Chapter 25 Where is the evil spirit? Perhaps... it's right behind you...
The old constable who followed Li Chenjin in couldn't help but shiver the moment he stepped into the room.
He had been sweating profusely, but now he was shivering with cold and felt a strange chill run down his spine.
He swallowed hard, looked around the dimly lit room, and then looked back at the blazing sun outside the door.
This seemingly ordinary door appears to divide two worlds, one yin and one yang. Although the doors and windows of the room are wide open, not a single ray of sunlight can shine in...
As he thought this, he muttered it aloud.
Li Chen turned around and glanced at him, then smiled and said, "Didn't you already say that this was a case of evil spirits causing the murder? If that's the case, then the evil spirits naturally need a place to reside."
The old constable's legs trembled, and he almost knelt on the ground.
Although he felt embarrassed by his fear, he still moved a little closer to Li Chenjin and whispered, "Master, you...you mean...the evil spirit is...right here?"
His voice grew lower and lower until it was barely a whisper, as if he were afraid of being heard by something in the room.
Li Chenjin also said in a deep voice, "Yes, who knows... it might be right behind you. Would you like to turn around and take a look?"
The old constable: "..."
Upon hearing Li Chenjin's words, his legs went weak and his face turned deathly pale; he looked terrified.
He dared not turn back now, so he could only slowly move backward until he reached the door and felt the scorching sun. Only then did he seem to come back to life, leaving behind only the words, "Please take a look, sir. I'll go buy you some local specialties from our town," before running off without looking back.
Li Chen watched the old constable flee like the wind, not caring at all. He chuckled a few times, bent down, patted the head of the sweet rice ball, and said softly, "The two of us are enough."
As she spoke, she took a round ball out of her storage bag.
After the sphere left the storage bag, it immediately emitted a soft light, the same one that Shen Zhengyuan had taken out on Snowy Mountain.
She took them casually, intending to return them when she no longer needed them. Unexpectedly, before she could return them, she came back, and these things came back with her.
Fortunately, she now has this, which saves her the money to buy a tinderbox, and it also makes things much clearer than using a tinderbox.
She looked down at the ground beneath her feet.
It looked like a fight had taken place in the room; many things were scattered on the floor, and chairs had been overturned.
The inner room looked more cluttered than the outer room, and there were obvious bloodstains.
The bloodstains started on the bed and extended all the way to the exit leading to the outer room, which must have been left by Jiang Lanhan when he tried his best to escape before he died.
Li Chen carefully lifted her skirt to avoid getting it stained with the blood on the ground.
The mortuary had methods to repel insects, but this room didn't. There were already many white maggots on the bloodstains, wriggling around, each one looking quite happy.
She took a handkerchief from her storage pouch at her waist, wrapped it around her hand, and picked up the candlestick lying on top of the bloodstains and maggots.
Before observing, she deliberately shook it to shake off the maggots that had crawled onto it.
After cleaning the candlestick, she turned to look at the sweet rice balls beside her and said apologetically, "This place must smell terrible. Thank you for your trouble. I will definitely buy you more meat buns later."
The sweet fermented rice balls made a sound, but it was unclear whether they truly understood her words.
Li Chen slowly stood up and looked down at the bloodstains inside the room.
The bloodstains on the ground had almost pooled together, and because there was so much of it, it had not yet completely congealed.
There were also many bloodstains on the walls and ceiling, indicating that the person was killed in the outer room and then dragged back to the inner room to be dismembered. These bloodstains were splattered from his still relatively fresh body when the evil spirit tore at his corpse.
I don't know what grudge or hatred led them to kill people in such a cruel way, and not just one.
As she stared at the bloodstains on the ground, lost in thought, a cold wind suddenly blew by.
The chilly breeze gently caressed her face, carrying with it the faint sound of a woman weeping. Sometimes it seemed far away, sometimes it seemed right beside her ear, sometimes near, sometimes far, sometimes hidden, sometimes visible.
She glanced back slightly and felt something about to touch the back of her head, preparing to make her the second person to die in this house.
Before she could react, the sweet fermented rice ball that had been quietly following beside her suddenly let out a low growl, baring its teeth and growling continuously, as if it was about to bite into something.
Li Chen smiled slightly, "Amitabha. Young lady, every wrong has its perpetrator, and every debt its debtor. Please do not harm the innocent."
………………
The old constable outside had been waiting for a long time. He stood not far from the house, sweating profusely under the scorching sun, but the house inside was pitch black.
