Chapter 88 Breakthrough
The water in the bathroom was running, but now it suddenly stopped.
Tu Lanxun's memories drifted back to a long time ago. It has been almost a year, and the bankruptcy of Tu Group seems to be still in front of his eyes.
A strange invasion is like a super natural disaster such as hail and typhoon. In addition to being unpredictable, people basically have no power to resist it. Therefore, there is no way to guard against thieves for a thousand days, unless a disaster really hits you on the head.
At the time, land in the development zone was extremely valuable. The newly built commercial district and residential areas offered a fresh, fresh look, unlike the old city, attracting many new residents. People speculated that due to the slow pace of demolition, the core of Lucheng would gradually shift to the development zone.
The Tu Group is one of the largest private investors in the development zone.
When did the first shot go off? Tu Lanxun remembers it clearly: a middle school had just moved to a new campus. One afternoon, perhaps due to a lucky coincidence by the scheduler, an entire corridor was filled with classes taking physical education, self-study classes, music classes, and mental health classes.
It happened to be raining heavily that day, so physical education class could not be held, and then all the classrooms along the corridor were showing movies.
There were about eight or nine classes, watching eight or nine different movies at the same time, both domestic and foreign.
It’s dim and peaceful, with the sounds of furious writing, soft snoring and movies. The ink on the test papers is shrouded in light and shadow, forming a timeless little world of its own.
But coincidentally, strange things happened on eight or nine projection screens.
When the film was in full swing, the scenes involving vampires, police and gangsters, and campus scenes suddenly stopped, frames were cut off, and the network froze, turning the actors' faces into strange shapes.
Finally, a distorted ghost face appeared among all the curtains.
After two or three seconds of silence, the students' screams resounded through the sky.
Someone took a picture of the scene, but the phone froze instantly. Everyone ran out, talking incoherently while trying to wake up the classmates who were sleeping on the table. A crowd gathered in the corridor.
It was still raining heavily outside, and running was impossible. Some people brought umbrellas, but when the majority of the group refused to go out, the children with umbrellas had no choice but to follow in. Finally, they decided to go find the teacher.
Coincidentally, the teachers were also in a meeting that afternoon and were not there for the time being. The three offices for liberal arts and history subjects were empty, but one of the three offices for science and engineering subjects could not be opened.
Not only could it not be pushed open, but voices could be heard from inside, but I couldn't make out what they were saying.
The students knocked on the door loudly, but nothing happened in the office. They didn't know who to contact. What if this was caused by a computer virus? If it was too serious, they might get criticized. Some people sent text messages to their families, but the text showed that the delivery failed.
No signal.
Call the emergency number? It doesn't seem to be that serious.
Someone whispered, "Are we really all normal people now?"
So they dispersed, each gathering together with people they knew and staying away from strangers, but everyone found that there seemed to be no one who was unknown to everyone.
Finally, a few brave students looked at the slogans in the corridor saying “Beware of strange intrusions” and “Report in time and ask for help boldly” and decided to kick open the closed office door.
The power of young people is infinite. After all the shoe prints of different colors were left, the locked door was rushed open and bounced back on the wall.
But the students were stunned and no one paid attention to the door. The leaders turned around and ran away. Others squeezed over to see what was going on, but after one look, they were so scared that they wet their pants and rolled and crawled away, screaming loudly.
This time something really happened.
The body of a teacher was found hanging from the ceiling.
There were no ropes or chains to hold him down; he just leaned against the ceiling with his limbs arched backwards.
His chest was pressed against the ceiling, but his head was lowered, and his wide-open eyes on his gray face were staring at the office door, as if he was dead.
On the table, the male teacher's cell phone was still playing a radio channel, and the sound of foreign news was endless.
Amid the panicked escape of the students, the male teacher's body fell to the ground with a loud bang, his limbs, the desk and the ground were lifted up, and then he collapsed on the spot.
Only those eyes were still looking straight out of the office door.
"During that bizarre invasion, two terrified students saw a suspicious object. It first pounced on them, then turned and fled out the window," Li Ao recalled. "And it was only half a body."
Tu Lanxun asked: "Half a body?" This was not written in the news.
Li Ao replied, "Yes, according to the student's recollection during the psychological counseling process, the object was humanoid. Due to excessive fear, the student's memory of its face is blurry."
