Replacement

Despite his injuries not being fully healed, Jiang Xun did not waste a second.

He had An Ye drive immediately toward the police station. On the way, he used his high-level clearance to swiftly investigate Professor Zhou’s background.

Speaking of which, as the holders of that “Demon Origin” necklace, Professor Zhou and his wife had always been subjects of their investigation.

However, who could have known that Professor Zhou would die unexpectedly just as they arrived, and that the necklace would vanish mysteriously along with him? At that time, their attention had been entirely consumed by the necklace itself, leading them to overlook the holder—Professor Zhou!

Thinking back now, whether it was Professor Zhou’s death or the man himself, there were likely massive issues.

It was a classic case of the “darkness under the lamp”—overlooking what is right in front of you.

However, this was precisely what Jiang Xun found incomprehensible.

‘Why did the opponent intentionally leave those clues?’

Yes, that copy of The Biyi Bird back at the villa was clearly left there on purpose. Even the book at the Professor’s house was likely placed specifically to draw attention, all to connect the two dots at this very moment.

This suggested that everything might have been premeditated.

But Jiang Xun couldn’t understand: if the opponent had already successfully deceived them, why would they intentionally expose themselves?

Was it a provocation?

Or was it…

As he pondered while driving, An Ye handed over the laptop just as they hit a red light.

“Captain, here is the data on Professor Zhou.”

Jiang Xun took the laptop and skimmed the text during the red light, but he didn’t find many suspicious points in the records.

Professor Zhou Liangcai and his wife were both well-known scholars and archaeologists in Yujing. They had participated in numerous excavations of Pre-Era ruins.

Originally, they hadn’t taught at the university.

During an archaeological expedition, an accident occurred.

Professor Zhou’s wife was seriously injured in that accident. Although she was saved, her health became extremely poor, making it impossible for her to continue field work. Consequently, the couple retired from the front lines and took up positions at Yujing University.

For the next ten-plus years, the two worked diligently until Professor Zhou’s wife passed away from illness, followed now by Professor Zhou’s own unexpected death.

“I don’t see any problems here.”

Jiang Xun handed the laptop back to An Ye. From these records, there truly weren’t any glaring issues. But whether there were hidden problems would be revealed once they reached the police station.

By the time Jiang Xun and An Ye arrived at the station, the entire building was under martial law. He didn’t waste words and immediately had someone lead them to the cold storage.

Along the way, he saw many police officers fully armed. The entrance to the cold storage, in particular, was surrounded by heavy firepower; even the Director was present.

Seeing Jiang Xun and An Ye arrive, Director Chen stepped forward with a grave expression: “I’ll leave the rest to you!”

“Don’t worry.”

Jiang Xun didn’t say much. Under everyone’s watchful eyes, he took the lead and entered.

The morgue of the Yujing Police Station was quite large. Though the dim lighting made it look rather eerie, it wasn’t chaotic. Upon entering, one saw various shrouds and gurneys.

There were many corpses, of course, but the overall environment was orderly.

Jiang Xun and An Ye already knew the number of Professor Zhou’s storage locker. With a quick scan of the surroundings, they soon found the cabinet.

They exchanged a look and walked over cautiously.

Reaching the locker, Jiang Xun made a gesture. He had An Ye slowly open the door while he drew his specially-made revolver.

Using fire was an option, but the temperature in the cold storage was extremely low; a sudden burst of flames might provoke certain anomalies to wake up prematurely.

An Ye stood before the metal door. With the sound of grinding metal, he gently pulled it open.

And then…

“It’s empty.”

Yes, the locker was completely empty.

The corpse that was supposed to be stored here had seemingly vanished into thin air!

Jiang Xun checked carefully to ensure nothing was hidden before holstering his gun. His brow furrowed deeply. An Ye, looking at the empty locker, also frowned: “Professor Zhou really was a problem! Let’s go to his residence.”

The two confirmed the situation and quickly headed back out. The people outside, seeing them emerge unscathed without any sounds of a struggle, breathed a small sigh of relief. The Director hurried over to ask: “What is the situation?”

“The Professor’s body is gone.”

“Gone?”

