Chapter 007 Alibi

Chen Fan was not entirely useless—when he heard that I wanted to investigate Yunqing, he immediately began analyzing her potential motives for the crime. Since the ghostly banquet case broke out, Yunqing had used her special abilities to amass a fortune, and rumor had it that many celebrities and wealthy clients had started seeking her services. The income from just these past few days had already surpassed what she'd earned in all her years of working odd jobs.

Chen Fan suspected that Yunqing was chasing after wealth and fame, deliberately fabricating a supernatural case to create an opportunity for fraud. His reasoning was not without merit, but I merely smiled and didn’t reply. Growing anxious, Chen Fan insisted that, based on the criminal profile I'd previously put together, Yunqing fit the suspect’s psychological traits almost perfectly.

I said the suspect was careful and reserved, and Yunqing, when performing rituals, certainly had the demeanor of an enlightened master. As for my earlier suggestion that the suspect’s profession or hobbies might involve innovation, Chen Fan agreed that what Yunqing did was quite extraordinary. Moreover, her methods were indeed impressive—at the very least, we could not explain how she managed to make so many people see ghosts, or how she made all those candles extinguish simultaneously without any wind.

Chen Fan pressed for answers again, and Luo Feng smacked him on the back of the head, telling him to simply follow my instructions and stop talking so much. For a man of thirty, Chen Fan seemed rather aggrieved at this. I smiled and told him he was oversimplifying things.

Indeed, Yunqing was highly suspicious, but I felt that if her motive for murder was to amass wealth, she would have gone about it more discreetly, not in a way that drew so much attention. Whether she was the killer was still unclear, but one thing was certain: there was something wrong with her.

Everything would have to wait until the investigation was complete. Hearing this, Chen Fan pursed his lips and said no more.

It was very late when we returned to the hotel. I sat in my room, holding the talisman Yunqing had given me, carefully pondering everything that had happened over the past two days. I had initially thought the problem lay with the talisman, but it turned out to be perfectly ordinary, without a trace of anything unusual.

It wasn't until deep into the night that I finally drifted into a fitful sleep—this time, nothing strange happened.

The next morning, Chen Fan went to the police station as I had asked; I didn’t go along, not wanting the local police to get suspicious. Luo Feng came to find me, telling me that his men had already returned with information. He handed me a thick stack of documents.

Luo Feng explained that time had been short, and this was as much as his people could dig up so quickly. In just a single day, they had managed to uncover quite a lot, and I was more than satisfied. I flipped quickly through the materials, all written in traditional script, and found them fairly comprehensive.

I joked, “Your people are certainly faster than the police.”

Luo Feng scoffed, “How could those useless idiots compare? They have to follow procedure for everything.”

I didn’t banter further, but focused on the documents. Some things I already knew; I was more interested in the new findings. Luo Feng’s men had discreetly gathered information through personal contacts, quickly tracking down Yunqing’s family’s address, the school from which she'd been expelled, and the temple where she’d been sent years ago.

They discovered that Yunqing had struggled academically from a young age and was often beaten and scolded by teachers and classmates. As she grew older, she learned to resist, sometimes even spitting at her tormentors. Her parents were left constantly apologizing to others on her behalf.

Yunqing’s family consisted of her parents and an older brother. Unlike her, her brother was outstanding—now an executive at a company, with a very high annual salary. The investigation revealed that Yunqing was expelled from school for nearly burning down a building.

After that incident, she was sent to the temple. According to their neighbors, less than a year later, they heard she had almost burned the temple down as well, and was sent away from there. Yunqing did not return home; it was said she had a huge argument with her family, and the neighbors hadn't seen her in years.

Two fires—Yunqing had destroyed both paths her parents had set for her. I spotted a key detail: the temple she was sent to was renowned, drawing faithful from all over the district. Whether wishing for offspring or marriage, people believed it to be very effective.

Luo Feng was puzzled, remarking that such wishes were usually made at Buddhist temples; he had always thought Taoist temples were just for fortune-telling.

“Yunqing has a fiery temperament,” I remarked.

