Chapter 91 Green Tea
If it was the ghost from the movie, then N should recognize that weirdness.
Tu Lanxun stared at him imperceptibly. Xiao Zhang, who was standing next to him and had heard of the case, nodded slightly. "I think it's possible."
N also said: "It's possible."
Regardless of whether the movie ghost and the weirdness of this case are the same, the identity of the former is definitely related to the film and television entertainment industry.
While everyone was thinking, N stood in the corner, arms folded, and whispered to Tu Lanxun, "That guy's stage name is Qingcha. He's an obscure actor who specializes in playing ancient-style male roles. This is his file in the real world."
Qingcha has neither social connections nor innate qualities, but his profile is okay from two angles, and he is very dependent on makeup and atmosphere. He often plays the male No. N in various small costume drama crews, and has acted in short dramas and large crowd roles.
Due to this depression and frustration, Qingcha in the show did something shocking - he created a murder case on the crew.
It was originally a crew filming a costume suspense TV series. Qingcha was suppressed by the male lead one to male lead nine in front of him, so he finally decided to suppress them physically.
A fake wall made from props from the crew.
There is a scene where a restaurant collapses, and a fake wall made of foam and thin wooden boards is about to fall down on their heads. The male protagonist and his friends use wire ropes to fly out, but they don’t expect that the wall at the bottom is light and the top is heavy. The rows of foam bricks on the top are replaced with real bricks, and nails are hidden behind the thin wooden boards and silk curtains.
There are also those paper lanterns on the roof of the restaurant, which are filled with heavy waste stones and rusty nails.
The craziest thing is that Qingcha himself was also in that scene, playing a not-so-important supporting role.
Then he and the male No. 1 to No. 9, whom he envied, became seriously injured people waiting to be rescued in the ruins. He watched as the handsome face of the male No. 1 was scratched into a torn handkerchief, even more ordinary than his own face; he saw the hand of the male No. 3, who often raised the glass to the big shots at the wine table, drooped limply under the stone, without a breath of life.
Qingcha laughed out loud three times and died of laughter.
"He's also a background character in the Gray City Cave," N said. "In it, his name is Charles. He's a popular star with an average appearance, but he has the space to unleash his perverted side."
In other words, it's even more perverted.
This kind of person returns to the earth as a weirdo, and the first thing he chooses to do is to "get into" various classic blockbusters that he cannot enter, and leave the deepest possible impression on the audience. This seems to be in line with a perverted logic.
Tu Lanxun suddenly asked, "Nan Shaochen is very popular, right?"
Xiao Zhang probably isn't a fan, but she did her research before coming. She said, "He's very popular. He sings very well. His record sales were number two in the country two years ago. He's also quite talented in acting. After transitioning to acting, he starred in a campus film and a suspense film, both of which received good ratings. One of them even won an award."
The most important thing is that Nan Shaochen is very handsome. He is tall and thin, with a neat and stylish figure, deep and affectionate eyes, and upturned corners of his lips. He has the maturity of a handsome man and the handsomeness of a young man in white clothes.
Tu Lanxun understood: "Oh..."
If it was Qingcha who did it, then Nan Shaochen's appearance might be what Qingcha originally planned for him to look like. His career is what Qingcha originally planned for him to have.
He absolutely couldn't bear the thought that there was someone in reality who was better than him both in life and in death. Others were blessed with advantages, but he couldn't catch up in either lifetime.
So, letting Nan Shaochen go crazy and make a fool of himself at the birthday party, biting people and crawling around like an animal, was something Qingcha could do. He definitely wouldn't quit when he saw the good stuff coming.
As long as Nan Shaochen is not disfigured and does not cause any moral problems, his brand will not be destroyed, and the strangeness of the suspected Qingcha will not let him go.
Tu Lanxun said, "Let's go to Anding Hospital now."
#
Tu Lanxun and his team went to Anding Hospital. Officer Cao figured out Tu Lanxun's role in the investigation and stayed up late to accompany them.
The hospital is a building in the night. Two blue-white lights are dimly lit under the eaves of the door. The shadows of trees on both sides overlap. It is the midnight of early winter when the autumn leaves are dry and cold, but a large area of shadows is crowded in front and behind the flower bed, and occasionally there is light reflected by the changing angle of the camera.
