Zhao Wuyang nodded. “I’m not that bold. As they walked away, I realized that I was too afraid to stay by myself. That’s why I followed them.”

Zhao Wuyang lowered his head, looking aggrieved.

I didn’t really know how to comfort him. I thought for a second before telling him sheepishly, “Your tea is cold. Let me pour more hot tea for you.”

Zhao Wuyang thanked me and continued his story. “Shortly after we entered the forbidden area, we saw an abandoned tomb. It was so large that it would take four or five people to join hands to encircle it. The entire tomb was covered in wild grass. I didn’t know how long the tomb had been there since the words on the tombstone were weathered away.”

You guys sure were bold! You deliberately trespassed into the forbidden area, even complaining that the tombstone’s words weren’t clear enough!

Zhao Wuyang recalled the scene at the time, his face showing his growing restlessness and anxiety. “Even though I’m a doctor, I’m afraid of dead people. That’s why I chose to become a dentist. When I saw the tomb, I didn’t dare move forward. I asked Zhang Qinghai what his goal was. In response, he said that he was currently working on a series of paintings centered around tomb-robbing. He even visited some old tomb robbers to gather material, but they either didn’t open their door or just provided some useless info. Zhang Qinghai felt that they didn’t want to talk to him, so he decided to rob a tomb himself to gain the experience. He thought he could draw with much more realism if he had such an experience.”

It’s not realistic! It’s insane!

Zhao Wuyang told me that both Zhang Qinghai and Xue Peng looked excited at the time. They even discussed how they would share their spoils. Moreover, it seemed that Zhang Qinghai already had everything planned because he proceeded to take out two entrenching shovels.

Shovel in hand, the two began to dig the tomb up. Zhao Wuyang was terrified, but he didn’t have the guts to leave without them. With nothing else to do, he stood and watched them at a distance. They continued digging throughout the night, and it was dawn when Zhao Wuyang heard them screaming in surprise.

“They opened the coffin?” As the story arrived at its climax, my voice grew more serious.

Zhao Wuyang nodded. “They did. Zhang Qinghai had once heard a strange theory that required placing a lit candle in front of a coffin when it was opened. If the flame extinguishes, they can't touch the items in the grave. He had stolen a candle from the old folk’s house before we left. He lit it, and Xue Peng helped him pry the coffin open.”

“What was inside?” I asked.

Zhao Wuyang shook his head. “I don’t know. When they opened the coffin, I was standing far away. I didn’t have the courage to go over to watch, but I heard them saying something about striking gold. Zhang Qinghai is an interesting man. I thought that they would start fighting after they saw the loot and not share the items equally. However, he gave the majority of the share to Xue Peng, taking only a mirror. Afterward, Xue Peng secretly told me that the mirror was not made of gold or silver. It could’ve been made of bronze since there were dabs of patina here and there, so it wasn’t very valuable. When he told me that, he had a smug smile. Apparently, he thought that Zhang Qinghai was a fool. However, I’m sure that Zhang Qinghai is an extraordinarily cunning guy. Based on his face, I feared that we were tricked into going with him to take that mirror!”

A mirror? Is this item related to our case this time?

I caught this vital clue.

Zhao Wuyang continued, “At that time, I thought that Zhang Qinghai was incredibly suspicious. When we got back to the village with the medicine, I hated that I couldn’t leave immediately. The old fellow asked us about the trip, but Zhang Qinghai didn’t say a word about us trespassing into their forbidden area, and he had hidden all the goods away. After taking the medicine, Xiao Sisi got better. Due to her recovery, Zhang Qinghai suggested that we should leave the next day. I, of course, agreed with him and began to prepare my belongings. While I was packing up, I found something underneath Xiao Sisi’s pillow…”

“What was it?” I asked.

“A pill,” Zhao Wuyang said slowly. “It was the pill he gave her when she had a fever. I was carrying some doubts at the time, so I discreetly hid it away. On the way home, since I was still skeptical, I purposely kept my distance from Zhang Qinghai. He didn’t care about me. Rather, he was talking to Xue Peng and Xiao Sisi the entire time with a happy face. He even showed them the mysterious mirror.”

It seemed that the mirror was important and played a large role in Zhao Wuyang’s story. Within just a few short moments, he had mentioned the mirror around ten times.

Zhao Wuyang said, “After I returned to the hospital, I asked a colleague working in the hospital’s laboratory to analyze the pill that I found. Guess what I got.”

