Chapter 45: Another Death
Late at night, when all was quiet, Lou Qilei was leaning against the wall, drowsy. Suddenly, he was slapped awake with great force. Jiang Si was already fully dressed and standing in front of him, his brow full of sharpness. He said directly, “Get up. Come out with me.”
Lou Qilei was stunned and asked subconsciously, “To do what?”
“Something happened to Qin Zhansheng.” Jiang Si pulled out the room card, opened the door, and walked quickly toward the elevator. “I put a paper man on him to track his whereabouts, but just now, the paper man in my hand suddenly spontaneously combusted.”
He had made twin paper effigies, split into two. As long as there was any movement on Qin Zhansheng’s end, the paper man in Jiang Si’s hand could feel it.
Only after going downstairs did Jiang Si realize it was too difficult to get a taxi at this hour. He could only tell Lou Qilei the general direction and let him go ahead while he found a way to get a car to rush over.
Lou Qilei looked solemn and hurriedly agreed.
Qin Zhansheng could die anytime, but not right now.
Except for neon signs, this street only had a few dim streetlights. Jiang Si had to run to the intersection to flag down a car. Fortunately, taxi drivers worked night shifts, and one passed by after a short while.
Jiang Si said, “Master, north section of Binjiang Bridge.”
The driver responded and started the car. Because Jiang Si emphasized repeatedly that he was in a hurry, the driver simply brought out decades of driving skills, speeding like lightning and overtaking urgently all the way.
In the interval waiting for a red light, he didn’t forget to gossip. “It’s past 2 AM; what are you going to Binjiang Bridge for? And in such a hurry?”
Jiang Si met the curious eyes in the rearview mirror: “…”
“Not catching a cheater, not committing suicide. Master, don’t ask more,” he said silently.
“Oh.” The driver was a bit disappointed.
Binjiang Bridge spanned across the Binjiang River of Ning City, with a total length of over four thousand meters. As they drove across, the chilly river wind slapped against their faces, and the two rows of streetlights on the roadside ran backward as if flying.
The taxi formed a small, enclosed space. The phone kept emitting the beeping sound of a call not getting through. As time dragged on, Jiang Si’s mood sank continuously like a kite with a broken string. Seeming to sense his mood, the rosewood bracelet on his wrist heated up faintly.
The taxi drove from south to north, getting closer and closer. Suddenly, there was a loud noise from the road section not far ahead.
Bang—Boom—
The soaring firelight dispelled the darkness, exceptionally conspicuous in the night. A fireball rushed out from the sky-filling smoke, pierced straight through the bridge guardrail, and plunged into the river.
All around, every moving vehicle braked urgently in unison, looking toward the place where the fire started.
As the exploding car fell into the river, the firelight gradually extinguished, looking just like fleeting fireworks.
“Holy sh*t!” The taxi driver also slammed on the brakes, staring dumbstruck at this scene, shock written all over his face. “In the middle of the night… it can’t be drunk driving again, right! Went right through the guardrail and fell… how fast must he have been going!”
Jiang Si ignored him, rolled down the window, and looked out. The surrounding drivers and passengers had all gotten out of their cars. Some climbed to the railing to see the situation, some took out phones to call the police, but more were holding up phones to record videos.
He opened the door. Looking from afar, a car falling into the river was like water merging into the sea—there wasn’t even a ripple. Not to mention the person inside; they were definitely dead as a doornail.
Lou Qilei, who was floating and circling by the river, saw Jiang Si and hurriedly approached, explaining, “Just as I found Qin Zhansheng, his car caught fire.”
“Where are his wife and kids?” Jiang Si asked in a low voice.
Before Lou Qilei could answer, Jiang Si saw them himself. That ghostly figure floating on the river surface with long drifting hair was holding a child in each hand, looking down at her husband under the water.
“Too ruthless! She didn’t leave him a single chance. Even if he gets fished out, he’ll be cold through and through.” Lou Qilei felt a chill all over his body. “No wonder they say never to provoke a woman; when they go crazy, they have absolutely no regard for old feelings.”
Jiang Si was concise. “He deserved it.”
“But now that he’s dead just like that, what about my compensation money?” Lou Qilei was anxious. “It doesn’t matter if he dies, but my daughter can’t have her treatment delayed because of him!”
“Isn’t that even simpler? Sue the company directly.” Just as Jiang Si finished speaking, he saw Qin Zhansheng’s wife suddenly look toward him from afar.
The taxi driver watched the excitement for a while, then leaned out the window and shouted at Jiang Si, “Hey, young man, are you still going or not! It’s just the last stretch of road. I’ll take a detour, and we’ll be there in no time.”
