Chapter 46: Drinking Alone
Xiao Pang insisted that he had been in the studio and had not come out. I had no choice, but when Lin Yuxi and I returned, we called him and took things. If he was really there, how could he not hear it? It was obvious that this kid had been dealt with by one of the little guys before, and he was probably hiding in the opposite room.
This matter is not important, there is no need to figure it out. I took a few breaths and looked at the dead bodies on the ground and started to worry. Four people died tonight, and we still have to go to every scene. Even if the shoe prints and fingerprints are wiped clean, I have seen on TV that police dogs can smell the smell and finally catch the real murderer and bring him to justice. But the person my uncle touched the bones is not the real murderer. I am a bystander. If I am caught by the police dog, I can't wash myself clean even if I jump into the Yellow River!
What should I do? I was worrying about this, but Xiao Pang was still interested in looking at the paintings on the easels. The boy suddenly pointed at one of the paintings and said, "Brother Yu, look at this painting. It's so creepy. How come it looks exactly like the two dead people?"
I thought it might be a self-portrait. If a couple painted themselves, wouldn't they look exactly the same? What's the big deal? But I still turned my head to look over there. Suddenly I saw two people in the painting. A woman was lying on the ground with her stomach ruptured and bleeding. The other man was standing there with a paintbrush, painting. His chest was also covered in blood. I almost popped my eyes out of my head and quickly ran over to take a closer look at the painting.
The paint on it had dried long ago, and it looked like it was painted by the studio owner before he died, but how could they have predicted that they would die in this way? Could they have special abilities to predict the future? I pondered for a while and realized that it was not that they had special abilities, but that the little ghost followed Xiao Jing here and listed them as targets to be killed. From the unfinished picture of Xiao Jing's conception, we can see something, but this also shows that the death of the studio owner was not accidental.
It seemed that the couple, like Xiao Jing, were haunted by the little ghost. And the way they died was really horrible, as if the baby ghost had some deep hatred with them. But they were both dead, and the little cub might not speak human language even if he was caught. I'm afraid the truth will never be solved.
I waved to Xiao Pang and moved away from the painting. Xiao Pang asked me what happened in the opposite room, so I briefly told him the situation. The boy was shocked and shuddered. While I was talking, I heard the iron door open. I thought it was Lin Yuxi, but I saw Su Chengda in a white suit walking into the room.
He first looked sideways at the two dead bodies on the ground, only slightly moved, and then his face became very calm. This made me look at this kid with new eyes. He was calm and composed. He was definitely a character. But Lin Yuxi didn't come over. He came to see us by himself. What did that mean? What did Lin Yuxi tell him? I didn't know how to open my mouth when facing this person.
Su Chengda spoke first: "Mr. Ding, Xiaochen has told me everything. Thank you for your help with what happened tonight. Please leave here as soon as possible, because the police will be here soon, and we don't want you to be involved in this matter."
I nodded. Su Chengda was very thoughtful. I didn't say any more. Some things tend to get worse the more I explain them. So I picked up the ghost-sealing cylinder and asked him as I walked out, "How is Xiaoxi now? There's a corpse in her room. You guys..."
Before she could finish her words, he interrupted her: "I have hired someone else, so don't bother with these matters, Mr. Ding. If you want to do good for Xiaochen, don't ask anything and leave here quickly." After saying that, he turned around and walked out of the room first.
I walked out of the iron fence and looked across the hallway as I went downstairs. The lights in the hallway were dim and it was so quiet that I couldn't hear any sound. I didn't know what was going on with Lin Yuxi. Since her boyfriend said I didn't need to worry about it, I shouldn't meddle in her business, lest Su Chengda misunderstand what I was up to.
I said goodbye to Su Chengda and hurried downstairs with Xiaopang. The hot pot restaurant downstairs was still open and bustling. Thinking back to the terrifying moment upstairs, it was like two worlds upstairs and downstairs, one was hell and the other was heaven. But the irony was that hell was upstairs and heaven was downstairs.
In order to avoid the police car that was about to arrive, we took a taxi back to our residence and bought some snacks and white wine downstairs. It was already past midnight when we went upstairs. We simply washed our faces and changed our clothes. Xiaopang went to prepare the food and wine, and I poured out some white wine to soak glutinous rice, which was used to treat the ghost poison. Then I burned a cleansing talisman and mixed it into talisman water to drink, to suppress the poison first. Then we sat on both sides of the small table and drank.
When Xiaopang heard that Xiaojing had died, he was very depressed. He usually kept talking when drinking, but now he was silent and drank alone. I was also absent-minded. I kept thinking, why didn't Lin Yuxi come with her boyfriend? We have made it clear that we have nothing to do with each other, so what is there to be afraid of? If nothing else, you should see me off when I leave, right? There is also a corpse-carrying sedan chair in the house, and people are not allowed to enter. Did something happen to Lin Yuxi?
Thinking of this, I wanted to call her to ask about this, but when I felt in my pockets and bag, my phone was gone. Suddenly I remembered that I had left it on the floor of the studio and forgot to pick it up. I didn't care about the phone worth hundreds of dollars, but with this worry, I felt even more upset.
After thinking for a long time, I felt that when Su Chengda spoke to me again, he was calm and composed, which meant that Lin Yuxi was fine, and I couldn't always think the worst. After I relaxed a little, I remembered that two people had died in her house and the tragedy in the studio. Xiaopang and I got away, but she couldn't get away with it anyway. Could it be that she didn't come to see us because she wanted to take the case on her own and didn't want to talk about it in person?
As both of them had something on their mind, they got drunk while drinking. Xiaopang actually started crying, covering his face and sobbing, saying that he had liked Xiaojing since he was a child and had been secretly in love with her for more than ten years. Although he didn't have the intention to marry her, he felt very sad that his sweetheart had died like this.
I tried to persuade him, and thought of Lin Yuxi. Am I also secretly in love with her? Actually, my situation is similar to that of Xiaopang. I just think about it in my heart and don't expect anything else . It's already a happy thing to hear her scold me as a little hooligan. What else can I expect?
But I always feel that after this meeting, I may never see her again. I still have a lot to say to her, including the matter of the poisonous tongue curse, but I haven't had the chance to ask her clearly yet.
Xiao Pang refused to listen and kept crying, which made me angry. I kicked him to the ground and yelled, "Are you a man or a woman? A real man doesn't cry easily. He keeps all his worries and sorrows in his heart. You are nothing like a loser. You can't stop crying once you start."
Because we were both drunk, Xiaopang was angry and had nowhere to vent, so he got up and knocked me down, and we started playing ping-pong. I remember the beginning, we were drinking and playing, but then I completely forgot about it. I have no memory of how it ended.
