66 – Atheist

Li Yun wanted to drive down the price. Even with his recent promotion and Taobao shop selling well, he was still short on cash.

"Let me think about it," Pao Lie was listening in on the conversation, so he knew it would be difficult to sell the property if the case wasn't completely solved.

Li Yun looked toward the small rear courtyard. "Can I check the back?"

Before Pao Lie could answer, Li Yun was already heading to the back.

"Don't you want to check out the other area?" Pao Li quickly followed him into the courtyard. "There's a kitchen, and even a second-floor living space, it's very roomy."

Li Yun ignored him and walked to the back. The rear courtyard was smaller than the main courtyard, being framed by the L-shaped building, the neighbor's building, and the back wall. There was a back gate leading into an alley and a well on the corner. Walking closer to the well, Li Yun felt the yin energy. Although the bodies had been recovered, the lingering feeling of resentment remained, smoldering the space with spine chilling aura.

"Has anyone else felt something strange coming into this courtyard?" Li Yun asked.

"No, not really," Pao Lie replied.

Li Yun looked at Pao Lie directly in his eyes, he was lying. "Really?" 

Pao Lie felt Li Yun's glaze. He wasn't afraid of ghosts or gods, but Li Yun made his spine chill. "Just a few people."

He confessed about the previous open house. When people walked into the back room, they suddenly wanted to leave the space. The first few times, Pao Lie thought that people were pretending so that they could lower the price of the property, but after the fourth potential buyer backed out, Pao Lie regretted buying the property.

He had hired a consultant to figure out what was causing the chill. Apparently, the willow tree was creating a draft. Pao Lie wanted to cut down the tree, but it was an ancient tree that could be seen from the streets and must be kept per the Caoben Historical Society. Even if he could cut down the tree, all the contractors he hired had fallen sick. He couldn't even renovate the property, so he had to sell it.

"I don't understand why so many people avoid this place," Pao Lie responded. "It's a nice area. It is breezy, and perfect on a hot summer day."

"Are you an atheist?" Li Yun wondered if faith had something to do with how people perceived the yin energy.

"Ooh, yes, how do you know?" Pao Lie rarely talked about his beliefs simply because he didn't care much.

Li Yun shrugged. Over ninety percent of the population were atheists or agnostic, but it was more than an educated guess. Before leaving, Li Yun was still firm with his 150k offer. Pao Lie asked for more time to think about it.

Li Yun left the shop and walked along the street to ask the local vendors about the herbal shop. Before the police raided the herbal shop, most vendors on Caoben streets walked by the herbal shop every day, using the overhang to protect them from the sun and rain. They never thought anything was unusual, even though the operation had been around for ten years. Only one woman swore she knew that the place was hunted before the police raided the shop.

"It felt creepy!" She vividly animated from her trinket booth. "I swear I have never felt such cold sensation before."

"Oh come on Bizi, you say that about almost every old place you have visited," said another woman name Zuiba.

"There are dead people everywhere! It's not just me! Your son felt it too, remember?"

"He plays too many of those horror video games."

Li Yun read Bizi's fear line and knew she was afraid of ghosts and the afterlife. It was possible she thought all the shops were creepy, but it was also possible for her to develop hypersensitivity toward the yin energy because she believed it existed.

As for the other vendors, the majority of them didn't sense anything until after the bodies were discovered. It wasn't like the body just appeared there, but people suddenly felt the chill. They were most likely influenced by the news and gossip of the horrific event. Li Yun wondered if he himself was influenced by the news and was able to sense the chill, or whether it was related to the system. It was a bit of a paradox.

Unable to gather more information, Li Yun returned to his car and gave Bu Tao another call. "Hey."

"Why did you hang up on me?" Bu Tao asked. "I was about to tell you about the doctor."

"I had to find a more quiet place, so what do you know about the doctor?" Li Yun responded; Caoben Street was crowded and noisy during midday.

"The couple hired a doctor they called Doctor Jack. They were introduced to him by a dark web friend. Once they made contact, they exchanged a few agreement points. Doctor Jack wanted anonymity during the collaboration and the couple agree. During an operation, the couple would apply general anesthesia to the client and vacated the premises. Doctor Jack would arrive to the back to start the operation. After two hours, the couple would return."

"So the doctor is a thorough and cautious person. Since he's the one directly responsible for their deaths, he needed insurance to keep himself safe. As for the couple, did they request that he dispose of the body to lessen their crime and involvement?"

"Yeah, that was the couple's stipulation. They never thought that the doctor would dispose of the body inside the well behind the back. It was a dry well and every time a body was disposed of, it was buried underneath some dirt."

"They never thought the doctor would dump it in the well? It looked like an obvious place."

"Well, the couple rarely ever look in the back. According to the neighbors, the herbal shop really didn't sell much and they weren't there often, just the store clerk. Just based on their personality, it looked like they weren't the cautious sort. The doctor was likely the one that helped them create the contract."

"How about a camera?"

"There is only one in the front courtyard, but the doctor used the back door, so it didn't matter"

"No witness either?"

"Nope. We even attempted to trap him when the case wasn't revealed to the public, but he never showed up."

"He may have been at the scene when the arrest warrant was issued, or he has kept tabs of the couple some other way."

"We never managed to find him, but judging by some of the equipment he was using, we managed to track the serial number to Yide Hospital. Unfortunately, it's a pretty big hospital, and we weren't able to narrow down the suspect."

"Hm..."

"Why are you looking into the case?"

"You know I'm curious about these sort of things."

"Speaking of which, I got you a consultant license based on your doctor credentials and previous merits."

With the consultant license, Li Yun would have an easier time looking through different cases. The police department had been lax about consultants, but as more outlying cities become modernized, there was a greater effort by the government to centralize more policies.