“What does all this mean?”

Zhang Yanfeng didn’t understand; he’d never seen a ghost, and he hadn’t been at the Late Night Bookstore when Huang Mao’s (Yellow Hair’s) wandering soul had come.

Zhou Ze, however, was lost in thought. He ignored the clamor downstairs, where everyone assumed the police had arrived for a prostitution bust, and began searching the rooms, one by one.

The layout suggested that this place had once been an old office building, and at some point, it had probably served as an apartment complex. Now, a few of the rooms had been cleaned and were being used as love nests by some of the hostesses, but the majority remained locked, covered in layers of dust, untouched for years.

The dance hall’s owner knew he was skirting the edge of the law, so while he didn’t stop the upstairs activities, he wasn’t foolish enough to support them either. Consequently, no one bothered cleaning up here.

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

Zhou Ze kicked the doors open, one after another.

Each room erupted in clouds of choking dust.

Since the wandering soul had sung a song from this place when it came to the bookstore to reincarnate, and if the old Daoist was right that the song was original, there was a good chance Huang Mao had died here.

At that moment, the dance hall’s security guards came rushing up. They had heard the noise and learned from the gossiping cleaning lady that the police weren’t coming; instead, it was some old geezer in a robe upstairs “raising hell.”

Zhang Yanfeng, ever the professional, positioned himself at the stairwell entrance and blocked the guards as they approached.

The guards wanted to curse and even physically subdue these "joking" fools, but when Zhang Yanfeng flashed his badge, their expressions changed.

They became like goofy, harmless huskies,

unable to do anything further.

“Old Zhang, over here!”

Zhou Ze called out.

Hearing this, Zhang Yanfeng ignored the guards and ran toward the sound. In a long-sealed room, a man was hanging from the ceiling fan.

At first glance, it didn’t look like Huang Mao because his hair wasn’t yellow but gray. But on closer inspection, it was indeed Huang Mao; his hair was covered in dust, effectively dyed silver-gray.

Zhang Yanfeng didn't dare to enter the crime scene without authorization. He took out his phone and called for police backup.

After finishing the call,

Zhang Yanfeng frowned.

He looked at Zhou Ze.

The body…

he had really found it.

If he wasn’t aware of Zhou Ze’s special nature,

following standard procedure,

Zhang Yanfeng would have immediately arrested Zhou Ze as the prime suspect and taken him in for questioning.

It wasn't unheard of for murderers to call the police themselves to "discover" the scene; in fact, it was quite common. Nearly eighty percent of murderers would mingle with the onlookers after the police discovered the crime scene.

It was like the instinctive urge to look down at one’s stool after standing up from the toilet.

Soon, a fleet of police cars arrived, terrifying the dance hall’s management and owner.

What the heck?

A prostitution bust didn’t require this kind of spectacle.

He was only pushing the boundaries a little, and it was a suggestive boundary at that, not selling drugs.

The police quickly sealed off the area, and everyone in the dance hall, men and women, was temporarily detained. Due to the murder and the chaotic environment, everyone had to give a statement.

This made many people who had snuck away from their families, both men… and women, extremely anxious.

Professional forensic scientists arrived, and the crime scene processing began. Zhou Ze and the old Daoist, having completed their mission, returned to the Nissan downstairs to smoke.

"Boss, this is all very strange. A tomb raiding gang of six, two died in the tomb, which can’t even be found anymore, and now another died in this wretched place.

I reckon that the one who got away during the day is probably doomed too."

Zhou Ze nodded. This whole affair had an unsettling vibe.

“Could it be that the tomb owner's wandering soul has come out for revenge?” the old Daoist speculated.

Zhou Ze couldn’t be sure. If ghosts were indeed committing murder, it would fall under his jurisdiction.

Truthfully, even Boss Zhou rarely encountered ghosts who sought revenge through murder. Most wandering souls obediently followed some unseen guidance to enter the bookstore, where Zhou Ze would "exploit" them before sending them to hell.

However, having been a grim reaper for so long, Zhou Ze had developed a deeper understanding of ghosts.

Modern people’s impressions of tomb raiding mostly came from tomb raiding novels or movies, but the truth was that tombs comparable to or even surpassing the underground palace of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum were incredibly rare, you could count them on one hand.

When Zhou Ze was a doctor in his previous life, he was assigned to lead a medical emergency team to participate in a protective excavation with an archaeological team.

The excavation target was the tomb of a Ming Dynasty prince. At the time, tomb raiding novels were all the rage, and the other young doctors in the team, like neglected concubines eagerly awaiting the emperor’s visit, kept trying to get close to the excavation site.

