Chapter 2: Burying the Light
In a gray-green room with a slightly fishy smell, three people sat cross-legged on a pile of waste newspapers playing cards.
"A pair of fours," someone threw down two cards. "The third brother hasn't come back yet? Did he run off in that junky car?"
Another scarred face cursed: "You haven't even got the money yet, why are you running away? I guess you're going to find that Chen guy - right Q."
"It's so big," the man on the other side cursed in dialect, picking and choosing among the cards. "The third brother is really impressive, with those connections. If Chen's deal goes through, it'll probably be worth millions."
"Are you going to come out or not, you poor boy? You've been thinking about this for so long."
"You're asking for my life! These are all good cards, I can't break them."
"Hey, didn't the family next door call the police?"
"If you report it, I'll kill him. Besides, this guy has plenty of money at home."
The man smiled and kicked the sack huddled in the corner. "Spend a little money to avoid a big disaster, right?"
The sack shrank and rubbed against the wall tremblingly.
"But the third brother has been gone for too long. He's been away all day. Will he be watched?"
"Let Lao Si make a phone call and ask."
…
"Tsk, where are the old four?"
"He said he was going downstairs to smoke one, who cares."
…
The man downstairs squinted his eyes. A striking promotional image appeared on his phone: Chen Songling, the actor who debuted as the center of the XX boy band, is about to join the cast of the traditional Chinese film "Wangxiantai"...
He locked his phone calmly, his shoe soles rolling over the cigarette butts on the ground. When he looked up again, he had put on a kind smile and looked at the person in front of him who was anxiously asking for help:
"Young man, don't be anxious, come to my house for a drink of water?"
-
The next morning.
In a crowded office building in the old city, seven or eight people are squeezed into a small office with a sign that says "All-round Housekeeping".
Sitting in the seat, a woman with glasses and wearing a cheap rose-red suit skirt was smoking and frowning with disappointment.
"Li Xiuzhen! The employer has complained several times. Did you give candy to his son again?"
The auntie smiled innocently: "Manager Hu, the kid was greedy, so I gave him a piece."
Manager Hu slammed the table loudly, his cheeks trembling. "Not even a cent! You're a housekeeper, not a confinement nanny! If the child gets sick from a stomachache and complains to us, will you pay for the medical expenses?"
The aunt lowered her head in shame.
"And you!" Manager Hu changed the subject: "He Guofu, how many times have I told you not to smoke in your employer's home? Are you a chain smoker?"
The Mediterranean uncle muttered in a low voice, "I didn't smoke. I was burning talismans at the door. You don't know, there are unclean things in his house..."
Manager Hu almost stood up and smashed his keyboard. "Unclean?! People bought that shabby house just to store ashes. You just swept the floor and left, and even burned yellow talismans at the door. What do you want to do? You're driving away the ancestors, what are you doing here?"
So the uncle turned away in shame.
Manager Hu's chest heaved, and he slumped back into his swivel chair. "I'm so worried every day."
Ying Zhiwei squeezed over stealthily.
"Manager Hu~" She poked her head out. "Are you still hiring? No social security, just give them a smartphone~"
Manager Hu looked at her warily, "Last time you borrowed my car, and this time you're stuffing people in here. Do you think I'm a shelter?"
Ying Zhiwei pulled Long Zhu from the crowd of aunts and uncles to the front with a smile on his face.
"My friend is looking for a part-time job. We're open to any kind of work in haunted houses. What do you think?"
The short-haired woman before him slouched, her shoulders drooping listlessly, her hands in her pockets. She wore a sporty blue and white school uniform. Her right eye, unobstructed by her bangs, stared straight at him. Their eyes met, and the short-haired woman extended a hand in greeting: "Hello."
Manager Hu was skeptical: "It's a haunted house. Many people don't even dare to enter the urn room. They say sweeping the graves in the building is unlucky and will cause death."
A smile appeared on Long Zhu's pale face: "That's great."
Manager Hu choked up, and after a while, he held out his hand unhappily: "Give me your ID card."
Then, he pulled out a no-name phone with a cracked screen from a drawer and threw it on the table with a clang: "This is the only one. Use it if you want."
