Volume 1 Chapter 28 Taoist Shop
Although the camera screen is not very big, you can clearly see a woman in white pushing the back of a car with her hands. It's Yaxue!
Seeing our shocked expressions, the bespectacled reporter immediately changed the picture to the next one, which was a picture of Yaxue pushing the car out with all her strength. She looked up and saw a refrigerator falling from above, about to hit the front of the car. Because the car and Yaxue took up most of the picture, only a dark shadow on the edge of the front of the car could be seen, which was probably me.
I took a deep breath. It turned out that my narrow escape yesterday was not a coincidence. It was Yaxue who saved my life. She pushed a slow car to the front and knocked me away, thus saving me from a fatal disaster.
Shen Bing pointed at the camera, her mouth wide open as if she had swallowed an unpeeled egg, choking for a long time and unable to speak. Finally, she came to her senses and said, "Is she a human or a ghost?"
Fortunately, when she spoke, the reporter with glasses was collecting his camera and didn't see it. I whispered in her ear that this was Yaxue, and she immediately shuddered.
The bespectacled reporter remembered Shen Bing's resurrection last night and kept asking me about it. I winked at Shen Bing, and she covered her mouth. I spoke first: "Reporter Zhang, where did you get this news? It's all a rumor. If you don't believe it, come back to life and let me see."
The reporter with glasses was speechless and walked away in shame.
I gave her a thumbs up and praised her for her good answer. She said in a low voice with pride: "To deal with reporters, you have to say some harsh words, otherwise it will be difficult to get away if you keep pestering them." I blinked and thought to myself that you are more persistent than him, but the eight-foot-high lamp can only shine on others but not on yourself.
We asked around among the crowd and found many enthusiastic grandmothers and mothers who were eloquent and answered all your questions. Otherwise, why would we call them grandmothers and mothers? What they said was a bit off topic, but we finally understood. The fire last night was terrible. Before the fire truck arrived, the whole yard was basically burned. The firefighters carried two burned people out of the fire, but we couldn't see who they were.
I also asked the neighbors who knew the Ling family's security guard and nanny, and found out their facial features, so I had a rough idea of what was going on. When I asked about Yaxue's mother Yan Ning's current situation, someone said that she was not seriously injured and was discharged from the hospital this morning. She is now in the funeral home. I heard that Director Ling's body will be cremated tomorrow morning.
Why are they in such a hurry to cremate? I was puzzled. According to the custom in our town, the body should be kept for three to seven days, and children are another matter. According to the time of Ling Peiqiang's death, last night was the first day, and tomorrow is the third day. Although the time is shorter in the city, it is normal to keep the body for three days, but he is not an ordinary person. There must be many relatives and friends who will pay their respects, and it will not be hastily finished in three days.
Shen Bing asked me if I had received any information, and I said not yet, but I had actually gotten what I wanted. She asked me where I was going next, it was four o'clock in the afternoon, and there were still seven hours until midnight, should I go for coffee or the gym?
I touched my nose and said, "I'm not as carefree as you city people. I'm not used to drinking coffee, and I'm not used to paying people for my work, unless it's that kind of place..."
Shen Bing pushed my hand away and said, "Don't touch my nose casually! What kind of place is that?"
I coughed dryly a few times and hurried back to the car. You know what kind of place that is. This time, she saw that I looked strange and didn't ask any questions. Maybe she couldn't get anything out of me today and became obedient. After getting in the car, I said let's go to the funeral home. She stared at me and was about to speak. I put my index finger on my lips. She swallowed the question abruptly, and her expression was very funny.
The funeral parlor is in the eastern suburbs of the city. Just as I was leaving the city, I saw a shop called "Taoist Culture" on the roadside. I thought it must be opened by a fortune teller. Sure enough, I asked Shen Bing to drive the car to the door. On the sign were small words such as fortune telling, feng shui, talisman, and naming. Because such shops now go to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau to apply for business licenses, who dares to call themselves ghost hunting shops? If you call them something culture, there will be no problem.
