I Give You Permission.
For the next half hour, Lu Congxing waited at the police station.
Zhou Zijie, having finished giving her statement, came to find him. She looked much better than before and had finally stopped trembling.
Lu Congxing could tell she had something to say to him, but there were too many people around. So, he stood up, subtly signaling for her to step outside with him.
Catching the hint, Zhou Zijie quickly followed. She forced a weak smile at him and said, “I didn’t expect your brother to have connections at the police station.”
Lu Congxing let out a noncommittal hum. For some reason, he didn’t like the way Zhou Zijie looked when she mentioned He Zhouyan.
Zhou Zijie wanted to probe further about He Zhouyan, but seeing that Lu Congxing had no intention of continuing the topic, she fell silent.
In the end, it was Lu Congxing who broke the awkward silence. His clear gaze met hers as he asked, “This morning, why did you suddenly want me to stay?”
At that moment, He Zhouyan had sensed something unusual next door. If he had moved faster, would he have caught the ghost?
He hadn’t expected it to act so quickly. He had only been delayed by two minutes, but two minutes was enough for someone to escape.
Zhou Zijie’s expression stiffened. She looked at Lu Congxing for a few seconds, feeling as if he could see right through her.
She had intended to brush it off, but the words died on her lips. Instead, she let out a self-mocking laugh. “You figured out that I did it on purpose, didn’t you?”
Lu Congxing nodded, his eyes fixed on the pale-faced woman before him.
Slowly, Zhou Zijie crouched down, wrapping her thin arms around herself as if trying to find a sense of security. She murmured, “Chen Fei always liked to argue with me. Sometimes, he’d even get physical. Once, after a fight, I deliberately got close to someone else. When he saw it, he got furious and beat the guy up… and then, we made up.”
She choked up for a moment before continuing, “After that, whenever we argued, I’d use the same trick to provoke him. He would always get angry whenever I was with someone else, and then he’d come back to apologize sincerely. So… so now, I’m terrified. What if… what if he was killed because of that?”
She had personally brought so much trouble to her boyfriend that she didn’t even dare to glance at his mutilated corpse. And now, there was no way she could deceive herself into believing he was still alive.
It was as if she had finally found an outlet for her emotions. Everything she had been too afraid to say earlier came pouring out, and her tears didn’t stop.
Lu Congxing watched her, frowning slightly. Without his knowledge, he had almost been used—turned into an unwitting tool to mend someone else’s relationship.
It was not a pleasant feeling.
But he couldn’t bring himself to blame a girl who had just lost her boyfriend. All he could do was stay by her side in silence.
Amid her quiet sobs, a thought suddenly struck Lu Congxing. He asked, “This… method you mentioned—did you ever use it on Chen Jiatai, the tenant upstairs?”
She hesitated for so long that Lu Congxing thought she wasn’t going to answer. Then, finally, she gave a barely audible response.
Afraid he hadn’t heard, she raised her voice slightly. “Back then, Chen Fei beat him up, and after that, he never tried to get close to me again. But that was months ago.”
In an instant, everything made sense—the inexplicable hostility Chen Jiatai had shown toward Chen Fei, the subtle longing in his tone whenever he mentioned Zhou Zijie.
Lu Congxing lowered his gaze, about to say something, when He Zhouyan stepped out from the police station. Following him was the police chief, who looked noticeably respectful. The moment He Zhouyan saw Lu Congxing, his expression darkened.
He strode forward and casually inserted himself between them, frowning slightly as he scolded, “Why did you run off on your own?”
He had only spoken to the chief for a couple of minutes, and when he returned, the cub had wandered off with someone else. He really couldn’t let his guard down for a second.
Without hesitation, He Zhouyan took Lu Congxing’s hand and led him back inside. “They found something. Come take a look,” he said calmly.
Lu Congxing didn’t find anything odd about it—he had already grown used to Bai Ze’s presence, used to being near him.
As she watched the two of them walk side by side, Zhou Zijie stood there, dazed. Her eyeliner had smudged from crying, leaving dark streaks under her eyes. She hesitated for a moment but ultimately lacked the courage to follow them inside. Instead, she pulled her coat tighter around herself and left.
The fear that she might have indirectly caused someone’s death now outweighed the grief of losing her boyfriend. All she could think about was whether that person would come after her next.
After all, if not for revenge, what other motive could there be?
Behind Lu Congxing, the police chief followed closely. As soon as they stepped inside, the officers who had been gathered around instinctively made way for them.
Hand in hand, they approached the mutilated corpse.
The young officer—one of the few who knew their true identities—felt like he was about to suffocate from holding in the truth. He desperately wanted to confide in other demons, although the others would probably not believe it and would laugh at him.
Who was he? That was Bai Ze—one of the most unrestrained divine beasts in ancient mythology, a being capable of scaring monsters back into their true forms. How could he possibly be getting along so well with the cub?
The officer’s expression twisted in distress. The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs hadn’t publicly released the information yet, but if he let it slip, Bai Ze would probably eat him alive.
