I told Captain Liang that I would come immediately. I changed my clothes and grabbed the Corpse Subduing Talismans I had just drawn. When we walked out of the house, I called Li Mazi.

The three of us gathered at the police station. While getting out of his car, Li Mazi complained, “Little Brother Zhang, why do you always call me when I’m having a nice moment? It’s really annoying.”

“Why are you so mad? Were you doing something with Ru Xue?” I sniggered.

Since Yin Xinyue was here, Li Mazi immediately denied it. “No, it’s not that. We were cleaning the house. I was cleaning the glass window panels and then you called me…”

“Oh, you guys were cleaning the house during this late hour? What a hard-working couple!”

The police station was bustling with officers rushing back and forth. They were busy making calls and writing reports. I pulled Fengshen Nana, who was passing by. “What happened?”

“You’re also here?” Fengshen Nana was surprised. “Something very bad just happened. While the officers on night duty were chatting, they heard glass shattering. They immediately checked around to see if someone had deliberately done that. In the end, they found that the morgue’s window was broken, and the robbers’ corpses were gone. At first, they thought that the culprit had come to destroy the corpses and the evidence, so they called the criminal force. When the enforcement team came, they started to search around.”

Fengshen Nana continued, “What they discovered was shocking. Three corpses were hanging from a tree in a park nearby. One was found in the toilet, with its head clogging the toilet bowl. Also, you know how one of the robbers had been crushed by a truck? That one crawled to the Evidence Department. Another corpse hid under the stairs. He used a steel wire to prick his ears. It was a horrible mess.”

“Did they do that on their own? Did you check the CCTV cameras?” I asked.

“I checked them. Before 10:30 PM, everything was normal. From 10:30 to 10:35 PM, snowflakes appeared in front of every camera, and I couldn’t see things clearly!” Fengshen Nana said.

Fengshen Nana had worked with us when we dealt with two otherworldly items, so she asked, “Mr. Zhang, what do you think? Are they still alive or did the ringleader do something again?”

I thought about it then said, “I think they are resisting…”

“Resisting? Resisting what?” Fengshen Nana was skeptical.

“Take me to see Captain Liang first,” I said.

“All right, follow me.” Fengshen Nana led the way.

Captain Liang was in the morgue. He rubbed his face and looked absentminded as he observed the corpses that they had just ‘rescued.’ When he saw me, he briefed me about the situation. I pulled the white sheet that was covering a corpse, and the scene was indeed messy.

“Could you please check these bodies’ ears?” I said to a forensic doctor.

The forensic doctor asked Captain Liang for permission before using a flashlight to show me the corpses’ ears. It was as I had guessed. All the bodies had their eardrums forcefully broken. From the traces that were left, it was determined that they had self-inflicted the injuries.

Fengshen Nana gasped when she heard it.

Captain Liang looked at me, his eyes solemn. “Mr. Zhang, do you know what this might mean? Could you tell me why the six dead bodies pierced their eardrums?”

“These people died a tragic death and were then controlled. This must have generated a large amount of resentful energy. They wanted to break their eardrums to get rid of something, probably a sound that controlled them,” I explained.

Fengshen Nana suddenly remembered something. “Old Xu in the duty room told me that he heard someone beating a drum outside at around 10:30 PM. He thought that some people were holding a funeral service, but it was strange as it was night time. He looked through the window but didn’t see anything outside.”

“The beat of the drum controlled the dead bodies,” I said.

Captain Liang shook hands with me. “Mr. Zhang, thank you so much for your help. I know what to do now.”

He asked Fengshen Nana to check the nearby traffic surveillance cameras to find the person beating the drum. However, I felt that the chance of finding the culprit was slim. That guy was too cunning.

Since he had thought about destroying the corpses, it meant he couldn’t completely control the otherworldly item in his possession. It could be that the otherworldly item was too strong, or perhaps he wasn’t that good.

I said to Li Mazi, “We should hit the iron while it’s still hot. We should also look for the murderer. Go and get me refined salt, eels, a bucket, sand, and thin iron wire.”

“Shoot, it’s really late. Where can I get those?” Li Mazi complained.

Captain Liang smiled and said, “We’ve got a lot of random stuff in the storage in the Evidence Department. I’ll take you there. I’ve also got a friend in the Social Security Force. I’ll call him to get us some eels.”

