American Zombie Detective

Qin Jin twirled the gravel between his fingers, the rough texture carrying the chilling atmosphere unique to the mine.

After digesting Qin Jin's words, Alessa clearly pointed out the key point:

"The stone proves that he was here."

"Yes, that's the idea," Qin Jin flicked the gravel out the window, gripped the steering wheel, and began to accelerate.

"That unlucky guy must have been to the mine! The problem is, we need to know when he came and when he took that thing back..."

His tone was tinged with helplessness: "I bet the dashcam in his beat-up car, as well as the public surveillance cameras near his house, were all taken away by the police a long time ago. It's hard for us to find them now."

A brief silence fell over the car, broken only by the low growl of the engine.

Aresa's gaze fell on the blurry shadows flitting past the window, as if she were thinking. A few seconds later, she turned her head, her expression serious and certain:

"Second row, on the left, there's a security camera, but no cars or people."

Qin Jin suddenly raised an eyebrow, understanding what Alessa meant.

"Ha!" He chuckled briefly, with a hint of approval.

"Brilliant! The police can arrest people who live there, but if no one was home, they have no reason to break in and search private surveillance footage... Alessa, you're amazing! You even managed to catch this slip-up!"

"Yes. I am, short-sighted," Alessa said, using a Chinese idiom.

"Uh—" Qin Jin could only correct her word choice again: "At this point, it should be explained that it's 'observing the finest details,' not 'shortsighted,' because the Chinese meaning of this phrase is..."

As Qin Jin explained, the roar of the Dodge began to intensify as it sped along the canyon highway, probably making the taxis behind it unable to even smell the smoke...

Back in Qingcao Community, the two headed straight for their target house.

Two figures silently climbed over the fence and crept into the garden from the darkness. After a couple of attempts, Qin Jin found a window that wasn't closed properly, easily climbed into the house, and then opened the door to let Alessa in.

The living room was covered in dust, clearly indicating that the owner hadn't been there for a long time. The two quickly found the main unit located under the stairs and connected it to their phones to quickly check...

Fast forward... Search... Fast forward... The timeline finally locked onto three days ago.

The footage shows that on the morning of that day, the young male victim, dressed in hiking gear, put a hiking stick and a backpack into the car. The backpack had a conspicuous logo on it.

In the early hours of the morning, the car headlights pierced the darkness as it returned. He got out of the driver's seat, walked around to the passenger side to open the door, and then...

A human-shaped object was carefully helped out of the passenger seat.

The object's head was covered with a bright red veil, and its body was draped in red silk or cloth; the details were obscured by the distance. It remained motionless; rather than being helped down, it seemed to have been half-carried, half-dragged out by the deceased.

Its limbs were stiff, and its gait—if it could be called a gait—was produced by being dragged by the dead, without any voluntary movement, giving it a chillingly inhuman feel in the surveillance footage.

"As expected..." Qin Jin muttered to himself, staring at the screen. This thing was indeed a paper effigy!

Qin Jin noted down the exact time, turned on his phone, and the light from the screen illuminated his usually indifferent face, which now appeared somewhat solemn. He pulled up an Eastern almanac on his phone, which even included auspicious and inauspicious times.

"Let me see..." Qin Jin murmured, finding the corresponding time, his gaze intently sweeping across the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, auspicious and inauspicious days, and their corresponding meanings on the screen...

Suddenly, a knowing smile curved his lips, carrying a mysterious air, as he showed the screen to Aresa:

"Look, we found it! The night of the mountain climb—is an auspicious day for marriage!"

Aresa leaned closer, carefully examining the seemingly incomprehensible Chinese characters on the screen, then nodded solemnly:

"Yes, I found it."

"I'll venture a guess: the date this paper bride appears might be related to the Chinese almanac," Qin Jin nodded, then began searching for publicly available information online:

"Didn't that senior police officer in the car say that this is the third case? Let me check the times of the other two cases."

He quickly searched for the murder dates of the first two victims in publicly available police information, then compared them with the Chinese calendar, and the result was just as he had guessed—

The deaths of the other two victims both occurred shortly after a day considered auspicious for marriage!

However, the deaths were not fixed – one died on the second day, and another on the third!

"Time is different."

