The secret hidden in the cracks
Shen Zhizhou immediately became alert, covered the receiver and asked in a low voice, "Are you in my house now?"
"Yeah, didn't you say you wanted me to teach the monsters about humans? What happened? Why is it heavily guarded? You were out causing trouble again, and this time you got caught in a big mess?"
Listening to Sheyang's nonsensical banter, Shen Zhizhou hung up the phone without saying anything and borrowed the shopkeeper's phone while buying water to call Sheyang back.
As soon as the call was answered, Shen Zhizhou introduced himself and his tone became unusually serious: "Now listen to me, get away from my house immediately. There are people watching you everywhere in that area, so don't get watched!"
Sheyang pretended to tie his shoelaces, holding his phone between his shoulder and shoulders, glancing around. Sure enough, someone was watching him closely not far away. After tightening his shoelaces, Sheyang pretended to chat with his girlfriend, but was actually carefully observing her: "Honey, you really don't want me to pick you up? I've missed you so much while you were away on your business trip. I've been taking good care of and watering your four or five flowers. Do you want me to help you carry your luggage?"
The tacit understanding they had developed since childhood allowed Shen Zhizhou to immediately grasp Sheyang's implication. He smiled and politely declined, saying, "No need. Just take care of yourself. If I really need your help, how about you help me investigate the concert from that day? I have a feeling things aren't that simple."
She Yang tapped his phone twice, signaling Shen Zhizhou to continue, so he could secretly investigate for Shen Zhizhou as an observer. Before Shen Zhizhou could speak, he paused and asked, "Has Sister Ji contacted you recently?"
She Yang was surprised and walked a little further away before daring to reply to Shen Zhizhou: "Shouldn't you be the one who knows the most about Sister Ji's affairs? Sister Ji has been raising me as a side job since I was a child. How could I possibly know things that you don't know? What's wrong? Did you two have a fight?"
"It's just a matter of concern. I just feel like things aren't that simple. Don't you know what a man's intuition is?"
"Tsk, I don't like hearing your narcissistic talk. I'll keep an eye on this for you. Bye..." After waiting a few seconds and hearing no response from the other end of the phone, Sheyang hung up.
Shen Zhizhou took a bottle of water and gave an extra 20 yuan as payment for the phone call. He learned from the call that there were four or five people watching him, probably ordinary people. If there was a mystery-eliminating expert, Sheyang would give him a heads-up.
Shen Zhizhou searched for the nearest funeral home, went inside, and bought some yellow paper, red candles, calligraphy brushes, and red clay. The shopkeeper strongly recommended that he also buy some gold ingots and matching gifts as a token of filial piety to his elders. As he spoke, the shopkeeper pulled out a pair of unpainted baby boy and girl figurines from a corner and held them up to Shen Zhizhou, trying to sell them: "How about getting a couple for your elderly relatives? They can help with chores in the afterlife..."
Shen Zhizhou's lips twitched slightly as he politely declined, saying, "I don't need it for now, so please don't try to sell me anything."
Telling the shopkeeper to hurry up and calculate the money, Shen Zhizhou picked up his things and walked straight out of the store, ignoring the shopkeeper's sales pitches behind him. He silently complained to himself, "The economic situation is really bad these days. They grab a customer and push their products on them. They have a wide variety of items."
Slipping into a men's restroom stall in the subway station, Shen Zhizhou covered his nose and began manually stirring mud to draw talismans. Without a water-moistening brush, Shen Zhizhou hesitated for a moment before using saliva to moisten the brush. Leaning against the plastic board of the toilet stall, he began drawing invisibility talismans. After finishing, Shen Zhizhou boarded the subway and randomly chose a stop to get off at. After exiting the subway, he began to wander around.
He knew someone was definitely following him, so he went all out and went into the mall to eat something before taking a taxi to the funeral home to hand out flyers.
"Hello, you can check out our funeral services." Shen Zhizhou started handing out small cards on the street, and the plainclothes policeman following behind thought this guy was a bit crazy.
After posting for a while, Shen Zhizhou went to the toilet, hid the things he bought in the toilet bowl, and then swaggered out after sticking the invisibility talisman he had drawn on his body.
All of this was merely to lower the guard of those following behind, waiting for an opportunity. Taking advantage of this gap, Shen Zhizhou casually followed a family who had just finished their prayers into a car, and after returning to the city, he quietly walked home.
Shen Zhizhou climbed over the wall, walked into the study in the dark, turned on his flashlight, and began to look up information and ancient books.
There are very few monsters that have become spirits from paintings and calligraphy, and the records in ancient books are also quite limited. For the time being, Shen Zhizhou was not sure which painting was the true form of the monster. However, the ancient books recorded that the true form of such monsters was afraid of fire and insects, and had very high requirements for the environment. At that time, living in such an environment, they were probably really afraid of the black-robed monster.
Shen Zhizhou went through the places in his mind where the painting and calligraphy monster might be, and found that there were a lot of areas where it could hide, which gave him a headache.
Looking around, only the faint light from his phone illuminated his small world. He found it funny to think about how he couldn't go home and had to sneak around like a thief. Shen Zhizhou picked up a Sudoku puzzle and, like when he was a child, lay on a futon to pass the time and quickly calm his mind.
This was my favorite game when I was bored as a child. Back then, Sheyang hadn't been taken back yet, and Shen Zhizhou would play this game by himself.
