Tian Ze continued to furiously beat the man until he felt most of his anger had subsided before he finally stopped.
Even though he had hit the man quite hard, he was sure he wouldn’t actually kill him. At most, he would leave him half-dead.
Yan Jingnan knew this and, unable to stand such a sight, deliberately waited five minutes before stepping in to stop Tian Ze.
After all, their department was responsible for handling abnormal events, not murder. Furthermore, in a society governed by the rule of law, even demons had to adhere to human laws.
Once the cause was identified, the case would be handed over to the judicial bureau for trial, and the appropriate sentence would be given, up to and including the death penalty for severe cases.
Anyway, it wasn’t their concern anymore.
“Captain, I’m going to look for the victim’s phone and notebook,” Yan Jingnan said as he groped along the wall to find the bedroom light switch.
Although the living room light had blown out, the bedroom light was still functional.
When the light came on.
Tian Ze found a rope to tie up the half-dead man, then slapped him twice: “Wake up, tell me your name.”
The man, who had been completely motionless, was jolted awake and immediately started struggling desperately, “Who are you?! Why did you tie me up? I’m going to report you for breaking and entering.”
“You don’t know who we are? Yet you control a ghost baby to attack us?” Tian Ze sneered and slapped him twice more. “Trying to fool an idiot?”
The half-dead man almost passed out again. But this time, he just glared at Tian Ze with a venomous look and said nothing.
Tian Ze stroked his chin, feeling that the man’s attitude was a bit off. He turned to ask Yan Jingnan, who was still searching the room, “Haven’t you found it yet?”
Without turning his head, Yan Jingnan replied, “Captain, don’t be anxious, I’m looking as hard as I can.”
Tian Ze found waiting very boring, so he slapped the man a few more times. “Since you’re not answering, let me ask you another question. Where is the ghost baby’s mother? Does she know you turned the child into a ghost?”
Xu Dongyou had been in the living room. But upon hearing Tian Ze’s words, he walked to the bedroom door and pursed his lips as he watched the man.
The man was slapped into fury and angrily retorted, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You barged in here without the homeowner’s permission—”
Before he could finish speaking, Tian Ze slapped him several more times. “Not talking, huh? Let’s see if your mouth is tougher than my fists.”
This time, Tian Ze showed no mercy. Even Xu Dongyou, watching on, feared that Tian Ze might actually kill the man, growing anxious.
If the man were killed, they wouldn’t be able to get the truth, and Tian Ze could end up in serious trouble.
The man screamed in agony as if the scythe of death was about to claim him. He finally began to panic, desperately shouting, “I’ll talk, I’ll talk! Please, stop hitting me! Ahhh!”
Tian Ze hit him a few more times before stopping, scolding, “You think I’ll stop just because you asked? How would that make me look?”
The man, barely able to breathe, lay there completely motionless.
Tian Ze sneered, “Playing innocent? You didn’t even bother to find out who I am. If we could find you, it means you can’t escape your crime of murder. And turning your own son into a ghost? That alone is enough to warrant your death.”
Seeing Tian Ze’s serious expression, the man trembled, “Who are you people?”
“You really don’t know?” Tian Ze lit a cigarette, staring sharply at the man. “If that’s the case, why did you have the ghost baby attack us?”
The man, enduring immense pain, said, “I really don’t know who you are, but my ghost baby has the ability to control electronic devices. It sensed someone investigating the relationship between me and Chen Yiming.”
Tian Ze, feeling he had figured things out, asked confidently, “When we sneaked in, you suspected we knew what you did, so you tried to kill us out of guilt. Am I right, Ren Haiming?”
The man, still trembling, neither confirmed nor denied it.
Yan Jingnan, who found the victim’s phone and laptop as well as Ren Haiming’s phone, spoke up, “And you killed simply because you wanted to steal a few of Chen Yiming’s original songs. I restored Chen Yiming’s phone and saw lyrics identical to those on your phone. More importantly, his recordings are dated six months before yours.”
The man finally showed despair, crying out the same excuse every murderer uses, “I didn’t mean to kill him. I didn’t want this to happen.”
But murder is murder, and no reason can justify taking away someone’s right to live.
