The world twenty years ago.
Shao Qingge and Ye Qi hesitated, looking at the vines hanging down the cliff, wondering whether to follow. Ye Qi thought to himself, " What if Ren Yuan led us up the cliff, and he's the murderer who wants to kill us?"
After a moment's thought, Shao Qingge said, "Here's what we'll do: you pretend to climb up first, and I'll place an entrance to the Peach Blossom Spring nearby. If things go wrong, we'll retreat immediately. It won't be so easy for him to kill us."
"Okay, I'll block his view. You should summon Tao Yuanming as soon as possible." Ye Qi raised his head and said to Ren Yuan, "Brother Ren, wait for us, I'm coming up right away."
Ye Qi slowly climbed up the vines. Shao Qingge summoned Tao Yuanming in the darkness, activating Peach Blossom Spring —luckily, Xiao Lou had given him two Tao Yuanming cards. The first card's skill was on cooldown, so the second one came in handy. For the next three hours, he and Ye Qi could return to Peach Blossom Spring for refuge at any time, without worrying about encountering the killer.
After Shao Qingge finished setting up the Peach Blossom Spring, he followed Ye Qi up the hill.
This vine, woven from weeds, is as thick as an adult's arm and very sturdy. This cliff must be frequently climbed; many footholds have been worn into the precipice by human footsteps.
Ren Yuan climbed very quickly, and in no time the three of them reached the top of the mountain.
Twenty years ago, the mountaintop wasn't Mass Grave. The bright moon hung in the sky, so close it seemed almost within reach. The wind on the mountaintop was cold, and the surrounding dry trees rustled in the winter wind. Ren Yuan tucked his frostbitten hands into his sleeves and strode forward, saying in a low voice, "You two, hurry up and keep up."
Ye Qi and Shao Qingge followed behind him.
After taking only a few steps, Ye Qi almost tripped over a corpse. He quickly grabbed a tree trunk for support and feigned fear, asking, "What... what are these corpses?"
Ren Yuan made a "shh" gesture to his lips and lowered his voice, saying, "It's those bandits. They robbed the town of gold and silver treasures and ran up the mountain to try to become kings of the mountain. But they fought amongst themselves because of a dispute over the loot, and many people were killed."
Ye Qi had already guessed the identities of these corpses; his questioning of Ren Yuan was merely to confirm them.
Shao Qingge's gaze swept quickly across the surroundings, and he bent down to roughly examine the nearby corpses. Although he wasn't a forensic doctor, he had learned a lot about autopsies from Xiao Lou. Most of the corpses had obvious stab wounds on their chests and abdomens, and the ground was covered in blood. Clearly, these people had been killed in a fight, and the weapon used was likely a sharp knife.
Ye Qi wanted to take a closer look, but Ren Yuan urged, "Let's go."
The two had no choice but to follow him.
After walking along the winding road for a while, a simple wooden house came into view. The house was very well hidden, behind several large trees, and could easily be overlooked if one was not looking closely.
Ye Qi thought to himself, "I remember there wasn't this cabin in Mass Grave twenty years later, was there?"
Shao Qingge said, "Yes. Twenty years later, the mountaintop was full of graves. But now, there are no more than ten corpses on the mountaintop. Those who starved to death were not dumped here in large numbers; their bodies were scattered all over the town."
Ye Qi nodded and said, "There must be someone very important living in the cabin. Let's keep a close eye on them later."
The two were communicating through the Telepathic Connection when Ren Yuan suddenly said, "Wait here for me, I'll be right back."
He stepped forward alone, gently knocked on the door of the wooden house, and whispered, "Grandma, it's me."
A moment later, the door creaked open from the inside, and an old woman with a wrinkled face came out, saying in a hoarse voice, " Ren Yuan? You came up the mountain to see me in the middle of the night, is there something you need?"
Ren Yuan said, "I want to take some grain back with me."
The old woman nodded and said, "Okay, come with me."
The two entered the wooden house one after the other. Shao Qingge and Ye Qi exchanged a glance, and Ye Qi quickly tossed an eavesdropping device into the house. Soon, the terminal of the eavesdropping device heard footsteps—it seemed that two people were going down the wooden steps. Immediately afterward, there was a conversation with a clear echo, which was probably in a closed room.
Ye Qi pricked up his ears and heard Ren Yuan whisper, "Grandma, two men suddenly broke into my house today and found my cellar. They looked unfamiliar and said they were refugees from other places who had come to Qingfeng Town and had all their belongings stolen by our local bandits. They grabbed me but didn't hurt me; they just asked me for some food. I didn't think they were bad people, so I let them stay for the time being."
