Chapter 12 "The Little Policeman" Hakimi Chung: "You little idiot. [Face...]

The red plastic mirror reflected the young policeman pinching his nose. He kept a straight face, trying his best to remain mature and not dwell on the tragic fate of the fox spirit. On the other hand, he also didn't amplify the normal people's aversion and fear of ghosts and gods.

The relationship between humans and ghosts is like a chronic illness, and the world is full of quack doctors. People always think that ghosts must harm people. They should not assume that ghosts are guilty. They should think of other ways and maintain a calm mind in order to catch the real culprit.

...

The young police officer continued his shift. Behind him, in a corner of the night, a nine-tailed black shadow floated in mid-air, its eyes peering into the dead window and the large spider webs covering it.

"Clang." The tea mug was opened, releasing steam in bursts.

White mist rose.

The young man lowered his head and busied himself by lamplight.

"Tear..." "Swish swish swish..." "Glug glug..." These are the sounds of flipping through registration forms, copying household registration certificates, and drinking water.

"Cough cough..."

Suddenly interrupted from her work, 'Jian Da's' hand touched the cup, and instantly her shirted arm got wet.

He stood up, looking for a rag. Through the door, his body appeared broad-shouldered and wide-backed, with a narrow waist, long legs, and a pert bottom.

Zhong Jie also saw that when the young policeman choked, a drop of water splashed onto his handsome eyelashes, and his face, which had not fully recovered, turned a little red. He was so handsome that it was simply stunning.

The fox spirit, who had kept his true form hidden, squinted hard and felt a slight tingling sensation somewhere. He tried to rub it to clear his mind, but when he raised his hand, he discovered that his palm, which he had been secretly watching the mortal, was also damp.

The laughter that echoed in Zhong Jie's heart, a laughter that didn't even register with himself was filled with sorrow—it was utterly ridiculous.

"...If I bring my face close to him again."

"It'll just scare him to death again, right? Ha..."

Off-screen,

Only the audience's perspective, which Jane Dieda is unaware of, is telling the story.

"The fox spirit has left already?"

"Yes, the footprints on the ground are gone. He should be gone by now. The young policeman had a red string on him, which can ward off evil spirits! He must have accepted Chunlan's red string to protect himself from a fox spirit."

"So, it wasn't a fox spirit who killed someone tonight?"

"Hiss—now that you put it, is the local police station in danger?"

Who could it be?

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Helping with household registration and finding the keys, Jian Dieda quickly made it to 11:55 PM while on paid bathroom break.

It's now the last five minutes before the killer begins 'stabbing' him in the middle of the night.

Jian Dieda exhaled a cold breath. He touched his already balding hair, and his eyes, which were so cold they looked like they were covered in frost, were bloodshot. It was clear that he was so anxious that he couldn't sleep.

Back to reality, lying at home, taking a nap—these last three words had never been so tempting to him.

Just then, the aroma of fried dough sticks wafted into the duty room. A figure wearing old-fashioned square-rimmed glasses, with the air of a traditional office worker, knocked on the window: "Jianzi?"

The nose spontaneously searched everywhere for delicious food. When Jian Dieda looked up, he discovered a new character, "Oh, Ding Xiaoding, is that you?"

The person by the window's information appeared on the system, and the location associated with him was still an important way to unlock the map in the second round.

[System Prompt]

[Informant No. 5: Ding Xiaoding]

Age: 24

[Occupation: A clerk in the archives at Honghui Police Station, in charge of the station's nighttime keys, and like you, has a very low profile.]

[Position: ???]

[Relationships: Colleagues you're not usually close to often reveal important clues about the department heads during casual conversations.]

Sensing something amiss, Jian Dieda started thinking about how to awkwardly start a conversation: "..."

Ding Xiaoding smiled, unaware of the situation, her row of white teeth as endearing as the snacks in her hand: "I didn't come over to say hello earlier because I've been working overtime in the archives upstairs. Here, try the fried dough twists my mom asked me to bring!"

