I shook my head. “This is just the beginning. We’ve provoked that spirit, and he won’t stop until we’re dead! If we don’t eradicate him, he will torture Song Zhong to death.

“But you don’t need to be too worried. I’m here to help.”

I was afraid that the shopkeeper would be scared, so I added that part. The woman thanked me repeatedly. She sat on the bed and anxiously wiped Song Zhong’s dirty face.

As I ate the noodles, I assessed the woman. She had loving eyes and was good-looking.

A moment later, she lifted her head and found me watching her. She blushed. I felt somewhat embarrassed, so I asked, “What’s the relationship between you and Song Zhong?”

I was just a normal person, and I liked to gossip.

“What kind of relationship could it be? Discarded shoes.” The woman lit up a cigarette and puffed it as she talked to me.

It turned out that they had been a couple since they were pretty young. They were in love back then. However, when it came to marriage, the shopkeeper’s father was afraid that Song Zhong’s family was too poor. He forced her to get engaged to the Village Elder’s son. Later on, Song Zhong married a woman he didn’t love.

After the shopkeeper’s husband died, their love burned again from the ashes.

I sighed as I listened to their story. Like they say, ‘love will always find a way.’

While Song Zhong was experiencing this tribulation, it wasn’t his wife who was on his side but his old lover.

I noticed that the woman seemed to hate her late husband a lot. She didn’t even mention how he died. There seemed to be more to it, but I didn’t ask.

After the woman told me her story, she asked about mine.

“Oh me? I’m just a merchant.” I had a wry smile and told her about the love story between Yin Xinyue and me.

Perhaps the woman’s love had affected me. I suddenly realized that I had never missed Yin Xinyue as much as I did at this moment.

While we watched over Song Zhong, we chatted to pass the time. Song Zhong didn’t wake up, nor did he turn crazy; he continued to sleep. When it was past midnight, Li Mazi called and told me that he had bought enough items. He asked where I was.

I had been in the room for quite a long time, so I wanted some fresh air. I decided to walk to the village entrance to wait for Li Mazi.

When he heard that I was in the woman’s shop after midnight, he laughed despicably. “Little Brother Zhang, how does a mature woman taste?”

“Enough of your nonsense.” I slapped his nape. “Did you buy all the things?”

Li Mazi gestured an OK. I nodded in satisfaction.

However, I noticed that he had come alone.

“Yu Hua didn’t come with you?” I was puzzled.

“No. He left as soon as we reached the city. He was afraid that I would force him to follow me around.” Li Mazi put on a despising face.

“Oh, he’s just an ordinary man. He couldn’t bear the fear. It’s okay.”

Li Mazi and I chatted as we walked to the village. Since I had encountered the spirit, I was no longer scared. I was in a better mood, so I slowed down and enjoyed the clear and refreshing night under the bright moonlight.

While we were still enjoying the atmosphere, a sudden screech broke the silent night. The noise came from the woman’s house.

“Damn it!”

I ran fast and thought that the spirit had possessed Song Zhong again. However, when I reached the grocery store, I smelled blood. I immediately had a horrible premonition.

“Master! Master, you came!”

When the woman saw me, she burst out in a heart-breaking cry. I quickly ran past her, heading to the bed.

Song Zhong had been beheaded.

Red blood soaked the entire bed. His blood hadn’t coagulated yet and was still dripping, forming a puddle on the ground.

“Holy moly!” Li Mazi screamed and went to the corner.

I pulled myself together. “What happened?”

“I don’t know. After you went out, I didn’t think that he would wake up, so I took the time to go to the bathroom. When I came back, I saw him like this…”

Then, the woman started shivering. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she fainted. Li Mazi hurried to support her, taking the chance to touch her breast.

I frowned and scanned the room. I didn’t see any trace of Yin energy in the room. It seemed Song Zhong was beheaded by a living person! With this thought, I went to the closet and opened it. I saw blood inside the closet.

After Li Mazi was finished with his stealthy touching, he came over and looked at the hole in the closet.

“Should we go after the murderer?” asked Li Mazi.

“There’s no use now. Since Song Zhong has died, we lost our only clue. We have to go to the museum.”

I sighed. The feeling of having failed arose in my heart.

If Chuyi were here, perhaps Song Zhong wouldn’t have died! 

Had I been more careful and didn’t leave to see Li Mazi, this man might still be alive. 

I didn’t kill him directly, but he had died because of me.

“This is fate. People who have to die can’t survive, no matter how much effort we exert. This is like what happened to my Chuchu!” Li Mazi patted my shoulder and told me not to blame myself.

