[If a grudge remains unresolved, then it will wander the marshes of Jianghu, harming the living, and must be vanquished by the Heavenly Dao.]
Li Zhiyuan had paid attention to this last sentence when he was reading the book, especially the phrase "a grudge remains unresolved."
Since a Corpse is born from resentment, wouldn’t it dissipate if its grudge is resolved?
Just like that black cat, it was close to achieving its revenge, and thus close to liberation.
Therefore, the "grudge remains unresolved" mentioned in the book seems to refer to when the enemy is no longer around or cannot be found, the Corpse cannot self-dissipate through this method and must endlessly wander waterways, posing a danger to the living, and must be dealt with.
Really, is it just that simple?
Then why not mention "a grudge can be resolved"?
In the "Righteous Demon Extermination Records," all recorded are methods of exterminating Corpses, as if in the author’s view, "a grudge remains unresolved" is the only option.
But he could have omitted it, and the sentence would still make sense.
Li Zhiyuan speculated that this must have been the political correctness of that era, which is that sinister beings like Corpses should absolutely not pose a risk to the living.
The reason why Wei Zhengdao added the line "If a grudge remains unresolved" to the book was to deliberately gild the lily; he didn’t want to oppose the political correctness of his time, yet he added a hint of a loophole when writing the book.
Because, "if a grudge can be resolved," there’s no need for a specific method to be taught; you just help resolve the grievance for the Corpse.
But helping an evil spirit harm the living, isn’t that the epitome of abetting tyranny?
How could Righteous People engage in such acts?
Forget about the concept of an eye for an eye, and don’t even think of defending with some reason; if political correctness could be influenced like that, it wouldn’t be called political correctness.
However, Li Zhiyuan suddenly realized that every situation he and Grandmaster had encountered seemed to follow "a grudge can be resolved."
It seems that he and Grandmaster are indeed not walking the path of the Righteous.
The interrogation records for the Jiang family were being processed.
In fact, death is not such a big deal; natural deaths, disease-caused deaths, accidental deaths, and deaths by mishap all happen, and in an area with a dense enough population, it would be strange if there were no deaths at all.
But murder is different; the public pays great attention to it and it can easily cause societal panic.
Therefore, the discovery of three bodies in a single pond this time is of an extremely heinous nature, and it’s feared that even the city bureau is paying close attention to this matter. Captain Tan Yunlong estimates that a special task force led by the city bureau will soon be dispatched.
Furthermore, if there’s involvement with gangs or violence, a sweeping campaign against such activity throughout the city will inevitably be launched later on.
But these are all matters for another time.
Captain Tan Yunlong, walking out of the chief’s office, touched his nose. The occurrence of such a vicious case within his jurisdiction put pressure not only on the station but on the entire county. The only remedy now was to solve the case as quickly as possible to strive for outstanding performance.
The pressure was passed down level by level and ultimately landed on Captain Tan Yunlong.
Lighting a cigarette, Captain Tan walked into the interrogation room to personally interrogate the Jiang family members who had tried to stop the excavation near the pond.
The interrogation went very smoothly for two reasons: first, their psychological fortitude and professional qualifications were simply lacking. The Jiang family was actually propped up by just Jiang Dongping, and with Jiang Dongping gone, the rest were just a bunch of rotten fish and shrimp.
Second, Captain Tan conducted a suggestive interrogation, hinting to them that Jiang Dongping was dead, urging them to confess and throw all the dirty water onto the dead man Jiang Dongping.
This was a procedural breach, but if Captain Tan Yunlong had been a goody-two-shoes, he wouldn’t have been relegated to a township police station.
In any case, there has been a major breakthrough and progress in the case, and they have identified several people, who are now being apprehended.
It’s just that there is a victim named Zhou whose body has not been found.
Because this Zhou had once suffered a broken left leg and was disabled, the two other skeletons examined showed no signs of fractures.
According to the Jiang family’s confession, this Zhou was in business competition with Jiang Dongping, who, along with Zhou’s good friend, a Zhao from Shijia Village, lured Zhou out on the pretext of celebrating his son’s birthday and then murdered him.
This Zhao has been arrested, and it seems that his son just recently passed away; the surrounding police officers are saying it’s retribution.
Captain Tan doesn’t believe in these things, but he doesn’t dismiss them either. If retribution for doing evil deeds came swiftly in this world, the police would definitely be most pleased.
However, the current problem is, how do we provide a reasonable explanation for this missing victim Zhou and the inexplicably deceased Jiang Dongping?
Of course, if we’re not seeking a reasonable explanation, it could be that victim Zhou’s body was moved elsewhere and disposed of, and Jiang Dongping died because of infighting within the Jiang family. Anyway, those people are no saints, and it’s not too problematic to pin the blame on them.
But these matters are no longer my concern; with the case having made this much progress, I can already report back.
Captain Tan Yunlong held the cigarette in his hand, his thoughts returning to the undisturbed pond that had not been excavated recently. He pondered how the fresh corpse of Jiang Dongping managed to be buried there.
However, not many knew about this, and even if the scene was carefully preserved at that time, whatever needed to be excavated had already been dug up, so it’s difficult to ascertain that the pond hadn’t been disturbed lately.
"Captain Tan, everything has been organized."
Captain Tan Yunlong took the documents and nodded, "Dig deeper, don’t let any of the culprits slip away."
"Is Mr. Li still at the station?"