It was only after entering the game that Jian Dieda heard of this traditional folk food. It is said that in July, every household would open a fryer to fry fried dough twists in order to drive away the evil spirits that climbed up from the underworld and scare them back to the underground like ghosts sending you into the fryer.

Jian Dieda picked up a golden and crispy fried pastry and started eating it. Afraid of getting oil on his hands, he rolled up his sleeves, revealing the red rope on his left hand. Ding Xiaoding saw it and said, "Jianzi, where did you get this evil-repelling rope?"

Jian Dieda deliberately lowered his face and said, "Who else could it be? It was given to me by my good master's wife who has been embarrassing him everywhere."

He wanted to test whether Ding Xiaoding had heard the rumors about the director and Bai Fengxia, so he turned his face away and said in a low voice, "She's known for a long time that she has an affair with that leader..."

Mentioning the leader.

Ding Xiao seemed a bit strange, as if she really wanted to say something, but she forced herself to hide it by pursing her lips until they were wet: "This kind of thing... you can't just say things like that... it's just gossip after Uncle Zhijie died..."

“Dongzi would always argue whenever he heard it; he didn’t like hearing anyone mention Fengxia as his teacher’s wife.”

Jian Dieda's heart sank. Was this really true? Even Dong Dongdong knew? Had the original owner of this body really been set up to be a fool?

Thinking of this, the act couldn't stop, so Jian Dieda slammed his hand on the table, his expression changing, and said, "But I saw it with my own eyes!"

Ding Xiaoding's voice cracked: "No way? What did you see?!"

Jane continued to bluff: "What other disgusting scene could it be! A pair of adulterous men and women!"

Mumu's Ding Xiaoding confessed everything: "This, this is impossible, you're still possessed, and Director Wang hasn't come back for the past few days!"

Jian Dieda listened carefully and caught the words "Director Wang". He told Ding Xiaoding not to stay, as it wasn't safe here tonight anyway.

Jian Dieda turned around and opened the door with his hand: "You don't believe me? Fine, then go."

The expressive Ding Xiaoding had no choice but to leave. Almost as soon as she closed the door, a new clue appeared:

[“Congratulations on triggering the testimony of ‘mistress’. The current plot progress is 59%. Bai Fengxia’s legendary old mistress is none other than Dong Zhijie’s superior, Wang Zhongyi. Everyone in the police station knows that Bai Fengxia has been visiting Wang Zhongyi since her husband’s death. Strangely enough, every time these two meet, your childhood friend and senior apprentice, Dong Dongdong, always gets a promotion from his superiors, bringing him one step closer to his dream of becoming a police officer…”]

Jian Dieda was a little surprised by how things developed; this clue actually pointed to the second turning point in the plot, "Dong Dongdong's Public Security Dream."

As the progress bar passed the halfway mark, the system issued a reward. It turned out that the fifth informant, Ding Xiaoding, had left in a hurry and dropped an important clue from his belt onto the table.

Jane picked it up and saw that the shiny object was labeled: [Reserve Key to Archives x1], which meant that he could explore new scenes overnight. At this moment, the quartz watch was pointing to 23:58.

Almost as Ding Xiaoding was about to go back upstairs, he passed by a place and heard the sound of flushing water and a woman's laughter coming from the wet women's restroom on the first floor.

Ding Xiaoding: "..." Who is it?

In the dead of night, with only two junior police officers on duty, it was impossible for a woman to sneak into the cell.

"Jianzi? Is that you?"

Ding Xiaoding swallowed hard and ran to the entrance of the women's restroom. He suspected that his colleague was just playing a prank on him, but to his surprise, two blood-red strips of cloth fell from the ceiling the next second.

"whee."

Laughter invaded the night, and a pair of women's legs dragged out strips of cloth.

Ding Xiaoding felt a heat in a certain part of his pants, and sat down on the ground crying loudly. His teeth were chattering as he looked up, but then his legs were reversed, and he ended up hanging upside down looking at him.

