The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 4229 Possession by Evil Spirits (9)

Chapter 4229 Possession by Evil Spirits (Part 9)

When Bruce woke up again, it was already dawn. His dreams that night were a jumbled mess. However, he seemed to have seen the man's memories again. It seemed that the mummified corpse in the clown costume had been a handsome scumbag in life, stealing the hearts of many girls.

What's a bit strange is that, putting aside whether he's actually a rich second-generation, this guy is so handsome, what kind of pretty girl wouldn't he be able to hook up with? Especially those rich girls from big cities, he could easily win them over. If he found one, he wouldn't have to worry about food and drink for the rest of his life, and he wouldn't have to play the clown to make others laugh anymore.

But the woman he claimed he was going to take home to marry appeared to be a prostitute, and the kind that couldn't be seen in public. Her appearance was rather ordinary, nothing special. Why did he choose her?

Bruce knew that the man probably did eventually take the woman back to his hometown and marry her. Because the man's daughter, Amy, had the exact same hair and eye color as the prostitute, and their faces also bore a resemblance. They were likely mother and daughter.

Bruce felt something was definitely fishy. He had to find more clues about the circus; although the warehouse had burned down, there were bound to be some things that hadn't been destroyed. He decided to go back there again.

He and Kent returned to the ruins of the warehouse. It was indeed almost completely burned down. The town didn't even have a police station, let alone a fire station; it had burned all night, leaving the land blackened.

Fortunately, there was only one wooden house nearby, and the rest were old brick houses, so the fire did not spread.

Bruce and Kent stepped inside and began checking for any remaining items. To their disappointment, almost everything had burned to ashes; there were no remains whatsoever.

However, some of the more durable items were preserved intact—the row of large iron cages that had been stored behind the warehouse. Perhaps due to their age and the poor quality of steel at the time, much of the cages had melted and were lying crookedly on the ground.

Bruce glanced over and initially didn't think anything of it, but he quickly noticed something was wrong. The lock on the cage was different from the locks on regular animal cages.

Nowadays, the simplest cage lock usually consists of a bolt with a protruding hole at the end and a metal plate that covers it. After passing the metal plate through the protruding hole, a padlock is hung on the hole, making it impossible to open.

In the past, locks and keys were relatively expensive, so people generally avoided using locks if possible, or they used simpler pull locks. These involved threading a bolt through a specially shaped hole, then pulling it up to the other edge of the hole to secure it.

This type of lock is commonly used in cages for wild animals. Animals like lions and tigers don't have the dexterity of primates; they can't grip the bolt, can't perform complex maneuvers, and certainly wouldn't understand how the bolt works. This type of lock is perfectly adequate for them. Even some later pet cage locks followed this approach, eliminating the need for locks and keys, simply incorporating mechanisms that cats and dogs can't open.

But Bruce discovered that this circus, which operated in the last century, had equipped each cage with a lock.

When he arrived before, the situation was too urgent, and he didn't have time to look closely. Besides, because of the roof, it was too dark to see anything clearly. This fire burned the entire house down, which actually allowed Bruce to see more details.

He walked over and knelt down, examining the lock closely. It was indeed a product of the last century. Although there were assembly line factories back then, the mold-making technology was nowhere near what it is now, and this lock clearly looked quite old.

So here's the question: if it's for keeping lions and tigers, why use such a lock? Is it to prevent the lions from stealing the key, or to prevent the tigers from picking the lock?

A possibility immediately flashed through Bruce's mind. Just then, Kent walked over. He didn't examine things as closely as Bruce, but he noticed another detail.

“Look,” Kent pointed to the ground.

Bruce looked down and noticed that the ground here was indeed a little different from other places.

Of course, the floorboards had long since burned away, leaving only the foundation. But back then, the foundation wasn't solid concrete; it was made of bricks. The bricks in this area were a bit looser than the others.

The two found a branch and started tapping the bricks. After prying for a while, they finally broke through, and the soil underneath looked different from the burnt areas. Bruce reached in and dug, and surprisingly found grass roots.

He dug up a few more bricks around the area but found nothing; the only place with plant roots was the area where the cage was placed. This confirmed his earlier suspicions.

“I’m afraid this isn’t where animals are kept,” Bruce said, shaking his head. “The locks must be for primates. And the change in the soil underneath is probably due to long-term seepage of excrement.”

Kent gasped. "You mean this cage holds a person?!" he exclaimed.

Bruce nodded and said, "I'm afraid that's the case."

"But...but those wild beasts also defecate, right? It can't be them..."

"Don't forget, wild beasts mark their territory by scent. They are much more sensitive to smell than humans, so in the field of animal training, how to handle the excrement of wild beasts is very important. Because if it is not handled properly, wild beasts like lions and tigers that use scent to mark their territory will become very agitated and will be completely unusable for performances."

“Oh, I see,” Kent said. “They smell too much of their own kind’s urine and feel like their territory is being invaded, so they go crazy?”

"Not entirely, but you can understand it this way. In short, the circus makes money off these wild animals; they need to ensure these animals can perform smoothly on stage. But humans..."

