Chapter 40

The wave lines had returned.

It was as if everything had gone back on track again.

Shen Juan smiled. Gu Shuge caught sight of her smile from the corner of her eye and was somewhat confused, not knowing why she had suddenly laughed.

In the passenger seat, Lin Mo swallowed and turned his head back, his voice trembling. “You…” He “you”ed for a long while before finally suppressing the chill along his spine and, out of courtesy, asked with concern, “Did… did you find a method?”

Gu Shuge was so anxious her hair was about to stand on end. She continued drawing crosses in Shen Juan’s palm, telling her not to say anymore. What if Lin Mo misunderstood and thought Shen Juan had developed some kind of delusional disorder or psychological illness?

Shen Juan knew her limits. She only smiled and did not speak.

Seeing this, Lin Mo naturally thought the chairman had been joking with him. He secretly cursed himself for being too suspicious.

But seeing that Shen Juan could smile, he was also quite happy. He said, “It’s best that you can relax a little.” Usually, he never interfered in Shen Juan’s private matters, ​Read on BaiLianTales​but now that he had opened his mouth, he sincerely added a few more words. “You haven’t smiled for many days because of Miss Gu’s matter, and the company’s daily affairs have also been set aside.”

From Lin Mo’s perspective as the special assistant by Shen Juan’s side, after something happened to Gu Shuge, Shen Juan’s life had completely gone off course. She did not go to the company, did not handle affairs, and wholeheartedly kept running to temples or tracking the case.

The latter was understandable. Since Miss Gu had died from murder, both emotionally and logically, they had to find the culprit and console the dead. But the former—not only outsiders, even Lin Mo, her trusted aide who stayed by Shen Juan’s side, found it very strange. He only felt that their chairman seemed to have been possessed, suddenly becoming superstitious about gods and ghosts.

He weighed his words and advised, “Miss Gu definitely wouldn’t want to see you like this either. Who knows whether temples these days have tricks to deceive people by pretending to be mystical? How about this? If the chairman wants to hold a ritual for Miss Gu, I’ll ask around for a truly effective Dharma master. We’ll invite him over to help Miss Gu transcend and soothe her soul, and then hold the memorial service. Would that work?”

Bailong Temple was one of the top temples in the country. Every year, countless believers lined up overnight on the first day of the Lunar New Year just to offer the first incense of the new year. If even a temple like that was deceiving people with fake mysticism, where was he supposed to find an effective Dharma master?

Gu Shuge could not quite understand. Her intuition was sensitive, and she always felt that Lin Mo’s words carried a deeper meaning, but she could not hear what it was. Uneasy, Gu Shuge shifted slightly and leaned a little closer toward Shen Juan.

Shen Juan only answered, “No need.”

Disappointment and anxiety appeared on Lin Mo’s face, but he did not continue persuading her.

Gu Shuge thought it over repeatedly before finally grasping the meaning. On the surface, Lin Mo’s words seemed to be about finding [unauthorized copy]an effective Dharma master to help her soul transcend, but in truth, he wanted Shen Juan to stop running to temples.

It was normal for the boss of a large company to be a little superstitious, but putting aside proper business and living in a temple—especially at this kind of moment—would definitely make many people gossip. It would not be good for Shen Juan’s own image or the group’s image. Asking a Dharma master to hold a ritual meant soothing the dead, allowing the living to feel at ease, and letting the deceased enter reincarnation instead of remaining attached here.

But Shen Juan had refused.

Once Gu Shuge understood, she became anxious. How would outsiders look at Shen Juan? She hurriedly wrote in Shen Juan’s palm, “Agree to it.”

As Gu Group’s decision-maker, and someone who had suppressed many forces at such a young age to sit firmly in the chairman’s position, there was one thing certain about Shen Juan: she had her own way of doing things, and her word was final. She might not explain her intentions to those beneath her, but she absolutely would not change orders back and forth.

Just now, she had rejected Lin Mo’s advice purely out of habit.

