Tianjin, starting with unorthodox methods to achieve immortality

Cola Novels makes reading always a chapter faster than others.

Chen Mo, who was completely unaware of all the intricacies behind the scenes, just wanted to slack off at the moment.

He stood on the steps in front of the Tai Lai Hotel, squinting as he glanced towards Willow Leaf Alley.

The sun is still scorching, and in this weather, I feel a bit drowsy after lunch.

"Um... Captain Zheng and Wu Gan went to the White Bone Tower. Should the three of us find a place to rest for a bit?"

As he spoke, he glanced at the tea stalls on the side of the street.

The tea stall had a shaded area with a few benches, and several idle people were sitting there, fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans and drinking tea. It looked very comfortable.

Fang Yingxia wiped the sweat from her forehead with a handkerchief. Her eyes lit up when she heard this, and she was about to nod.

"no."

Liu Ruyan's voice was soft, but it was like a bucket of cold water poured over their heads.

Fang Yingxia's smile froze.

Chen Mo turned to look at her, surprised that this woman was so dedicated.

Liu Ruyan stood at the bottom of the steps, the sun shining on her, the back of her dark blue uniform already soaked with a dark patch.

She didn't show much expression on her face, but she glanced at the sky.

"The Japanese consulate is keeping an eye on things; this can't be delayed." Liu Ruyan's tone remained calm. "If the case doesn't make progress, won't the pressure fall entirely on our team?"

"Now is not the time to rest."

"Okay, you're right."

Chen Mo yawned and nodded somewhat reluctantly.

Whose good person is being haunted by evil spirits in broad daylight?

He had already cleaned up the area around Liuye Lane when he first moved in, and he had dealt with several places with heavy yin energy. What can you possibly get out of him now?

Others may not know what kind of people those neighbors are, but doesn't he know them well?

Even if they knew something, they dared not say it, claiming ignorance when questioned.

"Let's go."

Fang Yingxia glanced at him, then at Liu Ruyan, muttered something under her breath, and followed after him.

The three walked along the street toward Willow Leaf Lane, the sun making them feel sweltering.

After walking a few steps, Chen Mo suddenly spoke up: "Besides the one who died, who else is in the Hou family?"

Liu Ruyan turned her head to look at him.

"I'm just asking." Chen Mo's expression was natural, revealing no hint of his thoughts. "I want to find out first, otherwise, if someone comes to cause trouble later, we won't even know who they are."

After a moment of contemplation, Liu Ruyan said as she walked, "The one who died was the second son of the eldest son's family. He also had an older brother who seemed to be working for the Japanese."

"Where are the others?"

"The second wife has no male offspring and has been living in Shanghai for the past few years, rarely returning to Tianjin."

"What about the third son?" Chen Mo pressed. The man he killed that night was named Hou San, I think.

"There's only one person in the third branch," Liu Ruyan continued, "but his whereabouts are erratic, and I don't know where he is."

Fang Yingxia, who was listening nearby, suddenly said, "Then the Hou family only has four people left now?"

Liu Ruyan glanced at her but didn't answer.

Chen Mo pondered in his mind: the second son of the eldest son's family died last night, and the son of the third son's family also died.

Now, the only people in charge of Jinshi are the old man from the eldest son's family and his eldest son.

While it may not solve the problem, it can solve the problem of the person who raised it.

Once those two are dead, the matter will naturally cool down.

When a person dies, it's like a lamp going out. Whether the case can be solved or not, what does it have to do with their third team?

As for that thing lurking in the shadows, skinning people...

Chen Mo narrowed his eyes. "Well, we'd have to run into each other."

Based on the pattern of their killings, it's obvious they don't appear in a fixed area; if you're unlucky, you might not run into them even after a year of searching.

However, it's best to avoid him. Right now, he just wants peace and quiet, and if possible, to live for a few thousand more years.

Let's see if the Republic of China, in its bizarre era, continues to develop and will it resemble later times...?

These thoughts raced through his mind, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.

Fang Yingxia glanced at him curiously from the side, "What are you laughing at?"

"I wasn't smiling." Chen Mo suppressed the corners of his mouth and walked forward expressionlessly.

You've misjudged.

You clearly laughed just now.

"Screw you!"

------

The White Bone Pagoda in the west of the city.

After the ghost market closed, only a chaotic scene remained.

The stalls that used to be set up along the edge of the mass grave are now overturned and lying haphazardly on the ground.

The tattered shed was blown about by the wind, some pieces hanging on the bare branches like fragments of someone's clothes.

Several bamboo baskets lay on the roadside, their contents long gone, leaving only broken porcelain shards.

The ground was covered with footprints, some deep, some shallow, a messy mess as if trampled by a cow.

There were also some dark, indistinct things, I don’t know if it was spilled lamp oil or something else, scattered patches of marks on the yellow earth.

Zheng Changkong stood at the entrance of the ghost market, his brows furrowed.

Wu Gan followed behind him, took out a cigarette and tried to light it, but the wind blew out the match after he struck it twice.

He cursed, tucked the cigarette behind his ear, and hunched his neck, glancing around.

"Captain Zheng, this place... it looks like it's been robbed!"

Zheng Changkong didn't answer. He squatted down, rubbed his finger on the dark mess on the ground, and then brought it to his nose to smell it.

"It's blood."

Wu Gan's expression changed.

Zheng Changkong stood up and glanced around.

The ghost market was built right next to a mass grave, in the middle of nowhere. No one dared to come during the day, and there wasn't a soul in sight at night.

The sun was blazing, but the overturned shelves and the dried bloodstains on the ground looked even more eerie than at night.

"Go inside," Zheng Changkong said.

Wu Gan followed with a bitter face, muttering to himself as he walked, "This place is eerie. I heard the Ghost Market has been open for decades and has never closed, but this time it's been closed for half a month..."

Zheng Changkong ignored him, but kept his footsteps very light and his eyes fixed on the ground.

The further you go in, the more chaotic the scene becomes.

Some shelves looked like they had been knocked over, and various useless junk was scattered on the ground.

There was also a cloth shoe lying crookedly by the roadside, its toe pointing towards the mass grave.

Wu Gan paused for a moment when he saw the shoe.

"Captain Zheng..." he said in a low voice, "There seems to be something inside this shoe."

Zheng Changkong walked over and saw that there was a dark, dry thing inside the shoe.

He took out a handkerchief from his pocket and used it as a cushion to pick up the object.

It's half a finger.

It was shriveled up, skin covering bones, and the fingernails were still there, but they were black and purple, as if they had been sucked dry by something.

Wu Gan gasped and quietly took a step back.

Zheng Changkong wrapped up the severed finger, tucked it into his pocket, stood up, and continued walking forward.

After walking a dozen steps, he suddenly stopped.

Ahead was a slightly flat open space, which should be the liveliest part of the ghost market.

But now, there is only an overturned incense and candle stall in the open space, with incense ash scattered all over the ground.

There were several conspicuous footprints in the incense ash.

But they were not ordinary footprints.

Zheng Changkong squatted down and stared at the footprints for a long time.

Wu Gan leaned closer, glanced at him, and his face turned pale.

Those footprints didn't look like human footprints.

There were six deep craters in front and a long drag mark behind, as if something was crawling forward on the ground.

"Let's go to Tingyu Tower and ask. I heard that the tower owner is one of the people in charge of the Ghost Market. He should know something."