American Zombie Detective

Chapter 138 Offering Sacrifices to Ghosts for Wealth (Seven Chapters, Please Subscribe)

The air in the reception room of the Sacramento Police Department was heavy, as if filled with lead.

Chen Zhenni sat on a hard plastic chair, her hands nervously twisting the strap of her expensive designer handbag. Her face was pale, and her eye makeup was smudged by tears, leaving two dark streaks that made her carefully maintained face look disheveled and ferocious.

A brief autopsy report was brought in by the police, detailing the same circumstances as the other deceased:

High-pressure brainstem hemorrhage, with no obvious signs of external injury or poisoning.

Detective Carter sat opposite Chen Zhenni, leaning forward, his words and body language exuding oppressive force: "Ms. Chen Zhenni, things have come to this point, there's nothing left to hide! We've uncovered your actions. Tell me, where is that thing? That sacrificial object you brought from China?"

Chen Zhenni's body stiffened abruptly, as if pierced by an invisible needle. She then sprang up from her chair, her voice shrill and almost piercing the roof: "You're talking nonsense! I don't know what you're talking about! What Chinese stuff? What worship? I'm going to find my lawyer! Now! Immediately! I'm going to sue you for defamation!"

She waved her arms excitedly, her eyes darting frantically towards the doorway, as if she were about to flee at any moment.

Just as Carter was momentarily speechless from her hysteria, and Deputy Director John was about to speak to comfort her, Qin Jin, who had been silently leaning against the wall in the shadows, slowly took two steps forward.

His movements were light, with an almost languid casualness, but his eyes were icy: "Find a lawyer? Sure. Want to leave? Go ahead. We won't stop you."

He paused, a faint smile even playing on his lips, like an uninvolved spectator waiting for a show: "I only ask you, do you even know what you've gotten yourself into? Yesterday it was Lin Guofu, today—" His gaze was fixed on Chen Zhenni's suddenly pale face: "Do you think you can still escape?"

Chen Zhenni's body trembled violently, her lips quivered, but she couldn't utter a single word. Qin Jin's words had clearly pierced her heart, finding the source of her fear.

Her body tensed even more, but she no longer made any distinctions.

"The murders keep happening one after another, causing such a huge uproar," Qin Jin's voice was like a low whisper, carrying a chilling seduction: "I don't know if you know how much Lin Guofu has done behind your back, or—how much you were involved in? Do you know how terrifying the backlash from that spell you acquired will be?"

He took another step closer, the invisible pressure making Chen Zhenni almost breathless: "You can leave today."

Qin Jin's tone returned to its previous calmness, but carried a deeper cruelty, "We'll just have to deal with the trouble a bit. After we collect your body tomorrow, we'll slowly clean up this mess. By then, we won't be able to find you, Chen Zhenni—"

He deliberately dragged out his words, glancing towards the doorway as if looking at some non-existent target: "We'll go find Annie! If none of you talk, that's fine too; we'll take our time after you're all dead—"

"No!!!" Chen Zhenni let out a piercing scream, her voice filled with the extreme fear of being gripped by the shadow of death.

Her body jerked forward, gripping the edge of the table tightly. Her bloodshot eyes were fixed on Qin Jin, her voice hoarse and broken: "You—what do you know?! Tell me!"

Qin Jin looked down at her, his eyes calm and unwavering, as if he were looking at an inanimate object: "I know far more than you think. To be honest, there might still be a sliver of hope. Otherwise, just wait to be reunited with your husband tonight—oh, no reunion. Your soul will have been devoured, and there's no way you'll be reunited in the underworld—"

Her last line of defense crumbled completely. Chen Zhenni slumped back into her chair like a lump of mud, covering her face with her hands, her shoulders heaving violently as she let out suppressed and desperate sobs.

After a long while, she suddenly raised her head, tears streaming down her face, but her eyes revealed a desperate, almost insane desire to confess, driven to desperation by fear.