Long Zhu handed over his ID card.
Manager Hu squinted his eyes and said, "Huh? Born in 1985? You're only three years younger than me?"
Ying Zhiwei felt guilty: "Haha, what a coincidence, we are the same age."
There is nothing wrong with referring to dead people of the same age group who have been possessed by ghosts as peers.
Manager Hu glared at her: "If it weren't for your mother's face..."
She paused the second half of the sentence and continued typing on the keyboard. Turning her head, she saw her wrinkled face in the desktop mirror and reached out to touch it dejectedly.
Really, is the gap that big?
After completing the onboarding process, Ying Zhiwei familiarly registered a WeChat account and added the All-in-One Housekeeping Mini Program.
Nearby orders are clearly visible, and you can even choose other city areas.
Although there is no guaranteed salary, it is barely a cost-effective identity that allows you to enter various places.
Long Zhu imitated him and swiped the page a few times, and by chance, a [Agent Recruitment] popped up.
[Position: On-set logistics, daily salary 150, responsible for cleaning and sanitation in the filming area, address: Shucheng. If you are willing to follow the crew, please contact Ms. Li.]
She pressed [Accept Order] and put her phone back into her pocket.
After leaving the office building, Ying Zhiwei remembered something: "The new location has been posted on WeChat. Are you leaving now?"
Long Zhu turned his head and looked at the trunk: "No hurry, there is something else to deal with first."
Ying Zhiwei watched her drive away and silently thought to herself: I hope she doesn't go in the wrong direction again and leave the person she's looking for in the most dangerous place...
Long Zhu drove the car all the way to the wasteland from yesterday.
At this time, the man in the trunk rubbed the noose with his heels, kicking it against the car wall from time to time, making a thudding sound.
A night passed, and he was still struggling in the narrow darkness, wriggling like a tangled maggot, trying to break free from the rope.
Finally, at some point, the knot showed signs of loosening.
Before I could rejoice, the trunk of the car suddenly clicked and was lifted up by someone.
The man suddenly felt a buzzing behind his ears. He held his breath and turned his head to look at the face of the culprit - it was a pale and gloomy woman, and there was a look of déjà vu between her eyebrows that shocked him.
During the action, a dirty ID card fell out.
Name: Long Zhu.
Born: 1985
Wait...it's her?!
No! No no no no no no no no no!!
Absolutely not!
Didn’t she... die a long time ago? ! ! !
The man had a rag stuffed in his mouth and Long Zhu tied the rope around him tightly again. He let her drag him out of the car by his ankles, like a pig or sheep on a chopping board waiting to be slaughtered.
He was wearing a jacket with a skull pattern, and the collar of his jacket rubbed against the muddy ground. The strong smell of grass went straight from his nostrils to the top of his head. The dead leaf stems on the ground were like dense teeth, gnawing at his cheeks frantically.
There were only a few bird calls and frog croaks within a hundred miles. This was the outskirts of Hecheng, a familiar corpse dumping ground.
The man rubbed the stuffed object out of his mouth bit by bit, and said in a panic: "Who are you! What are you doing! Help! Help!!"
Long Zhu dragged the man's ankle with one hand and held a very ordinary folding mop in the other.
The man's questioning turned into a tearful plea: "...I was impulsive and made a mistake when I was young. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I will turn over and become a new person. I will turn myself in. I will spend the rest of my life repenting in prison... Don't kill me!"
Long Zhu stopped, and the man suddenly thought that his prayers had worked. He strained his neck and raised his eyes to look, and saw a huge deep pit in front of him.
Before the man could figure out what was happening, he was suddenly swept in by Long Zhu with a mop like playing gateball.
He rolled to the bottom, and then sand and soil began to fall. In a moment, his whole body was stuck in the mud and he couldn't move at all.
"Wait!" He screamed, "I was wrong! I was really wrong! I'll do anything you ask me to do! Don't kill me!... Don't... Ugh..."
Long Zhu calmly watched the man's belated regret.
"'She' lent me her body, and I owe her that."
The man didn't understand and just kept struggling.
