Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
Advance chapters available for patrons on Patreon. And a chapter can be sponsored by buying me a ko-fi
After Wang Qing left, Jiang Lan walked around in the corridor and knocked on the door of 701 again.
The person who opened the door was still the old man with gray hair. His back was as straight as a javelin, his eyes were weathered but not dirty, and his voice was steady and rich with experience: “Young man, are you okay?”
Jiang Lan stared at him for a long time, pointed at his accidentally exposed skin, and said bluntly: “How long have you been dead? Or do you not know that you are dead?”
The old man lowered his head and saw along his fingers. When he saw the dark purple-red corpse spots on his skin, he was stunned for a moment, but he soon understood.
He pulled down his sleeves and covered the corpse spots properly, then rolled his eyes and recalled, “It must have been a month, right?”
His eyes were a little vacant, and it took him a while to focus again: “I suddenly had a heart attack that day. This is an old problem. But before I had time to take medicine, I lost consciousness, and when I woke up, it became like this.”
It was a very ordinary day. He had a heart attack but fell to the floor before he could walk back to the room to get medicine. He didn’t know how long he lay on the ground. When he woke up again, he found that he had become different, but it was not a big deal. He still lived on the seventh floor day after day, waiting to see what retribution happened to those evil people.
And this retribution came one after another.
The old man’s eyes trembled, but the corner of his mouth curled up into a smile.
Jiang Lan looked at his expression: “You shouldn’t stay here. After death, you have a place to go.”
The old man was not dissatisfied with this, but said: “When the time comes, I will leave.”
Jiang Lan shook his head: “You shouldn’t use that thing to help you kill people. It helped you kill He Lao’er and He Laosi, right? He Laowu should be gone as well. If it continues to kill people, you may not be able to control it anymore.”
The old man’s eyes trembled slightly, then drooped, making it difficult to see the expression in his eyes. He shook his head and retorted: “I don’t know where you are from, but there is no one else here. I killed them, and they deserve to die.”
When the old man was talking to Jiang Lan, his expression was always calm. It could be seen from his words and deeds that he was a well-educated person. Even though he knew he was dead, he still lived in the world according to the standards of a living person.
But when he said “they deserve to die”, he clenched his teeth so hard that almost every word came out from between his teeth, with strong resentment and unwillingness.
When Jiang Lan saw him for the first time, if it weren’t for the corpse spots he accidentally exposed, the death aura on his body would be almost unnoticeable, and he would look no different from a living person. But now he was covered in the aura of death, and a strong rancid smell also emitted from his body.
This old man who had always been gentle and polite gradually began to look like a demon from hell.
He widened his dark eyes and repeated hoarsely: “They deserve it.”
Jiang Lan raised his hand and pressed lightly on his shoulder but looked over his shoulder into the room. In the darkness, there were countless pairs of hostile eyes looking at him – those of the Sao Qingniangs placed on the coffee table.
Jiang Lan took a step forward, but the old man blocked the door with his body. His face was already shrouded in the aura of death, and his bright eyes became dark and gloomy, but he still straightened his back: “I am the human being. They should be killed, in fact they should have died long ago, and I have no regrets. If an expert wants to claim justice on behalf of heaven, they can just do it.”
He blocked the door with his dilapidated and rotten body, then he waved his hand gently behind his back.
So those Sao Qingniangs who were hostile to Jiang Lan in the darkness fell back again.
Only one pair of eyes in the darkness stared at Jiang Lan from beginning to end, full of malice.
Jiang Lan pointed at a place in the darkness: “Do you want to protect it?”
The old man remained motionless, but his mouth straightened, and he said stiffly: “I don’t understand what you are talking about.”
“You did not kill anyone even when you were alive. How can you kill someone when you are dead?”
Jiang Lan sighed and took a step back to show that he had no ill intentions. He said seriously: “I am not an expert in slaying demons, let alone your enemy. I was just entrusted by the police to find out the truth of this case.”
When the old man heard the word “truth”, his eyes moved and he slowly pursed his lips.
“I want to talk to it, okay?”
The old man stared at him, but slowly shook his head, his posture still wary: “No one else is here.”
Jiang Lan sighed again, and tapped several places on the old man’s body with his fingers: “Your body is almost completely rotten, right? Even it can’t bring you back to life. Have you ever thought about it, when this body completely collapses, what would happen to your soul?”
If he didn’t know what the murderer was before, he knew it all after he knocked on the old man’s door again.
He saw a shrine in the corner of the living room.
But the shrine did not enshrine any well-known deity, but a seven or eight-year-old little girl. The little girl had a round face, big black eyes, and a small smile on her lips. If she hadn’t combed her hair with lotus flowers and held a broom in her hand, she would be almost no different from an ordinary little girl.
But the attire on her was destined to be extraordinary.
This old man enshrined a statue of Sao Qingniang at home. It was just that this statue was not the young woman in the legend, but a little girl of seven or eight years old.
Jiang Lan recalled looking through the information in his mind.
Everyone in He family Village had the surname He. There was only one immigrant named Qin.
The head of that family was Qin Shuyi. He was an educated youth who went to the countryside. He met and fell in love with his wife in He family Village, and finally got married into the remote He family Village. Qin Shuyi’s parents had died long ago. So, after his marriage, he simply settled in He family Village, taking care of his wife’s three-acre land and teaching in the village primary school.
The couple lived a harmonious life, but their only regret was that they never had a child. Until they were in their early forties, when they picked up a baby girl by the river and took her home to raise her.
Qin Shuyi and his wife loved this hard-won child very much, but unfortunately, there was a flood in Jiangcheng in 1999. It rained continuously for nearly a month. Qin Shuyi’s wife and daughter both died in the flood.
Jiang Lan calculated the time and found that Qin Shuyi’s daughter must have been 6 years old when she died.
The old man was Qin Shuyi, and the one enshrined in the shrine was probably his daughter who died young.
He just didn’t know what connection his daughter had with the Sao Qingniang.
Qin Shuyi’s expression really changed after hearing Jiang Lan’s words. He hesitated for a long time before asking in a hoarse voice: “You promise not to hurt her? Those things have nothing to do with her.”
“I won’t.”
He met the malicious eyes shining in the darkness and reiterated: “I am a state servant. If it has not committed a crime, I will not harm it.”
Qin Shuyi still had a hesitant look on his face, but his body blocking the door was no longer so determined.
Jiang Lan took a step forward, and he subconsciously took a step back. The deadlock was broken. Qin Shuyi finally turned around and took him into the house.
He called out softly: “Nan Nan?”
As if in response, there was a rustling sound in the bedroom.
Qin Shuyi said: “She is in the bedroom.”
Jiang Lan followed him and walked to the bedroom door. He paused for a moment, then stepped in without any hesitation.
The world in front of him suddenly became brighter, with the gray sky above his head and the muddy yellow earth beneath his feet. Between the sky and the earth, the pouring rain never stopped.
He walked through a door into another world.
Guys, ads are my only source of revenue, so please do not turn on the AdBlock when you are accessing this website…. Thank you, this would be a great help…
You can buy me a ko-fi and sponsor a chapter on: https://ko-fi.com/midnightrambles
Or become a Patron or access advance chapters on: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=45665005
If you support me, I would be able to provide more chapters….
Previous • Table of Contents • Next