What kind of dog of an ending is this?
I looked at the long-tongued ghost who passed away peacefully, unable to utter a word. I pushed him back and called over a nurse. The nurse had never seen such a scene; a critically ill patient had died outside the ward. A doctor ran over, shook his head.
I saw Wang Ren standing far away, tears welling up in her eyes.
“Teacher Wang Ren!”
“Call me Shibo!”
“Shibo, aren’t you going to take a look?”
“I’m returning to Beijing today. There are some things I need to discuss with you.”
…
The long-tongued ghost had prison guards working on him. Wang Ren and I moved to a secluded corner. Wang Ren lowered her eyes and said calmly, “The story I told you about myself wasn’t something I experienced, but it’s not untrue.”
“I don’t want to know.”
“Some things cannot be avoided.”
“Do you have anything else?”
Wang Ren sighed deeply and adopted a serious expression. “I know someone was protecting me, so I shook them off.”
“Why?”
“I killed Wangzi.”
I sighed, realizing I had underestimated the decisiveness of the older generation of schemers. Wang Ren’s identity was respectable, but she was definitely not a soft-hearted woman.
“Why?”
“The street was quiet, shadows followed us faithfully, dancing on the pavement. This is a passage from Guo Moruo’s ‘Shadow,’ do you understand?”
I nodded. Light cannot penetrate objects, hence shadows are cast. Where there is a ‘shadow,’ other existences naturally reside.
“You are truly a clever child, no wonder Old Nine and Old Ten both like you. Goodbye, remember, you’ve called me Shibo, and you still owe me a cup of tea.”
…
The special investigation team arrived. Luo Bo was relieved to see Wang Ren was unharmed. Upon hearing that the long-tongued ghost, Li Jiu, had died, Luo Bo also felt a sense of unspoken emotion. He looked at me, and I said earnestly, “He died with a great realization.”
Yu Xiaoluo arrived later and pulled me and Luo Bo aside. She had gone to apprehend Fang Zidong and discovered Fang Zidong and Su Jingran in a car accident on the highway. From the scene, it appeared that Fang Zidong and Su Jingran had engaged in a physical fight first. Su Jingran, outmatched, fled in his car, but was then pursued and rammed by Fang Zidong. Fang Zidong’s car flipped multiple times and he died at the scene. Su Jingran’s car crashed into the highway guardrail and he died en route to the hospital.
…
I felt a pang of sadness hearing this, not expecting them to meet such an end.
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…
In the following days, Fang Zixu treated me to a lamb hot pot. He told me the inheritance had been divided. He didn’t take any cash, only the slaughterhouse left by his father. Ten million was given to Zhou Meijiao, and the remaining fifteen million to Zhang Feng.
This truly surprised me. I stared wide-eyed at Fang Zixu. Fang Zixu downed a shot of baijiu before saying, “Money is just turtle eggs.”
“Are you sure Zhang Feng is the third son?”
“Father woke up after seeing Zhang Feng, a final burst of clarity. He revealed the truth about Mother’s affair and then left this world, letting go of everything.”
Back then, Fang Yue found out Yu Rong was having an affair and confronted her. Yu Rong not only refused to admit wrongdoing but also said that Fang Yue, stinking of butchered pigs and sheep every day, was already lucky to have given him two sons. Fang Yue was furious, slapped Yu Rong, and went to drink alone. He thought about Yu Rong’s words: she had given him two sons, so the third must be illegitimate.
Thus, fueled by alcohol, Fang Yue took the third son to the slaughterhouse. He held a knife, looking at the child’s innocent eyes, but the knife never fell. Fang Yue eventually abandoned the child. When he returned, Yu Rong asked where the third son was. Fang Yue said the child was dead, chopped into mince and thrown away with the offal. Knowing Yu Rong was greedy, Fang Yue offered her all his money, telling her to have her lover collect it. He then killed Yu Rong’s lover and locked Yu Rong in a dog cage to starve to death.
…
Because of the slaughterhouse, Fang Yue easily disposed of two bodies and even reported to the police that his wife had eloped with their child, asking them to help him find them. Where would they find two people chopped into mince?
For years, Fang Yue suspected that the eldest and second sons were also not his biological children, so he was particularly brutal towards them, beating them whenever he was displeased and dragging them into the dog cage for talking back. Fang Yue’s cold chain business, however, continued to grow, and he didn’t even want to leave his money to his two sons. It wasn’t until he grew old and had to be hospitalized that he heard about paternity testing. He secretly had one done, and the results showed that both the eldest and second sons were his biological children.
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He then gave his business to the eldest son and used money to pave the way for the second son to become a civil servant. Later, as his health declined, he lived with the second son. The second son was temperamental and often locked Fang Yue in a dog cage. The abused Fang Yue didn’t tell anyone, believing this was the retribution he deserved.
Gradually, Fang Yue became critically ill. As he was dying, he met another dying man, the long-tongued ghost, Li Jiu.
Teacher Wang Ren told me about the long-tongued ghost’s scheme when she returned to Beijing. After learning the full story from Fang Yue, the long-tongued ghost first helped Fang Yue draft a will regarding the division of assets among his three wives. Then, Fang Yue’s second son, Fang Zidong, who was caring for him in the hospital, logically discovered this will. The long-tongued ghost, with his unique talent for manipulation, persuaded Fang Zidong, informing him of a way to obtain the entire inheritance.
