Around Winter

It wasn't useful, so he wouldn't use it.

Zhou Zhenguo wasn't insistent, and he wouldn't let his pride force him to use it anyway.

If you weren't full of yourself, were you even young?

That didn't apply to him.

Zhou Zhenguo had a fellow townsman who'd believed Hua Qiang's nonsense back in the day, and ended up behind bars.

After he got out, he saw his former idol acting cute on a variety show?!

His faith collapsed from then on.

He went around all day muttering things like, "Actors have no feelings. It's all an act."

Zhou Zhenguo wasn't about to be so foolish.

When night fell, everyone sat in the inn's lobby.

The owner sat behind the counter, glancing at Zhou Zhenguo and the others now and then, a troubled look on his face.

Old John had gone missing...

The owner didn't know whether it had anything to do with these out-of-town detectives.

He couldn't help feeling a little uneasy.

But after Jack the Ripper had slaughtered the entire manor, and the Small City had begun sliding toward collapse,

the presence of these detectives offered his inn at least a little protection.

That afternoon, a nearby shop had been robbed.

Damn gangsters!

"Gentlemen, aren't you going to get some rest?"

The owner brought over a few drinks, set them on the table, and asked.

"No," Zhou Zhenguo said. "Things have been dangerous lately. We'll be here every night. You can go get some rest, boss. Think of us as keeping an eye on the place for you."

"I couldn't possibly impose..."

The owner smiled and headed toward the kitchen.

About half an hour later, he came back with some dishes. "These are on the house."

Tang Luo and the others didn't stand on ceremony and dug right in.

Whether they would run into Jack the Ripper that night was anyone's guess.

They still needed to fill their stomachs.

"Brr, why does it feel like it's getting colder and colder?"

After finishing the food the owner had brought them and sitting around for another hour, Li Liang couldn't help standing up and stamping his feet.

"Feeling weak, are you?"

Chu Chongtian said.

"Don't even start. I've been feeling weak ever since the first night," Li Liang said, a true slacker willing to face life in all its harshness, even with failing kidneys. "But I've never felt this weak."

"It is a little cold."

Zhou Zhenguo said, his expression suddenly turning grave. "Could it be the Ripper?"

He still clearly remembered that icy, bone-deep chill that left him numb and stiff.

All at once, they reached for the pistols hidden beneath their clothes.

"Gentlemen, why don't I lock up now? It's so cold," the owner said, having noticed the sudden drop in temperature. "If I lock the door, we should be safe enough. You won't have to keep watch either."

As he spoke, he walked over to the inn's door, which had been left ajar with only a narrow gap, intending to lock it.

Before locking it, he instinctively pushed it open and glanced outside.

The owner suddenly let out a gasp.

"Whoosh!"

Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian drew their guns at the same time!

Li Liang ducked behind them before pulling out the revolver from inside his coat, just for show.

"It's snowing."

The owner didn't realize his actions had caused the three men to overreact.

He said this, stepped outside, looked up at the sky, and held out a hand.

A few snowflakes landed in his palm.

At some point, a heavy snowfall had begun outside.

A thin layer of snow covered the ground.

But it wasn't white snow. It was gray.

It was almost impossible to see in the darkness.

"How did it start snowing?"

Zhou Zhenguo was puzzled.

The season here was winter. It was cold, but not cold enough to snow.

Besides, the weather had been fine in the afternoon—no, even an hour ago.

A sudden drop in temperature, enough to bring snow?

It clearly wasn't normal!

He stood up and went to the doorway to look outside. Sure enough, gray snowflakes were drifting down in thick clusters.

They gave off a filthy, unsettling feeling.

He held out his hand to catch one. The cold snowflake landed in his palm and quickly melted.

"Boss, don't look. This snow isn't right," Zhou Zhenguo said, preparing to head back inside.

The owner turned his head slightly and smiled at Zhou Zhenguo. "All right, I'll—"

The light from inside fell across half the owner's face, giving him a bizarre look.

Zhou Zhenguo's eyes suddenly widened.

He saw the owner's strange smile, and he saw the dagger that had somehow appeared in the owner's hand!

At that moment, Zhou Zhenguo's mind was sharper than ever.

"Binding!"

Almost instinctively, he roared and reached out toward the owner.

The sound of chains clashing rang out.

Phantom-like black chains burst out of the ground, circled the owner, then "burrowed" back underground.

The owner's turn froze halfway through.

His lower body still faced outside, while his upper body faced Zhou Zhenguo, leaving him twisted into a bizarre pose, almost a hundred and eighty degrees out of alignment.

His right hand was pressed tightly against his side.

His left hand was raised, pinned against his chest.

The dagger in it rested against his own neck.

His attempted assassination had been cut short by the chains.

After binding the owner—no, Jack the Ripper—

Zhou Zhenguo didn't hesitate for a second.

He clenched his right fist, and a white light began to glow around it, bright enough to sting the eyes.

It was as if he were gripping a glowing light bulb.

Powerful Strike!

Zhou Zhenguo used his only offensive skill.

