Chapter 70
Chapter 70
Bo Suihan had seen a great deal of the world.
Especially since he lived up in the mountains, he had heard plenty from the villagers about mountain spirits, wild monsters, lonely souls, and wandering ghosts.
But a case like Old Softshell Turtle Wedding, or a demon looking for someone to marry off as a bride, was something he was hearing for the first time.
He watched Wu Xiaojiu talk with complete absorption, amusement staining his eyes.
How nice. He could talk to me more.
After Wu Xiaojiu finally finished in one breath, Bo Suihan hesitated for two seconds before speaking slowly.
“It’s fake. According to what my master taught me, most mountain spirits and wild monsters have attained some degree of enlightenment. It makes sense for wronged ghosts to find a substitute and harm people, but enlightened demons like that wouldn’t dare hurt anyone unless they had no other choice.”
By then, the clouds had parted a little, and the moonlight outside slipped through the branches and landed on his face. He lifted a hand and straightened Wu Xiaojiu’s collar, which had been messed up while he was speaking with such passion.
“If they harm people, their powers will be greatly reduced, and they’ll never achieve a proper outcome in this lifetime. Even if they somehow make it to the Ninth Heaven, they’ll still be hunted down by vengeful souls and fall back into the Animal Path.
Someone is lying. I think it should have something to do with the tomb they’re planning to dig up.”
Bo Suihan curved his index finger and covered his lips, leaving only those eyes that made everyone look like dogs exposed outside.
Hearing this, Wu Xiaojiu’s curiosity clearly surged. His eyes sparkled as he looked at Bo Suihan, round and bright like a puppy’s.
He was just short of having a tail behind him to wag back and forth.
“What do you mean? You’re saying someone’s hurting people? But how is that possible? This happened out there from start to finish, and everyone in the village saw it with their own eyes. Where would that person even get involved?”
Wang Qiang also thought Bo Suihan’s words were unreliable.
“What happened to the Village Chief’s Daughter was purely an accident, and the tractor didn’t have any problems. At the time, only that girl was walking that road. When we collected the body, there wasn’t anyone else except the village chief’s family and relatives. That Young Wife went crazy right in front of everybody. If someone really was trying to hurt people, wouldn’t they have been exposed the moment they made a move?”
Faced with the doubts, Bo Suihan wasn’t in a hurry to explain.
After fighting his way through knife and sword storms in the business world, if he didn’t have some scheming and depth, he would never outplay those old foxes straight out of a strange tale.
Just from the relationship between the three of them, he could tell there was something else going on. But this wasn’t the best time to speak. Without evidence, no one would believe him.
It was better to catch the evidence first and speak based on the facts.
Only then would it not be a waste of breath.
So he laughed twice, rubbed the puppy’s head, and turned his face toward the window.
“The heavenly mechanism must not be revealed. I’ll explain it to you later when the time comes.”
Wang Qiang only felt that he was putting on airs.
He kept twisting his neck and repeated Bo Suihan’s last line in a weird, mocking tone.
Then he floored the accelerator and rushed all the way to the gravesite.
He wanted to see exactly what kind of real ability this rich second-generation kid, who only knew how to enjoy himself by leaning on his parents, actually had.
By the time they arrived, it was exactly twelve o’clock.
Although Wu Xiaojiu and the others had already forgotten the appointment for midnight, arriving on time still earned the Senior quite a bit of goodwill.
He came over from the side of the grave with a cheerful smile. It was the dead of night, and many of the villagers had already gone home. Even those who hadn’t were drowsy, and Maozi’s movements were obviously much more relaxed.
Wang Qiang got out of the car and yanked Wu Xiaojiu out from the back seat, then linked arms with him like they were best girlfriends. With a fake smile that didn’t reach his eyes, he said to the Senior,
“Some people say the Village Chief’s Daughter’s death was an accident, and that this matter is even tied to the tomb we’re planning to dig up. Senior, what do you think?”
Wang Qiang was like a schoolyard bully, deliberately taking thinly veiled shots at Bo Suihan both openly and behind his back. This time, he even wanted to use the Senior’s mouth to put the other man on the spot.
Who would have thought the Senior’s expression would suddenly turn suspicious.
He frowned and looked around.
“Who told you to bring this up? Why are you so thoughtless? If you know the inside story, then learn to keep your mouth shut. I told you interns are unreliable!”
After saying that, the Senior blinked and looked behind him.
“No, wait. The only people who knew about this were me and the other two from the detachment. Aside from me, neither of them ever spoke to you. Where did you hear it from?”
Wang Qiang was dumbfounded.
He stood there, staring blankly back and forth.
Seeing him like that, Bo Suihan sighed, feeling awkward too, and tilted his head slightly to the left.
He reached out and tapped Wu Xiaojiu on the back, saying in a slow, even tone, “Where did you find such a stupid friend?”
Noticing that Wang Qiang was also looking over, Bo Suihan smiled at him and wagged a finger.
“Blackie, speak up.”
Wang Qiang gritted his teeth, unconvinced, and retorted, “So there really was something like that! How could that be? How could there be such a coincidence in a homicide? I get it now. Was there something wrong with the tractor?”
The Senior looked at him, then at the two people behind him.
He shook his head.
“Of course not. We had already checked the tractor. Neither the tires nor the driver’s seat had been tampered with, and the fuel tank was full. The gears had even been lubricated.”
After saying that, the Senior waved the three of them over.
He pointed to the area beyond the cordon, signaling for the three of them to come over.
Although Wang Qiang was unwilling to have Bo Suihan, this spoiled rich second-generation brat who kept a kept boy, in the same place as him, there was nothing he could do. The guy was too smart, able to infer from Wu Xiaojiu’s few words the clue Maozi had actually found at the scene.
So he could only turn away with obvious impatience and wave Bo Suihan over hard.
“Come over here!”
The weather was moving from autumn into winter, and it had poured for several straight days. Even though winter hadn’t officially arrived yet, the air was already a little cold.
Add in the cornfield and the desolate countryside, and it made people uneasy.
Cold in both body and spirit, they had built a fire of corn cobs inside the cordon, beside the grave.
The four of them sat in a circle. The Senior tossed a few more corn cobs into the fire, then handed each of them a charred ear of corn. Only then did he start speaking while chewing on his own.
“The story people tell about Old Softshell Turtle Wedding has a lot of embellishment. After we surveyed the area, our initial judgment was that it was an accident. We reported it upward, and then we went back to the scene for another on-site inspection. That inspection was supposed to be the last one. If we still found nothing after that, the case would be closed.”
The Senior stared into the fire, lost in thought.
His voice was unhurried. With the crackle of the flames, each word came out one at a time.
“When we got there that day, it was already dark, and the flashlight beam was limited. Under normal circumstances, with conditions that restricted, we wouldn’t have found much.
But that was where the coincidence came in. We went over the crime scene and found no other clues, and were about to head back and close the case when suddenly we heard barking from the cornfield.
There are different kinds of barking. It wasn’t the kind of bark a local village dog would make, but the bark of a large dog that’s banned in the city. Then a Dogo Argentino came charging out of the cornfield. This kind of dog is expensive; once someone buys one, they’re not likely to abandon it. At the time, we moved with the flashlight toward the cornfield, and after only a couple of steps we caught a person.”