Chapter 75

The next morning when she woke up, Qi Xu went upstairs to check and found Xia Zhiming sleeping sprawled out…

The next morning when she woke up, Qi Xu went upstairs to check. She discovered Xia Zhiming sleeping spread-eagled right on her own pillow. Qi Xu sighed and, very resigned to her fate, helped Xia Zhiming change her dressing and re-bandage the wound.

She had called Xia Zhiming “ancestor” yesterday, and sure enough, she was reaping what she sowed—now she was serving her like an ancestor.

But Qi Xu was happy to do it.

The two of them went downstairs together to eat breakfast, then took a cab to Qi Xu’s school together. Qi Xu went to class while Xia Zhiming went to pick up her car. After they arrived, they parted ways. Qi Xu waved at Xia Zhiming reluctantly and said, “You should stay home and not move around too much, in case the wound reopens.”

Xia Zhiming didn’t agree, but she didn’t refute it either.

Qi Xu returned to school worried sick. As soon as she entered the classroom door, she received a message from the Vice Bureau Chief. She asked for leave for her afternoon class after lunch, asking a classmate in the lecture to pass the note to the teacher, then headed straight to the Third Bureau.

When she arrived, she was about to start looking for the Vice Bureau Chief’s office again, but fortunately, the black cat showed up to guide her. It led her to the door and then vanished in the blink of an eye once more. Qi Xu remarked with a sigh, “I didn’t get to pet the cat today,” before entering the Vice Bureau Chief’s office.

She pushed the door open and found Xia Zhiming already there, sitting in the chair across from the Vice Bureau Chief with unhappiness written all over her face.

The Vice Bureau Chief “looked” toward Qi Xu and beckoned her. “Qi Xu, have a seat first.”

“Okay.” Qi Xu obediently sat down next to Xia Zhiming. Once she was seated, the Vice Bureau Chief spoke up. “I called you here this time mainly regarding the incident at your school yesterday. You’re the primary witness, so for some matters, I need to refer to your opinion.”

Qi Xu nodded, indicating she understood.

The Vice Bureau Chief continued, “Yesterday and today, Xia Zhiming has repeatedly applied to me multiple times to impose a heavier punishment on Zhuo Zi’ang. However, based on Zhuo Zi’ang’s original situation—excluding the assault on Xia Zhiming—his punishment wouldn’t be severe.”

“First of all, he is an ordinary person who had no knowledge of ghosts. He just happened to pick up a Golden Toad Ornament at a second-hand market, got haunted by a ghost as a result, and did some wrong things. According to our previous precedents, we classify these cases as victims. We wipe their memories and release them.”

“Ah?” Qi Xu had considered that the punishment might not be heavy, but she hadn’t expected it to be this lenient. She glanced at Xia Zhiming, who still looked very displeased, seemingly unhappy with this judgment as well.

The Vice Bureau Chief explained, “Because most people who encounter these things are possessed and aren’t acting on their own will. Moreover, those who are possessed have their yin energy continuously increasing, which affects their own yang energy. In the aftermath, they’ll suffer from yin-yang imbalance, leading to frequent illnesses or even shortened lifespans.”

“That’s the second reason for leniency.”

If that was the case, Qi Xu thought… it did make sense to go easy on them. These people were unlucky enough—just accidentally encountering a ghost, getting possessed, losing control of their bodies while the ghost committed crimes with them, and then falling ill with shortened lifespans afterward. Punishing them harshly would be too inhumane.

Before Qi Xu could speak, Xia Zhiming beside her tsked. “He was actively possessed, and he retained his own will. He was acting on his own malicious intent.”

The Vice Bureau Chief ignored Xia Zhiming’s words and asked Qi Xu directly, “I wasn’t there at the time, so I can’t make a judgment. Only you and Xia Zhiming have seen Zhuo Zi’ang, so your opinion is very important. Do you think he was possessed without his own will, or was he acting on his own volition?”

Qi Xu fell silent for a moment because she didn’t know which it was either.

She had only seen Zhuo Zi’ang three times, to be precise: once at the library entrance, once in his dorm, and finally when he was lying on the ground yesterday. Judging based on just three encounters felt extremely difficult.

Qi Xu thought for a while before countering the Vice Bureau Chief and Xia Zhiming. “Both of you can divine and calculate, especially you, Vice Bureau Chief—you have that bug skill called the Heart Eye. Can’t you figure out whether he was acting on his own will?”

The Vice Bureau Chief “glanced” at Xia Zhiming again before shaking her head. “I can’t calculate it. Divination calculates heaven, earth, and fate constellations, but how do you calculate human hearts?”

“Xia Zhiming can’t either.”

Qi Xu fell silent for a moment before speaking up. “Then I’d like to see Zhuo Zi’ang and talk to him to see how he differs from before. Is that possible?”

The Vice Bureau Chief pondered for a while before nodding. “Alright. He’s in custody right now. I’ll have someone take him to the conference room—the one you went to last time. Wait a bit, then you can go over. We’ll give you some private time.”

