Chapter 35: The Fourth Treaty
After Tang Pengan escaped, Tu Lanxun could no longer accurately locate the candle flame 10110101, and the other party might be moving at high speed.
In fact, if they had not been interrupted by Tang Guangming who was crying and running away after entering the door, they might have caught the man and the ghost.
Tu Lanxun's thoughts suddenly clicked: "The one who followed Tang Guangming with a knife was Tang Pengan..."
Why would he attack his own son? Thinking of Xiaoguang's cries, she looked up and said, "Perhaps we've been wrong all along. The usual container of 10110101 is not Tang Pengan, but Tang Guangming."
Tang Weining flinched. As they walked down, they encountered a children's soccer team finishing up practice. Every sweaty child was about Tang Guangming's age. He couldn't help but ask, "Peng'an... wants to kill Xiaoguang and thus kill 10110101?"
The disbelief on his face didn't seem fake. Tang Pengan loved his son dearly, so how could this be possible? It was more likely that 10110101 was controlling him to kill Xiaoguang.
Tu Lanxun: "What if Xiaoguang is already dead?"
N turned to look at her for several seconds and nodded slightly.
Tang Weining wanted to say, "Are you kidding me? Xiaoguang didn't run away or cry just now. Isn't he alive?"
Tu Lanxun murmured, "So... there was a third person who died in your villa... Now we know who it was."
It was Tang Guangming. Like his cousin Bai Xiaoju, he had died in the fire five years ago.
And the soul in his body afterwards is likely to be 10110101.
Tang Weining couldn't accept this fact. "You, you're talking nonsense. Xiaoguang has grown over ten centimeters in height in the past few years, and he's older. And he has scars. If his body is already dead, how can the burns heal and form scars?"
N was smiling brightly beside him. Although Tang Weining couldn't hear, he was enthusiastic: "Dead people can still have resurrection and grow hair and nails. Why can't Tang Guangming grow taller?"
Tu Lanxun subconsciously said, "But... it has to be right after death..."
N said, "As soon as one soul leaves, another one comes in, and it's a big ghost. How can this not be considered 'just dead'? Even ten years later, it will still be in the state of 'just dead'."
…
After returning to the villa, N used some tricks and Bai Chao woke up in the early morning of the next day.
As soon as Bai Chao woke up, the boundary between Tang Weining and N was broken. Her spirit was a little illusory, but her posture was still upright. There was a cut throat wound on her neck that was bleeding, and it seemed like she was tied with a red scarf.
"Chaochao——" Tang Weining screamed and tried to grab her hand, but missed.
Bai Chao bowed slightly to N, "Thank you, sir." He then turned to Tu Lanxun, "And this lady."
N's presence calmed Tang Weining down. He then remembered the good things he had done, stammered, lowered his head, and remained silent. Two tears welled up in the corners of his eyes, hanging there as if they were about to fall.
Tang Weining was completely ignored. He could only hug himself, crying and laughing.
Bai Chao is a smart person, and the topic quickly turned to how to capture Tang Pengan. Her opinion was similar to Tu Lanxun's: there was no need to involve Tu Lanxun in this matter.
"Let me write a letter of denunciation," Bai Chao said. She glanced at Tang Weining, her eyes filled with an incomprehensible emotion. "This all started because I built my business and accumulated wealth, which attracted the jealousy and hatred of the jackals. Let me put an end to all this."
Tu Lanxun felt that it was both feasible and infeasible. What did Bai Chao write? He wrote that she had been killed by Tang Pengan. Would the police believe it?
N said calmly: "You will violate the Fourth Treaty."
What is the Fourth Treaty? Tu Lanxun wondered, are these rules that ghosts must abide by? But in the past six years, many people on Earth have died at the hands of ghosts. "Do only local ghosts have to abide by the treaty? Don't foreign ghosts have to?"
Bai Chao smiled at her, as if he liked her a little, then lowered his eyes and said, "I don't care."
