It turned out Zhu Fengchun had received some money from people who went to his wife and son’s funeral. Little Quail also knew this 

and

 was te

mpted. H

e wanted to take the opportunity 

to steal it 

before Zhu Fengchun deposited the money into his bank account. 

But

 he 

was met with 

that horror scene as soon as he entered Zhu Fengchun’s house

.

However, luck favored him

. T

he wallet full of money was placed on the table. Little Quail hesitated for a while, then he clenched his jaw and stole it. After that, he started thinking

that he would be blame

d

 for the murder. That 

was

 why he decided to run away from th

e village

.

Chief Liu 

looked 

at him for a moment. In the end, he 

said

 reluctantly, “You little brat, you want money more than your own life!”

He didn’t mind the little thief anymore

. H

e 

asked

 me, “Did you find anything?”

“Zhu Fengchun can

 no longer 

hold 

back

. He

’

ll make a move soon, so we should wait for him.” I remembered the bloody bedroom and fel

t

 a little down.

The one who tricked us

 just now must be

 Zhu Fengchun. He had deliberately allow

ed

 Little 

Quail to steal

 his wallet to 

distract

 us.

But where ha

s 

Zhu 

Fengchun gone

?

 I thought I would receive the answer soon.

I didn’t want to 

say too

 much with Little Quail still 

there, so w

e let him go.

“Whe

re should

 we go now?” asked Chief Liu.

I lifted my head to look at the gray sky, then I asked, 

“Do you know where they buried the three

 other

 victims? Which one is the nearest to us?”

Chief Liu answered after thinking for a moment, “

Li Tiansheng

’s grave is the nearest because he lived in the next town.”

“Take me there. We have to go now,” I said.

“E

h

?” Chief Liu

 was puzzled but still followed my order

.

I asked him to stop the car the moment 

we arrived 

in

 the small town. We then tiptoed to 

Li Tiansheng

’s grave.

Being the incumbent head of the 

Bureau

, Chief Liu did have some competence t

o back his position

. Although he had gone

 t

here only once when they investigated the case and collected the evidence, he was still able to lead us all the way to 

this

 lowland.

Southern people would choose to cremate the deceased, while Northern people preferred to 

bury them

 in the land of their families. That was why the graves weren’t centralized in this area.

“This 

lowland

 is 

a 

channel 

that

 people created to discharge the waters when the great flood happened in 1998. The plan was 

to

 connect

 it

 to the Zhang River.

However, people forgot the purpose of this channel

 after the flood, and t

hey started to grow crops here. Back then, many graves were flattened while

 digging this channel

. That’s why you only

 see Li Tiansheng

’s 

tombstone

 here.” Chief Liu provided us with additional information.

He

 then 

pointed at a location

 where

 I saw a new grave. There was no blade of grass on it

, and s

ince the burial ceremony hadn’t been a long time ago, the money paper and the flowers were still there.

At first glance, my face turned serious. 

Things weren't

 the way I had imagined.

“What’s wrong?” asked Chief Liu.

I shook my head. “The situation isn’t right. We need to take a 

better

 look.”

Suddenly, Li Mazi grabbed my arm and 

pointed

 at 

a spot

 a few meters away from the 

tombstone

. He

 whispered,

 “Little 

B

rother Zhang, look at that!”

I followed his finger. There was a big hole around two meters wide there.

 I couldn’t estimate how deep that hole was d

ue to the far 

distance, so

 I wanted to go there to see. 

However

, 

someone coughed before I made a move, and the sound came from that hole

.

“Shssss!”

I 

immediately crouched

, signaling Li Mazi and Chief Liu to be qu

iet

. Then, we carefully crawled forward.

The 

cold

 wind was howling loudly

, so

 I wasn’t worried about the person in the hole noticing

 our 

movements above ground. 

I pricked my ears and listened carefully w

hen we reached the hole

. 

The person down there was panting hard

, and the

 voice apparently belonged to Zhu Fengchun. He seemed to be 

moving

 something inside while gasping for his breath.

I 

stopped myself from rushing forward

 as I 

listened

 to his monologue. “Brother, I’m also helpless. 

Don’t look for me i

f you do come back.”

Then, I noticed his voice

 was becoming 

clearer and clearer

. I

t seemed he was climbing up. I rushed to hide behind 

the

tombstone; 

Chief Liu and Li Mazi also came to my side.

Not even a minute h

ad passed

 when a shadow crawled out of the hole. I opened my eyes wide

 as

 it was really Zhu Fengchun!

He was holding a shovel in his hand. 

