The funeral the next day
The next morning at 8:30, the alarm clock rang. Lin Chaoying quickly washed up. Although it was the summer solstice, the weather in Taoyuan Village was unusually cold and gloomy. She couldn't wear the short-sleeved shirt she had brought, so she changed into a thin long-sleeved cardigan before going downstairs.
Their hotel was near the center of the residential area, and there weren't many stalls or vendors downstairs. With her hands in her pockets, she walked along the path to the street leading into the village and saw a tavern. She remembered the villagers talking about how Wang Ge had been to the tavern and was involved with some "adulterer."
Without hesitation, she went into the store. A young man was wiping the counter and greeted her warmly, saying, "Take a look at whatever you like."
Lin Chaoying smiled and nodded. After walking around, she pointed to a very ordinary bottle of wine behind the counter and asked, "How much is the white one? I've never seen this kind of wine anywhere else."
The man chuckled and introduced, "This is a vintage wine that I've had buried under the River God Tree for 10 years. You can't buy it anywhere else! This bottle is only 1,000 yuan."
"How much!" Lin Chaoying immediately withdrew her hand, thinking that the boss must have seen that she was from out of town and was trying to trick her. She would be grateful if this bottle wasn't made with alcohol, let alone a thousand-yuan vintage.
The man's expression changed, and his tone turned harsh as he said, "Then take another look."
Lin Chaoying leaned against the counter and said, "I'm Wang Ge's friend. I heard he came to see you yesterday. Do you know where he went?"
"Go, go, go!" the man started shooing her away, pushing her out. "What are you doing asking around if you have no money! Go, go, go!"
As Lin Chaoying left the tavern, she encountered a young woman carrying a little girl as she entered the shop, saying, "Qiu Chen, watch the child for a bit, I'm going to the street to buy some meat, it's crowded over there..."
Qiu Chen? He has a wife and children?
Jiang Chuan Gu couldn't find Lin Chao Ying in her room that morning. After calling her and learning she was in the shopping street, he brought Qin Ming, Qian Fei, and Kong Yue over. The group chose a small noodle shop and had some hot soup noodles to warm themselves up.
"Oh my god, I'm starving! I only ate some airplane food and wontons yesterday!" Qian Fei wailed, leaning against Kong Yue. "I thought everyone was coming to Peach Blossom Village for a chase, but it turned into a suspense movie."
Qin Ming kicked her foot, gesturing for her to sit up straight, and said, "Have some self-respect! We're still representing Twelfth Street!"
Qian Fei yelled back: "Can image feed you?"
Jiang Chuan Gu took out a jingling bag from his crossbody bag and handed it to Lin Chao Ying, saying, "I made this myself. You can take it for self-defense."
Lin Chaoying asked in surprise, "What is this?"
She opened the bag, inside were six short arrows, each about the length of a palm, and a thin, round metal tube, just big enough to hold one arrow. She exclaimed in surprise, "Is this a hidden blade?"
Jiang Chuan Gu nodded. "When I saw you and Qian Fei working together at the guesthouse before, I thought that you have good hearing, quick reflexes, and can sense subtle sounds, so it can protect itself when danger comes." He pointed to the arrowhead and said, "The ones online are not sharp enough. I specially sharpened them to be sharp enough. The shaft is made of the strongest material, so the killing power is definitely enough."
Lin Chaoying's first reaction was to ask, "How did you get through security?"
Jiangchuan Valley smiled and said, "The blade length is no more than 60 centimeters, so it's safe to carry."
Kong Yue sighed, "Aying's focus is really strange."
Qian Fei pursed his lips, "All that empty talk..."
"What's wrong with you?" Qin Ming asked her quietly, "What exactly is your attitude towards Jiang Chuan Gu? One minute it's good, the next it's bad?"
Qian Fei said directly, "I have no problem with him, but I just feel that he has ulterior motives towards Lin Chaoying!"
Qin Ming looked puzzled. "Huh?"
