Chapter 47

Chapter 47: Domestic Violence Village II

"@Level 17 Liu Tianran, dear Senior Liu Tianran, there's a cute little freshman waiting for your visit at the flower bed's north corner under the Fengling Institute office building."

"Please check as soon as possible!"

"[Heart]"

Early in the morning, Liu Tianran saw this message tagged in the Fengling Institute's group, and she was completely dumbfounded.

At this time, the group was silent, as the early risers were probably just finishing their morning exercises.

She checked the time.

It was barely past 6 AM.

Liu Tianran: "......"

Damn it, who is this?!

After struggling with sleepiness for ten minutes in bed, Liu Tianran decided to get up with her messy hair and see what was going on.

If I find out this is a prank, just wait, I’ll beat the hell out of you.

With that fierce thought, Senior Liu threw on some clothes and went downstairs.

Fengling Institute was located at the northernmost part of the Luoxia campus.

East, West, South, and North—North was the most yin, and the Institute was placed there for students to get accustomed to the yin environment, sometimes even encountering ghosts for practical experience.

The flower bed at the north corner was filled with yin-loving plants, like flowers, butterflies, orchids, and cannas. In summer, the temperature was just right, and the thin sunlight in the early morning cast a lively glow.

Ming Yue took off the bundle from her back. The white cloth-wrapped object began to move wildly as soon as it left her shoulder, jumping nonstop. At first glance, it looked like Ming Yue had trapped a bird in the cloth.

"My God, it's been years since I've seen something so full of yin energy," Ming Yue sincerely complimented, "The old city walls really nurture life."

Bai Linlang: "What did you say?"

An Xueru: "Nurture my ass."

The first half of the night almost scared us to death, and you're over here treating yin energy like health care.“…”

Ming Yue gestured to her two roommates.

Bai Linlang pulled out a Yang Qi talisman and held it in her palm, while An Xueru quickly removed a patch of weeds from the flower bed. The two worked in tandem, successfully moving the ghostly hand into the yin-filled flower bed.

Look at this makeshift shelter.

They placed the Yang Qi talisman underneath, isolating the ghostly hand from the yin energy in the flower bed, while still keeping the hand within the overarching yin energy of the flower bed—two birds with one stone.

After the skeletal hand was removed from the Yang Qi source by Ming Yue, its activity immediately doubled. The fingers opened and closed, tapping the door, giving an "OK" sign—pretty much everything it could do.

“…”

The three of them gathered around the flower bed, watching.

Ming Yue followed the skeleton hand’s movements, and also made an "OK" gesture.

The skeleton raised "1," she raised "2."

The skeleton showed "5," she made a scissors gesture.

Their "communication" was so seamless, it was as if they were about to start drinking and playing games right there.

Bai Linlang: "..."

Director Bai slapped Ming Yue’s finger down, "Are you trying to get yourself killed, Ming Yue? Behave!"

Ming Yue made a ghost face at the skeleton hand, signaling that the round was over.

Director Bai: "..."

Director Bai was mentally and physically exhausted.

Staying up all night wasn’t such a big deal, especially since after obtaining the Ghost Slayer license, staying up to fight evil spirits would become a regular thing.

But Ming Yue's "troublemaker" personality was beyond saving.

Ghosts could be startling, but this living person was far scarier than any ghost.Really unbelievable.

Bai Linlang felt that after becoming close with Ming Yue, she was on the fast track to becoming bald.

When Liu Tianran, her head full of question marks, arrived, she saw three first-year students with dark circles around their eyes, surrounding the flower bed. The moss in the center, watered daily by countless stray dogs from Jin Da, was particularly eye-catching.

Liu Tianran: "..."

Liu Tianran opened her mouth: "Damn it, I knew it was you, Ming Yue. Damn it, there are fewer than five first-years who know me, and of course it would be—wait, what are you guys doing with dog-urine moss?"

Fifteen minutes later—

Liu Tianran was wide awake. Not only was she shocked by the adventure her three junior sisters had the whole night, but now she wanted to lecture them on behalf of their parents!

"Why don’t you just go to heaven?!" Liu Tianran exploded.

The three junior sisters quickly stood up, lowering their heads and standing in line.

