A single divination predicts life and death; the entire internet begs me to start a live stream.

The moment the tablet screen went black, everyone present was stunned.

Immediately afterwards, a line of red text slowly appeared on the screen.

The bride has arrived.

[Groom's Wedding Procession]

[Third Bow]

[Seven days later]

Those words were glaringly red.

Unlike system prompts.

It's more like someone is writing blood, stroke by stroke, on the screen.

The technician's face turned pale instantly.

"Team Leader Lin, I...I didn't do it."

Lin Wanqing grabbed the tablet.

"Internet disconnected."

The technician immediately realized what was happening, unplugged the wireless device, and turned off the mobile network.

But those few lines of red text are still there.

It did not disappear.

Instead, it gets deeper and deeper.

The air inside the studio seemed to have suddenly dropped several degrees.

The young police officer standing next to the body instinctively took a half step back.

The forensic doctor frowned as he looked at the screen, his lips moved but he didn't say anything.

He is a forensic pathologist.

Logically speaking, I've seen all sorts of deaths.

But what we see before us is something that an autopsy can't explain.

Lin Wanqing handed it to her colleagues nearby.

"Take a picture."

"Inspect all electronic devices immediately."

"Check all on-site communication records, network signals, and abnormal Bluetooth devices."

"yes!"

The technician gritted his teeth and began the operation.

Chen Bufan stood three steps away from Su Man's corpse, but his gaze did not fall on the tablet.

He looked at the paper money on the ground.

White paper money with the character for "happiness" was arranged in a semicircle.

The opening was directly facing the corpse.

Judging from its shape, it looks like a door.

From the perspective of the air, it is a road.

A road for the dead to be brought to their weddings.

Lin Wanqing turned to look at him.

What do these sentences mean?

Chen Bufan said:

"She has already been sent there."

Lin Wanqing frowned.

"Where to send it?"

"The Road to Ghost Marriage"

The police officers at the scene were so frightened that their faces turned pale.

Lin Wanqing didn't interrupt, and lowered her voice:

Explain yourself.

Chen Bufan squatted down, his gaze falling on the red rope on the deceased's wrist.

The red string was wrapped around seven times.

Each loop is very tight.

But strangely, there were no obvious signs of struggle on the skin.

Tie the knot on the inside.

The knot was hidden very well.

If you don't look closely, you might even mistake it for just an ordinary decorative rope.

Chen Bufan reached out and stopped above the red rope, but did not touch it.

"This knot isn't for tying people up."

Lin Wanqing asked:

"What is that for?"

"Soul-stirring".

Chen Bufan said.

"The red rope is wrapped seven times, encircling the living soul."

"The knot is inward, meaning the soul cannot escape."

"Paper money paves the way, wedding dress weighs down the body, and phoenix crown covers the fate."

"This is not an ordinary murder scene."

He looked up at Lin Wanqing.

"This is a ghost marriage ceremony."

Lin Wanqing stared at him.

"Do ghosts really exist?"

Chen Bufan's voice was very flat.

"A living person marrying a dead person is called a karmic debt."

"A marriage between two dead people is called a ghost marriage."

"Living people were treated like dead people and sent away, which was called 'taking their lives'."

These words sent chills down the spines of several police officers.

The forensic doctor couldn't help but ask:

"Living people being sent away as if they were dead?"

Chen Bufan nodded.

"She was already engaged before she died."

Lin Wanqing immediately grasped the key point.

"Who made that decision?"

Chen Bufan looked at Su Man's face.

The deceased was very young.

Her face was adorned with exquisite bridal makeup.

A red mole was placed between her eyebrows.

The lip color is very vibrant.

But when that vibrant color falls on a dead person's face, it only looks eerie.

"For a man who is already dead."

Lin Wanqing's face darkened completely.

"Someone is finding a bride for a dead man."

Chen Bufan nodded.

"And it's not just anyone."

"Her birth chart matches that of the deceased man."

Lin Wanqing immediately looked at the police officer next to her.

"Check Su Man's birth date."

"We will also investigate whether she has recently been in contact with clients related to fortune telling, marriage compatibility analysis, blind dates, or wedding planning."

"Especially those who have asked her about her birth date and time."

The officer nodded immediately.

"Yes."

