Chapter 38 of Ghost Buddha Yin
The knife in Lin Jianhua's hand pierced his lower abdomen, and blood slowly dripped from his body, then gradually flowed into the hot spring. The steam in the hot spring was still slowly steaming, but now it was faintly tinged with blood.
Jie Qianchou let out a long breath. He took one last look at the Buddha statue with blood dripping from its eyes, then turned and smiled at Yan Ran.
"It's all over, let's go."
After Xie Qianchou took a few steps, he realized Yan Ran hadn't caught up with him, so he turned back to look. Yan Ran stood there, his shoulders shaking slightly. Xie Qianchou frowned and walked back to Yan Ran's side.
Jie Qianchou asked softly, "What's wrong?"
"How can you laugh?" Yan Ran's eyes were a little moist: "We did so much, but in the end, no one was saved. The result is still that no matter how hard I try, I still can't change anything, and I still can't save anyone..."
Jie Qianchou looked a little gloomy. He lowered his head slightly, deliberately not looking into her eyes: "Maybe. After all, we are just ordinary people, but we have found the truth."
Yan Ran looked at the corpse on the ground, then calmed himself down: "I'm not blaming you, I'm blaming myself. After all, I... used to be a doctor, but..."
Yan Ran didn't continue talking, but shook his head and turned to walk out of the hot spring. Jie Qianchou looked at Yan Ran's back for a long time before quickly chasing after him.
"Let's chat for a while."
Tongtian Wu suddenly stopped Jie Qianchou, and behind her stood Kikyo with a smile on her face.
Xie Qianchou couldn't figure this woman out, and he didn't want to get involved with her. Xie Qianchou slowed down his pace and didn't say anything.
Tongtian Wu simply blocked Jie Qianchou's way and said, "Have you found the flaw in Le Chen's beheading technique?"
Jie Qianchou paused where he was. He glanced at Tongtian Wu and said, "Bone Shrinking Technique?"
Tongtian Wu smiled and said, "Maybe it's not that magical. His monk's robe is lined with a steel plate. When his head goes into the box, it immediately retracts. Because of the steel plate in his clothes, it can't be seen from the outside. After the box on the iron frame is tampered with, his head will go back in. That's why the box must be returned to its original position so that Lechen's head can be revealed again."
Jie Qianchou sighed inwardly, realizing that he was not as observant as Tongtian Wu.
After thinking for a while, Jie Qianchou asked, "Why are you telling me this?"
Tongtian Wu smiled brightly: "I'm afraid you'll have regrets."
Tongtian Wu made way and said to Kikyo behind him, "Haruko, let's go." The two women then gradually disappeared on the mountain road.
Xie Qianchou watched the direction they left and murmured, "You two are indeed in the same group."
Tongtian Wu's voice came from far away on the mountain road: "I also gave you a small gift. It's in your mountaineering bag."
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A middle-aged woman with heavy makeup and a large bag on her back hurried to the entrance of the villa. On the steps at the entrance, a strong man was sitting on the steps smoking, and the woman approached him.
"Brother, this is the Little Brothers Villa, right?"
Bu Kui shook the ashes off his hand and looked over. "Ah, are you a tourist? We've got some business at the villa these days, why don't you stay at another place?"
When the middle-aged woman heard that something was going on, her face lit up with joy: "That's right, I'm here to participate in the ghost exorcism ceremony."
Bu Kui almost dropped the cigarette in his hand. He stood up and asked, "Who are you?"
The middle-aged woman said with a sullen face: "I am the All-Seeing Witch!"
Bu Kui threw away his cigarette, then pulled a piece of letter paper from his pocket and examined it carefully. The woman assumed he was looking at an invitation and didn't bother him. Bu Kui looked at it for a while, then suddenly pulled out a pair of handcuffs and handcuffed the woman.
The middle-aged woman looked shocked: "What are you doing?"
Bu Kui showed his police ID: "I'm a police officer, I've been waiting for you!"
The letter in Bu Kui's hand was from Jie Qianchou. It detailed the various fraudulent crimes committed by this middle-aged woman, the true "Tongtian Wu." The letter was signed "Yan Feilai."
Two days later.
"Who is this Yan Feilai? Why did she impersonate Tongtian Wu and go to this villa? Besides, I always feel that she has some intentions towards you."
Yan Ran sat on the table in her studio so she could look down at Jie Qianchou, who was sitting on a swivel chair, spinning around and having fun.
"Hey! That chair is expensive. You'll be responsible if you break it!"
Jie Qianchou curled his lips and leaned deeply in his chair.
"Bu Kui and his team have figured out the cause of the deaths in the hot springs. Bu Kui said they found a psychoactive hallucinogenic substance in the deceased's body."
"The Bone Bride? Is it the same thing as the Bone Bride?"
"The ingredients are basically the same. This psychotropic drug can amplify certain emotions in the human brain. The forensic doctor speculates that this ingredient amplified the fear in the deceased's mind, which is why they were frightened to death."
Yan Ran slammed the table heavily, never expecting that the same psychotropic drug was behind both incidents.
"The Buddha statue in the hot spring was also carefully examined. The drug was stored in the statue's legs. Liaochen placed the drug on the statue's mechanism in advance, and it would slowly be injected into the hot spring. The water temperature would cause the drug to evaporate, and the victim would then absorb the drug through breathing and skin contact."
"Then why does the Buddha statue shed tears?"
Jie Qianchou stretched out his hand and said, "I don't know. Perhaps, there really are ghosts and gods, and intuition in this world?"
Yan Ran felt a little headache, so she got down from the table and sat on the sofa beside her.
"Now it's your turn. Have you found out what kind of person Lin Jianmin is?"
Yan Ran opened the drawer and took out some handwritten materials.
