"A curse? Sir, what do you mean by that?" My heart pounded with excitement, as another lead was about to surface before us.

"Our ancestors actually migrated from Xiangxi over a hundred years ago—to be precise, they were driven out of there. Back then, the ancestors were highly skilled in Miao border sorcery, causing considerable harm to many people. Eventually, public anger flared up, forcing them to flee to this place to start a new life," the old man recounted slowly, his voice still trembling slightly.

Miao border sorcery boasts a long and profound history, possessing supernatural power. They could use insects as Gu (curses/venomous agents), making their victims suffer a fate worse than death or turning them into walking corpses, tools in the sorcerer's hand. It was entirely understandable that the practitioners of such arts were hated.

Then I heard Old Man Mu say, "Later, this village was established. Everyone simply wanted a peaceful life, and that evil sorcery gradually vanished from our sight. However, some people still secretly practiced Gu cultivation. Among them was a type called the Fidelity Gu. This particular Gu was nurtured using Yuyuan (centipedes). In the past, some people planted this Gu in young women. When these women married, the Gu would transfer to their husbands. If the husbands engaged in any lewd acts with other women, the Yuyuan Gu would devour their brain matter entirely." The old village chief’s face darkened as he spoke of this, but he continued, "This sort of thing happened over ten years ago. If only we had kept them further away from her! Alas..."

"Her? Who? Did this happen over ten years ago too?" I knew the 'her' Old Man Mu mentioned must be highly connected to the current case.

"A woman from our village. It’s likely she had a Gu planted in her by elders when she was young. Her husband later got involved with a woman from an outside village and eventually died in her room. But this woman went completely mad afterward, spending all her time hovering around the village children." The old village chief seemed to suddenly realize something at this point, crying out in alarm, "It must be! It must be! She must have planted a Gu in Mianmian! She must have planted Gu in all the children in our village! This is her hatred, her curse!"

"Where is she now?" I pressed quickly.

"Dead... died in a big fire a few years ago..." the old chief mumbled.

The old village chief seemed dazed; we didn't press any further. His wife helped him back inside to rest.

"Can it really all be coincidence? They were all planted with Gu, weren't they?" Sister Lan whispered beside me. Though she asked, I knew her mind was as full of questions as mine.

"But that doesn't explain the fire at the hotel, nor all the human factors hidden within it," I stated flatly. This matter shouldn't be as simple as just being afflicted by Gu. "I think we need to rush back tonight."

Sister Lan and Zhang Jiewei both nodded in agreement. We immediately bade farewell to the old village chief and left Guyi Village, heading back to the city. The journey was relatively smooth, and we only reached the urban area around nine in the evening.

Just then, a text message arrived. I checked it and then said, "You two go ahead to the bureau and have Gao Jianning check the relationships between Mu Anmian and those other women. I’ll get off at the next intersection; I have something else to take care of."

"Where are you going again?" Sister Lan suddenly sounded displeased for some reason.

"What? You don't want me to leave?" I smiled, opening the car door once the vehicle stopped firmly.

"Hmph, don't think I don't know where you’re going." Sister Lan glanced outside the car, then turned her head away dismissively.

For some inexplicable reason, a small sense of satisfaction swelled in my chest. Being able to make a beauty jealous was every man's pride, but one must be careful not to spill the wine jar.

I had just received a message from Qi Wan saying she needed to see me about something; conveniently, I also had matters to discuss with her.

Guyi Village, old photographs, reanimation (Zha Shi), Fidelity Gu—this string of clues pointed the case toward the supernatural. Yet, I was clearly aware that without living people, no case could occur.

I remembered this road clearly. After ten minutes, I stood before the flower shop. At this hour, there were no customers; the entrance was deserted, illuminated only by the dim, yellow light flickering inside. Just as I was about to enter, Sister Lan called.

"What is it?" I asked immediately upon answering.

"Xiao Gao just found out. Besides Mu Anmian, Fan Yan, and Xie Liying in the photo, the girl hiding in the back is..."

"Her. It seems we are not far from the truth." I wasn't overly surprised by this result.

