False evidence

Chapter 124 Portrait
"Stop rushing!"

Pidan pulled me away from the tap, saying, "Let's go, let's go. Forget about cats and tomb raiders, let's go."

Seeing her anxious out of concern, I could only manage a wry smile.

Neither she nor the monkey knew that the fear I felt had nothing to do with the cat, the grave robbers, or this house, but rather with a person—no… a wisp of consciousness from someone nearly a hundred years ago.

"It seems you're in trouble. Cold water won't calm you down."

Lu Zelin had been watching me the whole time. Then, he took out a cigarette case from his pocket, shook out one, and handed it to me. "You can try this."

The monkey blocked my way. "No need, I have cigarettes."

Lu Zelin sneered: "You think I want to harm you? What would I want from you?"

I gathered my hair, met his gaze, and took a cigarette from his pack.

After lighting it and taking a puff, I found that it didn't taste like tobacco, but rather a sour taste that wasn't too pungent, but also not very pleasant.

I took two more deep drags.

Lu Zelin said, "That's enough. If you smoke too much, you'll really pass out."

His cigarette actually had a calming effect. The first puff didn't feel anything, but after a couple more puffs, a cool sensation went straight to his brain through his nasal cavity. It was like applying Tiger Balm directly to his scalp; it not only calmed him but also made his mind much clearer.

So I quickly realized that he would only smoke this cigarette under certain special circumstances.

"Thank you."

I stubbed out my cigarette and casually put it in my pocket.

Lu Zelin crossed his arms and glanced sideways into the room. "Have you been here long enough? Do you want to continue?"

“As long as the homeowner doesn’t kick us out, we can stay as long as we want.” I didn’t stand on ceremony with him at all.

Lu Zelin said expressionlessly, "Oh, you're not leaving? Then I'll leave."

After saying that, he didn't go back into the house. Instead, he opened the courtyard gate and walked straight out.

The monkey watched his departing figure and said, "That ugly freak, he really leaves without a second thought. He's wearing so little, isn't he cold?"

I said, "What do you think? Should he stay and wait for the police to come?"

The monkey was taken aback: "When did you call the police? I didn't know that."

"When we went upstairs, he was already upstairs, hiding outside the window. He heard me say I was going to call the police, so why didn't he leave?"

I made this conclusion because I first witnessed Lu Zelin's actions through the clairvoyance on the second floor.

When we entered the house, he was on the second floor, but he appeared in the yard.

People who engage in shady dealings are usually agile and quick; they can climb down from the outer wall and usually climb back up without much effort.

The key point is that after dawn, he not only took the initiative to talk to me, but also gave me a cigarette.

The only reason I can think of is that he overheard our conversation and wanted to use us to find the thing he mentioned on the phone.

Pidan said, "Don't worry about him now. You just injured your hand, fainted for no reason, and even rinsed your head with cold water... I think you should go to the hospital and stay there for a couple of days."

"No need for that. Ordinary doctors can't help me. Since he's gone, let's try to get everything done during this trip so we don't have to bother him a second time."

Back inside, the old cat still didn't appear.

Going up to the second floor again, I looked through the two and a half rooms again, but didn't find anything special.

Pidan had no time to think about anything else, and kept urging me to go to the hospital.

The monkey was as talkative as ever, spouting nothing but useless drivel.

Stepping out of the storage room, I stood where I had lost consciousness, thought for a moment, and asked the monkey:

"When I was standing here before... and then you spoke to me, how did I react?"

In fact, I already knew that from that moment on, my body was under Lü Xin's control.

I was completely unaware of what was happening, and since it wasn't captured on video, I could only try to find clues by asking around.

The monkey said, "After you were released from the 'freeze,' you didn't say anything more. You just led us through all the rooms, and then went downstairs. First, you offered incense and bowed to your ancestral home..."

"It goes without saying."

I concluded that what he said was meaningless, so I turned to preserved eggs.

Pidan stared into my eyes for a full minute before speaking:

"When Monkey King asked you a question, you looked at him first, and then you made eye contact with me like this. At that moment, I suddenly felt that you were a stranger to me, and also..."

"What else?"

"I find your gaze lewd and disgusting!"

Seeing the disgust in her voice, I laughed: "That's right, because that person isn't me at all."

"What do you mean?" the monkey asked. I waved my hand and asked Eggplant again, "I only make eye contact with you? What happens after that?"

Pidan thought for a moment and said, "You didn't keep eye contact with me the whole time. I remember you opened your mouth as if you wanted to say something to me, but then you turned your head and looked away without saying anything. After that, it was like you didn't exist. You didn't even look at me once."

A thought flashed through my mind: "That lecherous guy, he's actually not interested in women?"

I looked at the monkey, then at the preserved egg, and the three of them were now standing in the same positions as shown in the video.

I winked at the preserved egg: "What could be more captivating than a beautiful woman?"

As he spoke, he turned his head slightly, and his gaze immediately fell on the wall directly in front of him.

It was just a wall facing the stairs, and the only decoration was a picture frame.

Upon closer inspection of the painting, the anomaly quickly became apparent.

The monkey said, "This painting is obviously new, and the workmanship is a bit rough, so it shouldn't be worth much. But Zhong Kui, the Holy Lord, is usually hung in the central hall to ward off evil spirits, so why is it hanging at the entrance of the stairs on the second floor? And this Zhong Kui is painted... too kind and benevolent-looking, isn't he?"

