Deceiving Those Above and Concealing the Truth from Those Below
Qin Dachuan is Qin Fangtong's father, and Qin Fangtong was the previous holder of the Ghost Pen.
When Hu Jiu took in the Ghost Pen, he was quite impressed by Qin Fangtong's experience. A happy and ordinary family was destroyed because of a wrongful conviction.
According to the middle-aged man's description, the murder that Qin Dachuan stumbled upon was caused by two people fighting over the Ghost Pen. The Ghost Pen possesses magical powers, so it's not surprising that it would attract people to fight over it.
Qin Dachuan was just an unlucky person who was accidentally dragged into the incident. Because the Ghost Pen was of great importance, the person in charge, Chu Yan, issued a gag order to all those who knew about it.
Originally, Qin Dachuan wouldn't have been killed, but the problem was that the Ghost Pen disappeared. When the police and the person in charge, Chu Yan, arrived at the scene, the two guys fighting over the Ghost Pen had died together. At that time, only Qin Dachuan was left at the scene, and he was naturally suspected of hiding the Ghost Pen.
This situation naturally requires severe torture.
Unfortunately, they were unable to find the whereabouts of the Ghost Pen in the end. Later, the pen inexplicably ended up in the hands of Qin Dachuan's daughter, Qin Fangtong.
What the truth is is now unknown; in any case, the final result was that Qin Dachuan's entire family was almost wiped out.
In fact, Hu Jiu guessed that the Ghost Pen was indeed stolen by Qin Dachuan. He might have also coveted this magical thing. If Chu Yan, the person in charge of Langzhou City, and the police had persuaded him with kind words and offered him great benefits, Qin Dachuan might have handed it over.
But they chose to use torture!
Some people can be subdued by force, but others cannot. Qin Dachuan was clearly the latter. Moreover, given the attitude of the police and the person in charge, Chu Yan, he suspected that even if he handed over the Ghost Pen, he would most likely be killed to silence him and meet a bad end. Either way, he would die, so he might as well hide the good stuff and leave it to his daughter.
Qin Dachuan's tragedy is just a microcosm of the many wrongful convictions in Langzhou City. Over the years, this detective in Langzhou City, in order to maintain his image as a brilliant detective and to gain merit and reputation, and the police, in order to maintain their good reputation for solving cases quickly, have caused countless people to be wrongly accused.
Hu Jiu then asked about another matter, "There are frequent cases of missing persons at Langzhou University. What exactly is happening at that university? Haven't the families of the missing persons ever caused any trouble?"
The middle-aged man rubbed his swollen and aching stomach and replied, "I really don't know anything about this. The area around Langzhou University is directly under the jurisdiction of Chu Yan, the person in charge. The police don't know what exactly happened on campus. Some family members did come to make trouble before, but after Chu Yan personally met with them, they all left obediently. The students at that university have also all kept quiet about the strange things happening on campus, as if they have been restricted in some way."
Hu Jiu nodded and continued, "The current head of Langzhou City is Chu Yan. What about the previous heads? Why did they mysteriously disappear or even die unexpectedly?"
The man in the middle stammered, seemingly reluctant to speak. Hu Jiu took out a photo of his youngest son from somewhere and played with it in his hand.
The middle-aged man was covered in cold sweat, but he still couldn't open his mouth. Hu Jiu suddenly realized that the man seemed to be under some kind of restriction.
"You can speak now." Hu Jiu pointed at him.
The middle-aged man was taken aback, suddenly feeling a strange lightness in his body and a sharper mind. His expression shifted, and he said, "Actually, Chu Yan was already Ghost Tamer a long time ago, and he had already established himself in Langzhou City. However, he wasn't in charge back then; the person in charge was someone else."
"Logically, when a Ghost Tamer is in charge of a city, they wield immense power. However, in Langzhou City, the previous leader was more like a figurehead, because the local administrative departments simply didn't cooperate with him."
Hu Jiu raised an eyebrow. "Such a thing actually happened? You guys are pretty bold, aren't you afraid that the Ghost Tamer will lose their temper and kill someone?"
The middle-aged man smiled bitterly, "If the people below don't cooperate with the supervisor and even oppose him, the supervisor can certainly kill them. But when everyone is against him, he can't keep killing indefinitely, can he? Putting aside whether he has the guts, even if he did, his body couldn't handle the strain."
The previous person in charge in Langzhou City was constrained. Although he had a lot of power on the surface, he was actually subject to various restrictions. His subordinate departments did not cooperate much, or they were just paying lip service. The person in charge could not do what he wanted and was like a puppet.
On his first day in office, a certain leader tried to make an example of someone, but while he killed the chicken, he failed to deter others. His subordinates then joined forces to file a complaint against him. Headquarters was already wary of those Ghost Tamer, and the fact that he was jointly sued by the administrative departments of Langzhou City naturally led them to believe that the leader's arrogance had provoked public outrage. Soon after, that leader died.
The subsequent leaders all encountered the same fate: they were silenced and sidelined by their subordinates, some simply gave up, and some were killed. The Headquarters had no idea that the leaders were dead. It was Langzhou that deceived the higher-ups and successfully fooled the Headquarters. It wasn't until Chu Yan became the leader of the city that the people of Langzhou City finally worked together.
"Is the Headquarters so easily fooled? And why would you ordinary people be willing to risk your lives to sideline the former head?" Hu Jiu asked suspiciously.
The middle-aged man shook his head painfully. "Before meeting you, I never considered this issue, but now I have a vague feeling that Chu Yan must have done something to us. After all, his code name is [The Briber]. It seems that after accepting his gifts, I became less and less like my original self."
"Actually, my biggest wish used to be to be a good policeman who serves the people..."
Hu Jiu rolled his eyes. Playing the victim wouldn't work on him; he was always heartless. Besides, this middle-aged man wasn't genuinely repentant; he was just trying to soften Hu Jiu's heart by playing the victim to increase his own chances of survival.
The blood feud was already formed, and no matter how good the other person was, Hu Jiu would never let him go.
So, after squeezing out all the value, Hu Jiu lightly snapped his fingers.
The middle-aged man's body couldn't hold on any longer. He had only been able to swallow so much food because of the Supernatural power he was using. Now that power was gone, his stomach exploded with a "bang," and his filthy internal organs were scattered all over the ground, mixed with some human fingernails and hair.
"You..." The middle-aged man glared at Hu Jiu with eyes wide with fury, "An ambulance! Call an ambulance right now..."
Hu Jiu smiled and said, "Don't bother the ambulance. Go in peace. I'll send your parents, wife, and children down to be with you soon."