Chapter One Hundred One: Liang Daoyi

In a dim room, black talismans had been pasted across all four walls.

They were spirit-quelling charms; with such talismans in place, ghosts could no longer pass through walls.

The azure gourd was opened, and a wisp of blue smoke drifted out. After a brief spell of confusion, Tang Xiaoyu made out her surroundings and immediately grew anxious.

Of course she remembered how a middle-aged man had suddenly seized her and taken her away.

This pitch-black room frightened her.

Hiss, hiss.

All at once, the sound of a snake flicking its tongue echoed through the room.

Following the faint yellow light, Tang Xiaoyu looked over and saw, in the corner, countless venomous snakes. Their eyes were cold as they stared at her and slowly crawled in her direction.

“Snakes, snakes!”

Terrified to the point of pallor, Tang Xiaoyu tried to flee, tried to phase through the wall.

The moment she rushed forward, the black talismans flared with a dim glow. With a dull thud, she smashed into the wall and tumbled to the floor.

“Ow...”

Tang Xiaoyu clutched her forehead. By then, the poisonous snakes had already inched closer to her.

“Don’t come near me, don’t come near me.”

“Li Changqing, help me! Help!”

Tang Xiaoyu cried out helplessly. Even she did not understand why, when she was clearly a ghost, she should be afraid of snakes.

But fear was born in the bones. She wanted to be brave too, yet when she saw those snakes, she was truly afraid.

“Ha ha, so it really is an unusual little coward.”

The room door opened, and the middle-aged man stepped inside. The poisonous snakes slowly crawled toward him, up along his legs, and onto his body.

A whole mass of venomous snakes hung upon the middle-aged man.

“You, who are you exactly?” Seeing this, Tang Xiaoyu forced herself to gather courage. She clenched her fists and drew a deep breath. “I’ll fight you!”

Suddenly, the middle-aged man flicked out a snake-like tongue. Looking closely, his pupils were actually snake pupils.

At the sight of this, Tang Xiaoyu backed away again and again in terror.

“A rare little coward indeed, ha ha.”

The middle-aged man gave a shake, and several venomous snakes were flung onto Tang Xiaoyu.

A sharp scream rang out.

Though the snakes did not bite her, Tang Xiaoyu was frightened so badly that she fainted on the spot.

“She fainted from that much?” The middle-aged man shook his head in disappointment. At that moment, another bald man entered from outside.

“This female ghost has no courage. Don’t scare her to the point her soul scatters, or that Li Changqing may not help us draw out the other fellow when the time comes.”

“So what? We never intended to let this female ghost or that detective leave alive anyway.”

...

“Ah.”

Li Changqing shot up from bed, gasping for breath, drenched in cold sweat.

He had dreamed of Tang Xiaoyu wrapped in a mass of venomous snakes, crying out to him for help.

The sheets were soaked through with his sweat.

“A dream?”

Li Changqing wiped the sweat from his body and gritted his teeth. Even if it had been a dream, Tang Xiaoyu was likely already terrified half to death.

He clenched his fists, and a fire seemed to burn in his eyes.

After a quick shower, he changed into his trench coat and picked up his cane.

When he put on his felt hat, he hesitated for a moment. With Tang Xiaoyu absent, something felt missing.

He left at once. The previous night, he had already contacted the client.

Yet over the phone, the client had refused to say a word, insisting only on meeting at the agreed location.

The meeting place was set at North City Park, and Li Changqing took a taxi there.

Only after getting in did he realize the driver was none other than Hu Xiong.

Hu Xiong had already done a bit of makeup and even pasted on a mustache. Unless one looked closely, it would have been hard to recognize him.

“You, driving?” Li Changqing blinked.

Hu Xiong stroked his twin mustaches and smiled. “How about it? Pretty hard to tell, isn’t it?”

As someone raised from childhood by Bureau Thirty-Six, Hu Xiong had some skill in disguise.

He drove with care and said, “Bai Chuan told me about what happened yesterday. That fellow isn’t exactly good at hiding in the dark. If you need someone to fight, he’s fine, but when it comes to protecting people covertly, he’s far worse than I am.”

“We checked the number you gave us yesterday. It’s a newly issued card, so we couldn’t determine the owner’s identity.”

“As for the specifics, you’ll have to meet that person before we know what’s really going on.”

“This is the phone-tracking device.” Hu Xiong pointed to a bag on the back seat. “Take it with you. The next time you speak to the other side, turn it on. We can monitor the call remotely and try to locate where they are.”

Hu Xiong laughed with obvious pride. “I specially went to the Federal Police Bureau last night and snagged this device. Ha ha, professional enough for you?”

Li Changqing nodded.

Before long, they reached the entrance of North City Park.

Hu Xiong even made a show of collecting the fare, seeing the performance through to the end.

Li Changqing got out and walked into North City Park.

It was his first time here. The air was fresh, and the woods covered a vast area.

The meeting had been arranged here precisely because the forest stretched everywhere, making it difficult for anyone to tail them.

Tiny paths crisscrossed through the woods, tangled and complex.

Soon, along a stone path, he arrived at the secluded pavilion where they had agreed to meet.

Dead leaves covered the ground around it, and aside from the occasional call of birds, the place was very quiet.

Stepping over the leaves, a man appeared from one side of the pavilion. He wore a brown vest, light jeans, and a rough beard stubble. His gaze was wary as he kept scanning the surroundings before entering the pavilion.

“You must be Detective Li?”

The man spoke tentatively. “My name is Liang Daoyi.”

He appeared to be about thirty-two, with bandages wrapped around the left side of his body, clearly injured. He slowly sat down on the stone bench inside the pavilion, looking somewhat tense.

Li Changqing frowned slightly and took the seat opposite him.

“Mr. Liang, what exactly is the matter? What kind of commission do you have for me?”

“I’m a reporter for South New News Agency. Our company president is not human—he’s a demon!”

“I discovered their secret, and I also found out they were secretly buying large quantities of high-yield explosives. It seems they’re planning something.”

“But they found out about me. They want to kill me to silence me,” Liang Daoyi said anxiously. “You know all about strange incidents, and you’ve solved more than a few of them. I had nowhere else to turn, so I had to come to you for help.”

Li Changqing frowned. South New News Agency was the leading press group in Nanlin City, with both a morning and evening paper under its banner; it was no small operation.

“What use am I? Why not contact Bureau Thirty-Six directly?”

Liang Daoyi was taken aback. “Bureau Thirty-Six?”

Li Changqing slapped a hand to his forehead. Right—Bureau Thirty-Six was very unfamiliar to ordinary people. It made sense that Liang Daoyi had never heard of it.

“Then why not contact the Federal Police? Wouldn’t that be more useful than me?”

Liang Daoyi shook his head and explained, “Even if I went to the Federal Police Bureau, at most they would send a few officers to protect me. I can’t be sure they’d be able to guarantee my safety.”