This place is secluded enough that there's no need to worry about anyone bumping into you. Song Tantan removed the rag from the vendor's mouth and began to question him.

"Do you remember me? I'm the one who bought a pair of blue embroidered shoes from your stall two days ago."

She noticed that Zhang Wujin was using the same face he had used when she bought shoes last time, and only two days had passed since then. He should still remember her.

The small vendor, now free to speak, coughed twice unconsciously. Hearing this, he looked up at Song Tantan, his eyes flickered, as if he wanted to deny it, but seeing the other man's knife twitch twice, he immediately nodded.

"I remember, young master, you bought a pair of light blue embroidered shoes from me. I saw you liked them very much, so I gave you a discount." The vendor flattered him, saying that he hadn't wanted to lower the price by a single penny when they bargained.

Song Tan scoffed and cut straight to the point, "Stop with the nonsense. I'm asking you, where do all those embroidered shoes you're selling come from?"

"...Of course I got the goods from somewhere else, why are you asking this?" The vendor stammered, unwilling to tell the truth, but you could tell from his expression that there was definitely something wrong.

"No, you're lying. Those embroidered shoes of yours weren't from any embroidery shop you got them from. You stole them from someone else. You killed the owner of the shoes first, then took the owner's valuables, and then sold them. You're a murderer."

Song Tantan made the final decision with a very confident tone.

"No, I didn't, I didn't kill anyone, I've never killed anyone, don't make false accusations." The small vendor quickly denied it, and his expression and tone were quite convincing.

But Song Tantan felt that she shouldn't be fooled by the illusion he deliberately put on. Many perverts are extremely cunning and good at sophistry, and she shouldn't be deceived by him.

"Still trying to deny it? I've already investigated everything. The owner of these shoes died with her eyes wide open in anger, and she comes to me every night to plead her case. She told me the whole story. You can't escape this."

Song Tantan felt irritable when she thought about her experience of being paralyzed by ghosts the night before.

"How...how could that be? I didn't hurt anyone. Don't lie to me. Things aren't like that at all. I only took the embroidered shoes. Nothing else is my business."

The small vendor stubbornly argued his case, determined to clear his name.

Ye Moxun leaned against a tree and watched the two arguing. After observing them for a while, he felt that the small vendor might not be the murderer, but he obviously knew something.

"Alright, stop arguing," Ye Moxun interrupted. "Tantan, calm down and let him finish what he has to say."

"Ah Xun, do you think he's telling the truth?" Song Tantan was a little unhappy that Ah Xun actually believed this small vendor.

Ye Moxun patted her shoulder reassuringly and coaxed her gently, "Let's hear what he has to say. If you still think he has a problem after hearing it, then we can discuss how to deal with him."

After thinking for a moment, Song Tantan grimaced and said, "I'll give you one chance. You'd better clarify things clearly and not hide anything, or I'll throw you to the wolves."

Sure enough, the small vendor had just sensed several pairs of eerie green eyes staring at him from the grove, making him feel like he was being pricked by thorns and terrified.

Little did he know that those pairs of eyes were actually Taishan's dogs, guarding the area to prevent other wild beasts from suddenly appearing and attacking Song Tantan and Ye Moxun.

“Okay, I will tell you the truth. My name is Zhang Jiafei, and I live in Zhangjia Village, which is not far from Changye City. I have an elderly mother and grandmother. My father died of illness when I was ten years old, and later…”

Song Tantan closed her eyes briefly, interrupting him, "Stop, I'm not interested in your background. Just tell me who the owners of those embroidered shoes are. How did you meet them and how did you get so many pairs of shoes?"

Zhang Jiafei was speaking with great interest when he was suddenly stopped. Without his background as a foundation, would the rest of the story have any soul?

Alas, no matter how dissatisfied he was, the current situation was beyond his control, so he could only endure it, cutting out the part about his background and starting from when he received the first pair of embroidered shoes.

When he was about ten years old, he accidentally witnessed a murder case on the mountain while chopping wood. It was a case of a husband killing his wife and throwing her off a cliff. But when the woman struggled, she kicked off her shoes.

At that time, Zhang Jiafei's father had died less than two months earlier, and the three of them, a widow and her two children, were living in dire straits. They were often bullied by the villagers and their lives were very difficult.

After the man left, Zhang Jiafei walked out of the bushes and picked up the pair of red embroidered shoes. The ten-year-old boy was not afraid at all; on the contrary, he thought the shoes were exceptionally beautiful.

He secretly took the shoes home, washed and dried them, and then took them to the market to sell. He actually sold them and earned three hundred coins.

"You're just a little kid selling shoes, and these are shoes that only wealthy people have. Doesn't anyone suspect that you stole them?" Song Tantan listened attentively to the story and raised any questions she had.

“My mother and grandmother also know a little embroidery, especially my grandmother, who is very talented at embroidery. She can embroider a pattern after looking at it a few times. Of course, she can't embroider anything too complicated. I often take the handkerchiefs and purses that I have embroidered at home to the embroidery shop to sell. I am quite familiar with the shopkeeper there.”

However, he dared not take the embroidered shoes to the embroidery shop to sell, for fear of being suspected of stealing them. So he put the shoes in a basket, covered them with an old cloth, and then looked at the women in the market who were dressed somewhat decently and asked them privately if they wanted to buy the embroidered shoes.

When others ask, he says it's the female relatives in his family. He says that his family used to be well-off, but now they've fallen on hard times and have no choice but to sell everything they can.

"Why don't you take them to an embroidery shop and sell them?" People would ask that too.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!