Tianjin, starting with unorthodox methods to achieve immortality

"They probably won't notice."

Wu Gan's hand was already on the doorknob, and he glanced back at them.

"Come in."

He lowered his voice and gently pushed open the door. "Captain Zheng is waiting inside. Let's be quiet and not startle the thing."

The door hinges made a slight creaking sound.

It was pitch black inside; you couldn't see anything.

A strange, fishy stench wafted out from inside the door, making Fang Yingxia instinctively take a step back, but Liu Ruyan stopped her with her hand.

"Wait." Liu Ruyan stared at the dark doorway, her brows furrowed.

Wu Gan had already stepped across the threshold, half of his body hidden in the darkness, only his face showing, which appeared exceptionally pale in the moonlight.

"What are you waiting for?" he urged, his voice low. "That thing is on the second floor. There's no movement right now. Captain Zheng is hiding behind the stairs. We'll see him when we go in."

As he spoke, he took another half step inside, almost disappearing into the darkness.

"I think I'd better not."

Chen Mo, standing at the very back, suddenly spoke up: "Why are we going in to fight that evil spirit head-on? Why don't we just set it on fire outside and roast it until it's about 80% cooked?"

Upon hearing this, Wu Gan froze at the doorway, as if he had been frozen in place.

"Set...set fire?" He turned his head, his pale face showing a slightly bewildered expression. "Brother Chen, what did you say?"

"Set it on fire!"

Chen Mo pointed to the dark building, "Look at this building, it's a wooden frame, a tattered shed, full of flammable materials."

"Let's pile up some firewood outside, pour some oil on it, light it, and it'll burn like crazy."

"No matter how evil that thing is, can it withstand fire? Let's roast it until it's 80% cooked, and then we can go in and clean up the remaining 20%. It'll save us a lot of trouble."

Fang Yingxia stared at him with wide eyes, momentarily at a loss for words.

Liu Ruyan didn't speak, but only glanced at Chen Mo.

"Brother Chen... Brother Chen," Wu Gan's voice was a little dry, "Captain Zheng is still inside..."

"Oh right, Captain Zheng is inside."

Chen Mo frowned and thought seriously, "How about this, we shout first to make Captain Zheng run out on his own, and then we set the fire after he runs out."

"Team Leader Zheng is quick on his feet, he must be fast."

"He...he..."

As Chen Mo spoke, he actually pulled a kerosene lighter out of his pocket, which he had swiped from Fatty Li.

"That's enough!" Fang Yingxia nearly vomited blood in anger. "What kind of time is this to keep making a scene?!"

"I didn't cause any trouble," Chen Mo said with a wronged expression. "Setting a fire would have been much better. We wouldn't have had to go inside and risk our lives, or confront that thing head-on. It would just produce a lot of smoke, but there are no other houses around here anyway."

Liu Ruyan suddenly spoke up: "Chen Mo, do you mean we're not going in?"

Chen Mo blinked. "Why go in? It's pitch black in there. That thing is hiding in the shadows. If we go in, aren't we just delivering food to it?"

"It would be great if we set fire to the outside; it's in the dark while we're in the light, and the initiative is in our hands."

"But...but Captain Zheng," Wu Gan's voice grew increasingly hoarse, "Captain Zheng wants us to go in..."

"Captain Zheng let us in, he didn't say we couldn't set fires." Chen Mo shrugged. "We can set fires before we go in, right?"

"By the way, Brother Wu, when you came out, where exactly was Captain Zheng hiding? To the left or to the right? Let me see which angle I can set the fire from so it won't burn him."

Wu Gan opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

The moonlight shone on his face, making his expression indescribably strange.

Liu Ruyan's gaze swept between Chen Mo and Wu Gan, then she suddenly took a step back.

"Chen Mo is right," she said calmly. "Setting fire is a good idea."

Fang Yingxia was stunned. "Sister Liu? You're going crazy with him too?"

"I'm not crazy." She stared at Wu Gan. "The strength of that evil spirit is unknown. If we go in, we'll be at a disadvantage. Why don't we set fire to it outside and force it out?"

Wu Gan gradually tightened his grip on the doorknob.

"Well..." His voice seemed to be squeezed out of his throat, "Then I'll go... and tell Captain Zheng..."

