TLDP: C039. Livor Mortis…

At noon, when Xu Xiaoling and I had lunch, Xu XIaoling talked about this morning’s news. The news was: a man’s mistress was packed into a box, thrown into the sea as she was drowned alive. The man’s plan was flawless and it was unknown why his crime got exposed.

“According to the news, yesterday night there was a mysterious man who came to the police station and filed an anonymous report. The murderer was then arrested afterward. What made people curious is that the person who reported it accurately pointed out that the murderer was Cui Zhihai.” said Xu Xiaoling.

I chuckled a bit: “So, do you want to know about it?”

“Yes, I’m really curious

I put down my chopsticks and wiped my mouth: “Okay, but before I tell you the truth, you must not be angry. In fact, the person who reported it was me. I was doing my job last night, but since I didn’t want to make you worry, I lied to you.” Then, I told the Qin Mingji story to Xu Xiaoling.

Xu Xiaoling asked: “Do you have one tonight too?”

I nodded: “Yes, Cheng Dong got the clients, and tomorrow night I also have one. Big Sis Xiaoling, relax. I have a team for this job now, not to mention, my physical strength is stronger than before. There will be no danger.”

“Well, you still must be careful, tomorrow is Friday and I want to go with you tomorrow night.”

Looking at her expression, if I didn’t comply with her request, she would be angry. So I nodded.

To be honest, I really started to like her more the longer we were together. She knew how to care for people and never once did she get annoyed over trivial matters. Her looks were also beautiful. She was really an extraordinary hard girl to find nowadays.

It was 5 PM now, and Jiannan had yet to come back. I called him and finally, that idiot told me that he was with his girlfriend eating outside and would come back after they finished the meal.

He had a girlfriend?!! How come I’ve never heard of it? I gawked for a few seconds, “Well, then at 7 PM sharp you go to Xin Park’s entrance. I’ll be waiting for you there!”

Mom had long served dinner when Xu Xiaoling and I arrived at home. After dinner, we sat and talked for a while before I escorted Xu Xiaoling back to her apartment. It took 15 minutes by bus to get there.

I walked her to her apartment downstairs as Xu Xiaoling spoke: “Be careful tonight.”

I gave her a confident look to make her feel relieved, then turned and left.

I took a taxi to Xin Park and saw Jiannan standing in front of the gate. I was completely shocked seeing the new clothes worn by Jiannan.

Tiger Hippo T-s.h.i.+rt!

Adidas silk trousers!

And a bottle of Kang Shua Fu (The Handsome Guy Kang) mineral water!

A thick gold necklace hung around his neck, it was a gold painted chain!

This idiot Jiannan was currently shaking his fake Rolex watch: “Big brother, with my superb price haggling, I only spent 85 RMB for all of these goods. Moreover, all these goods are good quality imitation products. I think It’s really worth it. I’ll take you to that place in case you want to buy these goods tomorrow!”

I barely held myself to not vomit blood: “NO!!! Now, I really think that your rapper style clothes suit you better…”

According to Cheng Dong’s info, the current client was a middle-aged woman in her 40s or so. She said that her husband had a sudden huge personality change recently. He often cursed and even beaten her and their son. The terrifying thing was that he always got up at midnight and sharpened his knife. She had once asked him to see a doctor but her husband threatened her with a kitchen knife. Because she was out of options, she asked for help from a Daoist priest to check on him. She believed that her husband had been possessed by evil spirits. However, because they were poor, they could only afford to pay 1,000 RMB. But, even if they could not pay, I would also help them.

While I thought about the cause of this case, Jiannan who was walking beside me suddenly spoke to me in a serious tone: “Brother, wait!”

I quickly recovered. Jiannan had an inborn talent to see ghosts. Did he see something? I put my hands into my pocket, ready to withdraw a charm as I then look around and asked, “What’s up Jiannan, what did you see?”

Jiannan’s next reply almost made my seven orifices bleed: “Big brother, there’s a worm…”

My nerves almost breakdown because of this sh*it. Luckily we had arrived at our destination. We pressed the electronic bell b.u.t.ton and a middle-aged woman’s voice sounded shortly after: “Who is it?”

“I’m Zhang Xiaolong.”

“Come in please.”

We entered the house as a thin and pale 40-year-old woman with her 14/15-year-old-boy greeted us. The boy should be her son. The anxious expression on the woman’s face showed her doubts about our abilities. I couldn’t really blame here, Jiannan and I was really young looking.

I talked to her confidently, said: “Auntie, don’t worry. Although we are young, we have rich experience. We completely understand your husband’s condition. He could either is having a mental breakdown or is being possessed by evil spirits. If he has depression or a mental breakdown, I can’t help him. Oh, by the way, is your husband at home right now?”

The woman sighed: “Recently, he always goes out to play mahjong every night and always comes home very late. I don’t know where he went because he has never played mahjong before. I really don’t know why his personality changed so much.”

“Oh, what time does he usually come home?”

