Chapter 95: Why did you commit suicide?
Chapter 95: Why did you commit suicide?
Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor- Koneko, Proofreader-Ghostie
July 30, 9 pm.
The two were driving back to the city from the suburbs in the company’s black Jetta.
Jiang Nan’an suggested that the abandoned amusement park might be the source of the problems that had occurred, so they headed there directly.
Just like Rou Rou, that is, what Luo Yanyan had told them on the hotline— the amusement park was not big at all. The things that were worth a little money had been demolished, and the remaining buildings and facilities were very dilapidated since they had been in disrepair for a long time.
Bei Quan and Jiang Nan’an spent half the day sifting through the whole amusement park, but they couldn’t find any suspicious areas.
There were no Hui Gui or any traces of evil spells cast within the park. Bei Quan also released the little fox Guan Hu Su Ying who ran around, but still couldn’t find traces of anything unusual either.
Bei Quan and Jiang Nan’an didn’t even find the fallen Miuya, that was, Wang Jialin’s soul near the ferris wheel.
The abandoned amusement park now looked like a cement-filled open space. Except for the weeds peeking out from the cracks, all the trees around were of human height or above, completely enclosing in the attraction.
In such an open place, even the bitterly resentful soul and Hui Gui would have been wiped out after being exposed to the sun for more than half a year. Bei Quan was not surprised that he couldn’t find Miuya’s soul.
No matter what had happened in the past, at least now, it’s just a wasteland.
On the return trip back to the office, Jiang Nan’an was obviously a little deflated.
Originally, he was quite confident in his reasoning and felt that this time he would be able to perform well in front of his new boss, which would make a good first impression.
But, Jiang Nan’an had turned over the entire abandoned amusement park but could not find any evidence to prove his theory.
“Ugh!”
On the way back, Jiang Nan’an’s expression wilted.
“Bei Quan, since the amusement park is not the source, where should we investigate next?”
Bei Quan turned around and took a look at his new Comrade, Xiao Jiang.
As far as the current clues were concerned, Bei Quan was still unsure about this case.
However, since there was no problem with the location, it was always a good practice to contact the people that were involved.
“I wonder if Zhu Ling has found Luo Yanyan yet…?”
Bei Quan paused and gently stroked the passenger window with his fingertips,
“In addition, I have a proposal…”
He smiled at Jiang Nan’an and looked down at his watch.
“Anyway, it’s still early. Let’s go and ‘meet’ Mo Fan first.”
The “Mo Fan” mentioned by Bei Quan is the second anchor who committed suicide after Miuya.
Mo Fan committed suicide in the middle of December last year, more than half a year ago.
The reason why Bei Quan suggested starting with this person was that amongst the four people who had committed suicide, only this person had died in Fèng Xīngchéng City. The accident also happened inside a bathroom with relatively heavy Yin and filth around, so the chances of the soul surviving was relatively higher.
According to the information collected by Zhu Ling, after Mo Fan terminated his contract with the live broadcasting platform, he found a very ordinary e-commerce sales post in a private enterprise. After joining, he did very well, and his savings and income were enough for him to continue to live in the city.
However, on December 14th of last year, Mo Fan suddenly committed suicide.
At that time, Mo Fan shared an apartment with a colleague from the company who he had a good relationship with. When he committed suicide, his colleague happened to be away on a business trip. Therefore, three days after Mo Fan’s death, the colleague who came back found his body in the bathroom.
Fortunately, the temperature in Fèng Xīngchéng city was low so the body was not seriously decomposed and the poor innocent colleague did not have a heart attack on the spot.
Since then, no one wanted to live in the apartment where the suicide took place, so it remained empty, with no new tenants so far.
Bei Quan remembered the address and didn’t need to request a key.
He directed Jiang Nan’an to drive the car straight to the apartment building. Once there, he easily passed through the door access, and ascended directly to the fifth floor.
Room 503 had been vacant for half a year now, and a thin layer of dust had fallen on the main door.
Bei Quan gripped the door handle and turned it clockwise.
Click
The door opened soon following the sound.
Bei Quan raised his chin towards his new partner. Jiang Nan’an immediately understood this motion, and they entered the house quietly.
Jiang Nan’an reached for the light switch and pressed it.
“…”
Nothing happened.
The light didn’t turn on and it remained dark and eerie— it was obvious that the house had been idle for some time, and? the electricity line had probably been cut.
With this, he took out his cell phone and turned on the flashlight function.
They soon found the bathroom where Mo Fan had committed suicide.
The bathroom was clean and tidy, with no sign of anyone dying in it.
However, both Bei Quan and Jiang Nan’an adjusted their eyes to the brightness of the phone’s light and were immediately drawn to a light grey figure which was curled up in the corner.
The energy of the shadow was so weak that it could barely maintain a vaguely humanistic shape, but it no longer had facial features.
Such a weak soul. Bei Quan didn’t even need to draw a talisman for this, he could dissipate it with just a few of his tricks.
Although the features weren’t visible, Bei Quan and Jiang Nan’an knew that this weak, pathetic and helpless little ghost nestled in the bathroom could only be Mo Fan— the former anchor who slit his own wrists and committed suicide.
“Ugh, so pitiful.”
Jiang Nan’an sighed as he looked from the sidelines.
.