Kent fell silent. He could roughly imagine what they were doing locking people up here. But a sliver of hope remained. He said, "Maybe it's some kind of gorilla? They have dexterous fingers that can pick locks, and they're smart enough to escape. They might not be so ferocious..."

"Are you aware of another habit of primates?"

"what?"

“They throw feces at each other,” Bruce said. “Because they have dexterous hands that can grasp, they use their feces as weapons to attack each other, especially when they are in a bad mood. This behavior is very frequent. The gaps in the cage bars are large enough for them to throw their excrement out. Although the lighting was poor before, I also checked that there was no excrement on the clothes or other easily soiled items around the cage. Moreover, the only difference was the condition of the soil under the cage, which also indicates that the excrement was not scattered everywhere.”

Kent sighed and said, "Well, it seems I have to accept the worst-case scenario. So let's examine why they would do this. Was it purely to satisfy their own selfish desires?"

Bruce shook his head and said, "It's possible that one person would do this secretly. But judging from the size of this cage, it's likely that everyone in the circus, from top to bottom, knew about it, but they tacitly chose to cooperate, or even become accomplices. This proves that they couldn't possibly be doing this just to satisfy their desires, because there must be women in the circus who wouldn't have cooperated so readily if they hadn't received any benefits."

“Maybe they were just forced into violence,” Kent said.

Bruce shook his head again and continued, "In a closed environment, perhaps that would be true, but this is a circus after all, and they're on tour. They have far too many opportunities to come into contact with the outside world. Violence might be able to intimidate them for a while, but if even one person among so many people wants to resist, it's too easy for them to reach the audience, and things will definitely be exposed."

"Then it's unlikely to be a kidnapping committed by a man to satisfy his desires. Perhaps it's human trafficking? That would also fit the habits of a circus's touring performances."

“That’s possible.” Bruce nodded. “This circus is secretly involved in human trafficking, using its tour routes to kidnap victims and sell them in unfamiliar cities.”

"However, there's a problem with that. They have to make arrangements with everyone they meet in so many cities, and they need to know enough smugglers to sell their animals smoothly. Otherwise, if they catch new ones but haven't sold the old ones, they'll be in big trouble."

"Why do you say that?"

“The person has already been arrested, so there’s no way we can let them go back, otherwise the other side will definitely call the police. But if we kill them, then there’s an even more troublesome issue: disposing of the body. Disposing of a body isn’t as simple as you think; sometimes it’s even harder than dealing with a living person.”

"In that case, it does seem quite difficult to achieve." Kent scratched his head, unsure of what was going on.

However, because of the information in his dream, Bruce had a possible speculation: the actor who played the clown might not be trying to seduce rich girls, but instead wanted to marry a prostitute, perhaps because that was his profession.

Circuses often operate with a dark side, involving human trafficking and other shady activities—the kind of business that absolutely cannot be brought to the light of day. For such businesses to operate smoothly, it's best to recruit only local, trustworthy individuals.

However, while this approach might work for running a business, it's not suitable for marriage. In small towns where generations have lived, the biggest fear is inbreeding. This clown actor lived in the last century, not the Middle Ages, and they were well aware of the dangers of consanguineous marriage. Therefore, they had no choice but to find outsiders.

But once an outsider is hired, that person will inevitably find out what they're doing. You can guard against anything, but it's hard to guard against a thief within your own ranks. Therefore, it's best to find someone with little power, a distorted moral compass, and someone who can be easily controlled and brainwashed. Ideally, they should also have experience in this area and be able to work for them.

Bringing in a rich girl would be risky. Leaving aside the possibility of her running away and complaining to the circus, causing devastating damage, she'd be too weak to do the work. Just imagining it makes you realize how terrible the conditions must be in a circus with so many people; most people couldn't endure it.

Prostitutes are much better off. Anyone with a bit of connections wouldn't become a prostitute. Moreover, having worked their way up from the bottom, encountering all sorts of people, it's difficult for someone in that environment to have a high level of morality. Plus, they're good at dirty work, making them truly the perfect match.

However, Bruce was puzzled: if engaging in this kind of shady business was profitable, wouldn't finding a rich woman be just as profitable? And the latter would certainly be more respectable and safer than the former. This clown actor didn't seem mentally challenged; with his face alone, he could easily run off and find a rich man. Why would he be so foolish as to take such a huge risk by marrying a prostitute and choosing to stay and become complicit?

While Bruce was pondering, the agent had already followed Linda back to the waterfall at the top of the stream.

The bad news is that due to the materials used, this fishing rod lacks flexibility and cannot be used for fishing. The good news is that because it's stiff enough and the tip is sharpened, it can be used for spearing fish.

This girl, who had never fished before, suddenly developed a great interest in fish for some reason. She found an old, dilapidated kayak somewhere and prepared to slide down to the bottom of the waterfall to spear fish.

The detective, of course, didn't go with her; he just stood on the shore watching her paddle away. Her back view was completely different from usual, displaying a unique liveliness amidst the mist rising from the waterfall.