Layers of Mystery

Seventh Master explained that, as a professional spirit medium, Xiao Qing naturally had a great deal of yin energy.

On top of that, she did not have long to live, making her an ideal vessel for crossing into the spirit world. She might pick up some of a ghost's memories.

But that rarely happened.

I grew excited and hurriedly asked Xiao Qing what she had seen.

What exactly did the person who killed Li Xiumei look like?

"He had a square face and was about thirty. There was a large mole on his right earlobe."

Xiao Qing said those were the features of Li Xiumei's killer. That was all she had seen of him.

Aside from that, a little girl of five or six had also been there when Li Xiumei was murdered. The girl had witnessed the entire thing.

Meng Yifan and I felt our blood run cold.

When Li Xiumei was murdered, her tongue had been cut out, and cement had been poured into her.

The killer had actually made a child watch the whole thing.

Holy shit!

Was this guy a complete psychopath?

"Master Xiao Qing, could you see if this was the girl?"

I hurriedly took out the photo and showed it to Xiao Qing.

But the photo was far too blurry. Xiao Qing could not identify her either. She shook her head and said, "I can't be sure. She looks a little like her."

Although she could not identify the girl, I already had a rough idea.

I drew a breath and said, "Lü Zhengxian killed Li Xiumei. When he killed her, that little girl was there watching. Li Xiumei's death also seems to have had something to do with this girl..."

What exactly did Lü Zhengxian feel for this girl?

For her sake, he had been willing to brutally murder the woman who shared his bed.

But if he really cared about the girl, why would he make her witness something so horrifying at such a young age?

I racked my brains and drew on everything I knew, but I still could not explain Lü Zhengxian's twisted behavior.

Meng Yifan said, "What I find most unbelievable is why Li Xiumei and Lü Zhengxian killed that whole family in the first place. Just over rent?"

"And if Li Xiumei was the mastermind, how insane would she have to be to kill an entire family, as a woman herself, and not even spare a little girl?"

Their reason for slaughtering that family really did seem absurd.

But Li Xiumei being the mastermind was only my own theory. I did not know whether I was right.

Whatever the case, killing an entire family over rent simply did not hold up.

There seemed to be more to that massacre than we knew.

"Seventh Master, what do you think?"

Although we had not known each other long, I had developed a deep respect for this seasoned veteran's wisdom.

He had seen plenty in his time, so surely he knew more than we did.

But Seventh Master merely glanced at me and said irritably, "I've got a concussion. What am I supposed to think? Besides, I've got nothing to do with either case. I know even less than you two. Why do you keep asking me?"

Then he added, "Still, the man who knocked me out tonight probably wasn't Lü Zhengxian. If he was, how would he have known we were going to summon the spirit tonight? Unless Lü Zhengxian is right there among the people around you, and he knows what you're planning."

That startled me.

If that was true, it really was terrifying.

But over the past two days, Meng Yifan and I had not been in contact with anyone except Seventh Master and Brother Liu. I had also gone home once to see my dad and grandpa.

Seventh Master and Brother Liu could not be Lü Zhengxian. For a start, their ages did not match.

As for my dad and grandpa, Grandpa was far too old to be Lü Zhengxian, which left only my dad.

But Xiao Qing had just proven my dad's innocence too. She had said Lü Zhengxian had a square face and a large mole on his right earlobe.

My dad had neither a square face nor a mole on his earlobe, so he was not Lü Zhengxian either. He had nothing to do with Li Xiumei's death.

"That's strange, then. Neither of us has had any contact with Lü Zhengxian."

Meng Yifan said, "But if the man tonight wasn't Lü Zhengxian, why did he come to sabotage the spirit-summoning ritual?"

Seventh Master frowned and said, "He probably has some connection to Lü Zhengxian or Li Xiumei. He also knows the police have discovered Li Xiumei's body, and he's afraid that exposing the truth will implicate him."

"And he definitely knows something about the occult. You can tell from the way he sabotaged the spirit-summoning formation."

I was puzzled. "If he hid in there, wasn't he afraid Li Xiumei's ghost would catch him?"

Seventh Master explained, "If I'm right, he probably stuck some kind of warding talisman under the bed. Otherwise, he wouldn't have dared hide just anywhere. And that talisman is most likely still stuck under the bed."

After hearing that, I figured Meng Yifan and I would probably have to go back.

First, I wanted to check Seventh Master's theory and see whether there really was a talisman under the bed.

Second, we needed to clean up everything we had left in the living room. Otherwise, we would have a hard time explaining it if the police found out.

"Li Xiumei hasn't given you much time. Only seven days."

Seventh Master reminded us, "Within those seven days, you either find Lü Zhengxian or uncover the whole truth. Otherwise, you two will have to go down there and join her."

I felt miserable.

I had just been going about my job when this suddenly landed in my lap.

Where was I supposed to find Lü Zhengxian?

And uncover the truth? Was I somehow better at investigating than the police?

Meng Yifan was no longer afraid, and his brain seemed to be working again. He said, "There are so many people out there. Even the police can't find Lü Zhengxian, so it's practically impossible for us. But what about that little girl?"

"Lü Zhengxian raised her, and now she's died under mysterious circumstances too. If we investigate how she died, could we follow that trail to some clues about Lü Zhengxian?"

I wholeheartedly agreed with Meng Yifan's suggestion.

Seventh Master nodded too. "This girl probably died within the past year. A ghost looks the way they did when they died, so she must have died sometime this past year."

That made things much easier.

We could ask Brother Liu for help and have him look into young women who had died within the past year.

The girl might still have been in college before she died, which would narrow the search even further.

Once we established her identity, we could trace Lü Zhengxian's movements over the past few years.

There were still three or four hours until dawn.

Meng Yifan and I got some sleep at the hospital.

After daybreak, the two of us left the hospital and drove back to that apartment complex.

Once we returned to the apartment, we first checked under the bed in the master bedroom.

Seventh Master really had called it. In the end, we actually found a paper talisman under the bed.

But neither of us could identify it, so we took a photo and sent it to Seventh Master.

"This is called a Yin-Gathering Talisman. It's not something decent people use. It works in reverse, using yin energy to conceal the user's yang energy so ghosts can't detect his presence. Someone who can draw this kind of talisman doesn't just know a little about the occult. He must be well versed in it."

"Also, anyone who uses this talisman will be physically weak for several days. His body won't recover until his yang energy returns."

Over the phone, Seventh Master explained what the talisman did, then remarked, "Anyone who knows how to use this thing is definitely bad news. You two have really hit the jackpot."