Afterlife Department

Chapter 534 – Misfortune

At the same time.

"Do you think there is something suspicious in this community?" Xiao Xie asked Song Mingfan when he saw Song Mingfan was spying on the entrance gate. Their car was parked in a hidden area.

"Yes." Song Mingfan honestly answered.

Xiao Xie chewed his gum as he placed his chin on the steering wheel while he pondered. "You're right… You Ri is the breadwinner of the family yet she isn't living with her family." He spoke. "Furthermore, she has no other traces of living in the You residence. If I just haven't seen her DNA test result, I would think that she was adopted and being treated as the cash cow of her family." He explained.

Song Mingfan nodded in agreement. "Yet she is their biological child. She has an elder sister who is already married while she remained single…" he muttered. "She also is the one buying medicines for their father and is paying their younger brother's and youngest sister's tuition… she had never had any romantic relationship, nor she bought any jewelries for herself aside from a pair of earrings, a necklace, a bracelet, and a wristwatch. All her clothes are bought from the company." He spoke. "… is she this selfless?" he asked.

"She can be said to be the Mary Sue type. She is down-to-earth, kind, sensible, filial…" Xiao Xie spoke. "She is the ideal girl of men." He said and looked at You Ri's photo attached to the folder.

Song Mingfan hummed in agreement. "Yet she died." He said.

"This type of a woman also is often envied." Xiao Xie shrugged.

"Her family, colleagues, and let's include her clients…" Song Mingfan spoke. "Which of them do you think murdered her?" he asked him.

"Her clients are the least to be suspected since there really is nothing much between a designer and her client that can be caused by animosity." Xiao Xie answered. "So, between her family and colleagues… if her family aren't white-eyed wolves (ingrates), then the suspect could be among her colleagues." He said. "But, they have perfect alibis. So, we can also exclude them." He told him.

Song Mingfan nodded. "The only chance to rig her car is before she used it or while she was in the company." He spoke. "Let's say her car was rigged before she used it to go to work. The car finally malfunctioned the next time she used it, which is when she was going home after work. Since she wasn't living with her family, and they are out of the country, then we can exclude her family. If her car was rigged in the company during work, we can exclude her colleagues since they have alibis and the CCTVs are the proof. We can also exclude her clients since she has never left the company nor her car." He said. "That leaves…" he looked outside.

"Her neighbors." Xiao Xie answered. "They can rig her car." He said.

"Yes." Song Mingfan answered. "We also can't exclude the other people working in the company." He added.

"Also, the visitors who have their cars parked, or have gone to, in the underground parking lot of the company." Xiao Xie spoke. "We can recheck the video recordings again. Fortunately, that Hao Ming is an honest and sympathetic man." He said when he remembered the CEO, although cold but cooperative Hao Ming.

"Do you know why he is cooperating with us although the rumors said he is ill-tempered?" Song Mingfan suddenly asked.

"Why?" Xiao Xie curiously asked.

"Because his late younger brother also died in a car accident seven years ago, when Hao Baiyun was in college." Song Mingfan answered. "He was just seventeen, the prime of his youth. He died after their school bus which was on their way to a school trip overturned after avoiding a rushing car." He explained. "All of them died, including the driver, because the bus exploded." He added.

"I remember!" Xiao Xie exclaimed. "The driver of the car that the school bus avoided was a father. His pregnant wife is about to give birth and his son is seriously ill and is having an attack are on the backseat." He shook his head as he clicked his tongue. "Truly such an unfortunate event, but also something fortunate has happened since the wife has successfully given birth to a healthy baby while the ill son's illness has a sign of recovery." He said.

Song Mingfan nodded. "Truly, this story makes you don't know what to feel." He said.

"Why?" Xiao Xie asked.

