Chapter 174 Design

Lawyer An held the token in his hand, his fingers gently caressing it. He looked back at the cute girl beside him, smiled, and gently flicked her face.

Then, Lawyer An threw the token under the barbecue grill.

He got up, hoisted the girl up, and walked downstairs.

Zhou Ze, Yingying, and Xu Qinglang were already waiting at the door. The paper money had been burned, and everything that had happened in this guesthouse would no longer be their concern.

In fact, they weren't directly involved to begin with. They had come here specifically to rest after finishing a case, who knew they'd run into something like this?

They weren't the type to wallow, nor would they take on burdens that weren't theirs.

Lawyer An took the girl to a corner of the ancient city and used her phone to call the police. Soon, the police from the ancient city arrived. Lawyer An only went back to the car after they discovered the girl.

In the SUV, Zhou Ze, Yingying, and Xu Qinglang sat in the back, while the woman in the biker suit sat in the passenger seat, giving directions. Lawyer An drove.

In reality, the distance wasn't far, even closer than everyone imagined.

Less than ten kilometers from the ancient city, there was a river, its water said to flow from Yulong (Jade Dragon) Snow Mountain, formed from the melting snow.

"The entrance is at the bottom of this river, there's a gap, too small for an adult to squeeze through."

The woman had introduced herself in the car as Qin Youlan, a native of Lijiang, but not Naxi, Han Chinese.

Of course, now that she was dead and a ghost servant, there was no point in quibbling over ethnicity.

Having witnessed Qin Youlan's contortion skills that would put yoga and dance teachers to shame, Zhou Ze didn't bother asking stupid questions like 'how can you get in?' Instead, he looked at Yingying.

"How's your body recovered?"

"I'm fine, Boss."

Yingying understood, walked to the river, took off her coat, and after Qin Youlan pointed out the approximate location, jumped directly into the river.

A series of bubbles quickly rose to the surface, indicating that Yingying was widening the entrance below.

Zhou Ze squatted by the river, smoking.

Lawyer An stood next to Zhou Ze, nudging him gently with his elbow. Zhou Ze staggered and fell to the ground.

"............" Lawyer An.

Zhou Ze got up again and looked at Lawyer An.

Lawyer An nodded, his eyes gleaming.

Zhou Ze nodded too.

Lawyer An nodded again meaningfully.

Zhou Ze took a deep breath, a 'just as I expected' expression on his face.

Lawyer An let out a long sigh, seemingly pleased with this unspoken understanding.

After a while, Zhou Ze took out his phone.

A moment later, Lawyer An felt his phone vibrate. He took it out and saw a WeChat message from Zhou Ze:

"Just type it out."

So, they were just two idiots putting on a show for each other.

"Someone deliberately brought a constable token to the guesthouse. Qin Youlan was led to this location. It wasn't an accident."

If it wasn't an accident, it was planned.

After reading this string of words, Zhou Ze finally confirmed that the cause of this incident wasn't because he forgot to 'turn off his phone,' but because someone was plotting behind the scenes.

Even, their current arrival at this river, preparing to descend into the tomb, was within that person's calculated expectations.

This feeling of being manipulated was really unpleasant, and it was obvious that they were being used as pawns.

Zhou Ze turned back and glanced at Qin Youlan sitting there, frowning slightly.

"She probably doesn't even know herself."

Lawyer An sent a WeChat message.

Zhou Ze's fingers hovered on the phone screen for a moment, without replying.

Lawyer An seemed to understand Zhou Ze's meaning, and also deliberately turned his head to look at Qin Youlan sitting there.

He had forcibly placed a restriction on that woman; there was no way she could be playing this so smoothly, right?

Twenty minutes later, Yingying surfaced.

"Boss, it's cleared. The entrance is a bit narrow, but it widens further in. I didn't go deep inside, as you instructed."

Zhou Ze nodded, saying nothing more.

Because you didn't know what to say.

Although Yingying had just been busy in the cold river for so long, she was different from ordinary girls.

There was no need to say useless things like 'drink more hot water and keep warm.'

Boss Zhou wanted to show concern, but had no opportunity.

"Going down?" Lawyer An asked.

Zhou Ze shook his head.

Unless he resolved the trouble behind them, Zhou Ze would rather not go down.

People died for wealth, and birds died for food. If he could find a way to awaken Iron-head by getting more of those green stones, Zhou Ze would be willing to take a risk.

But if he was being schemed into going down, making a wedding dress for someone else, Boss Zhou didn't have such a noble sense of duty.

"Anyway, the tomb isn't going to run away, no rush." After saying this, Zhou Ze stood up and looked at Qin Youlan sitting there. "While we have time, let's investigate Constable Chen's affairs. I remember when I was in Tong City, a constable used a constable token to summon nearby ghost servants. I'll try it too, see if I can summon a few ghost servants from Lijiang or nearby, let's thoroughly investigate this."

"Go communicate with Qin Youlan again, ask for more specific details about what happened."

"Okay."