Luo Feng wondered if her difficult relationship with her family and her personality made her more likely to engage in criminal behavior. I nodded. In criminal psychology, no one is above suspicion—every person is a potential suspect. Isolation, stubbornness, and family factors can all be significant triggers.

Luo Feng’s men had avoided direct contact with Yunqing’s family, not wanting to alert them. I considered that, after Chen Fan finished with the police, we ought to speak with her family ourselves. At this stage, Yunqing was the prime suspect.

As we spoke, Chen Fan returned with good news: the officer in charge of the ghostly banquet case now trusted him more, and they had exchanged contact information for future communication. At that time, telephones weren’t common, so Luo Feng had even provided Chen Fan with a mobile phone.

Chen Fan had earned the police’s trust by sharing the results of our interview with the old woman—the details we had uncovered impressed the officer. He was known as “Brother Ji” or “Fat Ji” due to his size.

Chen Fan had already asked Fat Ji to keep an eye on Yunqing and to check her whereabouts during the days of the crime.

That afternoon, with the police’s consent, the three of us took the letter of authorization and went to Yunqing’s family home. It was the weekend, and her brother was there. After knocking, he welcomed us warmly; Yunqing’s parents were watching TV on the sofa.

Their home was noticeably more luxurious than their neighbors’, clearly the result of recent renovations. Yunqing’s brother, Yun Gao, had the surname Li. Perhaps by design, the siblings’ names—Li Yunqing and Li Yungao—combined to mean “pure and lofty.”

Yun Gao was refined and somewhat awkward in Mandarin, often slipping English phrases into conversation. After a lengthy exchange of pleasantries, their father asked uneasily what had brought us there. We showed the police authorization, which made the parents visibly worried.

I came straight to the point—it was about Yunqing.

The moment I mentioned her name, Yunqing’s father erupted in anger; if not for Yun Gao’s intervention, we might have been thrown out. Luo Feng was not one to tolerate such treatment and nearly responded in kind, but Yun Gao repeatedly apologized and promised full cooperation.

The elder Mr. Li, in his fury, suffered a heart attack and had to take several pills before he felt better. In my experience, people in this region always seemed to have heart conditions or asthma.

Once everyone had calmed down, Yun Gao asked what we wanted to know.

“Mr. Li, sir, have you heard about the ghostly banquet case?” I asked.

Clearly, they had seen the reports in the papers and on TV. Coincidentally, the television was airing a news segment on the case as we spoke—the reporter was sensationalizing it, calling it the most bizarre mystery in the district’s history, suggesting it could only be solved by a master of the occult.

Yun Gao picked up the remote and turned off the TV, smiling that perhaps we weren’t accustomed to the region’s press freedom. I narrowed my eyes and asked him in a low voice why he would say that—his tone betrayed that he knew we were from the mainland. Yun Gao was momentarily stunned.

From the moment we entered, Luo Feng and I had been speaking in the local dialect; Chen Fan had not spoken at all. Just as we began suspecting Yun Gao, he chuckled and explained that he had noticed Chen Fan’s ID badge, which listed a Beijing precinct. Adjusting his glasses, he calmly asked if he had misspoken.

Indeed, Chen Fan had shown his credentials. While his badge could fool the average person, it was useless with someone educated—but we had the police authorization to back us up.

I shook my head and said that Yunqing was likely connected to the case, and we needed their cooperation.

The elder Mr. Li, who had just regained his composure, flushed with anger again. Once a mainlander himself, his Mandarin was excellent. He cursed, “That troublemaker—what has she done now? Has she killed someone?”

It became clear to me that Mr. Li was deeply prejudiced against Yunqing; I had only said she might be connected to the case, yet he leapt to the worst conclusion.

To keep the conversation going, I quickly shook my head and smiled, saying the police had no evidence, only suspicions, which was why we needed to ask about Yunqing.

Yun Gao immediately told us that while his sister was immature, she would never commit murder or arson.

Just then, the mobile phone rang—it was Chen Fan’s. He answered, listened for a few seconds, and frowned. Leaning in close, he whispered in my ear that the police had determined Yunqing had a solid alibi for the days of the crime.