He gestured, "It started out as a whole human figure, but after it flipped over the windowsill, it became half, as if it had been cut in half by the sunlight, and the missing half disappeared."
Tu Lanxun recalled the inexplicable rumor circulating at the time about ghosts being "shy and afraid of sunlight." Because the myth that ghosts can't see light was so ingrained in people's minds, many people were sold UV disinfectants, including portable handheld models.
Until more and more accidents broke this pseudoscience.
Now that I think about it, it must have been Treaty 4 that had its effect. The strange person who killed the teacher was witnessed by many students, causing others to observe and their consciousness to fluctuate, so he was executed by Treaty 4.
Tu Lanxun couldn't help but ask, "What does that have to do with the Nanxi Mountain you mentioned?"
N has all arms and legs.
Li Ao sighed and said, "Do you know about the Fourth Treaty?"
Tu Lanxun nodded, and Li Ao immediately continued, "Have you ever found out who enforces the Fourth Treaty?"
Law enforcer? Shouldn't the treaty be the invisible law of nature, existing in the air?
But a second later, two shadows, one black and one white, suddenly broke into Tu Lanxun's mind.
Black... Black and White Impermanence?
The female ghost with long braids wearing a white suit with burnt edges, and the short-haired male ghost wearing a moth-eaten black coat?
Li Ao said, "It is said that the enforcer of the law uses a sickle as a weapon. These two strange creatures rarely appear in public and generally do not harm living people, but they are evil stars for ghosts and monsters."
Tu Lanxun's eyelids twitched.
"Among the data fluctuations captured regarding suspected law enforcement officers, relevant departments have observed another type of fluctuation frequency. During the development zone's closure, this frequency appeared frequently and densely at the scene of the relevant incident." Li Ao added, "We only learned of this recently."
Tu Lanxun asked, "Do you think that is Nanxi Mountain?"
Li Ao said: "Hu Haisheng identified it as Nan Xishan. He provided Nan Xishan's personal identification information. This person once worked for Tianguo Group as the chairman's special assistant. He also died unexpectedly more than six years ago."
Tu Lanxun thought it was outrageous: "And then?"
Li Ao's eyes were gloomy. "The Deshi Hospital, which was funded by Tianguo Group, is the hospital where Nan Xishan was pronounced dead. Since Nan Xishan has no family, Tianguo Group has preserved his vehicle and phone from the time of the accident."
The vehicle has been destroyed and recycled, but the phone has survived to this day.
"Nan Xishan was on the phone when the accident happened. Perhaps because the car slipped and collided, he accidentally pressed the record button, so his last few words were recorded. As well as the entire process of the crash, falling out of the window, and death, the phone was in recording mode."
"Based on this recording, we analyzed the frequency of Nanxishan's soul—the spirit body."
Li Ao's expression became strange. He confidently said something he would never have believed a few months ago, frowning slightly. "It just so happens that the frequency of frequent occurrences at the crime scene in the development zone eight months ago matches."
Tu Lanxun's mind went blank for two seconds, and for a moment he could only hear the sound of his own blood flowing.
"So we have reason to suspect that Nanxishan is one of the culprits that led to the tragedy in the development zone."
Tu Lanxun heard his own voice saying, "That's very convincing, but can we really believe what Hu Haisheng said?"
Dong Yijian is still out there, and Hu Haisheng knows that Dong Yijian will be cleanly apprehended. He turned against him so early, isn't he afraid that Dong Yijian will do something to him and his family?
Li Ao glanced at Tu Lanxun with appreciation and nodded. "You're right, so right now we're just suspecting the direction. Director Wenchong asked me to come here to update you. If we can solve the case, then we can finally explain all the unsolved murders and your family's bankruptcy."
Tu Lanxun smiled and said, "Thank you, Officer Li."
After drinking half a bottle of water with a dry mouth, Li Ao stood up to say goodbye. Tu Lanxun saw him out. The moment he turned around, he leaned against the glass door and suddenly felt a headache.
Development Zone... Mysterious Invasion... Tu's Group...
She looked out in confusion. The streets had become haunted again after Li Ao's departure, with ghosts wandering under the rising sun. She had once thought she owned a convenience store and had started a new life.
