Chapter 95

“Qu Zhiwen knows this man too?”

“Yes. In fact, the first time I heard about him was through Qu Zhiwen. I met this man at the hospital yesterday, and he even seemed to know who I was.”

“Then….in that case, I think I have an idea. Maybe I can get something out of Qu Zhiwen.”

Qin Cheng raised his head and looked at Jiang Ping, who had stood up to pace around the room, and waited for his next words.

However, Qin Cheng didn’t expect that Jiang Ping would ask something so unrelated to what they were currently talking about.

“Qin Cheng, do you believe that….people reincarnate?”

“Why….why are you asking this all of a sudden?”

“Ah, just a sudden thought. Since ghosts are real, reincarnation doesn’t sound so unreal. Do you think every one of us has a past life?”

Jiang Ping’s words made Qin Cheng think of that fragmented dream he had had while in a coma. A bit dazed, Qin Cheng said: “….I guess past lives could be real….”

“Don’t you want to know who you were in your previous life? And what did you do?”

“I….” Although he wasn’t entirely sure if that dream was true, Qin Cheng figured that he must have been working in the same profession as he is now in all those different lifetimes….

However, this matter could not be spoken about so casually. Qin Cheng thought a bit about it and finally said: “I can’t even take care of my current lifetime, so why should I care about past lives? It’s better to live in the present instead of obsessing over a time I don’t even have memories of, nor that I ever want to remember. I am Qin Cheng now, and I will continue to be Qin Cheng in the future as well.”

“Haha, that’s true.” Jiang Ping nodded and laughed.

Although he didn’t pay attention to it just now, Qin Cheng had actually stumbled upon a small hint that something was wrong with Jiang Ping. Everything that has happened so far not only caused this resolute cop to not be as resolute as before but also caused him to ask himself questions related to past lives. To be completely honest, Qin Cheng never thought Jiang Ping might be interested in these things.

However, in the end, this was Jiang Ping’s privacy. Qin Cheng couldn’t ask him about it. To be precise, he didn’t want to ask. It was already difficult for him to take care of himself, so how could he take care of others too?

“Just now you said that you had a way to get some information from Qu Zhiwen. Do you need my help?”

Jiang Ping shook his head and said: “No, you should be more careful from now on. After all, we don’t know what the enemy is capable of, let alone what they are planning. Between the two, you’re the one more vulnerable to danger.”

“I know that. Perhaps I should stay in the tomb for a while. That way, I could also try and find an opportunity to find Jiang Bo.” Qin Cheng looked at the time and was surprised to see that it was noon already. After being in a coma for four days, the stitches from his wound were already removed. But this only reminded him that he hadn’t gone to the tomb for so many days….He’s not even sure what the situation over there was like.

“It’s getting late. Why don’t we have dinner together? I’ll go to Ninghua Village afterward.”

“You’re thinking of going there today? Will your body stand it? If you fall into a coma again, what will you do? Who will take you to the hospital?”

“Wouldn’t it be useless to send me to the hospital? The type of illness I suffer from cannot be solved by doctors.”

“Do you even know what’s causing this illness? Not only does it not look normal at all, in the long run, but it’s also not good for your health either.”

How could Qin Cheng not know? Having the appearance of a walking corpse isn’t normal, and even though he hadn’t died yet, it was only a matter of time.

But there was really nothing Qin Cheng could do about it.

“If Qu Zhiwen can’t do anything about it, then an ordinary person like us can’t either.”

What Qin Cheng had said was nothing but the truth. As for weird illnesses such as this, Jiang Ping was nothing more than an amateur. In the end, he could only sigh: “Then you’d better be even more careful and pay close attention to your health.”

“Yes, yes. First of all, we should go fill our stomachs.” Qin Cheng chuckled. “I haven’t had breakfast yet, and I’m assuming you haven’t eaten either since you were busy all night.”

“I’m too busy to remember breakfast.”

“Then let’s go to the restaurant over there and order a couple of dishes.”

After eating, Jiang Ping said that he had something to do and left when they had reached the end of the street. Qin Cheng, on the other hand, thought about going home first, taking a shower, and changing his clothes before heading to Ninghua Village. So, he walked eastwards.

Qin Cheng’s new place was half an hour away by bus, and the bus station was a street away from the restaurant, across the commercial street. However, after walking a short distance, Qin Cheng was suddenly pulled into a narrow alley on the side of the commercial street. After being pulled, Qin Cheng’s glasses fell down. Astonished, Qin Cheng prepared himself to punch that person, only to find that the person was Jiang Ping, who had left not long ago. Jiang Ping suddenly moved into the alley and hid behind a wall, vigilantly looking at the street.

Qin Cheng was confused, and just when he was about to ask Jiang Ping what was going on, Jiang Ping jumped out of the alley. Almost immediately after, he flipped a bald man onto the ground. Before this man could resist, Jiang Ping clasped the man’s wrist with his left hand, while with his right hand, he deadlocked the man’s neck. With one knee kneeling on the man’s waist, the man ended up prostrating on the ground unable to move.

“Aahhhhhhh! It hurts! Fuck! Let go of me you motherfucker!”

“Ha, let you go? You think I’m fucking stupid?” After saying this, Jiang Ping ignored the man’s crying and shouted at Qin Cheng, who was standing nearby in a daze: “Right by the garbage pile over there, I saw that there are torn clothes, hand them to me. Then take my phone and call the first number, ask Xiao-Zhang to come here.”

