Lately, Jin Zhicheng had been plagued by nightmares. In them, he would always return to that grove, forced to relive the day Jin Zhiwei died. Because of this, he suffered from sleepless nights. His face was constantly shadowed by dark circles, and he had grown so haggard that he looked a size thinner.
But his family all knew how close he and Jin Zhiwei had been, so they simply assumed Jin Zhicheng was overwhelmed by grief. His mother had even made a special trip to the hospital for a bottle of sleeping pills. He had taken one tonight, hoping for a dreamless sleep, but to his surprise, he once again felt the sensation of grass under him.
The only difference was that now, his vision was pitch-black. His entire body felt restrained, unable to move. Only the feeling of the dry grass beneath his hands was intensely real.
"Zhiwei, I was wrong! I was wrong! Please, stop haunting me, okay?" The darkness and the feeling of being completely bound convinced Jin Zhicheng that he was having another nightmare. This time, the scene of Jin Zhiwei’s death didn’t play out before him, but the fear and guilt in his heart were enough to make him beg painfully for mercy.
The nightmares lately had been torturing him relentlessly. He couldn’t believe that even sleeping pills were powerless to stop them.
Su Qing stood to one side, watching Jin Zhicheng coldly. She retrieved a tape recorder from her personal space, inserted a blank cassette, and pressed the record button. She had bought the recorder and tape in Xiangcheng, and it looked like today they would finally come in handy.
Su Qing fed Jin Zhicheng a drop of the gray liquid before she spoke. "Who is this Master who told you to harm Su Qing? How were you planning to do it?"
Since she herself was the target, Su Qing couldn’t let it be known that she was involved. As she questioned Jin Zhicheng, she deliberately altered her voice, pitching it low to sound like a man.
After swallowing the gray liquid, Jin Zhicheng felt his head grow dizzy and muddled, his thoughts seemingly frozen in place. When he heard Su Qing’s question, he mentally fought against answering but spoke anyway. "That Master... I think he’s from the south. I don’t know where exactly. But he’s very powerful. His methods are especially eerie."
At this, the thought of the man’s terrifying methods made Jin Zhicheng shiver involuntarily. "He... he told me to go to Chairman Li’s house in the government compound. I was supposed to use the excuse of checking the phone lines to hide some things in inconspicuous spots in the four corners of a room. He said I didn’t need to worry about anything else."
"You work for the post and telecommunications bureau?" Su Qing asked.
"Yes." Jin Zhicheng nodded.
"And have you done it?" Su Qing asked.
"Not yet. My brother told Su Qing that I was going to harm her, so Master Zhang told me not to make any rash moves for a few days, to avoid arousing suspicion."
"Did he tell you what would happen if you did this?" Su Qing actually didn’t know much about these mystical arts. She knew practitioners could draw talismans and use a form of hypnosis, but she was unclear about their other methods.
"I... I was curious and asked him about it once. He said that after those things were planted in Chairman Li’s house, everyone—whether they lived in the house or just visited often—would slowly start to experience all sorts of problems. Minor cases would be plagued by constant misfortune, while severe cases would lead to illness and death. In short, none of them would meet a good end." Recalling the man’s words made a cold sweat break out on Jin Zhicheng’s skin. It was just his luck. One wrong step had led to another, and now he couldn’t break free. The man had him by the throat; if he dared to disobey, he would be utterly ruined, perhaps even thrown in jail.
Hearing Jin Zhicheng’s confession, Su Qing could barely contain her fury. ’This isn’t just about targeting me. They want to wipe out the entire Li family in one fell swoop!’
’And if I don’t return the favor, my name isn’t Su!’
"Do you know that Master’s name? Where is he staying now?" Su Qing asked.
"I don’t know his full name. I only know his surname is Zhang. For now, he’s staying in Room 301 at the Hongqi Hotel." Panic was rising in Jin Zhicheng’s heart. He had a growing suspicion that this wasn’t a nightmare. He subconsciously tried to keep his mouth shut, to not answer the questions, but upon hearing them, the words just spilled out uncontrollably.
’This feeling is terrifying!’
Master Zhang’s appearance and Jin Zhiwei’s death had already shattered his worldview. ’And now... is another powerful person controlling me?’
’Who is this person? How do they know we’re targeting Su Qing?’
’Could it be one of Master Zhang’s enemies?’
A thousand thoughts raced through Jin Zhicheng’s mind. He screamed at himself to stop talking, but when the next question came, he found himself answering once again.
"Why are you helping Master Zhang hurt people?"
"He’s blackmailing me. If I don’t do what he says, he’ll expose everything."
"What does he have on you?"
"I’m having an affair with a female colleague from work. She’s married, with a child. We were very discreet, but somehow Master Zhang found out. He said he could ’help’ me. He gave me a packet of powder and told me if my colleague fed it to her husband, the man would slowly get sick and die. For a moment, I wasn’t thinking straight, and I conspired with her to give the powder to her husband. Now, he’s in the hospital. From what the doctors say, he doesn’t have long. At first, I figured no one could prove I’d harmed the man, so I decided not to get involved with the Li family. They live in the compound, after all; they’re not people I can afford to provoke. But Master Zhang... he secretly recorded me. If I don’t do what he says, he’ll expose my affair and the fact that I’m a murderer."
Jin Zhicheng’s body started to tremble. "If I do what Master Zhang says, he has ways to ensure I won’t be caught. He even promised that when it’s over, he’ll give me a large sum of money and send my entire family to Xiangcheng. From there, I can stay or even go abroad. But if I don’t do it... I’ll definitely be arrested by the police."
"So you just stood by while that Master Zhang had your brother killed," Su Qing said, her voice ice-cold.
"I didn’t want to! I didn’t!" Jin Zhicheng cried. "I’ve been dreaming about it every night... I keep seeing him die, over and over. I’m falling apart!"
Su Qing looked at Jin Zhcheng in disgust. "How did you and he kill your brother? Tell me every last detail."
Jin Zhicheng didn’t want to speak, but he couldn’t stop himself from recounting, in excruciating detail, exactly how Jin Zhiwei had died. Afterward, Su Qing had him state his name for the record, and Jin Zhicheng nearly recited his entire family history, down to his ancestors from eight generations past.
She switched off the recorder and knocked Jin Zhicheng unconscious with a sharp crack of a whip. Then, Su Qing used her personal space to transport him to the vicinity of the city’s police headquarters. Under the cover of darkness, she commanded a vine to drag both Jin Zhicheng and the tape recorder toward the building.
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