Chapter 179
Chapter 179
At the mention of the word “body,” Third Aunt Xu began wiping away her tears again.
Qin Ying had never been very good at comforting people. Besides, when a family member passed away, a few consoling words from an outsider weren’t going to make the bereaved feel any less heartbroken.
She sat with Third Aunt Xu for a little while. Then the door suddenly opened.
Qin Ying thought the ambulance had arrived, but it was Third Aunt Xu’s son who walked in, looking conflicted.
He hemmed and hawed when he saw Qin Ying, earning himself a scolding from Third Aunt Xu. “We’re all neighbors here. She’s not some stranger, so cut that out.”
With his red-eyed mother giving him the go-ahead, Third Aunt Xu’s son finally explained.
A little girl suddenly going into convulsions and crying, “Grandpa, stop pulling me!” was the perfect setup for a ghost story under the circumstances.
Once word spread outside, some people began wondering whether the girl’s grandfather had died with unfinished business. They suggested bringing someone in to take a look.
Third Aunt Xu’s son had been reluctant to say anything because Qin Ying had just called an ambulance. If they immediately turned around and invited someone over to perform some superstitious ritual, it would make them look hopelessly backward.
As they spoke, several more people arrived.
They were all elders from the neighborhood. There was no need to guess who had come up with the idea of bringing in a spiritual expert.
Granny Shi was among them. She waved urgently at Qin Ying, beckoning her over.
A middle-aged Fatty followed behind the group.
Fatty had a very distinctive look. His fair skin was tinged with pink, and his face was almost perfectly round.
He wore a black, traditional front-buttoned shirt. A string of Buddhist prayer beads, each the size of a longan, encircled a wrist stacked with rolls of flesh like the Michelin Man’s.
With his double chin and ever-present smile, he looked exactly like a fat Maitreya Buddha. Just standing in the doorway, he practically blocked the whole thing.
Third Aunt Xu’s son greeted him respectfully. “Taoist priest, we’re counting on you.”
Qin Ying, who had already risen and started toward Granny Shi, whipped her head around.
A Taoist priest?
Perhaps noticing her surprise, Fatty narrowed his eyes and smiled. “Don’t get hung up on the details.”
“I have an official Taoist clergy certificate.” As he spoke, he slid the prayer beads down from his wrist and looped them around his fingers like brass knuckles.
Before Qin Ying could even make a sarcastic remark, Third Aunt Xu hugged the child tighter. “Something’s not right here!”
Nothing about him was right!
Perhaps she had squeezed too hard, because the little girl, who had only just fallen asleep, suddenly whimpered.
Then her arms and legs went rigid as her whole body began to convulse.
Everyone in the room panicked.
The round Fatty stepped forward and pressed his palm against the little girl’s forehead.
His fleshy hand was enormous, almost large enough to envelop the child’s entire head. The prayer beads looped around the web of his thumb pressed squarely against the spot between her brows.
Despite his size, he moved with astonishing speed.
Even Third Aunt Xu, who was holding the child, failed to react in time. By the time she recovered and opened her mouth to unleash a string of curses, her son cried out, “Xiaoyu stopped convulsing!”
Third Aunt Xu looked down. Sure enough, the child in her arms had gone still.
Although her eyes remained closed, her body had visibly relaxed.
Third Aunt Xu swallowed all the curses on the tip of her tongue and said, “Thank you, Master!”
Granny Shi and the others who had followed him in also looked astonished.
Only Qin Ying’s nose twitched. She took a step back.
Under everyone’s awed gaze, Fatty remained perfectly composed. “Don’t thank me yet. This isn’t over.”
The delight vanished from Third Aunt Xu’s son’s face. “What?”
The rotund Taoist priest wearing the prayer beads said, “All of you need to leave. Just leave the child with me.”
Third Aunt Xu hesitated.
After living for more than half a lifetime, experience had taught her never to leave a child alone in someone else’s hands.
What kind of idiot would hand a little girl over to a man?
When Third Aunt Xu did not move, Fatty smiled and shook his head. “If the family refuses to cooperate, then the conditions aren’t right for me to treat her. Don’t blame me if something happens.”
