A Secret (GL) - Chapter 40

The wavy lines were back.

It felt as if everything had returned to its proper track.

Shen Juan gave a soft smile. Gu Shuge caught a glimpse of it from the corner of her eye and felt a bit puzzled, not knowing why she had suddenly started smiling.

In the passenger seat, Lin Mo swallowed hard and turned around, his voice trembling: “You…” He trailed off for a long while before suppressing the chill running down his spine. Out of polite concern, he managed to ask: “Did… did you find a solution?”

Gu Shuge was so anxious her hair almost stood on end. She continued to draw frantic crosses in Shen Juan’s palm, signaling her to stop talking. What if people misunderstood and thought she had developed some delusional disorder or mental illness?

Shen Juan knew where to draw the line; she simply smiled and didn’t speak.

Seeing this, Lin Mo naturally assumed the Chairman was joking with him. He cursed himself inwardly for being too paranoid and suspicious.

However, seeing that Shen Juan was able to smile made him quite happy. He said, “It’s best that you can relax your mood.” He usually never meddled in Shen Juan’s private affairs, but now he spoke from the heart: “You haven’t smiled for so many days because of Miss Gu’s matter, and the company’s daily operations have also been put on hold.”

From the perspective of a special assistant like Lin Mo, Shen Juan’s life had completely derailed after Gu Shuge’s accident. She wasn’t going to the office, wasn’t managing affairs, and was single-mindedly running to temples or tracking the case.

The latter was understandable; since Miss Gu had died of murder, it was only right and reasonable to find the killer to comfort the departed soul. But the former—not just to outsiders, but even to a confidant like Lin Mo—felt very strange. It felt as if their Chairman had been “possessed,” suddenly becoming superstitious about ghosts and gods.

He weighed his words and offered a piece of advice: “Miss Gu surely wouldn’t want to see you like this. Who knows if these temples nowadays are just using tricks to play on people’s superstitions? How about this—if the Chairman wants to hold a Buddhist service for Miss Gu, I’ll look for an effective master. We’ll invite him to perform a ritual for her soul’s rest and salvation, and then hold the memorial service. Would that be alright?”

Bailong Temple was one of the top temples in the country; every year, countless believers queued overnight on New Year’s Day just to offer the first incense of the year. If even such a temple was just “playing tricks,” where was he supposed to find an “effective master”?

Gu Shuge didn’t quite understand. Her intuition was sensitive, and she felt Lin Mo’s words held a deeper meaning, but she couldn’t parse it. Feeling uneasy, she moved a bit and leaned closer to Shen Juan.

Shen Juan only gave one answer: “No need.”

Lin Mo’s face showed disappointment and anxiety, but he didn’t try to persuade her further.

Gu Shuge turned it over in her mind several times before finally catching the flavor of it. Lin Mo’s words about finding a master to perform a service seemed to be for her soul, but they were actually intended to stop Shen Juan from running to temples.

It’s normal for the head of a large corporation to be a little superstitious, but putting aside normal business to live in a temple—especially at this timing—would certainly trigger gossip. It was bad for both Shen Juan’s personal image and the Group’s reputation. The idea of “hiring a master” was to find a way to settle the soul so the living could find peace and the dead could move on to reincarnation, rather than obsessing over it.

But Shen Juan had refused.

Once Gu Shuge understood, she grew anxious. What will outsiders think of Shen Juan? She hurriedly wrote in Shen Juan’s palm: “Agree to him.”

As the decision-maker for the Gu Group—one who had suppressed numerous factions at a young age to secure her position as Chairman—one thing was certain: Shen Juan had her own way of doing things. She was decisive; she didn’t necessarily explain her intentions to subordinates, but she was never one to change her orders on a whim.

She had just reflexively rejected Lin Mo’s suggestion out of habit.

But Gu Shuge didn’t want Shen Juan to suffer criticism or strange looks. She wrote it again: “Agree to him.”

Shen Juan felt that if she didn’t listen to Xiaoge, Xiaoge might turn into a “human repeater,” writing “Agree to him” in her palm over and over.

Sure enough, seeing her still silent, Gu Shuge knitted her brows and used an emphatic force to write again: “Agree to him.”

“Find Master Jingyun. Aside from him, I wouldn’t feel at ease with anyone else presiding over the service,” Shen Juan changed her tune.

Lin Mo immediately nodded: “I’ll push harder for the search.” After saying it, he felt troubled again; as of now, there wasn’t a single trace of that Master.

Gu Shuge was finally at ease, sitting obediently beside Shen Juan. Shen Juan could sense the little ghost’s movements and noticed her correcting her sitting posture again. A smile flashed in her eyes, and she closed them as if resting, or perhaps contemplating something.

Gu Shuge was a bit bored, so she turned to watch the city scenery retreating quickly outside the window.

She recalled the day of the accident. Just after she became a ghost, while at the scene of the crash, she had felt a gaze watching her. But when she turned to look, she hadn’t found a single familiar face.

However, there had been a large crowd then; any movement could have been blocked by people in front. It was normal not to see.

Gu Shuge trusted her intuition. So—could that have been the killer coming to the scene? Coming to personally witness her being struck, to see her body lying broken in a pool of blood?

Based on the criminal psychological analysis she had studied, this guess was possible. Thus, another conclusion could be drawn: the killer was already in the country at the time of the crime and was likely at the scene that day.

Shen Juan and Gu Shuge had already made a decision back at the Library of Scriptures: they would use blood to forge the soul-form and wait for Master Jingyun to appear to ask about spiritual energy. Shen Juan was not one to pin all her hopes on one person; besides looking for the monk, she was also inquiring about other masters. Unfortunately, so far, no exceptionally gifted master had been found.

