Chapter 26 - 26 23 Scapegoat

Words : 1535 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

26: Chapter 23 Scapegoat 26: Chapter 23 Scapegoat “Director Liu, the Zhou Family’s Troupe never invites ghost-suppressing items when they perform during the day!” Liu Tianen’s inquiry was interrupted, and he glanced at the man who spoke with a hint of impatience. He recognized this man, named Yu Jia, the fourth senior brother of the Zhou Family’s Troupe. Upon hearing about the incident with the Zhou Family’s Troupe, Yu Jia rushed back to the Corridor River, his suit stained with dust and dirt, without time to clean it. After a long and hurried journey, he finally arrived at the theater stage and quickly interrupted to prevent Xu Li from making a major mistake. “Yu Laosi, you’re quick.” Liu Tianen gave Yu Jia a sidelong glance, acknowledging him. Yu Jia’s face was plastered with a smile. The smile might have carried a touch of flattery, but mostly it was a friendly smile that minimized his natural aggressiveness, making him seem harmless. “Director Liu, have a cigarette.” Yu Jia offered a cigarette with his right hand while his left hand supported it, his slight hunch adding to his humble demeanor. “Hmm.” Liu Tianen didn’t want to embarrass Yu Jia, so he accepted the cigarette, and after having it lit by the latter, he said, “Yu Laosi, we’ve known each other for a while, often crossing paths. Mr. Dai is dead, and the higher-ups don’t know yet, but they’ll find out soon. They’ll surely be furious and push me to solve the case. I’m under a lot of pressure, and you better not play tricks.” Sёarᴄh the nôᴠel Fire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. “Who dares to show a false face in front of a true person, I…” “Didn’t I tell you not to use those cheap tricks of the martial arts world here? You really think I don’t know the Zhou Family’s Troupe?” Director Liu blew smoke toward Yu Jia’s face, with a hint of admonishment, and said, “The Zhou Family’s Troupe is known for being cautious. Whether day or night, they always invite ghost-suppressing items before a performance. Stop hiding and hand it over…” “Hehe, nothing escapes Director Liu’s sharp eyes.” Yu Jia feigned disappointment and said to Xu Li, “Sister-in-law, go fetch the ghost-suppressing item.” As he spoke, he subtly signaled with his right hand at his waist, a silent code. He meant for Xu Li not to bring out the real ghost-suppressing item. Xu Li, a bit dull, nodded and went backstage, not taking the shattered Golden Crow Mask, but finding another mask to pass off. On her way to fetch the mask, Xu Li gradually realized the purpose behind Yu Jia’s intervention and felt a bit frightened. She lacked experience in dealing with such matters, but Yu Jia, who frequently interacted with major halls, police stations, and theater troupes, served as the lubricant between the troupe and those in real power. Yu Jia understood people like Liu Tianen too well—solving the crime was secondary; explanation was primary. Mr. Dai’s case was of great importance. Perhaps Liu Tianen had already prepared for the possibility that the case couldn’t be solved and there wouldn’t be a satisfactory explanation. No suitable explanation meant a bad explanation. To wrap things up, finding a scapegoat was the most reliable option. Perhaps, in his heart, he had already designated the Zhou Family’s Troupe as the scapegoat. Under such circumstances, if the Zhou Family’s Troupe wanted to protect themselves, they couldn’t be too cooperative. For example, the Golden Crow Mask was shattered by an evil ghost. The mask must have retained the ghost’s aura. Once handed over, Liu Tianen could easily tamper with it and then shift the blame onto the troupe. *”Luckily, Lao Shi returned in time. If he hadn’t been here, we clumsily could not have managed that old fox Liu Tianen.”