After explanation, the complete sentence of Article 4 is: It is prohibited to appear in front of living people, be known to living people, and cause subsequent reactions.
The consequences are quite serious. In short, you will be punished. At the very least, you will die ten thousand times in a row, and at the worst, you will be directly wiped out.
Tu Lanxun looked at N: "Didn't you violate the rules too?" 10110101 also violated the rules.
N crossed his legs, leaned back, and smiled as if he could see through her thoughts: "10110101 With Tang Guangming as the cover, if the company does something bad, the legal person should be held accountable, right? Tang Guangming is his legal person. Theoretically, he doesn't fall into the category of ghosts, so he is not subject to jurisdiction. Didn't I hear what his uncle said? He's still growing taller."
"Then I am also your...shell?"
N happily said: "You are not. I had already planned what to do next. Who knew that the Earth world didn't judge me as violating the rules? Maybe it has something to do with the special connection between us."
Bai Chao couldn't help but take another look at them, trying to judge their relationship, which made Tu Lanxun angry. We are not in contact, okay?
In short, Tu Lanxun didn't know what his physical condition was, but he protected N. By the way, he also saved Bai Xiaoju, who bought food indiscriminately, under the fourth treaty.
Perhaps Bai Chao's report letter could be circumvented by Tu Lanxun's hand.
"Although Sister Chao is the biggest evidence, we have to look for something else besides this." Tu Lanxun thought and looked at Tang Weining helplessly.
This guy thought he had committed a crime and handled the scene too cleanly. It is estimated that it is difficult to find even a fingerprint on Bai Chao's body parts now.
Tang Weining hung his head. His retribution was that his wife, whose body he had hidden, was sitting across from him. After a long pause, he placed his briefcase on the table and said, "I took these from Tang Pengan's house. They might be useful."
He no longer expressed any emotional opinions, even though what everyone was doing was enough to get him fired or even put in jail. But he just stared at his thighs without saying a word.
Inside the briefcase were three cassette tapes tied together with rubber bands, a bunch of unknown keys, and two tin cans.
There were two identical keys in the keychain, but with different-sized tape on them. They might be the keys to the cabinet where the hospital stored controlled medications. Bai Chao immediately recognized the tin can: "It's a gas anesthetic. The same stuff he used to kill me."
Only tapes were left, and few people used them now, so they bought a second-hand tape recorder online in the same city and spent a delivery fee that was higher than the price of the goods. The tape recorder was delivered to the door of the villa an hour later.
The three tapes were laid out in order, the first the oldest, the next two newer. Tang Weining was listless, Bai Chao was too weak and insubstantial, and Tu Lanxun was completely clueless. Only N stood there operating the tape recorder, his long fingers clicking the buttons.
At this moment, Tang Weining's cell phone suddenly rang——
"Hello." He turned on the speakerphone. The voice on the other end was Tang Pengan. He smiled tiredly and said, "Brother?"
Tang Weining would rather die than hear the word "brother" again. In front of Bai Chao, his relationship with Tang Pengan was the evidence of his guilt. He covered his face and said coldly: "I know everything. Where are you?"
Tu Lanxun typed on his phone rapidly, and the computer lady replied: He was using Internet dial-up, and his account was encrypted. He could only confirm that he was still in Lucheng, and it would take a long time to crack the specific IP.
Tang Pengan chuckled twice, his calmness tinged with a hint of madness. "You know everything? And you're still questioning me? You're truly... shameless. Brother, you have no right to call the police to arrest me. Regardless of whether the police can convict me, you just don't have the right."
"Why am I not qualified? You killed my wife, killed my child, and you want to kill more..." This was the first time Tu Lanxun saw Tang Weining roar.
Tang Pengan: "Thinking about what happened in the past, are you sure?"
Tang Weining glanced at Bai Chao, wanting to draw strength from him, "Yes."
