Chapter 59: The Ghost Mechanic

Following Lin Xun's gaze, Le Dong looked over.

In the dim light, those areas indeed bore large patches of stains half-covered by dust, already congealed into a dark, pitch-black color. Their shapes were irregular with blackened edges, exuding an ominous aura!

Cai Kun also stretched his neck, looking at the spot Lin Xun pointed to with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension, astonishment written all over his face: "Huh? It really is... all blackish patches..."

Even Ma Wenwen tensed his entire body, one hand silently reaching deep into his old cloth bag and tightly gripping something.

This discovery left Le Dong's scalp tingling, almost making him forget the talisman paper in his hand.

However, Lin Xun's offensive did not stop. She raised the photo frame once again, this time taking a few steps directly toward Li Gang and clearly displaying the front of the frame under the yellowish light!

"And this photo," Lin Xun's voice was not loud, yet it echoed clearly inside the empty auto repair shed, "the person standing next to you... is this the apprentice you just mentioned who died ten years ago?"

Le Dong's gaze snapped onto the photo frame!

The photo was quite aged and yellowed, showing a much younger Li Gang dressed in clean work overalls, a doting smile on his face.

Standing right beside him was a dark-skinned, thick-eyebrowed, big-eyed young man with an honest, simple smile. Although the photo was static, the contour of his build, the aura exuding from his smile...

Le Dong felt a chill run through his entire body—this was almost identical to the dark-skinned young man who had stopped their car in the rain, guided them, and even tried to trick them into climbing over the wall. It was ten to one the exact same person!

Holding the photo, Lin Xun approached step by step, her gaze piercing into Li Gang, who stood frozen in place:

"That person, we clearly saw him outside, alive and well! Yet you said... he died ten years ago?"

Her voice suddenly rose, carrying an unquestionable interrogation:

"Master Li! Care to explain why you lied? And also... these bloodstains..."

It's over!

A buzzing sound went off in Le Dong's mind. Lin Xun's move was far too direct, laying all suspicions and evidence right out in the open!

If Li Gang was still human, that would be one thing, but what if he was a ghost... To be confronted and questioned so directly, the consequences would be unimaginable!

Sure enough!

Li Gang, who had remained taciturn and sluggish all along, began to tremble violently. His cloudy eyes were filled with pain and confusion.

"I didn't lie... I didn't!" His voice was hoarse and broken, carrying a sobbing tone, "My apprentice... he really died! He really died! Ten years ago... right beside the national highway ahead... while repairing a car... he was hit by a large truck... and killed! Hit... hit..."

He seemed trapped in an extremely painful memory, rambling incoherently.

"And this blood... this blood..." His trembling fingers pointed randomly at the dark brown stains, his body swaying even more violently as if he would collapse to the ground at any second.

At that very moment, he staggered backward a step, and his back collided squarely with Le Dong, who had forgotten to dodge out of shock!

The moment of contact—

Le Dong felt as though he had crashed into a piece of decayed wood fished out of an ice cave. A bone-chilling, deeply ingrained cold qi surged fiercely into his body along the point of contact!

"Ugh!" Le Dong gasped sharply, chilled to the bone by a shudder!

The next second!

"Ugh, ah ah ah—!"

A howl filled with pain suddenly burst from Li Gang's throat!

The very spot on Li Gang's back where the Yang fire talisman in Le Dong's hand had just touched reacted as if branded by a red-hot iron, instantly venting a wisp of black smoke with a sizzling sound!

At the same time, Li Gang abruptly straightened his hunched back, his wrinkled old face suddenly twisting and deforming!

"What the... fuck!"

The bizarre phenomenon before his eyes frightened Cai Kun, who was standing within arm's reach, into jumping on the spot. He never expected that the person he had been talking to just moments ago was not even human!

Staring wide-eyed, unable to process it for a moment, he turned his head toward the direction of the trunk, his astonished gaze seeming to question why the statue of Zhong Kui had suddenly stopped working.

"Step back!"

Suddenly, Lin Xun's cold reprimand snapped him and Le Dong back to their senses.