“Was it poison?” I adopted a look of disbelief.

Zhao Wuyang nodded. “The pill contained ingredients normally used in sleeping pills and botulinum toxin. This toxin can make people have a high and unceasing fever. Zhang Qinghai was the one that gave Xiao Sisi those pills. So, it wasn’t coincidental that Xiao Sisi’s fever hadn’t subsided. It was all part of Zhang Qinghai’s plan. The more I thought about it, the more wronged I felt. I had inadvertently been dragged into his plan.”

If the trip to the mountain was all a scheme of Zhang Qinghai's, what was his purpose? Just for that mirror?

I was puzzled.

Zhao Wuyang suddenly lifted his head, looking me in the eyes. “Xue Peng’s the sort of man that throws money away by the handful. Perhaps he confided this habit to Zhang Qinghai. That’s why Zhang Qinghai made use of his shortage of money to recruit him for this trip. He wanted to have an assistant to help him unearth the tomb.”

I looked at Zhao Wuyang. “If that was his reason to bring Xue Peng, why did Zhang Qinghai want to have you on this trip?”

“Because I’m a doctor,” Zhao Wuyang responded with confidence. “He needed me to play my part in his scheme with Xiao Sisi’s sickness. He knew me well and understood that I was softhearted.”

I nodded. “And what happened afterward? You didn’t come to this shop to find Master Zhang just to investigate Zhang Qinghai, correct? Because if not, you would be better off finding a private detective.”

“No, no, no!” Zhao Wuyang waved his hands rapidly. “The incident just started from there! You haven’t heard the news, right? Currently, in Wuhan, there are two skinning cases. The two victims were kidnapped, and they had their faces skinned while still alive.”

Before he could finish, I intervened, “Did the two victims happen to be Zhang Qinghai and Xue Peng?”

Zhao Wuyang shook his head. “Xue Peng’s one of the victims, but the other isn’t Zhang Qinghai. It’s Xiao Sisi.”

“Xiao Sisi?” I was bewildered.

In theory, if the resentful soul of the tomb’s owner wanted to take revenge through the otherworldly item, it should attack the ones that pried the coffin open. At the time, Xiao Sisi had a fever, and she was staying in the village. She didn’t join the tomb-robbing operation. Why was she one of the victims?

I met Zhao Wuyang’s gaze. “Are you sure?”

“Of course.” Zhao Wuyang’s face paled. “Would I dare to tell you such a thing if I didn’t confirm the information? The two of them are in the hospital where I work. All of the staff know about their cases. However, since the crime is so violent and suspicious, the police have asked us to keep it a secret until they solve the case. That’s why the news hasn’t spread yet.”

Xiao Sisi, Xiao Sisi…

I read her name twice. How was this related to her?

I pondered for a moment before asking, “Does Zhang Qinghai know of this? Did you contact him when you learned who the victims were?”

“I haven’t gotten to talk to him since we came back from Wuyan Village. It’s as if Zhang Qinghai has evaporated from this world; I can’t contact him.”

When Zhao Wuyang came to this part, his eyes sparkled with hatred. “After learning of this incident, the first thing I did was to call him, but the line never went through. I’ve gone to his house twice and knocked on his door, but there was no response. I have no idea where that stealthy man has gone with the damn mirror. You tell me, what is his end goal? There were more valuable items in that tomb than the mirror. He didn’t want them. He just wanted the mirror...”

Mirror…

The bronze mirror…

My eyes turned brighter, and I grabbed Zhao Wuyang. “You’ve said that on the way back from Wuyan Village, Zhang Qinghai showed Xiao Sisi and Xue Peng the mirror, right?”

Zhao Wuyang nodded.

“Did the two of them look at their reflections in the mirror?”

“Of course, they did.” Zhang Wuyang said before he dropped his jaw in shock. He turned to look at me. “You mean…”

Sure enough, it seemed that the skinning case this time was related to that mirror.

Since Xiao Sisi and Xue Peng had looked at their reflections, their facial skin was cruelly peeled off.

If this was what caused it, since Zhang Qinghai was the first one to look in the mirror, he could be doomed already.

However, I wasn’t sure if he knew of the mirror’s power beforehand. Did he bring those people to Wuyan Village just to get the mirror?

Moreover, through what channel did he come to know about the existence of that mirror?