Zheng Shuang came to the Center a week later with more information for us. “The suspects that we’ve arrested were all dead!” He exclaimed to us, “Ruthless and brutal, their shadowy mastermind. The dead suspects were discovered to have died in the same manner, leaving nothing that our coroner could trace!” But a few of our experts deduced that the men were already poisoned prior to their detainment as a means of sealing any loose lips in case of their arrest!” No, I remembered, their meridian points were sealed by Lin Feng. We had been expecting their deaths; they had tried to drug and murder us. Yet when we had escaped, they pursued us with determination and malice! The slow death that the detainees that suffered in prison were already merciful enough than what they truly deserved! I interrupted my own train of thoughts, focusing back into what Zheng Shuang was saying next. “We had looked into the cellmates that Wang Laosan was reported to be close with. We’ll need just a little more time; we’re still sifting through the list now. Have some patience! I’ll make sure you get my update ASAP!”

Zheng Shuang came for another visit a few days later, telling us that his ex-classmate wanted to invite us for a meal. Zheng Shuang’s ex-classmate received us warmly when we met, saying that he should have asked us out earlier but he was delayed by a case at his station. We talked over liquor and cigarettes, chatting about the previous incident. Halfway through, Zheng Shuang asked his friend, “You mentioned a case that delayed you. What about it?” “A theft,” said his friend, “A bunch of jewelry displayed in a counter in a mall was found missing. But strangely, the doors were never opened, and the CCTV footages showed nobody entering the premises, as if the entire booty had vanished into thin air! We’re out of clues, in the midst of our confusion!”

Zheng Shuang’s chopstick pointed at us. “Would you believe me if I tell you that our three friends here are experts in investigations?” he asked his friend, grinning slyly. His friend sprang to his feet in surprise, although he was wearing an evident hint of doubt. “I thought that you were simply experts in the paranormal,” he said to us, “My apologies for the disrespect! I didn’t realize that you were experts in investigations as well!” “No no no! Zheng Shuang was merely being gracious!” I added quickly. “A good many of my cases were solved all thanks to these three brothers here!” Zheng Shuang quipped. “No wonder you had such a rapid ascent up the ladder! You had their advice and help!” His friend exclaimed at the epiphany, he turned to us just as quickly. “If you would just look into this for me…” He implored. “That would have to depend on my brother here,” I said, gesturing at Yuan Chongxi!

The bumbling rascal was so engrossed in eating that he had not heard a word! “What?” He peered up from his food as he felt our attention all training on him. I bent down and whispered into his ears, “Use your divination to find if the theft he’d mentioned had anything to do with the Creed!” With an “Ohhh”, Yuan Chongxi asked Zheng Shuang’s friend, “Can you give me the date, time, and location of the incident? Ah, yes! I’ll need the direction too!” Zheng Shuang’s friend provided the details and Yuan Chongxi began working his magic, methodically making the calculations with his fingers. At length, he gave me a knowing look and nodded gently. I turned to Zheng Shuang’s friend. “Officer Zhu, we agree to help you with the matter, although we cannot guarantee that the case can be fully solved!”

Zheng Shuang’s friend was called Zhu Jun. Later, we drove to Zhu Jun’s place where I requested to have a look at the CCTV footage of the night the theft took place. Zhu Jun brought us to the security control room of the mall. A dozen CCTV monitors lined an entire wall that allowed supervision of the interior of the mall at different angles and directions. I requested a member of the staff to play the footage of the night of the incident, and a young man expertly navigated through the system and found the footage we needed. We watched the CCTV recording again and I looked intently into the screen, hoping to find something. Beside me, an exasperated Zhu Jun said, “We’ve seen the footage for God knows how many times! Still, we found nothing!” I waved him off, motioning him for silence.

Under usual circumstances, not even my Spirit Sight would enable me to detect anything wrong from a recording video. Even though this was an actual recording from what happened that night, the video recording captured live action of that night in the mall by taking a series of still images—or frame rate of 50 hertz (cycles per second). The video recording was made up of fragments of 50 frames interlaced together in each second. This would mean that the cameras would fail to pick up anything between gaps of every 50 cycles, like how quick movements were blurry to normal human vision! No one travels faster than one-fiftieth of a second, unless one was able to fly with the speed of a bullet. This was also the reason many overlooked this simple detail, misunderstanding that the video recordings had indeed captured everything. Closely, I studied the footage. No thief would have speeds that could surpass the frequency rate of the video, but it was definitely possible that Zhu Jun had missed minute details that could be the key to breaking the case! Just after the midnight timestamp, I chuckled. Indeed, something in the video stood out to me; a minuscule detail that I found just after the midnight timestamp!