Aresa held the doll in her hand, her clear eyes looking at Qin Jin, waiting for his explanation, but Qin Jin seemed a little confused as well...

Ancient fragments of memory surged through his mind, remnants of the mysteries he had encountered or heard in his homeland throughout his long life. Unfortunately, he knew very little about these things at the time, and given the circumstances, he could hardly remember any of them.

Finally, he clapped his hands, stood up, and shook his head:

"Let's not think about it anymore. Before I came to America, most of the time I was either hiding from the Celestial Masters or living in a daze, so I didn't remember these things. Let's just leave it at that."

Although Aresa didn't get an answer, she still nodded vigorously, her porcelain-white face calmly affirming Qin Jin's statement:

"You're right!"

A lazy smile played on Qin Jin's lips as he looked across the street at the house where someone had died, following the direction of the camera. He said with certainty:

"So, since tomorrow night is an auspicious day for marriage, let's go and see what's going on with this paper bride, and how she was brought home, shall we?"

………………

The morning sunlight streamed through the blinds, creating stripes of light and shadow on the dining table.

Aresa sat barefoot at the dining table, her eyes unusually tinged with a hint of melancholy. She stared intently at Qin Jin, her porcelain-white face tense, silently protesting the potentially terrible breakfast.

Just thinking about the taste of frozen cow's blood made Qin Jin's lips twitch; that taste... was really not pleasant.

"Never mind, let's eat out," Qin Jin said with a helpless smile.

"I checked online yesterday. California law allows you to slaughter poultry for personal use, but it's very strict. Let's go to the Asian community; they might have live poultry there. I'll go get some fresh meat..."

He paused, looking at the light that had appeared in Alessa's eyes.

"If you can't wait, you can come with me, okay?"

Alessa immediately jumped off the table, ran to the sofa, threw the Frankenstein's monster plush toy on it, and started putting on her shoes...

Just then, the sound of a car approaching, braking, and coming to a stop could be heard outside.

Qin Jin and Alessa looked up and scanned the living room almost simultaneously—

The gun is inside the doll, there are no cups on the table, the kitchen is empty... Good, there's nothing inexplicable.

As the doorbell rang, Alessa curled up on the sofa and opened her iPad, while Qin Jin took a bottle of Coke from the refrigerator, opened it, and slowly walked over, looking out through the peephole.

There were two people outside the door. The one in the lead was dressed in civilian clothes. He was tall and muscular with broad shoulders. His face was turned to the side, and you could clearly see the wrinkles around his eyes and the fat on his chin. The other person was dressed in a police uniform and was listening attentively to what he was saying.

Qin Jin's eyebrows twitched involuntarily... Logan Miller! What was this guy doing here?!

This was his previous identity, Qin Han, his partner when he was a policeman in Chicago, a guy who fought alongside him, shared life and death, and even made a special trip to the small town of Allanders to drink with him six years ago!

Qin Jin's mind raced, quickly piecing together his two identities—Qin Han and Qin Jin—and his interactions with Logan.

Logan only had contact with Qin Han. As for Qin Jin, he probably only saw the photo on the wall of his home in the small town and never met him in person.

In terms of appearance, Qin Jin and Qin Han look very similar. The biggest difference is that Qin Han had a black spot on his forehead back then. It was a mark made by a piece of cloth that he deliberately stuffed under his skin. It was very obvious, but it has been removed now.

Qin Han's accent had a strong Texas influence, a bit husky; now, he's switched to a California accent, very crisp...

Hmm, generally there are no problems, you can open the door!

Within a tenth of a second, Qin Jin had mentally prepared himself and opened the door with a somewhat lazy and casual attitude.

Logan, who was outside the door, just turned his head.

Upon seeing Qin Jin open the door, his sharp eyes lit up instantly, and an incredibly enthusiastic smile bloomed on his face, even tinged with excitement.

"Ha! Hello there, young man!"

Logan's voice was loud and clear, with the hearty tone of an old-school cop:

"My name is Logan Miller! Listen, your father, Qin Han, and I are sworn brothers, the best partners! Good heavens! You...you're Qin Han's son, aren't you?"

He looked Qin Jin up and down, his eyes filled with undisguised amazement. "My God! You and your father are practically identical, you look so alike!"