Chapter 29: Ghost Hunt

It's not surprising that Tang Weining is haunted by a ghost; his aloof and pitiful demeanor makes him seem like someone who attracts ghosts. Based on the current clues, Tu Lanxun believes the ghost is the master, created by either Tang Peng'an or Liang Wei.

There are only two questions left now: where is Bai Chao's ghost, and who is the third dead person in the villa that N smelled.

"Could it be that your house was haunted in the past? Is it a haunted house? You have offended the earthbound spirits here, and your whole family has been retaliated against. They are the kind of ghosts that take advantage of the dark thoughts in people's hearts." Tu Lanxun was constantly inspired.

Tang Weining's neck shrank, as if a ghost was touching him. He looked around and said, "No, no, my family bought a pre-sale house. The villa area was inspected and renovated as soon as it was completed. Unless a renovation worker died - that's impossible."

"Or what about before the villa complex was built? What was this land used for? An ancient execution ground, a mass grave, right?"

N's eyes clearly told Tu Lanxun that she was misinterpreting the situation. He sneered, "It wasn't that long ago, otherwise the world would be filled with ghosts. The third person died in recent years."

Tu Lanxun and Tang Weining talked for a while but still couldn't figure it out. In the end, they found that in addition to the murderer, there was an important link missing in the whole story: Bai Chao.

"We need to at least define an unknown number, catch the murderer or find Bai Chao, in order to solve this equation," said Tu Lanxun.

Given their handy N card, Tu Lanxun made the final decision, telling Tang Weining to call 10110101 and try to get the human-skinned ghost to tell him something. If that didn't work, they'd rush to Tang Pengan's house and repeat what they'd done to his brother, ultimately eliminating Liang Wei's suspicion.

Tang Weining is worthy of being a teacher. He is very good at dealing with the situation and adjusting his emotional state. He typed to 10110101: Master, I would like to ask about the ceremony.

10110101 replied quickly: What are you asking?

There is no doubt that the investigation conducted by Tu Lanxun and the computer ghost girl suffered a disastrous defeat. The other party was very powerful and she could not get into the target mobile phone.

Tang Weining used the rhetoric that Tu Lanxun taught him, crying miserably and showing a collapsed attitude of "I don't want to do this anymore if you don't give me peace of mind". The master finally lost his patience and spat.

——The ceremony took place in a place that Tang Weining had been to.

This information is very important, because a little bit of inference can be made that the disappearance of Bai Chao's ghost is closely related to the master. And according to Tang Weining, the ghost fetus welcoming ceremony is related to Bai Chao.

His eyes sparkled: "Master said that guiding the ghost fetus can reunite me with Bai Chao."

N remained silent. Tu Lanxun nodded slightly, thinking, bullshit, Tang Weining looked like he was obviously hiding something - he didn't lie, but he was hiding something.

Given that this man had already suffered a mental breakdown and was on the verge of becoming insane, Tu Lanxun chose not to prod him further. She knew that everything would be revealed on the day of the ceremony, and she would deal with them all at once. She was quite patient, as she knew the reward for meddling in this matter.

"That ghost in human skin has been causing trouble for several years. He must be quite rich." Tu Lanxun planned to rob the rich to help himself.

But on the surface, she smiled gently at N, saying that everything was for the child (Bai Xiaoju).

#

The two men and the ghost temporarily formed a somewhat uncoordinated team. Tang Weining, still unaware of N's existence, assumed Tu Lanxun's refusal to allow him to sit in the passenger seat was out of respect for an educator. Later, in silence, he clung to the front seat and muttered, "Am I being disliked? I accept that."

Tu Lanxun was speechless. Could it be that Tang Weining still had some good self-esteem? He was labeled an accomplice in hiding a corpse and had a vertical scar on his stomach, but he was thinking of being praised like he was in class.

Their first destination was Bai Chao's video studio, which was actually abandoned. It was not an office building, but a small two-story building on the edge of the city near the villa area. It was used for commercial purposes and was taken over by Tang Weining after Bai Chao "disappeared".

Tang Weining took out the key to open the door, and was greeted by the fragrant smell of a public restroom. A thin girl with short hair came out of the restroom. She was wearing plastic gloves, and her neck looked very thin under the loose sweatshirt.

She was furious when she saw Tang Weining: "Why did you fire the cleaning lady last month? Now we have to take turns cleaning the toilets!"

Tu Lanxun had never seen an employee as capable as the buzz-cut girl, much less a boss as cowardly as Tang Weining. He almost smiled apologetically as he said, "There are only three of you left. It would be a waste to hire a cleaner. At worst, I'll have to clean the toilets too."

After Bai Chao disappeared, Tang Weining gradually let go of most of the studio staff, leaving only one director, one special effects editor, and one platform operations manager. Several offices were locked, and Tang Weining opened one, revealing Bai Chao's personal office.

"Will Chaochao's ghost come back here?" Tang Weining rubbed his arms.

Tu Lanxun relayed N's sarcasm: "No, because you already have 'Xiaobao'."

Tang Weining shook her head somewhat sadly. "You know, Xiaobao is me, and it's also my remembrance of Chaochao. Hey, Miss, if you're looking for her ghost, it means you can see it. Have you seen the little period?"

Tu Lanxun neither nodded nor shook his head. He turned his back to him and rummaged through Bai Chao's drawer. There were some expired lipsticks and powder compacts, as well as some personal belongings that didn't have any ghostly aura.

