Psych Hunter (Haunted House Notebook) : Book 1

Chapter 44 - The Truth Behind the Incident

When I woke up it is already late afternoon, and after we ate some light meal, Qin Yi Heng brought me to a canteen, and brought a lot of chicken and pig dishes, but instead of eating it, he merely told the shop owner to place the food in the counter.

I was quite puzzled and asked him, "Isn't it a waste of money?"

He merely said, "Yesterday, I managed to fool those little ghosts, but maybe one of them had a grudge on me and wanted to retaliate. So, I gave them a tribute just to be safe. It doesn't cost much money anyway."

What he said was quite reasonable, but I felt a little reluctant when I saw the food as I was quite hungry myself. When I saw that the food was not served for us, I felt quite unhappy.

In order to calm this reluctance, we went to one of the largest restaurant in the local area. During the dinner, I asked Qin Yi Heng, "Was the previous owner killed?"

He said, "No."

He then placed the chopsticks from last night and placed it on the table. It has been broken into two. He explained that he had tested it in the morning. Although the murder was cruel, it is usually impossible for it to be caused by normal means. He said, "I do have a general estimation, but we will have to verify it."

Knowing his usual style of hiding things, I don't even bother to ask him further. As he had spoken so confidently, things should clear up after a while. It turned out that my guess is correct. After, we finished eating, Qin Yi Heng called the boss' wife. I was surprised about his question though, as he enquired about the previous owner's body weight.

I was really confused when I listened to him. After Qin Yi Heng got his answer, he pondered for a while and told me to ask around to find all stores that sold burial shrouds. He asked me to ask the owner whether a fat man had ordered a custom-made burial shroud. This made me even more confused, can spiritual arts actually help one know a person's stature and weight? Isn't this skill too godly?

Qin Yi Heng laughed when I told him this and said, "This has nothing to do with spiritual arts, I merely saw the couple's photo hanged on the wall, and I just wanted to confirm with his wife whether it was actually him in his photo."

Not wishing to delay any further, we immediately went to do our agreed tasks. There are not many stores that sold burial shrouds, and all the stores are located near one another which made our search easier. We had initially intended to conduct our search separately, but we ended up enquiring the same stores. After asking the same store owners, there really had been a fat man who had specially ordered a burial shroud. According to one of the store owner, a fat man had came to order a burial shroud, and he looked really panicked and had came in the middle of the night to order it. Normally, people would order a burial shroud after someone has died, and even if it was ordered while the person is still alive, it would usually be ordered by a very old man. There has never been a young man who had come to order a burial shroud for himself, and as the person had memorable characteristics, the store owner had a really strong impression of him.

In the end, it is just as Qin Yi Heng had predicted. He then told me to call the owner's wife to come talk with us at a nearby café. As the wife is also anxious about this matter, she had hurriedly come to meet us.

Qin Yi Heng also didn't make much small talk, and after meeting the wife he immediately said, "Even though it's only my estimation, but I more or less know the gist of the situation."

"In the first place, an owner had died in that restaurant. I am not sure how that previous owner had died in that restaurant. I am unclear about the circumstances of his death. There is a common belief that someone who had died due to hanging and drowning would not be able to pass on easily, and they would try to find a replacement. This belief actually had a basis as the feet of people who died hanging did not touch the ground, so even if the energy is gone, the yang energy would not have a way to enter the underworld. The same can be said about those who died drowning, as the sea contained a very strong yin energy, when a soul entered such a place, it will not easily separate from the body, and that is why it must find a replacement to die in the same place at its stead. "