But when she looked up, she saw that the convenience store was still inside the development zone. In this ghostly place, she had never left.
But the barrier between the ghost and her was broken, and it was clearly laid out before her eyes.
She was a living person living with ghosts, a life that anyone would find crazy.
Tu Lanxun let out a slow breath. The restroom on the other side was still quiet. Mikhail the Bronze Lynx remained silent behind the cigarette holder, and the computer ghost was locked inside her computer, not daring to emerge. Aside from a few ghostly customers observing the situation from a distance, the convenience store was unusually quiet.
The sound of a door opening came from behind her, and the light from the bathroom tickled her peripheral vision.
Then there were footsteps so light that they were almost inaudible, with long, rapid strides.
Tu Lanxun felt her wrist being held by a colder and larger hand, and a force turned her over, and she bumped into N's broken and cold eyes.
He stared at her, his voice slightly higher in pitch, the ending trembling slightly, "I didn't do it."
Tu Lanxun stared back blankly, but his eyes were empty and his attention was not here at all.
“I really didn’t do that!”
N then placed both hands on Tu Lanxun's shoulders, staring intently at him. His tone was tinged with urgency and a hint of resentment at being wronged. "It wasn't me..."
Tu Lanxun Mumu nodded, grabbed N's hand on her shoulder, and for the first time felt him with her entire palm and all her fingers. She held him on the back of the cold glove, and the shape of the bones on the back of his hand was transmitted to her through the glove.
A pair of hands that smell of late night grass and trees.
Perfect for a neck grip. Perfect for what else? Evoke screams in a bloody night?
Her eyes were out of focus, and a smile suddenly appeared on the corner of her mouth. She fell into an unfamiliar emotion, which pulled her thoughts to float to the sky, and then sink to the center of the earth and the deep sea.
"If it's not you, then who could it be...?"
Tu Lanxun and N were at a stalemate.
It’s not that Tu Lanxun doubted him too much, but after Li Ao came, Tu Lanxun decided to investigate in depth, and N unilaterally had a quarrel with him.
Specifically, he kept silent, wiped the floor repeatedly with a gloomy face, and caused the ghost customers who walked in to slip. Even the potato pancakes had to slip on their faces to stop when they ran fast, and meowed in anger.
Moreover, the sugar content in the food is increasing, and the cheap pickles on the table have become a scarce commodity that everyone is scrambling for. Liu Maosheng is very worried and says that if this continues, it will easily attract ant ghosts.
"Is your combined mental age twenty years old?" Sonia complained while chewing crispy marshmallows.
Tu Lanxun said coldly: "Put that thing down first."
Another web game showed GAMEOVER, and Tu Lanxun stood up suddenly, scaring the dozing computer ghost.
Suoniya smiled brightly: "It's just a trivial matter, it's up to you, it has nothing to do with eating melons anyway."
Tu Penglai hadn't sent Tu Lanxun a message since returning from the Yangui Sanatorium, and in fact, he hadn't sent her a message before. Instead, Zhang Xiaohuai called Tu Lanxun and said he wanted to treat her to a meal and catch up.
This guy may have pestered his biological mother He Hua An Ning to the point of being unbearable, and finally told him that his soul was trapped during the time he was unconscious, and it happened to be related to the damn gold shop Longfeng family.
So Zhang Xiaohuai jumped up and down, wanting to find an "insider" to talk to. Then he thought that Tu Lanxun was the only acquaintance who had recently visited the Longfeng Family, so he urged her to come out for dinner.
Tu Lanxun gets a headache when he thinks of the "little man fish" who is full of desire to talk.
"I won't be in the store this afternoon. I'm out for something and won't be back for dinner." Tu Lanxun said to the computer ghost, but actually he was talking to N.
Mikhail was happy: "Nightingale won't cook tonight? Finally, I don't have to eat sweet braised pork?"
N snorted, flicked the rag, and went into the bathroom to clean up.
Tu Lanxun set off promptly at 3 p.m., though he wasn't driving his silver-gray Jetta because he was meeting someone new. Tang Weining drove Tu Lanxun to a place where taxis were easily available and told him to call for him when he returned that evening.
It was nearly four o'clock when the taxi arrived at Zhang Xiaohuai's hotel. Evening stars rose from the translucent blue-green sky. It was the last stretch of the season with relatively cool temperatures. In a few days, there would be snowfall, followed by the bitter cold of winter.
