Chapter 2970

At dawn, Shiler returned to Arkham Asylum. It was no surprise to him that Brand hadn't slept at all. Shiler placed the late-night snack he bought on the way on the table.

Brand straightened up from the desk. It looked like people had been gone for a while. Smelling the aroma of food, he woke up suddenly and hurriedly leaned over, saying: "Bought from a Chinese restaurant?"

"Otherwise?"

"That's true, only they would be open so late," Brand rubbed his hands, but soon realized something, narrowed his eyes and looked at Shiler, saying: "What do you want to do again? I warn you, I won't be bought by a late-night snack."

"You think too much, they just wouldn't sell it if I bought too little."

Brand always felt something was wrong, but he couldn't say it, so he simply didn't think about it, directly opened the bag, and started eating. He looked at Shiler skillfully using chopsticks and was a bit envious, but still honestly picked up a fork to eat fried noodles.

"You went to investigate near the school. Did you find anything?"

"That school had a middle school and elementary school department," Shiler said: "It should have operated for a period of time about ten years ago, but it was demolished for some reason later. I suspect the principal who had the problem might not be the high school principal, but the principal of the middle school and elementary school departments that were demolished."

"Would there be three principals?" Brand asked.

Shiler nodded and said: "At least there were two, one for the middle school and elementary school departments, and one for the high school department separately."

Brand had also studied psychology, and of course, he knew why this was. The teaching methods of middle school and elementary school were completely different from high school, and the schedule and management methods were of course different. It was very normal to have two principals managing them.

"But Edward didn't attend middle school and elementary school there. How could he have dealt with the middle school and elementary school principal?" Brand asked.

Shiler shook his head and said: "This is temporarily unclear, but after all, the three schools are not far apart. It's not impossible to bump into each other by chance."

"If, according to what you said, it was the middle school and elementary school principal who did it, then he couldn't have done it on the side of the road, right? Edward couldn't have run into the office, could he?"

Shiler had also not pulled himself out of the state of thinking. The tricky part of this case was that the era was long ago, most of the clues had been buried in time, and the only person involved who had experienced it couldn't accept questioning. The clues were really too few.

"There is a very useful clue," Shiler said: "We found a corpse under the ruins of the middle school and elementary school departments. Judging from the state of the bones, it should be a certain worker."

"A corpse?" Brand seemed interested.

Shiler took out a professional transparent plastic bag for forensic use from his pocket and handed it to Brand. Brand saw the finger bone in the plastic bag, but he still wanted to say more.

"Are you serious? Carrying this kind of thing with you?"

He was referring to that professional plastic bag, but Shiler didn't care at all and said: "I took it casually when I went to the autopsy room of the Cat Getan Police Department."

"And Gordon let you take it?" Brand said incredulously: "Is his mental state okay? Does he really not need to be hospitalized for treatment?"

"Of course he didn't let me take it, but it's better than taking away a part of the corpse," Shiler didn't dwell on this issue and said: "If you can find a professional, help me test and compare the genes."

"That depends on which professional you are looking for," Brand stared at the finger bone and said: "If you start from a scientific perspective, comparing the DNA of everyone in the city is unrealistic. The Cat Getan Police Department definitely doesn't have such comprehensive genetic data, and Batman might not either."

"Then what about other perspectives?"

"I can set up a magic circle," Brand said: "Maybe I can summon his soul to ask. If not, at least I can see what he looks like."

"Can you restore the death scene?"

Brand shook his head and said: "It's probably very difficult. It's not bad to see a little remnant of the soul. If Constantine could still use magic, he would be the true Hellblazer. I'm just a pathologist."

"You had better just be a pathologist," Shiler sneered and said: "How long will it take?"

"Preparing materials will take about a day... I'll give you a list, you go find Zatanna, she will know where to buy these materials."

"Why do I have to go?" Shiler looked at him and said.

"Are you saying that I should delay my work time and also bring my own materials to help you?" Brand looked at Shiler and said: "Can you have a little self-awareness as a debtor?"

"My meaning is, don't you have students?"

"Of the 7 interns I brought this year, 8 couldn't pass the internship, 9 couldn't make up the supervision time, and 12 had to ask for leave to write their theses. Do you think they still have time to run errands for me?"

Shiler sighed. Even if this was Nyar, he had paid too much to urge him to pay back the debt.

Shiler originally intended to let the graduate students under him run a trip. Don't think that the tutors abroad would be any better. Graduate students couldn't avoid running errands either. But thinking that the graduate students in their third year under him were only a month away from graduation, and their garbage theses were still lying in his mailbox, he felt it was better to go there himself.

Shiler took a nap in his room and first called Zatanna. For Shiler's visit, the magician lady was a bit surprised. When Shiler arrived, she seemed to be urgently tidying up the bookstore.

"Where's John?" Shiler asked casually.

"He went to the publishing house."

"Publishing house?"

"Don't you know? The two short stories he wrote recently were published, and the response was quite good."

