Early in the morning, Jing Xian was frying eggs in the kitchen.
After Lu Yingjiu woke up, breakfast was set on the table. He didn’t sleep well last night. He was half asleep and half awake the whole night, and only started to doze off in the morning. If he wasn’t tempted by the smell of food, he would probably still be sleeping soundly in bed.
It’s still raining outside.
It’s just that it was only a drizzle, and was very quiet, without the violent feeling of the previous two days. He took a bite of the fried egg, and Jing Xian handed him a glass of water in a timely manner.
The phone rang, it was Ye Feng calling.
When he picked up the phone, Ye Feng said, “Hey, something happened, Chen Zheng was stabbed last night.”
Lu Ying slowed down his drinking of the porridge for a moment, and asked, “What do you mean stabbed?”
“In a literal sense, he was stabbed several times, and now he is lying in the ICU for rescue, his life’s not out of danger yet.” Ye Feng said, “The other party is very ruthless, if it wasn’t because he put a piece of talisman paper in his pocket everywhere and extended his life, he wouldn’t have held on until Chu Banyang found him. It was also a coincidence, Young Master Chu had already gone half way when he found that he missed submitting the documents and went to Chen Zheng’s house.”
He forced a laugh, “This old fox is really lucky.”
Lu Yingjiu put down the spoon in his hand and narrowed his eyes, “What is the situation at the scene?”
“Chu Banyang is investigating. A large group of people went over to the Chen family.” Ye Feng said, “There are two more pieces of bad news. The first is that the key kept by Chen Zheng is missing. Afterwards, in the inventory evidence room, it was found that all the evidence was gone, including the human skin mask that was found.”
Lu Yingjiu frowned, and asked again, “What’s the second bad news?”
“Fan Xin is gone too.” Ye Feng said, “The nurse went to check the room in the morning and found that the room was already empty. Her whereabouts are still unknown.”
Lu Yingjiu: “……..”
He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyebrows, restraining his urge to curse.
Then he stood up and said, “I’m going to get the person back.”
Ye Feng was taken aback. “How will you find her?”
“I always have a way, don’t I? And I have a very bad feeling that Fan Xin is in danger.” Lu Yingjiu hung up the phone.
Fan Xin was haunted by ghosts, no matter how he thought about it, she should not ask him for help, but should go to the accomplice who provided her with the mask. But she didn’t do this, there’s a high probability that something went wrong between them.
When Fan Xin was brought to the hospital, Lu Yingjiu, who was still wary of her, left a little paper doll on her body.
His level was high, and if he really wanted to hide it, other ghost exorcists would not be able to find the paper figurine.
But Fan Xin couldn’t escape from the ward alone.
She must have been taken away. In the positive direction, it would be the accomplice trying to rescue her; in the worst possible guess, it’s to kill her and silence her.
There was a backpack at the door, which contained all the items that Lu Yingjiu needed to go out. He carried his backpack and took two thick raincoats.
He and Jing Xian got into the car.
Jing Xian asked, “Where to go?”
“East.” Lu Yingjiu put on his seat belt, “Drive all the way to the seaside.”
****
There was a burst of sound from the waves.
The abandoned dock warehouse was full of the fishy smell of sea water. Looking out from the cramped windows, one could only see the iron-blue sky. The clouds were thick, and a fine drizzle fell.
The girl in a hospital gown was nestled in a corner, her hair was scattered, her hands were tied behind her back, and there were several dragging wounds on her back and legs, which were mixed with sand, it was bright red and hideous. She was forcibly dragged out of the hospital and brought here all the way. The ropes on her legs had been loosened long ago, and she could have escaped, but…….
In front of her, a golden monkey was squatting.
Seeing her move, it immediately bared its teeth, revealing a mouthful of fangs that could bite through a steel plate.
Fan Xin knew how powerful the gods invited by an exorcist were.
It’s certainly not something she could match.
At the end of the warehouse, there was a rustling sound. The man was looking for something, and seemed to have sensed the restlessness of the spirit ape, and then said, “I advise you to behaved, this guy has eaten human flesh before.”
Fan Xin trembled.
She looked at Chen Qi’s back.
From the beginning of planning the murder, she knew that the other party was a cold-blooded person——at that time, she was not afraid, but felt joy because cold-blooded was what she needed the most.