"They're all entertainment reporters," Officer Cao said softly, "They've been occupying this place for a whole day and night."
Fortunately, the three policemen were not in uniform. They walked in very low-key, like four family members of patients or staff on night shift.
Tu Lanxun heard a very small shutter sound, and she deliberately turned her face to let Xiao Zhang and An Feng block the outline of her wearing a mask.
N disappeared from Tu Lanxun's side without a word. Then, from behind the flowers came the sound of a camera dropping to the ground, along with a complaint: "Why are you squeezing me?"
"Who squeezed you? Don't make a sound, just pick it up yourself!"
"You're still trying to cheat, aren't you? Pay me some money..."
Tu Lanxun and others ignored the paparazzi's confusion. The tightly closed hospital door opened, and a Tang City police officer who was in charge of guarding the hospital walked out.
The officer wore a beige jacket and a woolen hat. He had a round face with cheeks like white peaches, but the skin around his eyes was darker. His eyes, nose, and mouth were small, except for his ears, which were thick and large like elephant ears. He smiled in a friendly manner: "Hello, my name is Wei Fufu."
"Hello, Officer Wei." Tu Lanxun and the other two greeted him.
Wei Fufu's voice was a little androgynous, he had super short hair that was not restricted to either gender, he was about 173 cm tall, and he had a round and cute body. It was only after Officer Cao introduced him that they realized that Wei Fufu was a male police officer.
"How is Nan Shaochen today?" asked Officer Cao.
Wei Fufu said softly, "I only ate one meal a day, and it was forced into my body by my family. Now I'm taking medicine and sleeping. When I'm awake, my mental state is very bad. Sometimes I'm lucid, sometimes I'm crazy."
Going crazy is like being an animal, but she didn't expect Nan Shaochen to still be lucid. Tu Lanxun asked, "Is he lucid a lot? Did he say anything?"
Wei Fufu shook his head and said in embarrassment: "There are more moments of clarity, but that's not a good thing."
"Why?"
"Because as soon as he regained consciousness—he wanted to commit suicide."
Tu Lanxun sighed and said, "Please take us to see it."
The group took the elevator to the fifth floor and passed through two iron doors under the guidance of the nurse. A strange smell was floating in the corridor of the inpatient ward area of Anding Hospital, like a mixture of disinfectant and air freshener, but it was inevitably mixed with human breath. It was very faint, but once noticed, it could not be ignored.
Nan Shaochen lived alone in the ward at the end of the corridor. Officer Wei Fufu opened the door and woke up the man who was sleeping lightly on the accompanying bed.
The middle-aged man was Nan Shaochen's uncle and a member of his assistant team. He had large bags under his eyes and carefully glanced at the bed. The shadow on the bed, like a thin mountain ridge, was still calm. He breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Officer Wei, who are these people?"
"Our superiors assigned these people to investigate Nan Shaochen's case." Wei Fufu replied.
Uncle Nan said tiredly and embarrassedly: "It's too late... Can we do it tomorrow?"
Tu Lanxun suddenly walked past Uncle Nan and went inside. Uncle Nan subconsciously wanted to stop her, but he was afraid of her assumed identity and hesitated for a moment: "This police officer..."
Officer Cao and An Feng were also stunned, but Xiao Zhang was familiar with the place, "It's okay, it's okay, it's just an investigation." He blocked the three men and let Tu Lanxun walk in.
There was only one reason why Tu Lanxun broke in. She saw a shadow beside Nan Shaochen's bed. It didn't look like a human, but more like a shadow cast by a curtain blown by the wind.
But the shadow disappeared instantly the moment Tu Lanxun walked over.
N said: "Yes, it is green tea."
The other four people rushed over at this time and saw Tu Lanxun reaching out to turn over Nan Shaochen's quilt. Uncle Nan wanted to stop him, but An Feng reacted and stopped him. Xiao Zhang used his hand to help Tu Lanxun and together they turned him over. Nan Shaochen, who was originally lying on his side, was now lying flat on his back.
He felt light, but the quilt was not very warm. Xiao Zhang suddenly exclaimed "Ah".
