Chapter 182 Still Not Switched Back Yet

Old Zhang looked at Zhou Ze with some hesitation,

As if giving his boss a little time to consider and go back on his decision, and also seeking an opportunity for himself.

But seeing the chopsticks still placed near his mouth,

Old Zhang took a slight breath,

And actually opened his mouth.

"Clatter!"

Boss Zhou threw the chopsticks and the beef held by them onto the ground,

Shook his head,

And laughed:

"You really ate it."

Old Zhang breathed a sigh of relief; clearly, he had been very nervous.

Somewhat helpless, it seemed that although Old Zhang had gone out to do a few tasks to resolve vengeful spirit incidents this past year, in reality, his progress in certain specific areas was indeed insufficient.

He was also somewhat gratified that during the year he was in a coma, the others at the bookstore knew how to protect this politically correct figure.

Of course,

Zhou Ze was also clear

That the main reason was still because he had signaled for Old Zhang to eat, and Old Zhang had then opened his mouth.

"These things can't pass your lips. Back then, Old Xu was a bit stimulated; the ghosts invited us to eat, and I didn't dare touch a single chopstick, but Old Xu turned his grief into appetite and ate quite a bit."

If you don't bring up your good friend's embarrassing past, what's the point of having a good friend?

"Oh, really? What did he eat?"

Old Zhang still seemed a little curious.

"It looked like chicken, duck, fish, and meat, but actually, it was all snakes, insects, rats, and ants. That's still considered kind. Anyway, many barbecue stalls now sell snakes, insects, rats, and ants.

Those who don't care, or who really don't have any ingredients lying around, might just find a pile of dung and make you some braised pork; it's not impossible."

As he spoke,

Zhou Ze couldn't help but laugh.

Then, when he had just taken the chopsticks to pick up the meat for Old Zhang,

Was it really:

Come on, open your mouth, I'll feed you shit.

These things were actually just minor interludes. Zhou Ze didn't bother with the chopsticks or the piece of beef on the ground; instead, he personally bent down and stomped hard on the pit that Old Zhang had just dug out.

"Clang..."

There was a very crisp collision sound, like a wooden board with metal pieces underneath being crushed. The surrounding ground also immediately sank down a lot.

The female ghost was stunned on the side. She had only come here to see her grandmother's grave and pick up some money, but she really hadn't expected that there would be something else hidden here.

Zhou Ze had prepared in advance, so he stabilized his figure, but Old Zhang fell directly onto the ground.

When getting up, he supported himself with his hands, paused, and actually felt a wooden tablet.

"This is a spirit tablet, right?"

Old Zhang was still quite knowledgeable. Actually, this wasn't anything special; most Chinese people knew what this was. It was just that with the promotion of more modern ways of commemoration, it was rare to see this kind of wooden tablet in real life except in a few rural ancestral halls.

Zhou Ze took the tablet from Old Zhang's hand.

Old Zhang said as he climbed up, "This tablet looks very new; it shouldn't have been placed for long."

Zhou Ze smiled noncommittally,

Then brought the tablet to his nose and smelled it.

Immediately,

A decaying aura was detected.

"Almost thirty years."

"How is that possible? I just touched it; it's very new."

"Old Zhang."

"Hmm?"

"I know, you're a very excellent criminal policeman."

"Hmm…"

"But this isn't a criminal case. It's a dark and windy night, and this is a desolate graveyard. You've seen fresh, steaming braised beef with potatoes;

Why hasn't your mind switched back yet?"

"I understand."

Old Zhang nodded vigorously.

Zhou Ze took out his phone and turned on the flashlight. Although the moonlight was good tonight, it was still a little difficult to see the words on it completely clearly.

After the phone lit up,

The words on the spirit tablet became clear:

"Xie Lao San"

"Old Zhang, do you know this name?" Zhou Ze asked.

Old Zhang frowned slightly, seemingly thinking. After a while, he shook his head and said, "No impression."

"I… I know."

The female ghost suddenly spoke.

"Tell me about it." Zhou Ze looked at the female ghost.

"That was something that happened thirty years ago. When I was alive and came to my hometown to see my grandmother, I heard my grandmother talking about a person named Xie Lao San. My grandmother was chatting with some of the neighbor aunties in the village at the time.

This Xie Lao San, in life, was a cook, from this village. He should have been the third child in the family, so he was called Xie Lao San.

And at that time, in the countryside, a person's nickname was often remembered, but the person's real name was easily forgotten."

"Get to the point."

Zhou Ze said impatiently.

"Oh, okay."

The female ghost was very afraid of Zhou Ze. Even in the daytime, she had thought about absorbing the essence of this sickly fellow, but now, a person who could be called boss by so many terrifying people in that bookstore, she knew, she absolutely couldn't afford to provoke.

"More than thirty years ago, a few bandits came to the village."

"Bandits?" Boss Zhou repeated in surprise, while looking at Old Zhang.

Old Zhang explained, "It should be a mobile criminal gang."

Zhou Ze nodded.

"That group of people entered a family in our village, killed the son and the father, and left the daughter-in-law and the old woman behind; they... violated them."

A very cliché story; bandits entered the home and began to commit violence.

"Was it Xie Lao San's house?" Old Zhang asked.

"No, it was next door."

"Continue."

