Strange Tales of the Ghosts

In the middle of the second night, a big incident happened in Pingshan Town, a butcher who sold pork died. Those who were at the scene saw that it was the bloodiest thing they had ever seen. The butcher's body was placed on the pork stall, his chest was gouged open, and his internal organs were nowhere to be found. His mouth and eyes were wide open, they could tell that the butcher was extremely terrified when he was dying. The news spread across the town in less than half a day, and everyone was terrified. The administrative office has not solved the case, and everyone was just guessing what killed him. Some said it was a distorted murderer, someone said he offended his enemy, and the most bizarre saying was that a monster appeared in town.

After lunch, Zhou Hanliu mentioned this, "Father, have you heard about what happened in town?"

"Yes," Qian Dagui nodded. It was indeed strange. Pingshan Town was only so big, who would do something like this? It wasn't impossible that an outsider did it, but the administration didn't know where the butcher's organs went. There was an old rule in town; whenever something like this happened in town, all the big households would donate money to search for the culprit. Of course, it wasn't because they wanted to do something good for the town. It was because they were afraid to die, worried that they would be the next one if the culprit didn't get caught. Therefore, Qian Dagui had already contacted a few other families and arranged a meeting in the afternoon to discuss this.

Xue Fu was eating with them, and Zhou Hanliu glanced at her pale face with a smile, "Don't be scared, Sister. We will be fine with Father and Xuan here."

"She's right. I'm here, Xue Fu." Qian Lu caring held Xue Fu's hand tightly, and her pitiful expressions made him feel heartache. She looked anxious since she heard the news this morning, and Qian Lu wouldn't leave her side either. Xue Fu leaned in Qian Lu's arms obediently and accidentally discovered that Zhou Hanliu looked at her oddly. Zhou Hanliu smiled, but her eyes were cold. Xue Fu had occupied Qian Lu for two days now, so she couldn't question Zhou Hanliu and could only remain silent.

After a while, Qian Dagui left and Qian Lu took Xue Fu back to her room. Zhou Hanliu followed behind Qian Lu and Xue Fu, her eyes were like a knife, desperate to separate the two. But she knew it wasn't the right time yet; she had to wait patiently.

Two days went by, and the culprit wasn't caught yet when the second victim appeared. The second victim was a hedonistic son of a wealthy family who was ignorant and incompetent. His chest was gouged out just like the butcher, and his organs disappeared too. A villager who saw the scene, snorted while covering his nose, "This is no murder, it looks more like he was eaten by a dog?"

"Hey, now you've said it, it doesn't look like murdering." A woman looked at the corpse and realized it was exactly like the villager described.

The news spread quickly, and everyone had a new theory about the murders in town. At first, they thought it was a monstrous serial killer, but now they thought it looked more like some type of dog did it. In a moment, the latter guess sounded reasonable, and many people killed their dogs just to prove their innocence. The investigation became easier; all the families with dogs were taken to the office for interrogation, but they all cried that their dogs didn't kill anyone.