“There’s only one soul left… It had stayed in the Yang world and refused to enter the reincarnation cycle. I am afraid that there is a wish that has not yet been fulfilled ……”
He touched his chin, “Or maybe, there are some unresolved grievances, right?”
Then, Jiang Nan’an looked at Bei Quan as he started to think more about this situation, “In other words, you should be able to do some magic tricks such as Shamanism, right?”
Jiang Nan’an had been practising the martial arts of the Shaolin temple ever since he was a child. However, for spells such as talismans and incantations, it could be said that he “knew almost nothing”.
He heard from his master that Bei Quan was a senior disciple of the secret realm of Zhu Ling and was very good at magic. In addition to the curiosity and longing, he had been looking forward to see Bei Quan use these powers with his own eyes.
Now, there was a ghost of a? young man squatting in front of them— Jiang Nan’an thought that this would be a very good opportunity for him to experience his wish.
Bei Quan smiled at Jiang Nan’an, then suddenly stretched out his hand and slapped his comrade on the back of the head.
According to Bei Quan’s expectations, Xiao Jiang should be directly slapped out of his living body, be “thrown” into the past, empathize with Mo Fan’s remnant soul, and see the other person’s dying experience with his own eyes.
However——
“Hiss!!!”
Bei Quan clutched his hand and drew a breath of cold air.
He felt as if he had slapped a piece of solid steel.
Jiang Nan’an suddenly raised his hand and touched the back of his head, giving Bei Quan a confused look.
“What are you doing?!”
Bei Quan was still huffing harshly.
He looked down at his right hand, his palm was red and completely swollen.
“You …… are hard ……”
Bei Quan gritted his teeth and blurted out what he was currently feeling.
“Sorry!”
Jiang Nan’an laughed and rubbed his buzzcut head.
“Since I practice the Golden Bell Cover Iron Cloth Shirt, and you just suddenly hit me, I unconsciously—”
Bei Quan’s eyes contained unshed tears that he desperately tried to stop. He raised his hand and signaled Jiang Nan’an to stop talking.
At this moment, he desperately missed Wei Fuyuan.
“… forget it.”
Bei Quan rubbed his swollen palm, sighed softly, and pointed to the remnant soul of Mo Fan in the corner.
“Let’s take him back first.”
——————
At 11:30 pm, Bei Quan and Jiang Nan’an returned to the “Sāntúchuān” broadcasting company.
They took Mo Fan’s soul and went straight into the study. When Zhu Ling and Tian Jin heard the news, they also ran inside to watch.
Bei Quan set up a table in the North of the study. He laid out candlesticks and incense burners, and set out a shallow plate filled with snow-white rice about half a centimetre thick.
He knew that he still had a secret wound on his body, and he really didn’t dare to take unnecessary risks.
So this time, Bei Quan had planned to use the most traditional method of supporting Shamans. It was commonly known as “Wèn Mǐ“ among the people, and the technique was called the “Fu Jī”.
Considering that Mo Fan only had one soul and one spirit left, Bei Quan also stuffed a talisman paper bag wrapped in white stone and grave soil in front of Jiang Nan’an, who was full of vigorous Qi, so that his Yang Qi could be covered.
Then, Bei Quan tied a red thread through the rosary beads containing the remnant soul of Mo Fan and tied the other end of the thread to his thumb. He placed the rosaries on the altar, lit the incense and made a hand sealing gesture spell, whilst muttering an incantation.
When the spell was over, the red thread tied to his thumb trembled gently.
Seeing the line move, Bei Quan knew that the technique had been completed. So he picked up a chopstick with the hand that was tied with the red thread and loosely clasped it in his palm, perpendicular to the top of the rice table.
“Mo Fan?”
Bei Quan asked gently.
The chopsticks moved and drew a complete circle on the rice surface.
Seeing the answer laid out in front of him, Bei Quan softly asked his first question.
“Mo Fan, how did you die?”
Because Mo Fan’s soul was weak enough to dissipate at any time, Bei Quan knew that he didn’t have much time, so he only planned to ask him three questions.
The chopsticks moved slowly and drew intermittent strokes on the rice bowl. When they were connected, there were two crooked and childishly written Chinese characters, similar to that of a primary school student’s handwriting.
【Suicide.】
Bei Quan raised his eyebrows.
The answer that surfaced was somewhat unexpected.
Originally, Bei Quan also thought that the people involved had no reason to commit suicide, and one by one fall like flies seeking death as though they contracted an infectious disease.
But now, he personally got an answer from the ghost of Mo Fan, saying that he did commit suicide.
Bei Quan smoothed the rice bowl on the table with the other hand that was not holding the chopsticks and asked,
“So, you wanted to die?”
This time, the chopsticks lingered on the rice bowl for several seconds before writing a single word—
【Yes.】
After determining that Mo Fan really died by suicide and no one had forced him, Bei Quan erased the words on the rice bowl again.
He thought for a moment and asked one last question,
“Then, why did you commit suicide?”
At this moment, the chopsticks hovered over the rice bowl for an even longer period of time. And just like a doll whose battery was about to run out, the ghost of Mo Fan wrote the first stroke of a Chinese character whilst trembling uncontrollably,
【 乛 】
The chopsticks continued to move, with the ghost still tremblingly trying to finish the character.
【 )】
Then, in an instant…
Clink
The chopsticks fell, breaking apart any connection.
Mo Fan’s already weak soul’s energy was finally exhausted, and he couldn’t hold on for any longer.