Chapter 174: The Nonexistent Person

The interrogation didn't end until one-thirty in the morning. Tie Ningxiang walked me out of the police station alone.

We walked shoulder to shoulder. She kept her head down, seemingly conflicted about something.

When we reached the main gate of the Municipal Sub-bureau, Tie Ningxiang suddenly stopped.

"Senior, are you feeling unwell?" Because of her command failure during the pursuit of Lu Xing, which resulted in a missing officer, she had been suspended by her superiors. When Wu Meng called her tonight, she had been at home taking care of Yi Yi.

The surveillance camera at the entrance blinked with a red light. The bright moonlight shone down on us, draping us in a layer of white frost.

"I'm fine." Tie Ningxiang looked straight at me, then asked out of nowhere, "Did you kill Wang Erjun?"

"Me? Why would I kill him? I had absolutely no motive, and I didn't even know the man before this." I stayed where I was, my eyes narrowing involuntarily.

Tie Ningxiang stared into my eyes and took a step closer, leaving only half a foot of space between us. "When Zhao Bin brought in the autopsy report, there was a subtle shift in your emotions. You hid it well, but compared to before, your speech and tone became much more composed."

"Is that so?" I looked down at the lines on my palm and smiled after a long silence. "Senior, if you know I'm a murderer, why get so close? Aren't you afraid I'll fly into a rage and silence you?"

"A police officer's duty is to uncover the truth." Tie Ningxiang didn't retreat a single step. The moonlight slid down the tips of her hair, and a fire blazed in her beautiful eyes, brighter than the moon.

"And what can you police even do once you know the truth?" I avoided her gaze, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. "A few days ago, an old lady died in her own home. Do you know how she died?"

"Are the two connected?"

"Someone wanted to force-demolish her house, but she refused to move because she was guarding her late husband's cenotaph. Later, a bulldozer 'accidentally' knocked down her wall, burying her alive in the rubble."

"That classifies as an accidental death."

"Exactly. That's what the law dictates." I watched the drifting smoke. "But in the eyes of the old lady's family, perhaps a life for a life is the only thing that could be called fair."

My words made Tie Ningxiang furrow her brow. "Her family could resolve the issue through normal legal channels. A life for a life is savage and ignorant."

"She had no living relatives." I gently rested my hands on Tie Ningxiang's shoulders. "At the time, if I hadn't chosen to help her, more innocent people would have died, while the real culprit would still be drinking fine wine, finding new ways to toy with sexy models in the massive bed of his detached villa."

Flicking the ash from my cigarette, I gave Tie Ningxiang one last look. "I don't think what I did was right, but if time rewound and I had to do it all over again, I would still do the exact same thing."

I wasn't sure if Tie Ningxiang understood my words. After speaking, I strode away, leaving her standing alone at the entrance to the police station.

In the night breeze, there wasn't a single taxi on the road. Just as I stood at the intersection, wondering what to do, a Volkswagen Phaeton—low-profile in appearance but actually worth over two million—pulled up beside me.

"Get in. I have something to tell you." The car window rolled down, and Huang Boyuan waved at me.

I looked inside. Huang Boyuan was driving himself, and Huang Lan sat in the back.

Opening the door, I took the passenger seat and lightly tapped my finger against the window. "Director Huang, if you have something to say, just say it."

"Delete the video on your phone." Huang Boyuan's tone brooked no refusal. The car started moving, heading toward his residence.

"I can't do that. It's evidence. The police will likely need it for their subsequent investigation." I took out my phone and rested it on my palm. "Besides, this video has nothing to do with you."

"Huang Lan's name is in it."

"It's just a name, nothing substantive."

"Even a name is unacceptable. She is the daughter of Huang Boyuan!" With a sudden brake, the car pulled over to the side of the road. For the first time, Huang Boyuan wore a solemn, serious expression. "Delete the video, and I'll give you that painting for safekeeping."

I tilted my head, hesitating for a moment. "Deal."

After deleting the video right in front of him, I sneaked a glance at Huang Lan in the back seat. This mature, intellectual woman was looking at the streets outside the window, acting as if everything happening inside the car had nothing to do with her.

Upon arriving at Huang Boyuan's villa, the three of us entered the room where those memories were sealed in dust.

