Judge of Souls - Chapter 106

Deng Bian was about to jump down when Jiang Feng pushed her away with one hand. “You stay here and don’t move!” After saying this, he immediately dove headfirst into the water.

Deng Bian fumbled to take out her phone and turned on the flashlight, wanting to provide lighting for Jiang Feng. In the end, she discovered that this brightness was practically useless, so she went ahead and called for emergency services.

She crouched down halfway, observing the water surface, and took off her shoes and coat, preparing to jump into the water for rescue at the first sign of any emergency.

The night was too dark, and the streetlights couldn’t illuminate the lake. There were a few small decorative colored lights by the lakeside, which at this moment actually hindered Deng Bian’s vision.

More than two minutes after jumping in, Jiang Feng came up midway to catch his breath. Deng Bian shone the light on her own face and shook her head frantically. “No! He hasn’t come out of the water!”

Jiang Feng wiped his face, took a breath, and dove back down.

“Jiang Feng, be careful! Drowning people will grab onto you and drag you down!”

Deng Bian felt confused in her heart.

Was this pond really that deep? Although the water surface looked quite green, it was after all an artificially excavated lake – how could it possibly be so deep?

Moreover, after Liu Shan drowned, not a single bubble came up. Apart from the ripples stirred up by Jiang Feng’s swimming, the lake surface didn’t even have the slightest ripple, as if after sinking to the bottom, he had directly disappeared. It was really too strange.

Jiang Feng dove underwater again and continued moving toward the center of the lake.

It was nighttime, and the river was indescribably dark. Ordinary people probably couldn’t see anything in the water, at most only some vague shadows.

But Jiang Feng had extraordinary senses. Relying on a bit of weak light, he could see the outline of a human figure.

At the bottom of the water were some fine roots of lotus flowers and some water plants that hadn’t been cleared away. In the central area, Liu Shan was constantly kicking and struggling. Fish were swimming around him.

He had clearly disappeared at the shoreline just moments ago, but in such a short time without watching, he had actually reached the center of the lake.

Yet there were no ghost shadows or ghostly energy around.

Jiang Feng swam over and grabbed his hand.

However, Liu Shan began to struggle violently and forcefully pushed Jiang Feng away.

Looking at his expression, he seemed about to lose his sanity, but the strength in his hands didn’t diminish at all. After several struggles, he grabbed Jiang Feng’s wrist with his backhand and held on tightly without letting go.

Jiang Feng was momentarily unable to move and could only forcibly drag the person toward the water surface. Liu Shan was still constantly kicking and causing trouble, trying to pull Jiang Feng down.

Probably seeing that there had been no movement for a long time, there was a “splash” sound as Deng Bian also jumped in from outside.

Liu Shan gradually lost strength and released his restraint on Jiang Feng. The two groups met midway, and Deng Bian helped drag the person to shore.

Liu Shan spat out two mouthfuls of water. Jiang Feng laid him flat and began pressing on his chest.

Before long, the ambulance arrived.

There was a hospital near the residential complex. They parked the vehicle at the road entrance outside, and the nurses came running to the lakeside.

After some commotion, the person was taken to the hospital.

Fortunately, the rescue was timely, and Liu Shan was not in danger.

He slept for a while at the hospital. Apart from a headache and being frightened, he had no other problems. On the other hand, Deng Bian, who had been running around in wet clothes, caught a cold from all the trouble.

Jiang Feng and Deng Bian took turns watching over Liu Shan to prevent him from going berserk and hurting people in the hospital.

The next day, Chu Xuanliang and Officer Ye came to take over the shift. Liu Shan looked much better.

Liu Shan recalled with fear. “At first, I saw someone fall into the water – a child who was still calling for help, so I jumped in. Then when you said something, I realized something was wrong. When I wanted to come out, I felt like someone was dragging my legs downward… Damn it!”

He gripped the bedsheet tightly with his five fingers, wanting everyone to believe him, and nodded solemnly. “Really! That feeling was particularly strong! The other party was very strong and directly dragged me to the center of the lake. But it was too dark, and I couldn’t see anything. I wanted to struggle… but my whole body felt like it was bound by something – I couldn’t float up or swim away. I was scared to death, and for a moment I couldn’t hold my breath. I felt like I was really going to die, and then Jiang Feng appeared.”

Liu Shan looked at Jiang Feng like he was looking at his own father. “Thank you, Student Jiang. You’re really too heroic! That was a ghost!”

“When you fell into the water, there was nothing around you. When I rescued you, there was nothing around you either. You were just struggling by yourself.” Jiang Feng exposed his arm to show the scratches. “It should have been your hallucination.”

Liu Shan said excitedly, “Could a hallucination drag me to the center of the lake? And materialize? Is that so anti-scientific and anti-physics?”

Jiang Feng: “What dragged you to the center of the lake – this matter remains questionable for now.”

Liu Shan obviously didn’t believe it. “No! It’s not like that! You don’t understand, why won’t you believe me!”

Officer Ye saw his pupils were dilated and thought he was about to go berserk too, so he quickly stood up and watched him with alert wariness.

Jiang Feng directly shouted, “Shut up.”

Liu Shan licked his lips and closed his mouth resentfully.

“Rest well and come home with me.” Jiang Feng’s expression showed no emotion. “You’d better have some self-awareness. When you encounter anything, tell me first. Don’t go and do things silently on your own.”

Liu Shan responded, “Oh.”

He looked worried, seemingly troubled by his own hallucinations.

Deng Bian and the others paid him twelve times the normal attention, not daring to relax their vigilance.