At that moment, Qin Cheng finally came back to his senses and rushed to do as he was told. After calling Xiao-Zhang and asking him to come, Qin Cheng said: “What’s going on? Why did you suddenly drag me here?”

“I saw this man waiting outside the police station, and he only left when he saw us leaving. So, after eating in the restaurant, I pretended that I had to go and walked in the opposite direction. As expected, I saw this man stalking you.”

“Bullshit! This is abuse. I was walking like usual and a police officer suddenly threw me to the ground. I’m going to sue you!”

Once the man’s hands were tied, Jiang Ping snorted coldly and slapped the man’s face: “How dare you pretend to be an ordinary man in front of me?”

Qin Cheng, on the other hand, felt that the man’s voice sounded familiar. However, without his glasses, he couldn’t see the man’s face clearly. Only after he got closer to the man and squatted down did he see his face in more detail.

“You’re the grave robber I saw in the tomb in Pingyao?!”

Jiang Ping is a police officer who wears a police uniform. It wasn’t that he has a big ego, but it was true that very few people would be bold enough to sneak up and follow him. When those kinds of people saw his uniform, they would just go the other way. As for those who knew a little more, they would definitely know that he is Jiang Ping. Therefore, absolutely no one would be stupid enough to follow him in the middle of the day, which must mean that this man was following Qin Cheng.

Jiang Ping wanted to ask Qin Cheng if he knew this man, but it seemed that there wasn’t even a need to ask.

“A grave robber from Pingyao…. Is he part of the group of grave robbers you mentioned before?”

“Yes, that’s him. At that time, Wu Hai and I went to a village in Pingyao and met a villager named Tang Jie, whom we asked to lead the way for us, but we didn’t expect that he would be a grave robber. Then, Wu Hai and I were kidnapped. This man right here should also be surnamed ‘Tang’.”

When saying this, Qin Cheng and Jiang Ping looked at each other. “What a coincidence. His last name also happens to be ‘Tang’?” Jiang Ping laughed and said to the man on the ground: “I was worried about the lack of evidence, but you have just delivered it to me.”

As soon as Jiang Ping said this, Qin Cheng heard a man’s voice coming from the entrance of the alley calling Jiang Ping’s name. “Your teammate is here.”

With that, Qin Cheng stood up and waved his hand.

When Zhang Tengfei saw the man lying on the ground, he rushed over. Once he saw that the man was tied, Zhang Tengfei breathed a sigh of relief. “Captain, you’re like a God! Everywhere you go, you catch a criminal. You should be called ‘Criminal Officer Ke Ping ¹ ’.”

“Stop talking nonsense. Did you bring the handcuffs? This man is living evidence delivered straight to my door. Don’t let him get away.”

“Yes, yes. Evidence for which case? I can see that your eyes are shining with excitement.”

Jiang Ping looked at the disinterested Zhang Tengfei, and said: “The Ninghua Village’s murder case.”

“….”

Zhang Tengfei’s bright face became serious all of a sudden, putting away his usual disinterested expression. When Zhang Tengfei thought of that case, he couldn’t help but feel a chill.

“Captain….”

“Let’s go back and talk about the rest there.” Jiang Ping patted Zhang Tengfei’s shoulder, and said: “Don’t worry about it.”

When Qin Cheng saw that Jiang Ping was in a hurry to go back to the police station, he pondered about something and rushed to say to Jiang Ping: “Let me know if there’s anything when the time comes, I will rush over. If I encounter any serious problems on my side, I will tell you as soon as possible.”

Jiang Ping nodded and said: “This is definitely not the first time you’ve been followed. I caught this man this time, but you should be more careful in the future. I’m sure whoever has you under surveillance has a backup plan.”

“Yeah, I’m going to stay inside the tomb for a while. It’s safer that way.”

“….Sure….”

“If there’s nothing more, then I’ll go home and get some things. I’ll go to Ninghua Village after that.”

After parting ways with Jiang Ping at the intersection, Qin Cheng didn’t go back to the rental house or Ninghua Village. He actually headed towards X University….

He had suddenly remembered one important thing. Before traveling to Pingyao, Qin Cheng had to give Zhang Jun some porcelain fragments he took from the tomb in Ninghua Village. Although Qin Cheng hadn’t fully pieced together all of these porcelain fragments, he was able to see a name appearing very frequently in the porcelain.

Xu Yun….

‘ Is that the name of a Buddhist monk? ’

Wooohhh Tang Jiaming is gonna get soooo mad! He did warn Tang Yihong that this would happen! You can’t mess with Jiang Ping~~ (*´∇`)┌θ☆(ﾉ>_<)ﾉ

(´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡

Footnotes

<ol>Perhaps a reference to ( <b>柯平</b> <b>kē píng</b> ) Ke Ping [?-1680], who was a civil official in Dongning. Zheng Chenggong [1624-1662], King of Yanping, took him under his command as a ‘Supervisor of Discipline’ after Ke Ping’s father and uncle died. In 1662, he was appointed as the governor of Tianxing County, and lived in the current Sinhua District (Taiwan). In 1666 the King of Yanping, Zheng Jing [1642-1681], set up six officials, with Ke Ping as a ‘Criminal Officer’ (official in charge of criminal law).</ol>