The water storage bucket was on the third floor.
When Zhang Xianyu and the others first arrived, Chen Pandi was hiding there.
They never expected Chen Xifa would hide the bodies of two children there.
Turning and heading upstairs, the bucket was still in its original spot.
Zhang Xianyu approached for a closer look and noticed that the lid of the bucket was specially sealed.
No wonder last time they came up, they hadn’t smelled anything.
The bucket was sealed very tightly.
After some effort, Zhang Xianyu managed to open it.
As soon as the lid was lifted, a strong stench of decomposition immediately filled the air.
Zhang Xianyu held her breath and glanced inside.
The bodies of the two sisters were twisted at odd angles and piled in the bucket.
They had decayed extensively; their flesh had fused together.
No one knew how long they had been there.
Having suffered inhuman torture while alive and denied peace after death, it was no surprise the sisters refused to leave.
They had transformed into vengeful spirits, lingering in the house, tormenting the Chen family day after day.
Letting out a soft sigh, Zhang Xianyu recited an Anhun Mantra to soothe their wrongful souls and bring them peace.
The police arrived half an hour later.
The patrol car stopped in front of Chen Xifa’s house, drawing a crowd of villagers.
Zhang Xianyu heard the police downstairs and finally went down.
“Who called the police?” the lead officer asked.
“I did.”
Zhang Xianyu stepped forward to explain, “I found two deceased girls’ bodies inside the water storage bucket on the third floor.”
Zhang Xianyu first took the police to see the bodies, then led them upstairs to the second floor.
In the master bedroom, Hu Fenglan was desperately pulling at her hair.
Tufts of it scattered across the floor, and her scalp was torn and bloody.
Chen Xifa sat slouched on the bed’s edge, eyes vacant.
The wounds on his face and ears had dried and darkened, giving him the appearance of a malevolent spirit risen from the earth.
“What’s going on with those two?” the officer asked.
Zhang Xianyu said she didn’t know.
He pointed to Chen Xifa.
“Chen Xifa invited us over. When we came yesterday, both of them were fine. But this morning I heard crying and shouting upstairs. When I went up, I saw the couple fighting. During the struggle, Hu Fenglan mentioned that there were children hidden in the water bucket. I feared there really were kids inside, so I went upstairs with a friend and opened the bucket. That’s when we found the two girls’ bodies and called the police.”
The officer studied his expression before pressing further.
“Why did Chen Xifa ask you here?”
“I’m a Daoist. He said the house was haunted and wanted me to take a look. My friend drove me here. Also, Chen Yang downstairs was invited by Chen Xifa.”
The police seemed unprepared for this answer and paused before asking, “Where’s your Daoist Certificate?”
Zhang Xianyu pulled it out and showed it to them.
After a quick glance, the officer didn’t say more.
Two officers handcuffed Chen Xifa and Hu Fenglan and took them downstairs.
Meanwhile, officers on the first floor found Chen Yang, who was visibly shaken.
He huddled in a corner, muttering to himself but didn’t try to run.
Two girls dead and three people driven mad—this was a major case in a small rural town.
The police quickly sealed the scene, resealed the water bucket, and loaded it onto the patrol car.
Chen Xifa and his wife, now suspects, were handcuffed and taken away.
Chen Yang, Zhang Xianyu, and Lin Wushui were asked to cooperate with the investigation and follow to the County Police Station for questioning.
Two officers drove the suspects to the station, while two others stayed behind to collect evidence and interview villagers.
Zhang Xianyu got into Lin Wushui’s car.
As they drove away, Zhang Xianyu glanced back at the Chen family home and unexpectedly saw Old Lady Chen, blind and groping along the wall, stumbling out.
She took two shaky steps before falling to the ground and struggling to get up.
The nearby police heard the commotion and helped her up.
“This is karma,” a villager spat, showing no sympathy for the elderly woman.
Instead, voices rose around her.
“I warned her back then. It’s not like before—boys and girls are equal now. But she refused to listen. Since her daughter-in-law couldn’t have a son, she took it out on her two granddaughters.”
“True enough. Pandi and Zhaodi were so young, but there wasn’t a single good spot on their bodies.”
“But they were ruthless too. Just to have a son, they wanted to sell the two girls…”
Others expressed regret, “I thought Pandi and Zhaodi had been secretly sold. Who would have guessed their hearts were so cruel, they actually did this…”
The villagers buzzed with speculation as the police exchanged glances and began questioning them one by one.
Lin Wushui started the car and followed the patrol car towards the County Police Station.
At the station, Chen Xifa and Hu Fenglan were held separately.
Zhang Xianyu, Lin Wushui, and Chen Yang took turns giving their statements.
Zhang Xianyu and Lin Wushui’s accounts were similar, but Chen Yang seemed terrified.
He broke down crying as soon as he was brought in and confessed everything.
The facts matched Zhang Xianyu’s suspicions.
Chen Yang had been involved all along.
He pretended to be a newcomer to the situation, but after the sisters died, he too was haunted by their spirits.
