge, and there is no other way except to work overtime and watch the surveillance cameras without sleep.
Chen Ling's straight waist was slightly bent. He felt a little tired. He had to take a nap before going to Lin's house, otherwise he would not be able to muster the energy and strength to cope with any unexpected situation.
"The little girl from the Lin family will come back to life after twelve o'clock tonight. I have to rush over to question her, so I need to rest now. If you want to go with me, let Weiwei chat with you, or go to his room and sit. If you don't want to go, then do as you please, I won't ask you."
Li Hongyu looked back at Wu Weiwei who was stunned by the video and nodded: "I will stay and go with you."
Seeing Chen Ling yawning, he asked, "Has the remains that were originally placed on Yuhe Mountain been buried?"
After the Sifang Mountain incident ended, Chen Ling had been in a coma. Soon after waking up, he encountered the Paper Rose case and had long forgotten about the remains.
He shook his head and said honestly, "Not yet. The bone jar is still in my room."
"Leave it to me. After cremation, bury it in the pagoda tomb with other ashes." There was one thing Li Hongyu didn't say, which was that it could save the organization some money.
Chen Ling nodded and said okay, waved his hand to indicate that he would leave first, and dragged his feet into the room.
Ever since I forcibly summoned the Five Thunders last time, my body has always felt a little weak. I feel sleepy at night and I don’t know how long it will take for my strength to fully recover.
He yawned, took off his shoes, and fell asleep with his head tilted back.
Half asleep, the thought of a ghost climbing onto the bed flashed through his mind. He sat up abruptly, holding open his sleepy eyelids, and took out a few pairs of shoes from the closet and placed them tightly in front of the bed, with the toes of all the shoes facing outwards.
I just don’t believe that if Jiang Yu sneaks in in the middle of the night, he can really put every pair of shoes back to their original place.
To be on the safe side, after putting the shoes away, he took out a roll of red rope from the drawer, hung the Sanqing bell on it, and then wrapped the bed with the red rope.
Each circle is higher than the last, almost forming a thin wall made of red lines.
Because the window was not closed, Wu Weiwei happened to see this scene, and his mind was full of question marks. He pulled Li Hongyu up and said, "What do you think Brother Chen is doing? He is so romantic even when sleeping. Did he specially arrange it?"