That old woman... killed the villagers' chickens and ducks?

Nan Xian was momentarily dazed, and countless question marks popped into her mind.

Why would she do such a thing? What's the point?

She remembered that day when the old woman looked at her, her expression showing that despite her efforts to dress up, she still seemed uneasy.

"How do you know it was her?" she asked.

The village chief paused for a moment, then said, "Although no one saw her do it, almost every household in our village raises poultry and livestock, and everyone gets along well. We've never heard of anyone having a grudge against anyone else, so there's no motive for her to do such a thing. Only the 'stupid woman' is right; she's not mentally sound and she even set fire to a woodpile before. It can only be her!"

Upon hearing this, Nan Xian couldn't help but frown deeply.

She disagreed with the village chief's judgment. In fact, without any substantial evidence, arbitrarily concluding that someone committed a similar mistake based on a past mistake, while plausible, has no scientific basis.

Throughout history, countless wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice have been caused by a single misjudgment by the judge, who then forced innocent people to bear the blame and endure undeserved insults and abuse.

Nan Xian suddenly remembered something and asked, "Did anyone witness the time the silly woman burned the woodpile?"

Village Chief Gu nodded. "The daughter-in-law of the neighbor next door to the Qian family said that when she got up in the middle of the night, she saw a shadowy figure coming out of the Qian family's house, carrying a bucket. She thought it was a thief, so she shone her flashlight on it and saw the mentally challenged woman. Not long after, the Qian family's backyard caught fire. We also found that bucket in the mentally challenged woman's house, and it still smelled of gasoline!"

Nan Xian nodded thoughtfully. It seemed that the most suspicious person in the case of the woodpile arson was indeed the simple-minded woman.

However—no one actually witnessed her "committing the crime".

Since there is none, we cannot rule out other possibilities!

Of course, Nan Xian wouldn't say these things to Village Chief Gu.

She said goodbye to him, went out the door, turned and walked towards the east end of the village.

Buxian Village is a well-known tourist attraction. In recent years, with the government's support for the rural economy, the villagers' houses have been renovated to be very beautiful and clean. Some of the more particular houses are even decorated in a special style or built as homestays to attract tourists.

Therefore, when the dilapidated little tile-roofed house came into view, Nan Xian instantly knew that she had not gone to the wrong place.

The small tile-roofed house was low and cramped, with missing tiles on the roof. The withered weeds in the front yard were neglected and had grown up to knee-high. The mottled wooden door was unlocked and was blown open by the wind, making a distorted and strange "creaking" sound.

At first glance, the house looks just like an old woman with thinning, yellow hair, grinning with a toothless mouth.

Nan Xian put away her wild imagination, carefully stepped over the weeds, walked to the wooden door, and called out:

"Excuse me, is anyone home?"

As soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly felt a gentle breeze coming from behind her, as if something was suddenly approaching, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

Nan Xian was startled and turned her head sharply—

The silly woman stood behind her, her eyes sparkling, and her lips twitching slightly as if in a spasm.

She smiled and stretched out her withered, aged hands to Nan Xian, her tone slow and strange, like the babbling of a newborn baby.

"You've come!"