The onlookers were stunned. How could a dead body just disappear? However, being missing was at least better than it having mutated into something else.

Jiang Xun didn’t know how to explain it either. He simply shook his head: “We aren’t clear on the specifics, but there is definitely something wrong with Professor Zhou. I plan to head back to his residence to check again.”

As he spoke, he seemed to think of something else.

“Oh, right. Professor Zhou’s wife might also be a problem! Xiao Ye, you and I will split up. Director Chen, please have some men follow him!”

“Professor Zhou’s wife? You mean… the grave?”

“Yes.”

Seeing Jiang Xun nod, Director Chen frowned slightly but quickly nodded back: “I understand.”

With accidents happening one after another tonight, time was of the essence. The group didn’t dawdle and moved into action once more.

Jiang Xun took the car back to Professor Zhou’s apartment, while An Ye, with the support of police personnel, prepared to investigate the grave of Professor Zhou’s wife.

The two parties went their separate ways.

Because the burial site was relatively remote, Jiang Xun was the first to arrive at the old residential district.

By now, the sky was completely dark. The facilities in the Professor’s old district were severely aged, making the entire neighborhood look somewhat sinister.

The youth naturally felt no fear. He drove the car right up to the building entrance. Having been here several times before, he was now quite familiar with the way.

When he pushed open the dust-covered door and flicked the switch, the Professor’s home looked no different than before.

But Jiang Xun remained vigilant. After observing for a while, he stepped lightly toward the bedroom.

The bedroom, crammed with various books, appeared as crowded as always. The man’s gaze was instantly drawn to the book sitting on the nightstand. He reached out to pick it up and found it was indeed identical to the one he had seen in Yu Fu’s room.

Except…

“Hmm?”

Jiang Xun flipped to the last page. There was indeed a line of elegant handwriting there as well, but these four words made him pause, even feel a bit stunned: [Ice-Fire Milk Tea?]

What the h*ll?

The previous line, “They are born together, they die together,” sounded quite poetic. How did it suddenly turn into milk tea here? The change in style was a bit too drastic.

“Wait, Ice-Fire Milk Tea? I seem to have heard that somewhere before…”

Jiang Xun himself didn’t like soft drinks and had no love for milk tea, so he naturally hadn’t paid attention to such information.

But his memory was excellent. He was certain he had heard this name somewhere recently.

“Right, is it that milk tea shop that recently went viral in Yujing? Why would its name be written in this book? Ice-Fire Milk Tea…”

Was there a problem?

But with just these words, the information was clearly too sparse. Regardless of whether that milk tea shop was problematic, the matter regarding Professor Zhou was becoming increasingly bizarre.

After a moment of thought, Jiang Xun didn’t move immediately. Instead, he calmed his mind and waited for news from the other side.

About half an hour later, his phone vibrated. He picked up instantly.

“Captain, we just dug up the grave of Professor Zhou’s wife, and we found two sets of skeletons buried together!”

An Ye’s voice came through the receiver. Jiang Xun was surprised: “Two?”

Not one, and not none—but two.

Could it be…

“Yes.”

On the other side, An Ye stood by the burial site with a group of people. He looked at the two sets of bones in the coffin that had clearly been dead for many years and reported: “According to the on-site identification, the skeletons are one male and one female, aged between fifty and sixty. The exact time of death can’t be determined, but at a glance, it’s been at least four or five years.”

As he spoke, the youth watched as the team responsible for opening and checking the coffin pulled out various burial goods. Most were books, but they were severely rotted due to time. There were also items resembling notebooks, but they crumbled at the slightest touch.

The only thing preserved relatively well was a photo album.

Perhaps because of its high quality or special treatment, the photos inside were only slightly yellowed, but the content remained clear.

The first page was mostly photos of a man. He looked to be in his twenties, refined, wearing glasses. In the photos, he was clearly still a student, with backgrounds like lakesides or libraries.

Among them were a few photos of another woman who looked a bit shy. She also appeared to be in her twenties, looking somewhat stiff and awkward in front of the lens.

Turning to the second page, there were significantly more photos of the two together. Their ages in the photos had clearly increased, with some looking over thirty.