"Oh, I can't explain it!" Qian Fei was too lazy to argue and just made up an excuse. "You don't understand! Hurry up and ask when the noodles will be served."
"No way!" Lin Chaoying pushed it back. "Then what about your safety? You can use it yourself."
Jiangchuan Gu took out a stick about ten centimeters long from his pocket and said, "It's an extendable baton. Don't worry."
Qin Ming's phone rang. He answered it, put down his chopsticks, and replied, "Okay, we'll be there in a bit."
Kong Yue asked, "Who is it?"
Qin Ming hung up the phone and said, "Everyone, hurry up and eat. After we finish, we'll go to Zhuang Huan's funeral."
Everyone present was stunned.
Kong Yue: "Aren't they really going to wait for the police to arrive?"
Lin Chaoying sneered, "I feel like they were actually worried about the police coming, which is why they rushed to bury him."
Qian Fei asked in surprise, "Doesn't the village chief care who killed his wife?"
“My intuition tells me that the village chief is acting strangely.” Lin Chaoying elaborated on the odd things that had happened in the past two days. “When the village chief told us about Scarface’s background the other day, the way he was crying and sniffling made me very uncomfortable. We are strangers to him. Would you be so emotional towards a stranger? Also, when Zhuang Huan died, so many people around him were spreading rumors, but he didn’t get angry or fight back. Is this the attitude a husband should have towards his wife?”
Jiang Chuan Gu added from an actor's perspective: "Actually, when learning acting, you will learn about micro-expressions. Based on my observation yesterday, the village chief was acting. Especially in two places. The first place is when Lin Chao Ying tells the story of the scar. Usually, as a person of social status, when expressing sadness to strangers, one tends to hold back emotions. Even if tears are shed, one will restrain oneself or react and lose control of one's emotions. But his eyes are like an actor's eyes. When we say specific lines and express emotions, tears will flow skillfully."
"The second place is when Wang Gao forced him to hand over the Book of Immortality. At that time, he seemed to be frantically forbearing, waiting to reveal Wang Ge's name, but that was not the case. He was waiting, waiting for everyone to interrogate him, especially that sentence - I'm sorry, Uncle can only help you this far. It was too deliberate."
Qian Fei, who had sided with the village chief yesterday, felt a chill run down his spine. "Could the village chief have killed Zhuang Huan?"
Jiang Chuan Gu: "It didn't seem like it. When I ran to the temple entrance, I saw his stunned expression, which didn't seem like an act."
“Not only that.” Lin Chaoying mentioned the 12 households of the Wang family last night. “Wang Sui and the village chief’s words don’t match up. Wang Sui seemed to have a lot of reverence for the river god.”
Qin Ming: "It's alright, things will work themselves out. Let's eat first to fill our stomachs so we have the energy to work."
The gloomy weather in Taoyuan Village, with its gray clouds, resembled an old film reel. Lin Chaoying stood at the village chief's door; yesterday's festive colorful silks had all been replaced with pure white cotton. She waited in line for her autograph, quietly observing the expressions and words of the villagers passing by.
After everyone was seated, she saw a young girl kneeling before the coffin, silently burning paper money. Wang Fei, dressed in coarse white cloth, mechanically placed the paper money into the brazier, the incense ash floating in the air, constantly swirling upwards.
Jiang Chuan Gu glanced around the courtyard and saw Wang Fei, who was deathly pale in front of the coffin, and sighed deeply.
Although the ceremony hadn't started yet, Lin Chaoying still came to Wang Fei's side. A piece of yellow paper floated down at her feet, very light, almost weightless. She squatted down. The yellow paper looked rough, but it was surprisingly soft in her hand. She put the yellow paper into the fire, and the flames climbed wildly until it burned out and turned into blackish-gray smoke.
Lin Chaoying stretched out her hands and brought them close to the burning flames. Wang Fei stiffly turned her head to look at her.