Chen Bufan continued to look at the red rope.

After the second layer was opened, he could see more clearly.

Previously, he could only sense the yin energy on the red rope.

Now, he can see a deeper level.

Two lifelines were tied to the red rope.

One belongs to Su Man.

It was very thin, just a wreckage.

It's already broken.

The other path, however, did not belong to her.

The lifeline was black and cold, like a line pulled from a grave.

The two lines were forcibly tied into the same knot.

This is the Soul-Binding Knot.

Seeing that he was staring at the red string without saying a word, Lin Wanqing asked:

"Any new discoveries?"

Chen Bufan said:

"The lifeline of two people."

Lin Wanqing's gaze darkened.

"Su Man and that dead man?"

"Um."

"Can you tell who the man is?"

Chen Bufan closed his eyes.

Gently press the old copper coin with your fingertips.

The copper coin trembled slightly.

A chill crept up my fingertips.

He saw a blurry portrait of a deceased person.

Young man.

Twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old.

His face was deathly pale.

There are burn marks on the edges of the photo.

There was also a white paper rooster next to it.

A red string hangs around the rooster's neck.

Chen Bufan opened his eyes.

Male, around 28 years old.

"He's already dead."

"Those who died without being buried, or whose graves were disturbed after burial."

Lin Wanqing quickly jotted it down in her notebook.

"Relocating the grave?"

"It could also be that they opened the coffin to retrieve items."

Lin Wanqing immediately turned to the technician.

"Investigate whether there have been any recent cases in Haicheng and the surrounding areas where young men died and their graves were moved, graves were robbed, cemeteries were damaged, or ashes were stolen."

"The time frame has been extended to three months."

The technician quickly took notes.

"Yes."

At this moment, the forensic doctor whispered:

"Team Leader Lin, there's a detail."

Lin Wanqing looked at him.

The forensic doctor pointed to Su Man's right hand.

"There was no skin flakes under the deceased's fingernails."

"There were no obvious signs of restraint or struggle injuries on the wrists."

"Judging from the scene, she probably did not put up a strong resistance."

Lin Wanqing frowned.

"That is what Chen Bufan just said, she may have walked in by herself."

The forensic doctor nodded.

That's how it seems at the moment.

"But this doesn't make sense in a normal way."

"A young woman, alone in the middle of the night, enters an abandoned photography base, dressed in a wedding gown and wearing a phoenix coronet, and sits here waiting to die."

"Unless she is under the influence of drugs or has a mental disorder."

Lin Wanqing asked:

"Can it be detected?"

"We have to wait for the drug test."

Chen Bufan said:

"A drug test may not yield results."

The forensic doctor looked at him.

Chen Bufan then said:

It's not medicine.

"It's an engagement letter."

Lin Wanqing asked:

"What is it?"

Chen Bufan stood up and walked towards the mahogany screen.

The screen depicts a newlywed couple paying respects at their wedding.

The groom's face was covered up with black ink.

The bride's face, however, was preserved intact.

Chen Bufan reached out and pointed to the bottom of the screen.

There was a piece of red paper pressed down there.

Because the color of the red paper was similar to the background of the screen, everyone had overlooked it.

Lin Wanqing immediately put on gloves, squatted down, and took out the red paper.

The red paper was folded into the shape of an invitation.

When I opened it, there was no name inside.

There are only two lines of text.

The marriage certificate has been matched.

[The match is made]

Lin Wanqing's face turned cold.

"Is this the engagement letter you mentioned?"

Chen Bufan nodded.

"It's also called a marriage certificate. In a ghost marriage, once the birth dates are matched, the living soul will be drawn together."

"If she received something similar during her lifetime, or if someone wrote down her birth date and time in some way, she would be brought here."

Lin Wanqing immediately looked at the police officer.

"Check her home, workplace, and mobile phone chat history."

"The key is to check if you have received any red invitations, wedding invitations, custom makeup orders, or orders for props for ghost weddings."

"Yes."

Chen Bufan suddenly looked at the deceased's left foot.

Su Man was wearing red embroidered shoes.

Golden mandarin ducks are embroidered on the shoe surface.

However, there was a little bit of black ash on the toe of the left shoe.

It's not dust from the site.

It looks more like incense ash.

