It seemed
Senior Shu
had read my mind. He snorted. “If you don’t believe me, I’
ll
show you.”
Then, he called Feng Yuanzheng
and shouted over
the phone. “Your wife almost killed Li Mazi last night.
The guy
wants to take the surveillance video to the police station to report the case! We can’t stop him. You should tell your wife to run away!”
He then curtly hung up the call. Afterward, he asked Li Mazi to proceed to the nearest police station. We took a cab and quietly followed him.
Since Zhang Yan’s house
was far from
the station, Li Mazi deliberately walked slowly. If
the situation was as
Senior Shu
had guessed, Zhang Yan would try to stop Li Mazi once she heard the news.
Gradually, the taxi driver saw the connection between Li Mazi and us.
“Brother, which drama are you playing?” asked the puzzled driver.
“Oh, we’re
hiding behind
the tree and waiting for the rabbit to
come
.” I smiled and handed him five hundred
renminbi to indicate
that he should just drive us. We would pay him well.
We slowly inched along like that for around twenty minutes. Li Mazi had tried his best to walk at his slowest speed.
E
ventually, he reached the police station.
He carefully
turned around to check our car.
“
Maybe we
guessed wrong?” I lowered my voice.
“Impossible. Call Li Mazi and tell him to enter the station,” answered
Senior Shu
.
I had to send Li Mazi a text
and asked
him to enter the police station. Li Mazi was worried, but he had to go in.
Right before he had stepped into the entrance of the police station,
Senior Shu
furrowed his brows. Suddenly, a car crazily crossed the street and
drove toward
Li Mazi. It looked
as though the driver
wanted to crush Li Mazi to death!
“Hurry, follow that car!” I urged the taxi driver as I pulled myself together
.
Li Mazi
had always been
cautious, so he rushed into the police station as soon as the
car sped toward him.
The car turned and got on the street to flee as
the
ambush didn’t work. The policeman in the
watchtower
at the police station entrance frowned and cursed, but
didn’t do anything
else.
I didn’t bother to check on Li Mazi
and asked
the driver to chase after that car.
The car was
quick. The driver’s skills were amazing
as it weaved between cars. Fortunately, we had gotten ourselves an experienced driver
,
too.
Although the distance between us was lengthening, we weren’t ditched behind.
Along
the way,
Senior Shu
tried to call Feng Yuanzheng. He told us that Zhang Yan had driven the family
car away.
Senior Shu
made a quick decision
and asked
Feng Yuanzheng to rummage through Zhang Yan’s room to see if he could find the iron swallow.
Senior Shu
told him that if he
found
it, he should go to Li Qiushu’s house and wait for us there.
Soon, the driver of the other car noticed us. The car accelerated but couldn’t ditch us.
When we came to a rice paddy field outside the city, the car suddenly stopped. I thought that Zhang Yan wanted to run away. However, she didn’t get out of the car. It seemed she was waiting for us.
When we
got
there, we found that
there was no one
in the car!
“Dang, what the
heck
is going on here?”
The driver curiously followed us. When he saw
the scene
, he paled immediately
and stuttered,
“B-Brother,
w
hat are
we
doing here?”
“Capturing ghosts!”
The driver was stunned for at least three solid seconds. Then, he crawled into his car and drove away.
I didn’t mind him. “
Senior Shu
, what should we do now?”
Senior Shu
’s eyes
darted
as though he was thinking about something. After a long time, he seemed to get it. “Did Li Mazi call you?”
“No
.
Is something the matter
?” I asked skeptically. However, I recognized
the problem
before I finished my sentence. With Li Mazi’s nature, even if he didn’t follow us, he would call me continuously. But now,
even though
we had been chasing after this car for quite a long time, he had
n’t
called me
even
once!
Since there was no one in the car, the
spirit
must have
controlled the car.
Where
was
Zhang Yan?
Senior Shu
and I exchanged looks
. We screamed
in unison. “We’
ve been
tricked!”
Zhang Yan had
seen through
our intentions
. As such,
she had
performed a
play to usher us here so that she would have time to deal with Li Mazi.