But Gu Shuge did not want Shen Juan to suffer criticism or strange looks. So she wrote again, “Agree to it.”

Shen Juan felt that if she did not listen to Xiao Ge, Xiao Ge might turn into a repeating machine and repeatedly write “Agree to it” in her palm.

Sure enough, seeing that Shen Juan still did not speak, Gu Shuge knitted her brows and wrote [Read on BaiLianTales]again with emphatic force, “Agree to it.”

“Find Master Jingyun. Aside from him, I won’t feel reassured no matter who presides over the ritual,” Shen Juan changed her words.

Lin Mo immediately nodded. “I’ll push them harder.” After saying this, he grew worried again. After all, there had been no trace of this master at all so far.

Only then did Gu Shuge feel relieved. She sat obediently beside Shen Juan. Shen Juan could sense the little ghost’s movements beside her and noticed that she had once again corrected her sitting posture. A smile flashed through Shen Juan’s eyes. Then she closed her eyes, as though resting, or as though thinking about something.

Gu Shuge grew a little bored and turned her head to look at the street scenery rapidly receding outside the window.

She remembered the day of the car accident. When she had just become a ghost and was still at the scene, she had felt a gaze looking at her. But when she turned back to search, she had not found any familiar faces.

However, there had been many people gathered around at the time. With even the slightest movement, someone might have been blocked by the person in front of them. It was normal that she had not seen them.

Gu Shuge trusted her own intuition. So, could it have been the culprit arriving at the scene to personally watch the moment she was hit, watch her corpse lying shattered in a pool of blood?

According to the criminal psychology analysis they had done before, this guess was possible.

So another conclusion could be drawn: the culprit had already been in the country at the time of the crime, and on that day, very likely at the crime scene.

While at the sutra library, Gu Shuge and Shen Juan had already decided that they would use blood to forge her soul-body, then wait for Master Jingyun to appear and consult him about spiritual energy. Shen Juan was not someone who placed all hope on one person. Apart from looking for this monk, she was also asking around for other capable experts. Unfortunately, up to now, no especially effective expert had been found.

The matter of the physical body had some direction, but it had also entered a bottleneck, making further progress difficult. So both of them shifted their focus back to the case.

Gu Shuge thought for a long time but could not find any evidence to support this conclusion of hers.

She felt she should tell 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 and said the interrogations had already finished. Because there was no evidence, the suspects had not been detained and were all released, merely restricted from leaving the country. He wanted to tell Shen Juan about today’s interrogations, and he also wanted to ask her about a few things.

So Shen Juan had the car stop by the roadside, and they went into a nearby café.

They did not wait long before Liu Guohua arrived.

Gu Shuge did not sit beside Shen Juan. She walked around the café looking here and there. Since no one could see her anyway, she wandered freely on her own. She was walking around the café as if taking a stroll, not because she was bored, but because recently, she had developed a worry.

She was afraid of forgetting the habits she had had as a human.

During the first two days after she became a ghost, walking was still walking. Her sitting posture was the same as when she had been alive, and when she spoke, she spoke normally. Even if no one could hear her and she could only talk to herself, she still properly opened her mouth to speak.

But now, barely half a month had passed, and she was already different. She did not know whether it was because, after death, human traits naturally decreased, or whether there was another reason. Occasionally, she used floating instead of walking, because floating saved effort. When sitting, she was not as proper either, because no one could see. When entering and exiting places, she did not necessarily use doors anymore, because walls could not stop her. She also used writing instead of speech now and rarely opened her mouth.

Gu Shuge was very worried that she would forget the habits she had while alive. If too much time passed and she turned into a complete and thorough ghost, that would be far too frightening. After all, although she knew she was no longer human, she still wanted to be one.

So she wanted to observe the movements and habits of ordinary people. If one day her habits from when she was alive completely vanished, she could still deliberately imitate them.