After playing a few pages of Sudoku, Shen Zhizhou put it aside and lay sprawled on the cushion. Suddenly... he felt a strong urge to eat.
Shen Zhizhou wondered what Shuyi was doing at this moment, and whether she was thinking of him as much as he was thinking of her. Before Shen Zhizhou could start to have any wild thoughts, he heard Shuyi calling out to him telepathically.
"Shen Zhizhou, are you asleep?"
"Not yet, are you missing me?" Shen Zhizhou went straight to the point.
Shuyi blushed slightly at Shen Zhizhou's bluntness, and thought to herself that it was a good thing Shen Zhizhou wasn't around, otherwise he would have teased her.
"Be serious, okay! I just couldn't sleep and wanted to chat with you. Now I'm sleepy, goodnight." Before Shen Zhizhou could react, Shu Yi went offline.
Lying in her down jacket, Shuyi tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Huang Daxian, woken by the noise, groggily poked his head out and asked, "Shuyi, are you in a real hurry to pee? If you're in such a rush, try to avoid people when you go to the toilet, don't get caught..."
The sound grew softer and softer until a snoring sound came from beside her ear. Shuyi was too embarrassed to roll around anymore, so she could only bury her face silently in her clothes.
Shen Zhizhou is becoming more and more shameless, but why do I feel a little excited? Shu Yi covered her burning cheeks with her paws.
Zhizhi, who hadn't fallen asleep, watched all of this and quietly turned over, muttering, "No matter what kind they are, once they're in love, they all smell sour and stinky."
Meanwhile, Shen Zhizhou, who was in the study, felt his mood instantly brighten after hearing Shu Yi's voice. He wondered what Shu Yi's expression would be at this moment.
Would she be shy or at a loss? Or would she simply roll her eyes and ignore him? As she thought about it, Shen Zhizhou unconsciously chuckled, the bracelet on her wrist tapping on the floor as she turned over, making a crisp sound.
Shen Zhizhou frowned, propped himself up, and tapped the floor around him until he heard the crisp sound again. He paused, picked up a Sudoku book, and placed it on the floor to make a mark.
Searching for tools to pry open the tile in the study, Shen Zhizhou found only a small screwdriver. He then carefully used the screwdriver to pry open the floor tile.
Sure enough, the brick was hollow, and underneath it was a sandalwood box. Shen Zhizhou immediately recognized it as one of his mother's dowry items and picked it up to examine it carefully.
The lock on the box was exquisite and unique, and could not be opened with an ordinary key. Shen Zhizhou began to take the box and search through books in the study that recorded lock designs.
It turned out that this lock was a special Luban lock that could not be opened with a key alone; it required both a key and a password. Shen Zhizhou put the box into his Qiankun bag, took some essential talismans from home, and then left under the cover of night to return to his hotel.
Shen Zhizhou took a shower, dried the water droplets from his hair with a towel, and kept trying to force open the box he had brought back. The box was protected by a barrier, and could not be opened by any other means except with a key.
For some reason, Shen Zhizhou felt that this box was of great importance and might be related to his mother's death. Thinking of this, Shen Zhizhou wanted to crack the code as soon as possible and get the contents of the box.
Being constantly watched like this makes everything he does problematic. He needs to find a way to clear himself of suspicion first. Shen Zhizhou's eyes darted around, and he came up with a crooked idea.
The next day, after sleeping in, Shen Zhizhou took a fruit basket to visit the police station. The upright police officer raised his eyebrows in surprise when he saw him. Shen Zhizhou got straight to the point and said that he had come to visit him and wanted to talk to him.
The officer took the man to the office, poured him a glass of water, and pushed it in front of Shen Zhizhou, inviting him to sit down. Shen Zhizhou placed the fruit basket on the table. The officer glanced at it and said in a deep voice, "I know why you're here, and I don't need your gift. You don't need to waste your time on me. If there's a next time... I won't let you off so easily."
Shen Zhizhou shrugged, his attitude frank: "I think you've misunderstood. I just wanted to bring some fruit to visit Uncle Zheng since I haven't seen him in a long time. As for why I came to see you..." He paused, leaned forward, and said seriously, "I'm here as a law-abiding citizen to expose the darkness."
“You should have investigated my files and know that my family has served the people for generations, and I have always abided by the law. The surveillance footage should also record that I was protecting the crowd during the chaos at the concert that day; otherwise, given the situation, it's impossible that only a few people were injured. The reason I'm here is because I'm also very concerned about this matter. I suspect that someone deliberately instigated a conflict between humans and monsters so they could reap the benefits…”
After a long silence, the officer spoke up: "Do you have any evidence?"
"The concert's surveillance footage is the best evidence. The venue was packed with people, making it incredibly easy to do something there. Besides, I was attacked by a monster before this, and my own hospital was burned down..."
Regardless of whether the police officers on the other end believed him or not, Shen Zhizhou had planted a seed of doubt, hoping to shift their focus elsewhere so that he could free up his own resources to investigate.
Shen Zhizhou handed the fruit basket he brought to Uncle Zheng, and then glanced at the police officer sitting inside deep in thought. Uncle Zheng saw him, pointed at Shen Zhizhou, smiled, and patted Shen Zhizhou on the shoulder.
The gifts and the message have been delivered; what they do with them is their business...
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