False evidence

Chapter 479 Painted Skin (29)

My phone vibrated; it was Gao He calling.

I answered the phone: "Hello, Brother Gao."

After a moment of silence, the other person asked, "Are we friends?"

"are friends."

"Then why did you lie to me?" Gao asked, his tone quite annoyed.

I sighed. "I admit that at first I used ventriloquism to imitate a woman's voice because I was afraid that you would get too involved in some special events and not know how to write reports afterwards."

"And then?" Gao He emphasized, "What secrets does No. 23 Tanjiaqiao hold?"

“I don’t know.” I rubbed my aching temples. “The one we put in the coffin is really Wang Xi, who went missing two years ago in a car accident. She didn’t die then, but for the past two years, she has been forced to live as someone else.”

I'm really having a headache. Gao He is my friend, my older brother. Deceiving someone close to you, even if it's out of good intentions, is still deception. And that so-called good intention is just wishful thinking. Neither the deceiver nor the deceived will feel good, which is why Gao He couldn't help but call me from the car.

"Who is forcing her? And who has she been doing these past two years?" Gao asked in a deep voice.

"I really don't know who's forcing her. Who is she doing this to..."

My heart suddenly skipped a beat. "Brother Gao, you should have read Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio and know the story of Painted Skin."

Gao remained silent. I gritted my teeth and said, "Wang Xi is dead. For some reason, her soul was trapped in her body until her death, unable to reincarnate. She was already very weak from exhaustion and persecution, and all that awaited her was the annihilation of her soul."

However, by a twist of fate, I transferred her remnant soul into myself. Because of this, I learned some things through her. But she truly was just a weak, fragmented soul; her only obsession was going home, to see her parents one last time. As for everything else, all that remained in her consciousness were fragments that couldn't be pieced together.

Gao He slowly said, "Is the Painted Skin one of the fragments of memory?"

I nodded into the phone: "Yes! The person who harmed her has been doing her makeup for the past two years, making her look like someone else. She is terrified of this person, so in the 'fragments,' there is no complete impression of this person."

"What kind of living conditions has she been under these past two years?" Gao asked.

Without a second thought, I thought, "She lives a life of luxury, which can no longer be described as that of a wealthy lady. Apart from the limited range of activities, she is treated like an imperial concubine."

Cao Xinyun couldn't help but interject: "The imperial concubine who is under house arrest?"

I waved my hand sharply to shut him up. I was already in a mess; I couldn't afford to have my train of thought interrupted any further.

"How could a royal concubine who lives a life of luxury become so thin?" Gao He's words hit the nail on the head.

I immediately said, "But her skin is really good!"

Thinking of that 'wax corpse's' fair skin, I couldn't help but feel my heart pounding.

When the 'wax corpse' and Cao Xinyun were lying in the same bed, the wax corpse was naked. Before moving it into the coffin, I took off the restaurant owner's funeral clothes and put them on the 'wax corpse'.

This was influenced by Zhai Yutian; you can't have a dead person buried naked, right?
That's why I was even more impressed by the 'wax corpse' and its smooth, firm skin, which contrasted so greatly with its body shape.

On the other end of the phone, Gao He fell silent again. This time he didn't speak for a long time, so much so that I thought the call had been dropped several times. "No. 23, Tanjiaqiao Lane, what's there?" Gao He finally spoke again, "I just had someone check, it's a private residence, the owner's name is Zhu Yunwen."

"That's right!" I took a deep breath. "You should also know that Li Meizhi's kindergarten is also in Tanjiaqiao Lane, and her landlord is Zhu Yunwen!"

Gao He said in a deep voice, "Is there anything else you can tell me on your own initiative?"

“Now that things have come to this, I’m willing to tell you everything, but I really can’t explain it clearly.” I gritted my teeth again. “Wang Xi’s spirit is with me now, and she’s conveyed the most important message to me—she’s dead, and another woman must take her place. Once the person who takes her place is made up and ‘disguised,’ there will be no turning back; she will only face death.”

"The person who replaced Wang Xi is Li Meizhi?"

“I… Wang Xi’s remnant soul is very chaotic. She only wants to go home. The fragments of her memories cannot be merged by herself, nor can I put them together.”

At this point, Gao and I both breathed a sigh of relief on the phone.

"understood."

"Take it one step at a time."

Gao and I spoke at the same time, and hung up the phone almost simultaneously.

"Oh, I really didn't know you could do ventriloquism." Cao Xin had recovered, but then a sudden urge arose, and he said sarcastically, "Make a dog bark, let me hear if it sounds like a dog..."

"Did I ask you any questions?" I glanced at him coldly. "From beginning to end, if you didn't want to talk, I didn't ask. I didn't ask what you and Brother Yan went through, I didn't ask who Xiao Feng is, did I?"

Cao Xinyun was stunned for a moment after my retort, then pursed his lips and said, "I had a foul mouth, I apologize. Brother Yan... I only remember that I knocked him unconscious. I don't know what happened to him after that."

"You knocked him out?" I turned around and glared at Cao Xinyun.

Before I could speak again, Old K patted me on the shoulder and said, "Listen to him, tell him the whole story."

I shut my mouth and stared at Cao Xinyun in the dimly lit carriage.

Cao Xinyun paused for a moment, then shook his head. "I can't talk about my personal matters. All I can say is that Yan and I went into that restaurant together. The proprietress was the same one I saw during the day, not the fat woman from last night. We ordered potstickers, but she said they were sold out, so we asked her to just get us a couple of ready-made cold dishes..."

At this point, Cao Xinyun's speech slowed down noticeably. "I watched the proprietress go into the kitchen and then she and Brother Yan talked quietly about what happened last night. As they were talking, the kitchen curtain was lifted, and someone brought out the dishes."

I don't know what kind of scene Yan Ge saw, but what I saw was... everything around me had changed, and I felt like I had returned to a small tavern in ancient times. The layout of the house was similar, and a woman in ancient costume came out to serve dishes after lifting the curtain.

I was stunned because the woman was... At that moment, Brother Yan, for some reason, seemed to have gone mad. He jumped up from his seat, grabbed me, and ran towards the door.

I refused to leave, I didn't want to leave! So I struggled, and in my struggle I accidentally hit him on the back of the neck with my elbow. He passed out on the spot.

And then...and then...and then..."

Cao Xinyun suddenly leaned forward, gripping the back of my seat, and whispered almost in my ear, "Painted Skin... Is the story of Painted Skin true? A person who has been dead for hundreds of years... no, dead for hundreds of years, that's obviously a ghost. Could a ghost really come back by possessing the skin of a living person?"

(End of this chapter)