Lin Xun's face betrayed a mix of shock and suspicion, yet a police officer's instinct still caused her right hand to reach toward her lower back—where some hard object seemed to be concealed.

However, someone was even faster than her: Ma Wenwen!

Having maintained his suspicion all along, the moment Le Dong crashed into Li Gang and the black smoke billowed up, Ma Wenwen had already drawn out what he had been preparing from deep within his cloth bag!

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Two tiny flashes of golden light tore through the dim air, emitting a sharp piercing sound!

They were two meticulously polished copper coins imbued with evil-dispelling vital energy, shooting with pinpoint accuracy toward the mass of black smoke surging out from Li Gang's body!

Thud! Thud!

The copper coins plunged into the rolling black smoke like red-hot iron falling into a snowdrift.

There was no intense confrontation as anticipated, nor any ghost-wailing counterattack.

That fiercely rolling mass of dense black smoke, which had nearly condensed into a human shape, came to an abrupt halt the moment it was struck by the copper coins!

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—"

Accompanied by a melting sound, the black fog seemed to be violently tugged by an invisible force, suddenly growing thin and scattered. With an almost sorrowful powerlessness, it drifted in wisps toward the filthy ceiling of the repair shop.

"You're still trying to harm me—"

Immediately afterward, a voice mixed with endless pain, grievance, and despair seemed to echo from all directions, or perhaps directly inside everyone's mind. It was intermittent and fragile, as weak as a flickering candle in the wind:

"I am only a... ordinary mechanic... why... why do so many people want to harm me... and now... even the ghosts... are being harmed by you..."

The desolation and accusation in that voice were like cold needles, causing Ma Wenwen's brow to furrow tightly.

This caused his hand, which was originally prepared to reach back into the cloth bag, to freeze mid-air, a flash of astonishment crossing his face. Even Le Dong beside him sensed the unusual nature of this wandering spirit.

Something was wrong. The reaction of this spirit was far too bizarre; it lacked the lethal and fierce murderous intent seen in spirits before, and instead held only a lament of being wronged and harmed?

"Wait!"

Ma Wenwen spoke up, simultaneously calling out to Lin Xun, who had retrieved the half-sectioned telescopic baton from her lower back.

Upon sensing that Lin Xun had stopped moving, Ma Wenwen "gazed" toward the ceiling, his voice carrying a questioning tone:

"You are already a dead person, and for your wandering spirit to linger in the mortal realm is already to disrupt the balance of Yin and Yang and violate the heavenly principles! Had we not noticed, who could guarantee you wouldn't harm people? Who knows whether you might harm people next?"

His words struck straight at the core, showing no mercy.

"Right, right, exactly!"

Cai Kun, who had just recovered from the massive shock, ran alongside Le Dong over to Ma Wenwen's side. Before he even had time to look at the deity statue in the trunk, hearing Ma Wenwen's words, he immediately chimed in with a lingering fear in his voice, "You, you even repaired my car? If I had run any later, I would have been repaired by you!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the black smoke on the ceiling undulated violently, as if deeply stung by this accusation.

Li Gang's grief-stricken and indignant voice sounded once more, much clearer than before, carrying an unquestionable candidness and grievance as it echoed throughout the entire space:

"Harm people? How could I possibly harm people?! I've repaired cars my whole life! Whenever I met travelers on the road or those in urgent trouble, when did I ever hesitate, helping whenever I could? Sometimes I didn't even charge them money! How could I ever harm anyone!"

The black smoke condensed slightly, vaguely revealing the outline of a painful old face. Those illusory eyes formed from mist carried a blood-tears-like accusation as they looked toward Lin Xun standing guard below.

"The blood you saw... this blood..."

As Li Gang spoke, the black smoke slowly descended, condensing into a barely formed human shape that hovered a meter or so above the ground. Smoke-formed fingers pointed tremblingly toward the dark brown stains in the corner, his subsequent voice carrying a choke and a sob:

"This blood... is all mine, it's all my blood—!"

This sentence exploded like a thunderclap within the rainy repair shop!