Chapter 365

I and Pangzi were taken back to the police station by Chen Mo and her colleagues, both of us wearing handcuffs, quietly staying in the detention room. The white incandescent lamp of unknown wattage on the table was blinding; after sitting for over ten minutes, I immediately felt my eyes sting as if pricked by needles.

This is the police's usual interrogation method; as the saying goes, death is not frightening, it's the hour before execution that is the most agonizing stage of life. When police interrogate a suspect, they simply lock you in the detention room and leave you alone for a long time. If someone with a guilty conscience is in such an atmosphere, they cannot help but speculate wildly, creating pressure for themselves; over time, their mental defenses weaken from strong to feeble, and some cannot bear the pressure, shifting from making excuses to evade responsibility to seeking reasons to lessen their guilt.

Besides this intangible pressure, there is also the lamp placed before our eyes; if the eye membrane is stimulated for too long by overly bright light, it will affect the brain nerves, thereby producing fatigue.

When your body and mind are exhausted and your mental defenses are about to collapse, the interrogator will push the door open and adopt a strategy of first striking then inducing. In these two clearly contrasting situations, unless one is an old habitual criminal with exceptionally strong psychological resilience, ordinary suspects will honestly confess their crimes.

However, the police overlooked one point: Pangzi and I are not habitual criminals, nor are we criminals at all. Throughout the incident, we were merely bystanders, or rather, bystanders mistakenly thought to be criminals.

"Did you see clearly what just flew past?" Pangzi asked, head down, voice low.

I shook my head, carefully recalling the appearance of that double-headed Ghost Infant, and told him: "I only saw it was a double-headed infant spirit… no, a double-headed snake infant." Remembering the scales covering the snake infant's body, I involuntarily shuddered; if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I could hardly believe such a bizarre creature exists in this world.

After hearing my explanation, Pangzi furrowed his brows, thought for a long time, then shook his head; even though he comes from a Daoist family, he could not immediately figure out the origin of this monster.

But the only possibility is that this mysteriously appeared snake infant is deeply connected to the corpse found in the alley; perhaps that female corpse was killed by the snake infant.

With a bang, the door opened; I looked up and saw the female officer Chen Mo, who had clashed with us in the alley earlier, walking in holding a folder.

"Name… age, gender, native place, how long have you been in Aomen?"

After completing the routine procedure, Officer Chen Mo got straight to the point.

"Speak, why did you kill the victim, and what method did you use to kill them?" Chen Mo's voice was icy; from the moment she entered, her pretty face bore an intense killing intent, especially when her gaze swept over Pangzi's pale, fatty flesh, she gritted her teeth in hatred.

"We didn't kill anyone! We just rushed over when we heard cries for help!" I spread my hands and helplessly recounted what happened.

"Do you have an alibi, or any witnesses who can prove you weren't at the scene when the incident occurred?" Chen Mo asked, frowning.

Pangzi and I both shook our heads, saying we had none.

This is a conspiracy long planned; you had already targeted Miss Zhou, the victim, days earlier. When she passed the Stone Plank alley on her way home after work, you, with premeditation, began executing your plan, first abducting the victim to the corner of the alley…

I must say, her silent reasoning is top-notch; listening to her analysis, I couldn't help but feel the illusion that I and Pangzi were the murderers of that female corpse.

However, all this is merely her speculation, with no evidence whatsoever. This is also a police tactic: using imagination to hypothesize infinite possibilities, then reasoning from those hypotheses to uncover the criminal's motive and purpose of the plan.

"Holy shit, I say, beautiful lady, you shouldn't be surnamed Chen, you should be 'Qu'; five hundred years ago you must have been related to Qu Yuan." Pangzi spread his hands, so provoked by Chen Mo that he felt like vomiting blood.

"Shut up, who let you speak!" Chen Mo glared ferociously at Pangzi, who instantly shrank back in fear.

Her reasoning became increasingly excessive; she even suspected that after we robbed money, we bore ill will toward the female corpse, and during our crime, the victim refused to be humiliated, exerting all her strength to resist as much as possible, while we, in a moment of clumsiness, strangled her to death.

"There are no strangulation marks on the victim's neck, and I haven't even seen any injury on her body," unlike Pangzi's gloom, I began to rebut Chen Mo's reasoning. The image of that bizarre double-headed Ghost Infant surfaced in my mind, my heart unable to settle, yet I also didn't know whether Chen Mo would believe us if I said all this.

"Heh, no strangulation marks—then tell me how this female corpse died!" Chen Mo's tone began to loosen, but this loosening wasn't because she believed us; she was just trying to get us to talk. I believed that if Pangzi and I described a killing method, she would surely follow it and launch her baseless reasoning again.

"She was killed by…" Pangzi was about to say she was killed by a ghost, but I reached out and stopped him.

"Without evidence, you can only detain us for forty‑eight hours." After a moment of silence, I said to Chen Mo across the table.

Seeing she still wanted to press on, I quickly changed my tone: "We are feng shui masters, invited by Chen Zheng to examine his family's feng shui; you can ask him—tonight we stayed in his ancestral home, altering the feng shui layout."

Having no choice, I had to bring up Chen Zheng. Although I knew this might provoke Officer Chen Mo's resentment, I now had to speak the truth.

