Chapter 616: The Angry Aunt

Seeing “a ghost,” Zhou Xiao hurriedly rushed back into the house, hugged his head, and lay on the floor, mumbling, “Heavenly officer bless me, nothing bad should happen!”

“What do you mean by that!” Auntie barged in. “Cursing me early in the morning? Ugh, what bad luck… Look at this mess, it’s like a pigsty.”

“Ah!” Zhou Xiao turned around and screamed in fright. “A ghost came in, don’t come after me! Go after the culprit!”

“Mr. Zhou, did you mishear something?” Lin Dongxue walked in.

“You can see this too?” Zhou Xiao looked back and forth between Lin Dongxue and the furious Auntie.

“What exactly happened?” Auntie asked.

Zhou Xiao explained, “A murderer came last night and wiped out your whole family. You think you’re alive now, but you’re actually dead. You’re just repeating your daily routines, it’s called soul echo.”

“You brat!” Auntie, her brows furrowing in anger, pulled out a green onion from her basket and started hitting Zhou Xiao, who scrambled to avoid the blows. “Who are you cursing! It’s your family that’s dead!”

Xu Xiaodong tried to intervene, but Auntie, full of strength, pushed him aside. “Don’t stop me, I have to teach this brat a lesson.” Xu Xiaodong stumbled and nearly fell.

Zhou Xiao ran around the room, wailing. Auntie’s pent-up resentment boiled over as she chased him, shouting, “You brat, listening to music in the middle of the night, ordering takeout at 3 AM, spitting on my air conditioner, and leaving your trash outside every day, attracting bugs to my place! I’ve had enough of you!”

“Aren’t you dead?”

“Say that again!!!”

“I get it, you’re a zombie, a zombie biting people!”

“Whoa, what’s happening here?” Chen Shi’s voice came from the door, watching the commotion with a smile.

Hearing Chen Shi’s voice, Lin Dongxue felt relieved, like a savior had arrived. Chen Shi, who often chatted with the elders, quickly calmed Auntie down. She sat on the bed, panting, while Zhou Xiao crouched in a corner, clothes torn, a leaf stuck to his face, looking pitiful.

“…That’s the situation,” Lin Dongxue explained.

Auntie, still angry, pointed at Zhou Xiao, “It’s your family that’s dead!”

“Auntie, don’t be angry. Zhou Xiao, maybe you misheard, or it was another tenant,” Lin Dongxue suggested, purposely saying Zhou Xiao’s name to see Chen Shi’s reaction.

“Wait, what’s his name?” Chen Shi’s reaction was significant.

“Zhou Xiao, Xiao as in smile.”

“This… a namesake?”

Zhou Xiao asked, puzzled, “Why does my name sound familiar to you? Is there a celebrity with the same name?”

“Let’s get serious!”

“I couldn’t have misheard. There are six households on this floor. Besides me and her, there’s a young couple next door, an old man across from us…”

Auntie corrected, “Two old men living together.”

“Two… two old men living together!?” Chen Shi was surprised.

Zhou Xiao continued, “In the middle is a cat and its owner, and on the right, someone has a dog. It couldn’t be them, it had to be her…”

“Watch where you’re pointing!” Auntie glared.

“I did hear it, your whole family…”

“Say it again!!”

“Auntie, let him finish,” Chen Shi said.

“I heard the sound, it was terrifying. I fainted out of fear.”

“He’s crazy!” Auntie said, “My husband went to work this morning, my child went to school, this guy has a screw loose. You should take him to a mental hospital.”

“Auntie, maybe you should go back first. Look, your fish isn’t fresh anymore,” Chen Shi suggested.

Auntie snorted and left, kicking the trash bag at the door out of frustration, saying, “Take out the trash, don’t leave it until the New Year!”

Zhou Xiao recounted everything he knew. When leaving, they each took a trash bag downstairs to throw away. Lin Dongxue said, “I don’t think this witness is reliable. Normal people don’t make such exaggerated mistakes.”

“Could there be something more to this?” Xu Xiaodong asked, looking to Chen Shi for insight.

“There’s no mystery. He must have made a mistake. But why did he make a mistake? I think it’s worth investigating. He seems a bit neurotic, maybe he has a mental illness. Check his background!”

Back at the scene, the bodies had been taken away. Peng Sicheng told Chen Shi, “The killer was very ‘generous’ this time, leaving footprints and fingerprints.”

“How big are the footprints?”

“Size 45.”

“Wow, tall guy, at least 190 cm… Such a person would stand out in a crowd. Right, send some officers to check if this person entered the community.”

It was only 7 AM. Footprints on the stairs might still be traceable. Forensic officers checked step by step and indeed found blood and a set of large footprints that stopped at Zhou Xiao’s door.

Chen Shi glanced at the neighboring house and asked, “Should we check inside? We’re already here.”

“If you insist,” the forensic officer said.

“Check it!”

They knocked on the door, and Auntie, looking annoyed, said, “What now? Do you believe that brat’s ghost story? No one came in last night!”

“Just checking, to be safe.”

“Don’t you have anything better to do?”

Seeing fish scales on Auntie’s hands, Chen Shi said, “You’re preparing fish? Let me help!”

“Wow, really? A cop who can do this?” Auntie smiled broadly.

“I’m good at cooking. Let me help.”

Auntie let Chen Shi into the kitchen. He rolled up his sleeves and expertly started cleaning the fish. Auntie, smiling, said, “Young man, you’re impressive. There aren’t many like you these days.”

“Thanks for the compliment. This grass carp is small, with lots of bones. You can coat it in flour and fry it until the bones are crispy, safe for kids to eat.”

“Haha, I’ll try that then.”

Meanwhile, the forensic officers checked the ground carefully but found no footprints other than those of the residents.

Xu Xiaodong came in to report. Chen Shi said, “Check Zhou Xiao’s place too!”

“No need for that. If the killer entered, why wouldn’t he kill him?”

“Check it!” Chen Shi insisted. Zhou Xiao’s chaotic memory meant the truth needed to be confirmed through investigation, so he had to verify all possibilities.

Xu Xiaodong and his team left. Auntie said, “There was really a murderer last night? That’s terrifying!”

With a perfunctory attitude, they knocked on Zhou Xiao’s door and conducted an inspection, finding nothing. Lin Dongxue said, “Use the reagent.”

Reluctantly, the forensic officers complied, given Lin Dongxue’s higher rank. When they sprayed Luminol and saw no reaction, they were about to pack up when blue-green fluorescence slowly appeared on the floor. Lin Dongxue exclaimed, “Look!”

They turned to see a pair of bloody footprints, size 45…

The killer had been there!