Flowers of the Departed Souls - Chapter 24

Along the way, the village in the dead of night seemed incredibly quiet and dark; there wasn’t even a single light. They were using flashlights; otherwise, they truly wouldn’t have recognized the path.

He wondered how Luo Xiaofeng and Grandma walked back. Perhaps they were familiar with the area and used to walking at night. Now, there were only two sounds here: the呼聲 (hūshēng – whistling) of the wind and the occasional barking of dogs.

Kelou and Chi Ziming walked and chatted. Kelou had always been curious about Chi Ziming’s purpose for coming to this village. Although he knew that initially, Chi Ziming had suicidal tendencies, wanting to end it all here, to sever all ties with his past, his suicide note was even prepared. Though he hadn’t seen the contents, it must have been a very well-planned suicide. And to die by the sea, it could even be considered a poetic death.

However, after experiencing these terrifying death incidents, Kelou was curious if Chi Ziming still had suicidal thoughts. He had a good impression of Chi Ziming, so he tried his best to correct his mindset.

“Did you used to like this place very much?”

Chi Ziming nodded. “I once stayed here for several days with my ex-girlfriend. It was summer, and she loved the sea here. She loved flying kites here. I wrote our love for each other on the kite, then released it. She said the kite would carry our love and tell God. God would surely be envious of us, and moved by our love, our feelings would become eternal, no matter how time passed. But—”

He paused. Kelou roughly guessed what he meant; this was a turning point in his tone. “—But a month before we were supposed to get married, she suddenly became obsessed with strange things. She was secretly doing things every day. Whenever I woke up, I found she wasn’t beside me, and she would only come back in the early hours of the morning. And after she came back, the first thing she’d say was, ‘Heavenly Father is watching us from above.’ I’d look up, and it was the ceiling; there was nothing there. But her gaze was dull and a little frantic. At first, I was really scared; I didn’t know what was wrong with her. I thought she had mental problems. Sometimes, I heard her calling out in her dreams, ‘Taotie,’ ‘aura of art,’ all these messy things—”

“Wait, Taotie?” This was a word Tang Xieqiang often used before he died. Could his girlfriend also be involved with that cult? Or was she even a member of it? “What’s your girlfriend’s name?”

“Cai Yilian. What’s wrong? Do you know her?”

Kelou waved his hand. “Then, did you notice if she had a tattoo on her arm similar to a bird-headed human?”

Chi Ziming looked at him a bit strangely. “How did you know that? She got it tattooed during that period.”

“Do you know where she is now?”

“I don’t know. I wish I knew where she was. I wanted to investigate her during that time, but before I could act, she suddenly broke up with me, saying she no longer loved me and had fallen in love with another man. Then she took her belongings and left. Before that, I thought she had truly gone mad, and I was determined to uncover the mystery of what she had been doing during that time and who she had been with. But she seemed to know I would try something like this, and she just disappeared in front of me. I couldn’t find her at all. And when I went to her family’s house, they had no idea about any of this. Oh, by the way, she was originally an orphan, adopted later. She also frequently called home, so I always thought she was still working normally at her company. Only when I went to her workplace did I find out she hadn’t been to work for a month. Do you know why I came here? Because she once said, ‘If reality truly makes us despair, let’s come here to commit suicide.’ At the time, I even scoffed at her, telling her to stop saying such depressing things. I just never thought she would just say she didn’t love me anymore. And all my savings were lost in stocks. I was caught trading stocks at work repeatedly by my boss, lost money, and got fired. Tell me, if you’re disheartened in both love and career, what’s the point of living? And let’s talk about my hobbies. I wrote hundreds of thousands of words for a publishing house. The book was published, but the fake editor took the manuscript fees and disappeared. I contacted him online. I called the publishing house, and they said the manuscript was given by that person, and the money was collected by that person, and they took no responsibility. Tell me, am I too trusting of others? In this day and age, is there anyone more of a failure, more foolish than me? If I’m not completely disheartened, then I can’t find anyone who is more disheartened.”

Kelou sighed and patted Chi Ziming’s shoulder. “Buddy, there’s a saying: ‘push aside the mist to see the sun.’ No matter what setbacks you face, no matter how lost you feel right now, there will always be a day when you see the sun. Trust me.”

Chi Ziming looked at him, a sense of indescribable irritation in his heart, but he couldn’t say it. Yes, about Ke’er waiting for his third near-death experience in that ancient Liangzhu Kingdom, waiting for him to rescue her, how could he possibly say that? This unspeakable suffering, even if he told Kelou, Kelou might not even believe it. It sounded too much like a mythical story. However, he didn’t know when the God of Death would descend upon him. If the God of Death targeted Kelou first, would the plan be delayed again? And another innocent person would die unnaturally. Should he try to find a way to make him leave here?

Thinking this, they walked and walked, then saw Luo Xiaofeng’s house. Chi Ziming pointed to a house ahead. “That should be it. Last time I was wandering around, I happened to run into Xiaofeng’s grandma and chatted there for a bit. Look, there are even a few drying racks there. It’s here.”

Kelou felt a bad premonition. “Think about it. They just left a few steps ahead of us, and we followed right behind, only a few minutes apart. And how fast can two women walk? Even if they arrived first, why is there no light in this house?”

Chi Ziming thought for a moment. “Are they still behind us? I don’t think that’s possible. There’s only one path here. If they were slower than us, we should have seen them. Maybe they went to sleep as soon as they arrived. Let’s knock and see.”

Kelou knocked on the door and called out Luo Xiaofeng’s name, but there was no response from inside. Kelou became increasingly certain of his intuition. He violently pushed open the main door, shined his flashlight inside, then opened the inner room doors. It was completely empty. Only in one room did he see a repulsive, decaying foot.

“They didn’t come back at all. Let’s go find Xiaofeng quickly. Xiaofeng might be in danger.”

For a moment, Chi Ziming felt extremely anxious, truly afraid that something might have happened to Luo Xiaofeng. In his haste, sweat broke out on his palms. However, in this village, which was unfamiliar to both of them, they truly didn’t know where to start looking. Where would that old woman take Luo Xiaofeng? “How about this, Officer Lu, let’s call Uncle Luo Bozi out first. He might know something, and then ask him to take us around.”

Kelou, however, was looking around. “There’s another courtyard behind. How about this: you wait here, and I’ll go check the backyard.”

Chi Ziming nodded. At this moment, standing there, he suddenly realized he didn’t even know where Luo Bozi lived. Every time, he would mysteriously appear beside him—by the sea, at the inn, on the cliff. But at this moment, Chi Ziming suddenly remembered that besides Luo Xiaofeng, Luo Bozi was the person who most frequently entered and exited the inn. And after every few murders, Luo Bozi would always appear miraculously. At this moment, when Chi Ziming thought of the legend he spoke of, his strange limp, and his perpetually inscrutable and peculiar gaze, he suddenly felt that this person was actually very terrifying, or perhaps, he was connected to the murders that occurred at the inn. Although, this was just Chi Ziming’s momentary intuition.

At this moment, he felt someone place a hand on his shoulder. “You, are you looking for me?”

He slowly turned around. It was Luo Bozi—with that gloomy face.