Who would have thought, after Chen Mo heard my words, she fell silent for half a minute, then asked us in an incredulous tone: "You are people of Brother Zheng."

Pangzi and I were stunned, left bewildered by her; besides incredulity, her tone carried a hint of respect.

Could it be… that they are siblings? I entertained this far‑fetched possibility in my mind; though it sounds absurd, it could actually be true, given they both share the surname Chen.

"I have no relation with Brother Zheng; I address him respectfully because I admire him." Chen Mo seemed to see through my thought, her pretty face darkening.

Then she seemed to recall her identity, adding unnecessarily: "In Aomen's underworld and legitimate circles, nobody fails to respect Brother Zheng."

After saying that, she furrowed her brows and pondered for a long time, then picked up the file, ignored us, and walked out of the interrogation room.

Half an hour later, she returned—but this time she wasn't here to interrogate us; she came to unlock our handcuffs.

Pangzi and I were baffled, even more confused; we couldn't tell whether this was a catch‑and‑release tactic or a genuine release.

"You may go; I currently have no evidence proving you killed anyone, but if I find proof linking you to the crime, I will certainly bring you to justice." Chen Mo's expression was stern; though female, she bore a dignified, imposing aura like a man's.

"Before the case is clarified, you may not leave Aomen; you must be available on call and cooperate with our investigation. If you leave Aomen, I will charge you with fleeing prosecution. By then, even if you are innocent, you could be deemed guilty." At the end, Chen Mo's tone softened somewhat, with an explanatory tone. She seemed to want to tell us that if we are innocent, we should just stay in Aomen for a while, fearing we don't understand Aomen's law, she gave this as a side reminder.

After speaking, she left; before departing, her eyes unintentionally flicked at Pangzi, glittering, sometimes gritting her teeth, sometimes wearing a resentful expression—no one knew what she was thinking.

"Ha‑qiu…" Pangzi sneezed repeatedly, then finally crossed his arms over his shoulders, shivering as he asked me intermittently: "I say, Hai Sheng, why do I feel like someone is cursing me, and my heart feels all itchy."

I shrugged, pursed my lips, and shook my head.

"You ask me… how would I know?"

……………………

Not long after, a middle‑aged man in a suit walked in through the door; at first Pangzi and I didn't know who he was, but after he greeted us proactively, we realized he was the lawyer Fan Wuchang had hired, and he was the one who posted our bail.

After we said we came to Aomen at Chen Zheng's invitation, Chen Mo immediately went to verify our identity; then Fan Wuchang promptly summoned the lawyer, who bailed out both of us.

Leaving the police station, we got in the car and drove slowly a short distance; just as I closed my eyes to sleep, Pangzi's solemn voice came from beside me: "Stop… stop right now."

Pangzi's expression was very solemn, his tone very heavy.

"What are you doing in the middle of the night? Can't you quiet down for a bit? I'm exhausted." I shoved him hard and complained.

But Pangzi's expression was extremely solemn; he insisted on getting out, and I, having no choice, followed him out of the car.

"Um… hey, do you have any clothes!" After getting out, Pangzi felt the cool wind and realized his clothing was pitifully scant; he hurriedly turned to ask the lawyer in the driver's seat.

I looked at him speechlessly! Who in the middle of the night would be bored enough to lug a set of clothes out for no reason?

"I have a set of clothes in my car, for changing after work; see if it fits!" The lawyer produced a black suit from the car and handed it to Pangzi.

I… didn't expect there actually to be one!

After Pangzi changed clothes, he unexpectedly pulled me back toward the police station.

Unable to suppress my doubts, I asked him what he was up to—could it be that he's taken a fancy to that female officer just now? My tone carried a teasing note.

Pangzi dragged me to hide beneath a large tree opposite the police station gate; using the tree and darkness as cover, we quietly watched the station entrance.

"Don't you think that female officer Chen Mo from earlier is strange?" Pangzi whispered from behind the tree.

I grunted in agreement: "Yeah, pretty strange—for instance, the way he looked at you just now." As I spoke, I couldn't help but let out a puffed laugh.

"Don't mess around," Pangzi gave me a look, then solemnly asked: "Didn't you notice that speck of blood‑red light in her brow? That's Tianhai overhead, foretelling misfortune from above. I just cast a plum‑blossom divination and determined she will surely suffer a blood‑related disaster within three hours; she might even die because of it."

Tianhai is an inauspicious star; anyone whose yearly fate chart contains Tianhai often suffers unexpected calamities. In severe cases, a faint blood‑red speck appears on the brow. However, this red light is a manifestation of the year's qi movement, invisible to anyone who is not a Daoist adept.

"Moreover, within the red light, faintly visible is a black-gray aura; this is an omen of gods and demons causing chaos!" Pangzi, while pinching his fingers, said solemnly.

"What you said is really true!" After a pause, I asked him. Earlier, Chen Mo's bangs had covered his brow, but I hadn't noticed to look.

"Why would I lie to you? … She's come out." As he was speaking, however, I saw Chen Mo carrying a small bag walk out of the police station.

Pangzi was about to follow up, but I grabbed his hand and pulled him back.

"Are you sure you want to meddle? It seems that female police officer still bears a grudge against you." I asked.

"Regardless of whether she hates or not, how can we not save someone in danger?" After saying that, Pangzi jerked his hand free from mine and followed up.