Chapter 232
Chapter 232
I jumped down from the windowsill and chased out of the room.
But I knew the Little Ghost was already gone. There was no way I was catching him now.
I had just run downstairs when I saw the hotel owner swinging a kitchen knife at Song Xiaotian.
Song Xiaotian disarmed him bare-handed and pinned the owner to the floor.
“What the hell! Why is he hacking at me out of nowhere?” Song Xiaotian was still dazed from sleep, barely awake.
I hurriedly pulled a Talisman from my pocket, pressed it to the owner’s forehead, and recited the Ghost-Sending Spell.
Once I finished chanting, the owner fainted. Song Xiaotian and I helped him onto the sofa, then left him there.
“The Little Ghost already came?” Song Xiaotian asked me.
I glared at him. “Why did you run just now?”
He scratched his head and avoided my eyes. “Sorry. I was half-asleep…”
I was speechless. The Little Ghost had gotten away, which meant we had wasted another whole night staking the place out.
Still, this Little Ghost really was strange. He was a ghost, yet he insisted on stealing money. What use did he have for it? How was he supposed to spend it?
My five hundred yuan was as good as gone.
Back in the room, I checked the time. It was already past five in the morning. Dawn was almost here.
Song Xiaotian and I collapsed back into bed and kept sleeping. We slept straight through until ten in the morning, when Meng Yifan called and woke us up.
He asked how things were going, so I told him what had happened. We probably would not be heading back today. Song Xiaotian and I would have to stake the place out for one more night.
After all, since we were already here, going back would just mean having to come again.
Meng Yifan did not say much. He and Seventh Master were preparing to visit another household to find the fifth victim.
Seventh Master would perform the Exorcism, and Meng Yifan would conveniently ask the family whether they wanted to sell the house.
After hanging up, Song Xiaotian and I got up and prepared to go out for something to eat.
We had just come downstairs when we heard the hotel owner chatting with someone, saying someone had died nearby.
Song Xiaotian and I exchanged a look, then hurried over and asked him, “Boss, where did you say someone died?”
The owner said, “By the river. I only just heard about it too. A homeless man drowned in that river last night. This morning, someone went fishing by the river, and what do you know, he hooked the body right up. The fisherman even had a heart condition. Scared him so badly he nearly passed out.”
I quickly asked, “Which river?”
The owner said, “There’s only one river around here. Go out and turn left, walk straight for five hundred meters at the first intersection, then turn right and go another seven or eight hundred meters. You’ll be there. The body’s still lying there. If you ask me, don’t go joining the crowd. Seeing a dead person is bad luck.”
I did not ask anything else. I immediately ran toward that river with Song Xiaotian.
The place the owner had mentioned was exactly where we had gone last night.
I had even summoned a soul there last night.
This homeless man’s death was far too suspicious. Drowning in the middle of the night? How did he drown?
There were not any bottles to pick up by that river, either. What would he be doing there so late at night?
Song Xiaotian and I arrived quickly.
A large crowd had gathered at the scene. It took Song Xiaotian and me forever to squeeze our way in, and the moment we did, we saw the homeless man’s body.
The body was still lying on the riverbank. No one had come to collect it yet, probably because the police had not arrived.
Song Xiaotian and I kept staring. After squeezing around for a while, we finally got a clear look at the body’s face.
The more we looked at that face, the more familiar it seemed. Then we saw the gash on the corpse’s forehead, and both our faces went pale.
This homeless man-we had seen him last night!
At the time, he and several others had been bullying a child. Then Song Xiaotian had hit him with a rock, cutting open his forehead.
It was him!
Song Xiaotian and I exchanged a look, then hurriedly squeezed back out of the crowd.
“Fuck, how did this happen…”
Song Xiaotian was a little nervous. “Don’t tell me I injured him somehow, and then he accidentally fell into the river?”
I said there was no way it could be that much of a coincidence.
The stone thrown last night had only been a little pebble, and it hadn’t been thrown with much force. The man hadn’t shown any signs of discomfort afterward, either. Surely it couldn’t have given him a concussion, right?
“Then how did he die?”
Cold sweat broke out all over Song Xiaotian. “How could it be this coincidental? Last night, I hit him with a rock, and then he fell into the river…”
I said, “Don’t connect the two. We don’t know what happened before he fell in. Just because you hit him? Then he also bullied a kid last night. Who knows…”
Before I could finish, I froze as I suddenly remembered what that kid had said.
The kid said he was often bullied by those people. He also said that aside from his grandpa, he had an older brother.
He said he was going to tell on them to his brother and have his brother beat them up.
“Let’s go find that kid from last night. Maybe this has something to do with him.”
After I explained the reason to Song Xiaotian, we got ready to look for the kid.
But the urban village was huge. Where were we supposed to find him? We didn’t even know his full name. All we knew was that he was called Xiao Xuan.
Song Xiaotian and I asked around everywhere. When we passed a roadside snack stall, the two of us got a little hungry, so we bought two jianbing.
We were standing by the road eating when a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old boy in tattered clothes stared fixedly at Song Xiaotian and me.
Actually, he wasn’t looking at us. He was looking at the jianbing in our hands, swallowing from time to time.
The kid was probably hungry.
I went back and bought another jianbing, as well as a cup of soy milk, then walked over to him.
I handed him everything I’d just bought.
He stood there in a daze for a long moment, as if he couldn’t quite believe it.
“Eat,” I said, stuffing it directly into his hands.
He looked very reserved. His eyes were full of gratitude, but he was too embarrassed to say the words “thank you.”
“Do you know Xiao Xuan?” I asked him.
He froze again, then nodded. “I do.”
“Do you know where he lives?” I asked.
He nodded and pointed in a direction.
I said, “After you finish eating, could you take us there?”
He neither agreed nor refused. Instead, he asked, “You… why are you looking for Xiao Xuan?”
I smiled. “We’re not really looking for him. We’re looking for his brother.”
“Rat?” he blurted out. “Then you won’t find him. We haven’t seen hide nor hair of Rat for over two months. He might have already left this place.”
Song Xiaotian and I stared wide-eyed.
Rat?
Xiao Xuan’s older brother was Rat?
“Xiao Xuan’s brother is fourteen this year, right?” I asked the boy again.
The boy was very innocent and didn’t think too much before saying, “I don’t really know. I’m closer to Xiao Xuan, but I’m not close with his brother. Probably around there.”
I slapped my forehead, and Song Xiaotian and I looked at each other.
So it really was that coincidental. Xiao Xuan’s older brother was Rat!
Last night, that vagrant had bullied Xiao Xuan. Xiao Xuan really had gone and told his brother. And now his brother was a ghost. When he took revenge, he took lives.
“Little brother, when exactly did Rat disappear? During these past two months or so, none of you have seen him at all?” I asked the boy again.
He shook his head. “I’m not too sure either. Anyway, it’s been a long time since anyone saw Rat. But Xiao Xuan says he sees him every night. He says his brother only comes out at night, and every night his brother brings him a lot of money.”
“I think he’s lying, because one night, when I came out to collect bottles, I saw Xiao Xuan. He was alone at the time, talking to himself. I think there’s something wrong with his head.”