Chapter 111: with translation of chapter title

Lu Qisheng opened that bag and took out a blue cloth shirt sealed in plastic.

Looking closely, one could see that the blue cloth shirt was soaked with reddish-brown bloodstains, unknown how long they had dried.

Then he pulled out a small box from his hoodie pocket, opened it, and placed it in front of me.

Inside the box were several white… flesh spikes?

These two items were clearly unusual at a glance; I merely bent over to look closely, without touching them.

Lu Qisheng is a living person, so this order belongs to yang duty.

For yang duty, if the conversation goes poorly, I can directly refuse.

Of course, I now also know that yin duty sometimes allows refusal as well.

But refusing a yin duty is completely different from refusing a yang one; it requires me to summon ghost officials with a large amount of Merit to take a person, and the cost is truly too great—unless absolutely necessary, it must not be used.

I lifted my eyes to Lu Qisheng and asked, "Officer Lu, could you tell me the specific story behind these two items?"

There were also chairs by the counter; I gestured for Lu Qisheng to sit down and speak slowly.

After Lu Qisheng sat down, he lowered his head, seemingly recalling, and also trying to calm his emotions.

At that moment, I inexplicably felt as if I were the police and he the suspect.

I stood up and poured a cup of hot tea for Lu Qisheng.

After a long while, Lu Qisheng finally spoke: "This shirt is the one my father was wearing when he met his misfortune."

"My hometown is Wangjia Gou, about ten or so li from Wufu Town. Thirty years ago, my father was a police officer in that area.

"Back then, family planning was strictly enforced; as a civil servant, my father could not have a second child. I have an older sister eight years my senior. My mother accidentally became pregnant, hid here and there to give birth to me, making me an unregistered child.

"Later my parents divorced; Mother brought me and remarried in Wufu Town, registered the household, and took the stepfather's surname Lu. My sister was left in Wangjia Gou. Father was busy with work, and my sister was raised by our grandmother.

"The stepfather could not have children; at first he treated me well, but good times didn't last. Mother fell ill with an acute disease and died. The stepfather took up pai jiu gambling, losing nine out of ten bets, his temper grew violent, beating and scolding me at will. I often got bruised for no reason, going hungry and poorly clothed.

"When my sister came to town to attend junior high, she happened to meet me, hugged me and wept bitterly. Afterward she often came to bring me food and clothes. This situation lasted three years, until the day she turned sixteen."

By this point, Lu Qisheng's eye sockets were red, his hands clenched tightly; from the force, his knuckles turned white.

I didn't know how to comfort him at that moment, feeling a sigh in my heart; it turned out he had also lived through such hardship.

"That day was her birthday; Grandma bought her a small cake." Lu Qisheng continued, "It was tiny, with poor-quality cream, but to us it was a delicacy. She couldn't bear to eat it, hid it in her schoolbag and brought it to town. Yet on her way to find me, she encountered villains. When the police discovered her, she… her skin had been flayed alive, leaving only a bloody corpse."

Hearing that, I stared dumbfounded.

Sixteen years old, a girl flayed… Lu Qisheng's sister's ordeal was exactly the same as Chen Tao's.

So this is the real reason Lu Qisheng came to see me tonight.

"My father received the news, rushed over hastily, and during the autopsy a silver needle was taken from beneath my sister's skull and handed to my father."

Lu Qisheng raised his hand and squeezed his brow hard, his lips trembling.

I dared not speak, fearing to interrupt his train of thought.

Even more, I feared that interrupting him would make it harder for him to muster the courage to recall these past events.

I waited patiently.

Fortunately, shortly afterward Lu Qisheng continued: "My father went mad, running around everywhere investigating, searching for my sister's killer, but back then this area was too backward, the culprit too cunning, yielding no progress. Instead, my father lost his iron rice bowl due to frequent absences from work."

I cautiously asked in a low voice: "Did you eventually find the culprit?"

"Found, yet not really found." Lu Qisheng said, "The situation is exactly the same as this Chen Tao case. Because of that silver needle, the police turned their attention to the Bai Family Medical Clinic; Old Madame Bai was summoned for questioning, but she treated patients with medicines and mysterious methods, never using silver needles. After a round of questioning, Old Madame Bai was released."

I furrowed my brows—how could this be such a coincidence?

"My sister's case was then shelved; Father couldn't accept this fact, so he began investigating it himself. But not long after, he also met with misfortune. When my grandmother went to collect his corpse, she took off this bloodstained shirt and pulled out these several white flesh spikes from his body."

It turns out these flesh spikes were pulled from Lu Qisheng's father's body; thus they were likely left by the killer of his father, and possibly his sister as well.

These flesh spikes resemble the quills on a hedgehog's back, but longer and thicker.

What size would a hedgehog bearing such spikes have to be!

"My grandmother kept these things all along; before her death she personally handed them to me, together with my father's diary." Lu Qisheng said sorrowfully, "She gripped my hand tightly, and even on her deathbed she said, 'Ah Sheng… Ah Sheng, you must avenge your father and sister!'"

That is why Lu Qisheng has remained in Wufu Town and become the local police officer.

That is why, last night, upon seeing that silver needle, he froze.

What dizzy spell? At that moment he was recalling his tragically deceased sister and father!

"Xiao Jiu Zhanggui, you may not understand, but at the moment Bai Jingmo was released, how desperate I felt." Lu Qisheng lifted his neck, drew a long breath, then said hoarsely, "I know I, like my father back then, have lost!"

"I know that whether relying on the authorities or on myself, I cannot truly bring to justice the killer behind this. But I lack my father's courage to stake everything, for if I died, no one in this world would remember thirty years ago that flayed girl, nor that man riddled with white flesh spikes like a sieve."

Even as Lu Qisheng strained to lift his neck, two lines of clear tears still slowly slid down from the corners of his eyes.

He lowered his head, wiped away the tears, looked at me and said, "Xiao Jiu Zhanggui, I heard that the rule of our pawnshop is: having taken a deceased person's belongings, the shop bears the responsibility to help the dead find their killer, right?"

"Yes." I replied without hesitation.

Such a thorny, long-standing case—I originally ought not to have taken it on.

But this matter involves Bai Jingmo, whose hostility has already turned toward me; I must ultimately walk this path, and perhaps I can obtain some useful clues from Lu Qisheng.

I then asked, "But Bai Jingmo's silver needle bears a steel stamp, whereas the one taken from Chen Tao's occiput has none…"

Lu Qisheng interrupted my words, countering: "Xiao Jiu Zhanggui, have you ever considered this question: Old Madame Bai cannot perform needling, and no one else in the Bai Family Medical Clinic has such skill—so where did Bai Jingmo acquire his miraculous needling technique…"