"Can't speak? Then I'll ask someone else."
Seeing that Old Li had lost the ability to talk, Ning Zhe switched off the handgun's safety and pocketed it. He crouched down and pulled a baton from behind Old Li's back.
Ning Zhe pressed one hand on Old Li's ankle, pinned his torso with a knee, and with his other hand gripped the baton and swung it down hard. The tremendous force shattered the fragile ankle joint completely.
After the left foot came the right, then the elbows and shoulder blades. Ning Zhe's movements were swift and decisive, his expression calm and undisturbed, as if he faced not a living person but livestock ready for slaughter. He quickly disabled all of Old Li's limb joints and dragged him up like a dead dog.
As he did this, the ghost stood nearby, watching quietly.
But it took no action, because it could not see.
Ning Zhe dragged Old Li, whose joints had all been broken, bent to pick up the parasol from the ground, and walked forward leisurely.
"Auntie, are you sure the breaker is up ahead?" Ning Zhe asked as he walked.
"...Ah! Yes, yes, that's right. The breaker is ahead. Just keep going forward. When you pass the second or third pixiu statue, stop and find the triangular area between two walls," Feng Yushu said hastily.
Ning Zhe noticed her voice carried emotions of fear and tension, along with a faint hint of ingratiation. Clearly his violent actions had been transmitted through the surveillance footage to her eyes, delivering quite a shock to Auntie.
Even if one stripped away all the rules Ning Zhe had mastered, the knowledge he possessed, and his logical thinking abilities, he remained a powerful adult male human. In primitive interpersonal interactions stripped of societal rules, violence was always the underlying logic.
Feng Yushu's eyes remained glued to the flickering screen, watching as Ning Zhe held the umbrella in one hand and dragged Old Li like a dead dog with the other, walking out of frame.
She quickly switched surveillance angles. The camera mounted at the outer wall's corner slowly rotated following Ning Zhe's steps, keeping his figure centered in the frame at all times.
Pixiu statues squatted by the roadside, heads tilted up in money-begging poses. From these small sculptures' design alone, one could tell that Jade Water Bay Manor's investors held high hopes for this place's profitability.
Pixiu, after all, are gold-eating beasts that take in but never release. Ancient people loved placing pixiu imagery in storehouses piled with wealth. They were classic divine beast figures that guarded gold and silver assets.
Following the path Feng Yushu indicated, Ning Zhe soon found the hidden triangular area near the third pixiu statue. The small compartment of modest area was embedded in the wall structure, its entrance quite concealed. Unless one searched deliberately, it would be completely invisible.
Ning Zhe casually tossed the gasping Old Li into the compartment and approached the breaker himself.
"Indoor grid main breaker... Once I shut it off, power to the entire castle will be cut. The surveillance network on your end will also shut down, won't it, Auntie?" Ning Zhe said softly.
"Yes. Pull the main breaker and all power inside the castle will be cut, leaving only the outdoor fountains and lampposts still supplied with electricity," Feng Yushu confirmed.
"OK... Then no rush to pull the breaker. I have something to ask you." Ning Zhe bent close to the large integrated circuit main valve before him and asked, "Earlier when the lamppost was still lit, the ghost stood beneath it while I crouched on the ground holding the umbrella. Did you see that scene in the surveillance footage?"
"Yes, I did." Feng Yushu nodded repeatedly, though Ning Zhe couldn't see her at all. "I'd already entered the surveillance room by then. I saw you crouching on the ground to avoid the ghost."
"Good. At that moment, did the corpse the ghost possessed have a shadow?"
"Eh...?" Feng Yushu paused. "A shadow?"
"I'm asking if it had one or not." Ning Zhe reiterated.
"I'm not sure. It seemed like it did, but also seemed like it didn't." Feng Yushu's voice was tentative. "Wait a moment. Let me see if I can rewind and check the surveillance recording from that time. It might take a few minutes."
Jade Water Bay Manor positioned itself as a high-end venue. Its surveillance network operated at completely different specifications from ordinary shopping centers, whether in security level or monitoring clarity. Plus this was Feng Yushu's first time encountering such equipment, so she needed some time to find the correct operating method.
Taking advantage of this time, Ning Zhe searched Old Li's security uniform and retrieved his phone, unlocking it with the man's fingerprint.
The moment the screen lit up, a string of missed calls appeared. The callers were mainly two people: Xiao Liu and Xiao Xie.
"So he does have accomplices." Ning Zhe didn't know exactly who Old Li was or why he had attacked him, but regardless of the reason, Old Li had already fired a gun at him.
Once you made your move, there was no retreat. Either you died or I did. There would be no third outcome.
Ning Zhe adjusted his breathing, clicked on "Xiao Xie's" missed call, and dialed back.
After two rings, the call connected.
Ning Zhe held the phone without speaking immediately. Then he heard a cautious voice emerge from the phone's speaker: "Brother Li?"
As soon as the words fell, Ning Zhe's shirt transformed into a crisply ironed security uniform. The somewhat bookish face of the youth became that of a middle-aged man with a faint ring of stubble around his mouth.
When Xiao Xie on the other end of the line thought that Ning Zhe making the call was Old Li, he truly became Old Li.
The identity of "Brother Li as known by Xie Yaoan" and a string of not-too-distant memories were simultaneously delivered into Ning Zhe's mind by Taiyi. In a moment, he understood the identity of this security captain who had fired at him.
"So you're also here to shut off the breaker... And there are other survivors." Ning Zhe glanced at Old Li, whom he had tortured beyond recognition, without any sense of guilt.
From the moment Old Li fired at him, he had already become a dead man. The only reason he still clung to life now was because Ning Zhe needed his identity as a living person.
Ning Zhe brought the phone close to his lips, and a deep male voice emerged from his mouth. "Xiao Xie, I've reached the main breaker. I'm about to pull it. Get ready."
"Okay, okay, Brother Li." Xie Yaoan's voice sounded somewhat frightened. "Will you come back after pulling the breaker?"
"I probably won't come back to find you immediately." Ning Zhe answered truthfully. "After I wait for Tian Chengyun to shut off the outdoor breaker, I'll meet up with him first, then we'll come find you together."
"Why wait for him!" Xie Yaoan's tone immediately became dissatisfied. "Tian Chengyun isn't a man at all. He has no sympathy whatsoever. He even cursed at me earlier... Brother Li, let's leave together after turning off the lights. Don't bother with him."
How could this woman be stupid to such a degree... Ning Zhe was somewhat puzzled.
Given his personality, he would have hung up immediately and let this woman fend for herself. But Old Li was a turtle... well, a nice guy. The kind ranked right after dogs.
So Ning Zhe had to patiently humor Xie Yaoan, following Old Li's consistent personality, patiently telling her I'll take you out, don't get agitated, more people mean more strength... After dragging things out for ages, he finally hung up the phone.
"Done?" Feng Yushu's voice drifted through the Bluetooth earpiece.
"Done." Ning Zhe's voice returned to his own timbre.
Only then did Feng Yushu breathe a sigh of relief and continue, "I just checked the surveillance playback. Earlier, when that lamppost was still lit, the corpse possessed by the ghost did have a shadow."
But after the ghost left, it no longer did.
Reference Glossary:
Pixiu - A mythical Chinese creature resembling a winged lion, believed to attract wealth and ward off evil. Traditionally depicted as having an insatiable appetite for gold and silver but no means of excretion, symbolizing the accumulation and retention of wealth.
Chapters in advance there: patreon.com/Thaniel_a_goodchild