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墨書 Inktalez
Zhong Kui's Diary
I suppressed a laugh and casually asked Meatball a few questions about daily life, just the usual things like eating and sleeping. Once the wariness in Meatball's eyes faded away, I nonchalantly asked, "Meatball, are you having any trouble adapting to Moon City?"
"The food here isn't great; there are no chili peppers, just bland soup," Meatball pouted, his nose slightly wrinkling up.
"Yeah, the southern climate isn't suitable for spicy food."
A proud expression appeared on Meatball's face. "Fortunately, I brought a jar of chopped chili peppers; it's great for adding to meals." But then his proud look turned into frustration. "Unfortunately, my senior brothers each took a chopstick full, and that jar of chili peppers was gone in no time."
I wasn't here to discuss food with you, so I quickly cleared my throat. "Meatball, have you gone out to play? Do you know anyone else in Moon City?"
After all, I couldn't believe that a child who entered Lingxu Temple at the age of seven could do anything bad; even if he was unusual, it must have been instigated by someone else.
Meatball frowned. "No, here it's just sleeping and performing rituals; there's no time to go out and play. Even going to the bathroom has to be done in a hurry."
"Then do you know anyone else?"
"Anyone else? There's only that uncle from earlier; he was really nice to me and even gave me candy." Meatball proudly pulled out a colorful piece of candy.
That uncle from earlier—uh, he must be the White-faced Man.
I felt a vague sense of unease and smiled. "Can you show me the candy?"
Meatball squinted at me for a moment before handing over the candy. "You can only look at it!"
I nodded, took it over to have a look, and saw nothing unusual. I brought it to my nose and smelled it, feeling a strong fragrance wafting up; the scent was incredibly rich, and just like that, my hands were coated with the aroma.
I returned the candy to Meatball and casually asked, "Is this candy good?"
"It's delicious! That uncle gave me one the other night, and after eating it, I felt really happy!" Meatball replied with a grin.
Hearing this from Meatball made my heart skip a beat. Damn it, this candy definitely has a problem. But what exactly the issue was, I wasn't sure. I needed Meatball to go back and perform a ritual while I took out my phone and called Kong Xuan.
After explaining the situation here, Kong Xuan hesitated for a moment and said, "Is the fragrance of that candy extremely strong? Does it have a coconut-like fragrance?"
I quickly lifted my fingers to smell them and responded with an affirmative sound.
"Let me tell you this: that candy is likely a compound extracted from a plant that grows in Indonesia. It can induce hallucinations for a certain period of time. More importantly, this compound is highly contagious; even if just one person is affected, everyone within a radius of twenty to thirty meters will also be infected. As for the first person who consumes it, they can be controlled mentally," Kong Xuan said with a click of his tongue. "Zheng Nan, I can almost guarantee that Qingfeng and his group are under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs. That's why there are fifteen people seeing sixteen individuals. If we find out who administered the drug, everything will become clear."
Damn it, it seems that's really the case. In the past, when I played tricks with Fatty, I had considered using hallucinogens but later thought about how they could harm the body or even lead to addiction. So I never pursued that route; I didn't expect to encounter it this time.
"Is there an antidote for this?" I quickly asked.
"The effects of this drug don't last long, and it doesn't have any side effects on the body; it's just like having smoked marijuana once—there's really no need for an antidote. If you absolutely need one, well, just sniff something foul; the smellier, the better," Kong Xuan seemed to think of something and laughed heartily. "At that point, you and Fatty can just fart at each other!"
After hanging up, I told Fatty everything I had just learned. Naturally, he cursed a bit before we inspired each other with bold hypotheses and ultimately concluded that all of this was the work of those Taoists in Moon City.
First, they poisoned Meatball; then the drug spread throughout the entire hall. Once everyone was under its influence, they would start experiencing hallucinations. In this way, everyone would think they were seeing ghosts when in fact it was just an illusion.
This matter originally had no flaws, but they did not expect that there was a person with extraordinary mental strength, Cherry. Although he was also affected by the drug and experienced hallucinations, he still managed to hear Meatball respond twice.
That’s basically what happened. The two staff members at the funeral home must be associated with the Yuecheng Taoist Family. Even if they are not directly part of it, they are certainly colluding with them. Therefore, he needed an excuse to lock up Qingfeng and the others to facilitate the drug's effects.
Tsk tsk, it was actually quite simple. The next step was to confront the people at the funeral home.
Walking to the entrance with Fatty, it was one of those double glass doors with two handles on top. A large iron chain hung from the handles, and there was a palm-sized padlock on the chain.
Fatty yanked on the glass door forcefully a couple of times, causing the chain on the handle to clank loudly. This sound was much louder than the instruments used by the Taoists, especially in this remote area; I suspected that people a mile away could hear it.
