"Master, please save my daughter! She's possessed!"
"The hospital can't find anything wrong, and we've even consulted masters, but those experts all said it's too fierce for them to handle! I've heard you have real skills, please, you must save my daughter, we're willing to pay any amount of money!"
The woman's voice was pleading, and she broke down in tears by the end.
"Possessed by an evil spirit? Tell me the details slowly, don't rush me."
I frowned slightly. I had just finished dealing with an old case, and now another one had come along with a possessed person. They really can't keep me idle.
But thinking about it, that's how this city is.
With so many haunted places, it's not surprising that someone might be possessed by a spirit.
I didn't take it too seriously. After all, being possessed by a ghost is a minor problem that's easy to solve.
“My daughter’s name is Su Xiaoxiao. She just started high school this year. Starting two weeks ago, she suddenly became very strange.”
The woman sobbed, struggling to find the words to speak.
"First, she kept having nightmares at night, saying that she kept dreaming of a woman in white with long hair standing by her bed crying. Later, she was also in a daze for most of the day and kept saying that she was cold."
She was shivering even under a thick blanket in the middle of summer! The scariest thing was the night before last, when she got up in the middle of the night, went to the mirror in the living room, and started combing her hair and singing in front of the mirror.
But she couldn't style her hair like that, nor could she sing that kind of song. When we called her, she acted as if she couldn't hear us!
I nodded. These are the most typical symptoms of possession.
The woman continued speaking, growing increasingly frightened, her voice trembling: "We wanted to take her to the hospital, but she absolutely refused to go. She's incredibly strong and even scratched her father!"
Yesterday we forced her to go to the hospital, and she underwent a bunch of tests, but they found nothing wrong with her.
The doctor suggested seeing a psychiatrist, but it's definitely not a psychological problem, Mr. Chen. You know your stuff, don't you think this sounds like he's being possessed by something?
"Combing your hair in front of the mirror while humming old songs—this symptom does sound like someone being possessed by a malevolent spirit or being assaulted."
But this shouldn't be a big problem, so why did several people say it couldn't be fixed?
I suddenly remembered that she had mentioned before that she had consulted several experts.
The situation is probably not as simple as I thought. I thought for a moment and then asked, "Have you taken him to any unusual places recently? Or has anything unusual happened near her school, especially a murder or something like that?"
"No, Xiaoxiao is usually very well-behaved. She only goes between school and home. We live in the city of Shenzhen. The community is relatively new and should be very clean."
The woman thought for a moment, then hesitated and said, "But last week her school organized a spring outing to the old botanical garden in the north of the city to sketch. She came back looking a little listless that day. We thought she was just tired from playing. Could it be that she was there...?"
I know the old botanical garden in the north of the city; it's been there for quite some time.
However, the place was said to have been part of a mass grave before it was transformed into a botanical garden, probably because the land was very fertile due to the large number of buried corpses.
Are those kinds of places really suitable for students?
This school is also problematic, taking children to that kind of place.
"Madam, please don't worry. Here's what you'll do: send me the specific address first, and I'll go over and check on things later."
"Don't upset your daughter before I get there! It's best to put away all the mirrors and prevent her from looking in them. If you have any amulets or talismans passed down from older generations, like a peach wood sword, you can put them in her room first."
I gave them instructions.
"Okay, thank you, Mr. Chen. I'll send you the address right away. We'll be waiting for you!"
The woman thanked him profusely and hung up the phone.
I looked at the address sent to my phone screen: Cuihu Garden Community in the new city district. I remembered it as a relatively upscale residential area.
It seems this woman is wealthy; people living in places like this are all rich and powerful.
I heard that one of the toilets there could buy my funeral home.
After all, although my funeral home is large, it is located in a very remote area, and there is not even a large commercial street nearby.
However, there are quite a few funeral parlors along the street.
With a sigh, I got up and stretched my aching muscles.
I didn't go directly there, but instead took a taxi to Luo Tianhe's house.
I had a key to his house, so I opened the door and found the two of them whispering to each other in the living room.
"Oh ho, you're awake?"
Upon seeing me, Li Huai chuckled.
I nodded.
"What are you talking about?"
"What else can we talk about? About Zhou Wenxiu, of course."
Luo Tianhe gave a wry smile, clearly having a headache.
"Alright, let's put her matter aside for now. We have work to do."
Upon hearing this, both Luo Tianhe and Li Huai perked up, clearly indicating that they indeed did not want to face Zhou Wenxiu.
"The girl in the new urban area is possessed by an evil spirit. Her symptoms are a bit strange and may be related to the old botanical garden in the north of the city."
I briefly explained the situation.
"I went to the botanical garden when I was a child. It was gloomy, especially the old forest at the back. It felt chilly even in broad daylight."
Li Huai shrank back, seemingly somewhat frightened.
"You've been to places like that? I heard the tickets are quite expensive and it's not open to the general public. This lady's child probably goes to a prestigious private school, which is why they have the opportunity to go there."
I looked at Li Huai with some suspicion.
This kid grew up in an orphanage, how could he possibly go to a place like that?
Moreover, the children in orphanages are said to be very pitiful, yet they are also subjected to activities like childbirth.
"Who said we went there to play? We went there to work."
"That bastard dean treated us like cheap labor, making us pull weeds there."
Li Huai cursed.
Before, he might have thought the dean was trying to train them, but after learning the dean's true colors, he realized how despicable the dean had been!
Making a group of kids bend over and pull weeds in that weird place.
"It's just a simple possession by an evil spirit. Is it worth us getting involved? Isn't this like using a mosquito as a dart?"
Luo Tianhe spoke up.
He and I shared similar thoughts, believing that being possessed by evil spirits was a minor issue that could be easily resolved, and there was absolutely no need for us to intervene.
"The situation is not simple. I heard that several masters have been consulted, but they all said they couldn't handle it. The thing possessing her might be very fierce!" I added.
"I see."
Luo Tianhe scratched his head, not at all intimidated.
I can only say that I've shown Luo Tianhe a lot of things, so he doesn't care about things like this anymore.
After having a quick bite to eat, I went to the new urban area with Li Huai and Luo Tianhe.
On the way, I called Zhang Qiang and briefly told him about Su Xiaoxiao.
Ask him to help check if any strange things or murders have happened in the old botanical garden in the north of the city in recent years.
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