“Remember, they should be big and fat eels!” I advised.

Unfortunately, the traffic cameras didn’t record anyone playing the drum. At around 1:00 AM, Captain Liang brought us the items we had requested. He asked the other officers to clock off and go home.

Li Mazi sighed with emotion. “It’s not easy for you guys to work as cops. When an unexpected situation happens, you have to stay up the whole night.”

“Sudden situations are normal to us.” Captain Liang smiled and checked his Type 54 pistol. “I’ll be staying with you tonight.”

“I will, too.” Fengshen Nana volunteered.

However, Captain Liang asked her to go home.

I chimed in, “Nana has worked with us before. She’s experienced this sort of situation and can help.”

Captain Liang looked at Fengshen Nana and half-believed it. Since Fengshen Nana secretly admired her superior, she appreciated my help and shot a grateful glance at me.

Yin Xinyue whispered, “You always look dumb, but now you’re giving a hand to fulfill someone’s wish! By the way, are we going to stay in the morgue tonight?”

“Are you scared? If you’re scared, I’ll ask Li Mazi to take you home,” I said.

“No, I’m not scared!” Yin Xinyue said. Then, she hugged my arm.

It was very cold in the morgue. Captain Liang was worried that we would freeze, so he went to the office and fetched us some quilts.

After everything was ready, I told them the plan.

My grandpa had taught me a set of skills that I could use to interrogate corpses. However, I never had the chance to use them. Tonight was the chance to apply my knowledge.

The principle behind it was simple. A person who often rides a bicycle automatically pedals without thinking about it. This is because of a concept called ‘muscle memory.’ The dead also retained their muscle memory. As long as we could use a secret technique, we could force the dead bodies to disclose information about the situation they had experienced before their death!

I took out the eels and the thin steel wire from the bag. Then I gave them to Li Mazi along with some small bells I had prepared. I asked him to arrange these things outside the office. He had to tie the steel wire around the small park near the police office. Before doing that, the bells had to be attached to the eel-blood smeared wire. All the bells and wire had to be secured.

Li Mazi forced a smile. “Little Brother Zhang, you always give me trashy jobs. It’s after midnight, and you want me to tie a wire outside the police station. If someone sees me, they would think that I’m about to bomb the place…”

“How about we let Yin Xinyue do it instead?” I said that on purpose.

“No, that’s not good. My sister-in-law is fragile. Just leave this heavy job to me.” Li Mazi waved his hand.

After Li Mazi went outside, I repeatedly rubbed refined salt over a corpse. After washing the corpse, I found a pen and put it into his hand. Then, I put the hand into the bucket full of sand.

Afterward, I used a knife to cut an eel and used its blood to draw complicated symbols. Actually, I could draw anything as I just needed to smear the eel blood all over the corpse’s chest. At first, I wanted to draw a picture of Hello Kitty to make Yin Xinyue happy. But as Officer Liang was here, I had to pretend to be an aloof master. With an earnest face, I drew two formations on the body’s chest. I didn’t even realize what kind of formations they were.

After preparing everything, we wrapped ourselves in the quilts and waited in the morgue.

Yin Xinyue and Fengshen Nana were both gossipy and quickly became friends. Yin Xinyue bragged about the events she had experienced, which made Fengshen Nana gasp in awe.

“Sister Xinyue, I’m going to tell you an interesting story,” Fengshen Nana said. “Do you know what this plot of land was before it became a police station?”

“No, I don’t.” Yin Xinyue shook her head.

“They say that this piece of land used to be a small village where an old woman lived. Her son traveled to do business, and every month, he sent her money. Her neighbors admired her for having such a filial son. But one day, the authorities came and knocked on her door. They gave the old woman her son’s head. It turned out that her son wasn’t a businessman. He was a gangster in Jiangyang and was beheaded. The old woman cried her heart out and fainted. That very night, she hung herself and committed suicide. Her neighbors pitied her, so they buried her. After that incident, the people that lived in the area often said that at night, a headless man would kneel in the graveyard and sweep an old woman’s grave. Everybody said that he was the woman’s headless, filial son!” Fengshen Nana said mysteriously.