But she had never told Shen Juan about any of this. So when Shen Juan sensed Gu Shuge walking step by step through the café, sometimes looking at the menu, sometimes lingering beside a certain table as if listening to what the customers were saying, and sometimes standing by the window to look at the scenery outside, Shen Juan did not know what she was doing.

The moment Liu Guohua arrived, he told Shen Juan the interrogation results. “For now, none of them looks especially suspicious.” He paused, then changed his wording. “Or rather, none of the suspects has cleared their own suspicion. It’s just that at present, 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. Originally, she had placed her bag on the table inside. Sensing Gu Shuge sit down, she picked the bag back up.

Liu Guohua and Lin Mo saw the chairman take back her bag, neither opening it to take anything nor placing it on the empty chair beside her, but instead putting it on her own knees.

It was as if she had specially cleared the seat beside her for someone to sit there.

Liu Guohua was fine. Out of a detective’s sensitivity toward details, he only felt that this behavior was a little unreasonable. But Lin Mo remembered the conversation in the car, and the back of his spine suddenly chilled. Because of psychological suggestion, he kept feeling as though there was something in that spot.

Gu Shuge sat down and listened with full concentration. She had originally wanted to remind them that the culprit might have been at the scene that day, but she discovered that even without her reminder, the police had already considered this possibility.

Although this case was murder for hire, and an alibi at the time of the crime was not necessarily useful, considering the culprit’s twisted abnormality, he might very possibly have returned to the scene and watched the victim be hit to death with his own eyes in order to gain psychological pleasure.

“These four people were all in the country at the time of the crime.” University students had more flexible [unauthorized copy]schedules, so returning to the country was normal. Moreover, all four came from wealthy backgrounds and had no especially outstanding academic achievements, only average performance, so returning before the holiday was also normal.

“One or two of them returning at this time would be normal, but all four suspects being in the country at the same time is too much of a coincidence. It’s almost like…” Liu Guohua paused, then continued, “Almost like there’s some force deliberately driving them toward a place of trouble.”

This way of saying it carried a trace of eeriness.

Lin Mo silently swallowed and felt a little afraid. He did not really want to listen anymore, but he also did not dare leave, because his boss was listening with complete concentration.

Lin Mo could not control his gaze. Secretly, he glanced toward the space beside Shen Juan. There was no one there. He both breathed a sigh of relief and felt even more frightened.

Gu Shuge was a ghost, and a ghost’s five senses were relatively sharp. She sensed Lin Mo looking toward her and was startled, thinking she had been discovered. She grew extremely nervous, but Lin Mo merely looked secretly in her direction twice and said nothing.

Gu Shuge felt this person was strange, so while paying attention to him, she listened to Liu Guohua discuss the case.

They had finally found four suspects. Although there was still no important evidence and much of it was based on inference, the police definitely would not be careless. They had thoroughly investigated all four people.

“The four suspects are two men and two women. None of them are homebodies. Every one of them likes going out, but on the eve of Christmas break, they all chose to stolen content return home and stay obediently in the country. This is somewhat strange.”

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

Lin Mo truly could not stand it anymore. He believed he was not a cowardly person, that he was an upright man of iron bones. But now, whenever he looked beside the chairman, he felt as though there was something invisible there. So he interrupted, “Are you going to the company tomorrow?”

If she was going, then he would answer, “I’ll return to the company first and prepare the documents you need to review.”

If she was not going, then he would say, “There are two proposals that you must personally review. I’ll return to the company to organize them and deliver them to your home tonight.”

Shen Juan answered, “No.”

So Lin Mo said the second version. Shen Juan agreed.

At last, he could leave. Lin Mo suppressed the urge to look at the spot beside Shen Juan, stood, and before leaving, sighed. “There aren’t many matters at the company right now. Fortunately, this isn’t three years ago, when people were always deliberately causing trouble. Only after you and Mr. Gu formed a marriage alliance did you find the chance to thoroughly suppress those people.”

Author’s Note: Eek, so scary.