He checked the surroundings a

fter he got 

up and began 

to fill the hole. Once he 

was done

, he stomped around to compact the soil and left.

I waited

 until he had completely disappeared, the

n 

I slowly got up, sneering as

 I

looked

 in his direction.

“Looks like 

he

 dug

 the

 grave for some 

reason

. But why 

did h

e have to do it in the middle of the night? Moreover, he left without taking anything…” Chief Liu 

was puzzled

.

 “You’ll see soon enough,” I said

.

I then 

rubbed my hands and prepared to dig the 

grave

 again. It was easier since the other party had just moved the soil

. T

he three of us didn’t need to exert a lot of 

effort

 to 

dig up 

the

 place

. All o

f it was done in

 thirty minutes.

I turned on the flashlight to check

.

There

 was a coffin painted in black inside,

 and al

l of the coffin’s nails had been pulled up.

I directly pulled out the nails the rest of the way and pushed the coffin lid aside. I 

craned

 my neck to see

, but t

here was nothing inside

!

Li Tiansheng

’s body was gone!

“W

-W

hat the heck is going on?”

Chief Liu looked at the empty coffin, feeling bewildered. But he soon 

understood

. “Was the minced flesh in Zhu Fengchun’s 

house

…”

“

Definitely

.”

I nodded.

The body that had been 

horribly 

destroyed in Zhu Fengchun’s bedroom was 

Li Tiansheng

’s corpse. T

he spirit had manipulated Zhu Fengchun t

o deceive us, making him steal 

Li Tiansheng

’s body, to later

chop it into pieces. No doubt their purpose was to make us think that Zhu Fengchun had died.

However, 

Zhu Fengchun hadn’t had enough time to clean his mess after

 dismembering the body. That

 was

 why we had been able to wit

ness the

 recent scene.

“What should we do now?”

Chief Liu sounded a little embarrassed. The 

incident that happened

 tonight was too odd.

Although he was an experienced cop, he was acti

ng 

like an elementary

school student that kept asking questions whenever he 

was in

 trouble.

“It’s simple! If he wants to fake his death, 

let him do it

.

Tomorrow, we will announce that Zhu Fengchun 

has

died

. You shouldn’t send your men here to investigate

,

 I

’ll keep an eye on him

 myself. I want to know what his ultimate 

purpose is

.”

“

How can

 the police

 help you?

” Chief Liu

 asked

.

“I think you should send people to protect the other two graves! I have a feeling that Zhu Fengchun will set his eyes

 on 

them.”

“Okay.” Chief Liu agreed immediately. 

I asked Li Mazi to stay with Chief Liu after c

onsidering that the policemen 

here 

might have never encountered

paranormal activities before. I would

watch Zhu Fengchun alone.

It was almost dawn w

hen we returned to the police station

 and fell

 asleep. In the afternoon, the police announced that they had found Zhu Fengchun murdered in his house; his case was closed just like that.

At twilight, Li Mazi and Chief Liu took with them two 

capable

 cops

 each

and 

went to the graves of the other two victims. I prepared my spirit talismans and a small mirror, 

starting to lurk

 behind the big tree opposite Zhu Fengchun’s back door.

The last light in the village went out a

s the moonlight started to get 

brighter

. The entire village was shrouded in darkness, but the white snow on the ground was somewhat illuminating the place. This scene looked exactly like one taken from a horror movie.

I pulled my clothes tight

 as I

looked

 around. I focused all my attention on 

Zhu Fengchun’s 

blue brick house.

A light source appeared inside the house at a

round 11:00 PM. I reacted fast, lifting my head to see

. A

 candle had been lit up in the room, and a shadow was moving around the candle.

It was exactly the same 

as

 the first time we came here. After hesitating for a while, I decided to go in there to check. However, 

the candle in the room went out 

as soon as I walked past the big tree.

I thought I had been busted a

t first

. Then, the house’s door sprang open with a loud bang. The shadow flew out.

It seemed that he hadn’t seen me yet. I exhaled in relief and continued watching him.

The shadow wore black, 

silk garments of ancient cut

, and he 

held

 a sword that gave 

out a 

blood

y

 light. 

He wielded his sword w

hile he walked. 

I saw his face w

hen he 

got 

closer

, and it was

so dark! 

If he had

 been wearing

 a

 turban

, I would have thought he was 

Mr. Popo. 

Moreover, his 

big, 

dark face was full of anger. While gliding away, he seem

ed to be 

scolding so

meone, or 

something. I couldn’t hear anything since his voice was too low.