She withdrew her hand from Nan Shaochen's neck and brushed it against his nose again. She shuddered, "He's dead!"
Not only was he dead, his pulse had stopped, and he looked like a corpse that hadn't yet cooled down. Tu Lanxun pried open Nan Shaochen's eyelids, revealing dilated pupils.
If this continues, he will have corpse spots on his body in two hours.
Uncle Nan was so scared that he almost cried, "How is this possible? We went to bed at 8 o'clock, and we were fine when we took the medicine..."
Officer Wei Fufu nodded, confirming the other party's statement. "I've been in the ward the entire time. I went to the corridor to get some fresh air just half an hour ago. Then I received a message from Lao Cao and came down to pick you up."
An Feng asked, "Has no one come in while you were here?"
Wei Fufu said, "Don't even mention coming in. No one's even passing by the door."
The most urgent task now is to find Nan Shaochen's soul. N withdrew half of his body from the window and said, "If we can get most of his soul back in time, he can still be saved."
Tu Lanxun asked with his eyes: Most of it?
"Yes," N replied. "Most of Nan Shaochen's soul has been taken away. Less than a fraction remains in his body. He can hardly maintain even basic physiological status. If you ask a doctor to use an instrument to check, they can find out that he is in suspended animation."
Tu Lanxun understood that Nan Shaochen's soul was gone. What she saw just now was Qingcha trying to get into Nan Shaochen's body, but was interrupted by her.
"I'm going to the bathroom." Tu Lanxun glanced at Uncle Nan and said.
She walked straight to the toilet in the corner of the ward. It was small and the facilities were not very advanced, but she could take a simple shower there.
Tu Lanxun stood between the toilet and the shower, closed his eyes, and took out the pocket watch from his pocket.
The watch chain jingled and stretched and spun in the air.
Countless points of fire danced in front of Tu Lanxun's eyes. She looked around in the darkness, trying her best to recall Nan Shaochen's face, but when her eyes were dazzled and all the candlelight blurred and disappeared, there was no fire belonging to Nan Shaochen in front, behind, left or right.
This is the strange thing. Even after a person dies, his soul will remain in the world.
Why did Nan Shaochen disappear so cleanly?
Tu Lanxun heard N's voice: "Try green tea first."
“I don’t know what he looks like,” she said.
Then, her hand was suddenly grabbed.
Tu Lanxun was stunned for a moment. The feeling on her hand was not skin, but tanned leather. Five fingers, thicker and longer than hers, passed through her fingers and wrapped around the back of her hand.
A picture came into her mind.
It should be Qingcha's face.
To be honest, he is not ugly, and can even be considered handsome, but the combination of his features makes him look ordinary.
Other handsome guys’ eyebrows and noses are like distant mountains and ridges, but his nose looks too ordinary and lacks momentum. Even his eyes flicker with a dull light, without any spirit, as if he is thinking about trivial matters timidly.
With such an expression, even the beauty of the shape is ignored. There is no memorable point at all, leaving only an ordinary silhouette in the mind.
Tu Lanxun fixed his gaze on this face and tried to search again. Sure enough, he found a faint candlelight on the north side of Anding Hospital.
The candlelight was no smaller than the other candlelights, but it was very inconspicuous, so dim that it was hard to remember, yet it was still jumping around.
"Found it, it's in the north." Tu Lanxun opened his eyes and said.
She walked out of the bathroom and was led downstairs by Xiao Zhang's arm. Uncle Nan didn't notice anything strange, but An Feng, Wei Fufu and Officer Cao were very observant, but none of them said anything.
Officer Cao said, "Fufu, you stay."
Xiao Zhang asked: "Why?"
After she said that, she realized that she had said something out of turn. There should be a policeman guarding Nan Shaochen, and the hospital also needed someone to deal with it.
Unexpectedly, Wei Fufu explained in a good-tempered manner: "My physique is a little different. I'll stay here, maybe I can protect Nan Shaochen."
N's voice reached Tu Lanxun's ear. She had already pulled her hand away, but a hint of warmth lingered near her ear. He said, "This Officer Wei is truly special. He has an aura that ordinary, uncanny people would avoid."
Tu Lanxun couldn't help but laugh: "Isn't this the righteous spirit?"