I told Zhu Jun that we would be going downstairs for a look. We went to the back alley of the mall where a wall bordered the compound of the mall, over which was a vehicle boneyard. Beside the boneyard sat a small tract of woods with only a few rows of low willow trees. The patch of trees seemed to be part of the boneyard which was left unused. We searched the area and found that the grasses and undergrowth between the trees showed signs of being trampled. But the footsteps did not lead to the wall, which could possibly explain why Zhu Jun and the local police discounted the footsteps as a viable clue. They did not expect that the perpetrators of the crime could have used animals or familiar to do their bidding! I searched through the grasses and found a crushed cigarette butt. I took out my Spirit Gourd and uncorked it, waving the mouth of my gourd at the burnt butt. I then waved to Zhu Jun and the others, motioning them to follow us. We returned to our car where I instructed Zhu Jun to bring some men and follow behind us, while Lin Feng, Yuan Chongxi and I would lead in another car. I summoned my spirit cat, Smoky, and we began driving to a more rustic part of the area.

Not knowing what we were up to, Zhu Jun immediately mobilized his men. Before long, a long cavalcade of police cars filled our rearview mirror! Like a thronging convoy, we drove all the way and stopped in front of a farmer’s shack where the police cars immediately surrounded the house, cutting off all avenues of ingress and egress! Being a more decisive person than Zheng Shuang, Zhu Jun immediately led a small squad that kicked through the doors and stormed the house. Within moments, the policemen filed out of the house, bring a man with them. However, at the merest look at the man, I gasped with dismay! Two mouthfuls of water from my gourd made no improvement; the man was a dimwitted person! Our clues had just come to an end!

Zhu Jun summoned the village councilman and spoke to him. When he came back, he reported his findings: the man was long known to be a dumb person. His family name was Han, and hence everyone called him Youngster Han. His parents had long died, leaving him a helpless and dimwitted boy, impoverished and destitute. But the villagers were kind to him, helping him whenever they could. In the house, the police search and found the jewelry that was missing, much to the shock and disbelief of the councilman! He would not have believed this if he did not witness everything himself!

A representative of the mall was summoned and he confirmed that all of the missing jewelry was accounted for; they were all here! Zhu Jun was ecstatic, being able to recover everything despite not knowing that was the crime committed. He would have to come up with a logical and plausible way to describe everything in his report. But my companions and I were far from satisfied; not only did the thief used evil spirits or familiar to carry out the deed of thieving the valuables, but the perpetrator had even used a mentally-handicapped person to receive the bounty for him! But we deduced that our swift actions had prevented him from being able to recover the jewelry before our convoy, with sirens blaring and blue-red lights illuminating the sky, had alerted him of our arrival and the thief quickly slipped away.

It would have been easier for the perpetrator to possess and control a dumb person than a normally-sane person. However, the same could not be said for us as we needed clues to solve the case!

We were interrupted by a phone call. It was Zheng Shuang; he had found the cellmate that had been in touch with Wang Laosan and full-scale surveillance was now being conducted on the man this very instant. I instructed Zheng Shuang to forward a copy of the data on Wang Laosan’s cellmate to Zhu Jun. There was the possibility of him appearing near the dumb boy since he had to physically come near the boy to cast his spell on him.

We went back that day and met up with Zheng Shuang to discuss the situation. What remained of the Creed must have been facing financial difficulties after our crippling of the division in charged to amass funds, hence their attempt to steal the jewelry! Their financials must be in a dire state now! We deduced that the failure of the theft would only make them anxious and force them to spring another attempt! The cellmate of Wang Laosan who had come looking for him was a man called Li Dechao who was also known as Li Shanpao (literally, Li the Hillside Cannon). He was a native of the North-Eastern regions and had been enticed into joining the Creed when they were creating a presence around here! Zheng Shuang produced a photograph of him which Lin Feng took and had a look. To our surprise, Lin Feng immediately leaped to his feet! He had seen the face before; the leader of the trio of swindlers who had almost fought in a brawl with him, the one who had left to Lin Feng the one million yuan! Immediately, I began laughing uncontrollably and everyone looked at me strangely, puzzled and confused.

“Let me recap,” I explained, “Their foremost apparatuses for collecting funds were first thwarted by us. Then they set a trap for us, luring us into Inner Mongolia, hoping to kill us indirectly. But not only they failed to murder us, instead, we even demolished their presence there, removing the remaining Apostles, namely Zheng Tong, Zhu Shazhi and Baosang Kui, from play! When we returned here, they tried to burn us alive only to have us cripple more of what was left of them! Then they had their minions scurrying around, swindling others and gathered one million yuan, only to have their prize fell into Brother Lin’s hands! At their wit’s end, they were forced to become petty thieves, pilfering jewelry and valuables. But before their plans could bear fruit, their endeavors were once again thwarted by Zhu Jun and us!” “The mastermind of everything should have counted himself lucky if he did not suffer a stroke over his extending list of failures!” Everyone burst into guffaws of laughter.

Suddenly, an inspiration dawned upon me. My gaze slowly traveled to Lin Feng as everyone, confounded by the change in my demeanor, too began looking at Lin Feng. Lin Feng himself peered back at us with a blank look and eyes as large as eggs…