A very faint light shone on the woman... She had long, thick, black hair...

Pale face...

wide-open eyes

And a pair of hands with bluish skin.

"Come on, come on..."

"Look at me quickly..."

"Husband... come here..."

The stench of corpses and perfume filled the air, and the red hanging rope had been transformed into a swing for the female ghost to play on.

Ding Xiaoding let out an "Ah!" and her eyes rolled back as she fainted.

The upside-down female ghost laughed even harder.

The unidentified female corpse had a string of yellow pus flowing from her two large ears, her eyes were snow-white, her nostrils were rotten, and she had a set of gleaming white teeth.

She grinned, revealing her gaping teeth, and said, "After eating this, there'll be one more. Here I come."

In the darkness, a voice stopped the female ghost. It was impossible to tell whether the person was male or female; they were simply trying to dissuade the female ghost from acting like that person.

"Let's not kill this one. We can take care of the guy in the duty room together. Didn't you hear their conversation? That junior officer knows too much..."

The female 'ghost' said, 'Oh, so you, the real culprit, have also come. Then a mere accomplice ghost like me can only...'

The real culprit and his accomplices focused their attention on one thing.

The female ghost did not approach Ding Xiaoding again.

Both sides were carrying out their mission of killing someone.

The police officers who actually have the leads cannot survive tonight.

The two managed to sneak upstairs together.

The door to the duty room can be opened.

It's empty inside.

In the dark, off-light environment, the electric fan was off, and there was no one on the chair.

They came here to kill and get eliminated, so why did they miss their target? It's like some crucial plot point was predicted.

The real culprit and his accomplice, who both felt something was amiss, stood at the door: "..."

56, 57, 58, the two dark figures felt a chill creep down their spines, while in the void, the system's countdown numbers were ticking.

Until [00:00:00], the familiar midnight hour passed, and an unusual first counterattack began to unfold.

In the higher-dimensional ghost stories, a shadow resembling Jane Deda inexplicably appears on the ceiling, stalking two suspicious figures. Then, his upside-down legs detach, leaving his body dangling in mid-air, causing others to scream in terror: "Holy crap!!"

But this scene was even more terrifying than ghosts. The police officer's hands twisted and removed the fan blades from above his head and slashed at the two 'werewolfs'.

"Aaaaaah!!"

A scream rang out, and the real culprit and the female ghost fell down in fright. When they looked up, the thing above them was not Jian Dieda, but a 'Ya' with a face drawn with chalk!

The advanced ghost story discovers a hidden plot at this point: yes, that night in Hawthorn Alley, the junior police officer let a man escape, who turned out to be a premeditated thief. The two murderers are in for a terrible time now.

The people on higher levels were collectively shocked.

"Chengdu Zombie 'Rewards' a 20-Year-Old Zombie's Teeth!"

"The cat-faced old lady 'rewarded' the decaying corpse's fingernails x3!"

"The 'Falling Flower Cave Girl' 'rewarded' a Miao girl with a love charm! She also added a dark, emoji: 'Brother Jian is like the spring river, I'm willing to be Brother Jian's fan.'"

"Consort Zhen 'rewarded' the concubine at the bottom of the well with a gold hairpin and sent an emoji: 'In heaven, we wish to be a pair of lovebirds; on earth, we wish to be little fans of Jian.'"

Other ghost stories: "Holy crap, that little cop has sucked all the beauties of our ghost story world away to become his fans..."

Jane Diedda sneezed.

He didn't read what the ghost stories were about.

His mission is to continuously visit and investigate every suspicious person as the 'protagonist'.

It is on this basis that the seemingly insignificant wooden policeman becomes clever and resourceful.

But just as he reached the archives, the light flickered dangerously.

Jian Dieda realized that 'karma' might not be able to help him prolong his life for long.

But in front of Jane Dieda stood a door that was clearly full of secrets. There was a viewing hole in the door at about eye level, called a translucent door.

