Chapter 66 Once it was confirmed that someone had indeed tampered with the items, Qiao Yanyu stood up.
Once it was confirmed that someone had indeed tampered with the equipment, Qiao Yanyu stood up.
The rain and snow continued unabated. Although not heavy, the fine rain and snow falling from the sky soon dampened people's hair and clothes. Qiao Yanyu's hair also carried a slight chill.
She exhaled a breath of stale air, which formed a thin mist in the air and soon dissipated, never to be seen again.
After confirming the matter, another question lingered in Qiao Yanyu's mind—what was their purpose in doing this? Besides alerting the enemy, what other effect could it have? She shook her head, flicked the snowflakes and rain off her head, and then walked against the flow of people.
She didn't quite understand, because no one had died in the car accident. According to the intelligence, their purpose was simply to perform a ritual, killing more people to make their lured demons stronger. Such cults were actually quite common; she had helped her mother dismantle one when she was a child.
Unfortunately, her mother died at the hands of those cult members. To be precise, she died at the hands of the demons they kept.
Fed with blood and resentment, the ghost she was raised was indeed powerful, even defeating her mother, a strong and experienced investigator. Her mother's friend at the time, now the bureau chief, later adopted her.
Logically speaking, the bureau chief wouldn't assign her such work, fearing it would remind Qiao Yanyu of past events. She's doing it now because she truly has very few people left. There's been a lot of turmoil lately, with events happening in various places. Although their city isn't the provincial capital, it has three municipalities under its jurisdiction, plus the counties and rural areas within those municipalities. The bureau chief has a lot to handle and many people to send out.
So now, there's no choice. Even things that we don't want Qiao Yanyu to be involved in, we have to arrange for her to go.
Having experienced all of this, Qiao Yanyu understood even more clearly that those cult members were definitely not good people. They couldn't possibly cause such a major car accident without harming anyone, unless… they had some other plan.
When she saw countless police officers and medical personnel rushing to the accident scene, Qiao Yanyu had an epiphany.
They wanted to redeploy personnel; if it was difficult to relocate investigators, then at the very least, they wanted to prevent ordinary officials from having time to monitor them. They didn't want to leave any loopholes, including medical personnel.
Qiao Yanyu had a premonition that those guys would continue to stir up trouble everywhere, keeping the city's officials busy and unable to investigate them.
This only further demonstrates that their schemes are far from over, and... they must be targeting multiple fronts, which is why they fear the Countermeasures Bureau has enough manpower to deal with them. What a cunning and despicable bunch of sly rats.
Qiao Yanyu gritted her teeth and had no choice but to call the bureau chief, asking her to coordinate with the police department to check on some potentially unsafe locations in the city. She also wanted her to investigate whether anyone had been secretly burning paper money on the overpass in the past couple of days.
She visited several places, and before she knew it, it was time for He Zhao to set up his stall. Qiao Yanyu rode her motorcycle over to He Zhao's stall.
When Qiao Yanyu arrived, He Zhao had just arrived as well, setting up her stall. However, there was a customer who had arrived even earlier than both He Zhao and Qiao Yanyu. This time it wasn't the stitched-up water ghost, but the mud ghost. It was holding a trident and looked particularly unhappy.
"What's wrong with you? Two days! You haven't come to set up your stall for two days in a row. How can you be so passive about your work? You just stop showing up all the time. It's one thing to say you're taking a break, but these two days aren't your time to rest. You didn't even give me a heads-up. Do you know how long I've been waiting here?!"
The hat on the mud demon's head was still swaying back and forth; to be precise, its entire body was shaking, as if expressing its dissatisfaction. He Zhao looked at it, unable to utter the words he had used to deceive the stitched-up water demon.
After all, she ran around trying to find the suture thread, but had nothing to do with the mud ghost.
So she obediently let the mud ghost talk about her.
Seeing He Zhao's nonchalant attitude, the Mud Demon became even angrier. Its way of expressing its anger was to use the trident that He Zhao had personally crafted to stab He Zhao in the lower back. Seeing this, Qiao Yanyu quickly took a few steps forward to stand in front of He Zhao, afraid that the Mud Demon's trident would damage him.
Actually, the Mud Demon's poke didn't hurt at all. It was a strange feeling; it was as if the Mud Demon's trident was made of a soft, balloon-like thing, and you couldn't feel anything. He Zhao felt a bit odd after being poked and even wanted to touch the Mud Demon's trident.
The Mud Demon was displeased and instantly moved three meters away from He Zhao: "Don't move! I'm telling you, don't move! This is my trident. What if you touch it carelessly and break it!"
He Zhao scoffed, "Look at how stingy you are. I made this trident, didn't I? If you're so stingy now, don't come looking for me if it breaks later. I won't fix it for you."
The mud demon got even angrier: "How could it possibly break? I cherish it like this every day. Unless you deliberately try to break it, I definitely won't break it!"