From the current situation, the recent victims might have all had some hallucinations that caused emotional agitation before death – possibly paranoid delusions due to brain problems. Deng Bian still insisted on this view, though she was slightly confused due to feasibility issues. It might also be bizarre situations caused by supernatural events, which Officer Ye temporarily believed.

Among the several evacuated residents from the same building, only Liu Shan had experienced hallucinations, so it was very likely that he would be the next to die.

However, that turned out not to be the case.

While everyone’s attention was focused on Liu Shan, a new victim appeared.

The deceased was a security police officer from the police station. After receiving an emergency call about a thief, he quickly responded to the call but died in a traffic accident halfway there.

This was originally just a very ordinary accidental traffic incident. After checking the surveillance footage, the responsibility was clear – the driver was driving normally, while the police officer suddenly rushed into the road halfway, causing his death.

The reason for the police officer’s bizarre behavior was temporarily unclear, but at least it could be confirmed as an accidental incident. The authorities had already handled it according to normal procedures.

Recently, Deng Bian’s energy had been focused on XX Residential Complex. Upon hearing that someone had died, regardless of whether it was someone from that building, she asked an additional question. After asking, she felt something was wrong and pulled up the surveillance footage to watch it again. Not quite certain, she still temporarily treated it as a related case for observation.

Jiang Feng: “A police officer?”

“Yes, a security police officer from the police station in that area.” Officer Ye said, “Holy crap, this thing really isn’t due to feng shui? Looking at it this way, it shouldn’t be contagious either. After that wife-murder case, the Public Security Bureau has been handling the liaison. If it were contagious, it wouldn’t be related to the police officers over there, right? Could it be indiscriminate attacks?”

Jiang Feng said in a muffled voice, “Hmm… it shouldn’t be. We just haven’t found the connection yet.”

Officer Ye said, “We’re preparing to go through all the police records related to that building. Just, you know, still investigating in the direction of revenge killing first.”

Although no traces of ghost activity had been found in the vicinity, this seemed feasible for now.

However, they didn’t dare to mobilize personnel on a large scale and could only quietly investigate with a few trusted subordinates. It was also difficult to convince others when formulating action plans. After all, forcibly connecting several accidental incidents according to ghost revenge… sounded rather like something a mentally ill person would do. It would be terrible if the higher-ups found out.

Jiang Feng said, “Send me a photo and the name of that police officer.”

“It’s online, just search for keywords…” Officer Ye, “Ah, forget it, I’ll still send it to your phone.”

Officer Ye hung up the phone, and immediately a message popped up at the top of Jiang Feng’s phone screen.

Jiang Feng opened the photo, which showed a selfie of a middle-aged man.

Liu Shan leaned over to take a look, his face still pale, and said, “I know him.”

Jiang Feng: “Is that so?”

“He’s from our police station, right? He’s been to our building several times.” Liu Shan said, “He didn’t die, did he?”

Jiang Feng turned his head and asked, “What did he go there for?”

“Domestic violence. The domestic violence incidents in our building.” Liu Shan thought for a moment and added, “The deaths started with domestic violence.”

Liu Shan said, “I don’t know the details very clearly. I usually stay at home, and the neighborly relations aren’t very harmonious. At most we’d nod familiarly when meeting on the road. Then there was domestic violence in the building, and I only found out about this when the commotion got loud.”

He pointed upstairs to indicate. “The first one who died, Sister Zhang, I heard everyone talking about her family situation.”

Jiang Feng sat up straight. “Tell me.”

“She was only twenty-eight this year, married relatively early, but never had children. Her husband was usually quite kind to outsiders – you could tell he was the white-collar type of refined person who was polite to everyone, always smiling, never got angry with others. But behind closed doors, damn, he beat her really viciously! Clanging and banging, smashing all kinds of things, with garbage being thrown down by them every day.”

Jiang Feng vaguely felt there was some connection. “When did the domestic violence situation start? A few months ago?”

“What do you mean a few months ago? It was always there! They probably had domestic violence when they first moved in, that was… a few years ago? I forgot. It’s just that her husband would still restrain himself then, beating her silently without letting everyone know. Every time Sister Zhang went out, she had to wear sunglasses or a scarf and didn’t talk much with the neighbors. After meeting several times, everyone said she was putting on airs, wasn’t easy to get along with, and was too arrogant. Later, once that Aunt Tian meddled – yes, that’s the dead Aunt Tian – she deliberately pulled off her scarf and discovered that her neck and collarbone were all black and blue with injuries, only then did they know she had been beaten.”

Liu Shan’s whole face wrinkled into a ball, constantly clicking his tongue. “Tsk tsk, really too pitiful. She didn’t dare expose her hands, feet, and neck three hundred and sixty-five days a year. We guessed her body was never in good condition.”

Jiang Feng: “Everyone knew afterwards?”

“Everyone knew. After they found out, her husband stopped hiding it and simply let loose with the beating. Sometimes I could hear screaming, crying, and begging for mercy from upstairs. At first, when I was afraid something would happen to them, I went upstairs to mediate and saw Sister Zhang running out of the door covered in blood, only to be dragged back by her husband. I was almost scared senseless at that time. Aunt Tian from across the hall pulled me back and told me not to meddle in other people’s business, saying this was their family matter and it wouldn’t be good if I interfered. She said that when they made up, I would be the one in trouble. She also said that since they weren’t getting divorced, Sister Zhang was willing to put up with it.”

Jiang Feng felt displeased as he listened.