The Vanished Wife (12)
Jian Tanxi was startled: "How could this be? Ms. Jin has been missing for half a month. If she was really murdered, how could the other party bury her in the family cemetery and even erect a tombstone for her? Moreover, looking at these two blank tombstones, they are very old. They look like they have been standing here for decades and are not newly erected."
“What you said makes sense… But if neither of these two tombstones belongs to Jin Mingyue, why does Xiaochen think these two tombstones are important? If these two tombstones belong to the Jin family’s ancestors, what does that have to do with our current case?”
"Could it be that Xiao Chen is overthinking things? He's just a child after all."
"That's true. We actually took Xiaochen's random thoughts as gospel. And we're supposed to be highly intelligent humans."
While Jian Tanxi and Qin Man were talking, the old butler remained silent, not saying a word.
Jian Tanxi simply asked the old housekeeper, "Housekeeper, are these two tombstones inscribed with the names of Ms. Jin, Jin Mingyue?"
The butler, however, gave an irrelevant answer: "Jin Mingyue... is the eldest young lady..."
"I know she's from a wealthy family, and I just want to know if any of these graves contain her?"
"without……"
Upon hearing this, Jian Tanxi breathed a sigh of relief.
Qin Man asked the old housekeeper, "Are these two blank tombstones important?"
Old butler: "It's not... blank..."
"You mean, these two tombstones originally had inscriptions, they weren't blank? We can tell that. We just want to know, are these two blank tombstones important?"
The old butler couldn't answer, only muttering, "Golden... Wolf..."
Jian Tanxi said, "I think the old butler's thinking is confused. Why don't we just go and ask Mr. Liang directly?"
Qin Man: "Okay."
Qin Man and Jian Tanxi held Qu Chen's hand and walked towards the villa.
The old butler slowly followed.
Qin Man and Jian Tanxi quickened their pace without saying a word, not wanting to get too close to the old housekeeper.
The old butler was really strange. Qu Chen asked him to take him out, but he actually took Qu Chen to the cemetery.
After returning to the villa, Jian Tanxi and the others headed towards the guest rooms, while the old butler went to his own room, not following them any further.
Seeing the old butler walk away, Jian Tanxi and Qin Man both breathed a sigh of relief, but Qu Chen kept turning back to look at him.
Qin Man said to Qu Chen, "Xiao Chen, what's wrong? You seem to really like that old butler?"
However, Qu Chen couldn't answer this question, and Qin Man didn't expect him to either.
After a while, they returned to their guest room. However, Professor Pan and Xie Wei were not there.
Qin Man and Jian Tanxi were both a little flustered, wondering where they had gone and whether they had encountered danger.
Qin Man said, "How about I go out and look for them, and you stay here and watch over Xiao Chen?"
Jian Tanxi originally wanted to go with Qin Man to search for Qu Chen, but she felt that it was too dangerous to leave Qu Chen alone in the guest room or to take Qu Chen with her to search for someone. So she agreed to stay in the guest room.
Unexpectedly, before Qin Man could even leave, Xie Wei and Professor Pan returned, with Professor Pan holding a newspaper in his hand.
Jian Tanxi asked, "Where did you go?"
Professor Pan said, "Do you remember when we found a concert ticket in the Jin family's study during the day?"
"Hmm, it seems like you found it in some hidden corner."
"Although the rules don't allow us to contact the people of City B in the first three days, they don't stop us from gathering information in the first three days. I was thinking that since this concert ticket was found in the Jin family's study, why not see who the singer is and where the concert is held? This way, we can also gain a better understanding of Ms. Jin."
I think that since Ms. Jin loves going to concerts, once the three-day deadline is up, we can go to all the concert venues in City B to find her.
Her disappearance might not be due to kidnapping; she might be hiding for some reason. Once she feels completely safe, she certainly won't stay indoors completely; she'll still secretly do things she enjoys, like attending concerts.
Jian Tanxi nodded: "Yes, you're very thoughtful. You're holding a newspaper; have you already found any information about that singer? Is it in this newspaper?"
Professor Pan's expression was grave: "Yes, Xie Wei and I went to the study to see if there was any news about this singer in the newspapers there, and we actually found some... But... this makes things even stranger. You can see for yourselves."
Professor Pan handed the newspaper to Jian Tanxi and Qin Man.
The two of them started reading.
A newspaper had a page dedicated to this singer. The article stated that although singer Lin Ziyi passed away thirty years ago, she still has many fans, and many young people have become fans of her songs. A few days ago, thousands of people gathered at Nanhu Square for a memorial service for singer Lin Ziyi. All the fans present sang Lin Ziyi's songs together, creating a sensational scene.
Lin Ziyi is the singer featured on that concert ticket. The newspaper is quite old and looks quite dated. Therefore, Lin Ziyi has been dead for at least thirty years. (Because the calendar in City B is different from the calendar on Earth, players cannot determine the exact date of publication from the date on the newspaper.)