Fang Zidong believed the long-tongued ghost’s deceitful words and found Su Jingran. Su Jingran was Fang Ying’s lawyer and knew I was a fraud. Furthermore, Su Jingran had a classmate named Zhang Qin who worked at the blood center. Most importantly, the long-tongued ghost used his connections to help Fang Yue find his third son, and Zhang Feng was likely Fang Yue’s third son, Fang Zixin, whom he had abandoned years ago.
Only the long-tongued ghost could meticulously plan such complex relationships into a scheme. As he wrote in the sheepskin diary he gave me, when people lack the ability to cope with their social situations, they often experience unwarranted anxiety. However, at this time, the human body generates a self-regulation mechanism, and the individual lives within controllable limits. But, if you stimulate his regulatory mechanism and overload him, he can be driven to destruction through self-violence.
Instrument of Violence: Fang Zidong
Application of Game Theory: Cockfighting, the battle only ends when one rooster is defeated.
Su Jingran and Fang Zidong were sent to the battlefield by the long-tongued ghost, their fight to the death.
At the same time, my reactions were also within the long-tongued ghost’s theoretical framework. When someone in a game does something unexpected, it can easily make the person controlling the situation flustered. If this person does ten unexpected things, then they will no longer do anything unexpected. This statement might be a bit convoluted, but the long-tongued ghost called it a habit defect.
I am someone with a habit defect. I habitually have imaginative ideas. For example, when Su Jingran asked me to impersonate the third son, Fang Zixin, I found Zhang Qin and had her use her brother to impersonate Fang Zixin. This seems wild, but for me, it’s simply my habit. This is what is called a habit defect.
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Fang Zidong and Su Jingran fought each other, inevitably one side would be at a disadvantage. The defeated are easier to grasp and control. Therefore, Wangzi found Su Jingran, used psychological suggestion and mental control. Su Jingran, as an instrument, controlled Zhou Meijiao. This was just a process. What ‘Ying’ did was what the main body needed to do. Their idea was to make Fang Zidong, in a state of mental confusion, kill Zhou Meijiao and fall into eternal damnation.
Perhaps, after Fang Zidong completely lost his sanity, there was a scheme targeting me as well. Unfortunately, the long-tongued ghost didn’t have much time to play. Wang Ren helped the long-tongued ghost kill Wangzi, ‘Ying,’ and sent Sister into the police station. Then, using my curiosity, he led me to the hospital through Fang Zixu and forcibly took me as a disciple.
Once a scheme loses control, it becomes unpredictable. Fang Zidong, having lost everything, chased Su Jingran like a madman, and they ended up perishing together. Conversely, the greedy Fang Zixu and his wife, after witnessing their brother’s tragic death and their father’s dying words, gave up their claims to the inheritance.
Perhaps the long-tongued ghost foresaw this ending, or perhaps not. His objectives were met, and he didn’t care about anything else.
…
When Fang Zixu and I parted after dinner, Fang Zixu asked me, “Are you a police officer?”
“Halfway there.”
“Why didn’t you save my second brother’s life?”
I didn’t kill Bo Ren, yet Bo Ren died because of me. If it were in the past, I would have regretted hearing this question. But now I understand, some people shouldn’t live. I smiled and didn’t answer Fang Zixu’s question. I waved goodbye to him, “See you, don’t contact me again in the future.”
…
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…
In this scheme, the long-tongued ghost left me with the biggest dilemma. The long-tongued ghost originally brought ‘Ying’ to Hohhot, planning for me to meet with ‘the Mentor.’ But he changed his mind and blew up the Sister he had placed next to Old Ghost.
Now, how do I face this problem?
Does Old Ghost know that Sister is the main body of ‘Ying’? Is Sister’s fake suicide to gain Old Ghost’s trust true? What exactly is Old Ghost thinking? I don’t believe he’s the kind of person who’s led around by the nose by the long-tongued ghost.
All things in the world are not owned, all things in the world are used by me.
The long-tongued ghost understood this sentence before his death. Old Ghost, however, used this philosophy to defeat his enemies when they parted ways years ago.
So, how should Sister’s issue be handled?
…
When people don’t want something to happen, it inevitably does.
Yu Xiaoluo called me. I picked up cheerfully, “Sister, I still owe you and Brother Luo a meal. Tell me, what do you want to eat?”
“Is Cao Qian, Li Qian?”
Yu Xiaoluo is Yu Xiaoluo, a strong girl, she snapped me back to reality.
“No.”
“She wants to see you.”
“Can she? Has the explanation for the body in the trunk been sorted out?”
“Suicidal pact, the deceased had a mental disorder.”
I was stunned, “She went to the trunk of someone’s car to commit suicide? What did Fang Zixu’s side say?”
“The brake failed and it was an unintentional collision.”
“You’ve colluded.”
“So many unnecessary words, are you coming or not?”
I thought for a moment, “I won’t go. Please pass a message for me: it’s okay now, go home. I’ll wait for her at home.”
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*Snap* Yu Xiaoluo hung up the phone directly. I stared blankly at the phone, “What’s wrong now? She never has a good temper.”