Chapter 44: Yin Ghost Jade

In ancient times, there was Judge Di who hypothesized the underworld to solve adultery cases, and there was Judge Bao who disguised himself as the King of Hell to scare the true culprit into confessing.

However, these two could only be considered methods of deception, not truly being able to ask the underworld to judge the culprit.

Xu Qing didn't have the ability to ask the underworld either, but he could read the memories of the deceased through the "Transcendence Sutra," return to the crime scene, and watch the playback of the government office runner's death.

The government office runner whose cause of death was unknown was named Wei Fang. Since his grandfather's time, his family had been in the government office runner business. By his generation, it could be considered a family tradition with an orderly succession.

With this background, Wei Fang naturally knew everything about the government office—what money could be taken and what couldn't—he had a rough idea after a little thought.

For example, for corpses in the office that no family came to claim, he would find two familiar partners and conspire to sell them to the corpse-collectors of the Yin trade. As for what the other party did with the corpses, he would never ask.

As long as there was money, even if the other party used the corpse to make steamed bun filling, it had nothing to do with him.

This day, Wei Fang obtained a good job through the middleman Li Siye—delivering a corpse to the newly opened funeral shop on Jingxia Street.

The young shopkeeper of that funeral shop was a wonderful person; not only was he generous, but he also followed the rules. Since having this channel, Wei Fang never sold corpses to anyone else.

On this day, Wei Fang led two fast-runner government office runners to deliver the corpse and was planning to return to the office when he heard someone exclaim. It turned out a gambler had stayed at an inn opposite the gambling den at night, but for some reason, died in the guest room early in the morning.

Wei Fang had just finished selling the corpse and had nothing else to do, so he led his two companions to the crime scene.

The deceased had no obvious external injuries, only eyes wide open and mouth agape, as if he had seen something terrifying before death, to the point of being scared to death on the spot.

Wei Fang didn't care about the cause of death; instead, he took a fancy to the mythical beast jade pendant tightly gripped in the deceased's hand.

Hey! This jade pendant was nice; it looked valuable.

Upon asking, the deceased was a gambler with no relatives, the kind of person who wouldn't even be buried if he died.

Wei Fang felt even better. This was truly Heaven sending him money to spend; not only was the jade pendant valuable, but the corpse was also valuable!

So he immediately dispersed the crowd, then ordered one companion to go to the office to report, letting the Personnel Office head and the coroner come to examine the scene, and then ordered the other companion to guard the inn passage, not letting outsiders approach.

He then closed the door, pocketed the jade pendant the gambler was holding, and acted as if nothing had happened, going about his business as usual.

Originally, this wasn't a big deal. There were always government office runners with sticky fingers, and no one had ever been punished by the office for taking things from the dead.

But today's matter was different from usual.

That night, as soon as Wei Fang returned home, he couldn't wait to take out the mythical beast jade pendant and admire it under the lamp.

He saw the jade pendant shimmering with light, and the carved mythical beast looked as if it had come alive, leaping and jumping in the candlelight.

Wei Fang became more and more fascinated, until he was sleepy and tired, then he tucked the jade pendant against his chest and lay back on the couch to sleep.

Seeing this, Xu Qing thought the Transcendence Sutra would skip this useless footage, but in the middle of the night, the sleeping Wei Fang suddenly got up, went outside, and squatted in the courtyard, giggling foolishly.

"Hehe, my roll is bigger than yours, I won, all this silver is mine!"

"Another round? Sure, but this time we have to bet bigger, ten taels of silver..."

"Your luck is bad, this hand is fifty taels..."

"One hundred taels..."

In the middle of the night, Wei Fang was squatting in the courtyard in his thin clothes in the cold weather, shaking his empty hands as if holding a dice cup, giggling to himself.

When the bet reached five thousand taels, a new voice suddenly sounded in Wei Fang's ear.

"Your luck is really good. Why don't we play even bigger? If you win, I'll give you all the silver I have. If you lose, give me your life..."

Wei Fang smiled foolishly and replied: "Sure, but if you lose, you can't go back on your word."