Jiang Si returned to the car. “Not going anymore. Take me back.”
“Huh?” The driver was puzzled. “Going back just like that? Didn’t you have business?”
Jiang Si: “The business is gone.”
Now the driver was finally sure he had picked up a lunatic. Running to the bridge in the middle of the night just to turn around after seeing a car accident.
But as long as he made money, it was none of his business what the passenger wanted to see.
The driver was open-minded. On the return trip, he sighed like he was performing a monologue. “Life really is fragile nowadays. Look at that; a perfectly fine person might just have an accident and die any day. That’s why I say, earning money isn’t as good as spending time with your family.”
Seeing Jiang Si silent, he asked again, “Young man, are you a local? Working in Ning City?”
Jiang Si glanced at him. “No.”
“Sigh, seeing how young you are, you must have just graduated from university. As soon as I see you, I think of my son. He just started high school this year, going through a rebellious phase and opposing me every day. If you ask me, you young people are just too full of youthful vigor and don’t understand the feelings of us parents at all.”
Jiang Si’s finger, sliding across the phone screen, paused. He added a sentence: “Indeed, I can’t understand. My parents died early.”
“…” The driver’s sighing abruptly froze. He looked back incredulously and cautiously, only to see Jiang Si looking down playing with his phone.
Why do I have such a big mouth!
The driver remained silent for the rest of the way.
After hearing those words, he wished he could slap himself. Regret mixed with shock led him to do something unprecedented—he waived the small change for Jiang Si when settling the bill.
Lou Qilei watched, dumbfounded. He thought Jiang Si was just annoyed by the driver’s chatter and spoke recklessly. After getting out of the car, he exclaimed, “Your mouth is really too fierce.”
He dared to say anything.
Jiang Si looked sideways calmly. “I told the truth.”
“!”
After saying that, leaving Lou Qilei petrified on the spot, he went upstairs on his own.
As soon as Jiang Si pushed open the door and entered, he smelled a damp, cold, moldy scent. Turning on the light to look around, he saw a child standing by his leg, only reaching his knees.
He lowered his head to meet its gaze. The girl was a bit shy, smiling bashfully. “Brother, you are really good-looking!”
Jiang Si: “Where’s your mom?”
Girl: “Mom is behind you!”
Jiang Si whirled around, meeting the woman’s cold, gloomy gaze. She said, “You’re the one who wanted to help Qin Zhansheng?”
She wore a white dress, the lower half almost dyed crimson by blood. Her long hair draped behind her, dripping water drip, drop. Aside from being too pale, her face looked normal. Standing in the dim corridor, no anomalies could be seen.
“Why would you think that?” Jiang Si spread his hands. “I thought you knew Lou Qilei and I are on the same side.”
“You’d better be,” the woman said coldly. “Otherwise, you’ll have to die too.”
“Many ghosts have said that to me. But I’m still alive and well. I advise you to change your script next time.” Jiang Si extended his hand. “Since you’re here, come in and let’s talk properly.”
“I have nothing to talk about with you.” The woman frowned.
Jiang Si sneered. “Then you made a special trip just to warn me? Are you sick in the head or am I?”
“…” The woman led the child into the room.
Jiang Si closed the door, crossed his arms, and said, “I have three questions. Answer them first before we talk about anything else.”
The woman was silent.
“Were you killed by Qin Zhansheng?”
“…” Lou Qilei had just managed to squeeze in when he heard this sentence. He instantly felt his heart skip a beat, terrified the female ghost would go berserk and kill someone.
The woman was very calm. “At first, it was an accident. He drove after drinking and rear-ended a truck. Steel bars shattered the car window and pierced through me and my children’s bodies. Before treatment could come, the children and I died.”
“You said ‘at first’ it was an accident. What about later?”
“…Later, I discovered he had secretly bought three huge insurance policies behind my back. Each one exceeded a million, and the total coverage of the three combined reached ten million. I realized this wasn’t a simple accident, so I followed him constantly. Only then did I know that Qin Zhansheng was a gambler.”
When the woman spoke of this again, she still gritted her teeth. “Domestic violence, cheating, sleeping around—I could tolerate all that, but he actually gambled… he actually gambled!”
Jiang Si didn’t speak, waiting for her to finish. “All people who gamble deserve to die, they all deserve to die! Gamblers aren’t human. Once they get addicted, they dare to use anything as a chip.”
“Did you know? My dad died from gambling. When I was in middle school, he was chased to our home by debt collectors. They chopped off both his arms and nailed his whole body to the wall. My mom and I came home to see him dead like that. From then on, I swore I would never touch anything related to gambling in my life, and my husband absolutely could not either!”
