Zhao Mumu shivered. "So I was right? There was a murder?"
Zhao Huoyan was already pulling out his phone to call the criminal investigation team when Grandpa Zhao suddenly interjected:
"Not necessarily. I vaguely remember hearing from the older generation—before the liberation, there was a major battle fought near that area. We won, but a lot of the enemy soldiers died. They were buried on the spot without ceremony. I wonder if that's the place."
"Would our underworld even accept foreign ghosts?" Zhao Mumu asked Song Miaozhu.
Song Miaozhu shook her head. "I'm not sure. Might need to ask an older ghost. Spirits without underworld registration are harder to deal with—especially now, with spiritual energy surging, their power in the living world has grown."
"Let's head back to the city first," Zhao Huoyan said. "We'll look into whether that mountain was once a mass grave for Imperial Japanese soldiers."
Forget the summer villa—sightseeing was over. Straight to the police station it was.
When the team showed up, Captain Li of the Criminal Investigation Unit looked surprised. "What are you all doing here this early? It's not even noon yet!"
"Old Li, looks like we'll be crashing at your station again for a while," Zhao Huoyan said.
"No problem! The dorms you used last time are still vacant," Captain Li replied. "But why are you back? Didn't you guys say the villa was cleared out?"
"There's a problem with the villa," Zhao Huoyan said grimly. "I need to do some digging into what exactly happened on that mountain behind it. Master Song said the yin energy there is overwhelming."
"More ghosts?" Captain Li blurted. "Don't tell me the former owner of that place killed someone there!"
"Could be a mass grave from the pre-PRC Japanese occupation," Zhao Huoyan said. "Either way, we can't just walk in blind—it could be dangerous."
Captain Li looked at Song Miaozhu, muttering, "If even Master Song says it's dangerous... how many people must've died there?"
Song Miaozhu: "…"
She was the only one here with cultivated spiritual energy—everyone else would just be dead weight.
She just didn't want to charge in alone!
Even her rattan cane couldn't fend off ghosts from all directions.
"We'll get someone to pull the case files here," said Captain Li. "You take a few people and check the county archives—look for any local records. We'll split up."
"Deal," Zhao Huoyan agreed. Before leaving, he told Zhao Mumu, "Take the car. Get Grandpa and Master Song back to the hotel to rest."
On the drive, Zhao Mumu sighed. "Who'd have thought my brother picked a haunted mountain as a neighbor? Thank goodness you went, Miaozhu. Otherwise, the whole unit might've ended up hospitalized!"
"Ever since the recovery of spiritual energy, it feels like ghosts have gotten more active…" Song Miaozhu said. "Even I was startled by the yin energy on that mountain earlier. In broad daylight, too—it was so thick.
But there's something strange. Everyone who's lived near that mountain has some yin energy clinging to them… except your brother. When I saw him yesterday, he was completely clean. Did he not stay there?"
"He must have! After his transfer to Lingcheng, he's been busy setting up the unit. He called me after settling in. Where else would he go?" Zhao Mumu said.
"Strange," Song Miaozhu murmured.
~~~
By evening, as they headed to the police station for E Hongjuan's statement, Zhao Huoyan finally called.
"It's confirmed," he said. "Lingcheng's biggest military victory was fought on that mountain—more than five thousand enemies were wiped out. Ghost sightings there have been reported for decades."
He exhaled sharply. "The villa's original owner was duped by a local developer into buying the land. The place did thrive for a bit, but then strange things started happening. The owner got into legal trouble, and the whole place was abandoned overnight."
"Avoid that area for now," Song Miaozhu said. "I'll ask underworld contacts how to handle foreign ghosts. My spiritual energy isn't enough to take on so many."
Her spiritual power was still too weak—and even with her vines, she couldn't handle that many ghosts alone.
"The station will help us set up a blockade," Zhao Huoyan replied. "But until we find a new office, the Paranormal Unit will have to squeeze in here for a while. Grandpa, sorry to ask, but can you stay in the hotel a bit longer?"
"Why don't you all just come to Yuanshan Town?" Grandpa Zhao suggested. "My woodcarving shop is spacious—plenty of room to stay. Those boys on your logistics team haven't trained in anything yet, have they? Time they picked up a skill. They can apprentice under me. Be junior brothers to Mumu."
Zhao Mumu brightened. "Yes! Brother, since you wanted Master's guidance anyway, why not the workshop?"
Zhao Huoyan thought it over. The logistics team didn't have much to do beyond monitoring networks and scouting for cultivators in Lingcheng. Instead of squatting at the police station, better they go learn woodcarving with Grandpa Zhao.
"Alright then. Sorry to trouble you, Grandpa. I'll make sure to credit you in my report to the higher-ups!"
"What trouble?" Grandpa Zhao waved it off. "But don't forget that commendation—you'd better follow through!"
Zhao Mumu giggled. "Master, you're such a rank-chaser!"
"It's prestige not glory!" Grandpa Zhao barked, puffing his beard. That made both Song Miaozhu and Zhao Mumu burst out laughing.
When they reached the station, they ran into Zhao Huoyan again—Captain Li was there too.
Song Miaozhu glanced toward E Hongjuan. "You called her out early?"
"She really came out?" Captain Li looked in the same direction. "Is she here now?"
Song Miaozhu nodded.
"You said we could call her out after dark, and I noticed the sun had set, so I went to the morgue and called her name. Didn't think she'd actually show up," Li said. "So ghosts can hear us from the underworld? Do we have to call directly to the corpse? Is that part of it?"
"The corpse anchors them to this world. Without it, they can only return during the Ghost Festival," Song Miaozhu explained.
"So on that day… ghosts are everywhere?"
"I've never seen it myself," she admitted.
When they went in to record statements, the police had even prepared a chair for E Hongjuan. On it sat an incense burner, and beneath it was a fire basin.
"You guys are surprisingly considerate," Grandpa Zhao said.
"Well, it's our first time handling a case that involves both the living and the dead," Captain Li explained. "Thought we should be thorough."
"Pretty sure that's not what 'uniting yin and yang' is supposed to mean…" Zhao Mumu said with a raised brow.