Especially since the reason for the murder was merely to claim a few original songs written by Chen Yiming, the deceased.
Xu Dongyou stood there, still holding the cold, almost weightless corpse of the baby.
Xu Dongyou felt anger brewing inside him.
This newborn baby had been turned into a ghost by his own father.
It’s simply… inhuman.
Moreover, using an innocent baby to kill another equally innocent person is utterly heartless.
“Killing someone and then pretending to be innocent?” Tian Ze felt his fists clenching again but restrained himself from hitting the man further, fearing he might actually kill him.
Dying now would be too easy for someone like him.
The man named Ren Haiming stopped crying and shouted with resentment, “You don’t understand what I’ve been through!”
“I’ve been struggling since I was sixteen. My dream is to become a singer, to have everyone know my name. Most importantly, in terms of voice, understanding, and love for music, I’m better than Chen Yiming. What does he have over me besides being younger and better looking?”
“He’s younger, better looking, and better at writing lyrics. Otherwise, why would you kill him to steal his lyrics?” Yan Jingnan asked sincerely.
Ren Haiming’s roar came to an abrupt halt.
He was left speechless.
“Get up. You’re coming with me to the department,” Tian Ze sneered, yanking Ren Haiming up and roughly dragging him outside.
Yan Jingnan quickly packed the evidence and headed downstairs with Xu Dongyou.
Ren Haiming screamed in pain, unable to even struggle. The neighbors, hearing the commotion, peeked out through cracked doors but didn’t come out.
Tian Ze ignored them. Once downstairs, he threw Ren Haiming into the car and said to Zhang Wu, “Let’s go, back to the office.”
“You, who exactly are you? You don’t seem like police,” Ren Haiming still had a shred of sanity left and sensed that these people didn’t quite seem like police. But they could handle a ghost baby he had painstakingly nurtured, so they couldn’t be ordinary people.
No one paid any attention to Ren Haiming.
Annoyed by his yelling, Tian Ze pulled off his sock and stuffed it into Ren Haiming’s mouth. “Your howling is getting on my nerves.”
Ren Haiming, overwhelmed by the stench of the sock, fainted again.
Xu Dongyou instinctively held his breath but then worried it might hurt Tian Ze’s confidence, so he cautiously breathed, his face turning a bit red.
He felt incredibly embarrassed.
Zhang Wu reacted even more strongly, shouting, “Captain, your biological weapon will kill everyone in the car!”
“Shut up!” Tian Ze showed no sign of embarrassment, even with a girl in the car.
Instead, he chuckled, “This criminal is truly evil, so it’s fitting to torture him with my stinky socks.”
Kuang Zhannu in the front passenger seat was also very calm. She even turned back to look at Tian Ze, “Captain, what did you encounter inside?”
Thinking about it made Tian Ze angry again, and he kicked Ren Haiming a few more times before briefly explaining the situation.
Everyone was outraged upon hearing it, cursing that Ren Haiming was worse than a beast.
Xu Dongyou, still holding the ghost baby, asked softly, “Captain, why are you so sure that the ghost baby and Ren Haiming are father and son?”
He still found it hard to believe that such inhuman people existed in the world.
Tian Ze couldn’t help but sigh, “You saw it too. This ghost baby indeed has the ability to control electronic devices, and most importantly, this is not an ability an ordinary ghost baby would have.”
In simple terms, to refine a ghost baby with such special abilities, it had to be done using a newborn with a very close blood relationship. The baby had to be freshly born, and crucially, the birth had to be within the month of the Ghost Festival.
The numerous stringent conditions are why ghost babies with special abilities are so rare.
“Besides, who would be willing to turn their own child into a ghost baby?” Zhao Liu said calmly, though he was equally furious inside.
Everyone fell silent.
Seeing the heavy atmosphere, Tian Ze spoke up, “I have temporarily sealed the ghost baby. Once we get back to the department, I’ll see if I can ask Elder Bai to help with a proper exorcism, allowing it to enter a new cycle of reincarnation.”
Elder Bai?
The air in the car seemed to grow even thicker. Xu Dongyou couldn’t discern the meaning behind their expressions and cautiously asked, “Who is Elder Bai?”