"Yes, and... because of what happened to her parents, she is also cultivating Gu..." Sister Lan’s voice sounded strange, perhaps due to the Gu cultivation, or perhaps because of the woman herself.

After the call ended, I slowly walked into the flower shop. It wasn't large, and I could tell at a glance that no one was at the front. However, the back door was slightly ajar, suggesting the owner was waiting in the rear. Crossing into the small courtyard behind the shop, petals scattered everywhere, appearing tranquil and exquisitely beautiful under the moonlight, yet tinged with a certain seductiveness.

"Did you message me because you needed something?" Facing the delicate figure standing beneath the tree, my tone naturally softened.

"Can't I call you if I don't need anything?" Qi Wan turned around, smiling beautifully, her exquisite voice making me feel slightly weak in the knees.

"You know I'm busy with the case right now," I replied with a smile, yet I felt increasingly that the woman before me was far from simple. She appeared pure at first glance, but was in reality overwhelmingly captivating—no wonder she could ensnare three such shrewd men.

"I called you about the case too." Qi Wan walked toward me step by step. With every approaching step, my heart seemed to skip a beat.

"Oh? How so?" I became increasingly intrigued by Qi Wan before me.

"Secrets..." Qi Wan pretended to be mysterious, extending her slender hand to take mine and lead me toward a room.

The corner of my mouth lifted, and my feet followed her inside involuntarily.

The room was small, but it was clearly a woman's room.

"I heard you went to Guyi Village?" Qi Wan asked softly while leading me in.

"Just returned, but... how did you know?" I pulled her forward with a slight tug, bringing Qi Wan close, staring into her eyes as I asked.

Qi Wan seemed uninterested in answering my question, continuing instead, "Do you realize you've touched my bottom line."

"So your bottom line only extends as far as Guyi Village?" I didn't release her hand, nor did she let go of mine. Was this ambiguous intimacy or a confrontation?

I brought the phone in my other hand up to her eyes, flipping to a message that read five characters: "Qi Wan is the murderer."

Qi Wan glanced at it; her expression stiffened, but she spoke coldly, "Is that what you gained from the trip to Guyi Village?"

"You must be that fourth girl," I stated calmly. Based on my analysis, if the deaths of Wang Dong, Tao Jiahao, and Ouyang Min were indeed caused by Gu poison, the person who sent them down the path to death could not be unrelated to this woman who was the shared lover of all three men—and this woman was a childhood companion of their wives.

"So what if I am?" Qi Wan didn't seem panicked.

"I had someone investigate. You are also from Guyi Village. The reason, I suspect, is your father's mysterious death and your mother's insanity. You shouldn't be unfamiliar with that so-called Fidelity Gu." I continued to state the facts at an unhurried pace.

A face appeared in the mirror in front of me. I turned around to find that silent assistant, Li Shaojing. He materialized before me without expression, his predatory look intensified, like a beast that had spotted its prey and was ready to attack at any moment.

"I didn't expect you two to be working together."

"There are many things you haven't expected, but I am curious why you suspected I was behind all this," Qi Wan asked calmly.

I smirked, found a chair, and sat down, simultaneously maneuvering myself out of the situation of being blocked by them both front and back.

"Actually, I was only slightly suspicious of you initially. I had people investigate you before and learned about your parents' situation. This trip to Guyi Village has resolved many doubts for me. The message I showed you earlier, 'Qi Wan is the murderer,' was one I edited myself. It was just bait to lure you out. If you looked closely, you would see that message was unsent." I spoke slowly, completely disregarding Qi Wan's face, which was turning sickly green.

"You tricked me." Qi Wan struggled to suppress the rage within her.

"Deception is merely a tool. Haven't you done the same? I suspect you didn't become the lover of Wang Dong and Tao Jiahao because they forced you. Perhaps you deliberately approached them, but I don't understand why you did it." I hadn't known much initially, but this probing test revealed much more information to me.