"Because there's a continuation of that story." Song Mingfan answered. "About that 'fortunate' family. The father was jailed, and the family's successive misfortune happened." He spoke. "The mother got depression and the baby has fallen ill due to the mother's inattention. The mother jumped off from that same bridge where the school bus overturned, and the baby that turned one-year-old died from illness. Only one member of the family was left." He explained.

"… wait. Why does this story sound familiar?" Xiao Xie asked in a low voice.

"Because the protagonist of that story is our chief." Song Mingfan answered. "The surviving member of that family, whose fortune from the misfortune of the students and the bus driver that died was 'claimed back' by the ghosts of those students and the bus driver." He explained.

Xiao Xie's eyes widened in shock. "Then… what will happen to the chief now, if what you said was true, that the family's fortune will be taken back?" he worriedly asked.

"If that was true, then chief's illness should have returned." Song Mingfan answered. "But, of course, it wasn't true since the chief is very healthy after coming to the hospitals to be checked, wanting, and expecting, to see if he finally turned ill. He even sought death before by enlisting in the military because of the guilt he felt." He explained. "Yet, it seemed that the misfortune of his family didn't reach chief." He shrugged.

"Thank goodness…" Xiao Xie sighed in relief. "It wasn't chief's fault. It was his father's." he said.

"Oh. Speaking of the chief's father – " Song Mingfan spoke when he remembered. " – he committed suicide in jail when the news of his wife's and second son's death reached him. He didn't even think of the chief." He frowned.

"Hmph." Xiao Xie frowned in disdain. "Poor chief. I'm glad he's well right now… it seems like something is protecting him, instead of haunting him?" he asked.

Song Mingfan nodded in agreement. "Chief deserves to live, after all." He spoke. "If chief really feels guilt for something his father did, then chief should help more people and gather good karma. Thus, he has to continue living." He explained.

"You're right." Xiao Xie smiled.

The next day.

"… he suddenly left?" Huo Ling asked Bai Wu and Jiu Ye when he woke up this morning. He didn't see Hao Baiyun around the house.

"Yes. He left last night when you and senior Yi retired and went back to your rooms to sleep." Jiu Ye explained.

"He suddenly flew outside and disappeared." Bai Wu added.

"Thanks." Huo Ling thanked them before he went to find Yi Bing.

But, before he could open his mouth and say something, Yi Bing spoke first. "Are you looking for Hao Baiyun?" he asked as he raised his head and looked at Huo Ling.

Huo Ling looked at Yi Bing sitting elegantly on a chair in the garden, looking as if some British prince having a morning tea. "… yes." He answered.

"Then, he has already left. Last night." Yi Bing spoke.

It's the same answer as Jiu Ye's and Bai Wu's, those two juniors. "How did you know?" Huo Ling asked, surprised, since he heard from Jiu Ye that Hao Baiyun left after he and Yi Bing left to go back to their rooms last night.

"I saw him from the balcony." Yi Bing answered.

"… oh." Huo Ling muttered and joined him on the table. Bai Liu and Wu Yi still aren't up yet, while Jiu Ye and Bai Wu cooked for their breakfast and brewed them tea, even if they do not need to eat yet they still could taste this luxury called 'eating'.

"You need Hao Baiyun for something?" Yi Bing asked.

"I just felt that he knows more about exorcists than what he told us last night." Huo Ling answered.

"It is understandable that he has something to hide from us, since we are not that much familiar. We are just mere acquaintances that happened to have in common – " Yi Bing look at him. " – being supernatural beings." He told him.

Huo Ling nodded in understanding. "Do you know where did he go?" he asked.

"He flew to the direction of the police station." Yi Bing answered.

"The police station? Why?" Huo Ling asked before he suddenly remembered something. "… Gu Xingfeng?" he looked at Yi Bing.

Yi Bing didn't answer.

"But, Gu Xingfeng shouldn't be in the police station last night… we didn't see him there…" Huo Ling said.

Yi Bing just shrugged. "Ghosts know what both of them are up to.." he said as he resumed drinking his tea.