Bai Yidao had been kneeling on the ground crying incessantly. He kept saying that he wanted to call his father, but everyone just ignored him.
Officer Liao sighed and ordered the officers to take him back to the police station. I took the Wealth Beckoning Cat into my hand and scrutinized it. I put my ear on it and listened while tapping my finger on it. It sounded like there was a corpse in there.
The figurine wasn’t large enough to fit a human body inside it, so I surmised that it was probably the corpse of a cat.
I told Huang Xiaotao of this discovery.
“Are you going to open it?” she suggested.
“No, this thing is too mysterious for me to deal with. It’s probably best left undisturbed.” I then wrapped it up and handed it to Officer Liao and told him, “You should take this to a hospital and check what’s inside with an X-ray.”
“Okay, I’ll do that,” he nodded.
Because there were many people in the hotel, Officer Liao, Wang Yuanchao and Dali took the elevator down first while Huang Xiaotao and I waited upstairs.
“What should we do next?” asked Huang Xiaotao. “How do we prove that this thing has the ability to kill people? We can’t do an experiment with a living person, can we?”
I shook my head and explained, “No, now that this thing is in our hands, Yu Jun will definitely walk into our trap himself.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely!”
Huang Xiaotao smiled. “It seems that things always go smoothly every time I investigate a case with you. At this point I’m not even sure if it’s because you’re a genius detective or if it’s because you have the best luck ever!”
“I’m just awesome like that.”
“Get over yourself!” Huang Xiaotao laughed.
At that moment, I heard a crying sound in the hallway. It was the voice of a woman, and she sounded very familiar too.
I was about to turn around and follow the sound when Huang Xiaotao said, “Song Yang, the elevator door’s opening.”
“You go on ahead!”
Huang Xiaotao didn’t get into the elevator but followed me instead. We went back to the room where we had just arrested Bai Yidao and found Luo Weiwei standing at the door crying bitterly. When she heard our footsteps, she turned around and asked me, “Was Bai Yidao really arrested?”
“Yes,” I nodded.
“Will he go to jail?” she asked.
“Considering his father’s position, I doubt it,” I said. “But he probably won’t be able to keep his job.”
“Can you please help him?” Luo Weiwei suddenly asked. “Please, I know he’s got a bad temper, but I understand him—deep down he’s not a bad person at all. I don’t want to see his future ruined!”
I frowned and said, “No!”
Luo Weiwei suddenly grabbed my hand and begged, “Song Yang, please, I know that you have high connections. You even know the Director-General! As long as you’re willing to help Bai Yidao this time, I will do anything for you.”
After that, she put my hand on her chest, clearly implying what she meant by ‘anything.’
I immediately pulled my hand back and said, “Behave yourself! Bai Yidao has broken the law, and he must pay the price for his mistake just as any other civilian must! I can’t help you with this!”
After that, I turned and left. I heard Luo Weiwei crying even more bitterly as I walked away from her. I sighed. If only they thought of the ramifications of their actions before they did something…
Huang Xiaotao stared at me with strange-looking eyes. I asked her what was wrong. She replied, “Nothing, but the way you refused Luo Weiwei was really cool!”
“You’re mocking me,” I mumbled shyly, my face blushing.
“By the way, didn’t you say last night that you’ll treat me to a meal when the case is over?”
“Why?” I remembered that she refused my offer, and I’d been feeling at a loss ever since.
“Idiot!” smiled Huang Xiaotao. “I’ve reconsidered it, and I thought that it would be nice to get a chance to relax after being so busy lately. I’m officially agreeing to your invitation, okay? But you’d better think of a nice place to eat! I’m a picky eater, you know?”
I could’ve leapt into the air with joy! But didn’t it sound like she was asking me to go on a date...
Later, the four of us stopped at a restaurant for our lunch. After the meal, we came to the police station. Officer Liao informed us that Bai Yidao had been temporarily detained. Luo Weiwei also took time off because of the shock. He asked me what he should do next.
“Get an arrest warrant for Yu Jun and catch him!” I said.
“But for what crime?” Officer Liao asked.
