Mr. Kang was one of the councilmen of a village from Fengrun District. His mother was in hysteria over the disappearance of his neighbor's chicken. A simple matter of a missing chicken would not have a councilman traveled so far for help; but the owner of the chicken was a shrew, a termagant with an intolerable streak of temper that would embitter anyone who would dare commit the folly of antagonizing her. She was known to everyone in the village to sit and pout at the gates of anyone who had offended her, wearing the person down until apologies were tendered and disdainfully accepted by her. As it turned out, she woke up one day and found her chicken missing. But she had not even the slightest inkling of who to look for, sitting outside her house and began grumbling that her chicken must have been poached by weasels. Coincidentally, her angered complaints were heard by Mr. Kang's mother, who succumbed into fits of rage and anger herself. The old lady took to the streets, storming t

The large double-decker was not a normal bus coming from nor it was heading to somewhere else; it was a conveyance from the Underworld, here to deliver spirits and ghosts! The ghost of the dumb person had felt it coming; this explained his forlorn reluctance to leave the black cat! He, a dumb person, did have less attachment left in this world than other common people, save for the black cat which had been his companion for some time. With Smoky's wellbeing now seen to, the ghost could now pass on in peace, hence the coming of the Underworld Express for him. Most spirits and ghosts were taken by the heralds of Hell into the Underworld. But those which final wishes had been fulfilled, and had passed on in peace, could just ride on the bus into the Realm of the Dead without wading through messy formalities. The bus had found the ghost of the dumb person, since his final deathbed bequest was effectuated. The large bus screeched to a halt before us. Its doors slid open, re

Zheng Shuang came for another visit after a few days. Mr. Kang, the village councilman who had tricked us, was found dead. His body was found at only a few kilometers from where we were kidnapped, with a scraper blade buried into his back. The police had found fingerprints on the knife but they did not match anything on their system. So far, our leads had all reached a dead end. "But according to word on the streets," Zheng Shuang continued, "The eldest and second of the Wang brothers intend to lodge a report against you for excessive self-defense! You must be ready! I have tried my best to keep the news from leaking, but it seems that the family of the dead man does not want to let things go..." My companions, Lin Feng and Yuan Chongxi, looked at me, and I looked back. An impish smile slowly formed on our faces and we erupted into guffaws of laughter. "So be it then!" I said. Zheng Shuang was bewildered, shocked beyond words at us. "Wh-what... Y-you..." I steered the

Lin Feng had barely begun to speak when another voice came from behind. "What kind of woman worth so much money? I'll have to take a look at her myself!" Everyone's gaze traveled to another young man. The newcomer had almost the exact same physique as Lin Feng, although he did not know who the newcomer was. But the group of four were immediately terrified to see him! The newcomer gave a yawn and shouted, "Are you fighting? Count me in! It'll be a three-way elimination brawl, eh?" Unbeknownst to Lin Feng, the newcomer was a half-local of the vicinity. He lived just about six or seven miles away and spent almost every second of his time at the bazaar as a parochial hoodlum that ran a racket engaging in coercive commercial and fraud activities, as well as the usual violence and terror-inducing disorders with a band of lackeys. There was once when he was caught by the police for causing trouble at the bazaar. But when he was thrown into the lockup, the impude

Lin Feng looked at us, and we too looked at him for a few uneasy seconds. "Why are you all looking at me?" he asked bashfully. I chuckled and whispered to him something. He took out his mobile phone and made a call. "Aunt," he said to his god-aunt, "It's me. Can you get me the number of your nephew's wife? ... Ohhh... It's nothing. I just have something to ask her... Okay, I'll wait for your message!" He ended the call and explained that his god-aunt would send the phone number via SMS to us. She was not very adept in using her mobile phone, hence sifting through her phone book would need some time. His phone rang suddenly and Lin Feng forwarded the message to me. I immediately pressed at the number on my screen to make the call. "Hi there. Do you remember what happened at the bazaar?" I said to the woman when she answered the call, "I am a colleague of the man who took you. We are part of the same investigations agency. You remember who, do you?" "Is there anything I