Chapter 40
Chapter 40
Xie Qingling had summoned these skeletons according to the period when the City God Temple disappeared.
Some had been dead for more than a century, some for exactly a century, and others for eighty years. She had a skeleton corresponding to each approximate period.
The six skeletons stared blankly at Xie Qingling through their hollow eye sockets, looking as though they were struggling to understand her instruction.
After a while, they seemed to confer among themselves. Then one skeleton walked forward, circled Xie Qingling several times, and signaled for her to follow.
“Wait.” Seeing the skeleton about to charge out of the alley, Xie Qingling hurriedly stopped it.
She might have accepted her ability without difficulty, but if a passerby saw this…
Tomorrow’s headlines would undoubtedly read something like, “Skeletons Run by Night: A Collapse of Morality or a Twisting of Human Nature?”
Then she would probably be punished yet again.
Come to think of it, she had not even finished her self-criticism.
Xie Qingling opened the case, took out the Ksitigarbha Statue, and deployed the Killing Field.
Inside the Killing Field, the space was isolated from the real world. The two did not interfere with each other, effectively blocking the view from outside.
Only after completing these preparations did Xie Qingling say to the skeleton, “All right. Let’s go.”
The little skeleton obediently led Xie Qingling out of the dark alley.
Following its lead, Xie Qingling walked into increasingly remote areas until she reached a small factory consisting of three low, tile-roofed buildings.
The small factory had already been abandoned. In an age of constant advances in machinery, production that relied on manual labor could no longer meet society’s needs.
Judging by its scale, however, the factory must have seen considerable foot traffic for a time.
An open stretch of ground lay in front of the factory. Tire tracks were clearly visible across it, left by people who came there to practice driving.
The City God Temple…
Where was it?
The little skeleton continued forward and finally stopped behind the factory.
More precisely, it stopped in front of an enormous old locust tree behind the factory.
[After a century of sweeping change, the City God Temple has long since vanished and fallen into ruin, receiving incense offerings no more. All that can be recovered from its former site now are a few tiles used in its original construction.]
[The locust tree planted before the City God Temple has likewise endured several centuries. All things possess spirit. When the temple flourished with incense offerings, the tree also received protection and absorbed some of that incense. Now that the City God Temple has been destroyed, the locust tree, which has developed a measure of spiritual awareness, uses its natural ability to gather yin energy to shelter passing ghosts and monsters, assuming a portion of the temple’s former function.]
The old locust tree’s massive root base would have required several people joining hands to encircle it.
Its canopy blotted out the sky. Against the pitch-black night, it looked immensely oppressive.
Although it was a silent plant, the posture in which it stood carried a profound weight that seemed capable of piercing through time.
This old locust tree was so very much older than Xie Qingling.
She looked up at it for a long while, her heart filled with reverence for the life rooted in this soil.
Hopefully, this century-old tree could shoulder some of the pressure on Golden Shackle and Silver Lock and keep those ghosts from going out to torment passersby.
The Killing Field had failed to capture Golden Shackle and Silver Lock. They had probably avoided it.
Although she could not see them, Xie Qingling guessed they were following behind her and had not left.
She had brought them to the location. It was time for Xie Qingling to leave.
It was now eight thirty at night.
Xie Qingling notified Ling Fang. “Director, I’ve more or less figured out what happened. I’ll report to you in person tomorrow. There are a few matters that require follow-up.”
“All right. Go back and rest.”
On the way back, Xie Qingling deliberately passed the place where the middle-aged man had fainted and found him gone.
Ye Anran had probably arrived and revived him.
After returning to the office, Xie Qingling found time to write a brief field report on the day’s work before resting.
The next day, when Ling Fang arrived for work, Xie Qingling handed him the report.
“Director, I’ve finished the field report. All the details are inside. The matter can more or less be considered resolved, but I think…” After hesitating, Xie Qingling said, “I think that if we leave it alone, the disorder may grow worse over time.”
Ling Fang had already finished reading the field report.
He placed it in a case-file envelope, marked it with the date, location, handler, and other information, then stored it in the filing cabinet.
“The order of the other world has collapsed more thoroughly than we imagined, and the chaos is far worse.” Ling Fang rubbed his brow. “I can feel their power gradually weakening. Now they barely have enough strength left to suppress ghosts and monsters.”
By “the other world,” he naturally meant the world of gods and ghosts.
“Your concern is valid. Although the old locust tree can temporarily shoulder some of the burden, it isn’t a true City God Temple. What it can do is limited. To restore order in any real sense, we still need a genuine City God Temple.”
“Besides, if we leave this alone and someone with malicious intentions exploits it, we’ll have a serious problem.”
Xie Qingling waited for his instructions.
“I’ll submit a request to our superiors asking to rebuild a new City God Temple.” Ling Fang turned on his computer. “All right, get back to work. Leave the rest to me.”
