It turned out Zhu Fengchun had received some money from people who went to his wife and son’s funeral. Little Quail also knew this and was tempted. He wanted to take the opportunity to steal it before Zhu Fengchun deposited the money into his bank account. But he was met with that horror scene as soon as he entered Zhu Fengchun’s house.

However, luck favored him. The wallet full of money was placed on the table. Little Quail hesitated for a while, then he clenched his jaw and stole it. After that, he started thinking that he would be blamed for the murder. That was why he decided to run away from the village.

Chief Liu looked at him for a moment. In the end, he said reluctantly, “You little brat, you want money more than your own life!”

He didn’t mind the little thief anymore. He asked me, “Did you find anything?”

“Zhu Fengchun can no longer hold back. He’ll make a move soon, so we should wait for him.” I remembered the bloody bedroom and felt a little down.

The one who tricked us just now must be Zhu Fengchun. He had deliberately allowed Little Quail to steal his wallet to distract us.

But where has Zhu Fengchun gone? I thought I would receive the answer soon.

I didn’t want to say too much with Little Quail still there, so we let him go.

“Where should we go now?” asked Chief Liu.

I lifted my head to look at the gray sky, then I asked, “Do you know where they buried the three other victims? Which one is the nearest to us?”

Chief Liu answered after thinking for a moment, “Li Tiansheng’s grave is the nearest because he lived in the next town.”

“Take me there. We have to go now,” I said.

“Eh?” Chief Liu was puzzled but still followed my order.

I asked him to stop the car the moment we arrived in the small town. We then tiptoed to Li Tiansheng’s grave.

Being the incumbent head of the Bureau, Chief Liu did have some competence to back his position. Although he had gone there only once when they investigated the case and collected the evidence, he was still able to lead us all the way to this lowland.

Southern people would choose to cremate the deceased, while Northern people preferred to bury them in the land of their families. That was why the graves weren’t centralized in this area.

“This lowland is a channel that people created to discharge the waters when the great flood happened in 1998. The plan was to connect it to the Zhang River. However, people forgot the purpose of this channel after the flood, and they started to grow crops here. Back then, many graves were flattened while digging this channel. That’s why you only see Li Tiansheng’s tombstone here.” Chief Liu provided us with additional information.

He then pointed at a location where I saw a new grave. There was no blade of grass on it, and since the burial ceremony hadn’t been a long time ago, the money paper and the flowers were still there. At first glance, my face turned serious. Things weren't the way I had imagined.

“What’s wrong?” asked Chief Liu.

I shook my head. “The situation isn’t right. We need to take a better look.”

Suddenly, Li Mazi grabbed my arm and pointed at a spot a few meters away from the tombstone. He whispered, “Little Brother Zhang, look at that!”

I followed his finger. There was a big hole around two meters wide there. I couldn’t estimate how deep that hole was due to the far distance, so I wanted to go there to see. However, someone coughed before I made a move, and the sound came from that hole.

“Shssss!”

I immediately crouched, signaling Li Mazi and Chief Liu to be quiet. Then, we carefully crawled forward.

The cold wind was howling loudly, so I wasn’t worried about the person in the hole noticing our movements above ground. I pricked my ears and listened carefully when we reached the hole. The person down there was panting hard, and the voice apparently belonged to Zhu Fengchun. He seemed to be moving something inside while gasping for his breath.

I stopped myself from rushing forward as I listened to his monologue. “Brother, I’m also helpless. Don’t look for me if you do come back.”

Then, I noticed his voice was becoming clearer and clearer. It seemed he was climbing up. I rushed to hide behind the tombstone; Chief Liu and Li Mazi also came to my side.

Not even a minute had passed when a shadow crawled out of the hole. I opened my eyes wide as it was really Zhu Fengchun!

He was holding a shovel in his hand. He checked the surroundings after he got up and began to fill the hole. Once he was done, he stomped around to compact the soil and left.

I waited until he had completely disappeared, then I slowly got up, sneering as I looked in his direction.

“Looks like he dug the grave for some reason. But why did he have to do it in the middle of the night? Moreover, he left without taking anything…” Chief Liu was puzzled.

“You’ll see soon enough,” I said.

I then rubbed my hands and prepared to dig the grave again. It was easier since the other party had just moved the soil. The three of us didn’t need to exert a lot of effort to dig up the place. All of it was done in thirty minutes.

I turned on the flashlight to check. There was a coffin painted in black inside, and all of the coffin’s nails had been pulled up.

I directly pulled out the nails the rest of the way and pushed the coffin lid aside. I craned my neck to see, but there was nothing inside!

Li Tiansheng’s body was gone!

“W-What the heck is going on?”

Chief Liu looked at the empty coffin, feeling bewildered. But he soon understood. “Was the minced flesh in Zhu Fengchun’s house…”

“Definitely.” I nodded.

The body that had been horribly destroyed in Zhu Fengchun’s bedroom was Li Tiansheng’s corpse. The spirit had manipulated Zhu Fengchun to deceive us, making him steal Li Tiansheng’s body, to later chop it into pieces. No doubt their purpose was to make us think that Zhu Fengchun had died.

However, Zhu Fengchun hadn’t had enough time to clean his mess after dismembering the body. That was why we had been able to witness the recent scene.

“What should we do now?”

Chief Liu sounded a little embarrassed. The incident that happened tonight was too odd. Although he was an experienced cop, he was acting like an elementary school student that kept asking questions whenever he was in trouble.

“It’s simple! If he wants to fake his death, let him do it. Tomorrow, we will announce that Zhu Fengchun has died. You shouldn’t send your men here to investigate, I’ll keep an eye on him myself. I want to know what his ultimate purpose is.”

“How can the police help you?” Chief Liu asked.

“I think you should send people to protect the other two graves! I have a feeling that Zhu Fengchun will set his eyes on them.”

“Okay.” Chief Liu agreed immediately. I asked Li Mazi to stay with Chief Liu after considering that the policemen here might have never encountered paranormal activities before. I would watch Zhu Fengchun alone.

It was almost dawn when we returned to the police station and fell asleep. In the afternoon, the police announced that they had found Zhu Fengchun murdered in his house; his case was closed just like that.

At twilight, Li Mazi and Chief Liu took with them two capable cops each and went to the graves of the other two victims. I prepared my spirit talismans and a small mirror, starting to lurk behind the big tree opposite Zhu Fengchun’s back door.

The last light in the village went out as the moonlight started to get brighter. The entire village was shrouded in darkness, but the white snow on the ground was somewhat illuminating the place. This scene looked exactly like one taken from a horror movie.

I pulled my clothes tight as I looked around. I focused all my attention on Zhu Fengchun’s blue brick house.

A light source appeared inside the house at around 11:00 PM. I reacted fast, lifting my head to see. A candle had been lit up in the room, and a shadow was moving around the candle.

It was exactly the same as the first time we came here. After hesitating for a while, I decided to go in there to check. However, the candle in the room went out as soon as I walked past the big tree.

I thought I had been busted at first. Then, the house’s door sprang open with a loud bang. The shadow flew out.

It seemed that he hadn’t seen me yet. I exhaled in relief and continued watching him.

The shadow wore black, silk garments of ancient cut, and he held a sword that gave out a bloody light. He wielded his sword while he walked. I saw his face when he got closer, and it was so dark!

If he had been wearing a turban, I would have thought he was Mr. Popo. Moreover, his big, dark face was full of anger. While gliding away, he seemed to be scolding someone, or something. I couldn’t hear anything since his voice was too low.