Ch13 - Did you see it?That woman just burned to death!

Translator-Rhapsodite

Editor-PerpetualMreow, Proofreader-Ghostie 

Bei Quan started chasing after the white fox without a word. Wei Fuyuan had no idea what was going on but still promptly followed.

The white fox ran through most of Jinyuan Road before coming to a halt at the crossroads, and then abruptly turned right—- heading towards the opposite street and into an older part of the city.

Most of Fengxing city’s older urban areas had square-shaped structures, and alleyways that were parallel and vertical to each other. If viewed from an aerial perspective,  the alleys resembled the character 田— appearing to be outlines with white chalk under the dim lighting.

The little fox’s goal was obvious. 

It sprinted across the street, over to the street adjacent to Jinyuan Road, then climbed up the overpass like a gust of wind– only slowing down when it arrived at  the middle of the overpass, where it began pacing anxiously.

Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan arrived shortly after.

Strictly speaking, this overpass should be a passageway connecting two buildings; the entrance and the exit were at the ends of the corridor that opened midway, after about 15 meters–splitting to create a large circular opening from which you could look down  at the city below.

The white fox –Su Ying– stopped right in the middle, in front of the opening and began behaving like a dog; chasing after its tail and running in circles.

Wei Fuyuan pointed at the fox and asked, “What is it doing that for?”

Bei Quan replied, “It is telling us that the trail left behind by the Huigui’s yin aura cuts off here.”

He looked around as he spoke, trying to detect any remnants of the evil spirit’s presence.

“Look!” Bei Quan pointed towards the left side of the railing, “You can see apartment No. 44 on Jinyuan Road from here.” 

Wei Fuyuan turned to look in the direction he was pointing at to see for himself…

Most buildings in this region weren’t very tall and were so crowded that even the imposingly large buildings in the distance were difficult to view.

But, when standing at this angle on the overpass, one could see the corner of apartment No.44 on Jinyuan Road through the space between two buildings on the opposite street.

Wei Fuyuan narrowed his eyes and made a cautious inquiry in a voice laced with uncertainty, he asked, “Is that… the northern side of the corridor on the fourth-floor?” 

He swallowed heavily, “Isn’t that the place where Ye Jia burned to death?”

“Yes.” Bei Quan nodded, “I think it is.”

Wei Fuyuan then asked, “But Ye Jia… and the Huigui, what were they doing here?”

Recalling his two encounters with the executioner, the bold Young Master Wei felt a chill run up his spine. 

“… It couldn’t want Ye Jia to see where she died, could it?”

Bei Quan rested his chin on one hand, “You’ve guessed it right. In order to increase the host’s resentment, some ghosts will bring the deceased back to their place of death–forcing them to relive their fear, pain, and unwillingness to die.”

——I see.

As he spoke, Bei Quan pondered.

He’d had a lot of experience dealing with Huiguis and even felt he was relatively familiar with one’s routine.

He knew they were spirits skilled at exploiting the flaws in human nature, and that they were capable of intensifying their prey’s negative emotions through a variety of  spiritual stimuli, in order to nourish themselves by devouring spiritual energy until the object they possessed was sucked dry.

——But why come to this overpass? 

Bei Quan really couldn’t figure this out.

As he’d explained to Wei Fuyuan earlier, although Su Ying was able to detect the energy of the resentful ghost, the energy would disperse after a short amount of time; in such an open environment, it would  disperse after half a day.

Therefore, they could deduce that the Huigui had passed through here not long ago since they were able to trail it up to this point. It likely had also been controlling Ye Jia’s ghost since the scene of the fire.

——But what made this overpass special to Ye Jia? 

One could indeed see apartment No. 44 on Jinyuan Road from here, and it was also the north side of the corridor on the fourth floor where Ye Jia had burned to death. But, Bei Quan thought that it wouldn’t be difficult to find similar places if one put in a little effort.

——No, wait a minute!

A thought suddenly flashed in Bei Quan’s mind, but it passed too quickly, too fast to capture.

“…Xiao Wei.” 

Bei Quan suddenly called out Wei Fuyuan’s name.

Young Master Wei turned his head, “What’s the matter?”

“Xiao Wei, I have a question for you.”

Bei Quan raised his hand and pointed at the dark building overshadowed  by the blaring lights of thousands of houses. 

“How do you feel when you look at it from here?”

Wei Fuyuan frowned and stared at the blackened exterior wall of apartment No. 44 on Jinyuan Road with a serious expression. After thinking for half a minute, he answered seriously.

“I feel terrible. After all, there had been such a disastrous fire, and people died in it.” He replied, “But it is precisely because I know there was an accident there that I can’t stop myself from looking at it…”

Wei Fuyuan thought about the wording,”Although it is very impolite to the dead, most people will unwittingly stop to look when they pass by the house, out of curiosity. ” 

Bei Quan nodded, then asked, “What would you have done at the time of the fire?”

“Oh, I’d probably stop and watch.” Young Master Wei looked around, trying to take the role of bystander more seriously.

“If you see smoke in the distance, you will find yourself looking for a place with a suitable view to see what’s going on…”

“That’s right.” Bei Quan continued Wei Fuyuan’s words, “Then it’s likely you’d run to this overpass and stand, right where we are now, to get a better look.” 

