Chapter 178: A Good Friend Arrives in Shanghai

The intense pain woke Miyazaki Kentaro.

A wad of cloth had been stuffed into his mouth, preventing him from making any sound.

His eyes were covered with a black cloth.

Before him was endless darkness.

His body was bound.

He struggled desperately.

At that moment, a murmuring voice sounded beside his ear:

“Kentaro, return.”

“Kentaro, return.”

Cheng Qianfan took a small brown medicine bottle from his pocket.

Inside was ether.

At noon, when he had visited Doctor Zhao Wenhua at Guangci Hospital, he had “incidentally” obtained it from the hospital.

He had originally prepared it for Miyazaki Kentaro, who was due to arrive in Shanghai several days later, but unexpectedly it was proving useful now.

Unscrewing the cap, he dripped a few drops onto Miyazaki Kentaro’s collar.

He waved his hand to fan the air.

Cheng Qianfan immediately screwed the cap shut again.

At the same time, he removed the blindfold from Miyazaki Kentaro’s eyes.

Having just emerged from darkness into light, Miyazaki Kentaro instinctively narrowed his eyes.

Then he saw himself standing in front of himself, beckoning to him.

“Kentaro, return!”

A wave of dizziness swept over him.

Everything before his eyes became unreal.

Miyazaki Kentaro could only watch darkness descend over his vision as he lost consciousness.

Cheng Qianfan blindfolded Miyazaki Kentaro again.

He pulled the dagger out of the shoulder.

Thump!

He drove it directly into the opposite shoulder.

The pain caused Miyazaki Kentaro to wake once more.

“Kentaro, return.”

Cheng Qianfan imitated a woman’s voice and murmured softly.

Carefully, he dripped a few more drops of ether.

The black cloth covering Miyazaki Kentaro’s eyes was removed once again.

Once more, he saw himself standing before him and beckoning.

“Kentaro, return.”

Amid the hazy, unreal voice, Miyazaki Kentaro fainted again.

Miyazaki Kentaro had gone insane.

Under Cheng Qianfan’s deliberate guidance and manipulation, the already intoxicated and mentally unstable Miyazaki Kentaro began to believe that he was dead.

He saw his own soul.

He saw himself being repeatedly stabbed by his own dagger.

At times he could feel pain.

At other times he felt nothing at all.

Hideko had come to find him.

Listening to the mentally disoriented Miyazaki Kentaro repeatedly call out Hideko’s name,

Cheng Qianfan knew that this was the result of Miyazaki Kentaro’s own mental instability, the effects of alcohol, the effects of ether, and the deeply rooted superstition created by the soul-summoning incident he had experienced in childhood.

He believed he had seen his own soul.

Combined with the dizziness caused by blood loss, all these factors together had produced the desired result.

Cheng Qianfan began asking questions.

Miyazaki Kentaro answered.

Subconsciously convinced that he was already dead, Miyazaki Kentaro revealed almost everything he knew.

Miyazaki Kentaro died of suffocation.

Cheng Qianfan glanced at the pale-faced Miyazaki Kentaro.

For a moment, he felt as though he were looking at his own death, and his scalp tingled.

He shook his head.

If he himself were to fall into Japanese hands, even a relatively painless death like this would be an unattainable luxury.

Picking up the photograph from the table, Cheng Qianfan tore it in half down the middle.

Young lady, you would not have wanted to be together with such a beast either, would you?

He lit a match and burned Zhuo Peiyun’s half of the photograph.

He bowed to bid farewell to the three members of the Zhuo family.

The murderer has paid with his life.

Your spirits are surely not far away.

Have you seen it?

Only then did Cheng Qianfan set fire to the other half of the photograph.

He crushed the ashes beneath the sole of his shoe, scattered them with a broom, and then poured water over them.

With practiced efficiency, Cheng Qianfan searched through Miyazaki Kentaro’s clothing and gathered every item capable of proving Miyazaki Kentaro’s identity.

First, he went outside alone to inspect the surroundings.

It was already deep into the night, and there was no one around.

Carrying a shovel and the corpse of Miyazaki Kentaro on his back, Cheng Qianfan left through the rear door, “borrowed” a black-canopied boat from the river transport crossing, and soon disappeared into the night.

At the mass grave beside Suzhou Creek.

Everything was deathly silent.

Because the nearby shantytown known as ”Rolling Ground Cages” housed large numbers of impoverished people, deaths from sickness and starvation were common.

Many who lacked money for burial were interred here.

Many dead infants were also discarded in this mass grave.

He dug a pit.

The shovel came down again and again with savage force.

The corpse, whose face had been destroyed and whose clothes had been stripped away, was pushed in.