The old woman sighed and said, "In this world, we can barely take care of ourselves, and you still have the leisure to save others... Don't save two ungrateful wretches who will steal all your things and harm you in the process."
Ren Yuan smiled and said, "They don't seem like vicious people to me. I'm not sure what to do either, so I asked Grandma to make the decision."
The old woman was silent for a moment, then said, "We don't have much food stored up to begin with. There's not enough to go around for all the children, so how can we possibly share with outsiders? Now is not the time to be overly kind. We should drug them in the middle of the night and throw them out of Qingfeng Town. Their lives are in the hands of fate; whether they survive or not depends on their own destiny. We don't owe them anything."
Ren Yuan hesitated for a moment, then gritted her teeth and nodded, saying, "Alright, let's do as Grandma says. I'll call them both into the house later, give them a good meal, then drug them and throw them down the mountain. That would be more than enough."
Shao Qingge and Ye Qi listened to the sound coming from the eavesdropping device.
They exchanged a glance, both amused and exasperated.
Although the mother-in-law and Ren Yuan's actions were not very kind, in chaotic times, even self-preservation was difficult, food was limited, and adding another mouth to feed would cause more relatives to go hungry. No one had an obligation to save two strangers, and their decision was a normal reaction. If Ren Yuan had actually kept them and shared his food with them, he would have been too saintly.
Ye Qi thought to himself, "This old woman's voice sounds familiar. Isn't it the one we saw in town during the day?"
Shao Qingge said, "It should be her. Her hoarse voice is very recognizable. She may have a sore throat and mild asthma."
Ye Qi asked, "What do we do next?"
Shao Qingge smiled helplessly and said, "We can only play along. If they want to drug us, we'll just pretend to be unconscious to lower their guard, and then go up the mountain to investigate when it's late at night."
Ye Qi also agreed with this approach: "They might poison the food, so we'll have to be careful later."
Just as they were discussing the connection between their spiritual worlds, the door to the wooden house opened again, and Ren Yuan walked up to them, smiling as she said, "Gentlemen, Grandma invites you in."
Shao Qingge and Ye Qi obediently followed them inside. Ye Qi feigned curiosity and asked, "Who is this old woman?"
Ren Yuan said, "My mother-in-law is a really good person. She adopted many orphans in the town, and I was raised by her. By the way, she taught me how to make rattle drums."
Orphan? Rattle drum?
These two key pieces of information invigorated Shao Qingge and Ye Qi.
It turns out that the origin of the rattle drum was not Ren Yuan, but her "grandmother" from twenty years ago.
Since the mother-in-law was the expert in making rattle drums, it is very likely that each of the children she raised had a rattle drum given to them by her. Perhaps this is why the murderer had a deep obsession with rattle drums and even left them at the crime scene.
Shao Ye and his companion entered the wooden house with questions in their minds.
The interior of the house was much larger than I had imagined, with three floors: a second floor, a first floor, and a basement.
Ren Yuan led the two to a table on the first floor, a long table that could seat eight people at the same time. After Shao Qingge and Ye Qi sat down, the old woman poured them two glasses of water and brought a plate of dried steamed buns, saying, "I heard from Ren Yuan that you two are his friends? I don't have much to offer my guests, so please have something to eat."
Shao Qingge glanced at the water in the cup—it must have been laced with a sleeping potion.
Ye Qi knew the water was definitely not clean, so he pretended to pick up the cup and take a couple of sips, then smiled and said, "Thank you, Grandma. We just ate something at Brother Ren's place, so we're not hungry. By the way, how come you live up in the mountains, Grandma?"
The old woman sighed and said, "We poor people don't have land deeds, so we can't build houses in town. We can only build a makeshift wooden house in the wilderness to keep out the wind and rain."
Ye Qi said sympathetically, "So that's how it is... I heard from Brother Ren that you also raised him?"
The old woman smiled, looked at the two of them, but did not answer.
Ye Qi estimated the drug was about to take effect, so he pretended to be dazed and collapsed onto the table. Shao Qingge also cooperated by lying face down on the table. Ren Yuan walked over and gently patted Shao Qingge's shoulder: "Brother Shao? Wake up."
Shao Qingge continued to feign unconsciousness.
The old woman stood up and said, "My sleeping potion works very quickly. You can move them both out." She called upstairs, "Ah Feng, A-Ran, come down and help Uncle Ren."
The two children ran down from the second floor and, together with Ren Yuan, dragged Shao Qingge and Ye Qi down the mountain.
