"So? What's your purpose for calling me here?" Chu Nuan asked, reverted back to her careless attitude. Yawning lazily, she stretched her back with a comfortable sigh before leaning back on the chair.
The three disciples gave each other a knowing glance, before one of them stood up. Clearing his throat with a cough, Hong Wen presented a yellow folder to Chu Nuan, " please take a look. Inside are details to a recent case."
Receiving the file with a curious face, Chu Nuan scanned the report silently. "A haunted building?"
Lei Lin nodded his head, "recently, a woman named Xu Qian Qian jumped off the top of an office building located in the busiest part of the business district."
Chu Nuan turned the page to Xu Qian Qian's profile information:
Name: Xu Qian Qian
Gender: Female
Age: 23
Time of Death: Estimated to be 6-7am from the dew formed on her body
Cause of Death: Death by trauma to the head, when she jumped off the building, her head was the first part of her body that made contact with the ground. Death was instant and painless.
Information: Died four weeks ago when she jumped off an office building located at XXX's busiest business district. No signs of struggle or clues that suggest murder. Workers inside the building have been questioned. But there were very few people inside the building at that time, no one had seen her.
She has a fiance named Xiao Ming that works in the same building as a possible suspect. But on the day of the crime, he was attending a meeting at B city till 1pm. When questioned, he informed us that Xu Qian Qian seems to be having a problem with finding a job. Living off of the money her parents send to her every month, she has been very stressed and depressed over money problems. Crying to him a few times about how helpless she is.
Xu Qian Qian has no other relatives in the city, nor any close friends. With no other leads or evidence, death is determined to be suicide due to depression.
Looking at the profile picture of Xu Qian Qian, Chu Nuan could tell that this is an honest girl. Clear round eyes, refreshing bobbed-cut hair, and a sunny smile. Doesn't look like a person who would commit suicide.
"So?" Chu Nuan looked at Hong Wen meaningfully, "this shouldn't be the reason you have me looking at this."
Nodding his head in acknowledgement, he handed her another folder. "There have been strange happenings within the office building these past few days, starting from a week ago. Corpses of rats have been found lying around the building entrance with their necks cut open. The blood of the rats are then used to write on the walls."
Opening the file, Chu Nuan could see a few pictures inside, one is the picture of an entrance littered with dead rats. Their necks have indeed been sliced open to let the blood flow out, bones can be seen sticking out from the wounds on the neck.
Another photo showed the walls inside the office building. Chilling words written in blood spread out around the empty rooms. Words like, "Xiao Ming, Su Ya, and I hate you," are written most frequently.
But even more disturbing are the last two photos, they are images of two bloody dolls. One has the name Su Ya written and the other has Xiao Ming written in blood.
The red lips of the Su Ya doll have been sewn shut with black thread. Both of its arms are mangled badly, barely hanging onto the rest of the body. Its stomach has been cut open, red strips of cloth spills out from inside.
In comparison to the Su Ya doll, the Xiao Ming doll is in relatively good condition. Long needles are embedded deeply into the body of the doll, especially the eye area. The space between the legs is cut open with scissors, red strips of cloth dangle from the opening.
Just by observing these few images, Chu Nuan already has an inkling of the story between these three.
Placing the files on the table next to her, she leisurely took a sip of tea.
Feeling a bit impatient, Lei Lin leaned forward from his chair, "so? What do you think?"
Sliding slightly down the chair with her legs crossed, Chu Nuan dully answered, "a typical case of an unfilial man steering two boats at the same time. Su Ya should be the second boat, in the file it also mentions her as one of the people questioned on the day of the crime. It could be that she has a direct involvement with Xu Qian Qian's death, or maybe not. She's not the most important."
Chu Nuan rested her chin on her left hand while her right index finger pointed at Xu Qian Qian's profile picture. "The most urgent problem we have now, is her."
Hong Wen nodded with a gratified smile, "that's correct, as you can see, the threats made are clearly directed at Xiao Ming and Su Ya who both work at the same company. We don't know when the ghost of Xu Qian Qian will start making her move. But we must stop her before the situation gets any worse."
At this moment, Fu Xi took a step forward, "and to insure our rate of success, if possible, we would like to procure the help of Envoy Chu."
"Oh?" Chu Nuan answered indifferently. Her expression seems to say, "so troublesome."
Seeing her bored expression, Hong Wen reached into his pants pocket to pull out a badge. Introducing himself once again, he said, "Envoy Chu, I am the captain of S.I.U. (Supernatural Investigation Unit) a governmental division that specializes in supernatural cases. With me as a middleman, I provide unexplainable cases to our Dark Moon Sect. In return, with each case solved, a monetary reward is given to us."
"So?" Chu Nuan answered, using her eyes to urge him to proceed.
Instead of Hong Wen, Xie Luochen spoke instead, "So, if possible, we would like to hire you for this case."
Chu Nuan turned towards him.
Xie Luochen in turn looked seriously into her eyes, "Xu Qian Qian is turning into a malicious spirit. In order to ensure the safety of everyone in that area, we must be cautious."
"So you want me to tag along?"
"En." A faint flush of red colored Xie Luochen's cheeks as he nodded with a grave look in his eyes. Thin lips trembled slightly as slight unease flashed past his tense expression. "Please help....mother."
The area around the hall suddenly fell into an awkward silence.
Everyone else: "????"
Chu Nuan's face twitched unnaturally. "...I'll help if you stop calling me that."