He crouched down and took a look.

"She went to the funeral parlor before she came."

Lin Wanqing immediately asked:

"Are you sure?"

Chen Bufan said:

"The toes of the shoes are covered with incense ash from the funeral."

"It's not ordinary incense ash."

The forensic doctor also squatted down to take a look.

"There is indeed a grayish substance."

"I had someone take samples."

Lin Wanqing immediately turned around.

"Check her whereabouts last night."

"Surveillance footage, ride-hailing records, shared bikes, and mobile phone location tracking."

"If she really went to the funeral hall, there must have been traces."

The technicians quickly relayed the news.

"Team Leader Lin, the deceased's phone has been unlocked."

Lin Wanqing walked over.

"What?"

The technician handed me the phone.

"The last message was received at 10:12 last night."

"Sent from an unknown number."

The content is—

The technician paused, his expression turning grim.

"Bride, it's time to get into the sedan chair."

Lin Wanqing made a note of it.

"Check the number."

The technician typed away rapidly on the keyboard.

"Virtual number".

"But we're pursuing it."

Chen Bufan was not surprised.

Someone capable of orchestrating such a clandestine marriage scheme would obviously not stumble on the matter of the real phone number.

he asks:

"Do you have her birth date and time on your phone?"

The technician flipped through it.

"have."

"She was chatting with a client about two weeks ago. The client said he wanted to hold a birthday banquet for an elderly person and asked her to do his makeup and hair."

"The other party asked her about her zodiac sign and said she needed to avoid any clashes."

She sent her birthdate.

Lin Wanqing suddenly realized.

"Using a birthday banquet as an excuse to obtain the birth date and time of one's birth chart."

Chen Bufan said:

"It's not something you can just apply randomly."

"She was chosen."

Lin Wanqing asked:

"Because of the compatibility of our birth charts?"

"right."

Chen Bufan stared at Su Man's corpse.

"This kind of ghost marriage that leads to death is not something a street shaman can do."

"We must first find out the birth chart."

"Let's send out the engagement letter again."

"Then lead her into the bridal chamber."

"The final red thread binds the soul."

"Every step must be perfect."

Lin Wanqing said in a deep voice:

"In other words, the killer or the team behind them was very professional."

Chen Bufan nodded.

"And they have resources."

"It can screen women's birth charts."

"We can track her movements."

"I can control her to come here."

"It can also handle similar cases in other cities."

Lin Wanqing immediately thought of the Longevity Foundation.

An organization that can use charitable medical care, psychological assistance, and business consulting as a shell can certainly screen people.

She asked in a low voice:

"The Gate of Fate? Is it Lu Changsheng again?"

Chen Bufan did not answer.

He turned and walked toward the pile of white "double happiness" paper money at the feet of the corpse.

There was a bit of black smoke under the paper money.

Very fine.

It was hidden very well.

He gently brushed aside the paper money with a vermilion pen.

A copper coin was revealed.

The copper coin was not large.

Slightly thinner than a regular coin.

It is dark red all over.

It looks like it's been soaked in blood.

The front is engraved with the character "喜" (happiness).

But the character for "happiness" was written very strangely.

The two "mouth" characters resemble eyes.

The vertical line in the middle looks like a tongue.

The more you look at it, the more it resembles a smiling ghost face.

Lin Wanqing squatted down.

"Is this lucky money?"

Chen Bufan did not touch it.

He turned the copper coin over with a vermilion pen.

On the back, there is a familiar thin line.

Black life mark.

It's that again.

Starting with the Shen Qingyue case, then moving on to the Qin family's old debts, and finally to the Changsheng Foundation.

Every time a black mark appears, it signifies the presence of a force that alters one's destiny.

Chen Bufan looked at the lucky coin, lost in thought.

"Found it."

Lin Wanqing's voice was deep:

"The key to changing one's fate?"

Chen Bufan nodded.

"This is not an ordinary ghost marriage."

"It's a case of altering one's fate by using a ghost marriage to claim a life."

"Su Man is not the bride."

"She was a sacrifice."

As soon as he finished speaking, the lights in the studio flickered.

The tablet, which had been blacked out, suddenly lit up again.

The red text reappeared.

This time, there was only one sentence.

The second bow has been completed.

One more bow needed!