JOS Chapter 133

The man told the little Mountain God to come in quickly.

 

He clutched his backpack strap and walked through the door like a little adult.

 

Zhang Yangyang asked, “Little Mountain God, who bought you this little bag?”

 

The little Mountain God said, “Zong Ce bought it for me. She also bought me clothes and all kinds of seedlings.”

 

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yangyang disdainfully said to his brother, “Jiang Feng, you’re doing a terrible job as a cheap father.”

 

Jiang Feng: “……”

 

Mountain spirits in the past never needed such things for cultivation.

 

The man looked at him somewhat absent-mindedly, probably thinking about his own matters.

 

There wasn’t even a single stool in the room, and a group of people stood facing each other, making him feel somewhat embarrassed.

 

There was nothing to offer as refreshments either. Should he go buy some drinks?

 

The little Mountain God didn’t mind the dirt – after all, his clothes were already quite dirty. He sat directly on the ground, took off the bag from his back, and opened the zipper with practiced movements, taking out several types of wild fruits from inside.

 

“For you.” He enthusiastically gave them the things he had picked himself. “My own fruits!”

 

Zhang Yangyang looked at the yellow unknown fruit in his hand and hesitantly asked, “Is this edible?”

 

The little Mountain God said: “Yes, it is. I ate them and didn’t die.”

 

Zhang Yangyang: “……”

 

Everyone received a few pieces. There were also strawberries, mulberries, and similar things. The man thought he had bought them outside, carefully took them and ate a bite, nodding and saying, “Very sweet.”

 

There were also some flowers inside, and strangely, they hadn’t been crushed either.

 

He had brought wild roses, removed the thorns from the outside, hesitated for a moment, then gave them to the man saying, “For you.”

 

The man: “Thank you.”

 

The rest were all given to Jiang Feng.

 

“Hehe.” He emptied everything from the bag, hugged the small red bag to his chest, looked at him obediently, and touched his hair.

 

Jiang Feng said, “If possible, could you tell us how the two children had their accident?”

 

“Oh, but……” The man hesitantly glanced at the little Mountain God.

 

Jiang Feng: “It’s fine, he understands everything.”

 

The man nodded, was about to speak, but suddenly remembered a big problem, “So who exactly are you all?”

 

“We’re not here to look at the house, sorry about that. We’re here following up on a supernatural incident.” Zhang Yangyang said, “In the furniture you sold, there are traces of a ghost.”

 

He didn’t mention that the ghost had caused trouble.

 

“So it’s still there. It’s okay, it won’t hurt anyone. I always thought it was my son……” The man said, “My son……died in an accident two years ago. At that time after school, his mother and I both had things to do and couldn’t pick him up. The school teacher was a very good person, he was really very good. After all the students had left, he said he would take my son home.”

 

The man covered his face and shook his head. “Then halfway there, it was getting a bit dark and the streetlights had come on. Several people ran out from the bushes in the green belt, throwing stones at the car. They suddenly ran out – there were five or six of them, some big, some small, but all minors. The teacher was startled, made a sharp turn, and was hit by a car from behind. The front of the car was completely crushed in. My son died on the spot, and the teacher was hospitalized for over a month. He felt very guilty, but I knew it wasn’t his fault – it was those kids playing their prank…… But because those people were minors, the police said they needed protection. Only the parents came out to discuss, they refused to show themselves, and in the end I didn’t even know what they looked like.”

 

Zhang Yangyang: “How was it resolved in the end?”

 

“Compensation, but I don’t lack money. The five families pooled together one million yuan for me, and there was one pair of parents who never showed up at all, kept saying they didn’t know, it had nothing to do with them, and wouldn’t pay either.” The man smiled sarcastically, “At my son’s funeral, only two parents came. Those two parents apologized to me and brought flowers. The others just…… acted like nothing had happened. Thinking about it really makes me angry. But I still have a daughter and wife, I can’t keep fighting this forever. Making a fuss about this kind of thing is useless anyway, so that was it.”

 

The man said: “My son and daughter were twins. I don’t know if twins have some kind of connection, but anyway, after my son died, my daughter often had nightmares. I took her to see a psychologist, and she gradually got better. Afraid of stimulating her, we never mentioned her brother again at home. Some time ago, about three months ago, one day she came home from school and suddenly ran over to tell me, ‘Dad, I saw the murderer who killed my brother.’ She said it very calmly, but I was very surprised. Because after the incident happened, even I had never seen those kids, so how could she possibly know? And why suddenly bring this up after so much time had passed?”

 

Jiang Feng said, “You must have talked with her about it carefully, right?”

 

The man nodded. “Yes. I took her to see the psychologist again, afraid she was having hallucinations or developing strange perceptions. She’s my only child now, I can’t let anything happen to her. But her logic and behavior seemed normal, and the doctor said we could observe further. Then not long after, she died.”

 

As he spoke, he couldn’t control his emotions and buried his head, choking up.

 

The little Mountain God went over and hugged his leg, comforting him. “Don’t cry anymore. Don’t be afraid.”

 

The man looked at him through his fingers, and his blurred vision overlapped with his own child for a moment, making his vision blur with tears again.

 

Jiang Feng: “How did she die?”