We took another taxi back to town. On the way
back
, we kept calling Li Mazi. The line
went
through, but no one picked up the call.
Senior Shu
shook his head. “
There’s n
o need to call anymore. Now, we
wait.”
Then, he asked the driver to drive us to Li Qiushu’s house. When we were almost there, Feng Yuanzheng called me. “I
kicked the bedroom door open and found the iron swallow. I’m in Li Qiushu’s house now.”
I was cheered up. With the iron swallow in our hands, Zhang Yan wouldn’t dare to do anything to Li Mazi.
After we arrived at Li Qiushu’s house,
Senior Shu
received the iron swallow and squinted his eyes to study it.
I
was sure that
Zhang Yan
didn't
know that Feng Yuanzheng had stolen her iron swallow. To ensure that we
could predict
her
movements
, I asked Feng Yuanzheng to go home for
no
w. To
make it look like a robbery
, I
got
his
consent and punched him
a few
times
.
After Feng Yuanzheng left,
Senior Shu
gave me the iron swallow to study it. The bird looked real
, and
its feathers were strangely magnificent. The bird was carved in a flying posture with both of its wings spread wide. It looked so real that if one didn’t touch it, he wouldn’t know it wasn’t a living bird.
The iron swallow was cold and heavy in my palm. However, except for that common feeling, I sensed nothing else. I even used the ox tears, but
I still
found no Yin energy.
I was puzzled
as I admired
the iron swallow. “So,
this
isn’t an otherworldly item?”
“It is an otherworldly item.”
Senior Shu
confirmed. However, his voice turned worried. “
Since
we
can’t
see any traces, it’s possible that the otherworldly item has merged with the
spirit
. Together, they have become a
rare
Yin treasure.”
I was shocked. Most of the otherworldly items had a wisp of the
deceased's
soul attached
to
it, like a parasite. As long as
that
wisp of the soul was erased, the otherworldly item would become an ordinary antique.
However, once the soul and the item merged, the otherworldly item would be able to evolve into
a
legendary Yin treasure! It was like the harmony between the human soul and body.
That was why
we couldn’t see any traces of Yin energy. Moreover, if this otherworldly item was controlled, no one could estimate the result!
However, this sort of otherworldly item had a fatal weakness. If we could destroy the otherworldly item, no matter how strong the
spirit
was, it would perish altogether.
From what we had observed from Zhang Yan last night until now,
it looked like she
and the otherworldly item were fused. It explained why she was hurt when I hit the
spirit
.
It was also
why we couldn’t destroy the iron swallow now. We didn’t want to harm Zhang Yan.
I understood very well that her strange behaviors were caused by the
spirit
’s influence. Moreover, this iron swallow must have a profound histor
y
behind it.
Soon, Feng Yuanzheng called me. “I’m home, but Zhang Yan isn’t home yet.”
I was afraid that if we lingered, Li Mazi would be
killed
. “Mr. Feng, please call Zhang Yan and tell her that we
’ve
raided her room and that we
’ve
got the iron swallow.”
After I made the call,
I waited.
Senior Shu
patted me
. H
is voice
grew
angry. “You didn’t think
about
Feng Yuanzhang
’s well-being
! If Zhang Yan doesn’t believe him, she will kill him too!”
“Impossible!” I
was baffled
. With Zhang Yan’s current character, if she wanted to kill Feng Yuanzheng, she would have done that already. There was no reason for her to wait. Anyway,
since
Senior Shu
had mentioned
it,
I immediately texted Feng Yuanzheng
and asked
him to watch out. If the situation turned
for the worse
, he would have to run for his life.
We then waited. Soon, Li Mazi called me. I took a deep breath and received the call. However, I didn’t speak first.
Zhang Yan’s low voice came from the other end of the line. “You’re calm, aren’t you! Well,
this
pockmark-faced
bastard
seems useless, anyway. I’ll
get rid of him first
!”
As soon as she finished her sentence, I heard Li Mazi
scream
painfully. Then, his
wretched
voice echoed through the phon
e.
“Little
B
rother Zhang, help me! Help me!”