"They all deserve to die! They played with fire and got burned themselves; they were killed by their own betrayal! If Wang Dong and Tao Jiahao could resist temptation, if those two had been loyal to their wives, they wouldn't have died so easily by my hand!" Qi Wan’s emotions clearly became agitated. "And Ouyang Min, he kept claiming to love me—ridiculous! Wasn't that what he told Mu Anmian back then? People like that are born to be food for my Yuyuan! But I must commend you for daring to come here alone. Want to test their might?"

"I came here only to figure out exactly how they died. Since I can't escape anyway, I might as well understand it clearly, otherwise, even death would leave me a confused ghost," I said with a hint of self-mockery.

"I rarely refuse anyone. Since you wish to know, I will tell you," Qi Wan murmured, her tone like a lover's, yet chilling to the bone.

She retrieved a jar from a cabinet and gently stroked it, saying, "It wasn't the Fidelity Gu that ate the brains of those men; it was the mutated Yuyuan I have cultivated for years. The Fidelity Gu you learned about in Guyi Village is merely a legend, completely ineffective. What's truly useful are these: they enter through the ear, then slowly gnaw away everything inside the brain, finally disappearing as pus. They never would have guessed that I would drug them during our trysts and let my Yuyuan sneak into their brains. When the time comes, I activate them with the Yuyuan Bell, and they die without a sound."

As Qi Wan spoke, she still wore a sinister smile, as if this was an incredibly wonderful pleasure for her. At some point, she had also taken out a bronze bell.

"What about the reanimation?" I had almost forgotten the danger I was currently in, and paid no mind to the disgusting, centipede-like Yuyuan crawling out of the jar onto the floor.

"What Shaojing can accomplish is something you people can never imagine." Qi Wan glanced at Li Shaojing, who remained perfectly still, quiet as a hunting leopard.

I stared at Li Shaojing. His eyes were both vacant and bottomless, yet carried a trace of bloodlust.

Suddenly, another voice I had never heard before emerged, startling me greatly.

"The reanimation was just a small trick. Their constitutions had already changed due to the Gu poisoning. Xiao Wan’s father had a similar reanimation incident years ago due to residual Gu toxin. I only needed to place an electric ion emission device near the corpses at the appropriate time, and the bodies would naturally reanimate because of the remaining toxin, with their movements controlled by the Yuyuan Bell," Li Shaojing spoke slowly and calmly.

"So you're not mute," I said, looking at Li Shaojing in surprise. This man had truly hidden himself deeply; even someone as meticulous as You Qiaolin hadn't discovered it.

"There are many things you don't know. For her sake, I can be more than just a mute."

"And the murder and cremation, right?" I retorted.

"Heh, that was just the beginning..." Li Shaojing said, then turned to look at Qi Wan with deep affection. Qi Wan did not reciprocate the same deep feeling, but Li Shaojing didn't seem disappointed. Instead, he continued speaking, as if articulating everything was a profound release for him.

"I infiltrated You Qiaolin’s side for many years, finally gaining his trust. I thought I could make him work for me, but I never expected that even with Qi Wan making a move, we couldn't pull him into our faction. The constitutions of Wang Dong and the other two changed due to the Gu poison. If their bodies weren't destroyed quickly, that surname You would eventually discover something amiss. So, while You Qiaolin was away, I placed appropriate amounts of R15 and hydrochloric acid in various locations on their bodies. When they moved to a certain extent, the R15 and hydrochloric acid would naturally mix, causing internal combustion at best, or an explosion at worst."

"What about the fire in the building? Why start that fire? And why then have that Sun Xiaomeng, whom I don't know if she’s human or ghost, knock me out?" Many questions still remained in my mind.

"What if I told you we didn't do those things?" Qi Wan smiled charmingly, but her expression was slightly unnatural.

"Do you think I'd believe that? In this situation, it's best if all of you confess now." As I spoke, I quickly drew my handgun and aimed it at Qi Wan. I knew that, given Li Shaojing's attitude toward Qi Wan, pointing the gun at her would be far more effective than pointing it at Li Shaojing, even if he were a leopard.

But the leopard's reaction was unexpectedly fast. Simultaneously as I raised my gun, his gun was also aimed at me.