* Xu Li took a Fire Dragon Mask from a sealed box backstage and handed it to Liu Tianen. “Is this it?” Liu Tianen took the mask without looking at it much and passed it to his assistant, Qiao Yu, standing beside him. In front of everyone, Qiao Yu bit his fingertip, drawing his wound near his nose, as his nostrils flared, sprouting two worm-like soft tissues embracing the finger. The soft tissues sucked on the blood like a baby sucking a pacifier… Seeing this, Xu Li and Yu Jia exchanged glances and smiled wryly. It seemed that Liu Tianen was indeed serious this time, bringing a ghost along for the investigation right from the start. “Which hall is he from?” Xu Li secretly pointed to Qiao Yu and whispered to Yu Jia. Yu Jia shook his head. The methods of ghosts were learned from alien ghosts. Most used blood, flesh, skin, and bone as mediums. To ordinary people, they seemed seventy percent brutal, twenty percent disgusting, and ten percent ominous. With this feature, it wasn’t too hard to distinguish if someone was a divine person or a ghost based on their methods, but identifying the specific hall of the ghost was tough. There were myriad ghost halls, with their legacies deeply hidden. Even seasoned wanderers couldn’t recognize all of them. After the soft tissues of the nostrils had their fill of blood, Qiao Yu brought the mask to his face and sniffed it hard. The reddish tissues twitched briefly, yielding nothing. He shook his head at Liu Tianen. “No spiritual essence, no incense scent, no dead ones’ odor. This mask isn’t used by the Netherworld Play Troupe to suppress ghosts…” Although each hall’s ghost-suppressing items differed, the process of inviting such items was largely similar. “Nurturing, Offering,” were steps every house followed. Nurturing meant raising the ghost-suppressing item in advance. Each hall had its unique way of nurturing. Some used blood, others would sew the item into an animal’s stomach… Nurturing aimed to endow the ghost-suppressing item with spiritual essence. Nurtured items would be offered, incensed. Offered items would have a layer of incense scent on their surface. The Zhou Family’s Troupe, being the Netherworld Play Troupe singing for the dead, would hang the ghost-suppressing item on stage. Performing with it, the item would inevitably take on some scent of the deceased. Spiritual essence, incense scent, and the odor of the dead, these three scents, were hard to fake. The mask Xu Li fetched for cover naturally lacked these. “Hmph!” Upon hearing Qiao Yu’s words, Liu Tianen raised his right hand high and smashed it down, breaking the mask into six pieces, poking it at Xu Li’s nose, “You’ve got some nerve, even after being warned not to play tricks, you still lie! Lie! Lie!” “Director Liu…” Suddenly, Qiao Yu caught a familiar scent, his body shivered, and the soft tissues of his nose twitched incessantly, secreting a viscous fluid as if they drooled like a cat smelling fish. He pulled Liu Tianen’s sleeve and pointed to the broken Golden Crow Mask on the table, saying, “That one… is very strong. It’s the genuine ghost-suppressing item. It carries the aura of newly deceased spiritual essence, incense scent, dead ones’ odor, and traces of an evil ghost.” “Is… it?” The two words’ interval was stretched by Liu Tianen’s emphasis, and his tone carried an uncontrollable excitement. Among the Zhou Family’s ghost-suppressing items, one with an evil ghost aura meant the case was now manageable—at least there was an alternative explanation. The Zhou Family’s Troupe colluded with the evil ghosts to kill patron Mr. Dai—business murder, or plotted murder for money? Hmm, it sounded quite convincing. He walked toward the Golden Crow Mask, each step making Xu Li and Yu Jia’s hearts sink lower, but they did nothing. They had to watch Liu Tianen’s fat hand reaching for the mask helplessly. Whoosh! Just as Liu Tianen was about to grab the mask, someone else snatched it away, a young man intercepting. “Who are you?” Liu Tianen sized up the young man who grabbed the mask and asked. “Investigating a case is about getting to the truth. A mask, no matter how many clues it carries, is just a tool to uncover the truth. All that matters is that I tell you the truth, what use is the mask?” “Wow, you sure talk big, so big the truth unrolls like a movie, scene after scene before you, waiting for you to brew a good tea and hold a singer to watch leisurely, huh?” “The way you describe it… does seem to hit the mark… In my case, the truth is indeed like a movie. Mr. Dai’s death had nothing to do with the Zhou Family’s Troupe. The person who killed him was himself.” “Suicide?” “No!” “He killed himself. If it wasn’t suicide, then what was it?” Liu Tianen didn’t quite understand what the young man was trying to convey. Zhou Xuan placed the fractured mask onto his face, peered at Liu Tianen through its eye holes, and declared, “A Blood Sacrifice ritual!” “Mr. Dai was both the host of the ritual and the sacrifice!”

Chapter 26 - 26 23 Scapegoat

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