"As expected, Lin Jianmin is also a mentally ill patient and suffers from severe dissociative disorder."
After leaving the villa, the two divided their work. Jie Qianchou pestered Bu Kui to obtain the autopsy results, while Yan Ran started to search for Lin Jianmin at the Jingwei Center in the city.
Yan Ran and Jie Qianchou sat at the table and slowly opened Lin Jianmin's file.
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As sycamore leaves fell onto the bench, Chen Meiyun was tying a scarf for her son. She'd bought him the dark gray cashmere scarf for his birthday the previous year, the label still on. Now, a corner was soaked by the morning dew, like a patch of mold that wouldn't melt away.
"Mom, I can do it myself." Lin Jianmin shrank his neck.
The mist he exhaled as he spoke hit his mother's graying temples, shattering into tiny ice crystals. The fuzz that had grown back after Chen Meiyun's chemotherapy was frosted, looking from a distance like a layer of salt.
Chen Meiyun didn't stop. Her dry, branch-like fingers twirled the scarf until they touched the scar on the back of her son's neck. It was the scar Lin Jianmin had received when he was eight years old, scalded by boiling water while she was ironing a shirt for a business trip. The memory pressed down on her like a red-hot iron, and Chen Meiyun's hand trembled, catching the scarf knot on Lin Jianmin's Adam's apple.
Lin Jianmin cleared his throat twice, and Chen Meiyun quickly adjusted the position of her scarf. Lin Jianmin held his mother's hand, saying nothing, but tears welled up in his eyes.
At around four in the morning, the morning light had already fallen on his face. Lin Jianmin recalled the scene.
"I'm going to work."
In the hospital, Lin Jianmin held his mother's hand, his voice barely audible. He carefully sorted the medicine and placed it next to Chen Meiyun's pillow.
"Remember to eat on time, don't forget."
Chen Meiyun was in excruciating pain. She was in the late stages of cancer. The combined pain of the disease and treatment was constantly destroying her body and mind.
Chen Meiyu smiled at her son, and at this moment she had forgotten the pain.
Lin Jianmin walked out of the ward and glanced back at his mother. He recalled yesterday in Zhang Chunhe's office, where, sitting in that large leather executive chair, Zhang Chunhe had squinted at him with those nearly invisible eyes: "I'm promoting you to vice president, but the company needs financing, and we need a better financial report. Think about what to do."
Lin Jianmin knew very well that his boss wanted him to cook the books. He had more than 10 years of work experience and was naturally aware of the risks involved.
Seeing his hesitation, Zhang Chunhe slowly put down the pen he was playing with and said, "The position has gone up, and the salary has also gone up. The risks and benefits are well-matched."
Lin Jianmin didn't answer, but his hands clenched in his pockets. His mother's chemotherapy expenses had already depleted his savings, and he couldn't bear to watch her die in her hospital bed.
On the day the financing was successful, Lin Jianmin stood by the French window, watching Zhang Chunhe's car drive away. The company had secured a large sum of money, but Zhang Chunhe had also fired him. What does it mean when the cunning rabbit dies, the running dog is cooked? To completely clean up the company's act, HR Director Qin Guifang threw all the blame on Lin Jianmin.
That day, Lin Jianmin sat in his empty office, looking at the chair he once sat in. His cell phone rang. It was his mother.
"Jianmin, I heard that the company..." His mother's voice was soft, but it was like a knife piercing his heart.
Lin Jianmin tried hard to calm himself down, and then said casually, "I'm fine."
How could Chen Meiyu not know how her child felt? From that day on, her condition worsened again.
For a while, Lin Jianmin began looking for jobs. He carried his resume, walked through streets and into offices, but was always politely turned away. Then one day, he received a call from a man named Wang Li.
Wang Li was the vice president of Damai, a competitor of Xiaowu Brothers. Upon learning of Lin Jianmin's resignation, Wang Li extended an olive branch to him. This was like a blessing in disguise for Lin Jianmin. Unbeknownst to Lin, another trap awaited him.
Wang Li used Lin Jianmin as a tool to learn the inner workings of the Xiaowu Brothers Group. Once Wang Li had a clear understanding of Xiaowu Brothers' operating model, he immediately fired Lin Jianmin and used a business trap to force him to compensate for the so-called losses of "Damai".
The drawer was once again filled with hospital bills. Lin Jianmin sat by the bed, looking at his mother's pale face. "Mom, I..." He wanted to apologize, but the words wouldn't come out. He knew he was broke, he knew he couldn't afford his mother's medical expenses anymore, but how could he say it?
A few sycamore leaves fell on Lin Jianmin and his mother. Perhaps leaving in a decent manner was their last bit of dignity.
The sycamore leaves continued to fall, landing on the bench and on the embraced mother and child. The morning dew soaked the scarf, like a patch of mold that would not melt away, but this time, it no longer represented sadness, but a sense of relief.
An old man who was doing morning exercises stepped on the light and shadows on the ground in the early morning and saw two people hanging from a sycamore tree.
……… ...
Jie Qianchou closed the information in his hand and kept rubbing his eyebrows.
Yan Ran poured himself a glass of water and said, "After the old man reported the case, Lin Jianmin was rescued, but his mother had already died. Since then, Lin Jianmin has suffered from severe dissociative disorder."
Jie Qianchou asked, "Then he went to the same hospital where the Bone Bride was hospitalized?"
Yan Ran said: "To be precise, Lin Jianmin was admitted to the hospital much earlier than the Bone Bride."
Jie Qianchou said: "So, there are still many mysteries that have not been solved."
Yan Ran looked out the window and remained silent for a long time.
A sparrow, perhaps tired of flying, landed by the window, looking at the two silent people in the room.
(Part 1 completed)
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