"Let's see whose gun is faster," I said to Li Shaojing with a slight provocation.

"You aren't faster than me." Li Shaojing’s voice was confident, and then I heard a gunshot.

My body staggered, and I suddenly realized I hadn't been shot. Was I numb?

At that moment, Li Shaojing collapsed. Lan Jinxuan deftly disarmed him, taking the gun from his hand.

I quickly stabilized myself, determined not to let this girl see my lapse, or she'd mock me for the rest of my life. Then I affected a casual air: "Your 'oriole behind the mantis' move was quite effective."

"Never underestimate a woman." Sister Lan shot me a triumphant look, her gun still pointed at Li Shaojing, who had taken a shot to the leg.

"Why are you alone?" I clearly remembered Zhang Jiewei was supposed to be with Sister Lan.

"I alone am enough." Sister Lan smiled. "Zhang Jiewei is bringing the team over now. Luckily, I tracked you; otherwise, you’d have met your end here today."

As soon as Lan Jinxuan finished speaking, Zhang Jiewei burst in with a squad of officers, leading Qi Wan and Li Shaojing away.

Stepping out of the courtyard, everything that had just happened seemed unreal. The fragrance of flowers was still intoxicating. I couldn't help but walk closer to the Jacaranda tree, bending down to scoop up a handful of soil from under it. Small objects, about the size of a fingertip, emerged from the slightly damp earth.

"What are these?" Sister Lan couldn't help but ask.

"Yuyuan eggs," I stated faintly, looking up at the canopy-like Jacaranda tree. Perhaps the mutation of the Yuyuan owed something to this tree. It explained why the pus contained chitin—it must have come from those centipedes.

"Bad news! Bad news!" Noises erupted from outside. Sister Lan and I were greatly alarmed and rushed out.

In the dark night, two fireballs burned fiercely, illuminating the sky, yet destroying two lives, even though their hands were stained with blood.

Li Shaojing and Qi Wan were completely engulfed in flames. The officers nearby tried to extinguish the fire, but the worsening blaze rendered their rescue efforts futile. The bodies of Li Shaojing and Qi Wan were twisted together, seemingly struggling yet entwined.

"What happened?" I asked Zhang Jiewei, who was standing nearby.

Zhang Jiewei shook his head, answering with only four words: "Spontaneous internal combustion."

At this point, the case finally had an explanation. Once those Yuyuan were tested, the guilt of Qi Wan and Li Shaojing should be confirmed. But for some reason, my heart was still filled with unresolved doubts.

Back home, my mind couldn't settle. Sitting at my computer, the image of Li Shaojing and Qi Wan dying was still overwhelming. Fire, fire again—the sense of unease within me surged once more.

I hadn't turned off my computer before leaving last time; it was still in sleep mode. Absentmindedly, I woke it up. The screen still displayed that bizarre email. Just as I was about to delete the email, a new mail notification caught my eye.

I clicked it open casually, and the peace I had just found with the case closure evaporated, leaving my heart hanging again.

It was also an anonymous email, also bearing a grotesque 'memento photo,' except this 'memento photo' now featured Li Shaojing and Qi Wan. Their eerie smiles sent a chill down my spine. Scrolling further down, I saw a photo of myself—no, a group photo of me and my colleagues at the Special Investigation Office.

However, the original color photo had now turned black and white, looking exactly like a portrait for the deceased.

Following the photo was a strange diagram: black dots forming a character that resembled the Chinese character '' (mi), with eight of the dots connected by red, broken lines.

The only thing I could confirm now was that the sender of these two emails could not be Li Shaojing or Qi Wan; they no longer had the chance to send me such an email.

So who was it, and what was their purpose in sending me these things?

I rubbed my head, unable to figure out who this person could be. But clearly, they understood this case as well as I did, perhaps even... a step ahead of me.

That strange diagram appearing at the end—what did it signify?

I mechanically moved the mouse, then suddenly stopped.

Wait!

I found it hard to breathe. This email had a signature at the end, and the name was—Lan Jinxuan.

Lan Jinxuan?