As a small demon, he had no intention of provoking an ancient divine beast. Instead, he took a deep breath, discreetly inching closer to the cub, eager to absorb more of his pure, untainted spiritual energy.
The medical examiner, noticing Lu Congxing’s arrival, instinctively began his report. “These flesh fragments all belong to Chen Fei. Based on the number of bones and organs, everything is here—except for the head, which is still missing.”
The grotesque pile of remains lay before them, but Lu Congxing’s expression remained unreadable.
He focused intently on the scattered flesh, searching for any clues in the wounds.
A nearby officer wiped the sweat from his forehead. “We found all of this inside the apartment building. The killer knows your complex very well.”
They also knew which apartments were easy to access and which ones were unoccupied.
Lu Congxing’s eyes darkened. “So the killer is most likely someone from the building.”
The officer hesitated. “But there’s no clear motive.”
Not wanting to withhold potential evidence, Lu Congxing repeated what Zhou Zijie had just told him.
One of the officers jotted down the name. “Chen Jiatai, right? We’ll look into him.”
The officer who had just finished taking Chen Jiatai’s statement spoke up at the right moment: “He doesn’t have an alibi, and when I asked him, he also said he wasn’t familiar with Chen Fei and had little contact with him.”
Lying about something like this couldn’t be the deciding factor—many people would do so just to avoid trouble.
Chen Jiatai probably never expected this matter to come to light.
In the end, it was getting too late. He Zhouyan told the cub to head back and help the police continue their search tomorrow.
Lu Congxing pressed his lips together. He had initially wanted to use divination to assist in the search. Though not a required skill for exorcists, divination was a common practice in their world, much like witchcraft—it was incredibly draining. Because of this, exorcists typically used divination only for supernatural matters; they wouldn’t waste their energy on mundane searches.
After all, a single divination session could leave them too exhausted to perform exorcisms for an entire week.
But Lu Congxing had never struggled with this issue. To him, divination was as effortless as drawing talismans, as if he had been born for this line of work.
He had even used divination to navigate his way before, since he often got lost.
However, divination couldn’t be performed at just any time. Timing, location, and harmony were crucial—especially for the Six Lines Divination. Even for him, he could only perform it once per day and had to choose the right moment. The process required shaking three traditional copper coins six times to form a hexagram, from which he could deduce the outcome based on the changing lines.
Lu Congxing knew that impatience wouldn’t help in this situation. In the end, he had no choice but to let He Zhouyan take him into the car.
Obediently, he buckled his seatbelt, then turned to He Zhouyan. “Let’s go.”
He Zhouyan’s heart softened. The cub was always so well-behaved. Even when reluctant to leave, he never threw a tantrum. The demon race hadn’t seen a cub in a long time, but from He Zhouyan’s long memory, he recalled that those little demon cubs were always unruly, even more spoiled than the adult demons.
Lu Congxing, who was pampered by the entire Bureau of Supernatural Affairs and even half of the demon race, was always well-behaved. Even if he acted arrogantly due to his favored status, no one would dare to say anything.
The young officer stood behind the car, watching them leave with longing eyes.
He Zhouyan paused for a moment, then reached out to ruffle the overly sensible cub’s hair, instinctively using a tone meant for comforting children: “Be good and wait here for a bit. I need to go talk to someone.”
Lu Congxing nodded. “Hurry back.”
He was simply too well-behaved.
He Zhouyan’s expression remained serious, but inside, he secretly messed up the cub’s hair, hoping it would become as messy as when it was just waking up, all soft and cute with a little tuft sticking up.
He closed the car door and waved at the young officer.
The officer quickly ran over. “Is there something you need, Lord Bai Ze?”
As he spoke, he couldn’t help but steal a glance at the car window, hoping to catch a glimpse of the cub. Unfortunately, the window’s material only allowed him to vaguely see his own slightly infatuated face.
He Zhouyan squinted slightly. “Are you planning to tell others that I’m Xing Cub’s guardian demon?”
This was the first time he had referred to the nickname the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs gave the cub. It was surprisingly fitting.
He spoke with the pressure of an ancient divine beast, and now the officer dared not look around. Under the immense pressure, he spoke up. “No… no, I wouldn’t!”
How could he? With the way things were going, he would be dead the moment he said anything!
As expected, Bai Ze was as terrifying as the legends said. Only simple humans would call him a lucky beast, but he was far more terrifying than any fierce beast!
However, to his surprise, He Zhouyan was dissatisfied with this response. He emphasized his words: “No?”
The officer’s sweat dropped from his forehead, unsure what went wrong. He could only nod harder to show his sincerity and said, “Really, I wouldn’t dare say anything without your permission.”
He Zhouyan’s tone remained indifferent. “I give you permission.”
“I would never say anything… Eh?” The officer suddenly widened his eyes, repeatedly confirming in his mind that he hadn’t misheard.
But He Zhouyan had already stopped paying attention to him. After getting into the car, all the officer saw was the distant rear of a luxury car.
Author’s Note:
This troublesome Bai Ze can’t wait for the whole world to know about their close relationship (pointing accusingly).