Looking at the flickering flames, Lin Chaoying calmly said, "I've never been afraid of anything since I was little, except fire. After my brother passed away, I started burning paper money for him every year—on his birthday, during holidays, all the time. Once, I missed him so much that I put my hand on the edge of the fire basin, getting closer and closer. The scorching heat made me feel my brother's warmth for a moment. My friend was so scared that she kicked the fire basin away. I was very angry and said that I wasn't afraid of pain, I just wanted to see my brother..."
A single tear slid from Wang Fei's red, swollen, and tired eyes, sliding down her pale lips and dripping onto the ashes-covered ground.
She leaned against Lin Chaoying's chest, neither screaming nor breaking down, but simply murmuring, "I don't have a mother anymore..."
As the funeral began, the emcee stood in front of the coffin and recounted Zhuang Huan's life story, while Wang Shao stood beside him, sobbing uncontrollably, even more dramatically than Wang Fei.
Lin Chaoying overheard a villager at the same table whispering, pointing to a man standing on the other side, "Isn't that Wang Fei's uncle? Wang Bo, right?"
The man exclaimed in surprise, "Why is he here too?"
The woman said, "He'll definitely come if Zhuang Huan dies!"
Man: "Didn't you say that Zhuang Huan met him that night?"
The woman said, "I've found out everything. Wang Bo and Zhuang Huan used to go to school together in the county town. But later, for some reason, Zhuang Huan married Wang Shao, the least favored of the three Wang families. Because of this, Wang Bo even fought with Wang Shao when they were young!"
The man laughed and said, "You really can find out everything!"
Woman: "I said Wang Bo is forty years old, not married, not looking for a partner, oh my, this family is so interesting."
Man: "The whole village is looking for Wang Ge now."
Woman: "Huh? Looking for Wang Ge? For the Book of Immortality?"
Man: "Of course! Now that Zhuang Huan is dead, everyone knows that the Book of Immortality is indeed not at Wang Shao's house. Yesterday, Wang Shao said it was with Wang Ge. I heard that many people went to Wang Ge's house to search for things, only to find that it had already been searched!"
Woman: "What a tragedy, this child sounds so pitiful."
The man said, "What's so pitiful about it! Not to mention the village, there are tons of big bosses outside the village who want this book of immortality and are willing to pay a high price for it! The whole village is searching for it now! We don't even know where Wang Gao, who went crazy last night, has gone!"
The woman said, "No wonder! When I passed by Wang Gao's house, her daughter was standing at the door, looking dazed. She's had a hard life too."
Man: "Anyway, whoever has the Book of Immortality is a sitting duck now. I'm starting to suspect that Wang Gao has run away!"
As the banquet began, Lin Chaoying had no appetite. She had a vague premonition that someone was manipulating events behind the scenes in Peach Blossom Village.
Could it really be Wang Ge?
Following the order of the tables, Wang Shao spoke and toasted the relatives and friends who came. When he was about to toast the last table of five people, Lin Chaoying instructed Qian Fei, "Later, ask the village chief how that Wang Gaoren you beat up last night is doing? Where does he live? Do you want to go and apologize?"
Qian Fei is the kind of person who trusts her partners completely, and she follows their instructions precisely. As soon as someone arrived, she immediately stood up and repeated Lin Chaoying's words word by word.
Wang Shao said dejectedly, "There's no need to look anymore. I've locked him in the warehouse. Last night he tried to dig up my father's grave, but I caught him. I'm going to wait until the police arrive and then hand him over to them."
Suddenly, a young man rushed in through the door, shouting, "Village chief! Something terrible has happened!"
Wang Shao: "I'm just asking you to deliver food to Wang Gao, what's the rush?"
After the young man finished speaking in his ear, he gripped his clothes tightly with nervousness. Startled, Wang Shao dropped his wine glass with a "crack," shattering it on the floor.
Qin Ming quickly stepped forward and asked, "What's wrong, Village Chief? Is there anything we can help you with?"
Wang Shao was so anxious that he kept slapping his thigh and said in despair, "Wang Gao, why are you thinking of doing this! Just kill yourself!"
Everyone stood there dumbfounded.
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