“All right.”
Xie Qingling did not need to worry about what came next.
About two days later, all the follow-up procedures were complete.
When Xie Qingling next returned to patrol the desolate street, she saw red circles painted on the crumbling walls, each containing the enormous word “DEMOLITION.”
The area was going to be demolished and redeveloped.
She returned to the noodle shop where she had eaten last time. The moment she entered, she heard the old woman complaining. Upon seeing her, the woman exclaimed happily, “Young lady, you’re back! This granny remembers the face of every returning customer!”
Xie Qingling ordered another bowl of rice noodles and sat down to wait.
To be honest, the noodles here were quite delicious.
This time, the old woman gave Xie Qingling a braised egg for free.
The old woman rambled, “But my shop will be closing soon. You may never get to eat my noodles again.”
“Why?” Xie Qingling asked.
“See that word ‘DEMOLITION’ outside?” The old woman pointed at a building that resembled a dangerously unstable wall. “That’s this granny’s home. I’ve lived there for decades, and now they suddenly want to tear it down. I don’t even know where I’ll live.”
Xie Qingling said, “There should be a relocation compensation payment.”
“But I’m old. I can’t endure being uprooted. I only wanted to spend the rest of my days tending this shabby little shop. Who knew they’d suddenly decide to demolish it for no reason?” The news had only arrived yesterday, yet today the word “DEMOLITION” already covered the walls. The old woman had learned quite a bit. She waved a hand and said, “I heard they’re going to build some kind of folk culture street here. How long will it take to finish an entire street? I’m old. I can’t afford to wait.”
Xie Qingling thought that Ling Fang had moved surprisingly quickly.
Building a folk culture street would not only allow them to reconstruct the City God Temple but also draw people back and restore its incense offerings.
It was a good choice.
The location might be relatively remote, but it should still receive a decent number of visitors during holidays – at least more than it did now.
Xie Qingling smiled. “Granny, you still look very healthy to me. It won’t take long to finish the street. Once it’s done, I’ll come back and eat here again.”
“Ah, I certainly hope so.”
* * *
The matter was resolved exceptionally smoothly.
After Xie Qingling helped Golden Shackle and Silver Lock find the old locust tree and the street was marked for redevelopment, police reports concerning the area essentially ceased.
However, there was still an exception.
Another day passed.
An unfamiliar visitor came to the office.
That was, unfamiliar to Xie Qingling.
He was a refined-looking, well-proportioned middle-aged man of about forty.
He sat on the sofa holding a tablet and watching a video.
Ling Fang braced both hands on the back of the sofa. The two men watched with such intense concentration that they did not even notice Xie Qingling enter.
Seeing how focused they were, Xie Qingling did not disturb them and poured herself a cup of coffee – yes, she too had developed the habit of drinking coffee.
About three minutes later, Ling Fang’s and the middle-aged man’s brows had drawn increasingly tight. Only when the video ended did they look away from the screen.
When they did, they saw Xie Qingling.
The middle-aged man froze for a moment. “Director Ling, is this the newcomer your Department just recruited?”
“Mm. That’s her.”
“You’d never know by looking. Heroes truly do emerge from the young.” The middle-aged man smiled in greeting. “Hello. My name is Chen Yinghui. I’m usually responsible for liaising with your Department… You could say I’m a police officer.”
“This is Captain Chen,” Ling Fang added.
“Hello, Captain Chen.” Xie Qingling greeted him without missing a beat, then asked curiously, “Are you investigating a case?”
Chen Yinghui paused, not having expected such a young-looking woman to be so perceptive.
Ling Fang said, “Let her see it too. She was the one who resolved the City God Temple incident.”
Hearing Ling Fang’s words, Chen Yinghui nodded and beckoned Xie Qingling over. “Come here. Take a look at this video too.”
“You should have read the case files about the haunted street and the reports that continued for over a month, right?”
“I did,” Xie Qingling said.
“Originally, after you resolved that supernatural incident, the police stopped receiving related reports. But today, we received another similar report – the matter hasn’t been completely resolved.”
Chen Yinghui briefly introduced the video. “The person in it is Chai Yuhu, a programmer. He first filed a report about a week ago. According to him, the hair on his head and his eyebrows disappeared for no apparent reason.”
“Because he had visited that street before filing the report, we initially classified the matter as a ghost’s prank. But three days ago – the day after you resolved the incident – he returned to file another report.”
“This time, every strand of hair that had just begun to grow back fell out again.”
“To uncover the truth, we installed surveillance cameras in his bedroom to see whether someone was playing a prank. Three days later – today – his entire scalp was covered in blood. The sight was horrific.”
“And that is how we got this video.”
Chen Yinghui handed the tablet to Xie Qingling.