Anger?
There had to be anger!
"Boss, we…we should call the police."
The old Daoist suggested from the side.
Then, he found Zhou Ze looking at him with the gaze one reserves for mentally challenged children.
Uh…
Did I say something wrong?
But weren't you the one who always said to find the police if something happened, to be a law-abiding citizen? I've been consistently implementing your words and spirit.
"Old Daoist," Zhou Ze said slowly.
"Yes?"
"If your money was stolen, would you be angry?"
"Of course I'd be angry."
"Then if your ashes were stolen, would you be angry?"
"Uh…………"
Who the hell is as twisted as you? Your original body has already turned into ashes, and you're still discussing whether or not you should be angry.
"I'm going to find that guy."
Black luster began to flow in Zhou Ze's eyes, and his ten fingernails emitted an eerie light.
"Then, I'll tear him to pieces!"
He could have stolen anything, but he stole my ashes. Then I'll make sure he's buried with them.
"The cemetery office is over there. Go there and check the surveillance videos."
Zhou Ze directed the old Daoist. The old Daoist quickly nodded. Okay, you're the boss. You can do whatever you want. I won't try to guess your intentions.
Zhou Ze directly snapped the cemetery gate lock open, and the two walked in. The old Daoist sat down in front of the computer in the surveillance room and began to retrieve previous recordings, while also locking onto the camera that could observe Zhou Ze's tombstone.
"Night, during the Qingming Festival."
Zhou Ze gave a specific time.
Because the traces of moving the tombstone hadn't completely dissipated, it must have been just a few days ago. Otherwise, after another ten or fifteen days, Zhou Ze wouldn't have been able to discover this clue.
He might even have come to pay respects to a box of plastic balls every year, not knowing that he was worshiping something other than his own ashes, other than his past.
Then, he would come every holiday and pour out his grief to a box of plastic balls.
"Boss, if you ask me, since the other party stole something, they should have deleted the surveillance footage, right? That's how it always is in TV dramas.
Us checking the surveillance footage now is just the kind of watery plot that I hate to watch in TV dramas.
Completely useless, just dragging out the runtime."
Zhou Ze placed his hand on the old Daoist's shoulder, his fingernails gently swaying, the cold, grim feeling like it was piercing directly into the old Daoist's body.
The old Daoist's body trembled, and he immediately sat up straight, not daring to say another word, and seriously began to play back the surveillance footage.
"Stop!"
Zhou Ze shouted.
The old Daoist immediately pressed pause.
"Rewind a little more."
The old Daoist began to rewind. Sure enough, a figure wearing red clothes appeared in the frame. The picture quality of the surveillance wasn't very good, and it was nighttime, so the figure in the picture was very blurry, and you could only roughly make out what color clothes he was wearing.
They actually found it?
The old Daoist was a little surprised.
The picture slowly played on.
The person wearing red clothes in the picture bent down, holding two scalpel-like objects in his hand, and pried open the tombstone, his movements crisp and neat, no slower than Zhou Ze's using his fingernails earlier.
Then, the other party took out the urn, took out a glass container, poured the ashes into it, and then seemed to sprinkle something else into the urn. If there were no accidents, it should be that string of plastic balls.
The man put the glass bottle into his arms, then turned his head and looked at the camera.
From the angle of the surveillance video, it was as if the other party had aimed the lens at himself and was making eye contact with the person watching the video.
The other party deliberately pressed his face close to the camera.
This face…
Zhou Ze felt inexplicably familiar. This was an East Asian face, with very fair skin.
He began to search for this person's information in his chaotic memories, but unfortunately, the last time he fought against Qingyi Niangniang on the rooftop, he had entered that state, which caused him to have serious memory loss at the time, and he couldn't remember who the other party was for a while.
"Amen!"
After the other party said these few words, he turned around and left, leaving behind a meaningful smile.
Until the other party's last "Amen" was said, Zhou Ze's pupils suddenly shrank.
Memory scenes began to rewind non-stop, and finally appeared in the villa surrounded by rapeseed flowers, at the dining table, the priest who had been standing there quietly.
It was him!
He stole my ashes!
"Boss, do you know this person?" The old Daoist was a little strange seeing Zhou Ze's reaction.
"Yes."
When the two walked out of the cemetery, it was already past one o'clock in the morning. Zhou Ze took out his mobile phone and first called Xu Qinglang, but Xu Qinglang was probably drunk and didn't answer.
Zhou Ze could only call Tang Shi.
"What is it?"
"Help me wake up Xu Qinglang, no matter what method you use."
"Okay."
After about half a minute, a scream came from the other end of the phone.
Then, Xu Qinglang answered the phone with some resentment, and cursed directly:
"Are you sick in the head, telling her to wake me up!"
"The phone number of the lady who rents our shop to us, give it to me."
"Tsk, I'll find it."
Xu Qinglang heard the suppressed anger in Zhou Ze's voice, and didn't continue to complain to Zhou Ze. He immediately started looking for the phone number and then said it out loud.
Zhou Ze called, but a prompt came from the other end of the phone: "The phone you dialed is turned off, please dial again later."
