Thriller Night Talk

Chapter 119: What is the identity of the deceased?

Translator-Rhapsodite

Editor- Koneko, Proofreader-Ghostie

Friday, August 6, at 7:32 am.

Despite his claim that “the memories of the past events have been left behind”, Jiang Nan’an had not been able to break through the hustle and bustle of secular life in this world– his heart still couldn’t let go of his ex-girlfriend, and after learning about Su Lan’s situation, he spent the rest of the night in restlessness and almost didn’t sleep all night.

Finally, Zhu Ling sent them information about Cai Mingjian and Su Lan.

Fortunately, at least until now, the two were alive.

Bei Quan, Wei Fuyuan, and Jiang Nan’an brought their breakfast to the study, eating whilst they looked through the information presented to them.

As “Ah Jian” had said on the phone, the two people involved were a newlywed couple who had just received their certificates.

The two studied in the same university, which was the relationship between the senior and the junior. The man was a native of Fèng Xīngchéng City, while the woman stayed in the city after graduation.

Cai Mingjian’s family situation was a positive one– one of his parents is an engineer and the other works as a teacher. They both have some social status and are generally well respected. Presumably, his educational life was also quite strict, with his school record from childhood to adulthood showing ‘excellent’ in every aspect.

However, Cai Mingjian’s appearance was ordinary, average at best. He doesn’t exactly match the word “handsome”. At most, you could say that he looks like a simple and honest man who doesn’t take his own aesthetics too seriously. There was also a chance that his hairline would recede before he reached his 30s. In the photos shown to the trio, he looked older than his actual age.

On the other hand, Su Lan was born into a well-off family as the youngest sibling. Her hometown was in a small town 300 kilometres away.

As the trio poured through the information that Zhu Ling had collected, there were many photos and documents, including standard ID photos of three courts and five eyes, and some general personal photos uploaded by Su Lan herself in social media.

The girl in the photo had small eyebrows and big eyes, and oozed a pretty and delicate charm. She was not the most beautiful, but the “class flower” label was indeed justified.

Bei Quan pulled out a photo of Su Lan’s college graduation, and sure enough, in the corner, he spotted Comrade Xiao Jiang, who appeared awkward and didn’t look directly into the camera.

He smiled in understanding and looked at Jiang Nan’an with a bleary expression, then sighed to himself, and said,

“Cai Mingjian and Su Lan are not in Fèng Xīngchéng right now.”

“Ah!?”

Jiang Nan’an suddenly came back to his senses and drew his eyes away from the table full of photos, “What do you mean?”

“Here, look at this.”

Bei Quan slid out one of the pages from the folder, which showed that two high-speed train tickets had been purchased, “Last week they went back to Su Lan’s hometown.”

“Oh ……”

Jiang Nan’an slowly nodded his head, humming to himself as he pondered.

People always want to return to the place that gives them the most security when they encounter sudden changes or distress, and he was sure that Su Lan felt the same.

“Well, it’s not too late.”

After quickly going through the documents and photos to make sure that no information had been missed, Bei Quan layered up the sheets of various papers that were scattered all over the table, and placed them back into the folder and then into the kraft paper bag. Then he proceeded to hand the bag to Jiang Nan’an who was staring at him.

“Let’s take a ride over and see the current status of Cai Mingjian and Su Lan today.”

Wei Fuyuan had no objection to this, and Jiang Nan’an was eager to leave as soon as possible.

The three quickly booked tickets for the nearest high-speed train, and went back to pack their bags.

However, just as they had gathered at “Sāntúchuān” and were ready to leave for the railway station, Bei Quan’s 100-year-old Nokia brick suddenly rang.

——Unexpectedly, someone was calling Bei Quan!

Young Master Wei was a very curious being, and stretched out his neck to try and take a peek at the caller details. The small blue screen did not show either the name or the number, and seemed to be a scam call.

Bei Quan immediately connected to the call without saying a word.

A thick, male voice came across faintly from inside the phone. Wei Fuyuan felt that the voice sounded somewhat familiar, but even when he continued to listen with his ears cocked, he was unable to hear what the other party had said.

“It’s me.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

“I see.”

Bei Quan’s replies were simple and to the point, not allowing any details to escape his lips.

Wei Fuyuan knew Bei Quan well by now, and just from looking at the half-serious expression presented without a smile, he could only guess that the matter spoken on the phone must be very important which even his lover’s found difficult and unsettling.

Bei Quan didn’t talk to the caller for long, and after about two minutes, he hung up the phone.

“A slight change of plans…”

Bei Quan turned his head and spoke in a serious tone to both his assistants.

“I need to go somewhere else first, so I won’t be going to T City.”

“What!?”

Wei Fuyuan and Jiang Nan’an both shouted in unison.

“In forty-five minutes the high-speed train will leave, and now you’re saying you’re not going?!”

Jiang Nan’an simply wanted to grab Bei Quan and stuff him into the high-speed train.

“Besides, it’s not like you don’t know the situation of Xiao Lan. Every day, she is living her life in danger, and if something happens to her then…I, I…”

He originally wanted to say “then what would I do”, but then realised that he had no relationship with the girl anymore. The relationship was over, and he managed to change his words halfway through the sentence,

“Then I would be too sorry for her!”

“You’re right, whether it’s Su Lan or the Hui Gui, we can’t just leave it alone.”

Bei Quan patted Jiang Nan’an on the shoulder and motioned for him not to worry, “Look, I just said that I’m not going to T City. As for you guys, you still have to follow the original plan and find Cai Mingjian and Su Lan.”

