Netherworld Investigator

We managed to find an old DVD player in the house. As soon as we played the tape, blurry silver lines flashed across the screen and then a video popped out.

The location of the video appeared to be a secret room. Mr. Mu was sitting on the couch. "Have you disposed of it?" he asked.

"Don’t worry," assured another man. "I called you here today to discuss it." Though the man didn’t appear in the video, his voice was one I was familiar with. Song Xingchen and I exchanged a knowing look. "It’s him!"

This other man in the video was Yang Xingdong who called himself the Crazy Six Tao Chef.

"The police are still investigating me. You’d better clean it up or we’ll both be implicated," came Mr. Mu’s impatient reply.

"Mr. Mu, in fact, I’m not a professional killer..."

"What?!"

"I am an artist, a gourmet! Killing your wife is a job too crude for me! I called you here today in hopes that you would participate in a sacred ceremony, which will bring you back to life. I know you have been living in the shadow of that woman and you can’t lift your head up high. She’s part of your waking nightmares. Can you get rid of her simply by killing her? No, she’ll only become a ghost that’ll haunt you forever!"

"What the hell are you trying to say?!" shouted Mr. Mu.

"Please wait a moment."

The sound of wheels turning reverberated around the room. At the sight of the huge steamer rack that was wheeled into the room, Mr. Mu shrank back in fear and asked, "What is this?"

"Your nightmare."

Yang Xingdong opened the steamer and there his "nightmare" was, a fat middle-aged woman kneeling in the center, her fleshy body white and glistening under a gauze-like cloth.

Outside the video, Xiaotao covered her mouth in disgust.

Mr. Mu cried hysterically, "You’re crazy! You’re a fucking lunatic!"

"Mr. Mu, I’m trying to help you." Yang Xingdong sincerely urged, "To defeat your nightmare, you must absorb and assimilate it till it becomes part of you. This process is delicious and unforgettable. I fed her spices for seven days, soaked her entire body with the best wine, and then steamed her over a slow fire for two days and two nights. Every bone in her body is soft and chewy. This is my best work of art, and I’m offering it to you."

"You’re crazy! You madman! Get the hell away from me!"

Frenziedly grabbing the objects on the table, Mr. Mu threw them at Yang Xingdong.

"Mr. Mu." Yang Xingdong held his wrist and stared intently into his eyes. "If you don’t eat every single bit of this woman and the police find even a strand of hair, you’re going to be arrested."

Yang Xingdong pulled a piece of flesh from the woman, gulping it down as he sighed contentedly. "A taste that touches the

"Why do you have to use such methods..." cried a shivering Mr. Mu.

"I already told you, I am an artist. Since you’ve hired me, I’ll solve your problem with my own methods." Then, with his arm around Mr. Mu’s back, he pointed to the corpse and persuaded, "Look, this tigress is still staring at you. You’re so afraid of her you won’t even look at her even after she’s dead."

"I-I..." Mr. Mu’s forehead was soaked in cold sweat, his eyes suddenly shining, "I’m not afraid of you!"

Like a man who had lost his mind, he pounced on his ex-wife, crazily stuffing her flesh into his mouth as Yang Xingdong watched, throwing his head back in deranged laughter.

At this point, Xiaotao hit fast forward, quickly going through the rest of the video that was filled with horrifying pictures.

After a long silence, I said, "This pervert practices what he preaches!"

"But how did this video get to Mr. Mu?" asked Xiaotao.

"I think he was blackmailed."

So Mr. Mu first hired Yang Xingdong to murder his wife, but he never imagined such a turn of events. Yang Xingdong filmed him eating his wife and blackmailed him with the video afterwards.

Mr. Mu had to pay through the nose, perhaps quite a few times till he finally purchased the video. The large sum of money became Yang Xingdong’s start-up capital for his company.

But why would Mr. Mu hold onto such incriminating evidence? Perhaps undergoing Yang Xingdong’s baptism changed Mr. Mu from inside out. The process of eating his wife, bite by bite, was regarded as a ceremony for reinventing himself, and he was unwilling to destroy evidence of that.

Tapping her hand on the remote control, Xiaotao sighed, "Looks like my dad has lost yet another friend."

Mr. Mu was eventually arrested by the police trying to leave the country. Upon learning about this, Mr. Huang was deeply saddened, but even that couldn’t swerve him from eagerly buying up Mr. Mu’s company. The notions of these bigwig businessmen were beyond the reach of an ordinary man such as myself.

"Let’s try looking for more clues. The location of the video is probably a secret hiding place, which may lead us to Yang Xingdong!"

"You’re right," nodded Xiaotao. "Get Wang Yuanchao in here!" Then, turning to Song Xingchen, she chuckled, "Hey handsome, will you please accompany the young lady?"

Song Xingchen simply fiddled with the hilt of his Tang Sword, turning a deaf ear to Xiaotao’s words.

Well aware of Song Xingchen’s nature, I told him to guard outside the study and prevent Mrs. Mu from peeping. When Wang Yuanchao returned, the three of us turned our attention to the video once more.

"Stop!" exclaimed Wang Yuanchao as he pointed to a spot in the video. "There’s moss at the foot of the wall. It looks like a basement. There’s a layer of white saline and alkaline. Wherever this is, the soil here is extremely alkaline."

"The light flashes every three seconds," I pointed out. "Is the voltage unstable?"

"There must be large machines running nearby," surmised Wang Yuanchao. "Once every three seconds... What could that be?" Upon further contemplation, he ventured, "Could it be an automobile factory? As far as I recall, they have large machines that have that frequency."

"Let’s check it out!" said Xiaotao.

Ten minutes after a phone call to Lao Yao, he called back and reported, "There’s an electroplating factory in the northern outskirts which closed down five years ago. It’s built on saline-alkali soil... It looks like someone has purchased the land."

"Who is it?"

"Mr. Mu!"

"That must be it!" declared Xiaotao. "Let’s go!"

Xiaotao ordered Bingxin to mobilize a team of officers while the four of us rushed to the old electroplating factory. Outside the abandoned factory site, we joined forces with the rest of the team. Upon alighting the vehicle, Louis insisted on taking Yang Xingdong into his custody after the arrest.

"No way," refused Xiaotao. "Yang Xingdong is a citizen of our country. He hasn’t joined the United States and cannot be handed over to the American police."

Louis merely shrugged, "Fine, I’ll negotiate with your boss then!"

"If I say no, that means no. The special team doesn’t have a superior."

As Louis angrily glared at Xiaotao, Lao Yao gave a thumbs up. "You’re a tough woman indeed!"

We managed to obtain a blueprint of the electroplating factory from the person in charge. There was a basement under the workshop. As soon as we entered the premises, an officer shouted, "Someone’s there!"

A glimpse at the fleeting figure was all I needed to recognize our man, Yang Xingdong. "Get him!" I ordered.

Under siege by the police, the self-proclaimed gourmet lost all semblance of elegance as he fled in a hurry. We intercepted him in the workshop where Xiaotao fired her gun into the sky and yelled, "Yang Xingdong, you are surrounded. Surrender now!"