Zhou Ze took a look too, but he was sorely disappointed. The tomb chamber had a vermilion door, followed by a tunnel less than ten meters long, with side chambers on both sides, leading to the main tomb chamber. The area was about the size of a rural house, and there wasn’t much to see.

The reason for having a medical team was to prevent injuries and infections during the excavation. As for tomb owners turning into zombies and wreaking havoc, there was no sign of that.

Zhou Ze figured that the archaeological scholars probably hadn't seen as many zombies in their entire lives as he had in the one year since his rebirth. Many people never saw one in their lives.

He could look in the mirror and see Yingying,

well,

that’s two.

However, one of the scholars from the archaeological team had once chatted with Zhou Ze, saying that the tombs of minor princes and nobles were actually quite regulated. The burial goods and other items had clear standards and guidelines. It was the tombs of local landlords and wealthy people that were truly unimaginable.

There was a saying that the wisdom of the working people was unfathomable, and in the case of tombs, it could be modified to say that the terrifying and creative wisdom of the ancient working people was unimaginable.

The archaeologist had given Zhou Ze an example that he remembered vividly. A landlord died, and his family, fearing he would be lonely in the afterlife, bought a boy and a girl. Before sealing the tomb, they put the children inside with some water and food, but not much.

After the children finished the food and water, they would starve to death inside and serve the deceased.

So, the master of the tomb might have long gone to hell and been reincarnated, but the ones who truly held a grudge were those who had been forced to be buried alive.

Putting yourself in their shoes,

sealed in a dark tomb with no way out,

next to a coffin, with very little food and water, how would you feel?

*Bang!*

Zhou Ze jumped, startled out of his thoughts.

It was Zhang Yanfeng.

“Preliminary cause of death is suicide. No other fingerprints or signs of homicide were found at the scene.”

“So fragile?” the old Daoist muttered. “Tomb raiding isn’t like drug trafficking; they don’t get executed, right?”

Zhang Yanfeng shook his head.

“Suicide?” Zhou Ze pondered the word.

The most suspicious thing was why he chose this place to commit suicide.

Some people considered mountains and rivers when choosing a tomb. Did Huang Mao choose to commit suicide here so he could dance when he was lonely in the afterlife?

And maybe grab a feel?

Furthermore, someone who committed suicide had cast aside all worldly thoughts and was single-mindedly seeking death. Why would he come to his bookstore instead of going straight to hell?

“Team Zhang, just received a notification that another body has been found.”

………………

A forty-minute drive later,

the group arrived at the Hao River.

The body had already been pulled out and placed on the lawn, covered with a white sheet.

The body was discovered by a restaurant worker on his way home from a night shift. At first, he thought someone was swimming in the river late at night, but on closer inspection, he realized it was a dead body floating on the water.

Boss Zhou squatted beside the body for a while, then stood up.

“Boss, another one who jumped into the water to kill themselves?”

The old Daoist emphasized the word "suicide."

Zhou Ze shook his head. “From the time I saw him this morning until he ran away, how long has it been? But the body shows signs of bloating as if it had been in the water for a week.”

Zhang Yanfeng squatted by the Hao River, smoking one cigarette after another. Solving a tomb raiding case would have been a good achievement, and he could have written in the publicity report that he had spotted them on the street with his sharp eyes and discovered that they might have a problem, and that evil had nowhere to hide in the face of justice.

Now,

the two suspects who had escaped, one hanged himself, and the other drowned. A simple tomb raiding case was developing into a serial murder case.

“Boss, could it be the wandering souls of the two accomplices left in the tomb are taking revenge?” the old Daoist guessed.

“Right, first find the tomb,” Zhang Yanfeng gritted his teeth, threw the cigarette butt on the ground, and crushed it hard with his leather shoe.

“Help me find the tomb,” Zhang Yanfeng said to Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze shook his head.

“What’s wrong?”

“If I were you, I think I should do something else first.”

“What?”

“That is…”

At that moment, Zhang Yanfeng’s phone rang. Seeing that it was a call from the station, Zhang Yanfeng motioned for Zhou Ze to wait a moment while he answered it.

As he listened,

his expression changed drastically. After hanging up, he stared at Zhou Ze in a daze.

“What’s up?” the old Daoist asked.

“The older of the two suspects that you and I caught during the day bit his tongue and killed himself.

The younger one also attempted to swallow a foreign object to commit suicide, but fortunately, it was discovered in time, and he didn’t succeed.”

Zhou Ze stuck out his tongue and licked his lips.

“What were you about to say?” Zhang Yanfeng asked.

“I was going to say that you should consider sending more people to protect the two who were caught;

well,

it’s meaningless now.”