Chapter 180 I must see him alive or dead!
Su Yue met his worried gaze and knew that he was doing it for her own good.
But she couldn't let go of this matter.
"Gu Beichen, Cui'er is the key, I..."
"We can bring the person back even without you."
Gu Beichen interrupted her, his tone resolute, "This matter is not open to discussion."
The two were deadlocked; this was the first time they had argued over something serious.
The atmosphere in the study became tense again.
In the end, Su Yue looked into his bloodshot eyes and gave in.
She knew that this man's love was both domineering and clumsy.
She took a step back, but then proposed a condition that Gu Beichen couldn't refuse.
"Okay, I won't go."
"But you must bring your eldest brother with you."
She looked at Gu Beihan, who was standing silently to the side.
“My brother is a doctor, he’s incredibly meticulous and has a keener eye than any of us. If Cui’er’s mental state is unstable or she has any sudden illness, he can handle it immediately if he’s there. I’m worried about you going alone.”
This reason is irrefutable.
Gu Beichen looked at Su Yue and finally nodded.
"good."
Gu Zhengfeng immediately made the decision, picked up the red telephone on the table, and dialed the Hebei Provincial Military Region directly.
He didn't say much, but mobilized the local forces with just a few brief orders.
"Send two of your most astute plainclothes officers to assist you secretly. Remember, you must not alert anyone. Find a woman named Cui'er."
A secret network spanning multiple provinces was quietly unfurled in the darkness of night.
A secret cross-province search was quickly launched.
The next morning, Gu Beichen and Gu Beihan boarded a train heading south.
Two days later, they arrived at a place in Hebei Province called "Xiahe Village".
The village was dirt poor, with dilapidated mud houses and chicken droppings and mud everywhere on the village roads.
The two brothers found the village official, an old man with a face full of wrinkles.
However, the news was like a bucket of cold water, poured over him from head to toe.
"Cui'er? Oh, you mean that crazy girl from the Liu family!"
The village official puffed on his pipe, a hint of reminiscence in his cloudy eyes.
"That's all ancient history from over a decade ago! That family moved away a long time ago!"
"They moved away?"
Gu Beichen's heart sank.
"Yes, her father was a gambling addict! He made a fortune from somewhere back then, came back from the capital, and gambled it all away in a few years, accumulating a mountain of gambling debts. He couldn't stay in the village anymore, so he secretly ran away!"
The trail just went cold?
Gu Beichen clenched his fist instantly.
Just as he was feeling disappointed, the village official slowly added another sentence.
"But that crazy girl is really pitiful. Ever since she came back from the capital, she's been on and off. When she's lucid, she ignores everyone and runs off to the mass grave behind the village, crying over a mound of earth where nobody knows who's buried."
"He kept repeating the same sentence over and over again..."
The village officials tried hard to recall the words and tone of voice from that time.
"I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry..."
Gu Beichen and Gu Beihan exchanged a glance, their hearts pounding with shock.
To whom was she confessing?
Just when the two brothers felt that the clues had run dry and they were at a loss, an old shepherd who had been eavesdropping for a long time suddenly came over.
"I know where they moved to!"
A sly glint appeared on the old man's dark face.
"Cui'er's gambling father cheated me out of two lambs back then! I've been asking around for years, just to get the money back! I'd recognize him even if he were ashes!"
This unexpected turn of events rekindled hope in Gu Beichen's eyes!
Following the address provided by the old man, the two brothers traveled tirelessly for dozens of miles and finally found another, even more remote village before nightfall.
However, what awaited them here was an even heavier blow.
"Are you looking for Liu Laosan's house? Sigh, no one's there anymore." A kind-hearted elderly neighbor sighed and pointed to a dilapidated house that had collapsed halfway in the distance.
"His wife died of illness a few years ago, and he himself drank himself to death. Only his mentally ill daughter, Cui'er, was left. She also had a tragic fate. Five years ago, she had a high fever and couldn't make it, so she followed him."
Dead?
The key witness, just like that, is dead?!
Gu Beichen and Gu Beihan's hearts sank to the bottom instantly.
All hope vanished in that moment.
"Auntie, was there anything unusual when she was buried?"
Gu Beihan pressed on relentlessly, remembering the clue about the "small memorial tablet."
The neighbor lady thought for a moment, then slapped her thigh.
Now that you mention it, there really is something strange!
"When that girl died, she was clutching something tightly in her hand, wrapped in red cloth, it was hard and stiff. Several of us who were helping with the burial tried our best, but we couldn't pry her hand open!"
"In the end, there was no other way but to let her hold onto it and bury it with us."
Red cloth! Stiff as a rock!
Gu Beichen and Gu Beihan caught their breath instantly!
That's it!
"Auntie, could you take us to her grave?"
The elderly neighbor nodded and led them across the field ridges to a desolate cemetery behind the village.
She pointed to a lonely little mound of earth.
"There it is."
It was just a very simple grave mound, without even a tombstone, looking particularly desolate in the wind.
Gu Beihan strode forward, squatted down, grabbed a handful of soil from the grave, smelled it, and carefully examined the soil.
Suddenly, his expression changed.
Something's not right!
"Second brother, look at this soil, it's new, and there are signs that it's been turned over!"
Gu Beichen's gaze instantly sharpened like a knife!
He rushed forward and crouched down.
Sure enough, the soil on the grave mound was noticeably softer than the surrounding soil, as if it had been dug up and then hastily buried again.
Someone came here before them!
A terrifying thought rushed into Gu Beichen's mind with a "buzz".
He stood up abruptly, his eyes flashing with murderous intent, and gave a cold order to the plainclothes officers following behind him.
"Open the coffin!"
The two plainclothes officers were stunned for a moment, but seeing Gu Beichen's terrifying eyes, they did not dare to hesitate at all and immediately found tools to start digging.
The coffin was very thin and was quickly exposed.
The moment the coffin lid was pried open with a crowbar, a strong smell of medicine mixed with the stench of earth rushed out!
Everyone instinctively took a step back.
Gu Beichen stepped forward and stared intently into the coffin.
The next second, his pupils suddenly shrank to the most dangerous pinpoints!
Inside the coffin...
It's completely empty!
Forget about bones, there wasn't even a single hair left!
The woman who was supposed to be lying here has vanished into thin air!
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