The sun is clearly shining this way, so how come it can't illuminate that room at all?
The more the old constable looked, the more alarmed he became. Although he remembered that the room was very cool, and the heat on his body would instantly dissipate as soon as he entered, making him feel very comfortable, he absolutely dared not step into the room again. Even if he had to be roasted to death there, he would never step into that haunted room.
As he waited, unable to see or hear anything inside the house, he couldn't help but start to worry, "Could it be that the evil spirit is too powerful, and the layman has also been harmed by it..."
Just as he was hesitating about whether to bring more people, a white figure suddenly walked out of the dark house.
When he first saw it, he thought he had seen a ghost, but upon closer inspection, he realized that it was Li Chenjin who had come out.
He wiped the sweat from his brow and hurriedly went to greet him, saying, "Layman, how is that evil spirit? Is it very powerful? Can you subdue it?"
"I haven't seen that evil spirit with my own eyes yet; it is certainly powerful; subduing it is easy, but it is filled with resentment. If we want to cure it completely, we need to find a way to dispel the resentment on its body."
After answering the old constable's questions one by one, Li Chen looked at his sweaty face and continued in a very amiable manner, "However, I see that you seem to be very hot. Why don't you come with me to the house to temporarily escape the heat? Although the house is very stuffy, it is quite cool."
The old constable's face twitched, and he hurriedly waved his hands, saying, "No, no, no... I'm afraid I might survive the cool evening air, but not the day I get out..."
Seeing that he was indeed very resistant, Li Chen was also in a dilemma.
She glanced at the blazing sun overhead, then looked back at the house behind her, and finally her gaze fell on the old constable. After hesitating several times, she sighed, seemingly regretting that she couldn't go inside to cool off. The old constable couldn't help but twitch his lips, marveling at how people from the Zen meditation world were different from ordinary people like them; even when seeking coolness, they preferred haunted places.
“Please take a look at this candlestick. I find it to be quite luxurious, unlike anything that should be in this room,” Li Chen said.
Although the candlestick was made of bronze, its craftsmanship was exceptionally exquisite. The bottom was made of lotus petals, and the lotus shape was lifelike. Moreover, this candlestick was not commonly found on the market; it must have been custom-made and must have been expensive. It was indeed out of place in the old house where Jiang the Lazy Man lived.
The old constable reached out to take the candlestick, but as soon as he touched it, he felt something strange on his fingertip. He withdrew his hand and saw that his fingertip was stained with some black liquid. "This is..."
He rubbed the object between his fingers, brought it to his nose, and his expression changed instantly. He had clearly figured out what it was, but Li Chenjin still said, "Oh, this is blood. I see that the base of this candlestick has some chips and some hair stuck to it. This must be the murder weapon that evil spirit used to kill people."
As he spoke, seeing the old constable hesitate to wipe his hands on his clothes, Li Chen smiled, took out a clean handkerchief from his storage bag, and handed it to him, saying, "I think this candlestick is something only wealthy people would have, and this family must be worshipping some deity. However, I am new to this place and don't know many people and things in this town, so I have come to ask you if you have any clues."
The old constable took the handkerchief, thanked him repeatedly, and said, "I've seen similar candlesticks before. They belong to a wealthy merchant named Wu in our town. Everyone in town calls him Master Wu. Master Wu has a separate room dedicated to a goddess, and that goddess is incredibly efficacious. Master Wu's family started out as poor farmers, but since Master Wu's father began worshipping that goddess, the Wu family has become the wealthiest family in the surrounding area in just over ten years!"
"After Master Wu's father passed away, Master Wu commissioned a gilded statue of that goddess and spent a fortune to create many more images of her. Anyone who wants to invite her home can simply go to the Wu family to receive one. Moreover, not only will it be free, but they will even give you a few taels of silver! Alas... unfortunately, my husband is a Buddhist and doesn't agree to me inviting her, so... whether it's effective or not, I don't know."
After saying all that, he looked at Li Chenjin with a troubled expression and said, "But... but if this really comes from the Wu family, there's nothing I can do. We don't have concrete evidence, so we can't just go and ask them directly. Besides, that Master Wu has always disliked the Zen cultivation world, so..."
He chuckled dryly a few times as he spoke, saying, "If you wish to visit the Wu family, I truly cannot. Even the prefect would give that Master Wu some face..."
A note from the author:
Xiao Li is actually quite mischievous; he likes to tease and scare people. [doge emoji][doge emoji][doge emoji]
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