Zhou Ze took a deep breath. Although Tong City was only a small city with a population of several million, it would be very difficult to find a person here without any connections.
And now Zhou Ze's anger urgently needed an outlet, but he had no way to find the priest's specific information.
When he returned to the bookstore at night, Tang Shi was sitting inside reading a magazine, while Xu Qinglang was sitting at the bar with some bruises on his face.
"Did you get in touch?" Xu Qinglang asked while applying an egg to his face.
Zhou Ze shook his head.
"Hiss…………"
Xu Qinglang felt the pain on his face intensified. So he was beaten for nothing?
Zhou Ze walked up to Tang Shi and asked, "What's the best way to quickly find someone in this area?"
Tang Shi put down the magazine in her hand and asked, "Why don't you scratch the ground with your fingernails and see if you can summon a Land God."
"I'm serious."
"I can't help it either. Did you lose something?" Tang Shi asked.
Zhou Ze didn't answer. Losing his ashes wasn't a glorious thing, and even saying it was like his underwear was stolen.
It seemed like there was no way. The lady's phone couldn't get through, and Zhou Ze believed that even if it did, the chances of finding the priest's address and information through that lady were very slim.
It seemed that the other party had specifically investigated himself. He could let the video surveillance go untouched, probably because he was very confident in his hiding place, and believed that even if he found out about this, he wouldn't be able to find him.
Suddenly, Zhou Ze thought of something, took out his phone, and dialed a number that didn't have a saved name:
"Hello, who is this?"
A cute loli voice came from the other end of the phone.
"Tell your sister to answer the phone," Zhou Ze said.
"Who are you? I don't have a sister… Constable, I was just sleeping."
The loli voice suddenly turned into an older sister's tone.
"Help me find someone, a priest from Japan. He's been active in Tong City recently."
"Okay."
Then all he heard from the other end of the phone was:
biu,
And the phone hung up.
Zhou Ze felt a little unreal.
He didn't expect his newly recruited little brother,
Oh no,
Little sister,
To be so efficient. After he ordered something, she would just say "Okay" and go do it.
"Hey, let me ask you a question." Tang Shi suddenly said.
Zhou Ze looked at Tang Shi.
"Does your conscience still hurt recently?" Tang Shi pointed to the location of his heart.
Zhou Ze didn't quite understand what she meant, then shook his head.
"Heh…" Tang Shi laughed. "It seems you're slowly getting used to it."
"Get used to what?"
"Get used to living without a conscience."
Tang Shi stood up, looking like she was about to go upstairs, and reminded him at the same time, "Tomorrow night, let's have tea together, don't forget."
"I'm not in the mood."
Tang Shi didn't comment and continued upstairs.
…………
Inside a one-bedroom rental apartment, a priest sat on the sofa, with some pictures and documents on the coffee table in front of him. He was sitting there thinking hard, while also talking to himself.
At this moment, the door was opened.
The intern doctor walked in. He saw the priest sitting on his sofa and was immediately startled. He reprimanded:
"Who are you? Why are you in my house!"
At the same time, the intern doctor reached out and took out his mobile phone, preparing to call the police. He felt that a thief had broken into his house.
But the priest appeared in front of him in the blink of an eye, grabbed his wrist with one hand and grabbed his neck with the other.
The mobile phone fell to the ground,
And the priest lifted him up by the neck.
The intern doctor felt a strong sense of suffocation.
The priest stood still, continuing to maintain this posture, until the intern doctor's eyes slowly began to scatter, and a bit of ruthlessness appeared on his face.
"I clearly fed you the stuff extracted from his ashes, how can you only turn into this kind of corpse-eating thing? What use do I have for this thing?"
The priest kicked the intern doctor's butt, and the intern doctor fell to the ground, then immediately got up, with saliva dripping from the corners of his mouth.
"Smack."
A raw pig's trotter was thrown on the ground by the priest.
The intern doctor rushed over and held the trotter in his hands, gnawing on it, with blood stains from the pig's trotter still remaining on the corners of his mouth, but dissatisfaction flashed in his eyes. Obviously, pig's trotters and pork could not satisfy him.
The priest shook his head, and helplessly sat back down on the sofa.
"It seems that his ability to become a Jiangshi (Chinese hopping vampire) shouldn't be due to his body, but because of his soul. It's because that body once carried his soul, so some changes occurred, causing ordinary people to undergo some mutations after taking it, but these mutations are insignificant.
Don't even mention a Jiangshi, he can't even become a zombie, he just has an added lovely hobby - eating corpses."
The priest rubbed his hands.
"So, if it's not the body's fault, then it's the soul's fault?
Was his previous life's body also not original?
His borrowing a corpse to return his soul seems on the surface to be arranged by the female ghost constable,
But in reality, there are more deeply hidden things?"
The priest picked up his coffee, took a sip,
On the coffee table in front of him,
Were Zhou Ze's photos from his previous life, Xu Le's photos, the little aunt's photos,
Even the photos of the old man who stabbed Zhou Ze with his fingernails in the hospital that day.
The priest took out a scalpel and directly cut the old man's and the little aunt's photos into pieces, then let out a long sigh of relief.
"I have to investigate again."