Chapter 204: The Dead Come Back to Life (Part 2)

“This time, you must follow the Special Cases Division people closely. No matter what they do or say, remember it well. Understood?”

“Understood!”

As Siyuan and his group set off on their journey, the Special Affairs Division was also holding a meeting. Their leader was the guy Siyuan had lifted up earlier. Although he had reported this incident, his superiors gave him no response. They just told him not to be angry and said such small conflicts should not be reported in the future.

This made him unhappy, but he could not do anything about the old hands in the Special Cases Division for the time being. So, he could only try his best to have his organization replace the Special Cases Division. However, experience was not something that could be accumulated in a day or two. Therefore, he decided to “steal” some of the Special Cases Division’s case-handling experience.

For this purpose, he specifically asked around about what kind of person this Qi Siyuan was. Without exception, the answers he got were that he was a pretty good person, very easygoing and approachable. He usually did not express many opinions, but his work ability was very strong. He was one of the pillars of the Special Cases Division.

With this answer, he felt quite at ease and arranged for his people to go to Siyuan’s destination as well. Although nominally they were there to assist Siyuan, anyone could guess what he was really thinking.

Of course, Siyuan understood this as well. But such matters… there was not much to say. After all, Fox had once said that the principle of their school was to teach without discrimination and to teach according to individual aptitude. Even someone like Ning Qingying, Siyuan was willing to teach, let alone these young people who intended to study seriously.

Even though some of these young people were a few years older than him…

However, while they were having their meeting, Siyuan was already on a plane flying to that place. The atmosphere was very awkward because there were three seats in a row. He sat in the middle, with his girlfriend and prospective girlfriend on either side. What was more critical was that the prospective girlfriend and his girlfriend really did not get along…

As for the nickname “prospective girlfriend,” it was not actually given by Siyuan. It was made up by Chen Ming and the others when they were stirring up trouble. But the key issue was… Ning Qingyuan actually accepted it happily. This made Qianruo feel irritated whenever she saw her now.

The fact that the two of them could sit together to carry out a mission was thanks to Little Dragon Maiden. After all, she was the boss, so there was no other choice. But both Qianruo and Ning Qingyuan looked very unwilling. On the plane, they both talked to Siyuan but ignored each other. Moreover, the two of them talked about different topics.

This made things very hard for Siyuan. Although he had already been quite clear with Ning Qingyuan, and the rejection was very evident, a woman of her character simply did not care about the other person’s attitude. So, she basically had no intention of caring about Siyuan’s feelings and was solely focused on thinking about how to defeat Qianruo.

As a result, Siyuan felt like he was sitting on pins and needles the whole way. When he talked to Ning Qingyuan, Qianruo would call him. When he talked to Qianruo, Ning Qingyuan would suddenly bring up a topic.

In the end, he could not even get a moment of peace to sleep. By the time the plane landed, his head was spinning. When he got off the plane, he was basically going crazy. Even if no one talked to him, he could still hear the calls of “Siyuan, Siyuan” in his ears, as if he had schizophrenia.

“Excuse me, are you Expert Qi’s group?”

Just after leaving the airport, a few people drove up in a mud-covered car and stopped in front of Siyuan. Their expressions were somewhat surprised, so when they asked about Siyuan’s identity, they were also a bit uncertain. After all, he was too young… In their impression, experts and professors were never under fifty years old. A strange murder case had occurred in their county, and the local public security bureau could not solve it. After reporting it, the superiors instructed that experts from the central government would come tonight to help resolve it.

They had been very happy at first, since experts from the central government were truly exceptional. But when they saw Siyuan, they immediately felt deceived. Especially the deputy county head—his own son was probably a few years older than Siyuan. How could such a young and inexperienced guy be an expert?

“That’s right.” Siyuan looked the two people up and down. “Are you from Wu’an County?”

“Yes, yes. I am the deputy county head. You can call me Guo Dawei.” Although the deputy county head had some doubts, these were people sent from the central government after all. If he was not polite, he might face trouble later. “This is my brother-in-law. He drove me here.”

Siyuan glanced at the beat-up Santana next to them and shook his head with a smile. “This car is a bit small, isn’t it?”

“Not small, not small!” The dark, stocky man next to the deputy county head showed a simple, honest smile like a farmer’s. “The back can fit three pigs! Can’t it fit your five people?”

The deputy county head immediately flushed red. He stomped hard on his brother-in-law’s foot, glared at him fiercely, and scolded in a low voice, “What kind of talk is that!”

Siyuan waved his hand. “It’s fine, it’s fine. We can squeeze in a bit.”

Actually, this kind of honest station wagon Santana had a relatively spacious back. But as that guy said, it had carried pigs inside, and the smell was really disgusting. For Siyuan and the other guys, it was still manageable, but the two girls had a hard time. They covered their noses the whole way and kept gagging.

