The Haunted Chapter 97 Clues

Chapter 96◀︎Table Of Contents►Chapter 98

Chapter 97 Clues

Translated by Nessie

“It’s almost eight o’clock, why did you rush over at this time? Where’s Tao Juan Juan?” Chi Yan asked while looking at the photos Song Jin had brought and the case file.

 

“Juan Juan is on night shift today. I just sent her over and came here along the way. I will go home to sleep in a while then pick her up from work tomorrow morning and send her home and then go to work again.” Song Jin said, “This case was just reported to the city. My supervisor assigned me this case to see if I can find any clues. I studied for a long time and didn’t find out anything. I just thought it was spooky, so I wanted to bring it over for you to see. “

 

Chi Yan gave a “tsk” sound, put down the photo in his hand, and looked up at his friend, “I’m not a professional, how can I understand this?”

 

“Don’t you know Taoism?” Song Jin grinned, seeming to tell him “Don’t be humble”. He pointed to the photo and said, “I saw this kind of magic on the TV before. They could figure out the whereabouts of this person by just looking at a photo of that person and holding an object that the person used before. I was thinking…maybe you know how to do that too.” 

 

Song Jin pulled his hair embarrassedly, and felt that this idea was too outrageous. His friend might have the ability to drive away those things, but he might not be able to use such spells or magic which were probably non-existent.

 

Unexpectedly, Chi Yan nodded and said affirmatively, “What I’m using is not a Taoist technique, but I do know that there are related spells, and there are people who know how to use them, but unfortunately I don’t know how to do it.” The technique was not considered too difficult, there were many people in the Chi family who knew how to do this, but he was not considered the “Chi family”.

Translated by The Red Oak Tree

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Chi Yan read the description of the case again and frowned, “Da Song, is this case very urgent?”

 

“Urgent,” Song Jin nodded, “After all, the lives of five people are involved and we don’t know if they are dead or alive. If they get into trouble, we have a better chance of finding the five of them earlier and rescue them. What’s more, this is the first challenging case my supervisor gave me so I want to do it well and let him have a look.”

 

Chi Yan nodded, “It says that Zhu Hui’s family runs a small shop in Feng Shui. In order not to delay business, the door was closed at 7 o’clock in the evening on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month before driving a three-wheeled motorcycle to Qing Yao Town. It was to visit his wife, Liu Qing Feng’s family. After the 16th of the first month, they would go to the county to pick up the goods and then return to Feng Shui. Zhu Hui’s neighbors and Liu Qing Feng’s family members said the same thing. If everything went well, Zhu Hui’s family of three should have arrived at Liu Qing Feng’s family home at about ten o’clock at night, but they never showed up. Liu Qing Feng’s brother could not contact them. He waited for a day on the 16th day of the first month. On the 17th, he ran to Feng Shui Town in the morning to inquire and learned from the neighbors that the family had already set off sometime ago.”

 

“So the two police officers from Ping Gu County judged that they disappeared on the road from Feng Shui to Qing Yao Town, but during the day, they didn’t find any valuable information while searching for clues along the way. After being troubled for a week, they decided to search for clues but this time, they set off at the same time, that is at 7pm, hoping to find some clues that they might have missed or overlooked during the day… As a result, the two police officers also disappeared.”

 

“Then there may be some problems with this departure time.”

 

“That’s right.” Song Jin squeezed his hair irritably, “I know these too. Juan Juan works day shift tomorrow and she’s off work the day after tomorrow. I’m planning to go to the work unit tomorrow and talk to my supervisor and set off to Feng Shui Town to see if there are any clues. If not, then I’ll wait until 7 o’clock in the evening to take a trip down the road to Qing Yao Town.”

Translated by The Red Oak Tree

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He cursed inwardly, “I still don’t believe there is a ghost.”

 

Chi Yan looked at him calmly, “There are indeed ghosts ah, you’ve seen it before.”

 

Song Jin raised his head and looked at him, his face turned blue and yelled annoyedly, “Chi Zi!”

 

Chi Yan laughed and said, “It’s okay, don’t be nervous. I just happened to be free these two days. Wait for me to talk to Grandpa. I will accompany you tomorrow.”

 

Song Jin was naturally overjoyed at the news and agreed to pick him up tomorrow when he came out of the unit.

 

There were frozen dumplings, ham sausages, canned food and other fast foods at home. Grandpa can simply heat them up and eat them. Tao Juan Juan could also send meals to Grandpa on her rest day the day after tomorrow. Grandpa said that he was still in good health and he had no problem taking care of himself. Even if Chi Yan was not around for ten days or even half a month wouldn’t be any problem for him either.

 

Song Jin came to Chi Yan’s house to pick him up at ten o’clock the next day, and arrived at Fengshui Town at 12 o’clock in the afternoon. A police officer surnamed Li in Feng Shui Town received them and directed them to Zhu Hui’s shophouse to take a look. They chatted with the neighbors around them. The information they got was no different from what was written in the case notes.

 

The three visited the town for one afternoon and rode a motorcycle back and forth between the towns of Feng Shui and Qing Yao. However, no more clues were found.

Translated by The Red Oak Tree

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When they returned to Feng Shui Town, it was already five o’clock in the evening. Chi Yan looked at his mobile phone, “Let’s eat first, after dinner then we’ll wait until seven o’clock and go and take a look.”

 

The police officer surnamed Li was obviously scared when he heard this. He smiled mockingly at the two of them and said, “I should be getting off on the dot. I guess I won’t be able to accompany you two at night. Is this okay with you?”

