Chapter 228

Chapter 228

“If someone had killed him because of a conflict… whether the killer used a sharp or blunt weapon, there definitely would have been a great deal of bleeding.”

“I would certainly have sensed the smell of blood, but I didn’t. That means it probably wasn’t murder. Could it have been a sudden illness?”

As I spoke, I pinched my chin thoughtfully.

“Could he have been strangled by hand or with a cord? If he suffocated, there shouldn’t have been any smell of blood either.”

Yao Nan suddenly spoke up.

At once, all three of us boys looked at her in surprise.

Gulp!

Wang Dachun swallowed and stared at Yao Nan with a complicated expression.

“Um, sister-in–Yao Nan, how come you’re so familiar with ways to kill people?”

“I saw them in all kinds of police dramas and crime movies! What’s with that look, you jerk?”

Yao Nan shot Wang Dachun a speechless glare.

I shook my head, rejecting her guess.

“That isn’t very likely either. Compared with killing someone using a sharp weapon, strangling or smothering them would cause much more of a struggle. Someone would definitely notice the victim fighting back.”

“This is a shared student dormitory, not a private home. Even if Wang Xinren happened to live alone, there’s no way the rooms next door wouldn’t hear anything.”

Yao Nan and the others nodded, finding my reasoning sensible…

Every boys’ dorm room at Lianghe District Middle School had five bunk beds. When full, each room housed ten students.

But sometimes the total number of boys left one student unassigned.

That meant there would always be a dorm room that was not full.

As it happened, Wang Xinren lived alone!

Going by the normal arrangement based on student numbers, it should not have been him.

But the student originally left on his own said he was a little afraid of living alone and asked the homeroom teacher if he could switch with someone. Wang Xinren then volunteered to trade places with him.

He was a country boy, after all, and naturally quite brave.

Besides, Wang Xinren felt that after evening self-study, he could return to his dorm room and continue studying late into the night in peace, without roommates disturbing him.

Just imagine ten adolescent boys gathered together. They would make noise without end. Their bedtime conversations could grow as fierce as a formal debate…

There would not be a moment’s peace until the teacher on dorm duty came by and ordered them to turn off the lights and sleep.

The arrangement made everyone happy, so of course it had seemed ideal.

No one expected something like this to happen now.

Wang Xinren, who lived alone in his dorm room, had actually died!

Yao Nan spoke again.

“In that case, could Wang Xinren have had some illness and suddenly died from an attack? There wouldn’t be any smell of blood that way, and it wouldn’t cause much noise either.”

That certainly was possible!

But he was only fourteen years old and normally appeared healthy. What sudden illness could kill him without even giving him a chance to call for help?

After all, the room next door was full of ten students from his class!

I shook my head and said,

“Forget it. Let’s stop making wild guesses! Tonight, I’ll summon Wang Xinren’s soul and ask him directly. We can have the person involved tell us how he died. That can’t be wrong.”

At those words, all three of them gave me a thumbs-up.

“Boss, that’s incredible! If the police had your ability, solving any case they encountered would be ridiculously easy.”

I shrugged without comment.

There were many ways to summon a dead person’s soul.

I currently knew two main types.

The first required knowing the deceased’s bazi, then burning part of the deceased’s body–hair or fingernails, for example–while calling their name. This would summon them back and make them appear directly.

This method was not limited by distance. The practitioner could perform it no matter where they were.

In fact, most cultivators of purely folk arcane lineages who specialized in dealing with the dead used this method to help people summon the souls of deceased relatives and ask them questions.

Master had taught it to me in passing as well.

The second type applied when the deceased’s exact bazi was unknown and only their name was available. A Soul-Summoning Talisman was used to directly call forth the deceased’s soul.

This method was naturally more advanced than the first and also more difficult!
After all, among folk arcane-lineage cultivators who made their living dealing with the dead, very few knew how to use multiple kinds of talisman arts… Most people who used this method were still disciples of established schools.