“Qin Zhansheng knew clearly. When we got married, he swore he would never get on a gambling table in this life. Because I believed him, I was willing to endure his domestic violence; I was willing to let him find all kinds of men and women outside…”
“I trusted him so much, yet he treated my life and the children’s lives as chips and gambled them all away. I won’t let him go. Even if I have to go to hell, I will make him pay the price.”
Lou Qilei thought of something else and whispered, “Then my compensation—”
Jiang Si and the woman looked over together, falling silent.
“Once addicted to gambling, even if you give him a hundred million, he’d lose it all.”
“Sht! Fck his ancestors for eight generations, that dumba**!” Lou Qilei was so angry he almost jumped up, pacing around furiously. He looked up at the woman. “Is Qin Zhansheng thoroughly dead?”
He wanted to go whip the corpse!
The woman sneered, “I dismantled all four of his limbs. Never mind if he’s dead or not; you can’t even find ashes now.”
“That idiot thought a single talisman paper could get rid of me. Dreaming his daydreams.”
“Alright, my second question.” Jiang Si understood and continued, “Who else are you going to kill?”
“…” The woman was stunned. “How did you know?”
Jiang Si: “There are many ways to seek revenge on Qin Zhansheng. Causing an explosion on Binjiang Bridge—who did you want to see it?”
The woman narrowed her eyes and asked him, “You want to stop me?”
Jiang Si: “That depends on my third question. Answer me first.”
“There is another.”
“Who?”
“You should all be familiar with him,” the woman smiled. “Qin Zhansheng found himself a good sugar daddy who solved so many troubles for him. Aren’t you two victims as well?”
“Deputy Director Hu of the XX Bureau.”
Jiang Si exchanged a glance with Lou Qilei, thoughts racing. He continued to ask, “Why do you want to kill him?”
“Because for my death, he is also a culprit behind the scenes,” the woman said. “Without him, Qin Zhansheng couldn’t have received the insurance payout in such a short time.”
The two children didn’t know if they understood or not. Leaning against the woman’s legs, they hugged her, wanting to sleep.
The woman comforted them a bit and looked at Jiang Si. “I’ve finished speaking. Now it’s your turn.”
Jiang Si didn’t speak. Lou Qilei was moved by the woman’s words and hesitated, looking at him together with her. “Why don’t you…”
Jiang Si ignored him, staring at the mother and two children for a while before saying, “I won’t intervene in karma; do as you please. But I want to remind you of one thing: don’t attack innocent people. Otherwise, in front of the Judge, you won’t escape the punishment of hell.”
“I know.” The woman lowered her eyes and nudged the children. “I came to find you… mainly for them.”
“I will bear all the consequences myself. They are still children; they don’t understand anything. Do you have a way to send them to the place they should go?”
Jiang Si: “You want me to perform rites for them?”
His expression was strange. “Do I look that learned and multi-talented?”
This was clearly work for Daoist priests and monks. What did Jiang Si, an outsider, know?
He didn’t even know how to chant a single scripture.
The woman: “…Isn’t that a magical artifact you’re wearing on your hand?”
“This is a magical artifact?” Jiang Si fiddled with it. “I don’t know; my partner gave it to me.”
“…”
“I beg you, my children are innocent. They shouldn’t have to follow me to commit evil and murder after death.” The woman bowed deeply, her words sincere.
Jiang Si was startled and dodged to the side. “Speak properly; Big Sister, aren’t you shortening my life by bowing like this?”
Both children took after their mother. Even though they were dead and their faces pale, one could still see their beautiful features. Looking at Jiang Si from left and right, it was hard to refuse.
“I’ll help, alright?” Since she wouldn’t get up, Jiang Si had no choice but to agree.
Just as he settled things with the woman here, on the other side, Ge Kai was horrified upon hearing the news of Qin Zhansheng’s death.
He climbed out of bed overnight and called to ask about the situation.
“What exactly happened? Wasn’t he fine when I saw him yesterday!”
The person on the other end was Qin Zhansheng’s assistant, speaking with fear at this moment. “An explosion happened on Binjiang Bridge a few hours ago, and he fell into the water. The police were busy for a long time, but only the car was salvaged. There isn’t even a scrap of his body left!”
Ge Kai: “How is it so sudden? Why wasn’t he home at night? Why was he outside?”
“I don’t know. President Qin said he went to meet someone tonight. After the meeting, he was just driving around aimlessly.”
“Who did he meet?”
“Jiang Si.”
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