Before they stood up, Ming Yue, being sly, casually picked up a brick and firmly placed it on the skeleton hand that was trying to sneak away.

The ghostly hand: "..."

"You guys are so bold, you might as well eat yourselves!"

"You dared to enter an untested collapse pit!"

"The Old City Wall isn’t just any place. Although Jinling City doesn’t have as many ancient layers as the western Chang'an City, but if you're not careful, and the construction team digs poorly and hits the bottom—what are you going to do?" Liu Tianran spoke earnestly.

"If you happen to run into the ancient dynasty layers guarded by Yin soldiers, you might as well wait to be chopped into white-cut meat!"

The three first-years: "…"

The serious atmosphere of being lectured was completely ruined by the "white-cut meat" remark.

"Pfft."

Ming Yue burst into laughter but quickly stopped herself.

"Stop laughing!" Liu Tianran, still in a bad mood, was like a firecracker about to explode.

Ming Yue immediately lowered her head, admitting her mistake and standing properly with her hands behind her back."Sorry, senior, we were wrong."

"Next time, we’ll make sure to bring you along."

"We’ve brought back the evidence, hope it can help make up for our mistakes."

"…What?" Liu Tianran was almost too stunned to react. "What evidence?"

The three junior sisters immediately stepped aside, revealing the flower bed behind them.

It turned out that the dog-urine moss was spread out with a Yang Qi talisman on top, the yellow paper was pitch black, and within the blackness... lay a trembling brick.

???

Liu Tianran: "..."

Liu Tianran, with her dead-fish eyes: "So, what, you want to use this brick to give me a concussion massage?"

Ming Yue let out an "oh," quickly picking up the brick.

Before anyone could react, the skeleton hand suddenly shot out from the flower bed, fast as white lightning, aiming for Liu Tianran’s face!

Its movement was swift, like a stroke of paralysis, but then it moved in a flash!

It was intercepted mid-air by Ming Yue, and with a "smack," she slapped it back into the flower soil.

The ghost hand: "…"

The hand trembled, weakly lying in the dirt.

Skeleton hand: Damn it.

How can this person have so much Yang Qi?

Liu Tianran, frightened almost out of breath: "This, this this—"

Ming Yue quickly picked up the conversation: "This is the evidence."

"We discussed this with Officer Zhao from Shui Ximen last night. He proposed a hypothesis, suggesting that this hand might be a missing part of the female corpse’s remains that was unearthed last year at the Shui Ximen construction site."

"At the same time, when we went down the pit last night, the Yin Qi was very strong, and the direction led towards the Moon Sea Jade Pavilion behind the Shui Ximen station.""I suggest we definitely need to check out this neighborhood."

After saying her piece, Ming Yue took a breath. Liu Tianran stared at her in disbelief:

"How dare you… bring the murder victim's remains back?"

Ming Yue froze for a moment.

She truly hadn't expected Liu Tianran to ask that question—she had assumed the senior would ask about the situation with the Moon Sea Jade Pavilion since the Feng Shui calculations for Shui Ximen Station were the most important part.

"Why wouldn't I dare?"

Besides, it's only the remains of a suspected murder victim.

Ming Yue was candid, her tone straightforward.

Liu Tianran looked like she was about to lose it.

She slapped her chest and took a deep breath: "Crazy, crazy."

"Ming Yue, as you just said, this hand might be a victim's remains."

"Buried underground, out of sight for who knows how long, restless even in death, and then someone presses the grave and nails a bone stake into the skull—if I were the victim, I'd be angry even after death."

"You have such courage. Aren't you afraid of being possessed?"

Ming Yue: "…"

The three freshmen suddenly realized in unison: "So ghosts avoid having bone stakes driven into their skulls."

Liu Tianran: "…That’s not the point!"

"The point is, you all really need to have more awareness of safety!"

An Xueru spoke up in defense of Ming Yue: "Senior, don't worry about her. She has plenty of Yang Qi."

"Last night in the pit, she fought with the hand bone for half an hour by herself and wasn’t possessed."

"Don’t worry."

Ming Yue immediately backed her up, showing Liu Tianran the red marks on her cheek and neck: "It’s all from this thing, Senior."Liu Tianran: "..."

Liu Tianran was curious as to why she hadn't died from anger yet.

