When we arrived at the police station, we ran into Zhang Qiang, who had gone out for a smoke.
He glanced at me and said in an annoyed tone:
"What, you think I'm afraid to burn it? It's already in the crematorium."
"No way, that bastard just came to our funeral home, we came to the police station to lay low for a bit."
I gave an awkward smile.
No wonder she didn't cause any trouble even though she was in the car at the time.
"By the way, has the identity of the woman whose body was found during the day been determined? Was it a crime of passion?"
I changed the subject.
"You guessed right, but the one who committed the murder was a third party."
Zhang Qiang also felt a little sad. That woman was really innocent. She hadn't done anything wrong, yet she died so tragically.
I chatted with Zhang Qiang for a while longer, and seeing that the female ghost couldn't cause any more trouble, I said goodbye and went back.
"What bad luck to be out so late at night."
Luo Tianhe yawned and casually complained.
I was already used to it and too lazy to reply to him, so I drove towards Luo Tianhe's house.
After a whole night of running around, I didn't want to go home again, so I decided to stay at Luo Tianhe's house.
The next day, I was woken up very early by Luo Tianhe and Li Huai.
Both of their phones are broken and they need to buy new ones.
Although their phones were broken yesterday, their SIM cards were fine and could still be used after being retrieved.
I gave them the keys to the funeral home, turned over, and went back to sleep.
I didn't get enough sleep until noon.
I've recently noticed that I have very little energy, which I think is because of the bruises on my face from being pinched by a ghost. I realize that I need to solve this problem as soon as possible. Whether the master from the Bureau of Strange News Investigation comes or Bai Linfeng is ready, I need to go to Anning Girls' High School again.
Just then, the phone rang. I opened my phone and saw that it was an unknown number.
Pressing the answer button, a middle-aged woman's voice came from the other end of the phone:
"Hello, is this Yanhe Huai Funeral Home? I've been waiting for hours, but you're still not open. I have no choice but to call this number on your sign."
"Yes, what can I do for you?"
"It's not convenient for me to talk about this over the phone."
The woman spoke haltingly, and I realized this was the kind of "guest" we needed.
"Wait a moment, I'll be right there."
I quickly got dressed and washed up, then suddenly remembered that I didn't have the key to the funeral home. I figured that Luo Tianhe and the others should have already bought new phones, so I called Luo Tianhe.
"Hey, Chen Yan, you're awake. What's up?"
“You didn’t even go to the funeral home after you finished the procedures. The guests called me and came to pick me up. We’re going to the funeral home to take a look.”
"We've come to see the master to get some talismans and amulets for protection. Wait a moment, we'll head back now."
Luo Tianhe explained on the phone that he was still a little scared after being choked by a ghost yesterday and having no power to resist, so he went to ask for a talisman early this morning.
I didn't have to wait long before I heard a car horn coming from downstairs.
I went downstairs, opened the car door, and got in. I saw that Li Huai and Luo Tianhe both had happy expressions on their faces.
"What's wrong? You're so happy about getting a talisman?"
Luo Tianhe floored the accelerator, his voice laced with laughter.
"After we got the talisman, we also had our fortunes told. The master said that we have been doing good deeds and accumulating merit recently, and that auspicious energy is coming from the east. It seems that we are not in any danger of death recently, and that going to Anning Girls' High School should go smoothly."
I grinned. When people want to do business, they naturally have to say nice things. But since they were so happy, I couldn't possibly discourage them.
Soon, we saw the funeral home sign, and a middle-aged woman, probably in her thirties, was waiting at the entrance. She must have been the one who called me.
Once the car came to a stop, I opened the door and jumped out.
"Sorry, I had something to do this morning and the store was closed. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. Let's go inside and talk."
As I spoke, I took out my key to open the door of the funeral home, and casually filled a disposable cup with water and handed it to her.
The middle-aged woman took the water, but didn't drink a drop. Instead, she knelt down in front of me with a "plop".
"Master, you must help me! I've already lost one of my children. If this one also passes away, I won't be able to live!"
I pulled her up and gestured for her to sit down and talk slowly.
The middle-aged woman sat down, her body still trembling.
“My family is from the countryside. My husband works in the city. His parents died early, so I can only stay at home to take care of the children. Everything was fine until my husband suddenly asked someone to bring us all to live in the city.”
I nodded, signaling her to continue.
“I was very happy at the time, thinking that my husband had made something of himself and that it would be great to be able to live in the city. The city is full of high-rise buildings, which are much better than the mud-brick houses in the countryside.”
"But when I met my man, I felt like a stranger. My man was just a migrant worker, honest and simple. He used to lay bricks on construction sites. How did he suddenly become a foreman?"
"Before I could think much about it, my husband took our whole family to our new home. He had a big black dog there. The dog barked at us like crazy when it saw us. I was terrified. And I remember that my husband was afraid of dogs too. How could he have a dog?"
“I didn’t ask at the time. My husband saw that it kept barking, so he picked up a stool and hit it hard a few times, making its head bleed. Only then did it stop howling.”
Hearing this, I couldn't help but frown. The migrant worker's transformation into a contractor might have been due to some events that changed his personality.
But it's strange that someone who's afraid of dogs suddenly becomes unafraid and even attacks dogs so viciously.
The woman seemed shaken; her chest heaved.
"Go on, what happened when you said you didn't have any children?"
The woman took a sip of water to calm herself down.
"At the time, I felt something was off, but I thought I was overthinking it. My in-laws were very happy, but my two sons were timid. I thought it was because their father worked away from home all year round, so they weren't close. But later, my eldest son secretly told me..."
"He felt that the man wasn't his father!"
"Then he disappeared."
At this point, tears welled up in the woman's eyes.
“Mingming was still there when I went to sleep at night, but she was gone the next day. We searched for several days but couldn’t find her. My husband wouldn’t let me call the police, saying that he probably ran away to play on her own. It wasn’t until half a month later that we called the police.”
"Later, the police checked the surveillance footage and found that my eldest son had never left the house. He just disappeared without a trace, neither alive nor dead!"
"Later, I was often woken up in the middle of the night by noises. I could vaguely hear cartoons playing in the living room. I didn't dare to look until one day I rushed into the living room and found it empty, but the TV was on, playing my son's favorite show."
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