After writing down the oral confession, I returned to the police station with the two policemen.

Coincidentally, when we got out of the house, we encountered the victim’s wife. When she heard that her husband was chopped into pieces, she just nodded and showed that she understood the bad news. She only asked the police to solve the case as soon as possible. She shook her high heels off her feet then went to her room to rest. She ignored her daughter, who was standing with a helpless face in the living room.

If we didn’t have proof that she wasn’t present at the crime scene, I would have suspected that she was the murderer…

When we returned to the police station, I asked to see the victims’ profiles one more time. I wanted to see if I could find any similarities between them.

I had studied them for around one hour and found something: Regardless of what position they had, they were married and had at least one child.

I told Captain Liu about my findings. However, he thought that this similarity wasn’t that significant. “Does the murderer want to kill people who have children? It would be a maniac serial killer!”

I looked him deep in the eyes. Then, I emphasized, “I saw an evil spirit.”

Captain Liu opened his eyes wide in shock. His face was full of fear.

I took a deep breath. “The spirit is a child. That’s why he has chosen victims with kids. I think he kills people because of something he had experienced when he was alive. The eight victims’ children have experienced what he had experienced.”

Captain Liu calmed down. With a serious face, he asked, “What are you going to do?”

I shook my head. “For now, I only know that the spirit is targeting families with kids. I haven’t figured out what his motive is.”

Thus, the urgent task at hand was to investigate the family relationship, especially between the parents and the children of the victims. We had to know this information before we could figure out what to do next.

As soon as Captain Liu heard that, he immediately assigned his staff to do what I had just told him. I didn’t follow them but went to Wang Ping’s house to see her. I wasn’t sure if she was the next target. However, since it had appeared in her house, Wang Ping could be murdered.

Wang Ping was thrilled to see me. I deliberately drove the topic to her son. Then, I found a problem. She was different from the other moms who were blunt about their children. Wang Ping simply drifted away from the topic.

Wang Ping made me think that she didn’t want to be close to her son. I thought I got something important here, but I couldn’t figure it out.

I felt irritated with myself, so I stopped answering Wang Ping’s questions. I got up and went to the bedroom on the second floor.

The door to Wang Ping’s son’s room wasn’t completely closed. I took a look through the slit between the door and the doorframe. The kid was talking to the cloth tiger in his chest. He sounded like he was complimenting the tiger for something it had done. This scene looked strange.

I wanted to go closer to listen to him, but the boy suddenly lifted his head and looked at the door, just as if he had spotted me!

I quickly took a few steps back. Eavesdropping was somewhat embarrassing. I pretended not to know anything and went to my guest room.

I hadn’t slept for almost two nights. Not long after I tucked myself in bed, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was late in the afternoon. Wang Ping called me to have dinner. At the same time, she told me that the police had come and said that they got what I had asked for.

After hearing that, I was no longer in the mood to eat. I hurriedly ran to the police station. When I entered the office, I saw that Captain Liu’s face was dark.

“What’s wrong?” I was skeptical.

He said nothing but ushered me to the document storage room. Then, he pushed a thick stack of files at me. I flipped over the pages. Slowly, my face turned dark and heavy…

In my eyes, parents were great and selfless. Even if they made mistakes sometimes, they just wanted the best for their children. However, the documents in front of me had overturned my worldview!

From the investigation result, no matter how rich or poor the deceased were, they had the same characteristic. They had neglected their children. In some severe cases, they even seriously abused their children!

Two or three of them weren’t from Fujian. They had come to do business in Fujian and got rich. Afterward, they only thought about themselves and spent everything on themselves, including their time. They had neglected their children back in their hometown. One of the deceased had a secret lover whom she often brought home. She had even let her partner torture her daughter by whipping her and dripping hot wax on her!

“Damn! Were those freaking people even human? They weren’t better than filthy animals!” I hastily closed the files. At this moment, I thought I would give up this case since those who were involved deserved death!

Captain Liu saw that I was emotional. He pressed his hand on my shaking shoulder and said slowly, “Mr. Zhang, I’ve heard that the people who work in your business believe in reincarnation, right?”

I nodded, but I didn’t know why he had changed the topic that fast.

He took a few draws from his cigarette before speaking again. “This morning, you told me it was a child, right? Are you that heartless to give up the case and let a kid who didn’t have a good childhood not be able to rest forever? He kills people because he still has hatred in his heart. That’s why he hates the parents who abuse their children.”