Unable to handle it, he tricked an unsuspecting person—
Zhang Xianyu—into helping to resolve the wrongful souls.
After Hu Fenglan gave birth to twin girls, the following year Chen Xifa wanted another child.
They spent money to check the baby’s gender through connections.
The result was another girl, which caused Hu Fenglan to miscarry.
Whether it was fate or not, the Chen family seemed unable to have sons.
Hu Fenglan became pregnant twice more, both times confirmed to be girls.
This drove Old Lady Chen into desperation.
Superstitious by nature, she went to the Taiqing Temple to pray for divine blessing, hoping the gods would grant the family a son.
It was around then that Chen Yang entered the picture.
A minor Daoist in the county temple, he had learned some skills under the Guanzhu and aimed to make easy money by faking miracles.
Seeing Old Lady Chen’s superstitions, he concocted a story that the two granddaughters carried a Gender Curse—“clashing with the little brother”—and insisted that the girls had to be gotten rid of.
What Chen Yang didn’t know was how much Old Lady Chen hated the two girls, constantly beating and scolding them.
Hearing that the granddaughters supposedly carried a curse preventing a grandson only deepened her hatred.
She went home and beat the girls severely, then conspired with her son and daughter-in-law to sell them.
Chen Pandi overheard this and was terrified.
At night, she secretly took her sister and ran away to hide.
But the two ten-year-olds had nowhere to go.
After a few days, starving and desperate, Pandi sneaked back home to steal food.
She was spotted by Chen Yang, who was staying at the Chen family home, and he told Chen Xifa.
Chen Xifa appeared simple on the surface but had a violent temper.
After catching Pandi, he tied her up in a room and beat her mercilessly, demanding to know Zhaodi’s whereabouts.
The fragile little girl didn’t survive that night.
Afraid of being caught, Chen Xifa panicked and hid her body in the water bucket on the third floor.
Pandi was gone for good.
Zhaodi, worried about her sister, secretly returned home but couldn’t find her.
Outside Old Lady Chen’s door, she overheard Chen Yang and Chen Xifa arguing.
Chen Yang had learned of Pandi’s death and was demanding a Sealing Fee for his silence.
The two fought over the amount, finally settling after Chen Yang agreed to perform an Exorcism Ritual to ensure Hu Fenglan’s next pregnancy would be a boy.
Terrified, Zhaodi tried to run for help but was caught by Chen Xifa.
Unlike Pandi, Zhaodi had a fiery temper and fought back fiercely.
Angered, Chen Xifa, already prone to violence, broke her limbs and strangled her to death in Old Lady Chen’s room.
To cover up the deaths, Chen Xifa sealed Zhaodi’s body in the same bucket, creating the illusion that the sisters had been secretly sold.
Chen Yang, having witnessed Chen Xifa’s brutality, dared not push further.
After performing the Exorcism Ritual and receiving the Sealing Fee, he returned to the county.
They thought no one knew what had happened.
But the sisters’ spirits, filled with wrath and injustice, returned as vengeful ghosts.
Before Zhang Xianyu’s arrival, the Chen family and Chen Yang had already been tormented for some time.
Every night, the family and Chen Yang relived the pain the sisters had suffered.
But by day, everything returned to normal.
This endless cycle had already fractured the Chen family’s sanity before Zhang Xianyu came.
Chen Yang tearfully confessed everything to the police, kneeling and begging for help, “They’ve come back, to take revenge. I didn’t kill them…”
“I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die…”
The interrogating officers felt pity hearing the truth.
After learning the sisters’ tragic story, their expressions turned to disgust.
Without mercy, they handcuffed Chen Yang, and the two were detained.
As for Zhang Xianyu and Lin Wushui, they had been innocently dragged into the mess.
After completing the necessary procedures, the police let them leave.
“Sometimes, people’s hearts are scarier than ghosts,” Zhang Xianyu sighed deeply upon leaving the station.
In these past few days, he’d lost count of how many times he had sighed like that.
Lin Wushui stood beside him and tilted his head slightly, replying calmly, “There are quite a few people like you.”
In the past, he might have agreed with Zhang Xianyu.
Maybe because of his unique constitution, he never felt a strong sense of identity as a “human.”
If not for his parents, he would prefer to give up his physical body and live freely.
But after meeting Zhang Xianyu, his perspective gradually shifted.
This world had people as vile as the darkest ghosts, making others recoil in disgust; but it also had people like Zhang Xianyu—pure of heart and innocence—making the world seem not so bleak.
Zhang Xianyu smiled, “You’re not bad yourself.”
Lin Wushui smirked without answering, only saying, “It’s late. Let’s go back. You have classes tomorrow.”
They got into the car and hit the bumpy road again.
Halfway through, Zhang Xianyu suddenly said, “Once we’re back, I’ll ask the Daoists from Taiqing Temple to perform a Soul Release Ritual for Zhaodi and Pandi.”
“Mm.”
Lin Wushui looked ahead and said, “Remember to ask Xie Dingxin for a discount.”