Jiang Nan’an froze, not being able to react to what Bei Quan had just said.

Wei Fuyuan already realized the seriousness of the problem beforehand, and pouted like a big dog who was already missing his owner when Bei Quan broke the news.

“You’re not coming with us?”

He grabbed Bei Quan, “Is it because of that phone call just now? What’s happened? Where are you going? Will it be dangerous?”

Without waiting for Bei Quan to answer, Wei Fuyuan vetoed first, “No, your injury is not fully healed yet! It’s too dangerous for you to go alone! Absolutely not! I object! At least take me with you!”

Bei Quan reached back to hug Wei Fuyuan and soothingly rubbed his back.

“Don’t worry, I’m not the only one going.”

Bei Quan explained.

“The people of ‘Special Seven Field Service’ will act and protect me.”

He tilted his head before he leant forward and gave Wei Fuyuan a quick peck on the lips.

“And it’s not a dangerous mission, it’s just to investigate something.”

Wei Fuyuan knitted his eyebrows.

“Then can’t it wait until we get back so we can go together?”

He turned his head and looked at Jiang Nan’an, who was still confused, and curled his lips up in disdain, “Or can’t Xiao Jiang go to T City by himself and then I can accompany you?”

Bei Quan laughed.

He had already mastered the job of smoothing the hair of his large dog with ease.

“I’m just afraid that Xiao Jiang can’t do it alone.”

He came up to Wei Fuyuan’s ear and whispered.

“You are a senior, you are more experienced than him. With you accompanying him, I can be rest assured.”

Wei Fuyuan was really flattered by this sentence, and gulped loudly, his ears reddening.

“Then …… okay ……”

He indignantly lowered his head and nibbled fiercely on Bei Quan’s lips, “Can you guarantee that you will not be in danger?”

“What danger will there be?”

Bei Quan licked the edge of his raw lips and replied with a smile, “I’m afraid you’ll be the ones in danger when dealing with the Hui Gui.”

“Then can I call you?”

Wei Fuyuan thought for a moment and pulled out his own cell phone from his pocket.

“If we encounter any problems, you will have to give us remote support, right?”

Bei Quan certainly had no reason to disagree with this.

He said yes, but in his heart, he was thinking– “I’m afraid I will be in a place where China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom don’t have coverage..”

“All right.”

Only then did Wei Fuyuan reluctantly let his grasp go of Bei Quan.

“So, Jiang Nan’an and I will go to T City first, to take care of the Hui Gui.”

Jiang Nan’an, who remained on the sidelines: “……”

——Why didn’t anyone ask my opinion this whole time?!

————————–

Bei Quan of course did not leave the two novices straight away.

He gave them the Lost God Banner that must be used to seal the ghost, and the tube containing the Guan Hu Su Ying. He told them to be careful in everything they did and not to be impulsive, before sending them to the high-speed railway towards T City.

He then turned back to the “Sāntúchuān”, where the car of “Special Seven Field Service” was waiting for him.

Bei Quan opened the car door and got into the back seat.

There were two people in the car, a man and a woman.

The man driving the car was the bearded man whom Bei Quan had seen twice. He didn’t know his real name, only that his code name “Qingzhu”.

In the front passenger seat was a young girl, about the age of a junior high school student, who wore a moon-white buttoned Chinese jacket with a skirt, and had two thick braids. She appeared very much like a boudoir lady from the Republic of China.

The girl’s aura was concise and calm, and her eyes were brownish yellow, very rare for East Asians. When she looked back at Bei Quan, her pupils became olive-shaped for a moment, before turning into the? gaze of some kind of cold-blooded animal.

Bei Quan instantly guessed the identity of the other party.

He smiled tenderly at the girl and said, “Miss Liu.”

The twisted braid girl nodded, sort of acquiescing to Bei Quan’s guess.

The car drove towards the eastern outskirts of the city, the destination was a small military airport that even the locals didn’t know much about.

“A’Liu, tell Bei Quan about it.”

Qingzhu, the man with a beard, spoke to the young girl with braids whilst he drove.

A’Liu nodded.

“Yesterday, a male corpse was found in C City.”

The girl’s voice was soft, enunciating words with a faint air tone as if her body was so weak that she was struggling to even speak.

.

Bei Quan knew that the “Liu” family was born with this accent.

“The body was found in a ravine by a maintenance team that was repairing the road. The local public security conducted a preliminary investigation and found that the corpse should have been dead for more than three days. This was only an approximate estimation as the corpse was exposed to the wilderness, having been ruined by insects and small beasts.”

Bei Quan pursued with a question.

“I heard Qingzhu say on the phone that the body’s condition was ‘strange’……”

“That’s right.”

A’Liu continued.

“The corpse, it was skinned.”

Bei Quan’s eyes widened in surprise.

He should have guessed that the case that alerted the “Special Seven Field Service” would not be a simple one.

He thought about it for a brief moment and then asked, “What is the identity of the deceased?”

“The deceased is a local villager.”

A’Liu replied.

“The family of the deceased said that he was originally working in another location but he hastily took leave to return home as his dad suddenly became seriously ill. They did not expect to lose contact with him halfway– and when he was found again, he was already a corpse.”

“I see…”

Bei Quan inquired again.

“Was there anything special about the villager who was killed?”

A’Liu glanced at Bei Quan in the rearview mirror, upon hearing his question.

“You guessed right.”

The girl replied.

“The eight characters of the deceased are very special.”