Undeterred by the old man's curse, Jiang's father respectfully offered incense before the graves of the Jiang family ancestors, then kowtowed three times before his grandparents' graves, and said in a deep voice, "The Jiang family does no wrong. Although I am a junior, I am still the head of the Jiang family and know all the secrets of the Jiang family. Today, I will explain everything to you before our ancestors, so that you can die knowing the truth."
He stood up and said, "Jiang Dong, Jiang Tianxin, listen to me clearly. The Jiang family has not wronged him. Although he is your great-grandfather's illegitimate son, it is not because your great-grandfather cheated on him, but because his mother drugged your great-grandfather!"
Back then, your great-grandfather was furious and wanted to settle accounts with his mother. His mother was so frightened that she fled Yanjing. After becoming pregnant, she secretly gave birth to the child, hoping to gain status through her son. When they reappeared, he was already eight years old and harbored deep hostility towards the Jiang family, believing that the Jiang family had wronged them.
Your great-grandfather certainly wouldn't let them destroy his family, but considering the innocence of the children, he still gave them one million. One million back then was enough for them to live comfortably for the rest of their lives. But greed knows no bounds; they squandered their savings in just a few years and then set their sights on your grandfather, trying to kill him so he could become the sole heir of the Chiang family.
Looking at the tombstone, Jiang's father gritted his teeth and said, "They failed to harm your grandfather, but they killed your great-grandmother. Your great-grandfather was greatly shocked and fell seriously ill. Even on his sickbed, he mobilized his connections to capture them. They fell into the river during their escape and eventually recovered his mother's body, but not his."
I hadn't heard from him for decades. I always thought he'd drowned too. I never imagined he'd gone to the port city to make his fortune, and then come back so despicably for revenge. Heaven has eyes; our Jiang family has a clear conscience. We met a master who averted our calamity. But you," he looked at the old man coldly, "you're probably doomed!"
"You're lying! None of what you're saying is true! It's the Jiang family that harmed me, the Jiang family has wronged me..."
Jiang Tianxin knocked the old man unconscious with the butt of his rifle, stopping him from continuing his shouting and cursing. However, metaphysical things cannot be used as evidence in court. Even if they knew that the old man had hired a Taoist priest to set up a scheme to harm people, they couldn't use that as a reason to arrest him.
She explained the situation to Mr. Jiang, whose face turned grim. If such a vicious enemy goes unpunished, how can the Jiang family have any peace?
Jiang Tianxin handed the old man over to Liu Zi and went to his parents. "Dad, Mom, this man is wicked and may have done other illegal things. I will investigate his life and try my best to find evidence to arrest him."
Furthermore, is there evidence that he killed someone back then? Was a case filed? If the evidence is sufficient, he can still be prosecuted.
Mr. Jiang shook his head. "We'll have to go back and check to find out the specifics. But I heard that the statute of limitations expires after a certain number of years, right? Can the evidence from back then still be used?"
"Once a case is filed, there's no statute of limitations. I'll go back and investigate, Dad, don't worry." Jiang Tianxin wasn't entirely sure herself, but could only offer temporary reassurance to her father.
Jiang Dong said angrily, "What's the point of looking for evidence? The police can't handle this kind of thing, Brother Fan! Brother Fan, can you help me fight back? This is too much! He's greedy enough to want my family to be childless. How can he be so despicable? Going to jail is too lenient for him. He should suffer the most!"
Jiang Tianxin pursed her lips. As a police officer, she could not allow such a thing to happen. But if there were unsolved cases that the police could not solve, and the people of the Xuanmen did not fight back, wouldn't that let the evildoers go unpunished?
She felt powerless. What could the police do in this situation? Should she stop Jiang Dong's request, or not? Did the Xuanmen sect have an organization like the police that upheld justice? Recognizing these new things left her confused, and her usually firm principles seemed to be ineffective.
Xu Zifan thought for a moment and said, "Let's investigate first. We'll deal with it if we can't find anything. He smeared his heart's blood on the bead and cast a spell on it, which caused a backlash that severely damaged his vital energy and shortened his lifespan. Even if we leave him alone, he will still be tormented by illness."
Jiang Dong felt much better upon hearing this. "Backlash is a wonderful thing; it lets him harm people!"
Looking at the obstructive stone bridge, Jiang's father asked, "Taoist Master, does the feng shui here need to be rearranged? Is there anything we can do?"
Xu Zifan glanced at it a few times, "Tear down those two bridges, fill in the puddles that form a line, and break the stone that's pressing down on the black cat. Properly bury the black cat's body under that tree over there, so it can enjoy some incense offerings. Then clean the gravesite, set out offerings, and sincerely worship. I'll take care of the rest."
Mr. Jiang nodded and asked his assistant to contact workers to come and dismantle the bridge. Jiang Dong volunteered to bury Black Cat. He was a sentimental person and felt that Black Cat was the most innocent and tragic one in this incident. He felt very sad and was very sincere when burying Black Cat, which actually soothed Black Cat's emotions.
Jiang Tianxin called a small meeting with his four subordinates to decide on the direction of the investigation. He told Liu Zi to first find the person the Jiang family had hired to guard the cemetery. The stone bridge had been built here, but the person hadn't shown up yet; either he'd been murdered or he'd been paid off. This was the most recent lead.
Xu Zifan cleared away the remaining resentment and yin energy from the cemetery and set up a better feng shui arrangement to ensure the Jiang family's prosperity and well-being.