"No need," Chen Mo waved his hand. "You can just come out. Let Captain Zheng find a spot inside. By the way, Brother Wu, was the door open or closed when you came out?"

Wu Gan paused for a moment.

"It's...locked up," he said, quoting classic lines from "Tianjin: Starting with Unorthodox Paths to Immortality," seeking resonance. "I put it on gently."

"Oh..." Chen Mo drawled, "Now that you've opened the door, will that thing inside already know we're here?"

The wind stopped.

It was so quiet that I could hear my own heartbeat.

Wu Gan didn't speak again. The moonlight made half of his face look pale, while the other half was hidden in the darkness.

He looked at Chen Mo, his eyes gleaming faintly in the moonlight.

"You...you really aren't coming in?"

"Go to your grandma."

Chen Mo pulled Liu Ruyan and Fang Yingxia back a few steps, then suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs into the surrounding darkness.

"Director Shen! Aren't you going to take action? Are you just waiting to have a midnight snack?"

The sound echoed across the empty mass grave, startling several unidentified birds that fluttered toward the blood-red moon.

Fang Yingxia shuddered at his loud voice, "What are you shouting for? How could Director Shen and the others...?"

Before he could finish speaking, several flashlight beams suddenly lit up from the surrounding piles of weeds.

A beam of snow-white light pierced the darkness, shining directly onto the entrance of Tingyu Tower.

"Tsk, you've got sharp eyes, kid."

A steady voice came from behind the weeds on the left.

The person who came was Shen Dajiang.

The moment Shen Dajiang appeared, Wu Gan finally moved, merging his entire being into the darkness.

"Director Shen?" His voice still carried that slightly naive tone. "What brings you here? Did Captain Zheng send you?"

Shen Dajiang didn't answer, but tightened his grip on the long knife even more.

Seven or eight people emerged from behind him, all of them veterans from the bureau, each armed with weapons, including knives and guns, and quickly formed a semicircle around the entrance of Tingyu Tower.

The flashlight beams shone directly on Wu Gan, making his face appear as white as paper.

"Chen Mo." Shen Dajiang's eyes were fixed on the figure in the doorway, but he asked, "How did you figure that out?"

Chen Mo, Liu Ruyan, and Fang Yingxia retreated into the crowd and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"His eyes are off." Chen Mo wiped non-existent sweat from his forehead. "And there are too many flaws. It seems this evil spirit isn't very intelligent."

Shen Dajiang nodded.

"Good observation skills, but you all need to step back. This thing..." His gaze returned to Wu Gan, "Something's not right."

Wu Gan was still standing at the door, but at this moment he finally stopped maintaining that stiff expression.

He looked at everyone and suddenly smiled.

The smile was inexplicably strange. It was clearly Wu Gan's face, but the expression and eyes made it seem like another person was looking at the world through his face.

"Director Shen." His voice was still Wu Gan's, but his tone had become sinister. "What are you doing? I'm Wu Gan, one of our own."

Shen Dajiang's knuckles turned white as he gripped the long knife.

He could sense that the thing in front of him was definitely not Wu Gan.

The problem is, he can't figure out what this thing actually is either.

It stood there, clearly with a shadow, clearly breathing, clearly speaking human language and doing human things, but Shen Dajiang just couldn't sense the aura that a living person should have.

It's like facing a still-moving corpse.

It also feels like an evil spirit in human skin?

"Hehehe, Zheng Changkong is not dead yet... If you have the ability, come in and save him."

It gave a cold laugh and slammed the door shut.

Shen Dajiang stepped forward, knife in hand, his brow furrowed as he looked at the closed door.

Fang Yingxia bit her lip: "Then... Brother Wu, he..."

"It's gone."

Shen Dajiang shook his head. "From the moment he was possessed, he was gone."

"What about Captain Zheng?"

Silence fell over the room; no one knew how to answer her.

Even though the evil spirit said he wasn't dead, can you believe what an evil spirit says?

Chen Mo, standing at the back, suddenly spoke up: "Director Shen, since you're here, let's not stand on ceremony, shall we?"

He took the kerosene lighter out of his pocket, tossed it in his hand, and the lighter gleamed with a metallic sheen in the moonlight.

"I have a fire here..."

Don't miss out: Chapter 147, Arson, full text available here. Click to read.