Power gathered in his right fist. The glowing fist slammed into the forehead of Jack the Ripper, who had possessed the owner.

The sound of a skull shattering and a neck snapping rang out at the same time.

The tremendous force nearly sent Jack the Ripper flying.

But the Binding Chain wasn't so easy to break free from.

The chains clattered loudly.

The head of Jack the Ripper, still possessing the owner, "vanished" from Zhou Zhenguo's view.

The back of his head was pressed completely against his back, connected only by a little flesh.

Only after throwing the punch did Zhou Zhenguo stagger back two steps and brace a hand against the door to keep from falling.

His other hand struggled to rise. He was still going to finish him off—no, fire a follow-up shot.

"No need. He's already escaped."

Tang Luo's voice came from beside him as he pressed down Zhou Zhenguo's raised gun.

Zhou Zhenguo stumbled back and leaned against the door, gasping for breath.

He really only had the strength for one strike.

The innkeeper remained "standing" under the Binding Chain's restraint.

The dagger he had been holding was already gone.

There was no life left in him, either.

A needle-sharp pain struck Zhou Zhenguo's head. For the first time, he felt the Binding Chain could no longer be maintained, so he released it himself.

The corpse crashed to the floor, still wearing its strange smile.

Fortunately, it was night, and a heavy snowfall was underway.

The terror Jack the Ripper had inspired had turned the nighttime streets into a graveyard.

There were no passersby around to witness any of it.

"This won't work,"

Zhou Zhenguo said. "If Jack the Ripper keeps possessing people, he'll wear us out."

They now had a clear way to tell whether Jack the Ripper had possessed someone.

It was the rusty dagger.

When Zhou Zhenguo first saw the owner, he had been holding the dagger.

But in the instant before the punch landed, it had disappeared.

That meant Jack the Ripper had already left the body.

To be honest, this wasn't good news.

Because it meant Jack the Ripper's possession

didn't seem to require any preparation, nor did the person he possessed need to come into contact with anything special.

There seemed to be no restrictions at all, and leaving a body took only an instant.

As long as he kept possessing people,

even if he couldn't do any real damage to Tang Luo and the others, he could still put them in serious danger.

The danger didn't come only from Jack the Ripper's attacks.

It also came from the trouble Tang Luo and the others could get into by killing the possessed people in self-defense.

In a life-or-death situation, no one would be thinking about holding back.

After a few more incidents, Scotland Yard would surely turn its attention to them.

Fortunately, Jack the Ripper had only possessed people at night so far.

And it seemed he could possess only one person at a time?

They would have to see whether someone else appeared that night to determine the true limits of his ability.

"At least we have a way to identify him now. Whoever's holding the dagger is Jack the Ripper."

After hearing Zhou Zhenguo's account, Chu Chongtian said.

After dealing with the owner's body, they returned to the inn's lobby.

They lit the fireplace, driving back some of the chill.

"We'll see whether anyone else attacks us tonight. If no one does, we can conclude that the Ripper can possess someone only once each night, and can possess only one person at a time?"

Zhou Zhenguo said.

"Wait, no. That doesn't add up."

Chu Chongtian recalled something. "Hodge on the first night! And Old John. That should make two people."

"Are you sure Hodge was possessed by the Ripper?" Zhou Zhenguo asked.

"Pretty sure. Master, what do you think?" Chu Chongtian looked at Tang Luo.

To be honest, he had never really faced Hodge "head-on."

At first, they had exchanged a few words. Later, Hodge had attacked from behind.

By the time Chu Chongtian turned around, Hodge was already a headless corpse.

"Most likely Jack the Ripper. An ordinary person wouldn't be able to dodge the staff I threw," Tang Luo said.

"So, here's what we can conclude for now: Jack the Ripper can possess people. Those he possesses are far more skilled than ordinary people, and they also have a strange aura that can suppress others and leave them unable to move."

Chu Chongtian summed up, "He can possess people only at night, and can't possess two people at once—that last point is uncertain. He can change hosts at least once in the same night. Hodge, Old John, and Xiao Zhou's later disappearance all support that."

"The conditions for possession are unknown, but the restrictions seem very few. The telltale sign is a dagger that disappears."

"We don't know what his true body is, and we have no leads at all. Our last resort and support is Master Xuanzang."

"I hope I haven't analyzed this wrong."

Li Liang asked, "Do we really have no leads about his true body? Can we only wait passively? I remember Scotland Yard gave us a list."

"It's no use," Chu Chongtian said. "Jack the Ripper can possess people and kill them. All the clues are meaningless."

They weren't super detectives. How could they possibly catch a murderer who could possess people?

"Wait, that dagger is a clue." Zhou Zhenguo remembered the dagger that had nearly killed him.

Since they had been standing at the doorway, the light had shone on the dagger, allowing Zhou Zhenguo to see its mottled rust.

He had also etched the dagger's appearance into his mind.

Maybe they could use it to find Jack the Ripper's true body.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

A pounding at the door rang out.

"Boss, open up! We need a room!"

A man shouted from outside, interrupting everyone's conversation.

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