She asked us to sit down and took out two cans of c.o.ke, saying: “He always comes back around 10 PM every night. Oh, our family was very harmonious before, but now I am forced to separate from him. I really don’t know if it was because of my fault…”

The boy was very introverted. He hadn’t spoken since we arrived. According to this woman, that boy is on summer vacation and this was his third day on holiday. Therefore, he headed back to his room studied. As that woman then told us about her husband’s condition.

Her husband’s name was Yu Cheng. He had a gentle personality before, he was very popular and easygoing. But, since he visited and swept the graves at the Qingming Festival [1], it was as if he was not the same person. It made people feel strange. At the beginning, he only did disturbing things at home, but later his work friends also felt annoyed. The company’s higher-ups couldn’t help but put him on holiday…

Yu Cheng’s action of sharpening a knife at midnight every day scared them. And recently, at around 6 PM, he always went out to play mahjong and came back home at 10 PM. He then watched TV and continued to sharpen his knife from 12:00 AM to 2/3:00 AM. He never went out during the day and locked himself in his room, closing the room’s curtains and forbade anyone to enter his room. His family didn’t know what he did inside his room as the woman had been sleeping in their son’s bedroom the last few months and didn’t dare to disturb him.

Jiannan who was holding his Nocchi Friend 1100 [2] foolishly laughed after he read a few short text messages. He was completely ignoring this woman’s speech. I helplessly shook my head and secretly thought. Qingming Festival, sweeping the graves, personality change, sharpening the knife at midnight, closing the curtains during the daytime. These were all not something a person with mental illnesses would do, but rather it should be an evil spirit causing trouble here.

But, if an evil spirit was really the culprit, then… the trouble would be difficult to handle…

Why?

Because according to the woman’s story, the man had undergone a personality change for more than 4 months. If the ghost possessed him this long, he should have died already! I frowned; this time… the case seemed too th.o.r.n.y and dangerous…

10:07 PM. Jiannan and I hid in the boy’s bedroom as the woman was helping the boy to study. I was on high alert and tried to carefully listen to all the voices coming from outside. Footsteps sounds then sounded as it entered the man’s room. I previously asked the woman to hide in her husband’s room but she didn’t have the key, so we could only hide here.

After we heard the door close, I winked at Jiannan.

But this annoying sucker was just asked me instead: “Big brother, what happened to your eyes?”

The anger turned my eyes black as I then whispered and cursed: “Come out with me!!!” I ignited a Moon Charm and blew out the Yang fire on my shoulders.

When I arrived at Yu Cheng’s room’s door, I quietly winded the doork.n.o.b and found that it was locked from the inside. However, the k.n.o.b’s sound alerted the man as a hoa.r.s.e voice sounded: “Who is it?”

Since we had been found out, there was no need to be stealthy. I gathered my strength and quickly kicked the door!

The room was very dark and the light was off. But, since the neon lamp in the living room was switched on, we could vaguely see a person’s shadow standing there. My eyes instantly turned wide in astonishment because that person didn’t have a Yang fire! His three Yang fires were completely gone!!!

A sharp rotten smell filled the room. I patted my hands to the lamp’s switch near the door and the several neon tubes blitzed several times before it lit up. The room was extremely chaotic and a man was standing near the window. His arms were naked and a silt red color covered a large area of his skin. Some parts had even turned purple. Jiannan didn’t realize the seriousness of this scene as he asked like a curious baby instead: “Big Brother, this person has skin disease right?”                                                                                  

“It’s a hypostasis!” I replied solemnly.

“Hypostasis? Doesn’t that only happened to corpses?”

“Yes, and judging from the severity, the color had turned purple. It is obvious that he had died for a long time…” l confirmed.

He had already put on his clothes this time as he wore white gloves to cover his hands. Although his body was mostly covered by livor mortis, and although the body was bloodless, his neck and face were still like a living person’s.

After he finished dressing, he finally looked at me and Yang Jiannan, “Who are you?”

He definitely had died and was only a corpse. But to still be able to move, it was obvious that the body was manipulated by an evil spirit. Moreover, this evil spirit was very powerful. Far more powerful than the comb’s demoness! The most unpardonable act this evil spirit had done was that it had murdered a living person! My anger drove to shout at him in a deep tone: “Evil spirit!!! You dare to kill a human under broad daylight! Today, you should be exterminated! To avoid the future disaster of you killing again!”

“Hahaha…” He raised his head and smiled as he then took out a sharp kitchen knife from his waist: “Relying on you two little imps? This old man has been a Mountain King for a long time, from the time even your parents were yet born. Now because you have seen me, to avoid the news from leaking out, today the two of you must die!!!” He rushed over, striking with his knife!

The woman who heard a wild evil laugh hurriedly came over from the boy’s room and immediately screamed as she saw her ‘husband’ attacking us with a sharp knife. I had to act fast and stop him, so I swiftly grabbed his arm and shouted: “Don’t come here! It’s dangerous!!!”

While I was distracted, a chilly wind hit my face.