"Hehehe..." Tang Pengan said softly, "Bitch, everything was fine before, it's all you who ruined me..."
After saying this, Tang Pengan hung up the phone. Tang Weining's face turned pale. He bit his lower lip and fell back onto the sofa exhausted.
Bai Chao was also looking at him, and she didn't know what Tang Pengan was talking about.
"Alright." The only person who remained relaxed was N. He was still standing behind the tape recorder, inserting the first tape, closing the lid, and smiling: "Let's get started."
He pressed "Start" with a mysterious expression, as if he was keen to play the role of a magician unveiling the curtain to amaze the bloody family in the audience... half of the audience.
The tape was driven by gears, and the audio was slightly distorted due to its age, but at least it wasn't stuck. A young boy's voice was reading English words, with clear pronunciation and seriousness. You could tell he was a good student.
Soon, another boy joined in. The boy, who had not yet fully developed, had a slightly hoarse voice, but he had a youthful and fresh feeling.
These are the voices of Tang Weining and Tang Pengan.
The entire tape was filled with recordings of English words. At the end, Tang Weining slumped back in his chair and explained, "This was when we were in middle school. The teacher would give us homework to practice English pronunciation and record it for him to check."
"It's not over yet." N smiled, changed the tape to side B, and pressed start.
The tape recorder started to sound, and the echo of the Tang brothers was empty. They should be in the classroom. The sharp friction sound that came afterwards confirmed this.
Tang Weining: "Hey, don't sit on the back of the chair."
Tang Pengan: "I know, the B-side recording is ruined, let's start over."
But the next sentence, Tang Pengan said: "Brother, when will Mr. Xu's tutoring stop? I don't want to go anymore. I want to play basketball."
Before Tang Weining could teach his brother a lesson, a third voice rang out. The man's voice was blurry due to the distance, and only the end of the sentence could be heard: "...are you done recording?"
"No, Teacher Xu." Tang Peng'an's voice trembled a little. "We are still practicing. We are almost there."
Teacher Xu came closer. "Is there anything unclear? Where?"
"It's okay...it's not a bother..."
"I'll teach you... Don't be nervous... What are you talking about..."
"Thank you... for lending us the tape recorder..."
…
Teacher Xu seemed unaware that the tape recorder was recording. There was a rustling sound, the shuffling of tables and chairs, and the breathing of the Tang brothers. Finally, someone fell down, and the tables and chairs made a loud crashing sound, accompanied by Teacher Xu's muffled cry: "Ah!"
The sound was truly painful, followed by the sound of someone flopping to their feet and the bang of a door slamming shut.
"...That's how it should be." The young man Tang Pengan said hurriedly.
The tape recorder clicked again, and Side B ended, bringing everyone's thoughts back to reality.
Tu Lanxun asked, "What happened to Teacher Xu? It didn't sound like he fell."
Tang Weining's eyelashes covered his eyes, and his voice was hollow: "Yes, he didn't fall, it was Peng An who punched him."
He felt very strange now, as if he was trapped in the depths of his memories, having a waking nightmare.
What is even more intriguing is why Tang Pengan has kept this tape until now. It can't be that he really likes the sound of reading English.
She: "Oh? So what happened to Teacher Xu? Is he still alive?"
"He's gone," Tang Weining said. "Teacher Xu died of a heart attack before we even graduated."
He paused, as if to avoid other people's speculation, and then said directly: "Peng'an and I were also at the scene of his death. We saw him fall ill and struggle, but we didn't call an ambulance or the police."
Tang Weining suddenly raised the corner of his lips and looked up at Bai Chao: "Actually, Peng An wanted to call someone that day."
"I stopped him."
A strange light flashed in his eyes, cold but as if it could burn something away. "We were Teacher Xu's favorite students that term, but between Peng'an and me, he loved me the most."
"He died nineteen years ago, at one in the morning on October 11th."
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