Chapter 112

Chapter 112

One sentence jolted me awake like a dreamer suddenly seeing the truth.

I had known Bai Jingmo since I was around ten. The first time we met, he used a Silver Needle to cure Granny’s old ailment.

In other words, when he was only in his teens, his mastery in this field had already left ordinary physicians in the dust.

A skill like that had to be trained from childhood.

But the Bai Family Medical Hall had no such talent, and I had never heard of Bai Jingmo going anywhere to devote himself to studying needle techniques. His entire set of needling skills seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

How was that possible?

I suddenly realized that the point Lu Qiusheng had raised perfectly filled the gap I had never been able to figure out.

I immediately guessed, “You mean there’s another powerful, ruthless figure hidden behind the Bai Family-someone who has never appeared in public?”

And that person was probably even more formidable than Old Lady Bai!

Lu Qiusheng shook his head. “Perhaps far more than one.”

He pushed the box containing the Flesh Thorn toward me again and said, “And this is one of them. My father must have discovered its existence back then, which was why he was brutally silenced.”

This time, I took the box and stared at the few bloodstained white Flesh Thorns lying inside, momentarily lost in thought.

That’s right. How could I have overlooked this?

After Old Lady Bai’s Souls had been locked away, the corpse left in the Pawnshop wasn’t a hedgehog. It was human.

In other words, from beginning to end, Old Lady Bai had only been a puppet.

The immortal worshipped by the Bai Family was a hedgehog that had cultivated into a spirit. That was the true master.

Old Lady Bai was, in a sense, Bai Xian’er’s Medium.

And Bai Jingmo’s needling skills must have been inherited from Bai Xian’er!

A Medium could die.

After Old Lady Bai died, Bai Jingmo could still take her place!

The fact that he had received Bai Xian’er’s true teachings showed that Bai Jingmo was the one Bai Xian’er valued more.

In a certain sense, Old Lady Bai’s death had been inevitable.

The more I thought about it, the more alarmed I became.

If even the Bai Family was like this, what about the Huang Family and the Gray Family?

I had seen the Yellow Weasel worshipped at the Town Head’s Residence. But what had appeared from the Gray Family had always been swarms of fat rats. As for those who worshipped and served them in Wufu Town, only Dou Jinsuo of the Dou Family remained.

The true Gray Immortal… had never shown itself before anyone.

“Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu, what’s wrong?”

My expression must have been terrible, because Lu Qiusheng noticed. He asked cautiously.

I snapped back to my senses and looked steadily at Lu Qiusheng, weighing in my heart whether I should accept this deal at all.

There was no hiding from it.

I was already at the center of the vortex.

And what Lu Qiusheng was doing now was undoubtedly pushing me straight into the eye of the storm.

He wanted to use me, to use the Wufu Town Pawnshop, to force the people behind the Bai Family out into the open!

After thinking for a long while, I tightened my grip on the box and asked, “Officer Lu, do you intend to pawn these two things as a Live Pawn or a Dead Pawn?”

Joy immediately appeared on Lu Qiusheng’s face. He said firmly, “Dead Pawn. Pawn them for sixteen yuan.”

“All right.”

I took out a Pawn Ticket and began filling it out carefully.

The Pawn Ticket was made in duplicate. Lu Qiusheng signed his name and pressed his fingerprint on it.

Of the two Pawn Tickets, one was filed away, and the other was handed to Lu Qiusheng.

Once the transaction was complete, Lu Qiusheng stood up and bowed deeply to me, then turned and opened the door.

The instant the door opened, endless darkness outside flooded into my sight. I instinctively called after him, “Officer Lu, be careful.”

Lu Qiusheng froze for a moment, then turned back and smiled at me. “I will.”

He put on his baseball cap, lowered his head, and hurried into the darkness.

I stood at the entrance of the Pawnshop for quite a while before finally returning behind the counter in a daze to organize the Pawn Tickets.
Just then, Li Qingying slipped in quietly, keeping her body low. She poked her head out and glanced outside a couple more times, and only after making sure no one had followed her did she let out a long breath.

Then she shut the door, dropped the bolt, and came over to me. She happened to spot the two items on the counter and asked, “What are these? Xiao Jiu, did you do business tonight?”

“It was Officer Lu.”

I gave Li Qingying a rough account of everything that had happened with Lu Qiusheng.

Li Qingying was my friend, and more than that, my comrade-in-arms. Most things were things I ought to share with her.

Only by understanding and trusting each other enough could our partnership become stronger.

After Li Qingying finished listening, she looked both incredulous and suddenly enlightened. “No wonder…”

I was puzzled. “No wonder what?”

“Tonight, I followed the Town Head to the Dou Family Coffin Shop,” Li Qingying said. “The Town Head went there in the middle of the night, acting all sneaky. After he went in, I heard a fierce argument break out inside the coffin shop. The Town Head seemed to be trying to persuade Dou Jinsuo to do something, but Dou Jinsuo refused.”

So that was it!

I asked, “And then?”

“Then the argument got more and more heated. Just when it looked like the two of them were about to fall out completely, I heard the Town Head shout at Dou Jinsuo: Even that boy from the Bai Family has bowed his head. Jinsuo, what are you still holding out for?!”

Hearing that, I froze too.

That boy from the Bai Family could only be referring to Bai Jingmo.

It seemed the chain of clues Officer Lu and I had pieced together earlier was correct.

I asked, “Was the Town Head telling Dou Jinsuo to make coffins?”

“Make coffins?” Li Qingying shook her head. “No. He wanted Dou Jinsuo to go with him to meet someone. In the end, the two of them agreed to set out tomorrow afternoon. I’ll keep an eye on them.”

I immediately decided, “When the time comes, I’ll go with you.”

Li Qingying rejected my suggestion. “Xiao Jiu, who knows how many eyes are on our Pawnshop right now? You’re the number one target. The moment you move, I’ll be exposed. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. I’ll handle tailing them.”

She was right. I could only nod. “Then you have to be extremely careful. Safety comes first.”

After that, I put away the plastic-sealed shirt and carried the box containing the Flesh Thorn back to my room.

I was thinking: what would be the right time for me to properly meet Bai Jingmo?

·

After three o’clock the next afternoon, I didn’t see Li Qingying again.

She hadn’t driven, and I had no idea how she planned to keep up with Dou Jinsuo and the others.

I sat in the shop making paper horses. The paper people and paper horses I’d kept in reserve had all been bought up by people who’d gone to the Bai Family to offer condolences. A layer of calluses had formed on my hands too, so I’d stopped for several days.

I had to find something to keep myself busy. Otherwise, while I waited for Li Qingying, the anxiety would eat me alive.

Before I knew it, it was late at night. I glanced at the time and figured that if nothing unexpected had happened, Li Qingying should be back soon.

Food had been kept warm in the pot the whole time.

On what must have been the countless time I looked outside, a sharp crack of a whip suddenly rang out on the empty street.

I knew that sound far too well. It was Li Qingying!

What had she run into? Why had she suddenly used her whip?

I hurriedly shut the Pawnshop door and ran in the direction the whip-crack had come from.

Before long, I saw Li Qingying standing in the shadows, trembling all over with the Long Whip in her hand.

Not far from her, a person was lying on the ground.

That person lay in a pool of blood, convulsing nonstop. For some reason, his figure looked familiar.

I rushed over to look, and cried out in shock, “Officer… Officer Lu…”