Tu Lanxun didn't care about the N tails hanging behind him and was led into the private room by the waiter. Zhang Xiaohuai was already sitting by the hot pot stirring the dipping sauce.
He looked up, still with that carefree look on his face. "Oh, I ordered a shabu-shabu hot pot. Come on, come on, sit down." The menu was pushed over. "What else do you want to eat? Order quickly."
When Tu Lanxun saw the double-boiled hot pot, his eyelids twitched.
Who calls the tomato and curry pot a "double-flavor pot"?
ill.
After ordering two more servings of tripe and shrimp paste, Tu Lanxun sat to one side, kicked the chair next to her with her legs extended. Zhang Xiaohuai gave her a puzzled look, and she replied perfunctorily, "Stretch your legs."
N sat down on the pulled-out chair.
"I'm not bragging, buddy. Seriously, I can really see ghosts!" Zhang Xiaohuai threw out the opening remarks that had obviously been conceived for a long time, but he didn't intend to say anything shocking.
Because N was sitting opposite Zhang Xiaohuai, he couldn't see him at all.
Tu Lanxun hummed twice and continued to think about ordering dishes.
Zhang Xiaohuai was unhappy and slammed the table. "Why don't you listen to me? Are you alienated from me? I'm telling you, I've disliked you for a long time. I wanted to lend you money but you refused. Now you're pretending to be so profound with me. What a character."
Tu Lanxun tossed him a napkin. Zhang Xiaohuai squinted her eyes. She said calmly, "Your oil dish got on my clothes."
Zhang Xiaohuai cried out, "This is what my mother just gave me. It's over, it's over. I'm going to be punished." He ran out to ask for wet wipes and degreaser.
The room fell silent, and Tu Lanxun stared at the bubbling hot pot. Actually, Zhang Xiaohuai had always been quite loyal to her.
When Penglai Group collapsed, Zhang Xiaohuai was the only one in the circle who rushed to the front, promising to lend Tu Lanxun money, interest-free. Unfortunately, even though he was a businessman, even if he drained all his available cash, it wouldn't necessarily fill the huge hole.
Besides, even though he was willing, his family was not. So Tu Lanxun declined politely, being too shameless to even tell him the address of the rental house.
Zhang Xiaohuai came back quickly, his clothes were soaked, but he smiled and covered them with a tissue. "Oh, the pot is boiling, why don't you eat quickly?"
The room was filled with the aroma of tomato and curry. Zhang Xiaohuai was eating with gusto. The more Tu Lanxun smelled it, the more it felt like vomit. He put down his chopsticks and went to open the window. Zhang Xiaohuai called out again, "Waiter, please come over and change the soup base to a normal clear soup with spicy."
N sneered from the side, a sound that only Tu Lanxun could hear.
While Zhang Xiaohuai was changing the base of the pot, he couldn't help but play with his phone. Two waiters came in to remove the pot. The pot was very hot, and they were wearing thick heat-insulating gloves. One of them said, "Please be careful, sir. Move back."
Zhang Xiaohuai didn't dodge, but stared at his phone blankly, almost hitting his head on the hot pot.
Tu Lanxun: “What are you doing?”
Zhang Xiaohuai waved his hands wildly, looking at the waiter nearby with a strange look in his eyes. He leaned forward to pull Tu Lanxun away, but was shoved away. "Hurry up, sit over here, behind the wall."
He pushed Tu Lanxun inside, even refusing to eat the hot pot. He paid the bill and refused to leave the room. He glanced outside and closed the door: "Quick, draw the curtains."
Tu Lanxun couldn't stand it any longer: "What happened?"
Zhang Xiaohuai propped a chair against the door, closed the curtains, and forced Tu Lanxun to sit in the corner. His face was serious: "You're wanted! Wait, I'll make a phone call."
He called his newly hired bodyguards and asked them to come pick her up. Tu Lanxun was still confused. Who was wanted for her? Wen Chong or Li Ao? You must be kidding.
Zhang Xiaohuai showed Tu Lanxun his mobile phone. This person liked to browse some underground websites, that is, the dark web. At this moment, there were two posts floating on the top of the dark page. When he clicked on it, Tu Lanxun's photo was clearly among them.
