I never expected that in my attempt to resolve Wang Yingxiu's long - standing grudge, I would uncover one old case after another.
Officer Xue was in a large six - bed ward. Most of the patients there were unconscious vegetatives.
When Fu Ning led us into the ward, it was already dawn, with a faint red glow floating on the horizon.
The room was deathly silent. The unconscious patients lay soundlessly in their beds. The family members accompanying the patients were also very quiet. When they heard the door open, they just turned their heads to take a quick glance and then numbly turned back to look at their loved ones in front of them...
"Xiao Fu?!" A middle - aged woman near the door didn't ignore us like the others. She got up from the small accompanying bed and asked, "Why are you here at this time?"
"Ma'am, this is the amazing Master Du I told you about before," Fu Ning pointed at me and said to the middle - aged woman. "My master lost his soul. Maybe she can do something about it!"
The middle - aged woman sized me up from head to toe and then nodded at me. I could tell that it was just a polite gesture. She wasn't very enthusiastic about our sudden visit.
As soon as I entered the room, I had been observing Officer Xue lying in the bed.
There was a first - level monitoring device on the low cabinet beside the bed, recording all of Officer Xue's physical data.
Since Du Wenzhong had stayed in the ICU for several months, I was very familiar with these data.
The beeping and flashing data didn't seem to show any abnormal signs, but just as I had expected... he had lost his soul!
At the banquet, from Fu Ning's accounts, I already knew that Officer Xue should have lost his soul in those demolished urban villages in Green City. Originally, I thought that after so long, his soul would have returned to his physical body.
However, now it seemed that Officer Xue's body was like an empty shell. His soul was probably trapped in Green City by something!!
"How about it?" Fu Ning saw me looking at his master in the bed and nervously clenched his fists.
"His soul is probably still trapped in that building in Green City where you had the accident," I said to Fu Ning while staring intently at Officer Xue in the bed.
It had only been a little over a month, but a once - robust and energetic man had become so emaciated. There were dark blue shadows under his closed eyes, and his pale lips were chapped with white flakes.
"What should we do then? Can you perform a spell to save him?" After all those experiences, Fu Ning had completely believed in the supernatural. His master, Xue Donglai, had just rolled down a short flight of stairs and then fallen into a coma. It was definitely unreasonable!! They police officers had received special training on how to protect their own safety in dangerous situations!
I nodded. "We can give it a try. Please give me Officer Xue's birth date and time..."
"Forget it, forget it!" Unexpectedly, Officer Xue's wife suddenly became extremely agitated. She waved her hands repeatedly and shouted, "You swindlers all use the same tricks!"
"Ma'am, Master Du is not a swindler!" Fu Ning was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect the woman to say such a thing. He quickly grabbed her hand and said, "My master and I have witnessed her abilities when we were handling cases."
"How can she not be a swindler!" Officer Xue's wife wiped her eyes and glared at me hatefully. "First, you ask for my husband's birth date and time, and then you ask for money! Right?"
"Uh..." Actually, she was right. We feng shui masters usually got paid first and then did the job for our clients. Xue Donglai was neither Lu Xiyu nor Wang Yingxiu!
I wasn't his friend. It was most appropriate to measure our cause - and - effect relationship with money.
I would use my efforts to help him retrieve his soul, and he would pay to buy out the cause - and - effect. This was a standard business deal!
"See, I'm right!" Officer Xue's wife took my hesitation as an admission. Her face turned red with anger, and her finger pointing at me was trembling. "I don't have any money for you! I've been swindled out of all my money by people like you! You're too late!"
"Ma'am!!" Fu Ning finally understood why Officer Xue's wife was so agitated. During the time when he was under investigation and was transferred to do odd jobs, Officer Xue's wife had been taken advantage of by those swindlers in the jianghu and had been swindled out of a large amount of money!
"Just give me a hundred yuan," I shrugged indifferently, holding out one finger. Then, ignoring Officer Xue's wife's expression, I took out a small incense burner and three thin sandalwood sticks from my pocket and placed them on the beeping monitoring device.
"Floating souls, where do you stay..." I chanted the soul - searching spell while lighting the incense sticks and inserting them into the fine white porcelain incense burner. As I chanted the spell, the three thin incense smokes drifted in the dawn light like three wriggling little snakes.
At this time, the family members who had been numbed by their unconscious loved ones finally turned their heads and looked at what I was doing, which was completely out of place with the modern medical equipment in the hospital. There was surprise, but also more indifference!
"Please tell me Officer Xue's birth date," I glanced at Officer Xue's wife.
"..." The woman completely ignored me. She stood there like a stubborn silhouette in the half - bright and half - dim dawn light.
"I know!!" Fu Ning looked at me as if I were a life - saving straw. He quickly took out a pen and paper and wrote down Xue Donglai's birth date for me.
I casually counted my finger joints and calculated Officer Xue's birth date.
"...The gate of heaven opens, the gate of earth opens. The gods from all directions send the soul back. Where is the soul - lost Xue Donglai! I respectfully invite the Supreme Lord Lao Jun. Do as the law commands in a hurry."
As I finished chanting the spell, the white incense smoke suddenly trembled, and the three incense sticks "creaked" and snapped into two pieces at the same time!
"Uh..." Just as I frowned, I heard Officer Xue's wife give a cold "hum" and say, "Is my husband's soul trapped and can't be retrieved?"
The divination sign of the three incense sticks breaking in the middle indeed indicated that Xue Donglai's soul was blocked by something and couldn't return to his body.
It was thousands of miles from Green City to the capital, and I didn't know where along the way Xue Donglai's soul was trapped!
"...Do you need another hundred yuan to help my husband ward off the disaster?!" Officer Xue's wife's eyes were red, and there was a look of gnashing teeth on her face.
"No," I thought for a while and shook my head. "I need to go to Green City..." Then, I looked at Fu Ning. "Officer Xue's soul is probably trapped where you had the accident!"
"Ah?!" Fu Ning looked excited. "Then, if we go to that urban village, can we find my master and wake him up?!"