Third Aunt Xu still wanted to negotiate with him. Surely the child’s father could at least stay and keep watch.
Seeing that she was still hesitating, Fatty made a show of withdrawing his hand.
“What a pity. What a pity,” he lamented.
Those two repetitions nearly swayed Third Aunt Xu.
Before he could say it a third time, a voice suddenly cut in. “What’s a pity?”
Fatty instinctively turned his head, only to see a vase from the Altar Table in the funeral hall outside swinging straight at his face.
He reacted quickly and threw himself backward with all his might.
Unfortunately for him, his attacker was famously quick with her hands. With a bang, the vase smashed against his temple.
The hefty porcelain vase shattered across the floor, and Fatty dropped into a crouch, clutching his head.
Before he could even process that his head had been split open, the jagged edge of a broken vase shard was already pressed against his throat.
Tall and striking, Qin Ying held the shard against the rolls of fat around his neck and stared him down.
Only then did she address the stunned onlookers. “Call the police!”
“He just sprinkled powdered medicine on the child’s face.”
These days, Qin Ying’s eyesight was frighteningly sharp. When Fatty had gone through his little performance earlier, she had seen a cloud of pale green powder scatter from his sleeve.
If she sniffed carefully, she could even detect the medicinal scent mixed into the sandalwood incense filling the funeral hall.
That alone would not have made Qin Ying grab a vase and split his head open.
But this damned Fatty had actually suggested being left alone in a room with the child.
Qin Ying had principles: scammers got their mouths slapped bloody, while scammers with even darker intentions got all five limbs broken before being humanely put down.
At her call to contact the police, Fatty howled, blood pouring down his face like a waterfall. “Wait! Don’t call the police! There’s no need for that!”
“Who said you could talk?” Qin Ying tightened her grip, digging the jagged porcelain into the fat around his neck.
“Take the child and move farther away,” Qin Ying instructed Third Aunt Xu. “Don’t wash her face. The police will need the evidence later.”
The onlookers were all dumbfounded. None of them had any idea what was happening.
“Ow! There’s really no need to call the police!” Fatty’s head hurt, and so did his neck.
Blood gushed down, staining his black front-buttoned shirt dark brown.
“I’m on official business, Qin Ying!” Her name came straight from Fatty’s mouth.
“I’m with the Cultural Preservation Bureau!”
He lowered his voice. “I’ve got ID in my pocket! I only did that just now to test how alert you were.”
…
Smack!
A Taoist ordination certificate was slapped down atop a Taoist initiation certificate.
The middle-aged White Fatty had a strip of mourning cloth wrapped around his head to staunch the bleeding while he rummaged through his pocket with one hand.
Soon, he pulled out a wooden cross inlaid with silver.
Only after that did he dig a black-covered ID out from the very bottom of his pocket and hand it over.
Qin Ying opened it, took one look, and clenched her back teeth.
Fatty’s name was Wu Qian, and he really was from the Cultural Preservation Bureau.
“Believe me now?” Fatty Wu was squatting on the floor like a detainee.
Seeing Qin Ying’s expression ease, Granny Shi asked, phone in hand, “Should I still call the police?”
The old lady was sharp. The moment Qin Ying attacked, she had pulled out her phone.
Qin Ying’s blow with the vase had been so intimidating that even the bereaved family hosting the funeral did not dare speak. Everyone waited for her instructions.
After a moment’s hesitation, Qin Ying decided to hear Fatty out.
If everything checked out, she would let it go. But if he was merely using the Cultural Preservation Bureau’s name as cover, she would proceed with the disposal protocol.
Everyone filed out of the room. Before leaving, Granny Shi said, “Yingying, if Fatty tries anything, just shout.”
Once the room was temporarily empty, Qin Ying lowered her voice and asked, “Why are you here? How do you know my name? And what’s wrong with that child?”
Faced with her three questions in a row, Fatty Wu pulled a miserable face. “There’s something suspicious about how this little girl’s grandfather died. I’m here to investigate!”
“And I know you because I’m about to be transferred here to take over as director of the Third Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute. I’ve seen your file.”