Chapter Eighty-Eight: White as Frost Once More

After hearing Peng Lei say that, my brow immediately knotted. I looked at him helplessly and said, “Director Peng, your comrade died more than forty years ago, and since he was a martyr, he may already have left the underworld and been reborn. How am I supposed to find him?”

Peng Lei chuckled, looking as if whether I found him or not was entirely up to me. He said nothing more.

I drew a long breath, thought for a moment, and then said, “Director Peng, if I can bring your comrade’s ghost before you, will you let Officer Peng set up a paranormal investigation team to look into my classmate’s case?”

Peng Lei nodded and said that in his life, the thing he valued most was integrity. Whenever I could bring his brother’s spirit to him, he would let his nephew take over the case.

“All right!” I agreed at once, then said I had something else to do and left for the time being.

Peng Lei did not try to keep me there. He only added that although he had not set a deadline, once the police had organized the materials, Liu Dong’s case would soon go to trial, and I should handle things accordingly.

After leaving Peng Lei’s house, Peng Li handed me a cigarette, a touch of helplessness showing on his face. He said that his uncle had always been that way, and that this was simply the sort of thing that could not possibly be done.

“No. Maybe it’s worth a try.”

I lit the cigarette and took a drag before saying, “Officer Peng, I feel that Director Peng does not disbelieve in ghosts and spirits. He must have some other purpose.”

“What purpose?”

“I can’t say.” I shook my head. “But it should have something to do with you. Since he has set us this problem, I doubt it is meant to have no solution.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I’m not familiar with the arts of summoning the dead, so I need to find a friend first. You go back and wait for my news. If I succeed in bringing Han Qiang’s ghost up from the underworld, I’ll notify you immediately. And for now, I hope you can help hold the line with the police. Try to buy me as much time as possible. I have a feeling this will not be easy.”

Peng Li nodded and said all right. He would do his best to stall the police, but we still had to move quickly. As things stood, Liu Dong’s case had both witnesses and physical evidence in abundance. There was no need for further investigation; once the materials were properly organized, the trial could begin. By then, as soon as the court handed down its judgment, everything would become far more troublesome.

I said yes, then after parting ways with Peng Li, I immediately took out my phone and called Bai Rushuang.

Bai Rushuang was also a university student. She had just entered her first year, one class below me. She studied at the Bashu Academy of Fine Arts, and the ride from our school to hers took only a little more than twenty minutes.

After the call connected, I explained why I was looking for her and asked whether she had time to meet.

On the other end of the line, she said she was in class at the moment, but if I insisted on seeing her, she could skip it. However, I would have to treat her to a meal.

Without even thinking, I said yes, then told her I would wait for her at the school gate.

So I took a cab straight to the gate of the Bashu Academy of Fine Arts. After only a few minutes, Bai Rushuang came walking out from inside the school, clutching a bucket of popcorn.

I walked over to her and laughed. “You really are a strange one. How is it that every time I see you, you’re holding such a huge bucket of popcorn? Where do you keep buying it?”

Bai Rushuang looked at me with innocent bewilderment. “Do you have to buy this stuff?” Then she held the bucket out to me and asked if I wanted some.

Just as I was wondering how the popcorn had gotten into her hands if it did not need to be bought, a black Honda sedan suddenly pulled up in front of us. A handsome young man got out carrying an even larger bucket of popcorn, then grinningly handed it to Bai Rushuang. “Rushuang, I drove over to the cinema specially to buy this for you today. Do you have time? Let me treat you to dinner.”

Bai Rushuang showed him no courtesy at all. She took the popcorn directly from his hands. Because the bucket was too large for her to hold alone, she stuffed the one she had been eating into my arms and said, “No time. I’m having dinner with my brother today.”

The young man stared at me in surprise. “He’s your brother?”

“What, do I not look like it?” I frowned. Truthfully, I also thought we did not look much alike. After all, Bai Rushuang was so beautiful, and although I liked to think I was a little handsome myself, I was still far behind her.

The young man hurriedly said that was not what he meant. Then he took out a pack of cigarettes and offered it to me. “Have a smoke, brother!”

I was not polite. I took one, lit it, and casually said I had actually forgotten to bring cigarettes today. On hearing that, the young man quickly stuffed the rest of the pack into my hands and said, “Brother, take them!”

I smiled, patted him on the shoulder, and said, “I like you, kid.” Then I leaned close to his ear and whispered, “I’ll put in a good word for you in front of Rushuang.”

After that, I took Bai Rushuang by the hand and left. The poor fool just stood there in a daze, grinning stupidly.

“You’re shameless!” Bai Rushuang said as soon as we were away, withdrawing her hand with a laugh. “You even stoop to taking a whole pack of cigarettes!”

“Why let a gift go to waste?” I chuckled. “Aren’t you even more shameless than I am? At your school, there must be plenty of fools who bring you popcorn every day. Why do you like popcorn so much? Why not say you like diamonds and have them bring you diamonds every day instead? Wouldn’t that be better?”

Soon after, Bai Rushuang and I went to a nearby hotpot restaurant. Then that girl took the menu and ordered nearly every dish on it. At first I was worried she would not finish it, but by the time the meal ended, Bai Rushuang’s record had startled even the restaurant owner into silence. When we paid, the owner even specially gave me a VIP membership card and told me to bring my girlfriend there often, saying it would give us ten percent off.

I looked at the bill of more than seven hundred yuan and wanted to cry. I thought, what the hell—whoever ends up with a girlfriend like this is bound to be eaten alive.

After we had eaten and drunk our fill, Bai Rushuang and I found a quiet park to sit in, and at last we got to the point.

So I told her everything that had happened. After listening, she too frowned, as though she had never heard of someone dying twice in the same body before.

In the end, I asked whether she had the ability to summon Han Qiang’s ghost from the underworld so that Peng Lei could meet him.

Bai Rushuang considered it for a while, then said, “Han Qiang has already been dead for more than forty years. Unless he went to hell or became a lonely wandering spirit at the time, he should already have been reborn. But Han Qiang was a heroic martyr, so he could not have gone to hell or become a wandering ghost.”

After hearing that, I felt somewhat disappointed. “If even you can’t do anything, then this really is difficult.”

“There is another possibility,” Bai Rushuang said suddenly. “If Han Qiang reached the underworld after death and did not reincarnate, but instead became an underworld messenger or an underworld official, then we might still have a chance to summon his soul.”

My heart leapt. I hurriedly said, “Then you know the arts of spirit summoning, right? Hurry up and try it for me.”

Bai Rushuang glanced at me. “Don’t be so impatient. If he really is an underworld messenger or official, then an ordinary yin-yang master without an orthodox inheritance would have no right to summon his soul. Only someone as formidable as the master from the films, or a Taoist priest from an orthodox lineage such as Maoshan or Longhu Mountain, would be qualified.”

I nodded, knowing that spirit summoning was not nearly as easy as films made it seem. It was one thing to summon ordinary wandering ghosts, but once a spirit had entered the underworld, bringing it back required permission from the underworld itself. Otherwise, the natural order between yin and yang would be disrupted. If ordinary ghosts were already this difficult to summon, there was no need to mention underworld messengers or officials.

While I was considering whether I should make a trip to Mount Shu and ask Lu Li to help me with this summoning, Bai Rushuang suddenly laughed and said that although she might not be able to summon the soul of an underworld official, she knew a close friend who perhaps could. That friend was a genuine inheritor of Maoshan.

The moment I heard that, my spirits lifted. I hurriedly asked where her friend was.

Bai Rushuang looked at me with a teasing smile. “Go buy me a bucket of popcorn first, and then I’ll take you to see her.”