Zhang Liu replied, “After the ancient Zhulong self-restrained, many ghosts still caused chaos in the human world. Elder Bai stepped in to help manage the aftermath. Plus, Elder Bai has lived the longest and knows the most, so both humans and demons respect him greatly.”
Xu Dongyou nodded, filled with respect for this elder.
“We also have a team in our department that specializes in exorcising ghosts with deep obsessions, but they can’t guarantee these ghosts will truly enter reincarnation. Elder Bai, however, can,” Tian Ze added.
Xu Dongyou grew even more curious, “Why?”
Tian Ze shook his head, “Nobody knows. To this day, no one knows Elder Bai’s true form.”
Xu Dongyou became more intrigued and decided to ask Elder Chen about it when he went to the top floor next weekend.
He just hoped Elder Chen would tell him.
When they returned to the department, Tian Ze dragged the still-unconscious Ren Haiming to the judicial bureau, with Zhang Liu, who was good at paperwork, following along.
Xu Dongyou had initially wanted to go too, but considering his current presence might attract too much attention, he decided to stay behind.
After about half an hour, Tian Ze and Zhang Liu returned and reported the outcome.
When Ren Haiming woke up, he had initially planned to make a big scene. However, the judicial bureau used a truth-telling talisman developed in-house for the interrogation.
Ren Haiming confessed everything under the truth-telling talisman.
Ren Haiming had indeed started working in his teens, using his good voice to sing in bars. Over the years, he relied on his status as the lead singer to live a hedonistic lifestyle, even involving himself with women.
However, being overly praised went to his head. He began drinking and smoking, which damaged his voice, making it difficult for him to sing different types of music.
At the age of twenty-eight, he finally signed with an entertainment company. But because his looks and voice weren’t as good as younger newcomers, he was sidelined.
During this period, he met the victim and became good friends. Trusting Ren Haiming, the victim showed him his original songs.
Ren Haiming was deeply moved by what he saw.
Later, the company decided to promote the victim, preparing him for a debut. Ren Haiming became resentful and angry. Without the victim, he thought, he might have been the one to debut.
He developed a murderous intent, using the ghost baby to steal the victim’s phone and computer, and manipulated the ghost baby to kill the victim, claiming the songs as his own.
As for the ghost baby, it resulted from an affair he had years earlier. The woman insisted on having the baby, but Ren Haiming, worried that the child would tarnish his reputation if he became famous, tricked her into believing he would send the child to the countryside.
The woman believed him.
Ren Haiming took the baby, intending to leave it with someone in the countryside. Instead, he recalled an old blind man’s method for creating a ghost baby he had heard as a child.
He tried it, and it worked.
Therefore, Ren Haiming’s crimes were: one, intentionally killing and refining a baby into a ghost baby; two, using the ghost baby to kill the victim and steal his original works. These two murders, coupled with the use of inhuman methods to harm the baby, compounded his crimes. He was directly sentenced to death, with the death warrant issued and sent to the nearest court for execution.
As for the ghost baby, although it had killed, it had no self-awareness and was an innocent victim.
Thus, the ghost baby was declared innocent and allowed to be exorcised.
“This is the best outcome, though I wish I had beaten him up a few more times beforehand,” Tian Ze said with some regret.
Yan Jingnan broke out in a cold sweat.
If Tian Ze had beaten Ren Haiming a few more times, it would have been Tian Ze going to the judicial bureau instead of Ren Haiming.
Xu Dongyou carefully held the ghost baby and asked the captain, “Should we take it to Elder Bai for exorcism now?”
Tian Ze looked as if that was impossible for him. “I need to see the chief first. Li Dong, you come with me.”
Considering his identity as a member of the demon clan, Xu Dongyou nodded in agreement.
The two of them went straight to the chief’s office. Tian Ze, voice choked with emotion, clung to the chief’s leg, crying out, “Chief, please, you can’t just let this little ghost never find peace. It hasn’t even had the chance to enjoy this world.”
The chief, dressed in a well-fitted blue robe, looked scholarly and elegant, but Tian Ze’s wailing gave him a headache. His smile gradually faded, and he decisively kicked Tian Ze away, “Keep crying and I’ll throw you out myself.”
Xu Dongyou’s eyes widened.
The chief, who looked so refined, could actually swear?
