A Good-for-Nothing

213. People’s Lives (I)

Translator: Dragon Rider

In the police station.

The coroner in the mortuary was the same one that they’d met previously. Seeing He Zheng and the other two coming, he greeted them like an old friend.

Walking into this mortuary once again, He Zheng wasn’t feeling any fear, but it did strike him that visiting this place so often wasn’t really a good thing.

Chen Qianlin stayed in the doorway, what with his belief that mortuaries were “dirty” and filled with air of death and might have some kind of negative influence on people following the Chen family’s cultivation method.

He Zheng acidly called him a wimp and then went inside with Zu Zhichong who’d never had misgivings of this kind.

Predictably, this time around, He Zheng saw faint, black gas once again as he scrutinized Feng Ma’s body from close quarters.

Zu Zhichong, who was not as much in favor with his master as He Zheng was with Xuanqing, hadn’t had the luck to have his Divine Eye opened by his master, so he was unable to see the black gas, but he could tell from He Zheng’s facial expression what he was seeing exactly.

“Tun Shanhai is more experienced in dealing with this kind of things. On that day he said that your Divine Eye could only see demonic Qi left by a low-level demon at the most, so I think this is a Demon’s Attendant’s doing.” With his chin resting on his hand, Zu Zhichong walked around Feng Ma’s body.

There was no visible wound on the corpse except for the bruises on the forehead caused by the impact during the car accident, and the autopsy report suggested that the possibility of poisoning could be safely ruled out, so they could hardly be mistaken about the cause of Feng Ma’s death.

The air temperature in the mortuary was rather low and it was very uncomfortable to stay in it for long. Therefore, after another few moments, believing that they’d got almost all the information they needed, the two of them took their leave.

They didn’t know when, but Luo Zhou had arrived and was waiting for them outside the door. He had given Chen Qianlin some documents, which the latter was reading. Hearing the door open, Chen Qianlin raised his head from the documents and saw He Zheng nod at him.

This was an assignment, so the two of them naturally were taking this seriously, for they would definitely be given some points if they succeeded in cracking this case. As though something had just occurred to him, Chen Qianlin asked with a quizzical look on his face, “Was the time of Feng Ma’s death when the car accident happened?”

“The autopsy report certainly suggested so. We also checked the footage from a roadside security camera. It showed that Feng Ma was still driving the car in a normal way half an hour before the accident.”

He Zheng curled his lip, feeling that that footage didn’t mean anything, for the Human Devil’s previous deeds had proved that after he killed someone, the victim was still capable of performing a range of tasks in a dead-alive state which might be the same state that Feng Ma had been in.

“The activity indexes of his internal organs displayed in the autopsy report also indicate that he died around the same time the accident happened.”

This remark of Luo Zhou’s brought changes to He Zheng’s and the others’ opinions. They exchanged glances, feeling that this matter was probably not as simple as it seemed, that if it was indeed the car accident that had killed Feng Ma, the autopsy report would by no means have shown nothing backing that up.

Luo Zhou observed, “My colleagues have already started looking into Feng Ma’s social contacts. We could expect to see the results in just a day or two.”

While they were talking, a young cop knocked at the door. The four of them looked in that direction at the same time. The cop said, “Chief, Wang Jian brought someone here to file a report. The guy claimed to have had a supernatural encounter.”

“Wang Jian?”

Luo Zhou silently gave it some thought and then replied, “Okay, I’ll go and handle it. Lead the way.”

He flicked a glance at Chen Qianlin and He Zheng. Zu Zhichong, who was also rather bewildered as to what that meant, said, “We’ll go with you. I’ll have my colleague fax you scanned copies of Chen Qianlin’s and He Zheng’s credentials.”

Staff members of the Supernaturalism Management Bureau (SMB) needed to show the police certain official authorizations as well as their credentials if they wanted to involve themselves in a case the police were dealing with, which was a precaution against abuse of power.

“Let’s go.”

Wang Jian was not above suspicion yet, so after Luo Zhou said that he would handle it, the young cop brought Wang Jian and Chen Xi to a special room and told them to wait in it.

Wang Jian, whose years of being a talent scout had rendered him rather talkative and unable to sit quietly in a room for long, had been chattering to the young policeman outside the room all along, making his listener feel rather awkward.

“Chief!” The young cop’s eyes brightened as he sighted Luo Zhou. Appearing so relieved as though he could have shed tears of joy, he hurriedly said, “Ahem, there’s something I need to attend to, Chief. I have to go there right now.”

The young cop trotted off like the wind before he finished the sentence.

“Hey, what’s the hurry? There’s more to the story.”

“That’s enough, Wang Jian. What is it that you want to file a report for?” said Wang Jian, tapping the table with a pen.

Chen Xi skeptically looked at Luo Zhou and the couple of men behind him. When his eyes fell on Chen Qianlin and He Zheng, he was noticeably astonished. If it weren’t for the fact that this place was a police station, Chen Xi would have started wondering what these two guys wearing designer clothes and shoes instead of uniform had come here for. Having an inkling that something was not quite right, he cautiously called Wang Jian’s name. “Uh, Brother Jian?”

Luo Zhou, sitting in an office chair opposite them with a folder in his hand, tossed He Zheng and Chen Qianlin a glance and felt a shade embarrassed, for these two guys indeed didn’t seem like cops. He said, “This couple of gentlemen here are my colleagues.”

With a dubious face, Chen Xi twitched his arms somewhat uncomfortably.

“It surprises me that you two hotties are actually police officers,” Wang Jian remarked with a sigh.

“Not me. Him.” Wang Jian pointed at Chen Xi who was behind him. “This trainee of mine had a paranormal encounter.”

“Oh?” Luo Zhou wrote something down on a notebook with his pen and then lifted his eyes to throw Chen Xi a glance. “Give me the details.”