Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Wen Yan cursed Aunt Huang through gritted teeth. This kind of factional infighting had nothing to do with me, so I just sat on the floor, staring blankly.

It was impossible for them to find that head in the room. The police could keep me until tomorrow at most, or maybe just tonight; after the interrogation, they would have to let me go.

Bored out of my mind, I stared at the wall in front of me.

As I stared, something felt off. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw something writhing in the squat toilet.

It had been dark outside for a long time, and the light in the detention room was dim. I took a few steps closer and leaned over the squat toilet to get a better look.

Inside the hole, a black snake was crawling out.

It had a triangular head and was about the thickness of a thumb and half a meter long. Its body writhed as it slowly squeezed out of the hole.

One after another, they soon filled the bottom of the squat toilet.

My skin crawled, and I took a large step back.

I pressed my back against the wall and took a deep breath, about to call for help, only to find that the snakes at the bottom of the pit had vanished instantly.

Everything that had just happened felt like a mere hallucination.

Was it really just because the light was too dim and my eyes were playing tricks on me?

I stood there in a daze for a while until Sun Liang came back to take Wen Yan for interrogation. After the session, he walked over to open my door.

“Let’s go, Qiao Moyu. Wen Yan has confessed.”

“Confessed to what?”

Sun Liang opened the door and put handcuffs on both me and Wen Yan.

Wen Yan looked utterly ashamed.

“I said I know where the head is. I asked Officer Sun to take us to identify the scene.”

“If you’re going to identify the scene, why bring me along?”

Wen Yan lowered his head. “You’re my accomplice, Qiao Moyu. I’m scared to go alone.”

Dammit, I finally realized what this bastard was planning.

It would be hard for him to clear his name alone, so he wanted me to help him find the head. From the time he left the hotel until the police appeared, less than an hour had passed. If his master’s head was located more than an hour’s drive away, he could prove his innocence.

It was already eight o’clock in the evening. Homicides were rare in small counties, and the police were anxious to solve the case, so they took Wen Yan and me out of the station to identify the scene.

Wen Yan requested to bring his backpack.

The most common curse used by a Jiangtou Sorcerer is the Five Poisons Jiangtou. The Five Poisons refer to the five great venomous creatures of nature: the snake, centipede, scorpion, spider, and toad (or gecko).

Inside Wen Yan’s bag was a gecko raised by his uncle.

Venomous creatures are fed with the blood of the Jiangtou Sorcerer, creating a natural connection between them and their master. Through this gecko, he could find the head of the Jiangtou Sorcerer.

I quickly requested to bring my backpack as well. The police didn’t refuse, and Wen Yan and I were handcuffed and loaded into the car.

There was a fork in the road between the police station and the hotel. Following Wen Yan’s directions, the car turned into the fork and drove for nearly half an hour, but Wen Yan didn’t call for a stop.

Brother Chen got angry. “Kid, don’t try any tricks! Are we there yet?”

“We’ve been driving for half an hour. A round trip would take an hour, which is almost more time than you had to commit the crime. Could the head you dumped really be out here?”

Wen Yan made a bitter face. “I… I don’t know either.”

“Dammit, are you playing me?”

Brother Chen grabbed Wen Yan by the collar. Just then, I saw the backpack beside him move. A gecko crawled out of the open bag and slipped under the hem of Wen Yan’s shirt.

Wen Yan breathed a sigh of relief. “Officer Chen, we’re here, we’re here. It’s the village up ahead.”

Sun Liang hit the brakes, and the car slowly pulled over to the side of the road.

The two of us were escorted out of the car. The headlights hit a nearby road sign, casting a pale, sickly light.

I looked at the words on the sign and sucked in a breath of cold air.

“Skinpeel!”

The village was called Skinpeel Village, and the person I had come to Guangxi to find lived in this very village.

“Why did we end up here?”

Sun Liang looked at the road sign, his expression hesitant. “Brother Chen, this place is incredibly eerie. How about we come back tomorrow at daybreak?”