Chapter 77 Chapter 77 The First Drawing
Coming out of Dou Yinhua's house, Pei Qing saw Dou Yinhua's neighbors.
She did not go into the house, but stood at her door, looking at Pei Qing and others from time to time.
What is this doing?
Pei Qing felt strange.
She thought of the mess in Dou Yinhua's house and looked at Dou Yinhua's neighbors thoughtfully.
Xu An followed her out and saw that she was looking at Dou Yinhua's neighbor, so he asked, "What are you looking at?"
Pei Qing gestured for him to look at Dou Yinhua's neighbor and asked, "Don't you think she pays too much attention to us?"
Liu Cong spoke for the locals: "There are very few outsiders here, and you speak Mandarin and dress nicely, so it's okay for people to look at you a few times."
But Pei Qing felt that Dou Yinhua's neighbors' attention was not on her.
She kept observing. This neighbor of Dou Yinhua first looked at her a few times, but then her eyes would drift towards Dou Yinhua's house, as if there was something in Dou Yinhua's house that was particularly worthy of her attention.
Pei Qing had an idea, she decided to cheat Dou Yinhua's neighbor.
She discussed with Xu An for a few words, and then Xu An took out a pair of gloves from his pocket and walked towards Dou Yinhua's neighbor's house.
When the neighbor saw the three people walking towards her, she hurried into the house and closed the door.
She closed the door slower than Xu An could walk over, so Xu An quickly held the door with his hand.
"Dou Yinhua's house was robbed. Did you steal it?"
Xu An spoke in a fierce tone, his eyes fixed on the face of Dou Yinhua's neighbor.
Dou Yinhua's neighbor spoke in dialect. It seemed that she could understand Mandarin. Her tone was very fast: "What does it have to do with me that Dou Yinhua's house was robbed? I told you with good intentions, but you actually blamed it on me! You are such a coward! Village chief, village chief, I want to find the village chief. Village chief! Outsiders are bullying people! Is there anyone who can do something about it?"
She paced angrily and was about to go to the village chief of Dashan Village to seek justice, but Pei Qing stopped her.
Although I didn't understand what she said, I could tell she was very angry.
Pei Qing patiently advised: "Auntie, please don't worry. We don't have to make things difficult for you."
She pulled Xu An behind her and said to the neighbor, "My brother can't speak, please don't mind. In fact, we really need your help. How about you describe the appearance of the person who entered Dou Yinhua's house? We will pretend that we didn't discover this matter."
She spoke to the neighbor aunt in a gentle voice. Maybe it was because she spoke in a soft voice that the neighbor aunt didn't want to yell at a girl like her. She rubbed her hands on her clothes and then glared at Xu An again.
Xu An was really wronged. It was clearly Pei Qing's idea. He was the bad guy and Pei Qing was the good guy. One played the good cop and the other played the bad cop. Now, this neighbor aunt had a bad face towards him, but was very nice to Pei Qing.
Never mind, as long as the goal is achieved.
Pei Qing took out his notebook.
Xu An stood in front of Pei Qing, blocking the contents of her notebook.
The aunt glared at Xu An again.
Xu An let her stare at him without moving.
Pei Qing: "Auntie, go ahead and talk. I'm listening!"
The neighbor lady mumbled something and gestured with her hands. Pei Qing looked at Liu Cong.
Liu Cong continued to translate: "She said it was a young couple. The man is taller than you, and the woman is about the same size as you."
After he said that, he looked at the neighbor aunt.
The neighbor aunt tried hard to open her mouth, and finally looked at Pei Qing and said a few awkward Mandarin words: "That woman has a widow's face, black face, white eyes, and a nose like this-"
She pulled her nose and raised it a little.
Pei Qing suppressed his laughter and began to sketch a face on his notebook.
The neighbor lady continued: "There are wrinkles on the eyelids and the mouth is facing downwards. It looks ugly!"
After she finished her comments, she started talking about men.