“Okay.”

A moment later, the Vice Bureau Chief’s phone buzzed—probably a message. She picked it up, looked at it, then led Qi Xu and Xia Zhiming out the door toward the conference room.

The conference room door opened, revealing Zhuo Zi’ang at a glance. His hand was in a cast, his entire arm slung in bandages—he looked somewhat pathetic sitting in the chair.

He really did look quite pitiful. He was the skinny, short type to begin with, and with glasses, he appeared all scholarly and refined. The bandages wrapped around his wrist made him seem like a pitiable little thing.

But it didn’t work on Qi Xu.

Qi Xu was kind-hearted, sure, but her goodwill toward boys was only average at best. Moreover, she was full of questions and suspicions about Zhuo Zi’ang right now, so she felt no pity for him.

Qi Xu walked to the opposite side of the conference table, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

She didn’t ask questions right away, and Zhuo Zi’ang didn’t look at her either. He kept his head down, his expression unreadable behind his glasses. But Qi Xu felt something was off. After a while, she finally started asking.

Qi Xu knew that Zhuo Zi’ang had definitely been questioned extensively by the Vice Bureau Chief and other colleagues overnight. Now being dragged out for her to question again, he must have prepared a ton of answers in his head.

Regardless of whether he had acted on his own will, he would definitely try to pin everything on the middle-aged toad ghost now.

Qi Xu’s first question was, “Do you remember me? My name is Qi Xu.”

The question clearly stunned Zhuo Zi’ang. He probably hadn’t expected her to ask something like that. After hesitating, he said, “I don’t remember you.”

—Liar.

Qi Xu had seen Zhuo Zi’ang’s file. He was in the same department as her, just a different major. Qi Xu was fairly well-known in their department, especially since they were the same year. There were traces of her at departmental sports meets and other events. She often appeared on the forums and had been featured on the confession wall multiple times.

If he truly didn’t know her, his reaction wouldn’t have been like this. He wouldn’t have said “don’t remember” so tentatively, and he definitely wouldn’t have added that “le” at the end.

Just this one answer dropped Qi Xu’s impression of him a lot. She steadied herself—maybe she was being too narcissistic. Maybe he’d just heard her name but didn’t actually recognize her.

Qi Xu tried to observe Zhuo Zi’ang as objectively as possible because she knew her judgment would affect the Vice Bureau Chief’s sentencing decision.

The Spiritual Countermeasures Bureau was a very special organization. Their sentences didn’t need to go through the courts because the targets were usually those with strange powers and abilities. Handing them to the courts wouldn’t allow legal judgments anyway and might even let these people influence the judges—or worse, cause them to encounter ghosts.

So, they generally handled sentencing internally, even with dedicated detention facilities. Regular prisons couldn’t hold them; the inmates would escape in minutes.

In other words, the Spiritual Countermeasures Bureau had very high authority.

This made Qi Xu even more cautious.

She asked many more questions after that, including whether Zhuo Zi’ang knew what the ghost looked like, when the Golden Toad Ornament started affecting him, and so on. But most of his answers were “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember.” When pressed, he’d say, “Sorry.”

Qi Xu’s anger built up bit by bit. She didn’t know how the Vice Bureau Chief felt when questioning him, but she was very dissatisfied with these answers—seething, even. She knew full well that for a criminal, this was the best response. Combined with the domestic principle of no punishment without evidence, as long as he stuck to claiming ignorance, he could really get off scot-free.

But that approach precisely proved—he was guilty.

Qi Xu watched him for a while before asking, “Why did you keep targeting Rao Yun? You two shouldn’t even know each other. There’s no reason for you to go after her like that.”

Zhuo Zi’ang frowned. “The way you’re asking is too leading, but I can tell you it wasn’t me choosing Rao Yun. It was the ghost possessing me. I knew nothing. I’m innocent.”

Zhuo Zi’ang must have watched a lot of crime dramas in his spare time because even his speech was structured. In a regular department, such leading questions wouldn’t fly.

But Qi Xu’s wasn’t a regular department.

Qi Xu shook her head. “Zhuo Zi’ang, there’s something you might not know—my attitude plays a key role in your sentencing outcome. And right now, your impression with me is very poor. Moreover, you just… let something slip.”

Qi Xu’s eyes were very bright. As her words landed, Zhuo Zi’ang clearly froze, but he forced himself to stay calm.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

His stubborn refusal to turn back until hitting a wall made Qi Xu sigh. “When I said ‘Rao Yun,’ you didn’t show the slightest surprise. It was as if you already knew who she was and what she’d been through.”

The words made Zhuo Zi’ang freeze. He looked up in shock, cold sweat beading on his forehead, but he was still desperately trying to figure out how to backpedal.

Qi Xu shook her head again. “You could claim some other investigator told you about her during questioning, but… you don’t even remember me, which means they never mentioned me. If they didn’t mention me, why would they mention Rao Yun?”

“Admit it. You chose to target Rao Yun.”