Wei Fufu thought Tu Lanxun was teasing him, and scratched his face awkwardly. "Not really, but I'm just incredibly lucky. I was chasing a suspect before. My fighting and running skills were pretty average, but it just so happened that he couldn't run more than a few steps. He either stepped on his shoelaces or bumped into a fruit stall. When I finally pinned him down, he even hid a knife and tried to stab me."
Xiao Zhang asked nervously, "And then?"
Wei Fufu laughed and said, "Who knows what was wrong with the way he drew his knife? He didn't hit me at all. The only time it grazed my skin, I dodged to the side and happened to hit a pile of buckets on the side. The buckets fell and hit his accomplice who had just climbed over the wall to help."
"That's not all." Officer Cao finished explaining the precautions to the nurse and turned back to say, "He's a well-known figure in our bureau. He's a shining light. The cars he's in never break down, and the roads are always clear of traffic. During the previous strange invasion, things kept going missing from our duty room. As long as I was on duty with him, nothing was lost, and even the rats were silenced."
Wei Fufu is a lucky general in their bureau. N also confirmed this. Tu Lanxun felt relieved, but he asked Suoniya to come out and let her stay in the ward.
Sonia said, "Don't worry, if that jerk dares to come near me again, I'll tear him apart alive."
Tu Lanxun and his group left Anding Hospital and drove in the direction she pointed. After turning two small bends north, the tall buildings on the roadside gave way to low buildings and grassy fields. An Feng asked, "Where is this?"
Officer Cao replied, "This is our Tangshi factory area. It's mostly old factories, half of which have closed down or relocated. Only a few are still open."
Tang City was originally an industrial city. It was not large in scale, but the people living here were once very wealthy.
But that was in the last century.
Today's Tang City is just a gray western town. Officer Cao sighed and said, "Advisor Tu, is that the residential building?" He was pointing to an area of old buildings in the front and side. There was not a single light on in any of the houses, and it looked eerie and desolate.
Tu Lanxun touched Xiao Zhang's finger, shook his head, closed his eyes and pointed in another direction, "That's it."
The car was silent for two seconds.
There is only one factory in that direction, which was once the most dazzling state-owned factory in Tang City. It specializes in the production of chemical raw materials and supports several family buildings, kindergartens and hospitals.
Now all that's left is a large area of factory buildings that look like they're about to collapse at any moment.
"That place is huge," Officer Cao said, "and it's been certified as a dangerous building."
Tu Lanxun asked, "Have you checked Qingcha's information? This might be related to him."
"Qingcha?" Xiao Zhang tapped the screen with his fingers. "Oh, he's not from Tang City, nor from this province. His birthplace is a million miles away, but not far from Lucheng."
Tu Lanxun asked, "What about the family information?"
Xiao Zhang replied, "It was just an ordinary dual-income family. My father used to work in a state-owned factory, but he went out to do business before the reforms and made a small fortune. After Qingcha passed the college entrance examination, he went straight to a non-staff training class at a film and television academy, and then died..."
An Feng spoke at the right time: "Advisor Tu, do you suspect that this person... Weird, is the culprit who murdered Nan Shaochen?"
Xiao Zhang was more straightforward, with a hint of fear mixed with excitement: "Are we going to catch ghosts? What can I do?"
The car had already stopped outside the chemical plant's gate. The rusted signboard shone eerily in the night. Tu Lanxun opened the door and said, "Wait for me here."
An Feng couldn't help but say, "How can this be? Let's go in with you."
A chilly breeze blew past Tu Lanxun's ears, giving her goosebumps. There was definitely something in the chemical plant! She said, "Wait."
Xiao Zhang was still the more sensible one, but she raised a question: "What if there really is a ghost—a spooky one, what if it escapes and harms us? Wouldn't it be safer if it follows you?"
Officer Cao also said, "Yeah, if there's physical damage, we'll block it for you, and if there's magical attacks, you take on them. Is that not okay?"
Tu Lanxun thought about it and said, "No."
This action not only protects the three policemen, but also protects the convenience store. No one dares to challenge the power of the Fourth Treaty.
