False evidence

Chapter 122 Ground Rats
Upon seeing this bald man, I immediately understood why I felt uncomfortable looking at the photos of him earlier.

That's because, like the bald man, he gave off a sinister aura. Neither of their faces were fake; they simply didn't look like human faces!

The bald man stared at me expressionlessly for a while, then asked again, "Where's the cat?"

The monkey and the preserved egg both looked at me. It was because when the bald man wasn't around, we could talk to him normally, but once he appeared, his unique aura made us feel very oppressed and unable to speak.

I thought for a moment and asked, "Don't you think we should introduce ourselves first?"

The bald man said coldly, "You've reminded me. Who are you people? What's your relationship with Kou Yun?"

“I already said, it was our family’s cat that brought us here.” My face also darkened. “I don’t know Kou Yun, but I know you’re not a relative or friend of our family either.”

“You’re wrong. Kou Yun is an elder of mine. I’m here because my master asked me to keep vigil for him for a year.”

"You're keeping vigil for the deceased? Does your family agree to that?"

When I came in, I noticed that although the lock on the building door was a concealed lock, it was an old one. The south is humid, and after a summer, the lock on the courtyard gate was rusted, but the lock on the building door worked perfectly.

Crucially, the obvious rust around the keyhole proves that it hasn't been opened with a key recently, but there are scratch marks in the gap of the door frame near the lock.

That must have been caused when someone inserted a card into the door crack to unlock it.

We actually came in with the key, while this shady-looking bald guy most likely showed up uninvited.

Seeing that the bald man's face grew increasingly gloomy but he remained silent, I said to Monkey, "Let's call Captain Gao."

"Want to call the police?" The bald man sneered. "My relationship with Kou Yun is easily confirmed by the authorities. But your group seems to be in a bit of a predicament."

I chuckled and said, "Putting aside the fact that having connections at the government office makes things easier, even if the police suspect us of something, they'll only investigate where we got the keys. They'll give priority to anyone who climbs over the wall and enters the house without permission."

Seeing the disdain in the bald man's eyes, I hardened my expression again and said in a deep voice:

"If you acknowledge the police's investigative abilities, then you should know that even if you know someone from the same clan, once you're in the station, they'll ask you where that earthy smell comes from!"

The bald man's expression changed: "Are you really going to start a fight?"

"It's up to you. Anyway, I hate thieves, and I especially hate digging up people's ancestral graves."

"Digging up ancestral graves?" The monkey was taken aback, then realized, "He's a grave robber?"

"There's no escaping it." I nodded.

Back in my hometown, one day, my grandfather came home and found all the worthless herbs. He also gathered some branches and leaves from under the woodpile and mixed them in. After he finished, he told me that some people who buy mountain products and medicinal herbs had come to the village and asked me to take the big bag he had gathered and sell it to them.

I found it strange at the time. To be honest, in some ways, Grandpa wasn't exactly a good old man. Most of the time, he was also prone to taking advantage of others, but when it came to treating patients and prescribing medicine, he never cheated anyone.

What's wrong with him this time? Not only has he changed his ways and is now trying to cheat others, but he's also dragging his own grandson into it?
The fraud is so obvious. If I try to sell it to someone, it's a small matter if I can't sell it. If the other party has a bad temper, they might beat me up on the spot.
Grandpa grinned mischievously and said to me, "I know what you're thinking, kid. Don't worry about it. Go ahead and sell it to those guys, and ask for as much as you can. I'll take responsibility if it turns out badly!"

Hearing him say that, I had no choice but to bite the bullet and take that bag of stuff that looked like garbage to sell.

My hometown is near the mountains, and people often come to the village to buy medicinal herbs and other mountain products.

However, this time the customers were quite unusual.

There were three men and two women, ranging in age from twenty-five or twenty-six to their forties. But the moment I saw them, I felt extremely uncomfortable. These people gave me the same feeling as the bald man I was facing now.

Those people only glanced at what I brought before asking me to name my price.

As my grandfather instructed, I quoted the price of radishes as high as ginseng, and the other party didn't hesitate at all, giving me two old men's coins directly.

When I got home, I gave the money to my grandfather and said to him, "The 'junk' has been sold, but why do I feel like those guys aren't good people?"
Grandpa said, "You're absolutely right! Those bastards aren't legitimate dealers at all. They're just using the guise of trading to pick up bargains and snipe deals. They go around asking where there are old graves and big tombs, and once they find one, they dig it up at night and take the dead people's belongings to exchange for a huge sum of money! They're a bunch of groundhogs and grave robbers!"

I have a deep impression of this incident. Seeing the photos in the funeral hall reminded me of those three men and two women. But one cannot speak carelessly in front of the deceased's photos.

They had no reservations about facing the bald man.

The bald man and I stared at each other for a while, and he said, "Do whatever you want, take whatever you want, I don't care. Master only told me to stay here, he didn't tell me to do anything else."

I said, "Okay, then let's each do our own thing. But you should at least have someone to address you, right?"

"Lu Zelin".

The bald man only said one sentence before walking to the flower bed by the wall, stepping on it with one foot and ignoring us.

The monkey, holding up his phone, whispered to me, "Should we still call the police?"

"It's no use calling the police without evidence, let's just leave it alone for now."

The three returned to the house, and when they looked at the shadows on the ground again, they found that there were now five.

The monkey glanced outside sideways. "Was this his doing? How did he do that?"

"It was caused by the candle."

I walked to the table, pointed to the burning candle, and said, "Look closely, there's probably something else added to this wax. When it burns downwards in the middle, there's always a tiny bit that burns particularly slowly."

Pidan stared at the candle for a while, then suddenly realized: "These two slow-burning pieces look like two little people! So that's what caused the extra shadows!"

"Yes, and with the door open, the wind comes in, causing the flames to flicker irregularly, which makes the shadows appear to move."

The monkey then asked me how I figured out the bald man was a tomb raider.

I briefly recounted my experience from back then, and then pointed to the candle. "You didn't notice, but this candle has a strange smell when it's lit. It smells just like the two lanterns we lit at Yan Fengwei's house last time. Yan Fengwei said that the candle stubs in the lanterns were given to him by a ground mouse. Since the smell is the same, I don't need to say more about where this candle came from."

The monkey muttered, "I really don't understand why they put candles like that in front of a dead person's spirit. If a timid person saw the extra shadows, wouldn't they be scared to death?"

I said, "These candles were probably replaced by that bald guy outside. Think about what he does, and you'll figure out where these candles came from and what they were used for."

Pidan glanced at me sideways: "You overestimate me. I can't think of that."

I said, "The tomb was dug up, allowing air to circulate. The candles that were originally in the burial chamber were ignited by phosphorus or something similar. The tomb robbers were focused on finding the burial goods, and suddenly they saw a few extra figures. Hehe, just think about it, think about it carefully."

"Damn, if that's the case, it could really scare people to death." The monkey grinned. "So these candles are for the dead, they're a mechanism to prevent tomb robbers."

(End of this chapter)