Afterlife Department

Chapter 25 - Connection

The policemen didn't detain Su Rong nor Li Lingling, but they are closely monitoring them. Huo Ling also wants to observe Su Rong, since Su Rong was the one who killed him. However, Su Rong didn't look like he had a motive of killing him, so they chose to go to Li Lingling first.

"You can't pass through the wall, so why don't you watch Su Rong in case he'd escape?" Huo Ling asked Yi Bing when they reached the tenth floor. Seeing Yi Bing didn't speak and just kept looking around the tenth floor, Huo Ling's brows raised and he has a teasing smile on his face. "It can't be… you don't want to leave me?" he asked.

Yi Bing finally turned to Huo Ling. His eyes couldn't be any blanker as he looked at him. "This is the master watching his dog for his dog to not cause trouble." He answered.

A vein popped in Huo Ling's head. "I'm the master.." He declared.

Yi Bing just answered by pulling his 'tail'. Huo Ling's face darkened and he pulled his 'tail' off Yi Bing's hand. Then, without turning back, he entered unit 111. He was met with a bleak-looking room. The wallpapers had turned gray and there was less furniture compared to the other units in the apartment building.

Huo Ling looked around and saw picture frames of Li Lingling and her husband. They were a happy couple. He saw a picture frame where Li Lingling is pregnant. "Her stomach is too round…" he muttered. She must be five months pregnant that time she took the picture. You can feel her happiness just by looking at the picture.

However, this happiness was broken when her husband died, followed by when she got a miscarriage. One misfortune after another. Huo Ling can't help but sigh in pity. "I wonder how is she connected with me…" he muttered and he floated around the unit. He found Li Lingling cooking in the kitchen, but her face looked lifeless. How can you be happy when the one who you wanted to cook for after learning it is now gone? He saw her placed the spatula on the bowl and she cried. She is missing her husband, and also her child. Huo Ling left the sad scene and looked for clues around.

Suddenly, he saw a medical result on the table. He floated towards it and saw it was from S City General Hospital. Huo Ling doesn't know how to interpret the result, but his eyes caught sight of one word – miscarriage. His pupils shrank and he looked at the date. 3 years ago. She lost her baby three years ago. Because she was too brokenhearted, she never remarried. What a poor woman. He thought, his hear feeling heavy.

He was about to leave when the silence was broken by the cellphone ringing. Huo Ling saw Li Lingling wiped her tears and answered the call without looking for the caller's name. "Hello?" she answered, her voice nasally.

"What? You're crying again? All you do is cry, cry, cry!" a harsh voice came from the speaker.

"… mother." Li Lingling called, her expression turned cold. Huo Ling knew Li Lingling's parents are dead, so the one she called 'mother' must be her mother-in-law.

"Give me my son's possessions." the mother-in-law said.

"No." Li Lingling answered. "He left them to me – " she said, her tears falling again.

"Won't you remarry? What will you do with my son's possessions when you remarry? What will your new husband think?" she asked.

"I won't remarry." Li Lingling said, her voice hard.

"Ha! Your empty words! Didn't you have a lover? That's why my son died!" she said.

"I didn't!" Li Lingling answered. "It was my colleague at work – " she said.

"Colleague? My son died because of your colleague!" The mother-in-law sneered. "He saw you happily talking with that man and he was hit by a car!" she yelled. "Why don't you marry that colleague of yours? I'll give you three days to return my son's possessions!" she said and hung up.

Li Ling fell on her knees and cried. Huo Ling wanted to comfort her, but he remembered he's just a soul. Thus, he left to give her space. However, when he went out, he didn't see Yi Bing. "Where did he go?" he muttered and chose to go see Su Rong. He didn't see Yi Bing who was standing on the balcony of the thirteenth floor, just in front of unit 141. He looked out the Foul coming out of the space between the foot of the door and the floor. he immediately frozen the Foul that escaped.

After he killed the Soul Eater, he followed where its core – its 'Heart' is. Since he frozen it, he doesn't need to walk around to find it. He can feel its direction using his power, thus, he found that the Soul Eater's Heart is in 141. When he met the owner of the 141 – Xu Wenrong, a questioned formed in his mind.

Is he human? For the first time, he doubted his judgement. Since he thinks that Xu Wenrong is a human – just that he is too evil redemption cannot save him.

On the other side, Huo Ling finally reached 202. He felt complex emotions welling up inside him because he will be facing his murderer, yet he doesn't know him, nor why he killed him.

He finally entered Su Rong's unit and was shocked by the mountain of garbage before him.

S City Police Station.

"Ji Fengyu's case was finally solved." Gu Xingfeng sighed as he sat on his swivel chair inside his office. "The only ones left are He Xiaozhu, Huo Ling and Fu Ling." He said as he encircled the three's names. "However, He Xiaozhu and Huo Ling are connected through He Furong. Meanwhile, Huo Ling is connected to Fu Ling by delivering her foods she ordered." He said. "When he arrived, she's already dead. Then, he also suddenly died when someone stabbed him in the back."

He flipped the page before he ran his index finger on the next page.

"The primary suspect is Su Rong, who is the nearest to the scene of the crime and is the most possible who can execute the crime." He said and encircled Su Rong's name. "But, there's also the possibility that someone intentionally killed Huo Ling when he delivered the food to Fu Ling. However, how can they know Huo Ling will deliver food to Fu Ling at that time?" he asked, then encircled Wei Jing's name who was former colleague at work of Huo Ling. "Wei Jing can ask someone in the fast food to check on Huo Ling and kill Huo Ling. However, what is his motive for killing Huo Ling?" he said and marked an 'x' on Wei Jing's name. "Or it could be, Fu Ling colluded with someone and called Huo Ling, but then they had a falling out? Or was she threatened? However, how can they be sure it would be Huo Ling who will deliver the food?" he sighed.

He marked an 'x' on Fu Ling's name.

"There's a third possibility that it was a passerby – like a thief or something, and they were caught by Huo Ling and so they killed Huo Ling. But, Huo Ling was stabbed in the back, so he was sneak attacked. But, it might be an intentional kill." He encircled Li Lingling's name. "She knows Huo Ling. How? If she's the one who killed him, what is her motive?" he asked. Then, he looked at the last name on the paper which has only one relation – to Ji Shao.

It was Xu Wenrong's name. What is this old player's game? Does he have a hand on everything that happened? Or he's completely innocent?