"A reward has been offered for your life." Zhang Xiaohuai was very serious.
The marked price had a long string of zeros after it, and it also said that it was just the reserve price, and there would be a bonus after the transaction was completed.
Fortunately, the address was relatively vague, with only Lucheng as the only one, but Tu Lanxun's school experience was listed there, and his social connections could be found along the way.
The poster was anonymous. Zhang Xiaohuai was still banging his head, "Who hates you so much? Did Aunt Tu offend anyone?"
Tu Lanxun knew who it was. Who else could it be besides Dong Yijian and his group?
No wonder Zhang Xiaohuai was so stressed. The webpage he browsed had almost no legal information. The cleanest ones were gray industries that came from a group of guys who were hiding in dark corners and making a lot of money quietly.
"I have to go back." Tu Lanxun stood up.
Zhang Xiaohuai glanced through the crack in the curtains, as if looking for a non-existent sniper. "Where are you going? Why don't you leave Lucheng and hide? I'll arrange for you to leave."
Tu Lanxun picked up his coat and said, "Call the police."
Zhang Xiaohuai: "Ah?"
#
Thirty minutes later, when they were sitting in the Lucheng South Police Station again, Tu Lanxun told Zhang Xiaohuai to go home with his bodyguards.
Li Ao's expression turned extremely ugly. "This is a major mistake in our work!"
In fact, there is no way. The surveillance cameras in Junxi Manor and those along the streets outside are difficult to erase. Due to the existence of the spirit sensor, N has the ability but cannot do so.
It was only a matter of time before Tu Lanxun's facial information was leaked, but I didn't expect that group of people would post the reward online so quickly.
She leaned back on the sofa and said, "I guess the person who did this is overseas."
Li Ao's brows were furrowed so tightly that they could kill a fly. "Fortunately, your personal file was sealed and hidden before the Junxi Manor operation began. They were unable to find out what happened after your school experience."
The convenience store's address has been protected, including Tu Lanxun's identity as the registered operator.
Wen Chong came in from outside. "Cybersecurity is intervening. They've bypassed negotiations and directly taken technical measures to remove the information on that webpage."
It just can't prevent those people from posting again.
Li Ao put down his cigarette and said to Tu Lanxun, "How about you come live in the police station for the time being? Or we can add two more detection teams around the convenience store to provide round-the-clock protection."
Tu Lanxun didn't feel anything. She agreed to the latter suggestion and used her mobile phone to send a message to the computer ghost. The latter quickly hacked the number of views of the post and the background repost information.
In less than an hour, the website message was removed, but it was only a matter of time before it made a comeback.
And the biggest difficulty now is that if someone really comes over, they can only catch the "person who takes the order" but cannot catch the person who posted the reward.
Dong Yijian has been under surveillance and has not contacted the outside world. The person who is working for him out of sight has not been revealed until now.
It can only be said that although the action of Junxi Manor stopped Deshi Hospital, it was far from catching them all.
"Don't worry," Tu Lanxun said, "I'll stay here and won't go anywhere. I'll contact you anytime if there's anything."
Wen Chong nodded, his voice still steady. "Okay, I'll be stationed there today. I've already reported this to my superiors. This matter can't be resolved in Lucheng alone. We'll be sending more people over, and a special case investigation is imminent."
Tu Lanxun didn't use Tang Weining in the end, and Wen Chong drove her back personally.
After returning to the convenience store and sending a message to Zhang Xiaohuai to let him know he was safe, Tu Lanxun saw that the number of police officers inside and outside the temporary police station outside the street was visibly increasing.
After hearing her story about hiring a killer online, Suoniya sneered, "Who dares to come? I'm not afraid of planting lotus flowers in a water tank again."
Mikhail sat at the door of the store with his thick arms folded, his expression gloomy, as if he was ready to give someone a Russian punch at any time.
Ghosts don't need to sleep, so Liu Maosheng secretly formed a reliable sentry team to guard the passages within a one-kilometer radius of the convenience store. Bai Chao, Lu Jiasui, and the adventure team were among them.
There are also the mermaid ghosts born from the blue sea. Now that they can come and go freely, they are eager to join in the fun.
Liu Maosheng came back once and said, "Don't worry, boss, everyone is full of passion."
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