Chapter 107: The Bleeding Wall (1/2)

What I just did was recite a Song family mantra. I didn’t know what it meant or how it worked exactly, but it was something that Grandpa taught me. A Traditional Coroner had to deal with death a lot after all, and we often stumbled upon unclean and evil spirits while doing our job. Thus, Grandpa armed me with this mantra.

With the disappearance of the ghost, the crisis was averted for the time being. Dali stopped bouncing the ball and returned to normal. Xiaotao yelled at Dali and asked what had gotten into him and why he scared her like that. Dali explained what he saw to her, causing Xiaotao to freeze in fear.

“D-Did that ghost really hold a knife against my neck?” she asked.

“There’s no reason to be scared,” I assured her. “There’s no way a ghost could do you any harm!”

“But ghosts can attack our souls directly and kill us without spilling our blood!” Dali argued. “It’s like when you’re walking down the street and then suddenly you feel a chill down your spine—it means a ghost just passed through you. It can pull out your soul from your body and possess you!”

“I don’t believe any of that is possible,” I countered. “If ghosts can kill people so easily, then what’s the point of having the police investigate murders at all?”

“That’s right!” nodded Xiaotao.

But even so, it was now evident that the mansion really was haunted, so I suggested that we all should go upstairs and stay close together for the rest of the night. That way our Yang energy would be focused in one place and ward off the spirits that might roam around here from approaching us again.

After staying upstairs for a while, Dali suddenly said, “Um, dude… I need to take a dump.”

“How do you have so much shit in you?!” I snapped.

“I didn’t get to take a shit last time because that freaking ghost hand grabbed my ass, remember?”

“Ugh. Just hold it in for a while, won’t you?”

A few minutes after that, Xiaotao said she needed to go to the toilet. I told her I’d accompany her there.

“You’re clearly being unfair, dude!” cried Dali.

“Xiaotao is a woman. Of course I have to be more concerned about her safety!”

Considering what just happened earlier, I decided the best thing we should do was to relieve ourselves outside the mansion. The overgrown bushes outside were waist-high anyway. So we all went out of the mansion and both Xiaotao and Dali immediately disappeared into the bushes to do their business. I myself found a quiet spot to urinate too.

Once I was done, I suddenly noticed a black SUV parked across the road. There were no other houses around here, nor were there any shops or commercial buildings. Who would park their car at an isolated place like this? Could it be a couple of lovers getting frisky in their car?

However, since we were at a murder scene, I thought it would be best to err on the side of caution. When Xiaotao was done, I told her, “That car looks suspicious. Let’s go check it out.”

“Right!”

But just as we were approaching it, the engine of the car suddenly started. Xiaotao rushed forward and shouted, “Freeze! Police!”

The car quickly drove away. Xiaotao pulled out her gun and fired it at the car, creating a spark as the shot hit it.

“Why did you shoot the car?” I asked in confusion.

“It’s just a blank!” she explained. “The car had no license plate, so it would almost be impossible to track it down. But now it’s easier since I left a mark on it!”

She then pulled out her phone and called the officers at the police station to check every auto repair shop in the city and detain every owner of a black SUV that had a bullet hole in it. The first shot of the police gun was always a blank for safety reasons, but the impact was still strong enough to put a hole through a car. Xiaotao might have just violated a rule by shooting just now, but if she hadn’t done that, we would’ve never found out who the car belonged to. Desperate times called for desperate measures!

I praised Xiaotao’s quick thinking. She smugly blew the smoke off the gun and said, “It’s the wisdom I gained from being on the battlefield.”

We then turned around to return to the mansion. I shouted Dali’s name into the bushes but heard no response. I waded through the overgrown weeds and fallen tree branches to find him, but only saw a pile of fresh poop. At that moment, Dali’s scream was heard inside the house. Xiaotao and I exchanged a look. That bastard! We merely left him alone for a few minutes and he already managed to get into trouble!

We rushed back upstairs. In the dark hallway, I caught a glimpse of a dark figure flitting about from room to room.

“Song Yang, look!” cried Xiaotao, holding onto my shoulder tightly. “Someone is crawling on the floor!”

Sure enough, we saw the figure of a man climbing slowly out of a room. It turned out to be Dali. He was soaked in sweat and was looking around him fearfully. He looked as if he didn’t see us and just crawled all the way to the end of the hallway where the bathroom was.

“What the hell are you doing now, idiot?” I shouted while I was catching up to him. He was crawling really fast on the floor, and this scared me considerably. Finally, when he reached the bathroom, he took off his shirt and soaked it in the toilet bowl water. Then he squeezed out the excess water and wrapped the wet shirt around his head.

I kicked him in his ass which made his head slam into the toilet bowl. He turned his head around and was surprised to see me there.

“Dude! Get down! This house is on fire!”

“What are you talking about? What fire?”