How did a perfectly good conversation about teaching the juniors about safety and law enforcement end up getting derailed like this?!

Liu Tianran angrily took out her phone, found the project manager, class leader Qin Lin's WeChat number, and opened the voice message, yelling:

"Class leader, you better get over here!"

"These freshmen working on the project are about to go to the moon!"

In less than twenty minutes, Qin Lin arrived.

He was accompanied by Yan Jun, who had been doing morning exercises.

The two handsome young men, both drenched in sweat, stood there, and their hormones hit you like a wave.

Yan Jun was surprised to find Ming Yue was also there.

Bai Linlang and An Xueru: Class leader, can’t you see us?

At this point, Liu Tianran’s anger had mostly subsided. She looked at the two boys in surprise: "What’s going on? Did you two go play games all night?"

Qin Lin: "Get lost, I went running with my junior."

Yan Jun glanced at Ming Yue, confirming that she hadn’t heard Liu Tianran’s words, then relaxed.

The five of them gathered in one place to sort out the information.

As the project manager, Qin Lin remained calm. After hearing about Ming Yue and the others’ nerve-wracking experiences from the previous night, he simply raised an eyebrow.

"Now I understand why you junior are listed on the Ghost Slayer Association penalty register," he teased, trying to suppress a smile. "Fighting with a ghost hand for half an hour and still managing to subdue it, truly a capable person, truly capable."

"Alright, alright—let’s get to the point."

"I’ll summarize."

"As the three juniors said, the double homicide at Shui Ximen was solved in one day. The main culprit, Zhou Dafu, used the collapse victim as a bone stake. His actions were immoral and illegal, so it’s no problem for him to end up in jail."

With one sentence, Qin Lin nailed down Zhou Dafu’s good intentions but disastrous actions."Meanwhile, Ming Yue went into the river and discovered the remains of a female corpse. The victim's identity is still pending."

"Then, Zhou Dafu confessed. He said that shortly before the two victims died, they had encountered a 'living ghost' in the collapsed underground tunnel." Qin Lin pointed at the skeletal hand, which was firmly pressed down by a brick in the flower bed.

"According to the analysis of the later situation, the underground tunnel had heavy Yin energy and was faintly flowing, with the direction leading towards the Moon Sea Jade Garden residential area west of Shui Ximen Station."

"At the same time, after Ming Yue caught the ghost hand and communicated with Officer Zhao, Officer Zhao suggested that the hand might be part of a female corpse found during last year's collapse at Shui Ximen."

"Now—"

Qin Lin opened his notebook and showed everyone his deductions. The following short phrases were written on it:

【Moon Sea Jade Garden domestic violence??】

【Female vengeful spirit??】

【Shui Ximen construction disturbed ancient layer??】

【Belongings of Yin beings? Last year's homicide? Underground ancient relics?】

After reading, the students nodded.

"—Two possibilities."

Qin Lin analyzed precisely, "We need to split into two teams."

"One team will contact people from the History Department and take them to the Shui Ximen construction site to examine the collapsed tunnel to see if they really dug into the ancient address layer. If they did, we can hand this over as a major research topic for the History Department."

"The other team will go to the Computer Science Institute and have them gather all the information on Moon Sea Jade Garden, from the beginning of the construction to now. They can use web crawlers or any other method, but the information needs to be collected and organized. We need to see what’s going on with this community."

The remaining people nodded in agreement.

Qin Lin began assigning tasks: "Liu Tianran, take a few of our classmates and run errands with the History Department—take a few more from the General Studies Department. If anything goes wrong at Shui Ximen, protect the History Department students."

"Yan Jun, take Professor Chen Wuqi's signed document to the Shui Ximen police station and bring in Zhou Dafu for questioning. Focus on the matter regarding Moon Sea Jade Garden."

"I have a friend in Computer Science, so I’ll handle the Computer Science Institute."

"At 7 PM, we will do a second exploration of the mine."

The people assigned tasks nodded.

Ming Yue excitedly said, "Senior, what about us? What do we do?"Qin Lin smiled, "Three junior sisters, go back and catch up on your sleep."

Ming Yue: "......"

Qin Lin: "By the way, remember to break off a piece of the ghost hand and give it to the Medical School for testing."