This afternoon, Gu Xu arrived in Ju County.
Without delaying for a minute, he ordered Dong Zhuangzhuang to drive directly to the destination of his trip - the Fan family residence.
According to Gu Xu's previous understanding, the Fan family has been engaged in the wine-making business in Ju County for generations. Although they are not wealthy, they can be regarded as a well-off family with a prosperous life.
The victim in the case, Fan Zhou, was the only child of the younger generation of the Fan family.
Following the orders of his parents and the advice of a matchmaker, he made a marriage contract with Qin Xiangyun, a daughter of the Qin family who lived nearby.
Originally, they were going to hold their wedding half a month ago, on September 26th.
However, during the wedding banquet that night, the groom Fan Zhou suddenly disappeared without a trace.
The Fan family members searched the nearby neighborhoods but could not find any trace of Fan Zhou.
They felt extremely anxious and worried about Fan Zhou's life.
The woman's family believes that the Fan family is not trustworthy.
They even proposed to cancel the engagement - after all, Fan Zhou had disappeared without news for so long and was probably dead. They didn't want Qin Xiangyun to become a widow because of this.
…………
When Gu Xu's carriage stopped outside the Fan family's house, the Fan family and Qin family were standing at the door arguing.
The man's parents shouted: "Our son has been missing for so long, but you don't care about his life and safety. Instead, you come here all day shouting 'break off the engagement', 'break off the engagement'... Oh, we were really blind to choose you." Such a selfish person should be the in-laws."
The woman's parents were not to be outdone: "Speaking of selfishness, you Fan family are just a bunch of selfish villains! You only care about your own son and have not considered the feelings of my family Xiangyun at all. Your son will lose at most one life, and my family will lose one life at most." What my daughter has lost is her lifelong happiness!"
The man’s parents angrily said, “You are cold-blooded, you are indifferent, and you are unreasonable!”
The woman's parents retorted: "Where are we cold-blooded? Where are we ruthless? Where are we being unreasonable? This is clearly caused by your son!"
"..."
Hearing the quarrel between the two elders, which was like scolding in the market, Gu Xu shook his head helplessly.
At this moment, an errand boy from the Fan family suddenly saw Gu Xu's black carriage and the Exorcist Department logo shaped like a star chart on the carriage door.
"Sir, the master of the exorcism department is here!" The boy shouted excitedly.
People from the Fan family and the Qin family all turned their heads.
As soon as they saw the black carriage, their eyes suddenly lit up, as if they had found a life-saving straw.
The mistress of the Qin family took the lead to take two steps forward, knelt down in front of the carriage with a plop, and spoke in a crying voice: "Sir, the Fan family did not keep their promises and failed my Xiangyun's affection. You must Bring justice to us!"
Seeing her actions, the Fan family couple refused to lag behind.
They also knelt on their knees, hugged the wheels of the carriage and shouted: "Sir, don't believe that woman's words! She is talking nonsense!"
Gu Xu sighed.
He is clearly a practitioner in the Exorcism Department responsible for killing demons.
But at this moment, in front of this group of people, he felt as if he had become the neighborhood committee aunt who mediates neighborhood conflicts.
"Tell me your name!" he ordered Dong Zhuangzhuang, who was driving.
After hearing his words, Dong Zhuangzhuang stood up and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Master Gu, the manager of the Yishui Exorcism Department, has arrived——"
The relatives of Fan and Qin finally stopped quarreling, bowed their heads respectfully and said: "The common people respectfully welcome Mr. Gu!"
Gu Xu stood up, straightened his clothes, then opened the carriage door and walked out.
At this moment, everyone's eyes were focused on him.
I saw this young man wearing a black gauze hat and a Qiyao suit, with clear eyebrows and bright eyes, and a majestic appearance.
"This gentleman from the Yishui Exorcism Department looks so young! He seems to be as old as my son!"
"The exorcist department is really ridiculous, letting such a young child wear a black gauze hat! Do they think that slaying demons and slaying demons is just like playing house?"
"No, no, no one really thinks that this young boy can solve this case, right?"
"..."
Among the onlookers, some people covered their mouths and whispered.
Although these sounds were as light as mosquitoes, Gu Xu had practiced "Eclipse" and his spiritual perception was far beyond ordinary people, so he could naturally hear these words clearly.
But he didn't bother to waste time arguing with this group of short-sighted mortals.
These people were probably just trying to spite him.
"You all get up!" Gu Xu glanced around the crowd and said calmly, "You need to go to the county magistrate to deal with such matters as male marriage and female marriage, neighborhood disputes. As an exorcist, I am only responsible for Solve the ghost involved."
"Ghost?"
Hearing Gu Xu's words, Fan and his wife were shocked.
Is the disappearance of my son Fan Zhou related to ghosts?
I heard that ghosts and monsters regard humans as food...
In this case, would their precious son still have a chance to come back alive?
Mrs. Fan's heart suddenly felt cramped.
She stretched out her hand and held her husband's arm tightly, feeling that she might faint at any moment.
…………
After a while, Gu Xu, led by the Fan family couple, walked into the Fan family house.
Along the way, he asked the couple about some details of the day's case: such as the time of Fan Zhou's disappearance, such as the place where Fan Zhou was last seen, such as the witnesses...
The information he learned was that at the wedding banquet, Fan Zhou was halfway through drinking and claimed that he wanted to go to the toilet; however, after leaving the lobby, he never came back.
Hearing this, Gu Xu's first reaction was - could Fan Zhou be haunted by the legendary toilet ghost who likes to squat in the toilet and harm people?
…………
A story is recorded in "The Weird Records of Daqi: Toilet Ghost":
A man named Li fell in love with going to the toilet when he was traveling with his friends. He would often stay in the toilet for an hour or two and would have to be dragged out by his friends.
But other times, he behaves like a normal person.
One day, when everyone was drinking together, the friend discovered that Li was missing.
So the friend went straight to the toilet to look for Li.
This time, Li blocked the toilet door with a seat.
The friend shouted for a long time, but no one responded, so he had to tear down the wall and enter the toilet.
Then he was surprised to find that a pair of Li's feet were exposed in the toilet pit - Li's entire body was almost submerged in the pickled things, and he was no longer breathing.
…………
"Before Fan Zhou got married, did he have the habit of going to the toilet frequently?" Gu Xu asked the Fan couple.
"No."
"Did anyone see him in the toilet that night?"
"No."
"Have you ever found his body in the cesspit?"
"I looked for it, but it's not inside."
"OK."
Gu Xu nodded, eliminating the first wrong guess.
…………
Note:
(1) The story of the toilet ghost refers to "Liu Zongyuan Collection·Li Chi Biography".
