Song Xiaotian and I sat in the teahouse.
After about an hour, he sent a stack of electronic documents to my phone.
I opened one of them and stared in astonishment.
One hour. That fast... He had sent me everything I had asked for.
"Brother Tian, these documents... how did you get them?"
He had been drinking tea with me in the teahouse the whole time and had only made two phone calls, which meant he had gotten someone else to find them.
But hadn't he already been fired...?
I suddenly realized I had judged him by his appearance.
There was much more to Song Xiaotian than met the eye.
"Don't worry about that for now."
Song Xiaotian tossed his head, a gesture he seemed addicted to. "I've sent you the documents. Just read them first."
I nodded and began going through everything carefully.
The documents were very detailed, covering the entire investigation into the family massacre and its findings. They showed that the investigators back then had been extremely responsible and thorough. They had also identified the killers: Li Xiumei and Lü Zhengxian.
Unfortunately, they had failed to catch either of them.
Some of the details caught my attention and changed my view of Lü Zhengxian yet again.
The documents stated... that one of the victims, Du Yuwei's mother, had been sexually assaulted before her death.
There was also a photograph of Du Yuwei's mother from when she was alive. She was clearly a beautiful woman, and Du Yuwei bore a strong resemblance to her.
Du Yuwei had inherited her mother's beauty.
Reading that, I was at a loss for words. Lü Zhengxian didn't have a shred of humanity. He was a fucking depraved monster.
Another detail caught my attention next.
According to the documents, Du Yuwei's family had died of suffocation, but a weapon had been left at the scene, presumably by the killer.
The strange thing was that the killer had a knife and could have killed them much more quickly and easily, yet he had chosen the most troublesome method: smothering the entire family.
The documents stated that the killer had used a piece of white cloth, which had also been left at the scene.
The investigators had also noted that smothering a person was no easy task. The victim would struggle desperately, cry out, and make a great deal of noise, which could easily alert nearby residents.
Yet the killer had still chosen that method. They therefore suspected he held extreme religious beliefs and had carried out the murders through some superstitious ritual.
That left me bewildered too.
What had Lü Zhengxian been thinking when he committed the murders?
He had a knife, but instead he insisted on killing them in such a troublesome way.
Was there some significance to it?
Unfortunately, Seventh Master wasn't around. If he had been, he probably could have answered my questions.
Only Song Xiaotian was there. Since he had been a police officer, I asked him about it.
He read the documents too, then immediately frowned. "This reminds me of a case. It was a series of murders that happened in Lanjiang City. There were seven victims."
I was a little sensitive to the number seven. Startled, I hurriedly asked him for the details.
Song Xiaotian said, "Funny enough, that case also happened fifteen years ago, and those seven victims were all smothered too. It wasn't until the third victim was killed that the three cases were linked as serial murders."
"But even now, that case remains unsolved. They don't even know who the killer was."
"I only heard about it from an old police officer."
The more I heard, the stranger it seemed.
Seven people again, and the same method of killing.
Even more coincidentally, fifteen years ago, after Lü Zhengxian and Li Xiumei massacred the family on Qin Island, they had fled to Lanjiang City. They had bought a house there and registered it under my father's name.
Had the serial murders in Lanjiang City happened before they arrived, or afterward?
If they had happened afterward...
I looked at Song Xiaotian and voiced my suspicion. "That case you just mentioned... could Lü Zhengxian have done it too?"
Song Xiaotian froze, then his expression quickly changed. "There was some superstitious speculation about the serial murders in Lanjiang City back then. People said the killer smothered the victims instead of killing them in the quickest way because he was performing some kind of sacrifice, or taking something from them."
"The method does resemble Lü Zhengxian's, but there's basically no chance of investigating them as linked cases. There's no direct evidence proving he committed those murders too."
I didn't care whether the cases were investigated together.
What mattered to me was that both cases used the same method, and the serial murders also involved some kind of sacrifice. Wasn't that the procedure for the Seven Deaths Life-Exchange Art?
Sacrifice seven dead people to make up for the flaws in a fate pattern caused by soul possession.
So back then... the Seven Deaths Life-Exchange Art had actually been performed twice, and Lü Zhengxian was very likely responsible for both.
But why had it happened twice?
Hadn't the first time been for Lü Zhengxian to possess Du Ruhai?
Then what had the second time been for?
Or was the second time the one intended for possessing Du Ruhai?
I continued reading the remaining documents, hoping they would give me an answer.
Before long, another detail caught my attention.
Through interviews and inquiries, the investigators back then had discovered that, during the two weeks before the family massacre, Li Xiumei's family had suddenly received a large sum of money: ninety thousand yuan.
Ninety thousand yuan wasn't all that much these days, but back then it had been a fortune.
The documents also showed that Li Xiumei's family was very poor. Her younger brother was seriously ill, but they had no money for treatment. Only after receiving those ninety thousand yuan had they been able to get him treated.
For Li Xiumei's impoverished family, that money had indeed been an enormous sum.
But the question was, where had it come from?
Li Xiumei and Lü Zhengxian had no legitimate jobs. When the ninety thousand yuan was sent to her family, they hadn't yet committed the massacre or looted the victims' home.
So those ninety thousand yuan couldn't have been money they had sent home.
Song Xiaotian was reading the documents with me. He rubbed his chin and said, "Judging from my experience, those ninety thousand yuan might have been a payment. Money for hiring someone."
I froze, and several things suddenly clicked into place. "Someone paid ninety thousand yuan to hire Li Xiumei and Lü Zhengxian to carry out the massacre and kill Du Yuwei's entire family..."
"So the first 'Seven Deaths for a Life' wasn't actually Li Xiumei and Lü Zhengxian's plan. They were just being paid to do it..."
If that was true, then the identity of the person who had tried to sabotage our soul-summoning that night was clear!
He was very likely the person who had hired Li Xiumei and Lü Zhengxian!
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