"This is not Zhong Kui."

The person in the painting, dressed in a red robe and tall crown, with a thick beard, looks somewhat like Zhong Kui at first glance.

I don't know much about painting, but there's an old man in my family who likes to collect portraits.

Even more coincidentally, among the paintings that Grandpa collected, there was one that was similar to the portrait in front of him.

When I was a child, my grandfather loved to show me his collection (which was actually a bunch of junk) and tell me who the people in the paintings were.

I remember it clearly; when he showed me similar pictures, I also said it was Zhong Kui.

But my grandfather told me that the person in the painting was not Zhong Kui, the Ghost King, but Wei Zheng, who was known as one of the Four Great Ghost Kings and Four Great Judges, along with Zhong Kui, Lu Zhidao (also known as Lu Pan), and Cui Yu!

The Judge Wei in the painting and the paintings my grandfather collected are almost identical in appearance, actions, and even expressions.

The only difference is that in the judge's painting, the iron fan in his right hand is open.

In the painting before us, the iron fan is closed, and the judge holds it upside down in his hand.

Finally, Pidan couldn't help but ask me, "Wasn't Wei Zheng the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty? How did he become a judge?"

"Who Yama and the judges are is only known through word of mouth, and the accounts differ, but they were all upright officials in life. Lord Wei was an incorruptible official, and it is said that after his death, he was appointed as the judge of the Department of Rewards and Punishments by the Emperor of Fengdu."

"Shouldn't the judge hold the judge's pen in one hand and the Book of Life and Death in the other? Why is there a fan in this painting?" the monkey asked, puzzled.

"That's just an image in the painting. In reality, the Judge's Pen and the Book of Life and Death are respectively held by Judge Lu and Judge Cui. Zhong Kui's magical implements are the Ghost King Sword and the Five Treasures Umbrella. Judge Wei is responsible for the rewards and punishments of mortals and ghosts, and the magical implement he uses is called the Yin-Yang Fan."

The monkey swallowed hard and said, "Then it shouldn't be hung here at all. According to you, our family are tomb raiders. If the Judge of Rewards and Punishments really appears, then he'll definitely be punished, right? Doesn't he feel guilty?"

I smiled and asked, "How old do you think Gu Yun was when he died?"

"Uh... then it really is the Judge showing his power."

I said, “I don’t know if the gods are efficacious, but this painting is definitely wrong. Normally, these kinds of paintings would show the ritual implements. For example, in the paintings of judges we usually see, the Book of Life and Death is open, and the pen is full of ink. The Ghost King Zhong Kui either has his sword drawn, and if the sword is drawn, he must have a wine pot in his hand, and his five-treasure umbrella must be open, with five ghosts emerging from the fan, posing in various ways around Zhong Kui.”

Pidan nodded: "These kinds of portraits are used to ward off evil spirits and protect the house. Showing off the magic artifacts will make people feel even more intimidated."

“That’s right. I have a similar picture at home. I remember it. When the fan is open, the words ‘Rewards and Punishments, Yin and Yang’ are written on it. I heard Lu Zelin talking on the phone upstairs through divination. Just like I guessed, he came here looking for something. The fan in the picture is pointing downwards... Let’s go downstairs.”

"Why downstairs? Can't it be under the floor?" The monkey pointed at the bottom of the picture frame with its toe.

As I walked down, I said, "Thieves are best at stealing. Lu Zelin has been here for half a month and hasn't found anything. So we can't think like thieves. Instead, we should think like the person who hid the things. If we were the homeowner, where would we hide the things?"

The monkey said, "If it were me, I would definitely hide valuable things in my sleeping room."

I said, "If I were a thief, I would have searched the bedroom first. But after meeting this other bald guy, I don't think that way anymore."

Both the preserved egg and the monkey said at the same time, "In the kitchen!"

Although my phone screen was cracked, it was still usable. After going downstairs, I immediately opened WeChat and started a video call with someone.

Soon, the video call connected, and a large, bald man appeared on the screen: "Little brother, we two are really on the same wavelength. I was just thinking, it's getting cold, and I've got my teeth fixed, when should I ask you to come out so we can go to the countryside with your sister-in-law and eat freshly slaughtered mutton?"

"Let's not talk about eating meat yet."

I know Yan Fengwei is a chatterbox, so I quickly interrupted him, "I have something important to discuss with you."

I switched my phone to the rear camera and took a picture of the room.

Before I could even speak, Yan Fengwei asked, "How did Kouzi die?"

I looked at the photo on the altar: "Do you recognize him?"

"His name was Kou Yun, nicknamed Button. I dealt with him when I first came here. That bastard... ugh, let's be respectful to the dead. Let me put it this way, he was a 'landscaping' guy, someone who made a living from the soil. When I first met him, I thought he was a decent person, and we got quite close."

But that guy has a terrible habit; he's incredibly lecherous, and in a really shameless way. I took your sister-in-law out for a meal with him, and the next time I went out of town to work on land, he knew I wasn't home, but he still called home at night and said some really indecent things to your sister-in-law. When your sister-in-law told me about it, I stopped talking to him.

Yan Fengwei asked me, "Why did you go to his house?"

I said, "Let's not waste time on small talk. Just tell me, if this place were yours, where would you hide something?"

(End of this chapter)