Wei Fuyuan’s eyes widened as he realized what his boss was implying.

“You mean, someone might’ve been here because–”

He originally wanted to say that someone might have witnessed Ye Jia burning to death, but in the middle of the conversation, Master Wei suddenly stopped talking, “But, that can’t be right. Shouldn’t it be expected for people to just watch when they see a building on fire? If we consider this a lead, wouldn’t it mean everyone who can be considered a witness will be hated by Ye Jia? Doesn’t this make our list of suspects too broad–it’ll be too difficult to find out Mr. A’s identity if this is the case. Even if the accident happened late at night, there had to be dozens, if not hundreds, of onlookers?”

“Indeed.” 

Bei Quan also agreed with his assistant’s idea.

“But even so, if Mr. A really stood here, then he must have done more than just being a simple bystander.”

——More than a bystander!

This sentence hit him like a lightning bolt as Master Wei’s spiritual soul suddenly received a flash of insight, and all became clear. 

“Fuck!”

When the realization hit, Young Master Wei lost his cool and cursed in front of Bei Quan.

He quickly pulled his phone out from his pocket, aggressively tapping on the screen while typing something frantically.

As he was typing, Wei Fuyuan said hastily, “You don’t use a smartphone, so you don’t know how problematic video uploading platforms are. To attract more attention, people often dare to upload anything that is out of the ordinary!” 

With that, he searched for all the relevant videos he could find in his history and arranged them in chronological order.

“Look at this!”

Wei Fuyuan finally found what he was looking for, and briskly shoved his mobile phone in Bei Quan’s hands.

A video was playing on the screen. 

Wei Fuyuan didn’t know how many people had re-uploaded this video. The corner watermark overlapped with the original watermark, and even the image quality was  poor.

However, with just a glance, Bei Quan was able to determine that the video had been taken from where they were currently standing; the angle and height were also consistent with their point of view at this moment.

To put it simply, the images on the screen displayed the exact location of the fire at No. 44 on Jinyuan Road.

The video seemed to have been taken with a mobile phone. The person filming the video was excited, so the camera was unstable and constantly shaking. The point of focus was the north corner of the fourth floor of No. 44 on Jinyuan Road, which could be seen between the two buildings. One could see the thick plumes of smoke quickly covering a great expanse of the night sky. The reddish-brown flames burning fiercer and fiercer under the blessing of the sweeping winds– spreading downwind and tinting the dawning sky in ominous hues of red. 

At the same time, there was a young man’s voice shouting exaltedly, as if he was excited to see the fire.

The sound quality was terrible, but Bei Quan could tell, it was Mr.A’s voice!

[Oh, there is someone there!]

Mr.A shouted from behind the lens, and the phone shook a few times before zooming in and focusing on the scene. 

The camera  captured the sight of a person trembling in the blazing building.

A woman with long hair was trapped at the end of a hallway on the top level by fire and smoke. She was desperately shaking the anti-theft net that was blocking her only escape route; she could be seen slamming her hands on the net and yelling–  clearly, in extreme distress. It was obvious that she was desperately calling for help from anyone outside.

[Fuck, fuck! It’s a woman!]

[I’m going to get closer! Everyone, look! The flames are going to burn her!] 

Mr. A was commentating with a voice of excitement.

[Fuck! She is burning! She is getting burned!]

In the video, within the short span of a minute, the smoke and flames had filled the fourth-floor corridor like ‘Hula’– engulfing the girl, and burning her alive.

Her burning figure flashed in the lens for a moment, before disappearing within the sea of black and red. 

But, Mr. A was still shouting with excitement– enraptured by the sight before him.

[It’s so exciting! It’s all burning!]

[Did you see it? That woman just burned to death! ]

The video came to an abrupt end. 

“That’s it.”

Bei Quan returned the phone to Wei Fuyuan.

“Well, I guess so.”

Master Wei explained to the old antique of a man Bei Quan–who had never used a smartphone–how he’d been able to identify Mr. A. 

Some time ago, while checking social media, he’d seen a girl in his class looking at something related to the fire video on Weibo.

The blogger, Mr. A, had passed by the scene of the fire and even filmed a live video of someone being burned alive.

His inappropriate reaction: taking the disaster as an anecdote, as well as his lack of sympathy and respect for the dead, angered many bystanders.His video was forwarded and heavily berated, while he was aggressively criticized  by the public.

By the time Wei Fuyuan checked his Weibo, the culprit had already completely gotten rid of the video. 

Young Master Wei took a look at the comments and after getting a general idea of the cause and effect, moved on from the matter as he had with countless other hot current events that did not concern him.

He hadn’t actually seen the video at that time and didn’t even know that the Weibo post that had been scolded by thousands of people, was the scene of the fire at No. 44 on Jinyuan Road. But, he definitely knew now, that the person who had taken the video, was Mr. A; the one they were searching for.

Even so, Young Master Wei could not have recalled this long-forgotten information from the hidden corner in his memory, if Bei Quan hadn’t explained all his findings and connections on the case with him.