 

The man took two deep breaths, then said, “It’s still under investigation. After she went missing, I reported it to the police. Finally, a body floated up in an artificial lake, and after they retrieved it, they found it was her. There was no surveillance in that area. The police said they couldn’t rule out that she fell in by herself, but it could also be murder. I’m waiting for the results now, but my wife can’t take it anymore, so I want to leave this place and let her calm down.”

 

The little Mountain God rubbed his palms together and produced a flower.

 

Zhang Yangyang’s eyes went wide, but the man didn’t see it.

 

The little Mountain God held the flower above his head and handed it to him.

 

“I’m fine.” He wiped his face and patted the little Mountain God’s head, forcing a smile. “Thank you, little friend, uncle is fine.”

 

At times like this, words of comfort couldn’t be spoken.

 

The man: “Sir, if you’re a Taoist priest, could you let me see them? I just want to see them, I won’t ask anything, is that okay?”

 

“If they died one or two months ago, or even three years ago, they’ve very likely already been taken to the underworld.” Jiang Feng said, “If it’s possible, I’ll contact you again. My suggestion is it’s better not to. Since they’re already dead, this kind of comfort has no meaning, and the result might not be as satisfactory as hoped. But if it can make you two feel a little better, I can try.”

 

The man said gratefully, “Thank you, really thank you! I still want to see them!”

 

Both parties exchanged phone numbers. Jiang Feng had no other business, so he left first carrying the little Mountain God. The man wanted to stay there a while longer, so he didn’t see them out.

 

Not long after, the man sent him the children’s birth dates, names, and photos.

 

The little Mountain God squinted at the screen and pointed with his finger. “It’s this little ghost, Zong Ce took him away with her!”

 

Jiang Feng was preparing to look carefully and have Chu Xuanliang calculate their current location when the phone screen was occupied by an incoming call display.

 

He casually swiped to answer.

 

The instructor said on the other end, “My son woke up, but he keeps crying, he’s terrified, and insists I call a senior from his school and take him there. No amount of persuasion works. Can he go there?”

 

“Going there shouldn’t matter. If a ghost wants to kill someone, it will kill them – there’s no need to change locations for dramatic effect, unless his classmate’s house has heavy yin energy that can strengthen its power.” Jiang Feng said, “Has the other party also encountered something supernatural?”

 

The instructor was climbing stairs on his end, breathing a bit heavily. “Possibly, but nothing has happened yet. I told them about my son’s situation, and they think it’s a bit strange, though they don’t rule out psychological causes. Now they want to contact reliable Taoist priests and monks to come take a look, so I’m asking about your willingness.”

 

Jiang Feng: “Send me the address and name.”

 

The instructor said uneasily, “I’ll come pick you up, we’ll go together.”

 

So Jiang Feng sent his location.

 

Zhang Yangyang asked, “Are we going there now? Should we call Taoist Chu?”

 

“Wait,” Jiang Feng said, “let me ask about the situation first.”

 

Jiang Feng found Officer Ye in his contacts and reported the situation here.

 

“Oh, that drowning case, I do remember it.” Officer Ye said, “Why are you suddenly asking about this?”

 

Jiang Feng: “I encountered a ghost here that might be them.”

 

“Oh, I see.” Officer Ye took a sip of coffee and sighed, saying, “This case is a bit troublesome. Actually, after investigation, we had some uncertain suspicions, but no further confirmation. Evidence collection was also very difficult because the other party consisted of minors. The parents were very domineering – during questioning they would interrupt and lie in various ways, and dodge responsibility creatively. We went to their doors more than ten times asking them to assist with the investigation, all returned empty-handed, and were finally blocked outside the door.”

 

Officer Ye paused and continued, “It’s like this. That artificial lake where the drowning happened is quite remote, usually no one goes there. The timing of the girl’s drowning was also bad – by the time someone discovered it, the body had already floated up. There was no surveillance nearby, no obvious signs of struggle, and the autopsy results also showed no suspicious external injuries. From the nearby surveillance records, she went to this place voluntarily and alone. There were no appointment records on her phone, and checking her text messages, her mental state seemed normal too. The police wanted to treat it as an accident initially, but the person who reported it…… that couple is really pitiful, so we expanded the search area to see if there were any clues.”

 

“He had a son too, you know that, right? His son died two years ago. The cause of death was a group of underage students throwing stones by the roadside. Their identity information was not made public, even the victim’s family didn’t know. Later we expanded the surveillance range and found that shortly before the girl appeared in the surveillance, on another road, four of the perpetrators had also headed toward the artificial lake.”

 

Officer Ye sighed. “So we wanted to ask about the situation at that time, but they simply didn’t want to talk to us.”

 

Officer Ye paused and said, “Since you’ve already seen the ghost, just ask the parties involved. We can’t determine anything here, there’s no progress, and it involves minors, so there’s a lot of pressure from above. We don’t know whether to continue pursuing it closely or temporarily close the case. If you tell me the result, we’ll be prepared on our end too.”

 

Jiang Feng: “I haven’t seen that ghost yet. It might be hiding from me. If it’s already tainted with malevolent energy and lost its sanity, it might not be able to communicate normally.”

 

Officer Ye worried again. “But they’re minors…… and currently there’s no substantial evidence. Even if we knew the result of this kind of tragedy, it probably wouldn’t be very satisfying.”

 

Jiang Feng said, “Then this becomes a matter for the underworld.”