Jian Tanxi exclaimed in surprise, "This singer has been dead for over thirty years? Then this concert ticket must have been bought at least thirty years ago?"
Professor Pan: "Yes. Isn't it strange that a concert ticket from more than 30 years ago has never been cleaned up? Han Ma clearly said that Ms. Jin really likes to clean up old things."
Qin Man said, "Could it be that the ticket is in such a remote location that she hasn't noticed it yet?"
Professor Pan: "Over the years, she has had many opportunities to open the drawers in her study. It's impossible that she never saw it... Even I, who am not familiar with the Jin family's study, could find this ticket, let alone Ms. Jin herself? I think this ticket is also a suspicious point."
Jian Tanxi said, "Ms. Jin seems to be only in her thirties. Thirty years ago, she was still a child, or even an infant, and probably couldn't have attended a concert. This ticket was probably bought by her parents. She may have deliberately kept it to remember them."
Professor Pan: "If she wanted to remember her parents, wouldn't it be better to keep some photos of them? But today we searched the entire Jin family home and only found one photo of Ms. Jin; all the other photos were deleted. Did those deleted photos include photos of the Jin family elders? I think this is quite unreasonable."
Qin Man said, "Yes, she threw away her parents' photos and only kept the concert tickets her parents bought. That's really strange."
Xie Wei said, "Maybe she didn't lose the photos, she just stored them away. We only looked at all the rooms roughly today, but we didn't search every corner carefully. Maybe she put the photos in a safe."
Qin Man: "That's also possible."
Xie Wei asked, "By the way, what happened while you were gone for so long?"
Jian Tanxi and Qin Man briefly recounted what had just happened.
Professor Pan pondered for a moment and said, "The old butler took you to the Jin family cemetery? And there are two blank tombstones in the cemetery?"
Jian Tanxi: "Yes."
Are the inscriptions on the other tombstones clear?
"clear."
"If that's the case, it's a bit strange that only the inscriptions on those two tombstones are missing... Does the old butler not know whose tombstones they are?"
“I feel like he should know, but he can’t say it. He seems to have severe dementia, and he’s very difficult to communicate with.”
"Tanxi, I remember you can read minds. Do you still have a chance to use that?"
“I had one more mind-reading opportunity left this month, and I didn’t want to waste it, so I didn’t try to read the old butler’s mind. Besides, I mainly felt that, given the old butler’s condition, he probably didn’t have any complete thoughts anymore. Even if I tried to read his mind, I wouldn’t be able to glean anything.”
"Um."
Qin Man: "Regarding the blank tombstone, we plan to ask Mr. Liang directly. Why don't we go to bed early tonight and go see Mr. Liang tomorrow?"
Xie Wei said, "Let's also ask about the nutritional supplements."
Just as everyone was getting ready for bed, they suddenly heard footsteps coming from the living room outside.
Jian Tanxi secretly opened the door a crack and peeked out, only to find Jin Meigui walking out.
Jian Tanxi found it strange that Jin Meigui left so late.
So she simply opened the door and called out to Golden Rose, "Miss Rose, have you been at the Golden House the whole time?"
Jin Meigui was startled, but when she saw that it was Jian Tanxi, she nodded and said, "Yes, I was just picking out wine in the Jin family's wine cellar."
Golden Rose was holding a bottle of fruit wine, which looked very expensive.
Jian Tanxi asked, "Miss Rose likes to drink?"
"Yes, I haven't had a drink for several days. The wine outside isn't as good as my sister's. Even though my sister and I have separated, I can still take any wine I want. I always have a couple of drinks when I'm upset. I haven't heard from my sister for a while, and I can't fall asleep without a drink."
"I see. Well, I won't keep you any longer. You can go now. By the way, where is Mr. Liang? Is he already asleep?"
"No, he was drinking in the wine cellar too."
Jian Tanxi asked in surprise, "So, you two were both in the wine cellar just now?"
"Yes, I asked my brother-in-law to open the cellar door so I could go in and pick out some wine, and he would help me pick some out as well. Although this is my sister's house, my sister is missing, so I always have to let my brother-in-law know if I need anything."
"Um."
After Jin Meigui left, Jian Tanxi returned to her guest room.
The other players heard the conversation just now.
Xie Wei asked, "Were Golden Rose and Mr. Liang alone in a room just now? In a place like the wine cellar? Could there be something going on between them?"
Qin Man said, "I don't think so... If they really had something going on, Golden Rose wouldn't have said it so openly; she would have definitely tried to cover it up."
Professor Pan: "If Mr. Liang and Jin Meigui were indeed very close, there might be another possibility for Jin Mingyue's disappearance: that she was framed by her husband, Mr. Liang, and her sister, Jin Meigui. We hadn't considered this before, so we can add it. Whether it's true or not, we can now make a bold assumption and then carefully verify it."
Qin Man: "It can't be that melodramatic, can it?"
Xie Wei: "Reality is often quite dramatic."
"If they really had an affair and conspired to harm Jin Mingyue, why didn't they run away? They seem so calm."
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