A Bone in the Throat, Killing Intent Soars

"Xiao Qi!"

Hearing Grandpa Wang's words, Xiao Ran's heart skipped a beat, and a bad premonition immediately arose in his heart.

Without any further hesitation, he pulled down the rolling shutter door and ran towards the back street.

Xiao Qi's family's funeral supplies shop was across the street from their house, but the distance wasn't short. It was separated by a residential complex, requiring a long detour around it.

When Xiao Ran arrived, he saw scorched ruins from afar, with a police cordon set up around the area.

He could see a wooden sign on the ground, mostly burned away, with only the first three characters, "Jixiang Shou," visible.

There were two more characters behind them, but they were no longer clear. However, Xiao Ran remembered that the full name should be Jixiang Funeral Supplies Shop.

Seeing the ruins before him, Xiao Ran felt a stinging sensation in his nose.

He didn't like the bald boss, but he genuinely liked Xiao Qi. On one hand, he didn't have many friends, and on the other hand, Xiao Qi was the only child who never cared about his scent.

But now...

Suppressing the anger in his heart, Xiao Ran quickly walked to the entrance and looked at the burned ruins, his brow furrowed tightly.

"Brother Xiao Ran!"

Suddenly, a familiar shout made Xiao Ran's spirits lift. He immediately turned his head and saw Xiao Qi pulling a boy even younger than her, standing in the nearby shadows.

Her tender face was filled with horror and helplessness. Only when she saw Xiao Ran did a hopeful glint appear in her eyes: "Did you see my mom?"

"I..."

In an instant, it felt like a stone was stuffed into Xiao Ran's chest. His eyes glowed, and facing Xiao Qi's pleading gaze, his heart felt like it was being stabbed with knives, causing immense pain.

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Ran walked up to Xiao Qi: "Do you remember what happened yesterday?"

Xiao Qi hugged her younger brother with one arm and shook her head blankly: "Mom told us to run, and then we ran out."

"Brother Xiao Ran, did you see my mom?"

Facing Xiao Qi's repeated question, Xiao Ran shook his head: "No."

Disappointment flashed across Xiao Qi's face. She turned to her younger brother and said, "Oh, then we'll wait for her."

Her brother nodded in agreement, his small hands tightly gripping Xiao Qi's arm, as if afraid she would disappear if he let go.

The siblings' expressions gradually became vacant. Xiao Ran tried to call out to them, but they didn't seem to notice him.

Seeing this, Xiao Ran understood the problem.

There was an old story about an executioner who was very fast. One day, he whispered to a prisoner, "I'll tell you to run in a moment, just run." The prisoner, hearing the executioner's words, ran forward with all his might. He actually managed to run out of the execution ground, unaware that the moment the executioner spoke, his head had already fallen. He himself didn't know, and it was only through this obsession that his soul wandered the earth for a very long time, until one day he saw his own tombstone and realized he was dead.

The Xiao Qi before him was the same. She was now just a wisp of a soul, lingering here solely because of that final obsession. She believed her mother would come out behind them. It was because of this obsession that she was trapped here, unable to enter the underworld. If this obsession wasn't resolved, they would remain trapped in this place, dazed and confused, just like the old man squatting by the stone tablet at the entrance of their village.

Xiao Ran didn't have any other good ideas. He turned and walked towards a nearby shop. He casually took a bottle of drink from the freezer and asked about the fire at the neighboring shop.

"Ah, they were a family of six, a nice family, and their business was good. Who knew it would suddenly catch fire."

As the shopkeeper gave Xiao Ran his change, he sighed. In fact, for businesses, it was most taboo to be so close to a funeral supplies shop. Some even faced resistance from residents if there was a funeral supplies shop in a commercial unit near a residential area.

But when the shopkeeper spoke of the Jixiang Funeral Supplies Shop, he seemed genuinely sad, indicating that the family was indeed as the shopkeeper said, and they were good people.

"Especially that little girl, she was so well-behaved, good at studying, and polite..."

The shopkeeper sighed, then changed his tone to complain: "Heaven is truly blind. Such a good family, and in the end, they were all destroyed."

