Chapter Eighty-Three: Three Choices

When I heard that question, my first reaction was confusion. I had no idea what he meant by it at all.

Seeing my puzzled expression, Peng Li continued, “I’ll give you three choices.

“First: you think your eyes played a trick on you.

“Second: you think maybe that person just happened to look very much like your dead acquaintance.

“Third: you think your dead acquaintance has come back to life.”

For some reason I couldn’t explain, the moment I heard that third option, a dense shiver ran over my entire body.

I thought about it for a while, then looked at Peng Li very seriously and said, “Brother Peng, since I’ve already run into that acquaintance on the street, I’d choose the third possibility and believe that my dead acquaintance has come back to life. Or rather, he probably never died in the first place.”

Peng Li seemed quite satisfied with my answer. He smiled, took a sip of the beer in his hand, and said, “All my colleagues think I’m crazy. If I asked them to choose, not one of them would pick the third possibility. But I know that people in your world, the ones with real skill, would definitely choose the third possibility.”

I let out an oh and then said, “Brother Peng, you didn’t bring me here just to ask me this strange question, did you? Can you help my brother?”

“Your brother killed someone in public. How am I supposed to help you? Minimum sentence: twenty years.”

Peng Li’s words made my heart sink. I even felt a surge of anger, thinking he was just toying with me. I was about to get up and leave when one of his words suddenly stopped me.

“However, if your brother’s case is classified as a supernatural one, then maybe there’s still room for a turnaround.”

I turned back at once and looked at Peng Li with hope. “Brother Peng, you must believe in supernatural events, right? If that’s the case, can you get your bureau to handle this as a supernatural case?”

Peng Li shook his head and said this was a civilized society, what did I take him for?

Then he drained the beer in his hand and said that in the entire police station, he was the only one who understood.

The last ember of hope I had been clinging to went out in an instant, but at that moment Peng Li suddenly rummaged through the messy pile of books on the sofa and pulled out one, which he tossed into my hands.

I opened it and saw that it was a collection of short supernatural stories, written by someone who called himself the Ghost Scholar. The preface on the first page was the very question Peng Li had just asked me.

“If one day, on a street in a foreign land, you come across an acquaintance who died many years ago, what would you do? Here are three choices!”

I looked at Peng Li in bewilderment. “What are you trying to do by showing me this book?”

Peng Li said that perhaps it had something to do with my brother’s murder case. He then explained that the book told the story of someone who had died, only to come back to life.

I nodded unconsciously and said, “What does that have to do with my brother killing someone?”

“Absolutely related.” Peng Li yawned, then told me to put the book away for now. He would take me to see someone.

So Peng Li took me back to the garage and got into his battered BYD SUV. My heart immediately tightened. I had no desire whatsoever to ride in this man’s car, because I wasn’t sure whether I might suddenly die in a traffic accident.

In the end, Peng Li drove to a billiards hall in another district of our city. The whole trip took nearly an hour. Fortunately, he didn’t crash the car this time, but just as I had finally begun to relax, this guy actually drove straight into a pool table right in front of us.

Places like this billiards hall were usually frequented by local toughs. At the sight of this, no fewer than ten furious young men immediately surrounded us.

My heart shot up into my throat, because I was worried that we might be beaten to death by those street punks next. Then Peng Li, without the slightest hesitation, drew a pistol from his waist.

The moment those young men saw the gun in Peng Li’s hand, none of them dared move. One by one, they backed away in terror.

Peng Li sneered and said, “Which one of you is called Water Mouse? I’m a police officer!”

As soon as Peng Li finished speaking, a thin, rat-faced fellow on the other side changed color at once and ran toward the back of the billiards hall as fast as he could.

Peng Li shouted for him to stop, then strode after him, firing a shot as he ran. I didn’t know whether he did it on purpose or whether his aim was simply terrible, but the bullet hit the ceiling directly, terrifying the group of young hoodlums so badly that they crouched on the floor with their heads in their hands.

In the end, Water Mouse was chased by Peng Li into a dead-end alley, and I, panting hard, followed behind. When I caught up, I saw Peng Li angrily beating and kicking him. I hurried over and pulled him back. “Brother Peng, calm down. If you keep hitting him like that, you’ll beat him to death.”

Only then did Peng Li stop. He grabbed the man by the collar and lifted him up. “You’re Water Mouse?”

The man nodded fearfully. “Big brother, wh-what do you want with me?”

Peng Li immediately took out a photograph and held it in front of Water Mouse, asking whether he recognized the person in it.

The moment Water Mouse saw the person in the photo, his pupils constricted violently. He hurriedly shook his head in panic and said he didn’t know him.

And at that moment, I also saw the person in Peng Li’s photo. It was the man whose head had been smashed by Liu Dong with a beer bottle, the one with Guan Yu tattooed on his back.

“You dare lie to me?” Peng Li flew into a rage when he heard Water Mouse say he didn’t know the person. Then, without the slightest courtesy, he pressed the gun against Water Mouse’s forehead. “What I hate most is people lying to my face. I’ll give you three counts to think it over. Three...”

Not only Water Mouse, but even I, standing beside them, broke out in a cold sweat. I could clearly feel a chilling killing intent coming off Peng Li, and I would not have doubted for a second that if Water Mouse failed to give him a satisfactory answer after three counts, this man would really blow his head apart.

At last, when Peng Li counted down to one, Water Mouse could no longer endure the threat and hurriedly nodded, saying he knew him.

Only then did Peng Li put the gun away. Then, without another word, he slapped Water Mouse across the face and looked over at me, telling me to come ask whatever I wanted.

To be honest, I didn’t even know what I should ask, because up to that very moment I still hadn’t figured out what Peng Li’s purpose was in dragging me here to find Water Mouse.

Still, I walked over and asked whether he truly knew the person in the photo.

Water Mouse had already been frightened nearly to death. Trembling, he nodded and said yes. The man in the photo was named Wang Lun. He was a brother he had run with for many years.

I gave an mm and then asked whether he knew about what had happened last night at the KTV outside the gate of Bashu Institute of Technology, where Wang Lun had supposedly had his head smashed open with a beer bottle.

The instant I said that, Water Mouse’s face was filled with disbelief, and he said to me in a terrified voice, “B-brother, what are you talking about?”

My expression darkened. “How could I possibly joke with you about something like this?”

Water Mouse became agitated at once, repeatedly insisting that it was impossible. I also realized something seemed off, and hurriedly asked him whether he knew something.

Seeing Water Mouse hesitate like that, Peng Li once again made a motion to draw his gun. Water Mouse jumped in fright and quickly said, “Brother, how could Wang Lun have been beaten to death last night? He was killed half a month ago!”

Hearing those words, my mind exploded with a loud buzz. The man with Guan Yu tattooed on his back had died half a month ago? Then who was it that Liu Dong smashed in the head at the KTV last night?

At that moment, the question Peng Li had asked me earlier echoed uncontrollably in my mind.

“If one day, on a street in a foreign land, you suddenly run into an old acquaintance who has long been dead, what would you do? I’ll give you three choices...”