I agreed to Little Ke's job, waiting for Da Jinya to come, and as soon as he did, we would set out.
After about an hour, Da Jinya arrived late and said he had slept well, but I had dragged him over with a phone call.
I said, "Old Jin, you complained to me every day when you didn't have any work to do, and now that there's work and money to be made, you're still impatient? If that's the case, you can go back to Harbin. I'll find someone else to do the 'yin' work."
Da Jinya, hearing my words, immediately perked up and said with a smile, "Xiao Li, look, you get upset when I joke around. You are my cash cow, why would I let go? How much this time?"
I glanced at Little Ke, then at Da Jinya, and held up two fingers, saying, "A total of 40,000 yuan, you take 25,000, I take 15,000, deal?"
"Deal! Why not?" Da Jinya asked me, "What's the matter?"
I said there were still problems with the warehouse apartment. Since last night, four people have chosen to hang themselves, which I suspect is suspicious.
"Of course, it's obvious there's a problem," Da Jinya thought for a moment and said that those four people might not have hung themselves, but provoked something dirty and were killed by it.
"Who knows? Bring your guys and come with me," I told Little Ke to lead the way and pulled Da Jinya out of the police station.
Hanli insisted on following me.
I didn't let her go, saying, it's a suicide, you police can't handle it, and your public security bureau is also busy, so why follow us?
Hanli insisted on going, saying she wanted to see what kind of monsters were causing trouble.
Fine, my cousin is a "y'y" enthusiast, liking anything weird and eerie.
Although I really didn't want to take her, I couldn't resist her begging.
The four of us arrived at Little Ke's cousin's house.
Her cousin, who looked like a music enthusiast, had posters of singers all over her room, with the most being the American old-school rock band, the Rolling Stones.
Some posters seemed to be aging, with yellowing and drooping corners.
Little Ke looked thoughtful and her eyes turned red again as she said her cousin loved rock music, and also... (omitting eight hundred words), but her point was that her cousin was a very promising underground rock singer, and although she had always been underground, she was already well-known in the underground rock scene.
I nodded silently, "Miss Ji, when she was about to bloom, suddenly ended up hanging, indeed regrettable."
Suddenly, a new thought popped into my head, and I asked Hanli, "Li, I just remembered that the people living here are all involved in the arts. The people in the arts have a different mindset, could it be... could it be that they couldn't handle it and that's why they committed suicide?"
I used to like a "death metal" band, whose lead singer shot himself in the head with a gun, and then his band used a blood-splattered photo from the moment he shot himself as the promotion poster for the band's final performance.
Hanli patted her head and said she had also thought that, but after investigating the suicide cases in the warehouse apartments in recent years, she found that only a painter committed suicide two years ago, and there hadn't been any suicides in the past two years.
"Okay, then it must have provoked something dirty, let me check first." I searched the room for clues.
And Da Jinya was busy too, taking out the gourd drum and tapping lightly on it.
Dong dong dong, dong dong dong!
The room was filled with this eerie drumbeat.
After a few taps, I suddenly noticed a movement in the curtain, and then the curtain began to undulate. Was there something inside?
I walked slowly over, motioning to Hanli to come closer to me.
"What's wrong? A big man like you is afraid?" Hanli knew I was timid.
I turned pale for a moment, quickly making up an excuse, saying that as a police officer, I had an imposing aura that even the 'yin' spirits were afraid of, and that she, my little aunt, was my spiritual implement now.
"Stop with the nonsense, open the curtain and see if there's anything there," Hanli gestured for me to pull back the curtain.
I nervously grabbed the corner of the curtain, silently recited something like "Blessed be the ancestors," to bolster my courage, and then yanked the curtain open.
Whoosh!
As the curtain was pulled back, I saw a face sticking to the window, which startled me.
I quickly stepped back and closed the curtain.
At this moment, the ghost figure on the curtain floated in front of me and pointed at its nostrils, indicating, "Can you see me?"
I saw that the ghostly figure was a 'woman' wearing a denim tank top and black long-sleeved leather jacket, with a fringe haircut, looking a lot like Little Ke, probably the ghost of Little Ke's cousin.
I nodded and said loudly, "I'm here to investigate your cause of death."
Because I had opened my third eye this afternoon, I still had a certain amount of psychic ability and could see ghostly figures, but I couldn't communicate with them.
"I know you didn't hang yourself, can you tell me who killed you?" I asked Little Ke's cousin.
Maybe the scene of me talking to the empty air was too comical, as Little Ke asked Hanli who I was talking to.
Hanli said I was talking to her cousin, explaining that he could see things normal people couldn't see.
"Oh," Little Ke, a sentimental idealist, believed in these strange things, so she remained silent.
I asked Little Ke's cousin, "I can't hear you talking, can you give me some clues?"
I saw Little Ke's cousin's mouth kept moving, but I couldn't hear anything she was saying, so I changed my question.