I was bewildered. Then, I rubbed my nose and felt a little embarrassed. He wasn’t in my business, but he understood our morality while I had almost let my anger get the best of me and forgotten about the rule.

It seemed I should read the sacred text of Daoism more often. I didn’t want to let my emotions get to me.

When Captain Liu saw that I had calmed down, he asked, “What should we do now? The spirit kills one person every day. If this continues, the social order and security in Fujian can’t be maintained.”

I thought about it. The knuckles of my right hand gently knocked on the table. “Wang Ping is most likely the next target. If I hadn’t been there last night, she would have been the next victim. When the little ghost recognized that he couldn’t kill Wang Ping, he changed his target.”

“Do you still want to protect Wang Ping?”

“I’m not sure how to get rid of the ghost. If I am there and the ghost goes to kill people somewhere else, my sin will grow bigger…” I said begrudgingly.

Then, I asked Captain Liu to choose two policemen that had kids and a happy family to go to Wang Ping’s house. At the same time, I would hide outside to watch. I would see if that spirit was going to kill only those who didn’t treat their children well. We would be able to confirm this theory after this test.

“Oh right, don’t tell anyone that I will be watching outside.” I thought, then added, “I don’t want to show any clues.”

Captain Liu nodded and went to make the arrangements. After Captain Liu sent two middle-aged policemen away for a while, I followed them to Wang Ping’s house.

To ensure that I would stay concealed, I put on a Yang Concealing Talisman as I got close to Wang Ping’s house. Then, I climbed a big tree that had branches that extended just outside Wang Ping’s window.

With the Yang Concealing Talisman, the spirit wouldn’t be able to notice me unless he saw me directly.

It started to rain again. Soon, I was soaking wet. The feeling of having damp clothes sticking on my body was extremely uncomfortable. I tried to ignore the feeling and gazed at the window. Through the window, I saw the two policemen talking to Wang Ping.

Wang Ping looked a little panicked as it was late and I hadn’t come to protect her. Wang Ping’s son went downstairs. He was hugging the cloth tiger and talking with the police. He looked happy, though.

However, he didn’t say a word to his mother. He was sitting next to one of the policemen. From what I could see, he didn’t depend on his mother at all. This made me strongly believe in my assumption.

At around 10:00 PM, one of the policemen stood up and held the boy’s hand. He led him to the second floor. I guessed he was going to tuck him into bed.

The other policeman stayed and talked with Wang Ping. It didn’t look like they would sleep tonight.

I was a little worried. I had hit the spirit hard yesterday. Perhaps it hadn’t recovered enough to show up tonight.

I took out the phone and sent a text message to Captain Liu. Afterward, the policeman in the living room received a phone call. After the phone call, he said something to Wang Ping, and then the woman went to her bedroom.

The policeman leaned against the sofa and smoked. He closed his eyes to rest. Last night, it was almost dawn when the spirit came. It would be a few hours until that time. I closed my eyes and took a little rest too.

Suddenly, I heard a loud crackling noise from the room. My eyes shot open. The picture frame near the TV had fallen.

A cute boy appeared on the TV. He was facing the policeman. It was a complete contrast to the crying face I had seen yesterday. He was smiling brightly tonight.

Even if the policeman opened his eyes and saw the kid now, he wouldn’t pay attention to him. Since the kid didn’t seem to want to attack the policeman, I stayed still and patiently watched him…

The boy looked at the policeman and smiled for quite a long time before leaving the TV. Then, he slowly crawled toward the bedroom. It seemed I was correct. When he appeared last time, the entire living room was full of crying faces. Now that he was walking toward the bedroom, I knew he didn’t want to scare the good father in the living room.

I inched my body on the tree branch to see the bedroom. Unfortunately, Wang Ping had let her curtain loose.

“Oh shoot, I forgot that!” I cursed then slid down the tree. I quietly crawled up to the balcony.

I was lucky that the balcony’s window was open. I took off my shoes and tiptoed behind the curtain. I opened the balcony door a little to observe the room. However, as soon as I pulled the curtain, a massive crying face appeared in front of me. Its bleeding eyeballs were the size of a fist.

I was scared and stumbled. The fire in my heart surged up. “Get off of me!” I screamed and thrust the Yin and Yang Umbrella forward. The crying face turned into a dark shadow and attempted to leave the room. I hurried to chase after it. I wouldn’t let it go this time!

The policeman in the living room got up. When he saw that I was furiously rushing out with the Yin and Yang Umbrella, he was bewildered.