Chapter 104

Chapter 104

This wasn’t the first time I’d been frightened to this degree.

It was the kind of shock that could literally scare a person to death.

Even though it wasn’t my first time, I was still scared half to death, and the sheer terror instantly sobered me up, chasing away the lingering effects of the alcohol.

I bolted upright. My brain remained in a state of severe standby for a full minute.

By the time I recovered, Wang Shujun was no longer in the living room.

I slumped onto the sofa, my body weak. Once my mind cleared, I realized that the urge to urinate was nearly bursting my bladder.

I slipped on my slippers and was about to head to the bathroom when the squelching sound from my feet caught my attention.

I looked down and saw water stains everywhere on the floor.

My heart, which had just begun to steady, started racing again.

I followed the trail of water to the front door.

The door was open, and there was another puddle outside.

Scanning the hallway, I saw the water stains stretching all the way to the elevator.

I didn’t dare rush out blindly. I leaned against the doorframe, trying to clear my head further.

Wang Shujun had drowned, so wherever his Ghost went, it would leave behind traces of water.

The first time he came to find me, he left a clue about how he died-that he had been drinking with someone before his death.

So this time, he was here to give me another clue.

I had really drunk too much; my head felt like it was stuffed with wet cement, and my thinking was a bit sluggish.

Steeling my nerves, I walked out. I didn’t dare take the elevator, opting for the stairs instead.

When I exited the building, there were sporadic puddles on the ground. I continued following them until I reached the Fish Pond.

There was a small Fish Pond in the residential complex where the Property Management had stocked many Koi Fish. One of the reasons I had rented a place here was because I liked the environment.

And now, about ten meters away, I saw a figure standing by the edge of the water.

The person was soaking wet, standing with his back to me. I recognized him instantly as Wang Shujun.

Taking a deep breath, I walked to within five meters of him and called out.

“Wang Shujun, I’m here.”

“Whatever grievances you have, just tell me.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, he turned around, trembling.

It was the first time I had ever seen a human face that pale. The skin was so waterlogged it had begun to wrinkle.

Those folds looked like jagged rocks protruding from a river, with water constantly seeping out from between them.

I secretly wished he would just turn back around. I was terrified…

“Wang Shujun, who exactly pushed you into the river?”

“Tell me, and I’ll help you get revenge.”

The foundation of communicating with a Ghost is to stand in its shoes, say what it wants to hear, and do things that benefit it. This was something Old Zhao Seven had taught me back when we performed the Soul Summoning for Li Xiumei.

At this moment, Wang Shujun looked up at me, still shivering. Water leaked continuously from his eyes, making it look like he was weeping.

He opened his mouth, his lips beginning to move. I knew he was about to tell me the truth.

However, I waited for a long time, and though his mouth kept moving, no sound came out.

The more I watched, the more I felt something was wrong. A sense of dread gradually pooled in my heart.

This appearance of his… I felt like I had seen it somewhere before.

My expression shifted drastically. “Was your tongue cut out? Can’t you speak?”

He nodded at me and opened his mouth wide.

I looked closely. Inside that dark, cavernous mouth, there was no tongue at all.

Dammit!

That bastard, to keep Wang Shujun from leaking secrets while he was alive, had pushed a living man into a river to drown. And to prevent him from leaking secrets after death, they had even cut out his tongue.
That animal!

He was the one who cut out Li Xiumei’s tongue all those years ago too.

“Tell me in whatever way you can-who killed you?” I prompted him.

Wang Shujun fell into deep thought for a moment, then suddenly raised his finger and pointed at me.

My eyes widened. “Why are you pointing at me?”

Did I kill him?

I suppose it made sense. If I hadn’t gone looking for him, he might not have died.

“I mean, who pushed you into the river? Who were you drinking with?” I rephrased the question.

But Wang Shujun kept pointing at me.

Suddenly, he clutched his head and crouched down, collapsing onto the ground as he began to howl in agony.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, startled.

But I forgot he couldn’t speak, and I didn’t dare get too close.

I asked him several times, but he just kept howling, looking as if he were in excruciating pain.

Under my panicked gaze, Wang Shujun caught fire.

Flames erupted from nowhere on his body, engulfing him instantly as if he had been doused in gasoline.

I slumped to the ground in terror. Before I could even react, Wang Shujun was burned to nothing, leaving only a large puddle of water on the pavement.

“Holy shit! Holy shit!”

I scrambled away on all fours.

I knew someone had to be nearby doing this; they had incinerated Wang Shujun’s Ghost.

I searched the entire area but found no one. However, I did find something else.

Scattered in a flowerbed were a piece of Talisman Paper and a Straw Doll woven from rice stalks. Affixed to the Straw Doll were Wang Shujun’s name and his Birth Date and Time.

The characters on the Talisman Paper were not in a standard script, but the handwriting for the name and Birth Date and Time was.

This handwriting…

The more I looked at it, the more familiar it became, and the faster my heart raced.

A sudden sharp pain shot through my chest-a pain that left me suffocating and reeling with shock.

In an instant, disappointment, anger, fear, and despair… all these negative emotions flooded over me like a tidal wave.

Clinging to my last shred of sanity, I grabbed the items and chased out of the residential complex.

I had to find him! I had to catch him! I had to ask him to his face why he would do such things!

But I didn’t catch him. When I ran outside, there wasn’t a soul in sight. He was long gone.

I took the items back into the complex and slumped down by the flowerbed, staring blankly at the things in my hands.

I finally understood why Wang Shujun had pointed at me.

I finally understood why Song Xiaotian had asked Meng Yifan and me that question at the restaurant yesterday.

Song Xiaotian had known who killed Fang Man for a long time.

After recognizing this handwriting, all the puzzles were solved in an instant. Everything that hadn’t made sense suddenly clicked.

I should have realized it was him long ago.

But why him?

How could I accept this… how could I accept that the person who killed Fang Man was him!

I sat dazed in the complex until dawn.

By the time I returned home, Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan were already awake.

“You went out so early? Where did you go?” Song Xiaotian asked.

I didn’t answer, my mind elsewhere. After washing my face, I walked out and said to them, “I need to go somewhere.”

Song Xiaotian asked, “Hmm? Where?”

“To the residential complex where Li Xiumei’s remains were dug up.”