But she didn’t expect that six years later, when this coldness was directed at herself, how terrible it would be.
After Chen Qi finished sorting out his things, he found more than a dozen passports and fake passports hidden in this warehouse, as well as large sums of cash. These banknotes were carefully placed inside a box, and once opened, it was an eyeful of pink, which was very exciting.
These things had been here for an unknown number of years, and they finally came in handy today, enough to make him fly away.
He carried these things, with a chubby body, walked back with some difficulty, and sat on the wooden box opposite Fan Xin.
The crate groaned under his weight.
Chen Qi brought a human skin mask along the way, but when he was looking for something, he was accidentally scratched by a piece of scrap iron. The mask was inherently fragile, the incision was flipped outward, which looked particularly eerie.
He touched his face, realized this, clicked his tongue, then took off the whole mask, and put it beside him.
Now, in front of Fan Xin, it was that familiar face again.
The get-away speedboat hadn’t arrived yet, the sea breeze was blowing outside, like wailing ghosts and howling wolves, and the black waves hit the pier, blooming snow-white.
Chen Qi stroked back his sweaty black hair, looked at the trembling girl in front of him, and suddenly had the urge to reminisce about the past.
He said, “When I first met you, you were only 16 years old, now, you are so big.”
Fan Xin didn’t speak.
Chen Qi shook his head and said, “You were still so smart back then, why did you live longer and come back? When you said you wanted to take revenge on Chen Yanyan, you were very straightforward.”
After a long time, Fan Xin said with a trembling voice, “You, you let me go, I won’t say anything. These days, I haven’t mentioned your name at all.”
“Let you go?” Chen Qi laughed, “You made a mistake from the very beginning, you shouldn’t have asked Lu Yingjiu for help, and even took him to the slaughterhouse. If it weren’t for him, I could have delayed it for another year or two.”
Mentioning Lu Yingjiu’s name, anger flashed between his brows, and he said in a low voice, “Anyway, his about to die…….it’s only half a year away……….”
His voice was too low for Fan Xin to hear this sentence.
Chen Qi patted the suitcase behind him again, and said with a smile, “Within two days, they will definitely find me. That guy Chen Ming is a waste, simply going to the warehouse to destroy evidence and he was caught. His mouth is not tight, what should be said and what should not be said, he will definitely explain. Originally, they should have found out today, but my brother’s death is enough to cause them chaos for a few days.”
Fan Xin looked at him in disbelief.
“What? You think I won’t attack my brother?” Chen Qi clicked his tongue, “He’s so stupid, and he’s very hard-headed on some issues. I don’t know how much effort I have spent all these years to guard against him. Anyhow, you’re not important anymore, but you’re the only one who knows the whole thing. Until now, if you’re not dead, I always feel like I can’t sleep well.”
Six years ago, Chen Qi had been planning how to get rid of Chen Minlan’s family.
He had been producing human skin masks in the Four Hole Slaughterhouse, and through logistics, he sold the masks without anyone noticing. Many years had passed like this, but one day, Chen Minlan suddenly discovered something.
As the head of the Chen family, Chen Minlan was an upright person, and she absolutely couldn’t allow this kind of behavior, therefore she mobilized a lot of people to investigate. Chen Qi had always been cautious, but after all, fire couldn’t be contained in paper, seeing that it was a matter of time before he was discovered, he suddenly became murderous.
He had not found a suitable breakthrough yet.
Murder was one thing, how to cover it up was another. After all, Chen Minlan’s family were all ghost exorcists. How would they be so careless and attract ghosts without any reason?
He wanted to attack Chen Yanyan, who knew the least about exorcising ghosts, but time was running out and he didn’t have many opportunities.
At this time, Fan Xin came into his sight.
When Chen Qi secretly observed Chen Yanyan, he could see that they sometimes put on masks to exchange identities – he knew too much about the Cloud Weaving Technique, and since Chen Yanyan used masks made of animal skin, he could see the flaws at a glance.
He took a little more effort to inquire.
The thoughts of the two female high school students were not a secret to him at all, and he quickly figured out the situation.
Chen Yanyan forced Fan Xin to switch identities with her. And she usually gets along with her classmates, relying on her understanding of some simple little spells. She was also beautiful, arrogant, and not very likable.