"The man has a pointed face and monkey cheeks, and is skinny. He doesn't look like a man. I tell you, a man like this is not good at first glance! When he becomes rich in the future, he will be very rich..."
As she described it with great emotion, Pei Qing handed her the drawing of a man and a woman to take a look at.
The neighbor lady was a little surprised.
She wiped her hands, held Pei Qing's notebook carefully, and gave Pei Qing a thumbs up.
"The girl is awesome!"
Pei Qing: "Anything else you want to change?"
The neighbor lady took a look at the man in the notebook and asked Pei Qing to trim his eyebrows.
"He's bald here."
The neighbor aunt looked at the notebook again, and the two of them continued to make a few changes after discussing it. Finally, the neighbor aunt nodded, thinking it was very similar. She touched the paper of the notebook again, still a little reluctant to part with it.
Pei Qing tore off the paper and gave it to her.
The neighbor lady was surprised and asked, "Give it to me?"
Pei Qing nodded.
She drew a new one in her notebook, with the facial features of the man and woman being more distinct.
After seeing this, the neighbor aunt carefully folded the drawing paper given by Pei Qing and put it in her pocket.
"Wait until my daughter comes back and show her that I'm a powerful person, too!"
Pei Qing smiled at her.
Xu An had no choice but to continue playing the bad guy: "If you take someone's things, find a way to return them, otherwise Dou Yinhua will come looking for you..."
The neighbor aunt's good mood suddenly ruined and she waved at Xu An.
"Who took her things! Go away! Get out of here! Get out of here—"
She rushed home and slammed the door. This time Xu An didn't stop her.
The door closed with a clang.
Xu An was speechless: "I reminded her kindly, but she still didn't listen."
Liu Cong is used to it: "These people like to take advantage of others. There is nothing we can do about it. Our family is poor. I just don't know what she got from Dou Yinhua's family."
They are all outsiders, and they don't know what's going on in Dou Yinhua's family. This is not a easy matter to deal with, so let's just see what the people entering Dou Yinhua's house look like.
Liu Cong looked at the portrait of a man and a woman drawn by Pei Qing and praised: "This is a really good painting!"
Xu An put his arm around Pei Qing's shoulder and said proudly, "That's not true. My sister has been praised for her talent since she was a child. My brother has always wanted her to hold an art exhibition, but my sister is just too modest!"
Liu Cong: "Really? Let me know when there's an art exhibition. I'll be there when I'm free."
Xu An: "Of course, of course."
The two of them were selling and praising each other, and there was no awkwardness.
Pei Qing closed the notebook and glared at Xu An.
What nonsense are you talking about!
What kind of art exhibition? I probably won’t be able to hold it in this lifetime!
It would be appropriate to insert the drawing into the case summary.
*
At this point in the investigation, Pei Qing and others had actually determined that something else must have happened to Dou Yinhua.
She decided to leave not because Zhao Cen'an's disappearance attracted the attention of the police.
There must be something else.
The three of them went around the mountain village asking people, but no one recognized the man and woman in the drawing.
This young couple must not be from the mountain village.
It was still hot, so Liu Cong wiped the sweat from his face and suggested that Xu An and Pei Qing go back first.
Zhao Cen'an and her mother Cheng Bailan are still in the Municipal Public Security Bureau, and they will definitely not stay in Changnan City for long.
The child will definitely return to City A and will not stay in Changnan.
Xu An and Pei Qing came here with Cheng Bailan. Cheng Bailan plans to take her daughter back, so do Xu An and Pei Qing want to go back with them?
Liu Cong suggested: "Why don't you go back first, and I'll tell you the results when I have them."
This is a mountainous area, with no concrete roads. The Changnan Public Security Bureau has its own cases to deal with, so it has no time to pay attention to Zhao Cen'an's disappearance. If Dou Yinhua hadn't shown up, the Changnan Public Security Bureau would not have sent a separate police force to investigate the case.
