After Meng Quan finished telling the story, the living room fell silent. His eyes were red, holding back tears.
Beside him, Yang Chunxue slightly raised her head, a faint sound of inhalation escaped.
Besides the smell of disinfectant, she couldn’t smell anything else.
"What happened next?" Lu Li asked, breaking the tension.
"After... after that... she left. For days, I’ve been tidying up at home. When you all came for a follow-up visit, I couldn’t tell the truth, so I just said Chen Rong went missing again. You know what happened after that. They went to the community property to check the surveillance, saw that my wife left on her own. I was no longer a suspect. They just comforted me with a few words and left."
Everything was clear.
Lu Li continued to ask, "Have you seen a psychiatrist?"
Meng Quan shuddered, lowered his head, his face hidden in shadow: "Do you think I have a mental illness..."
"Not at all, just wanted to check. After all, your current appearance isn’t very convincing." Lu Li said calmly. Suddenly he paused, looking down at his palm.
A familiar warmth emanated from his palm.
Meng Quan, upon hearing this, looked down at his disheveled self and couldn’t refute the statement.
"So... Officer Wen, do you believe it?"
If he hadn’t been involved with the Sixth Psychiatric Hospital or Chen Rong, Lu Li might not have believed it. But having been involved, it’s a different matter.
Meng Quan’s expression was complex, with the pressure within him released through confession.
[Striving towards countless next stations—drawing a long straight line—]
"I’m going to take a call."
Lu Li stood up, took his phone, and walked outside the door to answer.
"Wow! Do you know what just happened!"
Marcus shouted loudly over the phone.
"Look at the news, Lingling News Channel, reporters are broadcasting live interviews!"
In the living room, Meng Quan remained sitting stiffly, as Lu Li glanced back: "Can’t watch TV, tell me."
"The news is broadcasting an incident of jumping off the building in Xihua Community; three men jumped off the rooftop and committed suicide. Does it feel familiar?"
Lu Li thought the female ghost would fail again, so he reported to the police to help her settle it.
Unexpectedly, she successfully got her revenge.
"Yes!" Marcus agreed heavily, his tone shifted: "You actually cooperated with a ghost to get rid of my client!"
"Any problem with that?" Lu Li calmly asked back.
"Uh... no problem, dead is dead." On the other side, Marcus scratched his head. "Whether the client is dead or alive doesn’t matter, anyway, we’ve already secured the deposit."
"Uh... no. I’ve begun the search for the person you wanted, so far no new commissions. I’ll call you if there’s news."
After hanging up, Lu Li returned to the room, bid farewell to Meng Quan, and took the elevator downstairs.
"Now where do we go?"
Not keen on using her brain, the silly ghost Yang Chunxue tilted her head and asked.
"I have some thoughts, but need confirmation."
Lu Li started the car.
Passing by Xihua Community on the way back, Lu Li drove into the community, intentionally passing by building five.
The entrance of the second unit had a banner, and the flashing red-blue lights under the drizzle made Lu Li realize that recently every time he encountered police cars, it was in drizzling weather.
Didn’t see the body; it should have already been taken away by the hearse, leaving the police investigating the scene.
Lu Li withdrew his gaze and drove away from the community.
Aijia Xinyuan Community.
An old-style Xiali car slowly drove into the community.
"Here... What are we doing here?"
"... Covered in eyeballs, possessing humans—"
"Oh, I remember now! So what are we doing here?"
"Asking about something."
After getting out of the car and closing the door, Lu Li kept his head down, walking into the corridor under the drizzle.
The door of room 501 was knocked. This time, Wang Mu’s wife opened the door.
A somewhat introverted woman.
Lu Li introduced himself with a fabricated identity. Perhaps due to the lack of guests usually, she remembered Lu Li.
The house felt empty, lacking life, especially with the woman appearing silent and withdrawn.
"Officer, is there news about Wang Mu..." The woman lowered her eyes, her voice small.
The transcendent process of Wang Mu went unnoticed by anyone, so he, like Chen Rong, was considered missing by the police.
"Not yet, I’m here to understand some situations." Lu Li replied.
Following this, he followed typical police procedures, asking routine questions like "Have you recently received calls from Wang Mu?", "Has anyone unfamiliar contacted you?", "How has your health been recently?".
Upon answering, Lu Li stepped out of the police identity, asking his own questions: "During these days your husband returned, did anything unusual occur?"
Panic flashed in the woman’s eyes, she turned aside, avoiding eye contact with Lu Li: "Unusual... what do you mean?"
"You know what I mean." Lu Li crossed his legs, the sudden motion startling the woman. "Wang Mu may be involved in unpleasant things, his life hanging by a thread, now your information might be his only support."
The woman buried her head, fingers entwined. After a while, she slowly said: "During the two days after returning, he would sleep without taking off his clothes, and didn’t want me to touch him, not as gentle or passionate as before..."
[Lividity], [Temperature].
Lu Li matched these two keywords with what the woman described.
The woman gently shook her head.
"Alright, thank you for the information."
Lu Li got up, ready to leave.
The woman was stunned, stood up following Lu Li, and at the door couldn’t help but ask emotionally: "My husband, is he..."
At the door outside, Lu Li paused momentarily, leaving behind a sentence.
"Don’t wait for him; he won’t be back."
The woman’s face instantly turned pale, shivering as she held onto the door frame.
"...?" Yang Chunxue also looked like she had seen a ghost, puzzled as she followed Lu Li away.
Back downstairs in the car, Lu Li didn’t rush to leave.
He filled all the collected clues into the puzzle of the Sixth Psychiatric Hospital.
Yang Chunxue’s eyelashes fluttered, she didn’t disturb Lu Li’s contemplation.
A minute later, Lu Li raised his head; in the shadow appeared calm black eyes: "I understand. Remember the truth of the psychiatric hospital event?"
"Yes." Yang Chunxue nodded. "A bunch of crazy people wanting the dead to come back to life and succeeding."
"They didn’t fully succeed; resurrection has side effects." Lu Li started the car, the engine roared as it slowly left the community. "The deceased took over living bodies, but the bodies were already dead, decomposing over time. In order to continue living in human society, they have to constantly find new bodies and replace them."
"Judging by the body’s decomposition timeline, Chen Rong is Lu Wenjian’s second body."
"Tsss... So you mean."
Yang Chunxue’s thoughts were always unconventional but a piece of the truth.
"That guy Meng Quan, when his wife came back, wasn’t just not his wife, might not have even been a woman!?"