"I'll talk! I'll talk!!" she screamed, her voice shrill and distorted. "It was—it was that damned fortune teller Zhang! It was him! It was all his idea!"

She began to speak incoherently, her words filled with resentment and a kind of—naturally cold-bloodedness: "More than twenty years ago, my sister, brother-in-law, and I lived in a basement in Chinatown, barely scraping by, so poor we were almost bankrupt! Zhang the fortune teller was poor too, just like us, but somehow he managed to get money. Lin Guofu often went to see him, and then one day—Lin Guofu came back and said that Zhang the fortune teller had found a way for him—"

"Lin Guofu said that his ancestors were the village guardians, but now the village is deserted. If we go back according to Lin Guofu's method, let Da Yatou become the village guardian again, and then invite the mountain god, we can get rich —"

Chen Zhenni's voice carried a chilling numbness: "We were desperate for money back then! As long as we had money and could live a good life, what wouldn't we do?"

After discussing it, they took the eldest daughter back with them, but—but something went wrong—"

Her face showed a mixture of frustration and disgust as she discussed the failed deal: "Zhang the fortune teller's method was flawed! The eldest daughter didn't become an idiot, she just died and was buried in the village—they didn't even bring her ashes back. Lin Guofu and the others were terrified and came back to settle accounts with Zhang the fortune teller, but we immediately started making money, so...we just let it go."

"Zhang the fortune teller said that since the mountain god has been invited, we can only follow the rules—approximately every seven years, we must sacrifice a descendant, otherwise there will be a backlash—"

Deputy Director John, Carter, and Hansen all felt a chill run down their spines. Qin Jin remained nonchalant, not saying a word, but simply gesturing for Chen Zhenni to continue.

"Since that's the case, there's nothing we can do but—we can only keep having children and offer them up on schedule. As long as we have enough sons, at least two of them will survive."

"But, but after my sister gave birth to Lin Hao, she couldn't get pregnant again. So my sister made me marry Lin Guofu, so that my sister and I could have children for him together—"

Her voice suddenly rose, filled with resentment and a betrayed anger, pointing towards nothingness: "I don't know what went wrong, or if we messed up the feng shui! Neither my sister nor I can get pregnant, not a single one of us! We've spent money on doctors, but nothing works. Even Zhang the fortune teller couldn't find a solution!"

Her expression twisted in pain: "We have money now, but—but time is passing by! The next seven years are almost up! What will we do after we've used up Lin Hao's money? We're anxious! We're scared! The mountain spirits want sacrifices! We can't produce any more!"

Extreme fear erupted in her eyes, and her body trembled violently: "This time, this time for some reason, everything is in chaos! The mountain god actually ate Lin Hao's classmate—at first we were happy that we could have another seven years, but who knew, who knew that Lin Hao would die later too—the mountain god is angry! It has started eating people everywhere—"

Chen Zhenni suddenly clutched her head, letting out a broken wail: "You ask me where the Mountain God is? I... I don't know! Only Lin Guofu and my damned sister know! They—they must have done something behind my back—I just didn't want to live a poor life, why did they target me—Waaaaah—"

Her wails echoed in the reception room, filled with the fear of death and the darkness of humanity, laid bare under the cold fluorescent lights in her hysterical confession, more grotesque and terrifying than any ghost.

Qin Jin looked coldly at the distraught woman before him, as if watching an absurd and filthy farce.

The clues were finally put together. A policewoman stayed behind to comfort her, and the others left the reception room. The matter was now clear. Since Chen Zhenni didn't know where the item was, it must not be at home. Now, the only person who probably knew the truth was Chen Anni.

Without hesitation, Deputy Chief John immediately arranged for officers to bring Annie Chen to the station, with Inspector Hansen volunteering to do so.

Time passed slowly, and although the darkness behind the case was so heavy, everyone finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and the whole case was about to be completely exposed.

But just then, Detective Hansen brought devastating news: "Annie Chen is gone! She's probably run away, taking all her jewelry, valuables, and other precious items with her."

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