Chapter Sixty-Three: The Strange Old Woman

Liu Jun hurried downstairs and got into the car, greeted by a strong, foul odor. The Fatty looked utterly baffled, wondering what was going on, and climbed into the car as well.

"Ugh, what is that stench? Liu, did you eat crap?" the Fatty asked, pinching his nose.

"Eat your sister! Have you ever heard of body refinement? What I'm doing is expelling impurities. Step on the gas already!" Liu Jun snapped angrily.

"Ugh, it's too foul." The Fatty found a towel in the car, tied it around his face to cover his nose, and drove in silence. Finally arriving downstairs, the Fatty leaped out of the car with an agility unbefitting his bulk, tore off the towel, and gasped for fresh air.

As soon as Liu Jun got out, he rushed straight for the elevator. Three middle-aged women were chatting inside, but the moment Liu Jun barged in, all three aunts synchronized their movements and covered their noses.

Paying them no mind, Liu Jun dashed out the moment the elevator reached his floor. As he stepped out, he overheard the women talking.

"What kind of work does that young man do? He smells so awful."

"He must have fallen into a sewer. Look at how soaked his clothes are."

Liu Jun rushed into the bathroom and began scrubbing furiously. A full hour later, he finally emerged with his skin bleached white from the soaking. He went back downstairs, called the Fatty, and they drove off toward the location Chu Feng had mentioned to meet up.

"Master, can this situation be handled? This ghost is quite vicious—it killed another person last night," Chu Feng said as soon as he saw Liu Jun.

"Another one killed? Have you checked if the victims share any common traits?" Liu Jun asked, frowning.

"Yes. Several of them used to follow the punk who originally ran the internet café; they were all his underlings," Chu Feng replied.

"Bring the remaining few people here and gather them together. It’s useless wherever they hide; this ghost has a very strong desire for vengeance." Upon hearing Liu Jun's words, Chu Feng immediately turned and instructed his men to bring the remaining people over.

As the group walked forward while talking, they passed the overpass in front of the internet café and spotted an old woman in tattered clothes with disheveled, graying hair, trembling as she kept her head lowered and begged for alms. Liu Jun stopped and looked at her with a frown.

After a long moment, Liu Jun actually took a hundred-yuan bill from his wallet and placed it in the old woman’s begging bowl. After a brief hesitation, he even placed his outer jacket beside her. Given Liu Jun's usual personality, while getting money out of him was easy, parting with it was exceedingly difficult—mostly because of a certain past incident.

He had always been a warm-hearted person, right up until the time he went to visit a buddy and saw a young woman sitting by the roadside with chalked writing in front of her: *Please, kind-hearted people, spare some money so I can have a bite to eat.* Seeing this, Liu Jun thought, *Ah, how pitiful. I love money, but I'm not that hard up.* So he trotted off to buy a boxed meal with rice and a bottle of water, and handed it to the woman. When he handed it over, the woman looked up at Liu Jun, took it, and began to eat.

Liu Jun watched the woman finish eating and then went into a shopping mall to wait for his buddy. When his buddy arrived and couldn't find him, Liu Jun came back out of the mall and saw the woman begging by the entrance again. Without thinking much about it, he simply went and bought another boxed meal and a bottle of mineral water for her, watching her finish it.

Later, after Liu Jun and his buddy had strolled around the mall for a bit and were heading back, they saw the woman begging at the bus stop once more. Liu Jun paused in silence, then went and bought yet another meal and water. When he handed it to the woman, the look in her eyes seemed as though she wanted to engrave his kindness deep into her memory. Then, without even eating the food, she excitedly ran off.

When Liu Jun passed by that area again later, he found the same begging woman still there, with an urban management officer standing nearby holding a sign that read: *Do not give money. She's a scammer. She has been pulling this stunt here for a whole month.*

The reason Liu Jun gave money to this old woman now was nothing else than the fact that she was extremely strange: she was wreathed in a dense, heavy aura of ghostly energy, yet his Heavenly Eyes could not detect any ghost attached to her. This could only mean that the old woman frequently came into contact with ghosts, and not just ordinary ones.