Since they had a lead on the physical body but had hit a bottleneck, they both shifted their focus back to the case.

Gu Shuge thought for a long time but couldn’t find evidence to support her conclusion. She felt that if she spoke to Shen Juan about it, Shen Juan would definitely trust her intuition.

They had originally planned to go to the police station, but halfway there, Liu Guohua called to say the questioning was over. Due to a lack of evidence, there was no detention; the suspects had been released, merely restricted from leaving the country. He wanted to discuss the day’s interrogation with Shen Juan and ask her a few things.

So, Shen Juan had the car pull over and went into a roadside coffee shop.

Liu Guohua arrived shortly after.

Gu Shuge didn’t sit right next to Shen Juan; she walked around the shop. Since no one could see her anyway, she moved freely. She walked through the shop as if taking a stroll, not just out of boredom, but because of a recent worry.

She was afraid of forgetting her habits of being human.

In the first two days after becoming a ghost, her walking was just walking, her posture was the same as in life, and she spoke normally—even if no one heard her and she was just talking to herself, she spoke clearly.

But now, barely half a month had passed, and she was different. She didn’t know if losing human traits was a natural part of being dead or due to something else. She occasionally used floating instead of walking because it took less effort. When she sat, she wasn’t as proper because no one was watching. When she entered or exited, she didn’t necessarily use the door, because walls couldn’t block her. Speaking had been replaced by writing; she rarely opened her mouth.

Gu Shuge was worried that if she forgot her habits, over time she would become a “total” ghost. That was terrifying. Even though she knew she wasn’t human anymore, she still wanted to be human.

So, she wanted to observe the movements and habits of ordinary people. If the day came when her original habits vanished entirely, she could at least deliberately mimic them.

But she hadn’t mentioned this to Shen Juan. Consequently, Shen Juan sensed her walking step by step through the shop, sometimes looking at the menu, sometimes pausing at a table as if listening to guests, and sometimes standing by the window looking out—but she didn’t know what Shuge was doing.

When Liu Guohua arrived, he told Shen Juan the result of the questioning: “For the time being, we haven’t seen anyone with definite suspicion.” He paused and corrected himself, “Rather, not a single suspect has cleared themselves. It’s just that as of now, we haven’t found which one is more suspicious.”

Seeing him arrive, Gu Shuge walked back and sat beside Shen Juan.

Shen Juan was sitting on the outside. She had placed her bag on the inner side of the table, but sensing Shuge sit down, she pulled the bag back.

Liu Guohua and Lin Mo saw the Chairman pull her bag back. She didn’t open it to take anything out, nor did she place it on the empty chair beside her. Instead, she put it on her own lap.

It looked as if she were deliberately keeping the seat beside her empty for someone.

Liu Guohua was fine; out of a detective’s sensitivity to detail, he merely thought the behavior was a bit illogical. But Lin Mo, remembering the conversation in the car, felt a sudden chill. Due to psychological suggestion, he felt like there was something in that spot.

Gu Shuge sat down and listened intently. She had originally wanted to point out that the killer might have been at the scene, but she found that she didn’t need to—the police were already considering that possibility.

Although this was a murder-for-hire and an alibi at the time of the crash wasn’t necessarily useful, given the distorted and pathological nature of the killer, it was highly likely they would go to the scene to personally witness the moment the victim was struck to gain psychological gratification.

“All four of them were in the country at the time of the accident.” University schedules are quite flexible, so returning home is normal. Furthermore, all four came from wealthy backgrounds and didn’t have particularly outstanding academic records—just average—so returning before the holidays was standard.

“It’s normal for one or two to return at this time, but for all four suspects to be in the country at once seems like too much of a coincidence. It’s almost as if…” Liu Guohua paused and continued, “as if there was a force deliberately driving them toward the center of the storm.”

This way of speaking carried a hint of the uncanny.

Lin Mo silently swallowed. He felt a bit scared and didn’t want to listen anymore, but he didn’t dare leave because his boss was listening with total concentration. He couldn’t control his eyes, which kept darting to the space beside Shen Juan. It was empty, which both relieved him and made him feel more terrified.

Gu Shuge was a ghost, and a ghost’s senses are sharp. She felt Lin Mo looking at her and was startled, thinking she’d been discovered. She was incredibly tense, but Lin Mo only peeked a couple of times and didn’t say anything.

Shuge thought he was a very strange person, so she kept an eye on him while listening to the case details.

Having finally found four suspects, though there was no major evidence and most of it was deduction, the police would certainly not be vague. They had investigated the four of them thoroughly.

“Four suspects, two men and two women. None of them are shut-ins; they all like to go out. Yet, on the eve of the Christmas break, every single one of them chose to return home and stay quietly in the country. That’s a bit odd.”

Muzi went home because she had a good relationship with her parents and was filial. What about them?

Lin Mo truly couldn’t take it anymore. He didn’t consider himself a coward; he was a man of steel. But looking at the seat beside the Chairman now, he felt like there was something invisible there. He interjected: “Are you going to the office tomorrow?”

If she said yes, he would reply, “I’ll go back to the office first to prepare the documents for you.” If she said no, he would say, “There are two plans that need your personal review. I’ll go back to the office to organize them and deliver them to your house tonight.”

Shen Juan answered: “No.”

Lin Mo used the second response. Shen Juan agreed.

Finally able to leave, Lin Mo suppressed the urge to look at the seat beside Shen Juan and stood up. Before leaving, he sighed: “Things aren’t too busy at the company now. It’s lucky it isn’t like three years ago, when people were always looking for trouble. It was only through your marriage with Mr. Gu that you found the chance to completely suppress those people.”