He withdrew his gaze from the ceiling, inserted the key into the keyhole, and while pushing the door open, touched the gun on his body that was utterly useless against ghosts and gods.

Before him were many wooden shelves, covered in dust and various sealed files. Jian Dieda's feet trod the road to the underworld, and his hand opened the nearest file bag.

System: [The battle situation in the other scene has been revealed. The two criminals are still approaching. The knife attack will continue within one minute. Friendly reminder: unsafe actions in solo play may trigger unexpected death endings in the story. Please be responsible for all consequences.]

Jane Dieda's hand, which had been hesitant to use force in the darkness, paused: "..."

This is the kind of thing a clueless novice detective fears most. He's not an invincible elementary school student; impulsiveness and recklessness will lead to mission failure.

The system discouraged him: [Search for unknown files? Or, escape?]

Jane took a breath and said resolutely, "Find it."

System: OK.

A little while later, Dong Zhijie's last remaining belongings, which were collected by the organization, appeared.

Jane Dieda retrieved a box of evergreen biscuits based on the police badge number, and after breaking open the lid, he took out the first item.

Jian Dieda looked at Dong Zhijie's mobile phone and asked, "Little bald guy, how much does a mobile phone cost?"

The system said, "20,000 yuan."

A mobile phone that cost 10,000 yuan in the 1990s, how much would that be worth in modern terms? How could Dong Zhijie afford that?

It should be noted that this era was experiencing a wave of layoffs, and the once-glorious workers lost their secure jobs after the era of mass production ended.

The neighbors also lived frugally, only buying the cheapest vegetables, and carefully planning their purchases of meat, eggs, and dairy products. All the capable people went to the big cities in the south to seek their fortune.

A lowly police officer whose monthly payslip shows only 300 yuan can't understand where such spending power comes from for a grassroots police officer.

He then produced the next piece of evidence, this time three mahjong tiles.

Jian Dieda was even more puzzled. Three mahjong tiles? It seemed like there was a missing mahjong tile among them. Looking at the pattern, there were exactly four flowers, but one was missing. Plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum were missing the orchid.

orchid……

Could it be that Jian Dieda's expression changed, and he was talking about Chunlan again? But if the evidence is conclusive, there are two people downstairs right now. If the female ghost is Chunlan in disguise, then what is the identity of the other person?

Two against one, Jian Dieda really didn't know how to deal with it.

What you fear most always comes to pass.

Outside the archives, the light in the hallway, which was always unstable, flickered several times, much like a ghost story.

The yellowish-brown gas light continued to cause trouble, its filament flickering.

Listen carefully, and you can hear faint, trembling sobs coming from the bathroom.

Jian Dieda stood still, a cold wind blowing directly from his crotch.

The fox spirit was afraid of his red rope.

But now Jian Dieda is thinking about how nice the fox spirit young master is.

Jian Dieda exhaled a breath of yin energy that nearly froze him to death; his legs were already numb, but he still stubbornly wanted to continue stabbing the real culprit...

When Zhong Jie entered the archives, he saw the young policeman in distress. Jian Dieda was also surprised to see him and asked with a suspicious expression, "Xiao Ding?"

Zhong Jie remained silent, glancing downstairs without any surprise.

Just now, Ding Xiaoding fainted next to the toilet. He had already noticed this, which is why the fox spirit returned and possessed Ding Xiaoding's body again.

“You… come here first. Did something happen to you?” Jian Dieda seemed to have mustered up his courage. He saluted, took a step forward, and said, “Let’s go together. Don’t be afraid. Let me protect you.”

Even though Jian Dieda clearly didn't recognize the Nine-Tailed Fox, the Nine-Tailed Fox's hand trembled twice at those words, and his resentment subsided at that moment.

A cinnabar mole beneath her eyebrow, her body covered in scars and the fragrance of gardenias.

All of the fox spirit's words were reduced to a small, amused gesture of wrinkling his nose, and three unspoken words.

You silly goose.

A note from the author:

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_(:з」∠)_ A sweet young man's heart

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