As the saying goes, ten gambles, nine are scams; not gambling is winning.

Wei Fang gambled alone in the courtyard until the second half of the night. His body was already soaked through by the cold wind, but he didn't know it.

Until a giggle suddenly sounded in his ear—

"Hee hee, you lost, your life is mine!"

Hearing this giggle, Wei Fang suddenly woke up, but by then his body was already frozen stiff. Not to mention his limbs being numb and unable to stand, even the last breath he was holding was only because he kept wanting to win, so it hadn't dissipated.

Now hearing the game was over, he couldn't maintain that breath anymore. He just leaned back, and he was completely gone.

At the last moment, Xu Qing faintly saw in the final frame that a ghost shadow emerged from the mythical beast jade pendant and swallowed the last breath Wei Fang exhaled!

And that ghost shadow was none other than the victim from whom Wei Fang had stolen the jade pendant during the day!

Afterward, Xu Qing glanced roughly at the rewards from the Transcendence Sutra: a minor technique for tracking and hunting thieves, and a bottle of tracking powder. The effect was to sprinkle it on the target, and one could know the other's whereabouts through a special method.

He silently put away the rewards and then refocused his attention on the corpse in front of him.

At this time, Wei Fang did not have the mythical beast jade pendant on him.

Reading the corresponding forensic case file, there was no record of the mythical beast jade pendant either.

Xu Qing thought of a possibility: that this jade pendant had been picked up by another "lucky person" who was greedy for cheap things.

This person could be the first one to discover Wei Fang's corpse, or it could be the clerk who examined the corpse at the scene!

Xu Qing turned his head to look at Wang Lingyuan, who was reading a book not far away, thoughtful.

It couldn't be that his senior brother had taken that evil jade pendant, could it?

"Senior Brother, when you examined this corpse, did you see what items were on him?"

Xu Qing didn't like to guess blindly, so he simply asked directly.

Hearing this, Wang Lingyuan put down his book and said: "All items on the deceased are stored in the evidence room according to custom, but there are also detailed records in the case file. You can check it yourself."

Hearing this, Xu Qing felt relieved. Looking at his senior brother's reaction, it didn't seem like he had pocketed the evidence.

Putting down the case file, he turned and came to the other corpse.

This corpse was the original owner of the mythical beast jade pendant stolen by the government office runner Wei Fang.

"Gambler, gambling ghost—what is the connection between these two?"

Xu Qing was like a viewer chasing a drama, full of anticipation for the next episodes.

Lifting the shroud, he saw the gambler's terrified face with his mouth wide open and eyes wide staring.

Xu Qing recited the sutra silently, covering the gambler's stiff face with one hand, and segments of sealed memories jumped on the screen like a shadow play.

There was nothing to see in the gambler's life; the first half of his life was spent losing his family fortune, selling his children, and losing all his face and wealth.

Without his face, being pointed at by others all day wasn't easy either, so he sold his wife to a human trafficker and headed south with the silver notes, arriving in Linhe.

There was a fortune-teller near Shuimen Bridge in Linhe. The gambler thought: I always lose money gambling, it must have nothing to do with the casino; it's just my bad luck.

If that's the case, I'll get a reading first. If the reading is accurate, I'll naturally be able to win money.

If the reading isn't accurate, he would flip the table and cause trouble, making the fortune-teller compensate him for the silver.

Thinking of this, the gambler couldn't help but clap his hands, thinking: I really am a clever ghost, my plan is so good!

Arriving at Shuimen Bridge, the fortune-teller looked at his face, shook his head, and sighed.

The gambler thought: What kind of act are you putting on?

The fortune-teller opened his mouth and said: "I know what you want to calculate. If you want to win money, I can give you a trick."

"Tell me, what trick?"

The gambler became interested, secretly thinking that this fortune-teller was a capable person to be able to see his intention at a glance.

This was meeting a true master; he had to ask for guidance.

The fortune-teller bared his teeth and smiled, saying: "Go to Cuiyun Pavilion. There is an old pimp inside. He has a ghost that can make people's wishes come true. Go buy it, and you will definitely win big money!"

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 45 =====