After Liu Jun handed over the money, the old woman looked up at him, but instead of saying thank you like other beggars, she simply lowered her head again in silence. Liu Jun didn't get a clear look at what the old woman actually looked like, other than noticing what seemed to be a dark patch on her left cheek.

The group did not linger any longer and walked straight to the entrance of the internet café to observe. The internet café was quite large. Liu Jun ripped off the seal, Chu Feng took out the keys to unlock the front door, and they all stepped inside.

Rows of neat computers and messy red lounge chairs came into view. After taking a few steps forward, a rich, pungent stench of blood washed over them. Chu Feng turned on the lights, while Liu Jun began examining the white outlines on the floor marking where the corpses had been found. After observing for a while, he hurried up to the second floor in strides. From the second floor of the internet café, leaning over the railing allowed a clear view of the first floor. Liu Jun frowned; this ghost harbored quite a heavy resentment. Judging by the white outlines left behind, the victims had been arranged to spell out a character of death.

Just as Liu Jun was leaning over the railing upstairs lost in thought, the Fatty's voice rang out from below.

"Liu, did you climb up to the second floor just to air out your treasure? Your fly is open."

*What the hell!* Liu Jun panicked, looked down, and hurriedly pulled up his zipper. *Damn it, when did that open?*

Liu Jun went back downstairs and looked around the surroundings once more. This was truly bizarre—how had the corpses been transported inside? Even if killed by a ghost, how were the bodies moved?

"Master Jin Qianzi, did you find anything?" Chu Feng looked at Liu Jun anxiously; if they still couldn't find a solution, another person would die tonight.

"Nothing found. I can only be certain that this ghost’s cultivation isn't high, but it is definitely a fierce ghost with immensely heavy resentment. Tonight, we'll stay right here," Liu Jun said, shaking his head. What clues could he possibly find? He was a Daoist priest, not a detective.

As Liu Jun strolled toward the entrance of the internet café, he suddenly spotted the begging old woman from the overpass standing right outside the door, as if waiting for him.

"Before midnight tonight, you must leave this internet café. Leave this place," the old woman said to Liu Jun with a very solemn expression.

Liu Jun didn't take it seriously. Leave? He had come here precisely to catch the ghost; how could he catch it if he left? Still, the old woman meant well; she had probably heard about what happened here and came specifically to warn him—an old person with a kind heart.

Fumbling through his pockets, Liu Jun stuffed the remaining three hundred yuan into the old woman's hands. "Auntie, thank you for your kind intentions. Don't worry, nothing will happen."

"You must leave before midnight," the old woman said, and then she walked away. Liu Jun shrugged, wearing an indifferent expression. A moment later, Chu Feng walked out.

"Chu Feng, do you have the photos of the punks and the photos of that couple?" Liu Jun asked.

"Yes, I'll get them for you." Chu Feng asked a nearby colleague for a file folder, pulled out several photographs from inside, and handed them to Liu Jun. Liu Jun took them and began examining them closely.

When he saw the photograph of the elderly couple, Liu Jun froze completely. The old woman in the photo had a dark patch on her face—wasn't this exact person the old woman who had just warned him? Liu Jun hurriedly chased off in the direction the old woman had walked, but failed to catch up. He then ran up onto the overpass, yet still saw no trace of the old woman.

"Master, what is it?" Chu Feng caught up as well. As for the Fatty, he was panting heavily as he walked over from a distance.

"The old woman just now—the one from the overpass—she is the old woman in the photograph," Liu Jun said, frowning. This old woman definitely knew something.

"Master, you didn't see wrong?" Chu Feng asked, astonishment written all over his face. One of the individuals involved in the case had actually been right underneath his nose.

"I didn't see wrong; it was that old woman. She just warned me that I must leave before midnight, which means that the old man who turned into a fierce ghost will definitely come tonight."

"Let's go back and prepare," Liu Jun said as he turned around and walked back. That fierce ghost had already claimed several lives; it certainly wouldn't be easy to deal with.