Lawyer An agreed with Zhou Ze's choice; better safe than sorry.

"Not going down?" Xu Qinglang next to him had been waiting for a long time. "If you're not going down, I'll get the food out of the car, we can have a picnic."

"I'm not hungry." Zhou Ze shook his head, picked up his token, and fiddled with it.

Lawyer An got up and walked towards Qin Youlan.

But at this moment, Qin Youlan's body suddenly trembled, and she collapsed to the ground in extreme pain, her face contorted, extremely terrifying.

"Ah!!!!!!"

She screamed in agony, scratching at the sand and gravel ground with her hands.

She raised her head, staring at Zhou Ze and Lawyer An, her eyes filled with pleading.

"Damn it, there are other restrictions left on her!"

Lawyer An immediately stepped forward, preparing to check her condition.

But after taking just two steps, Lawyer An's pupils suddenly contracted.

Zhou Ze also sensed something was wrong, reacting faster than Lawyer An, extending his palm forward, a barrier formed of black mist immediately appearing, blocking himself and those around him.

"Bang!"

Qin Youlan's body exploded like a fully inflated balloon.

Blood splattered, the blood that splashed on the black mist immediately made a "sizzling" sound, while the blood that splashed on other areas even melted a lot of the sand and gravel, with green smoke rising everywhere.

Then, Zhou Ze dismissed the black mist.

Looking at the location where Qin Youlan had been, he could only see a humanoid charred mark on the ground.

A ghost servant died just like that, not only did her body explode, but her soul wasn't spared either.

The scene was silent.

Although Zhou Ze himself had killed many ghost servants, it was either justified or because he had a special ghost servant certificate and could act with greater latitude, avoiding the Yin Bureau's investigation and punishment.

But ghost servants were, after all, ghost servants, representing the Yin Bureau's dignity. For them to be 'destroyed' so easily, was still quite astonishing.

"Just like that?" Lawyer An walked to the charred mark, and rubbed his shoe on the black ash.

"The person behind the scenes is more decisive than we thought."

Zhou Ze looked around.

It seemed that Qin Youlan should have known something.

The so-called agreement and story with Constable Chen might not be entirely credible.

Most importantly, the person truly pushing this behind the scenes was not only decisive, but also ruthless, even bordering on recklessness.

The ordinary people killed in the guesthouse, and a ghost servant was directly silenced in broad daylight.

This was completely disregarding the dignity of both the Yang and Yin worlds.

How brazen.

"What do we do next?" Xu Qinglang asked.

"Let's set up a tent and camp here." Zhou Ze pointed to the humanoid ash mark. "Clean this up."

After saying that, Zhou Ze walked to the river and sat down.

The sky was dark, but the stars were beautiful here.

Lawyer An came over and squatted down too.

"Sent the notification?" Lawyer An asked.

Zhou Ze shook his head.

"Yeah, that guy is so decisive, even if we call all the local small fries, we won't find anything.

But there's no other way. Although we were outside the border before, the commotion we made was indeed big. You took tens of thousands of war souls and walked for two days and two nights, people with ulterior motives nearby must have noticed something.

But to arrange people to come and scheme against us in such a short time, it's really..."

Speaking of this, Lawyer An paused.

"Thought of it?" Zhou Ze asked.

Lawyer An nodded with a somewhat ugly expression.

Zhou Ze twitched the corner of his mouth,

Pinched a pebble in front of him with his fingernail, instantly shattering it into powder,

At the same time, he said with a resentful tone:

"Our coming to Lijiang wasn't planned in advance, it was a whim.

We could have gone to Dali or Lugu Lake, there are many tourist destinations in Yunnan.

Since this matter was schemed by someone, then, how could there be such a coincidence?"

Saying that, Zhou Ze picked up another stone and threw it towards the river.

"Plop! Plop! Plop! Plop!"

He skipped it four times.

"I guess, there is no Ancient Tomb of King Mu at all. That stone wasn't brought out by Qin Youlan from the tomb, it was just bait to lure us in."

"Hoo..."

Lawyer An let out a breath of stale air, without refuting.

"First, Bai Furen's matter at the bookstore hasn't been investigated clearly, then we come to Lijiang to rest, and we're inexplicably drawn into a pie-in-the-sky scheme, so annoying."

"But, at least it proves one thing, that the person scheming against us has those green stones in his hand, otherwise Qin Youlan wouldn't have been able to get them."

"But can we find him?" Zhou Ze retorted.

"With our abilities, we really can't find him. Since the other party was so decisive in directly using the hidden restriction to silence her, it's because they don't want us to find out who he is."

"Then what?"

"But he made a mistake." Lawyer An pointed to his shoe sole, which was stained with black ash. "A ghost servant, killed at will, so many lives in the guesthouse, killed at will.

Boss, you're a constable now, you have the qualifications and authority to report to the Yin Bureau.

It's foolish not to take advantage of the public coffers.

Report it to the Yin Bureau, let the Yin Bureau send an inspector to investigate.

I don't believe it, a genuine inspector comes, how can that guy hide!"