Chapter 72 A Guilty Deed "So the creditors came knocking, and everyone in Fengkou Village..."

“He tortured me, but not at the county government office,” Cao Dali said. “I’ve already been released by the government; I’m innocent. But Liang Youyi won’t let me go. He suspects I deliberately abducted Xiaohua from Watang to Fengkou Village, so he knocked me unconscious, tied me up in a cellar, and tortured me severely. Whenever I denied it, he tortured me, trying to force me to confess. But I didn’t do it. Even if he beat me to death, I couldn’t admit it. Back then, I truly did save Xiaohua. I really didn’t have any bad intentions at that time; I genuinely felt sorry for her…”

Bai Yuan suddenly spoke up: "Wasn't she pitiful later? Just because she embarrassed you, you remained indifferent even when she was humiliated."

Zhou Yaren added: "What Liang Youyi resented was probably his daughter's experience in Fengkou Village."

Cao Dali was speechless for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Have you ever taken care of a mentally challenged person?"

Bai Yuan: "..." Of course not.

“Do you know how difficult it is to take care of a mentally challenged person? Yes, I was the one who brought Xiaohua to Fengkou Village, so all her experiences are related to me, and her death is also related to me. Is all of this to blame me? I have to take responsibility for her life and death.” Cao Dali said wearily, “Everyone thinks this way, and I have no way to argue. I’m just waiting for Liang Youyi to come knocking on my door and then tear me to pieces. Actually, I know I don’t have many days left to live, and Liang Youyi will definitely not let me go. But people are afraid of death, otherwise I wouldn’t have risked my life to escape from him and hide in the cellar like a rat in the gutter.”

Zhou Yaren: "How did you escape?"

“He tied me up in the cellar and tortured me without my permission. When he stabbed me with a knife, he accidentally tore a hole in the rope. He didn’t notice, so I rubbed the rope off a sharp rock. He didn’t torture me in the cellar day and night. He must have gone to the county government office every day. Sometimes it would take a whole day, sometimes a whole night. I escaped when he wasn’t there.”

Bai Yuan asked, "Is Liang Taohua's death really unrelated to you?"

Cao Dali has lost count of how many times he has answered this question: "I wasn't even in the village at the time!"

Zhou Yaren pondered, "If it's not you, and it's not Wang Sanhu, then who could it be?"

"What?" Cao Dali was stunned. "Wasn't Xiaohua killed by Wang Sanhu?!"

Bai Yuan gave a completely affirmative answer: "Of course it wasn't him."

Cao Dali's face went blank, and he stood there stunned: "I... I didn't just make baseless accusations against him. Wang Sanhu did have feelings for Xiaohua... I only heard it from them."

Zhou Yaren: "Who are they?"

"People from the village."

"Who exactly is it? Did Liang Youyi ask for your name?" Zhou Yaren asked in quick succession. "Did you tell him?"

"Yes." Cao Dali suddenly realized something terrifying, his face showing panic. "Could it be that he..."

Bai Yuan said, "He will verify them one by one. As for how he will do it, he'll have to go out and find out. Who did you tell him?"

“Sun and Sun Xiaoniang across the street, He Laosi who lives by the cliff, and Sister Fang, and Ma Jianzui,” Cao Dali said nervously. “Will Liang Youyi cause them trouble?”

Whether he will cause trouble for them or not is unknown, but Liang Youyi will definitely try to pry out the names of those who have hurt Liang Taohua from them, and then go after those people.

Cao Dali was extremely flustered: "You...you're going to arrest me?"

Bai Yuan casually remarked, "The yamen has already released you, so why would we arrest you? Unless you really killed Liang Taohua, in which case someone will detain you if the evidence is conclusive."

“I didn’t kill her,” Cao Dali vehemently defended himself. “I really didn’t kill Xiaohua, you all have to believe me.”

Bai Yuan: "We should believe you just because you have words?"

“I wasn’t in Fengkou Village at the time. I met many villagers along the way and asked them for lodging, food, and water. They could all testify for me, so the county government released me.”

"What does this prove? Are you sure Liang Taohua died that night when she came to you for help? Who saw her die from a miscarriage that day? Didn't they say she disappeared after that night? Disappearing doesn't mean she died then, or did the coroner deduce that Liang Taohua died that night? Those idiots in the county office..."

Zhou Yaren then started coughing.

Bai Yuan turned to look at him: "Why are you coughing? Did I say something wrong? Has the county government produced few wrongful convictions? Aren't they just a bunch of stupid dogs?!"

Zhou Yaren coughed and waved his hand. He really had a sore throat; there was no other meaning behind it, he was just coughing at an inopportune time.

Cao Dali stood up to defend him: "The county magistrate did not wrong me. He was a discerning judge who investigated the case thoroughly and was an honest official who made a judgment."