At the same time, the backgrounds changed drastically; the campus environment disappeared, replaced by various beautiful landscapes.

From barren Gobi deserts to craters filled with black stones, from vast grasslands to dry deserts—the scenes they inhabited shifted constantly, and their postures grew increasingly intimate throughout the process.

Then came the third page, the fourth page…

Almost the entire album was filled with photos of the couple. As An Ye flipped further, the man’s face became increasingly familiar.

Until the final page. He looked at the photo of the man sitting by the bed and the woman on the sickbed—who was pale but still smiling—and completely confirmed their identities.

“Professor Zhou.”

“Yes, this is undoubtedly the collection of photos kept by Professor Zhou and his wife over many years.”

Considering this was the grave of Professor Zhou’s wife, it wasn’t strange for such items to be inside.

The problem was: if the female skeleton in the coffin was Professor Zhou’s wife, then who was the male skeleton buried with her?

At the same time, back at Professor Zhou’s house, Jiang Xun heard the report from the grave and spoke after a short thought: “Xiao Ye, check the left little finger of that male skeleton to see if it is missing a segment!”

Hearing this, An Ye immediately moved to confirm.

He soon got a positive answer.

The left little finger of the male skeleton was clearly incomplete.

That was it.

In his youth, Professor Zhou Liangcai had injured his left little finger in an accident, losing a segment. This matched the male skeleton perfectly.

That meant the two skeletons in the grave were very likely Professor Zhou and his wife!

But if the real Professor Zhou was in the grave and had been dead for years, then who was the Professor Zhou who had been teaching at Yujing University recently and had “died” unexpectedly earlier?

Jiang Xun originally thought the problem was Professor Zhou himself, but it currently seemed that was not the case.

The real Professor Zhou had passed away long ago, and someone else had taken his place!

One had to admit, this was a rather staggering realization.

It would be one thing to replace an ordinary person, but Professor Zhou was a famous scholar and archaeologist. Although he hadn’t participated in front-line archaeology in recent years, he still frequently attended highly professional conferences.

Furthermore, he was a professor at Yujing University. Not only did he need to teach students, but many laboratories at the school would often consult him when encountering problems…

Under such circumstances, how did the impostor manage to take over his identity for so many years without anyone noticing?

This was so far-fetched that Jiang Xun had previously assumed Professor Zhou himself was the problem, never considering the possibility that he had been replaced.

But currently, it seemed this “impossible” scenario was precisely the reality!

This person had not only replaced Professor Zhou’s identity but had done so flawlessly. It wasn’t until Jiang Xun and the others came knocking recently that the impostor used their attention to fake his death and escape.

Then, considering that the necklace later appeared in Yu Fu’s hands to be used for summoning a demon, and that this “Professor Zhou” appeared at the final moment to kill him and take his heart…

With these actions, it was hard not to suspect that the loss of the necklace was also premeditated. In fact, it was highly probable that “Professor Zhou” was the mastermind behind Yu Fu’s demon-summoning ritual!

The only thing Jiang Xun couldn’t figure out was: the opponent’s scheme had clearly succeeded, so why would they intentionally leave clues to alert them?

Although the disappearance of the body from the cold storage would eventually be discovered, in a situation where incidents were occurring frequently, it could have been delayed for a long time. After all, no one would have suspected that the “long-dead” Professor Zhou was the mastermind.

Yet now, the opponent had exposed themselves and left behind this bizarre clue about “Ice-Fire Milk Tea.”

Was it just a simple challenge? If so, what did this “Ice-Fire Milk Tea” represent? Why mention this milk tea shop out of the blue?

“The information is still too sparse!”

Jiang Xun felt a headache coming on.

The current situation was that the enemy was in the dark while they were in the light. They knew absolutely nothing about this individual who had impersonated Professor Zhou. Without a single piece of useful intelligence, it was naturally difficult to piece together the logic of the entire affair.

Currently, the only certainty was that the recent Professor Zhou was a fake. There was an inevitable connection between him and Yu Fu. For some reason, he appeared at the end to take Boss Yu’s heart and left a clue about a milk tea shop.

But as for who this person was and why they were going through all these convoluted steps—that remained unknown for the time being.