But usually she also liked to play with Fan Xin, uttering “good friend” each mouthful.
Fan Xin’s appearance was mediocre, because her family was poor since she was a child, she wore rustic clothes. Standing with Chen Yanyan, it’s like an ugly duckling and a white swan. Fan Xin’s boyfriend was Lu Fanghong, it was unknown whether it was intentional or not, but when they were playing together, Chen Yanyan would always try to hold Lu Fanghong back, or pat him on the head, making unnecessary physical contact.
Lu Fanghong didn’t know whether it was because of his weak personality that he didn’t dare to refuse, or because he really had no bottom line and let Chen Yanyan do what he did.
Chen Yanyan enjoyed the contrast, but didn’t notice the jealousy and resentment towards her in Fan Xin’s eyes.
Chen Qi noticed.
One afternoon after school, he wore a human skin mask, carefully disguised himself as a high school student, and found Fan Xin alone.
“I know you are exchanging identities.” He said bluntly, “I am also from the Chen family, and I need you to do me a favor.” Fan Xin stepped back half a step vigilantly.
Chen Qi said: “I specialize in masks. Do you want to become as beautiful as Chen Yanyan? I can help you do it.”
Fan Xin’s eyes moved.
Chen Qi continued: “What you have to do is very simple. You go and tell Chen Yanyan that you want to do a courage test and play a supernatural game.”
Fan Xin finally spoke: “Why? What exactly do you want to do?”
Chen Qi spread his hands, “It’s a private matter between me and her. I just want to scare her and make her think that she has been possessed by a ghost. How about it? Think about it.” He smiled, “The masks I made are very realistic.”
Fan Xin looked up at him: “…Will you hurt her?”
Chen Qi thought she couldn’t bear it in her heart, and hypocritically assured: “It’s just to scare her.”
Unexpectedly, Fan Xin shook her head and said: “I thought you could do it a little harder.”
Chen Qi was stunned for a moment, and then smiled: “You will know later. In this way, I will tell you which day to choose, Chen Yanyan’s younger brother’s birthday is coming soon…”
Later, Fan Xin found an excuse and said that she wanted to play a supernatural game.
Chen Yanyan was originally not interested, but she didn’t want to appear timid, so she said ”Otherwise, let’s go to the slaughterhouse, I’m familiar with that place”.
Chen Qi gave Fan Xin the ghosts’ obsession in advance.
From the very beginning, he planned to kill Chen Yanyan: If he wanted Fan Xin to pretend to be her and get in touch with Chen Minlan, then Chen Yanyan must die.
But what they didn’t expect was for Chen Yanyan and Ke Yu to stumble upon each other by mistake, run into a sheep ghost and saw human skin masks while escaping.
Fortunately, this change did not affect the plan: Ke Yu is a complete outsider, and easy to fool. Chen Yanyan, also known as “Fan Xin”, was unknowingly killed by him and thrown into the sea.
The real Fan Xin took the ghost and went to the KTV.
She had been imitating Chen Yanyan for a long time, even in front of her family, she could procrastinate for a long time.
That day, Chen Yanyan’s younger brother ran around screaming and singing out-of-key songs, and the unpacked gift boxes were scattered all over the floor, which was very colorful. There was also a cake in the private room to celebrate his 6th birthday, and after being cut open, it was a delicious cream and strawberries.
The joy was overflowing.
Until Fan Xin released the ghost when they were most relaxed.
Back to the present, in the seaside warehouse, Fan Xin closed her eyes, as if she could still recall the large expanse of scarlet that bloomed in front of her eyes, and the blood splashed on the unfinished cake and birthday present. She was so frightened that she collapsed to the ground, and saw the woman holding the child tightly, the talisman paper in the man’s hand was slowly soaked in red, and the old lady’s bloodstained hands were tightly clutching the phone.
The phone displayed a sent text message.
…Do you want to ask for help?
Fan Xin couldn’t think anymore, nor did she have the courage to step forward to check.
As she sat there in the gore, she let out a small, whimpering scream.
Time travel back to this abandoned seaside warehouse.
Chen Qi said casually, “Do you know what I regret the most? It was when I gave you a talisman and didn’t let you be killed by that ghost together.”
Fan Xin opened her mouth.
She knew that she was definitely going to die, but anger grew in her chest. She bit her lip and said, “But you didn’t tell me that the ghost stayed on me after killing their whole family.”