The other three could only stay put. She suddenly added, "Stay in the car and don't leave. I won't be in any trouble. I'm not alone."
Xiao Zhang and the other two had horrified expressions on their faces.
Tu Lanxun still felt that it was not enough, so he groped in the dark and said, "The strange thing shouldn't come to bother you. You are not alone."
She left behind Lu Jiasui, her sister, brother and husband.
"Ah?" Xiao Zhang's face turned a little pale.
Tu Lanxun finally said, "If your horn and headlights go off without touching each other, that's a signal. You need to drive away quickly. Don't come in."
An Feng flatly refused: "No, we have to wait here until you come out. If you don't come out in half an hour, or if we can't reach you on the phone, we will come in to look for you."
Xiao Zhang also quickly said: "That's it."
So Tu Lanxun walked towards the factory. As soon as she entered the yard and stepped over the weeds and sloping mud, she was finally able to open her eyes.
N appeared beside her, a vague shadow, and said, "It's locked on the second floor of the factory building directly ahead."
The factory was pitch black. The door was not locked, but there was a thick layer of dust. There were gasoline barrels and discarded bedding rolls in the corners of the space, probably because homeless scavengers had rested there.
Cracks had already appeared in the wall, but fortunately the stairs were stable. Tu Lanxun tiptoed up the stairs, making almost no sound. But N suddenly said, "We've been discovered!"
A strong gust of cold air blew from the second floor out the window, stirring up a cloud of ash. The factory window glass was almost completely shattered. Tu Lanxun quickly ran to the triangular window opening and shouted, "Catch it!"
N's figure flashed past ghostly, and the cold air flow suddenly stagnated. He caught it in his hand and shook it down, revealing half of a gray human figure.
Only half of Qingcha's body remained, writhing like a parasite. Within his spirit, a large, burning hole, its edges tattered, looked horrible. Tu Lanxun felt a soreness in the back of his teeth, a nausea.
Even if only a soul is left, it shouldn't still be alive, right?
N's brow furrowed, "Where's Nan Shaochen?"
Qingcha forced his swollen eyelids open, saw N, and laughed: "It's you... you bastard... you come to ruin my good things..."
Tu Lanxun tried again with his pocket watch, but there was still no trace of Nan Shaochen in the sky or on the ground. No, there was a kind of broken firelight floating, sporadic, like sparks from a burning fire.
Mars circling in the air, elusive, like a silent narration.
Could that be Nan Shaochen?
"I tore it apart!" Qingcha said proudly, "Does the soul know? I bit it into pieces and flew away!"
He suddenly became filled with resentment, staring at Tu Lanxun and N, gritting his teeth. "I'm going to take over his body soon! I want to become a superstar that everyone admires! I want every blind fan to love me, give me money, cry for me, and die for me!"
"I am the one who deserves to be loved!"
N's response was to pinch Qingcha's neck. Qingcha's voice burst out of his throat like a chicken's cry, "You know shit! What do you, a lousy doctor who's done so many bad things, know? I've wanted to be a star since I was a kid. My teachers and neighbors all praised my singing and my good looks, saying I could be a singer in the future. Fate had already promised me that! It was them, those useless people who were suddenly blessed with good looks by God, who took away the destiny that should have belonged to me..."
Tu Lanxun frowned and asked, "Is it possible that your singing as a child disturbed the neighbors..."
Qingcha's eyes almost popped out, and he stared at Tu Lanxun with squinted eyes, wheezing and unable to make a sound.
N looked around and said coldly, "What he said is true." He was referring to the part where he tore Nan Shaochen into pieces.
What followed was a torture-like interrogation that bordered on torture. It turned out that Qingcha was one of the perpetrators of the strange events in the development zone nearly a year ago. He was responsible for the ghost face incident in the school movie, and he was also the one who killed the male teacher on the ceiling.
Tu Lanxun asked: "Why did you kill that male teacher?"
Qingcha's neck stiffened. "He's watching TV dramas! Haha, that director said my acting was bad before, and he actually criticized me in the middle of it. After I died, that idiot director can still film TV dramas like nothing happened. It's disgusting, get lost!"
This man has gone completely crazy. I don't know whether his abnormality is congenital or an abnormality caused by acquired genetic mutation.
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