She squatted by the pit and calculated with her fingers: "You have forty-seven years left to live. 'She' doesn't want to commit murder, so I've left you some spiritual energy, enough for you to live to the end of your life."
The other party's words were like thunder exploding in the man's ears.
The people in the pit were completely stunned, their bodies suddenly twitching uncontrollably.
"Buried... in the ground... forty-seven years... before he died?..."
Long Zhu: "Yeah, it's been quite a long time."
Forty-seven years! Some people don’t even live to be forty-seven.
Amidst sobs, the pit was completely filled. Long Zhu squatted on the ground and patted it, then stood up and stepped on the soil. Feeling that there was no flaw, he carried the mop and left.
Halfway through her walk, she suddenly stopped.
Snakes, rats, insects and ants can also bite people. Do you have enough spiritual energy left?
Forget it - if I work on it for thirty or forty years, the statute of limitations will probably be over, so dying a few years early won't be a big deal.
Long Zhu closed the car door, clicked on the new address sent by Ying Zhiwei, confirmed it again and again, and then slowly drove away.
At the same time, a hot social search came out of nowhere and instantly ignited the entire network.
After the debut of XX boy group, the nobleman who signed with Huayi Star Path, Chen Songling, the young master of Huiyao Group, has lost contact with the outside world and is suspected of having a major connection with a kidnapping gang.
As soon as the news came out, not only were Huayi Xingtu, Huiyao Building, and a private club surrounded by fans, but even the police station was crowded with media and bloggers who were looking for traffic.
The office of Hecheng Criminal Police Detachment.
Captain Zhou Peng's brows were twisted into a "川" shape, and the cigarette wick in his hand flashed brightly. It was not until the ash burned his fingers that he came to his senses and, with a choking sound, he dug out the cobweb-covered ashtray in the corner.
Based on the garage surveillance footage of the last place Chen Songling was seen, a silver Xiali N3 was identified, and based on witness testimony, an incredible suspect was tracked down.
Zhou Peng opened the old file, on which was pasted a yellowed photo of a girl: short hair, sunny, and beautiful.
Long Zhu was born in Luwei Village, Hecheng in 1985.
His family relationship is extremely simple. His father died early and he was raised by his mother alone. Due to financial difficulties, he gave up his studies and went to the city to work.
She was later reported missing by her mother at the local police station. The police searched for her for several days without success and suspected she had been murdered, but her body has not been found to date.
This was a case that his teacher was responsible for investigating twenty years ago, and Zhou Peng would take a look at it from time to time.
But if the person who appeared was really Long Zhu, why did the suspect's portrait and witness testimony show that he had not changed at all due to the influence of time?
Long Zhu's mother also died long ago while seeking justice for her daughter. Now there is no other way to find any trace of the existence of a living life.
"Captain Zhou!" The young police officer knocked on the door hurriedly and put a screenshot printed from the surveillance camera on the table.
"New discovery. I visited Huayi Star Path. This man called 'Third Brother' has been intentionally or unintentionally inquiring about Chen Songling's schedule a few days ago. He was also seen getting into that Xiali car. I speculate that he may be an accomplice."
The man in the picture is wearing a black jacket with a skull pattern.
Just a glance and Zhou Peng's blood boiled - he would never forget that this man was a gangster who had appeared near Longzhu's rental house. He had been interrogated by the teacher many times, but because no key evidence was found, he could not be convicted.
“Where are the people?!”
The young police officer was shocked: "It's strange that we can't contact him. It's like he disappeared from the face of the earth."
Zhou Peng was stunned for a moment, then suddenly thought of something and asked the other party to leave.
He locked the office door, took out a glass and wooden framed photo from the drawer, and stroked it for a long time.
The picture above shows a heroic and capable female police officer, with her arm around the shoulder of a male student. Both of them are smiling, one is cheerful and the other is shy and immature.
"Teacher...it's been twenty years..."
After muttering for a long time, he took out the phone book from the bottom drawer.
He turned to a certain page, hesitated briefly, and then slowly and solemnly dialed a number on his phone.
"Hello? Is this Director Bai? I'm Zhou Peng, captain of the Hecheng Criminal Police Detachment. I have a case that may need to be reported to the Abnormal Control Bureau..."
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