I went to the store mainly to buy things like yellow talismans, red ropes, and Bagua mirrors. My bag was in the old house last night, and it must have been taken to the police station along with the "corpse". There's no way to get it back now, and I happened to come across this store, so I have to prepare self-defense items. I'm going to do the soul-changing spell tonight, and I can't do it without the stuff, and besides, I want to use it at the funeral home.
There was a 60-year-old man sitting at the counter, dozing off with his eyes closed. When he heard someone come in, he opened his eyes and looked at me, then closed them again. The store was quite well stocked, with basically everything I wanted to buy. Shen Bing whispered in my ear that this old man was one of the eight psychic masters that the police station often hired, and his name was Tan Qing, and he was also quite capable.
I thought to myself that it was no wonder. It was impossible for a general cheater to have such a complete set of Taoist items. Their purpose was just to cheat people out of money. It was good enough to have a few yellow talismans. I woke the old man up and asked Shen Bing to stand in front and ask the price of the items I selected one by one.
At first, Tan Qing was listless and perfunctory, and the price he asked was very high, it was simply outrageous. When I mentioned that I wanted to wear a soul bead, he became energetic, and his two little eyes flashed as he looked us up and down, and he recognized Shen Bing at once.
"Oh, Officer Shen, why are you visiting my shop?" Although he still looked arrogant when he spoke, he was much more polite than Minister Yan.
I smiled and poked Shen Bing. She covered her mouth and said, "Let's just stroll around when we have nothing to do." I almost fainted. We wanted so many things, how could we just stroll around when we have nothing to do?
Tan Qing smiled piercingly, staring at us and saying, "This Soul Piercing Orb has been in our store for eighteen years and has not been sold. It is the only one of its kind. What do you want it for?"
This old man is indeed a powerful character, he knows the function of the soul-piercing bead, which is a must-have for the soul-changing technique. I covered my mouth and coughed lightly, Shen Bing quickly opened her mouth, and I said, "A friend of mine wants to use it, and he wants to lose his soul." "Losing soul" is a term in our industry, which means changing souls.
"I'm afraid it's you two who have lost their souls?" he said with a smile.
I couldn't hide it anymore. This old man had a very sharp eye. Besides, I felt that he had no ill intentions, so I might as well tell the truth. I stopped trying to hide it and simply told him the truth.
His face darkened and he asked me, "Young man, are you new to the industry?"
I nodded. When it comes to ghost stories, I have three years of experience, but when it comes to Taoist rituals, I am still a green hand.
"From what you said, you seem to be an knowledgeable person. However, do you know that losing souls not only requires time, but also the environment?" Tan Qing said slowly.
I nodded and said, "I know. During the midnight hour, choose a place with strong yin and extremely strong evil, surround it with clear water, tie a red string through the soul bead, and each of you bite one end of the red string, and recite the soul-changing spell."
Tan Qing looked up at the door and said, "Did you choose the funeral home?"
Nothing can be hidden from this old man's discerning eyes. I have indeed chosen this place. The so-called place of extreme evil and yin is a place where ghosts flourish. It is a strict requirement for losing souls. When the yang energy is strong, it will affect the souls that pass through the body. Such places are either funeral homes or crematoriums. I nodded.
"That makes sense. Did you ask Master Yan Xiang to preside over the ritual for you?" Tan Qing continued to ask. This old man has so many problems, even more troublesome than Shen Bing. Isn't it just to buy you a soul-piercing bead? It's like he's trying a case.
I thought that the Ling family was setting up a mourning hall in the funeral home, and they might have invited Yan Xiang to perform the ritual, so the old man thought I was asking him to help me get rid of my soul. I shook my head and said, "No, I think I can handle this myself."
Tan Qing suddenly slammed the table and said angrily: "Stop fooling around. I knew you wanted to do it by yourself. This kind of thing must be presided over by an expert with profound Taoism skills. Otherwise, when the soul is traveling through time and space, your soul will be outside. Who will help you return to life?" This old man has a bad temper.
When I heard this, I broke out in a cold sweat. He was right. I really overlooked this point!