“The crime of destroying the forged evidence is that the iron is just like the mountain." I took out the plastic cup that I took away from Yu Jun in the morning. “Let the forensics team test the cup. There are Yu Jun’s fingerprints are on it, and the fake evidence should have the same set of fingerprints too.”
“Amazing! You don’t let a thing slip through you fingers, do you? I’ll get to it right away!”
“What happened to the cat figurine?” I asked him.
“Oh, right! I almost forgot about that!” he said, slapping his forehead. “I just took it to the hospital nearby to examine it with an X-ray. Turns out there is a dead cat inside the figurine!”
“Where is it now?” I asked.
“In the evidence room.”
“Please take it out and let me take a closer look at it!” I exclaimed excitedly.
Officer Liao then took the four of us to the evidence room where the Wealth Beckoning Cat was wrapped in a plastic bag and placed on a shelf. I noticed the similarity in size between this figurine and the Lucky Cat figurine I saw last time for the previous case. That must’ve been the evidence that Yu Jun had faked to get the Wealth Beckoning Cat back.
I asked Officer Liao to take the Lucky Cat to the forensics team for fingerprinting and took the Wealth Beckoning Cat to an empty conference room.
“Are you going to open it up?” asked Huang Xiaotao.
“No,” I answered. “I want to see what’s special about this cat…”
I asked Dali to buy me a list of things—a couple of bells, half a kilogram of swamp eels, a spray bottle, a bottle of white liquor and some silk thread. Apart from that, I asked him to bring me my bag which I had left in the hotel room.
Half an hour later, Dali returned with a big bag in his left hand and my bag in his right.
“I’m getting better at this now, aren’t I, dude?” he asked eagerly.
I agreed with a laugh, took the stuff from him and started to make some preparations.
I took a slice of Chinese medicine from the bag and put it in the spray bottle, then poured in the white liquor.
Huang Xiaotao asked me what it was. I explained, “This is guaiac wood slice. I knew it wouldn’t be available in supermarkets, so I brought it with me. It can be used to detect blood because the juices of the guaiac wood changes color when it reacts with the protein found in blood.”
The wood slices in the white liquor began to bubble, which meant that they were reacting with each other and the essence of the wood slices were seeping into the alcohol.
I found a washbasin nearby so I took it and burned a few sheets of joss paper in it as an offering for the Wealth Beckoning Cat. I put my two palms together respectfully and said, “I’m sorry to bother your rest. Please accept my sincere offering of this joss paper.”
“Do you need to go through all that?” asked Dali. “It’s just a cat!”
“But it’s not just an ordinary cat,” I replied. “It’s a cat spirit. You could even say that it is a sentient being with its own thoughts and emotions. Besides, it’s a universal law—if you show someone respect, they’ll respect you too.”
When the wood slices in the watering can were no longer bubbling, I untied the plastic bag that wrapped the Wealth Beckoning Cat and sprayed a thin layer of the alcohol on the cat figurine. Gradually, the top of the cat’s head turned purple.
I went in and looked closely. There was a tiny hole between the cat’s ears that was sealed with wax. This must be what Yu Jun used to feed the cat his blood.
“That looks like a lot of blood!” exclaimed Huang Xiaotao. “Just as you thought, Yu Jun really did feed blood to the cat!”
“I don't know much about this kind of thing,” I said, “But when we met him, I noticed that Yu Jun looked pale and tired. To keep the cat spirit alive and happy, the owner must feed it his own life essence, and nothing is richer in life essence than human blood!”
The effect of guaiac wood made the alcohol evaporate very quickly. I sealed the plastic bag, then cut open the swamp eels and dripped their blood outside the plastic bag to lure the cat spirit.
I had originally planned to use my own blood, but I was afraid that the cat might attach itself to me somehow, so I thought it would be best to just use the swamp eels instead. Cat spirits might be spiritual beings, but they retained their cat-like nature, so the strong smell of swamp eel blood should be very tempting to them.
I placed the Wealth Beckoning Cat under the table, hung the bell around the table, and quietly waited for a while.
“Nothing’s happening,” complained Dali.
“Be patient. Just give it a few more minutes.”
Sure enough, we then heard a rustling noise from under the table, and although the air inside the conference room was very still, the bells started to quiver and ring…