Seeing the old, familiar furniture, and seeing that ancient scroll bearing the suicide poem, Huang Lan's expression shifted. Only now did she look like a child who had been lost for a long time and finally found her way home. She wandered around the room, her palms caressing the old furniture that had been on display for twenty years.

After a long time, Huang Lan finally seemed to snap back to reality. She walked over to Huang Boyuan. "Gao Jian told me what happened twenty years ago. He said the one who drove my mother to her death was the Two-Faced Buddha. I saw that terrifying lunatic today as well, it's just..."

She looked at her aging father. "Why did you never tell me any of this?"

"I am not a competent father, nor a competent husband. If I had managed to raise enough money for the surgery back then, nothing would have happened to Wanjun. If you resent me, I don't blame you. I resent myself, too. I hate my own incompetence, my own uselessness..."

As father and daughter spoke of the events from twenty years ago, I tactfully slipped out of the room and stood quietly in the corridor.

After waiting for about half an hour, Huang Boyuan came out of the room and handed the painting to me.

"Gao Jian, you are the only person in twenty years to make me, Huang Boyuan, concede. I am entrusting this painting to you. Make absolutely sure you do not lose it."

I was well aware of what this painting meant to Huang Boyuan. For him to hand it over of his own accord felt incredible. "When we were in the car, I actually thought you were joking."

Huang Boyuan leaned against the wall. "Yesterday, I heard Huang Xue mention some things about you, and today you saved Huang Lan's life. These favors aren't something a single painting can repay."

After exchanging a few pleasantries with Huang Boyuan, I left the villa, and his driver dropped me off back at Ting Tang Road.

Returning to my small shop, I first placed the severely weakened Black Eyeball into the Lacquered Wooden Coffin. Then, I placed the painting together with the Octagonal Token I had brought out from the Dream Realm.

In the Dream Realm, the family photo of the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends was eventually absorbed by the Octagonal Token. On one of its corners, the two ancient characters for Yuan Chen had appeared. According to my deductions, this token likely possessed the ability to collect Divine Fiends.

Unrolling the ancient scroll, I placed the Octagonal Token inside. It didn't take long before two ancient characters for Tianyi surfaced on the corner of the token directly opposite Yuan Chen.

Lifting the token away, the writing on the scroll dimmed and its blood-red color faded, as if it had lost something.

I hid the ancient scroll away and kept the token on me. I had a nagging feeling this thing would prove highly useful.

After finishing off the rest of the Foundation-Consolidating Origin-Cultivating Medicinal Paste, I circulated the Profound Truth Mental Method. The energy entered my body, coalescing without dispersing, and sank into my dantian. It felt like a sign that I was on the verge of a breakthrough.

I meditated all night. The next morning, I took Bai Qi out for a hearty breakfast, then grabbed a cab and headed to Xinhu High School.

I had one more unexpected gain from Huang Xue's dream: a piece of information Guo Junjie revealed right before his death.

He said that five years ago, someone just like me had attempted to stop the Two-Faced Buddha. I suspected that this person was very likely also a Streamer for the Underworld Live Show.

Arriving at Xinhu High School, I climbed over the fence. This time, I noticed something very strange.

I had come to Xinhu High School a total of three times, and every single time, the 'No Entry' wooden sign hung on the fence had been lying in the mud.

"Did the wind blow it down?" This was the third time I had picked it up and hung it back. I found two pieces of iron wire and tied it firmly in place. "People shouldn't just wander in here casually—especially the living."

Bai Qi and I entered the school grounds together. After we had walked far away, the firmly tied wooden sign began to sway on its own again.

Smashing the Dean's Office glass window with a brick, I hopped inside the administration building. I searched floor by floor until I finally found the student records room.

Smashing open the large rusted padlock on the door, I pushed my way in. The smell of rot assaulted my nose.

The Primal Destiny Divine Fiends had given me three clues back then: that person had carried a Large-Screen Phone identical to mine, they had also been a student at Xinhu High School, and their information was stored in the student records.

Using these three points as a basis, I started searching, and soon made a discovery.

"What's going on? Among the students in Guo Junjie's class year, it looks like one person's entire file is missing."