They were busy until evening, and it was definitely too late to return to Yanjing, so they found the nearest town to stay in and planned to go back the next day.
Although the old man who caused the harm has been caught, the old Taoist priest is still in Hong Kong, like a time bomb, and no one knows when he will explode. Everyone is worried about this and can't be happy.
Fortunately, Xu Zifan told them that the old Taoist priest was definitely injured and couldn't attend to this matter for the time being.
They felt a little more at ease.
That night, Jiang Tianxin tossed and turned in her room, unable to sleep. Her world had been turned upside down; she had witnessed far more things than she could comprehend, more fantastical than a movie. At the same time, she was deeply uneasy because she had wrongly accused Xu Zifan.
She had seen many so-called paranormal phenomena and so-called masters since she was a child, but afterwards she found that many of the masters had been arrested, and those paranormal phenomena such as will-o'-the-wisps could be explained by science. Even the appearance of ghosts could be explained by quantum and particle theories.
She had been to research institutes and seen experiments that ordinary people could not imagine. She knew that there were always people more knowledgeable than the scientific community, and that there were certain theories about the entire universe, including black holes. Therefore, she believed that science was omnipotent. She only encountered unsolved mysteries because she was not capable enough. Scientists could explain them, and even if they could not, they were still scientific mysteries that humanity had not yet solved.
Because of this firm belief, I cannot believe in metaphysics.
Today was the first time she had witnessed the wonder of metaphysics, which overturned all her understanding of the world over the past twenty-two years. She could accept her understanding of the new world, but what bothered her was that she had really wronged Xu Zifan. Because of her understanding, she denied Xu Zifan's magic. Wasn't that going too far for Xu Zifan?
Jiang Tianxin grew increasingly upset. She was never one to procrastinate, so she grabbed her phone and sent a WeChat message to Jiang Dong: "[Brother, is the Taoist priest asleep yet?]"
Jiang Dong was probably on his phone; he replied quickly, "[I'm not asleep. We were just about to go get some late-night snacks. Why?]"
[I'll go too.] After replying, Jiang Tianxin felt it wasn't quite right, so she sent another message: [Could you ask the Taoist priest if I can go?]
Xu Zifan was a little hungry. He was hesitating whether to go out to eat or secretly take a fasting pill, worried that going out might bring bad luck. When he heard Jiang Dong say that Jiang Tianxin also wanted to go, he immediately agreed.
So the three of them changed their clothes and went out together. Jiang Dong went to get the car, while Jiang Tianxin deliberately lagged behind and walked with Xu Zifan.
After Jiang Dong walked away, she stopped Xu Zifan and bowed deeply. "Daoist Master, today's events prove that I was just a frog in a well before. I didn't believe that there was metaphysics in this world, I didn't believe that you were really a master of metaphysics, and I kept questioning you."
I've thought about this for a long time today. Your abilities are genuine, but my attitude was too much. Whatever punishment I face, I will accept it.
She remembered Xu Zifan punishing that young Taoist priest. Perhaps this is how people in the Xuanmen sect vent their anger. So, she should be punished for not respecting Xu Zifan's abilities and for suspecting him as a fraud.
Xu Zifan was about to say it was okay, but then he stopped himself, thinking about how incredibly unlucky he was.
Punishment? What a godsend!
He said expressionlessly, "Officer Jiang, do you know how much I, as a citizen, trust the police? Do you know how heartbroken I am to finally escape from this predicament and save someone, only to face the police's suspicion? Do you know how devastating it is to be treated like a fraud when I kindly help someone?"
Jiang Tianxin felt very guilty and apologetic, but she wasn't stupid. She couldn't see where Xu Zifan was sad, upset, or trusting of the police.
However, despite her initial mistake, she still cooperated by saying, "It was my fault, but please don't lose faith in the police. I made a wrong judgment this time, and I will definitely correct it. This kind of thing will not happen again. The police are still very reliable."
After speaking on behalf of the police, she added, "Then is there anything I can do to compensate for the harm done to the Taoist priest?"
Xu Zifan sighed, "You know I was kicked out of my home, Qingfeng Temple is still in ruins, and I have nowhere to go..."
Jiang Tianxin nodded understandingly, "I have an apartment..."
"Do you live there?" Xu Zifan asked immediately.
Jiang Tianxin looked at him with a puzzled expression. "I don't live there. I live at home. My parents say that a family should be together, and no matter how busy I am at work, I should go home."
Xu Zifan sighed again, "Officer Jiang, you know I'm not in good health, and I have the ability to see ghosts. I see unclean things all the time, and I offended some old Taoist priest because of your family. It's not safe for me to live alone. You're a policeman, and you have such strong yang energy. Look," he pointed around, "with you here, even these little ghosts don't dare to come near me."
Jiang Tianxin looked around but couldn't see anything strange. But since Xu Zifan said there was something there, it must be true, right? She pondered Xu Zifan's meaning for a moment and tentatively said, "How about... the Taoist priest stays at my house temporarily?"
Xu Zifan immediately smiled and said, "Alright, since Officer Jiang is so hospitable, I'll stay here for now. I hope I won't cause too much trouble."
"I won't bother you." Jiang Tianxin looked at him silently, wondering why he always felt like he was waiting for her to say that.
Even if the metaphysics is proven to be true, this master is still eccentric.