I nodded. I could only comfort myself that way. However, as Li Mazi had just mentioned Chuchu, it meant that he had recovered and walked out of that painful part of his life. I felt happy for him.

As Song Zhong was dead, we didn’t need to stay here. However, after considering the relationship between the shopkeeper and Song Zhong, I decided to stay to help her. Otherwise, she would be sued. Song Zhong’s family would take revenge on her!

It was past midnight, but I couldn’t fall asleep. I dialed Chuyi’s number and decided to try my luck. Unexpectedly, the line went through. In a cold voice, Chuyi asked, “Did you encounter trouble?”

I briefed him about the situation. Although I had accepted many deals with otherworldly items in the past, it was the first time a man had died before I could even see the otherworldly item.

“You’re going in the wrong direction……”

Chuyi kept silent for a while before he told me that.

“What do you mean?”

He asked coldly, “Did you confirm that the deaths of the five security guards were related to the otherworldly item?”

I was bewildered and finally saw the light. Song Zhong wasn’t killed by the spirit. He was murdered by a living person. Moreover, the murderer could have been that mysterious man in the raincoat.

Otherwise, why would he have offended the spirit at the critical moment? If so, the other four security guards were possibly killed by the same person.

After I hung up the call, I pulled Li Mazi, who was sleeping soundly. “Do you know where Yu Hua went?”

“I don’t know. When we reached Shenyang, he called a cab to go home.”

Li Mazi looked at me in puzzlement. “Little Brother Zhang, are you suspecting him?”

“Come with me!”

I pulled him and ran to the village entrance. I shone the flashlight on the ground. Indeed, apart from our car’s tire prints on the ground, I found another set of tire prints.

“Oh shoot, is this from the taxi Yu Hua took?” Li Mazi squatted to observe the tire prints.

I wore a dark face. “There’s no need to check it. No one else would come here.”

Who would come to this little village at midnight? Moreover, it was right at the moment the shopkeeper and I went to the graveyard.

I was almost sure that Yu Hua was the man wearing the raincoat. Otherwise, there was no reason for him to keep his mouth shut the entire time. That was why he just waved his hands to communicate with me.

Li Mazi cursed, “That little bastard! Don’t let me meet him again. Otherwise, I will hit him until he poops his pants!”

“Don’t be impulsive. Since it has come to this, we have to use Yu Hua. It’s good that we’ve busted him. He doesn’t know that we know about his deeds.”

We would solve whatever came to us!

“I know, but I’m still mad. She was a half-widow earlier, but she’s become a complete widow now…” Li Mazi fumed.

I found it amusing. Li Mazi was angry, and it wasn’t because of a dead man but because he felt sorry for that woman.

But it matched his personality well.

When the shopkeeper woke up the next morning, I asked her about Song Zhong’s fake death. “Who else knew about it? Where’s his grave?”

“Song Zhong arranged a real funeral for himself to avoid this tribulation. Everyone in the village thought that he had died. Only his family and I knew that he was pretending. And since it was a fake death, we didn’t dig a grave for him.” The shopkeeper had red, swollen eyes.

I couldn’t help but frown. If Song Zhong’s wife saw his dead body, she would create a scene. It wasn’t something I could easily help with.

Fortunately, the woman told me that Song Zhong’s wife knew about their affair and that she had tacitly consented to their relationship.

This information would smoothen the incident then. Before it was completely bright, I asked her to take us to Song Zhong’s house.

Song Zhong’s wife was the typical sort of Northeastern married woman with a large build. When she heard that Song Zhong was beheaded, she started to cry.

Although she was heartbroken, she didn’t blame us or say anything unpleasant to the shopkeeper.

She kept crying and said that it was his fate…

Under her arrangements, the folks in the village helped the family collect Song Zhong’s body and buried him.

In front of his grave, the two women supported each other, looking one more mournful than the other.

I admired Song Zhong as he had captured the hearts of two women.

As Song Zhong didn’t have an intact body when he died, the villagers quickly left after they finished burying him.

It was a custom in their village. They thought that a person who had died without an intact body would have strong resentment. They thought that only the deceased’s family members should worship him at his grave.

After everything was done, I apologized to the women, especially to Song Zhong’s wife.

She had a couple of children, and without a man in the house, her family would struggle.

I offered her some money, but she resolutely denied. However, she begged me to find the murderer and stop him from hurting more people.

“Rest assured, ma’am!”

Facing such a brave woman, I bowed to her with sincerity from the bottom of my heart. Then, I left with Li Mazi.

At this moment, the shopkeeper suddenly called me and said that she wanted to tell me something.

“When Old Song had his sanity back, he told me that it was a conspiracy! He told me that the thing that terrorized them was a list!”

“What list?” I asked.

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