Chapter 93

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

This is the police's usual interrogation tactic; as the saying goes, death itself is not frightening, but the hour before execution is the most agonizing stage of life. When interrogating suspects, the police simply lock you up in the detention room and leave you alone for a long stretch. If someone harbors guilt, in such an atmosphere they cannot help but speculate wildly, piling pressure on 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 crime.

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

When you are physically and mentally exhausted and your mental defenses are about to collapse, the interrogator will push the door open and adopt a strategy of first striking, then guiding. 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 me, head down, in a low voice.

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 Pangzi, who comes from a Daoist family, could not for a moment 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 was thick with 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 helplessly and 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 set your sights on Miss Zhou, the victim, many days ago. When she passed the Stone Plank alley on her way home from work, you, with premeditation, began to execute 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 have the illusion that I and Pangzi were the murderers of that female corpse.

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

"Holy shit, I say, beautiful lady, you shouldn't have the surname Chen; you should be surnamed '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 fright.

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, unwilling to be humiliated, exerted 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 bizarre double-headed Ghost Infant appeared in my mind, my heart unable to settle, but I also didn't know whether, if I spoke all this, Chen Mo would believe us.

"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 draw us out. I believed that if Pangzi and I described a method of killing, she would surely latch onto it and resume her baseless reasoning.

"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 displeasure, I had no option but 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; her tone held not only disbelief but also a hint of respect.

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

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

Then she seemed to recall her own identity, adding unnecessarily at the end: "In Aomen's underworld and upper world, nobody fails to respect Brother Zheng."

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

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

Pangzi and I were at a loss, even more confused; we couldn't tell whether this was a catch‑and‑release tactic or if they were truly letting us go.

"You may go; I currently have no evidence proving you killed anyone, but if I find evidence linking you to the crime, I will certainly bring you to justice." Chen Mo's expression was stern; though female, she bore the imposing aura of a man who need not be angry to command respect.

"Before the truth of the case is uncovered, you are not allowed to leave Aomen; you must be available on summon and cooperate with our investigation. If you leave Aomen, I will charge you with fleeing prosecution. By then, even if you are innocent, you may be deemed guilty." Toward 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 used this sentence to remind us indirectly.

After speaking, she walked out; before leaving, her eyes unintentionally flicked at Pangzi, glinting, sometimes gritting her teeth, sometimes wearing a resentful expression—no one knew what she was thinking.

"Ha‑qiu…" Pangzi sneezed repeatedly, then wrapped his arms around his shoulders, shivering, and 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 for us, and he was the one who posted our bail.

After we said we had come to Aomen at Chen Zheng's invitation, Chen Mo immediately went to verify our identity; then Fan Wuchang promptly brought in a lawyer who bailed us both out.

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

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

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

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

"Uh… uh, do you have any clothes?" After stepping out, Pangzi felt the cool wind and realized his clothing was pitifully scant; he hurriedly turned to ask the lawyer sitting 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 the car, for changing after work; see if it fits!" The lawyer handed Pangzi a black suit from the car.

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

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

Unable to suppress my doubt, I asked him what he was up to—could it be that he's taken a liking 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; then, sheltered by the tree and darkness, we furtively watched the station's 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 burst out laughing.

"Cut it out," Pangzi gave me a look, then asked solemnly: "Didn't you notice that speck of blood‑red light in her brow? That's the Tianhai star overhead, foretelling flying misfortune. 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 destiny chart contains Tianhai often faces flying misfortune. In severe cases, a faint speck of blood‑red light appears on the brow. However, this red light is a manifestation of yearly fortune, invisible to anyone but Daoist diviners.

"And amidst the red light, one can faintly see black-gray qi; this is an omen of gods and demons wreaking chaos!" Pangzi said solemnly while pinching his fingers.

"You're really telling the truth!" After a pause, I asked him. Earlier, Chen Mo's bangs had covered his brow, but I hadn't noticed.

"Why would I lie to you?... She's come out." As he was saying that, he saw Chen Mo walking out of the police station with a small bag.

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

"Are you sure you want to meddle? That policewoman still seems to hate you." I asked.

"Whether she hates us or not, we can't just stand by and not save someone." After saying that, Pangzi shoved my hand away and followed up.