“You should feel lucky. It was injured by Chen Minlan, and fell asleep for 6 years. It didn’t wake up until Chen Minlan, that old immortal, lingering ghost, ran out recently.” Chen Qi smiled, “You were supposed to die a long time ago.”
“That’s why I had no choice but to find Lu Yingjiu.” Fan Xin looked at him, “And exposed you.”
“Yes, yes.” Chen Qi sighed, “That’s why I said that what I regret the most is that I didn’t kill you together. From that next few years, seeing that you were younger and was soft-hearted again, I really shouldn’t have. But it doesn’t matter, today we can still make up for the shortcomings.”
He looked at the time. “It’s almost time, let’s go.”
The spirit ape bared his fangs at Fan Xin, seeing that she was slow to get up, he swung his claws, leaving a bloodstain on her clean calf.
Fan Xin groaned, under the threat of it, she had to stumble and follow Chen Qi to the back door of the warehouse.
There was a car covered by a black dust cloth, the rain hit the cloth, making a rattling sound. Chen Qi lifted up the black cloth, underneath was a Land Rover.
He opened the back door and said to Fan Xin, “Get in.”
The spirit ape roared behind her at the right time, and jumped onto her shoulder again, grabbing her hair. Fan Xin felt her toes curl up, but she still had to get in the car.
Chen Qi started the Land Rover and drove all the way along the seashore towards the distant pier.
He opened his mouth and said, “Which sea do you like? Seeing that we have known each other for a few years, I will leave you in a place you like.” He smiled again, “But there are not many choices. At most, choose the north-south orientation.”
Fan Xin gritted her teeth and did not speak.
The car obviously drove smoothly, but her stomach was clenched tightly, it’s as if a heavy stone was in her body, and falling crazily down. She was so uncomfortable that she wanted to vomit, she looked at the iron-blue sky in the distance, closed her eyes, and remembered the scene 6 years ago.
…It’s probably a case of evil being rewarded with evil, she thought.
It’s just that the death of Chen’s family came quickly. And her death was slow, 6 years ago was like a bit of cutting meat with a blunt knife.
She looked at her face again from the rearview mirror of the car.
The skin was yellowish and the lips were chapped. The hair was messy, the eyes that were not big, were bloodshot, and the bridge of the nose was not straight, no matter how one looked at it, it didn’t seem to have anything to do with a beautiful woman.
She hadn’t seen herself this way for many years.
Chen Qi did not tell her that Chen Yanyan would die as “Fan Xin”.
By the time she realized this, she was already at the end of her rope.
She had no way to take off this mask called “Chen Yanyan”, otherwise, the truth would be revealed…
Everyone would know that she was the murderer of that family.
She played Chen Yanyan like this for so long. Sometimes she’d get confused and didn’t know who she was.
Finally, until today, I no longer have to act anymore.
Fan Xin closed her eyes, her hands hurting from being strangled by the rope.
When she opened her eyes again, she saw a black car following them from the rearview mirror.
In this thin rain, it was a black Maybach.
Her thinking froze for a few seconds: Here, how could there be other cars? Could it be that someone accidentally got lost?
Chen Qi also noticed it, cursed in a low voice, and stepped on the accelerator to speed up.
He wasn’t sure who it was, he was afraid that he would overreact and expose the anomaly instead.
The monkey had been lying on Fan Xin’s shoulder, and at this moment it made a few chirping noises, and suddenly, seemingly found something, it stretched out its hand to grab it. The sharp claws scratched the back of Fan Xin’s neck, and goosebumps broke all over her body.
Screech—
Then she lightly shouldered, and the monkey screamed and jumped to the front seat, the outstretched paw emitting green smoke!
It was scalded severely, its fur was black, and the scent of the meat being burnt could still be smelt.
And behind Fan Xin’s neck, a small white paper man stood up.
It thrust its waist vividly and seemed to be provoking the monkey.
Chen Qi’s pupils suddenly shrank.
The talisman on the paper man’s body flickered slightly, it was clearly a talisman for tracking location!
How is it possible! When he took Fan Xin out of the hospital, he clearly checked it carefully!
After all, he is from the Chen family, and his level is still very good. How could he not even find this obvious paper figurine.
Unless……
Chen Qi’s scalp tingled for a while.
