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Lu Wei led the group down the winding mountain path, the darkness of night making it difficult to see. It was indeed easier to ascend than to descend. When they reached the village entrance, Yuan Jun cursed under his breath, "Damn it, we’re late."
Old Shao stood at the village entrance and sighed heavily, "Yeah, we’re late again."
The white Hyundai that had been parked there was gone, clearly driven away by someone. The only person who had the keys to that car was the Criminal Consultant. There were no headlights visible on the road in front of the village, leaving them uncertain about how long he had been gone.
Jiang He snatched Lu Wei's flashlight and crouched down to examine the ground for footprints.
There were quite a few footprints on the ground, most leading into the village, but only one set was heading out. This pair of prints stood out among the others. It meant that the Criminal Consultant had left the village after everyone else had returned, and it couldn’t have been more than half an hour apart.
"Yuan Jun, notify Captain Liu immediately to seal off all roads from Shizhao Village to Dragon City," Jiang He instructed. "The killer left less than half an hour ago, and it takes at least three hours to reach Dragon City. That gives Captain Liu enough time to set up a perimeter."
"Understood," Yuan Jun replied as he pulled out his phone to call Captain Liu.
Jiang He handed the flashlight to Lu Wei and said, "Let’s go meet that Yin Yang Master."
Lu Wei didn’t mind; he casually led everyone into the village. It was clear to everyone that although Lu Wei appeared nonchalant and cooperative with the police, inside he was quite pleased with himself. With each step he took, he swayed his head as if he could fly.
Wang Kun followed behind anxiously but felt powerless.
It seemed that a banquet had already begun; they could hear the noise from afar. Within five minutes, they spotted a courtyard where a tent had been set up outside, with seven or eight tables already laid out for dinner. Along one side of the courtyard wall, bulbs illuminated the path brightly.
Lu Wei turned off the flashlight and suddenly turned to everyone, saying, "By the way, today is a good day. Would you like to sit down for a meal? In rural areas, they can quickly set up a table and some stools for you; after all, it's Master who’s cooking, and there are plenty of ingredients."
With that, Lu Wei shouted towards inside the door, "Erzi, set up another table and add one more meal."
"However," Lu Wei added with a grin, "this big boss might not be used to our kind of banquet."
"What are you eating!" Wang Kun said, "My daughter is dead, what is there to eat!"
Lu Wei's smile vanished almost instantly from his face. "Yes, your daughter is dead, and my son is dead too. Why should I be able to eat?"
As the atmosphere grew tense, Shao the Elder interjected, "Enough of this. Take us to see that Yin Yang Master right away."
Lu Wei finally glanced at Wang Kun one last time before leading the group into the courtyard. The rural courtyard was spacious, with five or six tables set up. Following the main table's direction, they spotted the Yin Yang Master sitting at the head of the table, holding two chopsticks and piling his bowl high with fatty meat.
The group navigated around several round tables and approached the Yin Yang Master.
He was eating with grease all over his face and didn’t notice the project team approaching him.
"Please eat more. When will you come to my house? Why does my son always come in last in exams? Is it because of bad feng shui?"
"Sure, sure," the Yin Yang Master replied as he dug into his bowl.
"I want to build another kitchen in my yard. When would be a good time to start? Can you calculate that for me?"
"Sure, sure," the Yin Yang Master said as he tore off a large chicken leg.
"Recently, I've been feeling a lot of back pain. Could it be that I've come into contact with something unclean?"
"Sure, sure," the Yin Yang Master replied as he raised a wine cup to his lips.
"That makeup artist for corpses—was it you who brought him here?"
"Sure, sure," the Yin Yang Master said again as he speared a piece of oily cake with his chopsticks.
Yuan Jun tugged at the shoulder of the Yin Yang Master.
"What's up?"
"What do you mean, what's up?" Yuan Jun pulled back sharply, catching the Yin Yang Master off guard. The balance in his hands faltered, and a stack of bowls toppled over him, spilling a bowl of greasy meat sauce all over him. The bowls rolled over him twice before finally crashing to the ground with a loud shattering sound.
The crisp noise drew everyone's attention, and everyone in the courtyard turned to look at the Yin Yang Master.
The Yin Yang Master stood up and shouted, "What are you doing? Can't you see I'm holding food? Hurry up! What are you waiting for? Is someone dead in your family, or are you in a hurry to be reborn?"
Yuan Jun lifted the Yin Yang Master off the ground and said, "Alright then, tell me who died today."
