Chapter 305: Return to Sanwu Town

Zizai Shan in the mist seemed to come with its own blue filter; the mountain ranges were layers upon layers of different shades of blue. In the autumn mountain forest, even the birdsong was sparse. Everything was submerged in the pre-dawn night, unwilling to wake.

The wooden cabin's window was closed with a "creak."

Zhong Kui, who had been sitting cross-legged on the daybed meditating, slowly opened her eyes. Meng Apo wiped the dew from the windowsill and muttered, "Daybreak is here. The mountain wind is cold; the Great Immortal shouldn't keep the window open all night anymore."

Zhong Kui smiled knowingly, as if she missed such moments. That black merit box was placed right beside her; the wish list inside had already been taken out by Meng Apo, organized, and placed on the small table.

She looked through them one by one with great interest, suddenly stopping at one of them. Outside, the shrill cry of a crow pierced the silence of the early morning, and the smile on Zhong Kui's face vanished abruptly.

Distracted, Qi Fei had been staring at the music box on the table for a long time. In the crystal ball atop the music box, a scarecrow stood in the snow, setting off Qi Fei's haggard face. Zhong Kui had come and gone. Strange to say, before he knew her, Qi Fei's days were just like that, but ever since he met Zhong Kui, he always felt as if a part of him had been taken away by her. Only when she was by his side was his heart at peace; when she was not there, he felt a piece was missing, a sense of loss with nowhere to turn.

"Hmm? Daydreaming during work hours? Looks like your workload isn't saturated enough." A voice came from behind. Qi Fei looked up to see Liu Tong looking at him with a smile, reaching out to hand him a file. "This is a case reported by a prefecture-level city that I received; it requires our support. Since you're so free, it'll be you."

"No, Captain Liu, when did you become so sloppy with assigning tasks?" Qi Fei took the folder helplessly, but as soon as he opened it, he immediately changed his tone. "I'll go."

"Hmm? Are you cursing or accepting the job?"

"I accept, I accept, thank you Captain Liu." Qi Fei said with a grin, "I take back that word 'sloppy'."

"You're not young anymore, yet you're still so impulsive when looking at things. I've read the content; this case is quite special, and the family members are uncooperative. You and Xiao Wu go over; you'll likely have to stay for a while. Room and board are reimbursable," Liu Tong said.

The road to Sanwu Town was familiar to Qi Fei, and before long, he had arrived at the entrance of that familiar town.

A young man in a police uniform had been waiting for a long time; before the car had even come to a complete stop, he ran over in a hurry.

"Brother Fei, Sister Shanqiu, hello. I am Cai Ding from the Sanwu Town Police Station." The young man introduced himself enthusiastically as soon as he came up, a stark contrast to the Sanwu Town shrouded in dark clouds behind him.

"That report sent to the Municipal Bureau was written by you?" Qi Fei asked immediately.

"Yes, yes, it is. This case involves the largest clan in our town. There are currently difficulties in communication, but you should have read my report, right?"

"I read it. The deceased, Wu Xingzhou, was found dead suddenly in the ancestral hall. The cause of death is unknown, and the family refuses an autopsy. You believe Wu Xingzhou's death involves criminal activity, so you reported it to the Municipal Bureau."

"That's right. Sanwu Town used to be called Sanwu Town; this 'Wu' is the surname of the family Wu Xingzhou belonged to. Currently, one-tenth of the town's population still has the surname Wu; it is the largest surname. Wu Xingzhou was the eleventh-generation eldest grandson of the Wu family. Ten days ago, he was discovered by a volunteer cleaning the ancestral hall, who immediately called the police. My colleague Laopang and I were the first to arrive at the scene, which gave me the opportunity to examine Wu Xingzhou's body. When we arrived, Wu Xingzhou was curled up on the ground in the center of the ancestral hall, his eyes wide open, still maintaining the expression of terror he had before he died. But that wasn't the weirdest part; the strangest thing was that he was clutching a wooden statue of a Bodhisattva to his chest. I tried to take it out, but he was holding it too tightly, and the body had already stiffened, so I couldn't get it out no matter what. Just at that moment, Wu Xingzhou's father, Wu Chongyue, arrived with people and pulled me away as soon as he came up, saying this was a matter for the Wu family and didn't need police intervention.

Laopang and I tried to protect the scene and got into a conflict with them. There were over a dozen of them, and Laopang and I were outnumbered. In the chaos, they took away Wu Xingzhou's body.

Wu Chongyue and the others were detained for assaulting the police. We planned to apply for an autopsy on Wu Xingzhou while these people were still in custody, but I didn't expect Wu Xingzhou's mother, Zhu Haitang, to cremate the body before Wu Chongyue was even released."

"That's too abnormal, isn't it? The elderly burying the young—at least wait for his father for two days?" Wu Shanqiu couldn't help but say.

"Yes, there are too many abnormal points. A son dies suddenly; usually, parents would want to find the cause of death, but Wu Chongyue and Zhu Haitang don't seem to think so." Qi Fei looked up at the "Sanwu Town" characters on the archway at the town entrance. "Moreover, it sounds like the entire Wu family doesn't want the police to intervene in this matter. It is indeed too suspicious."

"To be honest, our police station often deals with the Wu family. Because Sanwu Town is relatively isolated and doesn't have much interaction with the outside world, the influence of the clan is still very significant. Honestly, many customs are not much different from those of several hundred years ago.

Usually, they hold collective activities like sacrifices, and as long as it doesn't affect public order, we support them. But in this Wu Xingzhou matter, they went too far.

Come to think of it, that volunteer who called the police is also from the Wu family; I heard they have already been expelled from the family genealogy. I suspect it was because of this report. It seems they didn't want us to know about Wu Xingzhou's death from the very beginning."

"Is that volunteer still in Sanwu Town?"

"Yes, they are. Their name is Wu Shulan; I was just planning to take you to see them."

As Cai Ding spoke, he led Qi Fei and Wu Shanqiu toward the town.

Qi Fei stepped onto this familiar bluestone path once again. The owner of that grocery store still remembered him and greeted him enthusiastically: "Are you here to find the Great Immortal again?"

Qi Fei smiled awkwardly.

Cai Ding couldn't help but be curious upon hearing this: "There are rumors that the Municipal Bureau has been cooperating with a shaman here to solve several major cases. Is that true?"

Qi Fei didn't know how to answer, but Wu Shanqiu countered by asking Cai Ding: "Don't you know Zhong Kui?"

"So her name is Zhong Kui." Cai Ding scratched his head and said embarrassedly, "It really is 'darkest under the lamp'."

Just as they were speaking, an old wooden door appeared ahead. The blue doorplate on it was half-rusted, but one could vaguely see the character "Wu."

Cai Ding knocked on the door, and the wooden door opened a crack with a "creak." A thin, middle-aged woman's head poked out from the crack. Her ear-length short hair was yellow and soft, and the flesh on her cheeks had collapsed, leaving deep nasolabial folds. As soon as she saw it was Cai Ding, she urged them to enter the house as if afraid of being discovered. ===== CHAPTER 306 =====