However, this at least gave Siyuan a bit of peace and quiet, so he would not be miserably subjected to the duet. It also allowed him to have a chance to learn about the case during the car ride.

“That case, oh… it was too tragic.” Deputy County Head Guo sat in the front row, holding onto the blackened handle. When he heard Siyuan’s question, he wiped his face. “The first one died just a month ago. I’m in charge of the county’s public security, so I went along to take a look. As soon as I saw it, I vomited on the spot. The whole room was filled with intestines and brains. The old man lay on the bed, with not a single good piece of flesh on his body, as if he had been chewed by dogs. At the time, we didn’t know what was going on, so we didn’t report it. But then, within two days, two more died, still in the same way. After that, people kept dying. These past few days, basically one person dies each day.”

“Then you said it was an epidemic, right?” Siyuan frowned. “Why didn’t you report it earlier?”

“We didn’t dare. We could lose our positions.” Deputy County Head Guo pointed to his head. “We couldn’t cover it up anymore.”

Siyuan sighed and shook his head. “If you had reported it earlier, things wouldn’t have gotten this serious.”

At that moment, Mule, who had been flipping through a storybook in the back, suddenly stuck his head out. “Are there any ancient tomb underground palaces or something around here?”

“Yes, yes.” Deputy County Head Guo slapped his head. “It was dug up just a month and a half ago. They say it’s a tomb from the Han Dynasty.”

Mule nodded as if he understood. “No wonder.”

“What? Is there something to it?” Siyuan turned his head and asked. “Is this matter related to the ancient tomb?”

“You could say so.”

As Xianshui had said, Mule had no other skills, but when it came to crooked and unorthodox things, especially about graves, tombs, coffins, and corpses, he was a professional. Along the way, he had talked about a lot of things. Siyuan even suspected that this guy might have been a super tomb raider in the past.

“A Han Dynasty tomb buried in such a barren and remote area—eight times out of ten, it’s not for some high official or noble.” Mule put down his book and said seriously, “Hey, is this tomb big?”

“Big! Really big. Just one corridor is wider than my house. I only took a quick look from the outside. It was pitch black inside.”

“Probably this tomb hasn’t been robbed yet.” Mule crossed his arms. “This layout is called ‘Nine Deaths, One Life.’ The outer corridors are spacious, but the inner chambers are narrow and small. These were arrays set up by ancient alchemists and sorcerers to prevent tomb raiders. Generally, experienced tomb raiders can break them. But there are inevitably some powerful ones who set traps within traps. I think this matter is eighty percent related to tomb raiding.”

“I don’t think it’s tomb raiding.” Old Zombie, who had been quiet all along, suddenly spoke up. “Someone did it on purpose to draw out the Deathly Energy.”

“Wow, uncle. You’re an expert too?”

Siyuan smiled but did not say anything. If Old Zombie wasn’t an expert, then who was? Not only did he have experience with graves, but you have to know that his own grave was carefully arranged. So, it was normal for him to know something.

But just as he was about to continue, Siyuan stopped him with a look. Instead, Siyuan turned to Mule and said, “We can’t talk about such things carelessly. Let’s wait until we get there.”

Old Zombie never cared about the occasion when he spoke. Siyuan could not directly scold him, but some things really were not suitable for ordinary people to know. The more they knew, the more panic it would cause. Siyuan’s job was to prevent panic, so the fewer people who knew the truth, the better.

They got in the car at the airport and drove for nearly four hours before reaching the small county town where the incident occurred. As soon as Siyuan got out of the car, he felt that this place was truly the countryside of the countryside… It was no wonder it was a nationally designated poverty-stricken county. The entire county had only three roads. Although they all had electricity, about forty percent of the people still used well water. The surroundings were surrounded by farmland, and the mountains around were lush and green at this time of year.

“The air here is not bad.” Siyuan stretched after getting out of the car.

Of course… this “not bad” air was compared to inside the car. This place really did not necessarily have good air. The smell of cow dung mixed with the stench of sheep was truly hard to compliment.

“The place is poor, there’s no other way.” The deputy county head got out of the car and, seeing Siyuan’s expression, sighed deeply. “We have prepared a welcome dinner at the guesthouse.”

Hearing this, Siyuan really felt a bit hungry. Looking at the sky, it was already dark. When he checked his watch, he found it was already 10 p.m.

“So late?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Let’s just have a simple meal to fill our stomachs today. We’ll have a proper meal tomorrow.” The deputy county head rubbed his hands and looked at Siyuan. “We hope the experts can help us solve this case. Here, no one dares to go out at night.”

Siyuan looked around and found that the town was really dead silent. Although it was 10 p.m., it shouldn’t be this quiet. Every household had its doors and windows tightly shut. Some windows were even boarded up, with faint lights coming from inside. There was no sign of activity in any of the homes.

“How many people died in total?”

“Let’s talk while we eat. The head of our county’s public security bureau has been waiting for you all evening.”