The Yin Yang Master had never seen this person before and had no idea what he was up to. He only noticed that this man was burly, with arms as thick as his own thighs. It was clear he was not someone to mess with, which immediately deflated his bravado. He replied, "What do you want? Who knows these guys?"
A few people stood up. "Who are you? Dare to cause trouble in our village? Are you itching for a fight or looking to die here?"
"Police," Yuan Jun replied.
One man with a flushed face, clearly having had too much to drink, stood up and said, "You? A police officer? Come on then, come over here and fight me! How dare you touch Yang the Half-Immortal!"
As soon as he finished speaking, several others stood up as well. They looked like they were in their twenties and seemed ready to confront the special task force members.
Old Shao didn't bother with words; he simply pulled out Yuan Jun's gun from his waist and placed it on the table. "Here, I have a handgun. Pick it up and shoot me."
The metal of the gun clanged against the table with a sharp sound.
No one dared to move.
Yuan Jun never expected Old Shao to be so impulsive. It seemed that Old Shao had been holding in a lot of frustration. However, Old Shao's approach was undoubtedly the simplest; the young man who had stood up immediately sat back down, quietly eating as if he had never stood at all.
The older brother, whose face was flushed from drinking, crawled onto the table without caring about the fish bones and scraps in front of him. He laid down on it, and soon enough, snoring could be heard, indicating he had fallen asleep.
Yuan Jun put his gun back at his waist, and Old Shao stepped forward to ask, "Let me ask you, is that corpse makeup artist someone you brought?"
The Yin Yang Master nodded. "Yeah, what's wrong, Officer? Whether he committed murder, broke the law, raped an old lady, or beat up a boy, it has nothing to do with me. Now, Officer, you can go ahead and ask if he’s in trouble."
"Do you know that person?" Jiang He asked. "Why did you let him come to stitch up the corpse?"
The Yin Yang Master scratched his head and said, "This matter is quite interesting. I guarantee that what I say is true, but you probably won't believe it. If it hadn't really happened, I would think this whole thing was fake—it's just too unbelievable."
"Stop keeping us in suspense," Shao the Elder urged.
The Yin Yang Master nodded and said, "Well, this story starts three days ago."
"Three days ago?" Old Shao asked.
The Yin Yang Master wiped the food stains off himself as he continued, "Three days ago, a Taoist suddenly came to my place. He calculated that within three days someone in this village would definitely die due to evil spirits causing trouble. He insisted that he needed to come personally to collect the soul and asked me to help him."
"Isn't that just nonsense?" The Yin Yang Master remarked. "How could I not see through it? But this guy didn’t seem like he was joking. He gave me three thousand yuan to buy some needles and thread—specifically dyed ones—so that they could control the evil spirits. At first, I didn’t believe him and took the money without caring about it until today when someone suddenly informed me that there was a death. That guy wasn’t wrong after all."
"Later on, he came looking for me again and asked if I had prepared the materials. Of course, I hadn’t prepared anything but felt embarrassed to admit it, so I just gave him regular needles and thread. Then I took him along to stitch up the corpse. Normally, that’s something I would do myself; but since someone was paying me and could also help rid the village of evil spirits, I naturally agreed."
The Yin Yang Master continued, "After that, I let him handle the stitching alone. I even asked him to nail down the coffin lid afterward because we were about to hold a spirit ceremony soon. Just now at the banquet, he came to say goodbye and even gave me a protective talisman meant to keep me safe; I accepted it."
With that, the Yin Yang Master reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of yellow talisman paper.
Jiang He took the talisman and realized it was quite stiff, as if something was contained within it.
He yanked the outer yellow paper, revealing what was inside. To his surprise, it was a photograph—a candid shot.
In the photo was a girl in the nude, and upon closer inspection, it was none other than Wang Yedan. The image showed her bathing in what appeared to be a bathroom.
"This... this is my family's bathroom," Wang Kun exclaimed as he saw the photograph. "From the angle, it looks like it was taken from the wall by the bathroom door."
"That means he had been to your house long before; last night wasn't the first time," Shao the Elder remarked.
"Yes..." Wang Kun stared blankly at the photo.
"Three days ago, the Criminal Consultant came to find this Yin Yang Master, and they had already planned to stitch up a corpse, which means..." Jiang He turned to Old Shao.
"It means that Wang Yedan's only fate was death; it had nothing to do with the WeChat reply," Shao the Elder concluded.
From the very beginning, he never intended for Wang Yedan to survive.
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