Chapter 1 The May Train

The May train disappearance case happened three years ago, but this body looks fresh; the time of death wouldn't exceed 3 days.

"The May train... is back." Director Qiao raised his head, his voice hoarse.

The corpse was a man, appearing to be in his early 30s. There were no wounds on his body, only that strange smiling face that made people feel very uncomfortable.

The oddity of the smiling face was indescribable. Huai Yi couldn't wrap his head around what this man had seen before he died.

He seemed to have died in extreme pleasure, but the overly exaggerated expression also indicated that the man was nervous at the time, even... a little bit scared.

Pleasure, fear, tension... various emotions mixed together made this matter very complicated.

But one thing was certain: the man must have been killed by a ghost.

Even without Director Qiao's earlier groundwork, it couldn't be hidden from everyone's eyes. There were no newcomers here.

They could vaguely smell a different kind of cold, another gloomy aura, from the corpse, aside from the coldness.

It was left by those things.

Jiang Cheng reached out and took a pair of gloves from a shelf on the side. After putting them on, he began to examine the body.

The corpse was placed on a wooden board, and under the wooden board were rows of rough wooden supports.

The gaps in the wood were filled with ice.

Even with this method of storing the corpse, the room was still filled with a faint stench. Smelling it for a long time made one's head feel bloated.

"What's the man's identity?" Jiang Cheng took off his gloves and threw them aside, while looking at Director Qiao.

As he said, there were no external injuries on the corpse, except for the occasional emerging corpse spot.

"Feng Delin, the son of Master Feng." Director Qiao said solemnly, "Master Feng is a bigwig in Graystone Town. His roots and network of relationships here are very deep. He has connections in both the military and political circles. Even I don't dare to offend him easily."

"No wonder you're jumping through hoops to get us to solve the case, and only giving us 7 days," Pi Ruan said sarcastically, as if he had caught Director Qiao's weakness. "Is this Master Feng forcing you to solve the case within a time limit? Threatening to take off your official hat if you don't find the murderer who killed his son or something."

Director Qiao didn't refute this, but looked into Pi Ruan's eyes and said coldly, "If the case isn't solved after 7 days, I will resign and leave. But before I resign, I can guarantee that you will see your brains flowing out with your own eyes."

Hearing this, Pi Ruan, who had been in the upper hand, immediately wilted.

"There should be other victims," Jiang Cheng said, turning his head to look at Director Qiao. "You wouldn't immediately think of the May train if only one person died."

Director Qiao signaled to the young police officer who had come in, and the latter immediately walked to the side of the wall. After fiddling with it for a while, the lights in the room suddenly came on.

With the light, everyone suddenly realized that this room was much larger than they had previously seen. A white screen stood a few meters away from them.

No, not a screen, but a curtain used for covering, which seemed to be pieced together from white bed sheets.

They had previously thought it was a wall.

As the young police officer walked over and slowly pulled the curtain open, the scene behind it shocked everyone.

Behind the curtain, more than a dozen white cloths were neatly arranged.

Under each white cloth was a corpse.

"They are all members of the Feng family. Including Feng Delin, there are a total of thirteen corpses." After a moment, Director Qiao spoke again, "If this matter is not resolved within a week, the Feng family will be wiped out."

"My God, what kind of outrageous things did they do to offend someone so badly?" Looking at the corpses covered with white cloths, Fatty felt that this ghost's resentment was simply too heavy.

Jiang Cheng didn't show any expression on his face. He turned to look at Director Qiao and asked, "Are all of them the same?"

"Yes, all of them are... all the same." Recalling those strange smiling faces, Director Qiao's expression was terrible.

"All the victims are members of the Feng family?" This time it was Luo He who spoke, staring at the corpses' faces, his voice calm.

"Yes," Director Qiao replied.

"In this way, the murderer is targeting the Feng family, determined to exterminate them." Jiang Cheng did not mention the word 'ghost', but used 'murderer' instead, which would avoid a lot of trouble.

"Director Qiao, you mentioned the May train disappearance case earlier. Now, the death of the Feng family members is the same as the death of the victims in the last carriage of the train. Don't you think there is something strange about this?" Jiang Cheng asked a question that any normal person could think of.

"I understand what you mean. The Feng family is indeed related to this matter to some extent." Director Qiao did not avoid the question, and said directly, "The Feng family funded the transportation of the victims, and the May train was also found by the Feng family."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a burst of rapid footsteps outside the door.

Immediately afterwards, the iron door was pushed open, and a disheveled police officer ran in, his face full of panic. But just as he was about to speak, he saw Jiang Cheng and the others looking at him, so he immediately stopped.

But Director Qiao seemed to understand something and frowned, "There are no outsiders here. Speak directly if you have something to say."

The police officer, who had been granted permission, said in a flustered manner, "Director Qiao, something bad has happened! News came from the Feng residence just now that another person died this morning!"

"Who is it this time?" Director Qiao asked quickly.

"It's the Daoist priest that Master Feng invited to exorcise ghosts. He died in the ancestral hall set up by the Qiao family. Originally, the plan was to keep vigil and perform rituals to exorcise ghosts, but when they went to check this morning, he was already dead." After speaking, the police officer glanced at the dozen or so tomb-like corpses inside with fear, and said in a low voice, "It's still the same... the same expression."

"How is Master Feng?" Director Qiao's face was full of煩心 (fánxīn, vexation).

"Master Feng has already fallen ill and is now being treated by a doctor, but I heard the situation is not good," the police officer added.

Director Qiao turned to look at Jiang Cheng and the others, "You should go there now. Wu Ergou will tell you the specifics."

"Remember, you only have 7 days," Director Qiao said, "Don't think about running away. I have people everywhere in Graystone Town. You can't escape from my grasp."

After speaking, Director Qiao left with another young police officer.

It was clear that he was in a bad mood. No one would feel good if they were stuck with such a thing.

He couldn't afford to offend the Feng family, and he couldn't afford to offend the ghost even more.

That's why he found a group of people like Jiang Cheng.

It seemed that Director Qiao himself didn't have much hope of resolving this matter. He brought Jiang Cheng and the others here more to act as scapegoats.

Following Wu Ergou out of the police station, they turned east and west, and arrived at a relatively prosperous street, surrounded by shops.

The hawkers selling food had very loud voices, and there was a stall at the corner covered with a mat, displaying various small commodities.