If it was other ghost exorcists who came, he was sure he could handle it, but he was afraid that the one who came was……
He slammed on the gas pedal, and the car roared and ran towards the sea.
The Maybach in the rear view mirror was chasing after him, and its speed also gradually increased. It accelerated very violently, crashing straight through the rain curtain. No matter how Chen Qi’s instrument panel pointer rose, the distance was getting narrower little by little.
The speed was still increasing.
80, 90, 100…130..150…180.
Chen Qi was so nervous that his palms were sweating, the scenery outside the window became a straight line, the rain was crackling on the window, the lightning was pale, and the thunder rolled down from the sky and exploded in his ears.
The distance was drawn closer.
The Maybach was almost clinging to the back of the Land Rover. Chen Qi glanced back quickly and saw a completely strange man in the driver’s seat. He froze for a moment.
There was no one else in the co-pilot, so the person who came was not Lu Yingjiu?
But Jing Xian raised the corners of his mouth at him and smiled, with a strong sense of mockery.
The front of the Land Rover suddenly weighed heavily.
Chen Qi suddenly looked away, only to see that there was clearly an extra person on the front cover of the car.
But this car is speeding 200 kilometers per hour, how did this person get on!
Against the headlights, he couldn’t see the other person’s face clearly, and only saw a pair of bright, silver-gray eyes.
In the next second, a hand pierced through the glass, grabbing his throat among the thousands of shards of glass!
Chen Qi had originally covered the car with talisman papers, but at this time the talisman papers were blazing, then his fierce aura rushed towards the newcomer. However, the airflow that should cut iron like mud once fell on the opponent’s body, didn’t even cut his clothes, and only scattered. Chen Qi’s scalp went numb, and he slammed the steering wheel. The high-speed car turned sharply and rushed towards the beach at a dangerous angle.
The inertia was too great, Fan Xin was thrown violently, her head hit the glass, and her sight became pitch black.
Before she could react, a sense of suspension came.
Her eyes widened: This Land Rover is in mid air!
Boom!
After a brief sense of weightlessness, the Land Rover fell into the sea, splashing huge water. Sea water rushed in through the broken glass, Fan Xin was hit in the face by the sea water, even drank a few sips of water, as her hands were still tied tightly. She wriggled vigorously, but it was of no avail. She wanted to open her eyes to see the situation clearly, but the bitterness of the sea water made her almost unable to open her eyes.
In the next second, her neckline became heavy.
She tried her best to look up, and with the faint light of the headlights, she saw Lu Yingjiu’s half-dark face, and his hair that was lightly curled by the sea water.
As soon as he stretched out his hand, he dragged her out of the car.
But Fan Xin’s leg was in severe pain again. When she looked back, it turned out that the spirit ape was grabbing her right ankle inside the car!
The sharp claws scratched the skin, and the blood floated in the sea water. The hair of the golden-haired monkey was like a burning flame, and the sea water around him was boiling. It showed its fierce face, opened its mouth, and was about to bite her with its fangs!
If this bite succeeds, bones can be directly exposed.
But it did not succeed.
Fan Xin watched helplessly, a terrifying black giant hand appeared from the deep seabed and under the body of the Land Rover.
That ghost hand had sharp nails, and the palm alone was five or six circles bigger than the Land Rover. It looked like some kind of monster floating up from the deep sea. The shadow covered the whole body, and with a light grip——
The metal was crumpled like a piece of paper, with the body of the spirit ape still in the car, a large cloud of blood mist suddenly dispersed, and it was crushed to death without even screaming.
The ghosts and gods invited by a ghost exorcist couldn’t really “die” if their bodies were not in the mortal world.
But the power of this grip was still too terrifying. Lu Yingjiu had never seen a ghost die so cruelly.
In the icy sea water, Lu Yingjiu only felt warmth on his back.
Jing Xian drove the Maybach that was nearly ten million yuan, and followed them into the sea without letting go of the accelerator. At this time, he hugged Lu Yingjiu tightly from behind, trying to bring him to the surface of the sea.
Lu Yingjiu grabbed him backhanded.
In the dark and icy water, they looked at each other.
A very brief and also a long stare.
It only took half a second for Jing Xian to understand: Lu Yingjiu knows.
Know that he is a ghost, and not a person.