"Did the fire inspection not yield any results?"

"What results could there be? It was all paper inside. The fire was too big. Even the fire trucks could only watch helplessly, spraying water on the sides to prevent the fire from spreading. In the end, they could only watch as the house burned down, and even the bodies were burned to ashes."

Xiao Ran sighed and walked out of the shop helplessly. He stood in front of the burned funeral supplies shop, looking from outside the police cordon for a long time.

He never saw the souls of the child's parents. Most wandering spirits who could remain in reality were people with very deep obsessions. Compared to the purity of children, adults had many distracting thoughts. Therefore, most people could remain in their physical bodies for a short period after death, but if they lost their physical bodies, it was difficult to remain in reality.

"We can only wait for the seventh day."

Xiao Ran thought, he would come back on the seventh day to see if he could do anything for their family.

Or perhaps...

He looked back at Xiao Qi, who was hiding in the shadows, occasionally glancing around.

Xiao Ran felt a surge of anger building in his chest, like a blockage in his throat.

Only one thought remained in his mind: "Kill her!"

His eyes turned ferocious. After a moment, an idea struck him. He took out his phone and dialed Uncle Li.

"Hello..."

On the other end, he could hear heartbroken sobs. Uncle Li was probably busy with his business.

Xiao Ran got straight to the point: "Uncle Li, I've gotten myself into a bit of trouble. You know a lot of people, can you help me find some things..."

Around afternoon, a car horn blared outside the shop.

Xiao Ran walked out and saw Uncle Li parked in front of the entrance in his Wuling van, which looked like it had seen better days. As soon as he got out, Uncle Li smiled warmly at Xiao Ran and said:

"Xiao Ran, you needed this in a real hurry. I asked a few friends and called several places, my phone bill even ran out before I could get this stuff for you. It's a good thing you found me, otherwise, where would you find this kind of thing in the city these days?"

Uncle Li opened the van door, and a strong, fishy stench assaulted Xiao Ran. Inside, five burlap sacks stained with blood were tossed about.

Xiao Ran opened one of the sacks and peered inside. After confirming it was what he wanted, he nodded to Uncle Li beside him and said, "Thank you, Uncle Li. Sorry to trouble you with this."

He then took out the money he had prepared.

"Hey, you're too kind. This... you don't need to give me this much."

Uncle Li tried to refuse, but Xiao Ran didn't give him the chance, directly stuffing the money into Uncle Li's hand.

Although Uncle Li accepted the money, he felt a little uneasy. After all, Xiao Ran used to be more casual with him, and wouldn't have given him so much money for such a small favor, usually just treating him to a meal.

Even though the money was less, their relationship had grown closer.

Now...

"Let me help you carry them inside."

"No need!"

Xiao Ran turned and immediately closed the shop door, saying to Uncle Li, "Take me to Cuiyun Park."

"Huh?"

Uncle Li was taken aback, not understanding what Xiao Ran was up to. But he didn't pry. The place wasn't far, and it took less than five minutes to drive there, even with a red light.

When they arrived, Xiao Ran unloaded the five sacks. Uncle Li wanted to help, but Xiao Ran refused every time.

"Alright then. Call me if you need anything else."

Uncle Li sighed, knowing that his relationship with Xiao Ran wouldn't return to how it was anytime soon. He drove away dejectedly.

After Uncle Li left, Xiao Ran looked around. Seeing that no one was nearby, he tossed all five burlap sacks into Micheng Space. Then, he walked along a small path into Cuiyun Park.

It was the same pavilion.

A few shady figures were still lurking inside the pavilion.

Xiao Ran walked into the pavilion, his eyes flashing with cold light: "You don't return a courtesy call? Since you made the first move, don't blame me for retaliating."

Saying that, Xiao Ran raised his hand and placed a butter candle on the pavilion's table. After lighting it, a peculiar fragrance soon began to spread around.

Within a short time, the area around the pavilion was filled with a pleasant aroma, but the temperature dropped steadily. Even the flame of the candle gradually turned green.

Xiao Ran reached out and lit a piece of hell money. One by one, blurry figures began to appear in his eyes...

"Everyone, we have business!"