But this method had a problem–it could not summon a soul across a great distance.

The practitioner either had to stand beside the deceased’s body or go to the place where the person died.

For me, summoning Wang Xinren’s soul this time to question him meant either going to the police morgue and autopsy room, or going to the boys’ dormitory at school…

Comparing the two, even a fool knew which was easier. I obviously had to find a way to slip into the boys’ dormitory.

In truth, I would not even need to sneak in.

Back then, middle school dormitories were not managed very strictly.

The elderly gatekeeper at the entrance was practically there for show.

There was no system requiring visitors to register when entering or leaving. Of course, perhaps that was because a guard was already stationed at the school gate, so access to dormitory buildings within the campus was not restricted much.

After school that evening, I could simply follow the students returning to the dormitory and stroll straight inside. It would be very easy…

“So there’s no need for us to keep guessing. Tonight, everything will become clear.”

I delivered my conclusion.

Wang Dachun immediately thumped his chest and volunteered.

“Boss! I want to go too. Will you take me with you?”

“Brother Wu, Brother Chun, I want to go too. Take me along!”

Zeng Jin leaned closer as well.

Yao Nan instinctively began,

“I also…”

But before she finished, she closed her mouth on her own.

The school’s dormitories might be loosely managed, but a girl certainly could not enter the boys’ dormitory!

That would have been far too outrageous.

I smiled and patted Yao Nan’s shoulder.

“Go straight home after school. Come to the classroom early tomorrow morning, and I’ll tell you the truth about Wang Xinren’s death.”

“Okay! It’s a promise, Deskmate. Pinky swear!”

Yao Nan held out her little finger toward me.

Uh…

I had no idea why such a small matter called for a pinky swear.

But I still extended my hand and hooked my little finger around hers.

Mm, a girl’s hand really was quite soft and smooth. It felt completely different from a boy’s.

Wang Dachun leaned over with a cheeky grin.

“So, Boss, you didn’t say no, right? You’ll take Little Jin and me tonight? I’ve known about your identity for so long, but the only ghost I’ve ever seen is Uncle Wang at Boss Cao’s coffin shop. I want to broaden my horizons again.”

I thought for a moment, then nodded.

“All right. Tonight, we’ll slip into the boys’ dormitory together and investigate. First, contact one of your no-good friends and arrange for us to wait in his room. After lights-out, we’ll sneak over to Wang Xinren’s room.”

As I saw it, we were merely summoning the soul of a student from the neighboring class to ask what had happened. It was no troublesome matter, and there probably would not be any danger in the dormitory.

Since both of them wanted to see a ghost, they could come along!

Besides, even if there were some danger and Wang Xinren harbored resentment… how powerful could a newly dead ghost be?

I was not boasting.

After formally walking the path of cultivation for two years, I would not claim that I could subdue one with a breath… but I truly could subdue a newly dead ghost with a single little finger.

A year and a half earlier, I had already killed the corpse-like, ghost-like monster that Xia Mi became at Xia Family Hamlet entirely on my own. A year ago, I could already join forces with Old Cao and the others to surround and kill a corpse fiend.

What did a mere Wang Xinren amount to compared with that?

Of course, since murder seemed unlikely, the chances of him becoming a malignant ghost were also low.

There was an eighty-percent chance that he had still died from illness. We merely needed to confirm it.

…

Perhaps because a death had occurred at the school, I could clearly sense that the classrooms and hallways were noisier than usual during breaks.

Everyone was probably discussing the same topic.

Wang Dachun had plenty of no-good friends and was well informed, making him the “information broker” of our little group of four.

So whenever class ended, he ran out to gather all kinds of rumors–even though that very night, we would be able to question the person involved directly. Oh, I supposed he was now the ghost involved.

At last, the day passed.

At nine-thirty that evening, evening self-study ended and school let out.

The students tidied their desks, and the day students prepared to go home.

Wang Dachun, Zeng Jin, and I, however, were going to follow the boarding students to the boys’ dormitory!