Bai Yuan didn't even bother with him, and turned to Zhou Yaren, saying, "Go out and take a look."

The moment the door opened, Cao Dali, like a frightened bird, immediately shrank back, afraid of being seen.

The cellar under the stove had been discovered and was no longer safe. He couldn't trust these three people who suddenly appeared; if they betrayed him, he would be doomed. He had to find a new hiding place.

Otherwise, run away now and never go back to Fengkou Village. The world is so big, go somewhere Liang Youyi can't find and live in anonymity.

Yes, after leaving Fengkou Village, Cao Dali made up his mind instantly: it's better to live a miserable life than to die; he wanted to continue living.

Bai Yuan and Zhou Yaren came out of the house, but they didn't see Xiao Dinggua anywhere.

Bai Yuan looked around: "I told that kid to keep watch outside, where did he run off to?"

Some teenagers are naturally active and can't stay in one place for long, so they inevitably wander around.

Bai Yuan had just been falsely accused of a deadly crime, and he didn't have time to look for the running brat. He went straight to the kiln across the street and knocked on the door.

Knock knock knock.

It was nearly noon, and the village was quiet.

Knock knock knock.

Zhou Yaren silently poured out a pill and swallowed it, allowing her exhausted and sickly body to regain its energy.

Bai Yuan called out to Sun Xiaoniang, but there was no response from inside the house. She glanced at the midday sun and thought to herself: Could it be that she went out?

Just then, hurried footsteps came from not far away. Bai Yuan turned his head and saw Xiao Dinggua running towards him, waving two pieces of paper in his hand and shouting, "Prescription, prescription!"

Bai Yuan, unaware of the situation, asked: "What prescription?"

"My grandfather, the prescription written by my grandfather!" Little Dinggua rushed up to the two of them, panting with excitement. "It was written by my grandfather. I can recognize his handwriting. This is a prescription written by my grandfather himself."

Zhou Yaren asked, "Where did you come from?"

“It’s over there,” Xiao Dinggua pointed in the direction they came from, “there’s a carriage that looks like it fell off the cliff, the frame is all broken, and there’s a big pool of dried blood on the ground. I found these two prescriptions next to the broken carriage, they were under a piece of wood, right, right? Right, right ...

Xiao Dinggua started to choke up at the end.

Bai Yuan glanced at the dozen or so medicinal herbs listed on the top page and said with certainty, "That's right, it's the prescription that Doctor Ding gave you."

Zhou Yaren was surprised: "Mine?"

"It's the prescription the coachman used to take Doctor Ding back to get his medicine." Bai Yuan casually slapped the prescription into Zhou Yaren's arms and then let Xiao Dinggua lead the way.

The mountain cliff was several meters high. The horse-drawn carriage fell from the top, collapsing half of the villager's earthen cave dwelling. The carriage was scattered in pieces on the back of the cave.

The style of the Baiyuan Temple and the carriage curtains were enough to tell us: "That's right, it's the carriage we rented."

They searched all day yesterday but couldn't find it, but unexpectedly they stumbled upon it in Fengkou Village.

The three men hurried forward to investigate. There was only the carriage frame, no horse. The reins were broken, and there was a large pool of blood on the ground, as well as a drag mark: "The villagers must have dragged the horse away."

Zhou Yaren: "Where are the coachman and Doctor Ding?"

Little Dinggua's eyes reddened with anxiety: "Where's my grandpa?"

"It might have fallen off the cliff along with the carriage; we'll have to ask the villagers."

If the horse that fell off was dragged away by the villagers, the people on the carriage should also have been discovered and taken away by the villagers, but it is unknown whether they are dead or alive.

The collapsed earthen kiln was no longer inhabited. Without hesitation, Bai Yuan knocked on the door of a nearby earthen kiln, but no one answered for a long time. The area behind the door was quiet, like an empty cave dwelling.

Something's not right. Where are the people in this village? Why are all the houses closed?

It's past noon now, and apart from Cao Dali, she hasn't seen a single villager.

Just as they were wondering, an elderly man, his back bent under the weight of a basket on his back, passed by with a hunched back, his triangular eyes fixed on the three strangers.

Bai Yuan stepped forward and said, "Old man, could you please tell me if this carriage fell off the plateau the night before last?"

The old man's white hair was coiled in his headscarf, and his face was as old as tree bark, covered with yellowish-brown patches. He stared blankly at Bai Yuan with lifeless eyes, but did not utter a word.

Bai Yuan then asked, "What about the two people in the carriage? Do you know where they are?"

Not getting a reply from the old woman, Xiao Dinggua asked anxiously, "Grandma, one of them is my grandfather. Do you know where they are?"

The old man remained silent.

Zhou Yaren asked, "The carriage fell down and collapsed the kiln house. Were any villagers injured?"

After a long while, the old man finally finished observing the three people of unknown origin and spoke very slowly: "Who are you?"