"He started working as a writer?"

"Not really, it's just that when he was watching the bookstore, he had nothing to do, so he wrote down some magical events he had encountered before. As a result, an editor happened to see the draft he put on the table and suggested he submit it to the publishing house. Unexpectedly, it was really published."

Zatanna smiled and said: "Don't talk about what kind of person he is first, but his experience is indeed legendary. Some people just love to read this. The two novels earned more than 1,000 yuan in royalties."

Shiler raised his eyebrows and said: "Magical events? Is he writing adventure novels?"

"Uh... actually, they are horror novels," Zatanna said somewhat helplessly: "Some things are not so scary from a magician's perspective, but they are a bit scary in the eyes of ordinary people."

Shiler also didn't expect this, but he felt that Constantine was actually very suitable for this line of work, or rather, compared to a magician, he should have been doing this line of work in the first place. Those inspirations that far exceeded ordinary people should have been poured into artistic works. If he had chosen this path back then, he might already be a well-known writer now.

Zatanna seemed to think so too. She said: "John's life is not a complete tragedy. He has invested, experienced, and now can break free and look at the mysterious side of the world from the perspective of an outsider. Then his investment in the embrace of art is only a matter of time. Being an artist is better than being a corpse."

"What about you?" Shiler asked.

"Me? Reviving the magical world is my destiny. Even if one day someone pays off my debt, I will go back for the sake of responsibility. Moreover, I still have to find my father."

Shiler's lips moved. He knew that Brand might have clues about Zatanna's father, but considering that dealing with Nyar wasn't very safe either, he still didn't make the suggestion.

But he also thought that letting Constantine deal with Nyar might be a good idea, because Constantine was a writer now, and no Outer God could refuse someone writing their story into a book.

This could almost achieve a win-win-win. Constantine gained inspiration from Nyar's narration and published novels to make money. Nyar used his novels to expand his influence and watch bigger fun. Constantine could also ask about clues to Zatanna's father from the side, helping her find her relatives.

As for Shiler, he just did a little bit of matchmaking work, which could be considered as paying off the debt. It must be considered paid off, anyway, he wouldn't pay back any more.

Shiler gave the material list Brand had listed to Zatanna. Zatanna took a look and said: "You want to do a soul-summoning ceremony? I have to remind you, the person hosting the ceremony must be reliable, otherwise, it's hard to say what can be summoned."

Shiler said in his heart: "There is no one more reliable than him."

"Is your medium ready? Can you show it to me?" Zatanna was clearly worried. She continued: "Some demons will play tricks in the dark, deliberately swapping the medium, so that they can come to the present world through the soul-summoning ceremony. I have encountered this several times. The cunning of demons is hard for ordinary people to imagine."

Fortunately, Shiler carried that small piece of bone with him and showed it to Zatanna. Zatanna nodded and told Shiler that these materials were not difficult to prepare, she had them all here, and soon turned to prepare the materials.

Because he wanted to find Constantine, Shiler waited a while longer. Near noon, Constantine returned. He looked much stronger, but his expression was still that sleepy, ghost-bewitched look.

"Soul-summoning ceremony? Isn't this the time you mocked me for being a Hellblazer?" Constantine sneered, but still carefully looked at the medium Shiler had brought over.

"I felt the breath of a violent death, but it's probably an ordinary person. As long as there is no contract object, it's easy to deal with. Who are you looking for?"

"Brand."

"That friend of yours? I can't see through him, perhaps he is a powerful figure."

"More powerful than you imagine."

Constantine raised his eyes to look at Shiler.

"Do you want to come with me to see him?"

"You sound like you want to sell me."

"If I wanted to sell you, you would have been chopped into pieces long ago," Shiler stood up and said goodbye to Zatanna.

"Regardless, don't involve Little Za," Constantine stood up afterward, shook the slippers on his feet and said: "Even if you don't say it, I have to go. The soul-summoning ceremony is not as simple as you think. If it's a reckless youth, it doesn't matter if he tears down the asylum's house, but what if he releases that group of madmen?"

"I didn't expect you to have such social responsibility."

"I've been in mental hospitals for so many years, they shouldn't expect to have a good time either."

"I take back what I said before."

The two got into the car. The black-haired girl wearing simple short sleeves and shorts stood in the bright sunlight just like that, smiling and waving at them. The light flowed over her, bright like an oil painting.

"She is truly beautiful," Constantine said: "In my new novel, I will write her as the female lead."

"And end up together with you as the male lead?"

"No, witness me as the male lead being torn apart by demons."

"You are born to do this line of work."

"Overpraised. What exactly is going on with that Brand?"

"You will know soon. Don't be too surprised when the time comes."

Constantine smiled, his smile full of disdain. He rested his hand on the window frame of the car window and looked outside. His long golden hair floated in the river formed by the fusion of light and wind, like gold sand floating up from the bottom of the river and drifting with the waves.