The news report on TV was clearly about the film crew that Hathaway was part of.
If Elizabeth had simply left the set without getting involved, she wouldn’t have fallen into Freddy’s clutches.
People wouldn’t meet their doom if they didn’t ask for trouble.
The young people on set had been through such a ordeal, and they were already half-dead.
Elizabeth, with her old bones, couldn’t hold on and passed away—which wasn’t exactly surprising.
Still, the director was downright unlucky.
Somehow, he ended up as the prime suspect and was taken in for questioning.
Though he’d be released soon enough, filming had to be put on hold temporarily.
The director himself might now be the number one reason for delaying the production.
Who knows if he’ll even have the nerve to scold Annie about it once they resume shooting.
“Your dry martini, and your screwdriver…”
Soon, two drinks were placed in front of Su Fan and Jamie.
They clinked glasses lightly and started chatting.
“Detective seemed to be in a good mood lately—I saw him the other day, and he looked pleased.”
“Yeah, he cracked a cult case a while back and got commended by the higher-ups. It’s helped him secure his place in the LAPD.”
“A cult?”
As soon as Jamie heard that detail, he started piecing things together.
“Were you involved, Su?”
“The criminals had planned things meticulously—it would’ve been tough for the detective to handle it alone. Besides, one of the victims was a woman who’d been kind to me.”
“It wasn’t really a cult, just two sorcerers using dark folk magic, plus a murderer disguised as a minor. Pretty tricky stuff.”
“All that happened in less than a month…”
Su Fan skimmed over the details, but Jamie knew it couldn’t have been that simple.
It dawned on him that Su Fan had rushed here to deal with Freddy right after wrapping up the previous case.
“Thank you for going to all this trouble to help, Su. This one’s on me.”
Jamie raised his glass in a toast and took a big gulp.
Su Fan shook his head lightly with a smile and took a sip of his drink.
His gaze wandered aimlessly around the bar before settling on a disheveled young man.
If he wasn’t mistaken, that guy looked like Edward Furlong…
At another table, drinking alone, was a bearded man who resembled a homeless person—or maybe Keanu Reeves…
Su Fan turned to Jamie.
“You picked a pretty interesting bar.”
“Oh really?” Jamie scratched his head. “Glad you like it, Su.”
Su Fan felt like this bar was a real den of hidden talents.
If they stayed much longer, would they end up watching Legolas duke it out with Justin Bieber?
Wait, that was about a decade later…
In his previous life, Su Fan had often passed the time watching movies, which was how he’d built up such an extensive knowledge of horror films.
That also meant he was familiar with quite a few European and American actors.
On a side note, as his cultivation advanced, Su Fan’s memories from his past life were becoming increasingly vivid.
That momentary confusion just now was a rare occurrence.
Hold on…
A sudden thought flashed through Su Fan’s mind.
The first news report he’d seen on TV reminded him of something from his memories.
In his previous life, there was a hugely popular horror film series called Final Destination.
It was about people who cheated death by sheer luck, only to be hunted down by Death itself.
The protagonists and survivors in the films tried everything to break the cycle of death, but without exception, they all failed.
Even if they narrowly escaped the first wave of attacks, another would follow soon after.
The pervasive sense of despair and dread left a deep impression.
But in the films, there were only a handful of survivors among the main characters.
This time, with the canceled flight, nearly a hundred people were involved.
Would all of them die?
As Su Fan pondered, his fingers tapped lightly on the table.
Then again, jumping to the conclusion that it was Final Destination was a bit of a stretch.
Back in China, he’d heard similar stories—like a woman causing a scene before takeoff, leading to a flight cancellation.
But how could he explain that sudden premonition he’d felt earlier?
While Su Fan was lost in thought, Jamie’s phone suddenly rang.
“Hello, who is this?” Jamie answered casually.
“Jamie? Where are you? Can you get in touch with Su?”
It was a familiar voice on the other end—the detective.
He sounded somewhat agitated and hesitant.
“Su just finished handling some trouble and is relaxing with me at a bar… What’s going on?”
“Don’t tell me it’s another supernatural case?”
Jamie glanced at Su Fan and lowered his voice.
“Look, detective, I know that kind of thing isn’t something ordinary people can handle, and Su is pretty much your only go-to guy for this.”
“But now really isn’t the best time—”
“What are you talking about? It’s not a ghost!”
The detective sighed and started explaining at length.
Jamie nodded along, but by the end, his expression had turned somewhat exasperated.
After a moment, the detective sighed again on the other end of the line.
“That’s the situation. Please pass it along to Su when you get a chance.”
“You sure know how to pick your timing. Why not tell him yourself?”
“Su doesn’t have a phone. I called you just to see if it was worth a shot…”
After hanging up, Jamie sighed, trying to figure out how to broach the subject, when Su Fan spoke up first.
“What’s going on with the detective? Another ghost incident?”
“Well… actually…”
After listening to Jamie’s summary, Su Fan’s expression turned equally strange.
It wasn’t the detective who’d run into trouble—it was one of his patrol officers, a guy named Carl Gallagher.
Yes, the same white kid who’d charged down with the detective during the Voodoo sorcerer incident.
He was decisive, brave, and had a strong sense of justice.
He’d left a good impression on Su Fan too.
But these past few days, he’d run into a bit of a problem.
The southern community where Carl lived was a mixed bag, with immigrants from various countries.
A couple of days ago, during his time off, Carl bumped into an elderly Asian man carrying a Buddha statue.
Naturally, the statue was damaged, and Carl was asked to pay for it.
It was clearly a scam, and Carl initially wanted to ignore it. But as luck would have it, the community had recently installed surveillance cameras for security.
So Officer Carl was out of luck—he had no choice but to grit his teeth and negotiate.
Who would’ve thought the elderly Asian man would claim his Buddha statue was priceless and demand three million dollars?
Any fool could see it was extortion.
But the man had clearly come prepared. Not only did he preserve the evidence and make the incident public, but he even produced a relevant appraisal certificate.
In this situation, even if Carl had any underhanded ideas, he couldn’t use them. So he turned to Su Fan, who ran an antique shop, asking him to help appraise the statue’s value and expose the scam.
Su Fan: What a mess this is!