The Mud Demon was making wild predictions, and He Zhao didn't tolerate it. He directly said, "Oh? Is that so? Don't cry later."
The two of them were bickering, and Qiao Yanyu's tense emotions relaxed as she listened. She genuinely felt comfortable being with He Zhao; it was as if all her troubles had left her behind, leaving her completely at peace.
He Zhao set up the stall, and Qiao Yanyu sat down as usual.
He Zhao ignored the mud ghost and took out several napkins from the drawer of the dining car to wipe the water droplets from Qiao Yanyu's hair and shoulders: "Sister Qiao, you really don't care about yourself at all. You're all wet now."
Qiao Yanyu couldn't say anything. It was indeed her own carelessness that had caused her to get so wet. She let He Zhao wipe her down, then took some tissues and dried herself for a while. Meanwhile, He Zhao was busy taking care of her, turning on the heater so that Qiao Yanyu could be enveloped in its warmth.
After doing all that, He Zhao finally went to deal with the Mud Demon.
The Mud Demon bought a meal of dead people and sat opposite He Zhao, still somewhat unconvinced: "So what exactly did you do for those two days you disappeared? I waited for you for so long, and I didn't even see a trace of you. You suddenly disappeared for a day while you were doing business, which made me very uneasy."
The Mud Demon was very inquisitive, and since it had asked so many questions, He Zhao didn't hide anything and told it about the sewing thread water ghost. As she spoke, the Mud Demon responded with "Oh," "Oh," several times in surprise. Finally, after finishing, the Mud Demon couldn't help but exclaim, "I didn't expect you to be such a good person, boss."
Now, He Zhao was practically strutting around with pride. She said smugly, "That's right, I'm a genuinely good person."
Qiao Yanyu had been working all day, and listening to their chatter, she actually felt a little sleepy. He Zhao noticed the fatigue on her face and told her to rest for a while. Qiao Yanyu thought about it and didn't refuse. The main reason was that she had to work during the day, and if she insisted on not resting at night, she would indeed be very tired.
It could even lead to sudden death.
To avoid sudden death, Qiao Yanyu decided to listen to He Zhao, slumped onto the table, and soon fell asleep. The Mud Demon glanced at her, then stopped talking to He Zhao and quietly ate his meal.
He Zhao sat next to her, and just like before, he continued his daily routine of letting Qiao Yanyu rest while he played on his phone.
After 12 o'clock, some customers came one after another. Many of them were already regulars at He Zhao's stall. However, they were all clueless guys. Even though they became much clearer after eating the rice from He Zhao's stall, they still didn't know anything when asked questions.
Even such a clueless ghost could understand He Zhao's meaning. She raised her index finger and put it to her lips, which meant "Don't talk." The guests also saw Qiao Yanyu sleeping in the back, so they imitated her and "shushed" her, and really kept quiet.
When the sutured water ghost arrived, it was quite boisterous and cheerful. The hair that had always covered its face fell to either side with its lively steps, revealing its artificially woven face. That face was beautiful, but soulless. But now, when it smiled, that smile on its face gained a captivating charm.
Of course, He Zhao also knew that if he could, the sutured water ghost wouldn't want this face.
The sutured water ghost came up to him, opening its mouth as if to say something, wanting to share its joyful feelings with He Zhao. Their hasty parting in the early morning had clearly not given the sutured water ghost a chance to elaborate. But He Zhao abruptly stopped it, practically spitting on its face.
Only then did the sutured water ghost notice that Qiao Yanyu was resting next to He Zhao.
Seeing this, even the sutured water ghost lowered his voice: "What's wrong with her?"
He Zhao knew that Qiao Yanyu was so tired because of the new task she had taken on, but that didn't stop He Zhao from blaming everything on the stitched-up water ghost, making it feel deeply guilty: "You still have to say that, it's all because of you. You really think it's so easy to get into the Paranormal Investigation Bureau? If it weren't for my sister Qiao's efforts, would you have been able to get in? You wouldn't have even reached the door before the old woman guarding it scared you half to death."
"Wow..." The sutured water ghost was about to exclaim when it covered its mouth and nodded its little head, indicating that it would definitely not disturb Qiao Yanyu.
Neither of them knew that Qiao Yanyu was dreaming at that moment.
It wasn't a pleasant dream. Perhaps this mission had instantly transported her back to her childhood, to the winter when her mother died. Back then, it was deep winter, just like now. But it was different then; instead of sleet, it was heavy snow.
It was in the north, in the dead of winter, when snow fell layer upon layer from the sky, piling up thickly. Qiao Yanyu was still very young, only reaching her mother's waist. She was breathing warm air onto her hands in the snow, trying to warm herself.
Meanwhile, my mother was not far ahead, knocking on the door of a farmhouse. After a long while, the family opened the door, and my mother asked the inhabitants something.
Little Qiao Yanyu just wanted to know: When can we stop and rest for a while?
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