 

Song Jin squinted his eyes and looked at him, “Is there anything wrong with that road at night ?”

 

Police Officer Li rubbed his hands nervously, and hesitated, “There is nothing wrong, but five people went missing since the beginning of the first month, and two of them are my colleagues. Although we don’t believe this, my heart feels a little bit distressed. No one dares to walk that way at night.”

 

Chi Yan remembered one thing, “Then nothing like this happened in the past ? What about the others who travelled from Feng Shui to Qing Yao ? They haven’t gone missing? But only Zhu Hui’s family and the two police officers who traced their disappearance have disappeared?”

 

Police Officer Li replied, “We also walked that road in the afternoon, and you two have already seen it. It’s very undeveloped and quiet. The car you drove could not get through at all. The main traffic from Feng Shui to Qing Yao is not this road. At that time, Zhu Hui’s family took this small mountain road to be fast and usually very few people take this road. I have never heard of anything like that in the past. According to Zhu Hui’s neighbors, Zhu Hui’s family had also walked this road before and took them along, and there had never been a problem.”

 

Song Jin nodded and allowed the police officer to go back. He only continued borrowing the two motorcycles they rode in the afternoon, saying that he would return them when they came back.

Translated by The Red Oak Tree

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The two waited until 7 o’clock in the evening in Feng Shui Town and began to ride along the mountain path. At this time, it was only mid-March, and the north was cold in spring, the weather was not warm. It was even worse after the sun went down. The sun set early and it was already dark before the vernal equinox. The road ahead could only be illuminated by the headlights in front of the motorcycle.

 

The two of them didn’t ride fast, and they used torches to observe the conditions on both sides of the road while riding. Song Jin looked to the left and Chi Yan looked to the right.

 

After riding for more than two hours, the mountains gradually fogged up, and the field of vision became more unclear. Chi Yan gathered the jacket on his body, shivered, turned his head and said to Song Jin, “Da Song, it’s too cold, and I can’t see clearly. Let’s go back, or ride to Qing Yao Town and rest again, and then come back tomorrow.”

 

Song Jin ignored him, but looked straight to the left. After a while, he spoke, and pointed his flashlight towards a direction, “Chi Zi, do you think there is something over there?”

 

Chi Yan looked in the direction pointed by the flashlight beam. The mountains were dark, with only spooky shadows of trees and dense vegetation growing disorderly. There was a small mud ditch under a tree, and a red thing was faintly visible being shone by the flashlight.

 

That thing looked familiar. It seemed to be the corner of Zhu Hui’s tricycle that they had seen in the photo.

 

Song Jin nodded to Chi Yan, got out of the motorcycle, parked it on the road and walked towards the object. Chi Yan also followed.

 

As they got closer, the fog cleared up and they could clearly identify that it was Zhu Hui’s three-wheeled motorcycle. The entire motorcycle was turned over in the ditch, and the surroundings were clean and there were no scattered objects.

Translated by The Red Oak Tree

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Song Jin squatted on the ground and took out his mobile phone to take a photo of the three-wheeled motorcycle. While taking the photo, he analyzed with Chi Yan, “The motorcycle must have encountered a problem on the road along the way and so it overturned and fell into the ditch, but it didn’t look like there were casualties. Zhu Hui’s family was going to visit relatives and buy goods, so they didn’t have a lot of luggage. Seemed like the things had been taken away.” 

 

“The three of them couldn’t get the motorcycle out, so they must have gone to look for help, but to walk back to Feng Shui Town from here takes three to four hours of walking and one to two hours to Qing Yao Town. Did they walk to Qing Yao Town?” Song Jin put away the phone after taking the pictures, mumbled and analyzed.

 

“No.” Chi Yan shook his flashlight and motioned his friends to look at their feet, “Look here, there are traces of someone walking by, and traces of a motorcycle running over.”

 

Song Jin followed his feet and looked into the distance. There was obviously a fork here, a small road that only allowed two people to pass. It would be difficult to find if you didn’t look carefully. During the day they didn’t find the tricycle, nor did they notice that there was still a road here.

 

He squatted down again and looked at the traces of the grass, “Yes, it’s the motorcycle rut, which should have been left not long ago. The two police officers should have also spotted the tricycle and then the road. Then they followed this road to track it down.”

 

Chi Yan felt strange. It was darkness and silence ahead, there was no sign of human settlements, lights or fire made by humans. It was understandable that the two police officers walked along this road in order to investigate the whereabouts of Zhu Hui’s family. But then why did Zhu Hui’s family come here at this time and why did they choose to follow this very remote path that had no end? Why did they go forward, instead of going back to Feng Shui or Qing Yao along the road which they were familiar with?

 

He felt a little cold and couldn’t help shivering. He tightened his clothes again and his urge to return heightened. He took out his cell phone and looked at it. It was already half past nine at night. There was no signal on the cell phone and no Internet access.

 

Chi Yan turned to Song Jin, “Da Song, it’s too late today. It’s not easy to talk on the mountain road. It will take us an hour to ride back fast. Why don’t we make a mark here and remember this position and come back tomorrow ?”

 

Song Jin also looked at his phone and said unwillingly, “Let’s go take a look now, just in case we can’t find any clues during the day tomorrow. It’s half past nine. Let’s ride along this road to forty-five (9.45pm). Then we’ll go back if there’s no clues. ”

 

Translated by The Red Oak Tree

www.theredoaktree.com

Chapter 96◀︎Table Of Contents►Chapter 98