Dragged along like a "corpse," Ye Qi feigned unconsciousness but secretly seized the opportunity to attach an eavesdropping device to the soles of each of the three men's feet. After abandoning Shao Ye at the foot of the mountain, the three turned and left. Only then did Ye Qi open his eyes and ask Shao Qingge via Telepathic Connection, "Should we go back and investigate now? Or wait until midnight?"
Shao Qingge said, "Let's go now. If we get teleported back to our original world after midnight, we won't have a chance to investigate."
Ye Qi nodded, and together with Shao Qingge, they quickly arrived at the wooden cabin on the mountaintop using their Teleportation Cards.
Ren Yuan has already descended the mountain.
Through the second-floor window, you can see four bunk beds upstairs, with four children sleeping on them, only their heads sticking out. Judging from their hairstyles, they appear to be two boys and two girls.
Ye Qi asked, "These four children are all orphans adopted by Grandma, right?"
Shao Qingge said, "Hmm. Is it possible that the murderer from twenty years later is still a child?"
The grandmother couldn't have committed the crime; she looks to be over sixty now, and the oldest person in Qingfeng Town twenty years from now won't even be seventy. So, is the murderer Ren Yuan or these children? Or are these people just plot characters related to the case?
Ye Qi analyzed, "Grandma raised four children. When she called them downstairs to help just now, she called out two names. Did you notice? One was A-Feng, and the other was A-Ran. Could that 'A-Feng' be Qin Feng from twenty years in the future?"
The mother-in-law calls the children by their nicknames.
Could Ah Feng be Qin Feng?
If so, then the other three children who grew up with Qin Feng are highly suspicious. It's obvious that Qin Feng is involved in the vengeful ghost case; he wrote a list with names crossed out in red, and most of those names have disappeared while a few are still alive. He must know something.
Shao Qingge said, " Xiao Lou said at the time that Qin Feng was a suspect, but not necessarily the murderer. The evidence against Qin Feng was too obvious and too simple. Therefore, he probably knew who the murderer was. The three children who grew up with him..."
"We need to pay close attention to this."
Ye Qi said, "It's a pity they're all asleep. I never expected that Ren Yuan and my mother-in-law would conspire to drug us and throw us down the mountain. We can't keep asking Ren Yuan for help. Let's think of another way."
Shao Qingge suddenly smiled and said, "I have an idea."
Ye Qi said anxiously, "Speak quickly."
Shao Qingge said, "We copied Ninth Brother's [ Mask ] card before, and that card is now in my hands. I can pretend to be Ren Yuan, go into the house and chat with Grandma to find out the identities of these four children."
Ye Qi's eyes lit up: "Great idea!"
Shao Qingge, disguised as Ren Yuan, went up to knock on the door again, while Ye Qi lay on the roof and eavesdropped using an eavesdropping device.
The mother-in-law opened the door and saw " Ren Yuan " who had returned, and asked in surprise, "Why are you back again?"
Shao Qingge said, "I'm worried about the children. Are Afeng and the others asleep?"
The mother-in-law said, "They've all gone to bed."
Shao Qingge said, "Just now, you asked A-Feng and A-Ran to help me throw those two outsiders down the mountain. I noticed that A-Ran didn't look well. Has he been sick lately?"
The mother-in-law said helplessly, " Qi Ran caught a cold yesterday when he went to dig wild herbs in the woods at the foot of the mountain. However, he is in good health, and I checked him this morning. It should not be serious."
Shao Qingge pretended to suddenly realize something and said, "The weather has been cold lately, so the children need to be careful. If they catch a disease, it will be troublesome if they develop a chronic illness, especially the two girls. I'll trouble Grandma to take good care of them."
The old woman smiled and said, "Don't worry about Ning Shuang and Xiao Yun. They've been with me the whole time. Besides, both of them are very clever. You can go back to town without worry. Just don't wander around too much lately, lest you get kidnapped. The sweet potatoes I brought today are enough for us to eat for several days. I thank you on behalf of the children."
It turns out that Ren Yuan went up the mountain not only to discuss with her mother-in-law how to deal with the two outsiders, but also to secretly bring her some food.
Shao Qingge said, "Of course. I'll head back now. Take care, Mother-in-law."
He turned and left the cabin, thinking to Ye Qi, " Qin Feng, Qi Ran, Ning Shuang, Xiao Yun, four children, two boys and two girls, are all orphans who depend on their grandmother for survival. Ren Yuan has been helping them and sending them sweet potatoes."
Among these people, who was the murderer who wiped out the Zhao and Chen families more than ten years later?