chapter 14
Brother Liu told us another case, but his story was all over the place.
How could we possibly guess?
“At first, none of us took this case seriously.”
Brother Liu said, “It started when this young man’s mother came to report a crime, claiming her son had been murdered. Naturally, we pay attention to homicide cases, but guess what?”
“The young man’s mother had a dream in which she saw her son being killed. Coincidentally, she couldn’t get in touch with him during that period, so she came to file a report.”
Meng Yifan and I clicked our tongues in amazement.
I asked, “Isn’t it hard to file a case for something like this?”
After all, you can’t expect the police to open a case just because someone had a dream.
Brother Liu nodded, “We all thought it was ridiculous-how could we possibly file a case? But she really couldn’t reach her son, and no one else could either. To calm her down, we had to file it as a missing person case and help her look for her son.”
“But as you know, it’s not easy to find a missing adult. We searched for a month and still couldn’t find her son.”
“Then, after more than a month, she came to report again, saying her son had projected another dream to her. In the dream, her son took her to a place, pointed at a mound of earth, and said his body was buried there. He also told her who killed him, asked her to report it, dig up his body, and bring him home for burial, or else he couldn’t reincarnate.”
Meng Yifan and I stared wide-eyed, “And then?”
Brother Liu lit a cigarette, took a drag, and said, “We still didn’t take it seriously at the time. There was no way we were going to waste manpower searching for a body just because of a dream.”
“But there was an old policeman-my Master. When none of us believed it, my Master did. He took us across provinces, following the aunt to the place from her dream, and helped her look for the body.”
“Guess what? I still can’t forget how uncanny it was-we actually dug up a corpse at that spot!”
“And after biological comparison, it was confirmed to be her son’s remains. Then, following the clues from her son’s dream, we successfully caught the murderer and solved the case with hardly any effort!”
After finishing, Brother Liu sighed, “Later, I told this story to many people, but no one believed me. They even mocked me, saying if things were really so supernatural, why have so many people been murdered throughout history, yet none of them turned into ghosts to tell their families who killed them.”
Meng Yifan asked curiously, “Brother Liu, since you’ve experienced this, you must know more than us. Why don’t other people who are murdered project dreams to their families like this young man did?”
Brother Liu shook his head and sighed, “How could I possibly explain these things? But this case really happened to me-no exaggeration at all.”
“Maybe it’s like my Master said: our place has thousands of years of history. Some things you don’t have to believe, but you should maintain respect. Human knowledge is always limited; you can’t see the whole picture of this world.”
After hearing this story, Meng Yifan and I naturally believed it.
Because we had just experienced something similar.
But just as Brother Liu said, people who haven’t experienced it themselves really won’t believe these things.
“Actually, I noticed something was off about you two today.”
Brother Liu said meaningfully, “You both look terrible. I was wondering if you were on drugs. Seriously, you need to take this seriously and find a way to resolve it, or it could be fatal.”
Meng Yifan and I felt like we’d grabbed a lifeline and quickly pleaded, “Brother Liu, we don’t know anything about this stuff or how to solve it. Please show us the way and save our lives.”
Brother Liu nodded. Though he’s greedy for money, he’s a good person.
He said, “I’ll introduce you to someone. His name is Old Zhao Seven, but we all call him Seventh Master. Back at my old unit, we encountered this kind of thing more than once, and he always helped us handle it. The old man has some real skills.”
I hurriedly asked Brother Liu for this expert’s address and contact information.
Brother Liu told us, then reminded us, “This old man is from the Northeast. He’s bold and straightforward, but has a bad temper. He’s soft when treated gently, but not when treated harshly, so be polite in every way.”
I said, of course. We’re asking for help, and it’s a matter of life and death-we’ll treat him like an ancestor.
After this meal, we got a lot of clues. The dinner wasn’t wasted, nor was the money.
Just before leaving, I almost forgot something and quickly asked Brother Liu if he had a photo of Li Xiumei.
But Brother Liu said Li Xiumei was from the countryside, and kids from rural areas rarely took photos back then. She hadn’t returned home for years, and her family didn’t have any photos of her. But she must have left photos when applying for documents before. Brother Liu said he’d need some time to get one for me.
Finally, after leaving the restaurant, Meng Yifan and I saw Brother Liu off to his car, and that was that.
“Chen Mo, was the first owner of that house really your uncle, like Brother Liu said?” Meng Yifan frowned at me, looking worried.
Our families are close, so naturally he’s concerned about my dad.
If this isn’t handled well, my dad could get into trouble.
“I don’t know, but it’s probably true.”
I said I’d just called my grandpa, and from his tone, it seemed Brother Liu’s Chen Guowen really was my dad. But my dad couldn’t possibly be a murderer.
Meng Yifan sighed, “What a mess. But whatever you do, don’t let Brother Liu know Chen Guowen is your dad, or he definitely won’t give us any more clues.”
I nodded, fully aware of the stakes.
Finally, Meng Yifan and I agreed to go see Seventh Master Zhao together tomorrow.
If we don’t handle this well, our lives are at risk!
Since Meng Yifan and I had both been drinking, we couldn’t drive, so we each called a designated driver.
Meng Yifan didn’t dare go home. He went straight to a bathhouse, planning to spend the night there.
As for me, I planned to go home first.
I needed to ask my dad exactly what his relationship with Li Xiumei was.