"Those few people stayed in that house, stayed for a day."

They killed the two men of the family, occupied the two women, and stayed for a day.

"Xie Lao San was a cook who did banquets for several nearby villages at the time. He seemed to have heard the commotion next door and came over to take a look, but was discovered and captured by the bandits.

The bandits didn't kill him; they had him cook for them.

Xie Lao San agreed, saying he would go back to get some food, that he had pork and such at home.

Afterward, Xie Lao San went home and got his chef's belongings and came over again. Back then, being a cook wasn't as comfortable as it is now, and plus, Xie Lao San, according to my grandmother, had a bad temper and was ugly, so he never got married; he had long separated from his two older brothers and lived alone as a bachelor.

He called the bandits brothers and made food for them. The bandits even said that when they went to the next place, they would bring him along."

"And then?"

Zhou Ze asked. Instinctively, Zhou Ze felt that this story should have a twist.

"Grandma said that the bandits were very vigilant; they had Xie Lao San make the food, but before eating, they would have Xie Lao San eat first.

Just like the emperor in the ancient court, before eating, he would have a little eunuch taste it to see if there was any poison.

But Xie Lao San still put rat poison in it, and then, he ate it too. In the end, he poisoned himself and three bandits to death."

The female ghost finished telling the story.

The story she told was a retelling of the story her grandmother had told her when she was alive. There might be some logical flaws, but the image of this cook, Xie Lao San, suddenly became vivid.

Old Zhang then reached out and tapped his forehead, saying, "It seems that when I first entered the police force, I heard the old seniors talk about this case when they were drinking, but they didn't go into specific names.

It was indeed a bit chaotic at that time, and then the country began to crack down on crime severely."

Boss Zhou picked up the spirit tablet again, looked at it, and said to the female ghost:

"Did the two women in the victim's family survive?"

"They survived. The old woman died early, but the daughter-in-law lived in this village. Before I died a few years ago, when I returned to the village, I saw her living by scavenging for scraps."

The story from thirty years ago carried blood and gore. Xie Lao San was indeed a real man; at the appropriate time, he did something that only a real man would do and dare to do.

But for those two women, it was an extremely painful nightmare.

…

The other households in the village had long moved into spacious buildings; only this family still had a bungalow.

There was no courtyard wall, only a fence, with a lot of scrap piled up inside, all sorted and bundled.

Zhou Ze pushed open the door and walked in. Old Zhang hesitated for a moment, didn't say anything about trespassing, and followed in.

After entering the courtyard, Boss Zhou pushed open the door of the house. The door wasn't locked; to be precise, this house really didn't have anything worth a thief's attention.

Would a thief come to steal scraps to sell?

Inside the door was an old-fashioned wooden bed, and an old woman was lying on the bed, sleeping.

Zhou Ze walked to the bedside. The old woman was a light sleeper, and seemed to sense something, but before she woke up, Boss Zhou took the initiative to scrape his fingernails across the old woman's neck.

It didn't cause any harm; it just let her sleep for a while longer.

In the application of fingernail abilities, the current Boss Zhou could be said to be masterful.

Pushing open the bedroom door again, it was the living room in the middle area of the bungalow, which was also filled with a lot of scrap.

Inside the dilapidated hall was an old-fashioned long cabinet.

This was a very common rural house furnishing. The cabinet could hold grain and other sundries, and a shrine was usually placed on top.

Some put photos of deceased ancestors, some put portraits of bodhisattvas, and some put Chairman Mao.

And on this long cabinet were four spirit tablets.

One of them was her deceased husband…

And there were two placed together, with a male and female name, which should be her father-in-law and mother-in-law.

And the fourth one,

Was "Xie Lao San."

More than thirty years had passed,

Many people would forget, and because the media wasn't so developed in that era, some things just didn't spread.

But while others forgot,

This old woman, the "daughter-in-law" in the original story, had always remembered.

Turning her head again,

She noticed a lot of paper money stacked in the corner.

Presumably,

The traces of burned paper money that had been discovered near Xie Lao San's grave earlier were probably from the old woman going to Xie Lao San's grave to burn paper money.

Xie Lao San was a bachelor, without descendants. Decades had passed, and no one would visit his grave except her.

The money burned during the grave visit, at an extremely terrifying conversion ratio, turned into hell money and was conveniently taken away by the female ghost who had become a vengeful spirit after death and returned to the village to visit her grandmother's grave.

A line was thus sorted out.

When the two people and one ghost walked out of the courtyard,

Old Zhang asked somewhat confusedly, "What exactly is going on?"

Zhou Ze gritted his teeth, first gently stepped on the ground beneath his feet,

And then,

Slowly said:

"Xie Lao San is about to become a spirit."

"Become a spirit?" Old Zhang tried to use a "ghost messenger" mindset rather than a criminal police mindset and asked with some incomprehension, "Isn't he a good person?"

A real man, who risked his life and perished together with three criminals, died heroically, and left with a clear conscience.

How could this kind of person...

"Maybe my wording is a bit inaccurate." Zhou Ze shook his head and continued, "You can not call it becoming a spirit, but use words like earth deity, mountain god, city god, river god to replace it."

Old Zhang was stunned.

Zhou Ze pursed his lips,

The changes in yin and yang,

Had it already begun…