The earth was shoveled back over it.

Cheng Qianfan dusted off his hands and left carrying the shovel.

Throughout the entire process, he remained completely calm and felt no fear whatsoever.

However, standing in a mass grave, mutilating the face of “his own” corpse and burying it was certainly an indescribable experience.

In the distance across the silent mass grave, green lights could be seen.

They belonged to starving stray dogs.

Even when the impoverished residents of the shantytowns along Suzhou Creek were starving, they still would not eat those stray dogs...

Dawn arrived.

He Guan left home with a dejected expression.

Only after he had pleaded repeatedly did Mrs. He finally believe that he had no relationship whatsoever with that so-called Sister Lan from the half-open-door brothel and allow him to leave for work.

As He Guan walked, he cursed continuously.

If he ever found out which bastard had deliberately framed him, he would make that person understand that when Young Master Guan became ruthless, even Young Master Guan himself was afraid.

“Hey!” a girl’s voice called from behind him.

He Guan turned around.

He saw a tall, slender girl standing behind him.

She wore a blue cotton jacket covered in patches and black trousers.

She was not particularly beautiful, but she possessed a pair of strikingly beautiful eyes.

“Is this yours?” she asked, handing him a sheet of paper.

He Guan’s face immediately turned red.

This was the piece of evidence Mrs. He had used to wrongly accuse him.

He had planned to take it to the police station and ask Cheng Qianfan to help him analyze who was trying to frame him.

“Thank you.”

He Guan took the paper and prepared to leave.

“Um...” the girl said to him, “Are you going to marry Sister Lan?”

“I’ll bloody marry you!” He Guan’s expression changed dramatically, and he cursed angrily before turning and walking away.

“Pervert!”

The girl’s angry shout came from behind him, followed by the sound of crying.

At that same moment, the haggard-looking “Miyazaki Kentaro,” bearing all the signs of a terrible hangover, pushed open the courtyard gate.

“Good morning, Miyazaki-kun.”

Lu Bingjiu was just preparing to leave for work.

Upon seeing Miyazaki Kentaro yawning as he locked the door and headed out, he immediately bowed and greeted him enthusiastically.

“Mr. Lu.”

Miyazaki Kentaro nodded coldly.

“Has Mr. Aoki returned yet?”

“Factory Director Aoki won’t be back in Shanghai for at least another ten days,” Lu Bingjiu hurriedly replied.

“Thank you for informing me.”

Miyazaki Kentaro nodded and walked out of the alley while yawning.

After taking two steps, he stopped and turned back to look at Lu Bingjiu.

Lu Bingjiu, who had been walking proudly with his head held high, immediately bent over and displayed a fawning smile.

“Don’t follow me,” Miyazaki Kentaro said sternly.

A bitter expression appeared on Lu Bingjiu’s face.

He wanted to explain that he was not following him at all, he simply needed to take the same road to work.

After receiving another glare from Miyazaki Kentaro, Lu Bingjiu could only turn around and walk in the direction opposite from the factory where he worked.

Cheng Qianfan hailed a rickshaw.

As soon as his backside touched the seat, he casually pulled down the canopy and leaned against the backrest, displaying obvious fatigue.

From Miyazaki Kentaro’s own account, after arriving in Shanghai, only two people had met him.

One was Lu Bingjiu.

The other was Aoki, the factory director of the screw factory.

Neither man had known Miyazaki Kentaro beforehand.

Aoki had left Shanghai for Zhenjiang.

By the time Aoki returned and saw Miyazaki Kentaro again, he would likely have forgotten the details of their earlier meeting.

As for Lu Bingjiu, the man was far too obsequious and overly enthusiastic.

By deliberately treating him harshly, Cheng Qianfan intended to make the man keep his distance of his own accord.

Cheng Qianfan took out his pocket watch and checked the time.

He was definitely going to be late.

However, he was now a deputy patrol inspector, and his schedule was relatively flexible.

The last time Ma Yishou had been scolded by Xi Neng, the chief of the Investigation Unit, it had not really been because Ma Yishou was late.

The Frenchman had simply been in a bad mood and wanted someone to yell at.

Arriving at No. 22 Rue Vallon, Cheng Qianfan got out of the rickshaw, paid the fare, and was about to enter the police station compound.

“Qianfan.”

A voice sounded from his left.

Cheng Qianfan turned to look.

A handsome young man was standing there, smiling at him.

“Huaiming!”

Cheng Qianfan was overjoyed.

Laughing heartily, the two men shook hands.

“When did you return to Shanghai?”

Shen Huaiming was equally delighted.

“I was transferred to Shanghai today. It’s been quite a while since we last met, so I came to see you.”