I believed those two hadn’t left yet; after all, it had been less than twenty minutes since they walked out, and the parking lot was right in front of the hall. I hadn’t seen any cars leave.
After pulling again with great force, the clanking sound of the chain grew louder.
Finally, someone rushed over in a hurry; it was the bearded man who shouted from a distance, “Hey, Fatty! What are you pulling? Are you going to break it? Can you afford to pay for it?”
Upon hearing this, Fatty became displeased. His expression changed as he took two steps back and called out to Ghost Brother to move aside.
Having played happily with Fatty for so many years, I naturally knew what he intended to do and quickly stepped back. Fatty shouted loudly, took a few steps back for momentum, and then kicked sideways at the door.
With a crash, one of the glass doors shattered into pieces, while the other door swung back and forth. The iron chain hanging from it dragged a stainless steel handle across the floor, making a harsh and unpleasant noise. Fatty stood at the entrance like a warrior, glancing sideways at the bearded man.
Everyone except me seemed stunned; even the bearded man stood frozen in place, pointing at Fatty and stammering, “You... you... what do you mean?”
"I just want to prove that I can afford it!" Fatty snorted coldly.
The bearded man was taken aback. Judging by his appearance and build, he seemed to belong to the type of muscle, but upon seeing Fatty's display, he dared not make a move. After all, Fatty's move 'twist and side kick' was not something just anyone could pull off.
I casually walked out the door and said with a smile, "You still have a colleague, right?"
"He's in the office!" The bearded man regained some composure and scanned me from top to bottom, seemingly trying to guess my background.
"Let's go discuss the compensation in your office!" I took a step forward and then added, "Wait a moment, I forgot something."
I walked back into the hall and exchanged a few words with Qingfeng Daozhang about our speculations. Qingfeng Daozhang's eyes widened in anger as he cursed a few times, spat at the bearded man, and asked Meatball for a piece of candy to hand to me. I tossed it in my hand and looked at Meatball's almost crying face, saying with a laugh, "I'll buy you a hundred pounds of candy!"
After coming out, tossing the candy in my hand, I said to the bearded man, "Let's go."
Seeing this, the bearded man's expression changed. He stopped saying anything and walked ahead silently.
We turned a corner and arrived at a three-story office building. There was an office on the first floor that still had its lights on. Following the bearded man to the door, the Pale-faced Man was on the phone. Upon seeing us behind the bearded man, he quickly said something into his phone and hung up. Just as he was about to speak, he noticed the candy I was tossing in my hand and his face turned pale.
"Gentlemen, how can I help you?" After a moment of hesitation, the Pale-faced Man forced a smile and asked.
I walked in and looked around the room. Hmm, this desk looks quite sturdy; it would be suitable for establishing authority. I cleared my throat lightly and slammed my fist down on the desk, creating a big hole in its surface.
With a grin, I said to the Pale-faced Man, "Please explain what this candy is all about. If you can't clarify it, I'll have to give your head a punch. I'm serious."
The Pale-faced Man was quite straightforward. Knowing that we had almost figured out the truth, he quickly spilled the beans about the situation.
As I expected, both the bearded man and the Pale-faced Man were from the Yuecheng Dao Sect. They took this job at the funeral home to facilitate the introduction of Taoist services. Seeing such a large order being snatched away by a priest from Star City was already frustrating enough, but what made it worse was that these priests from Star City were extremely stingy, even bringing their own toilet paper from Star City.
This made the people of Yuecheng unhappy. It was one thing for them to eat meat, but to not even share the bones was too inconsiderate. So, they devised a few intimidating tricks.
There were no issues with the incense and candles, and the power strips were also fine; they just added a few extra switches to the main power supply. Yes, the switches for the sockets and the light bulbs were separate. To extinguish the candles, one simply needed to cut off the switch controlling the power supply—it's that simple.
The sound of knocking on the coffin was high-tech. The Pale-faced Man showed me a recorder about the size of a fingernail that he had taken from a drawer. This red-painted recorder had previously been stuck to the bottom of the coffin, and it was only when the bearded man and Qingfeng Daozhang were arguing that the Pale-faced Man secretly retrieved it.
As for the remaining hallucinogenic drug, I won't elaborate much; it was exactly as Kong Xuan had guessed. After chewing on Meatball candies, all sixteen people present would experience hallucinations.
Now that everything was clear, I believed they wouldn't create any more mysteries. After casually threatening them a bit, I returned to the hall. Before long, both of them left the funeral home in a huff.
Back in the lobby, Fatty's earlier kick that shattered the glass door had woken up all the resting priests, who were now gathered together discussing in hushed tones. I reported on what had happened, and Qingfeng Daozhang was quite pleased, patting me on the shoulder: "Not bad, not bad! You wrapped it up in just half an hour. Well, for four hundred bucks, I'll just give you two hundred!"
I was about to curse him when suddenly all the lights in the hall went out, plunging it into complete darkness.
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