Bai Yuan: "..." Alright, this slowpoke didn't answer a single word.

Zhou Yaren gave a self-introduction.

Whether the old man had listened or not, he asked again in a very slow voice, "Who are you looking for?"

Bai Yuan: "..."

Zhou Yaren patiently pointed to the shattered carriage: "We're looking for the two people in this carriage. Have you seen them before?"

The old man looked in the direction he was pointing, blinked his cloudy eyes, and slowly said, "Dead."

All three were stunned.

Little Dinggua's face suddenly turned pale, as if struck by lightning.

The old man shook his head: "The cave dwelling collapsed, so they buried him."

“No,” Bai Yuan didn’t quite understand, “who did you bury?”

The old man ignored him and turned to leave.

Little Dinggua burst into tears: "Grandma, where's my grandpa? Where's my grandpa?"

The old man shook his head and sighed, staring at the road beneath his feet, muttering to himself, "Bury it, bury it."

Little Dinggua grabbed the old man's arm: "Where did you bury him? Where did you bury my grandpa?"

The old woman, unsteady on her feet, stumbled and was pulled, immediately turning fierce: "Why are you pulling this old woman? Are you trying to kill me?!"

"What are you doing?! Let go of my mother!" A woman arrived with a stern shout and shoved Xiao Dinggua away.

Little Dinggua cried so hard that snot bubbles hung from his face, and he kept asking, "Where is my grandpa buried?"

The woman was baffled: "How would we know where your grandfather is buried?"

"But this old woman said, 'You buried my grandfather.'"

The woman's face changed: "Nonsense! How could we possibly bury your grandfather? Who is your grandfather?"

“My grandfather, my grandfather’s surname is Ding, he is a doctor who treats the villagers in this area. The night before last, he was riding in that carriage,” Little Ding Gua hiccuped as he pointed to the “remains” of the carriage, speaking haltingly and incoherently, “he didn’t come back. The carriage fell into your village. But where is my grandfather?”

The woman took a moment to process what she was saying and then understood: "It's not a child. Don't cry. This carriage fell off the cliff the night before last, and there was no one inside."

Xiao Dinggua was taken aback: "Nobody's here?"

The woman exclaimed, "Ah!" "It was just a horse that had fallen to its death, and the villagers dragged it away."

"My grandfather isn't in the carriage? But Grandma just told us..."

“My mother is old and hard of hearing, and she’s also confused and can’t speak clearly. But it was that the horse-drawn carriage that smashed down He Laosi’s cave dwelling and buried the head of his dog.”

"A mound of earth, a mound of earth." Little Dinggua, who had just felt like the sky was about to fall, stumbled. So, they had been talking to a deaf man for a long time, asking questions about cows and horses, and what they were talking about was burying a mound of earth.

Doctor Ding and the coachman must have gotten off the carriage before it plunged off the cliff. What happened in between? Where did they go? Why did they disappear without a trace?

Bai Yuan, however, gleaned another piece of information from the woman's words and pressed her for details: "Whose cave dwelling are you talking about?"

"Old He Si."

Bai Yuan asked, "Where are the four men, Old He?"

"I don't know."

Zhou Yaren immediately asked again, "Where is Sun Xiaoniang?"

"I don't know."

Bai Yuan: "Where is Sister Fang?"

The two of them kept switching names back and forth, which made the woman a little stunned. She hesitated and shook her head.

Zhou Yaren: "Where's the horse's pointed beak?"

The woman shook her head again.

Bai Yuan: "What does shaking your head mean? Don't know? Never seen it before? Or isn't home?"

The woman said, "I don't know, I've never seen them, they're never home."

Zhou Yaren: "How long has it been since you last saw them?"

The woman said, "It's been quite a few days, I can't remember."

Bai Yuan: "Besides those four, who else in the village is missing?"

The woman became wary: "Who are you? How do you know them? And why are you asking these questions?"

"The village is very quiet," Bai Yuan said, glancing around. "A lot of people have suddenly disappeared these past few days, haven't they?"

The woman was astonished: "How—how did you know?"

Bai Yuan didn't answer her, but instead asked, "Are the rest of you all in a state of fear, too afraid to go out?"

The woman took a step back in fear.

Bai Yuan accurately grasped the situation: "Because of a guilty conscience?"

The woman tried to appear calm as if to cover up her feelings: "Who...who is feeling guilty? I don't know what you're talking about, Mother. Let's go back quickly."

Bai Yuan did not stop her. He stared at the woman's retreating figure and said in a low voice, "In this life, who hasn't done a few things that go against their conscience?"

Zhou Yaren understood what she meant: "Cao Dali said that the men in Fengkou Village bullied Liang Taohua, and the women also beat and scolded her."

"So when the creditors came knocking, everyone in Fengkou Village lived in fear."