小可表妹 listened to my words and immediately pointed to the poster wall.
I looked back at the poster wall and nodded to Xiao Ke.
At this time, Da Jinya came over and said to me, "Xiao Li, why bother with this? Since the 'Yin' spirit is here, I can invite a deity to possess a medium and ask her, isn't that enough?"
"Forget it, inviting a deity is too troublesome. I'll try to find clues first, and if I can't find any, then I'll invite a deity," I said to Da Jinya.
Da Jinya thought about it and didn't mention inviting a deity again.
"By the way, if I find a clue, you can guide the 'Yin' spirit. People who die by suicide can't find their way to the underworld and can't be reincarnated. Can you help guide her?"
"Okay," Da Jinya nodded.
After he agreed, I walked towards the poster wall.
What is on the poster wall? They are all posters.
Could it be that the posters are responsible for the killings?
If it's not the posters, why did Xiao Ke's cousin point to these posters?
I reached out and touched a poster, and found that it was damp, as if it had been soaked in water.
I touched the other posters and found that some were damp while others were dry.
"There's a problem."
I decisively began to tear the damp posters.
Xiao Ke saw me tearing the posters that her cousin loved so much and quickly came over to stop me from tearing them.
I told her, "These posters are related to whether I can avenge her. You won't let me tear them?"
After thinking for a moment, Xiao Ke let me continue tearing them.
In a few moments, I tore off all the damp posters. After tearing them off, I found that the painted wall had a layer of moisture on it.
I called out to Da Jinya, "Lao Jin, come and take a look."
"Have you found anything?" Da Jinya, with his hands behind his back, walked slowly and calmly. As soon as he reached the poster wall and saw the dense beads of water oozing from the wall, he was stunned. "I knew some 'Yin' evil was at play. It turns out it's a 'Yin' witch, right?"
"Yes, it's the 'Yin' witch. No wonder four people committed suicide in a row; it's all because of the 'Yin' witch's mischief," I said.
Based on the damp wall and the fact that all those people hanged themselves, I felt that this was definitely caused by the 'Yin' witch.
"Xiao Li, this 'Yin' witch is a follower of the Yellow Skin, and I think it's because of the Yellow Skin that the 'Yin' witch was provoked. It's all the Yellow Skin's fault. Why don't we let it catch the 'Yin' witch?"
Thinking about it, I agreed. To catch the 'Yin' witch, we really need the Yellow Skin. I patted the soul-locking bag placed on the table and said softly, "Yellow Skin, did you hear what we just talked about?"
The soul-locking bag quivered.
I continued, "Now you go and catch the 'Yin' witch for me. If you catch it and I can ask the mirror master about the source of the stone coffin tomorrow, I'll let you go. Otherwise, I'll keep you for a while. Do you agree or not?"
The soul-locking bag remained motionless for a while, then it quivered again.
It seemed that the Yellow Skin inside agreed to help me catch the 'Yin' witch!
I untied the mouth of the soul-locking bag and let the leading Yellow Skin out.
When a yellow ferret as big as a mother mouse came out, it frightened Xiao Ke, and she kept retreating.
I told her not to be afraid because the Yellow Skin wouldn’t bite. Not only would it not bite, but it would also help us catch the 'Yin' witch.
"What is the 'Yin' witch?" Han Li was also unclear, after all, the 'Yin' witch is relatively obscure and extremely disgusting. I hope it won't leave a 'Yin'dy impression on Han Li's mind, so I didn't tell her temporarily.
"You'll know later."
Pointing at the Yellow Skin, I said, "Go and find the 'Yin' witch for me. If you run, I'll light sky lanterns for all your siblings!"
After glaring at me, the Yellow Skin turned its head and ran out of the door.
"What's next?" Han Li asked me.
"We wait!"
Now I have to wait for the Yellow Skin to do the job for me.
Half an hour later, the Yellow Skin returned. It ran into the house, clasped its front paws together, bowed to me, and indicated that everything was settled.
"Good! Let's go."
Me, Da Jinya, Han Li, and Xiao Ke followed the Yellow Skin out of the house.
From the first floor of the warehouse apartment, we walked to the fourth floor.
At the door of a room on the fourth floor, the Yellow Skin pointed inside and stood silently.
It seems that the 'Yin' witch was planning to harm this family.
After all, the 'Yin' witch and the Yellow Skin are natural symbiotes, and the Yellow Skin can perceive the presence of the 'Yin' witch before all the other monsters and people.
I knocked on the door.
A young man with long hair and a sallow complexion opened the door.
As soon as the young man saw us, his voice rose eight degrees, and he hoarsely shouted, "Who are you looking for?"
Listening to the guy's voice, he definitely must be a rocker. Aren't rock singers all shouting with their voices all hoarse like this now?
I said I shouldn't look for anyone else, I should find you, then I asked Han Li to show his credentials, and didn't want to go around with this rocker any further, we still have to catch the 'yin' witch.