Starting with dissecting ghost stories

Despite much persuasion, Shen Xing finally had no choice but to agree to meet the girl at a set time.

He just wanted to get rid of Director Wang as soon as possible.

After all, I just accepted a favor from someone, so it wouldn't be appropriate to refuse on the spot.

Once your former employer issues a work performance certificate and sends it to you, you can find an opportunity to decline the offer.

However... this incident also served as a reminder to Shen Xing.

In the eyes of others, my situation has become unusual.

In previous years, things were fine; basically no one cared about their marriage or dating issues.

But now I'm 28 years old, and especially in this small city, a 28-year-old who has never been married is extremely rare.

Nowadays, people tend to prioritize starting a family before building a career, and many get married as young as eighteen or twenty.

If you never get married or date, you'll start to seem unique and strange to others, and this will become more pronounced as you get older.

Shen Xing could understand this idea very well; in fact, some companies even give priority to married people when hiring.

Being married signifies stability, a vulnerability, ease of control, and a lower likelihood of job hopping.

Dating and marriage were never in Shen Xing's plans, and he didn't think that he was suited to dating or marriage.

But he had more important things to do than that.

After seeing Director Wang off, Shen Xing took out his notebook and started flipping through it while there was still some time before the end of the last class.

Yesterday's gains were plentiful... It's just a pity that there was too little time, and I had nowhere to imprison Li Ya, so I had to kill him, which is a great pity.

If we could find a stable, undetectable location, we could ask the experimenters for their thoughts and record their state after each experiment... That would be much better.

Shen Xing still had many things to finish, but he couldn't ask for leave.

Asking for leave would mean that Shen Xing was acting strangely, and he would never allow himself to be included in the list of suspects.

The doll, which seemed to have exhausted its power, had been bound hand and foot and placed in the garage.

However, the hazmat suit, the glass used to initially prepare chloroform, and the knife set that could detect Li Ya's blood were still lying in Shen Xing's briefcase.

The handbag itself also needs to be disposed of.

Only by destroying these things can I completely extricate myself.

To be honest, Shen Xing is now feeling a bit regretful.

He regretted not having taken something from such a precious experimental subject as a memento.

I didn't bring the DV camera because my handbag was already full of things.

In fact, after actually doing it, Shen Xing realized that many of the things he brought were unnecessary.

Shen Xing was inexperienced on his first attempt.

He was immersed in that feeling of excitement. From the beginning of preparation to the end, there were many things that could be improved. Even the rain at the end was something Shen Xing had not expected.

However, in hindsight, the rain was a good thing; it completely covered up the evidence that Shen Xing had been to the video store.

As he flipped through his notebook, he reviewed his actions from the previous night, wondering if there was anything he had overlooked.

If there's a next time, he'll probably be more skilled.

As the school bell rang, Shen Xing put away his notebook and waited for a while.

He waited until the peak of students leaving had passed before picking up his briefcase and leaving the room.

After dealing with all this... we'll see when the body over there is discovered.

...

"Knock knock knock!"

A loud knocking sounded, and a bald man holding a spatula pounded on the door of the video studio.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?! What's that stench?! Can't a business even operate like this?! I told you to clean up your trash, but you just wouldn't listen!"

"Open the door! Li Gou!"

"damn it."

After trying to turn the doorknob and finding it locked from the inside, the bald chef cursed angrily.

People passing by covered their noses and left, which is why his breakfast stall hasn't opened yet, and the bald man is furious.

He tried to peek through the gaps in the newspaper covering the glass to see what was inside, but he couldn't see anything. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, he kicked the aluminum door.

"when--"

The old, lightweight aluminum door couldn't withstand the bald man's strength at all; it was kicked open and even slightly deformed.

"What are you doing? Just call the police."

When the bald man's wife saw that her husband had actually kicked open the shop door, she rushed over to stop him.

Because I was running too fast, I stepped on a broken paving stone, and rainwater that had accumulated in the cracks of the stone last night, mixed with some mud, splashed out.

Just then, both of them smelled a strong, pungent, complex odor that they couldn't describe at all.

Looking inside through the sunlight, the scene inside made the proprietress's eyes widen in horror, and the bald man froze on the spot.

"Clang!"

The spatula fell to the ground, followed by a scream.

"Aaaaaaah!!!!!"

Ten minutes later.

The sirens blared loudly.

The piercing sound of police sirens shattered the tranquility of the street as three police cars pulled up in front of the video arcade.

The cordon has been set up, and the area is surrounded by onlookers and shop owners craning their necks to watch the spectacle.

An elderly policeman, who looked to be in his fifties and had dark skin, got out of the car. He had half a cigarette in his mouth and looked at the dilapidated video arcade in front of him, his brows furrowed into a deep frown.

"Damn it..." Chen Liming cursed, and was about to call the technical staff inside when a deep engine roar came from the street corner.

A silver-gray Toyota Camry drove into the scene and stopped behind the police car.

The best cars in the police force are just a few old Santana models and beat-up Jeeps, making this brand-new, gleaming private car with a provincial capital license plate stand out as an oddity.

The car door opened, and a straight, slender leg stepped out.

A young policewoman got out.

She looked to be only twenty-three or twenty-four years old. Her uniform was pressed perfectly without a single wrinkle, and the police rank insignia on her shoulders gleamed in the gloomy sky.

She was carrying a silver Canon metal case—the team's only imported high-resolution digital SLR camera, which she reportedly bought at her own expense.

Lu Wenying.

The new recruit, who had been assigned there less than three months ago, was said to be a top student who graduated from a public university and was also the daughter of a high-ranking official in the provincial department.

The atmosphere at the scene became somewhat subtle because of her appearance.

"Xiao Lu, Xiao Lu! There's a puddle here, slow down!"

As soon as Lu Wenying got out of the car, the young auxiliary police officer Xiao Zhao, who was in charge of perimeter security, immediately ran over to her eagerly, even offering to help her carry the heavy camera case: "We can do this dirty and tiring work. It smells bad inside, why don't you put on a mask?"

Xiao Zhao's face was plastered with an almost fawning smile, but Lu Wenying avoided Xiao Zhao's hand, her tone polite but distant: "Thank you, no need, this is basic work in physical evidence investigation."

Wearing high-top leather boots, she walked straight past the crowd. The moment she smelled the video studio, she frowned slightly, took out a mask from her pocket, and put it on.

"Wen Yin, you're here?" Chen Liming's attitude towards Lu Wen Yin was neither obsequious nor dismissive, but rather conveyed the care of an elder for a younger person—or rather, a sense of responsibility entrusted to him. "Follow behind me, and be careful not to disturb the scene. This situation... is a bit strange."

"Yes, Captain Chen." Lu Wenying did not disobey the order and took a half step back to follow behind Chen Liming.

Captain Chen glanced behind him. He knew that many people had opinions about this "young lady" and thought she was just there to gain experience and seniority. But Captain Chen knew that she wasn't there to gain experience; she was just thrown down and "exiled."

In this small town, there might only be a few murders a year; at most, some armed robberies and snatch-and-grab cases are solved...

A double degree in criminal investigation and criminal psychology, a graduate of the Public Security University... what's the point of coming here to be a lowly clerk?

Chen Liming threw down his cigarette butt, led the team inside, and stepped onto the plastic sheeting.