"Bai Chao has a gold bracelet, you know." Tu Lanxun suddenly said.

Tang Weining was stunned for a moment, then remembered which gold bracelet it was, and tears gradually filled her eyes.

Nothing was found at the location of Bai Chao's original studio. According to N, there was not even a trace of dead air here, and Bai Chao had never been here since his death.

However, there is no place she often goes to anymore. Except for shooting on location, most of the video shooting, makeup and post-production work are done here, and Bai Chao's ghost is unlikely to be in overly random places such as beauty salons and fresh food supermarkets.

The ceremony agreed upon by 10110101 and Tang Weining was scheduled for the day after tomorrow. In order to save time, they returned to Shanshui Villa.

The places where ceremonies can be held must have some special meaning. Tu Lanxun thought of things that are specially used to store special meanings.

"Album, let me look for it, it's here!" Tang Weining took out three thick books, two large and one small. The large ones were family photos after she and Bai Chao got married, and the small ones were photos of Tang Weining himself when he was a child.

"Why doesn't Bai Chao have a separate album of his childhood photos?"

Bai Chao's parents divorced when she was young, leaving no one to take photos of her. Tang Weining, on the other hand, was born into a well-off family, so photos of Bai Chao's childhood are displayed alongside Tang Weining's albums. "Chaochao said it gave them a sense of companionship, even though we grew up in two different cities. It felt like someone was there for us."

N Lengmo: "With his parents separated, no wonder Bai Chao fell in love with him."

Tu Lanxun deliberately argued: "University professors have a high status in the blind date market."

N was unmoved: "I didn't say blind date, I said psychological defects and emotional illness."

Tu Lanxun couldn't help but wonder, how could Bai Chao, whose parents were divorced, fall in love with the gentle and virtuous husband Tang Weining? Then what kind of psychological defects would N, who is suspected to be an orphan and can't even find his parents, have?

No, she was overthinking it. The whole N ghost was a huge flaw.

They flipped through the photo albums one by one. The bad news was that Bai Chao and Tang Weining's family loved taking photos. The good news was that most of the photos were taken outdoors in the sun, either in an amusement park or on green grass. This place didn't look like a place where you could "invite ghosts."

The target was narrowed down to indoor places. Apart from the studio that had already been visited, there were roughly three places left.

A western restaurant, where Bai Chao and Bai Xiaoju each had their birthday cake photos taken.

Tang Pengan and Liang Wei's house is next to Building 9 in Shangjingfu City.

Bai Xiaoju's school. The little girl was eight or nine years old when she died. Unfortunately, her education only ended at primary school.

Tang Weining said, "This Western restaurant has closed down. I spent 200 yuan on my membership card, which was worth 1,000 yuan, and I even got criticized."

Next was Tang Pengan and Liang Wei's house, a suspicious place. Tu Lanxun asked N if she had smelled death through the door last time, and N rolled her eyes, as if denying it.

"The door is closed, and often I can't sense anything through it. I'm not an X-ray machine."

Tang Peng's home is the most suspicious location, but it's not open for exploration. The experimental elementary school Bai Xiaoju attended is an explorable location. Let's go there next.

"Who picks up the kids more often, you or Bai Chao?"

"Me." Tang Weining said without hesitation, "It's basically me. Now I often pick up Tang Guangming from school. I know the route so well."

The importance of Experimental Primary School seemed to have been weakened. Tu Lanxun continued to flip through the photo album. The photos in that small album were of better style. There were no carefully designed angles or candid shots, but the light and color were hazy. The young children or teenagers like Tang Weining were flying on the horizontal bar, wearing white clothes, white socks and white canvas shoes, which contrasted with the old color blocks around them.

"Your brother's solo photos are taken like this too? He's not just taking one person's photo to fool you two, is he?"

"He didn't take pictures. His personality was different from mine when he was a child. He was very stubborn. He would run away as soon as the point-and-shoot camera was raised, and I could only take pictures of his butt." Tang Weining smiled, then retracted his smile when he thought of something.

Sure enough, Tu Lanxun found a photo of the two brothers in the same frame. It was a group photo of their middle school classmates. The one with the gentle and weak smile was Tang Weining, and the one next to him with gloomy eyebrows and a droopy face was Tang Pengan. If the young teacher wearing bottle-bottom glasses next to him had not caught him, Tang Pengan might have jumped out of the picture.

"You were a better student when you were younger."

"No, Peng... Tang Peng'an is better. Neither his family nor the school could do anything to him, especially when he was in middle school. He even dared to scold the teacher." Tang Weining replied.

Tu Lanxun stared at the photo of the Tang brothers for two seconds. He felt that the background of the classroom looked familiar, but most classrooms looked like that in that era.

Tang Weining asked Tu Lanxun, "Miss, do you think that human-skin ghost really has any power? Is it plotting against Peng An or Liang Wei? Who of them wants to harm me?"

He was right to ask, humans and ghosts can't just stand on the same side naturally.

Tu Lanxun glared at him and said, "If you want to know what the Human Skin Ghost is up to, you have to tell us the truth first. If you want to know who of your brother and sister-in-law harmed you, it's easy. Just post it on WeChat Moments."

"Friends circle?" he repeated.

"Post on your Moments saying that you have been suddenly assigned by the department to the next city for research and will be on a three-day business trip. Please ask everyone to recommend some specialty restaurants in the next city," said Tu Lanxun.

"Then just wait. Whoever contacts you first will be more suspicious."