Xu An and Pei Qing looked at each other, and Pei Qing gritted his teeth and decided to stay and investigate on his own.
After Xu An and Pei Qing discussed it, they said to Liu Cong, "Let's stay here and wait until we find Dou Yinhua. Cheng Bailan can take the child back first."
Liu Cong nodded: "It's up to you to decide."
That night, the three of them stayed at the village chief's house.
The village chief's children all went out to work, leaving only the couple and a little grandson at home.
When Pei Qing saw the village chief's grandson, the child had just crawled out of a mud pit. He was covered in black and blinked at her.
Pei Qing praised him against his conscience: "The child is so lively."
The village chief's wife's face turned black. She picked up the child with one hand, took off the child's pants and started beating him.
“Wow—”
The child's cries echoed through the sky.
Pei Qing shut up silently.
Xu An: "Auntie, your hands are really strong."
Liu Cong searched his pockets but didn't find any candy, so he could only put his hands in his pockets and pretend he didn't hear the child crying.
The village chief arranged accommodation for them at night.
"The environment in the village is not good, and it's still a bit cold at night. These quilts were just dried in the sun a few days ago, and they are perfect for using now."
Pei Qing and the other two expressed their gratitude sincerely, and then Liu Cong asked the village chief about Dou Yinhua's whereabouts.
The village chief doesn't know either.
He shook his head. He was old, and his eyes were not as white as when he was young, but he still had sharp ears and eyes.
Village chief: "Dou Yinhua doesn't usually meet me."
There seemed to be something else going on here, so Pei Qing moved a bench and sat next to him, listening quietly.
"When Dou Yinhua was young, she found a man. He spent a few years with her, then went out to work. After that, he found another man and ran away, leaving her and her daughter behind."
Pei Qing: "Dou Yinhua only has one daughter? We have seen her in Changping Town before."
The village chief said, "That's her little daughter. She has an older daughter who left home when she grew up."
Left home? Why?
Pei Qing asked.
The village chief was silent for a while, and then said: "The villagers have little knowledge and are easily instigated."
Pei Qing wanted to ask more questions, but the village chief remained silent.
"Anyway, Dou Yinhua and her eldest daughter didn't have a good relationship. Her eldest daughter ran away and never came back home. Now we don't know whether she is alive or dead."
The village chief stopped the topic and then mentioned the market meeting in several villages tomorrow.
"There will be a market tomorrow, at the east end of our village. That place used to be a threshing ground, but now it's used as a market place. Didn't you find the person? You can go there tomorrow to ask. There are many people there, and vegetable farmers travel a lot. Maybe they have seen him."
After saying that, the village chief went back to the house and no longer communicated with the police from the city.
Pei Qing looked at the village chief's back and said, "I feel like Dou Yinhua's experience is quite complicated. I think her little daughter is well taken care of. Apart from the dark circles under her eyes, she looks energetic."
Liu Cong knows a little more: "If there are many children in the family, maybe you didn't raise them carefully when they were older, and then you regretted it. When you raise the younger ones, you should pay more attention to them than when you raise the older ones."
Xu An: "Then this older kid is really unlucky."
Liu Cong: "People's fate depends entirely on how God arranges it."
The three of them didn't chat for long and went to bed early. At six o'clock the next morning, Pei Qing climbed out of bed in a daze again.
It’s terrible!
This time I must rest at home for a few days before starting work.
She quickly packed up and headed for the market east of the village.
At the market in the east of the village, vendors placed vegetables, fruits and melons on the ground, covered with a layer of plastic bags.
Pei Qing looked at it and asked Xu An for change.
"I'm going to buy some cucumbers. Do you want to eat them?"
Xu An took out ten or twenty yuan and gave it to her.
Just as Pei Qing was about to leave, he was grabbed by Liu Cong.
"Hey, what do you want to buy? I'll go buy it for you. Don't go by yourself."
He looks like a sucker and is easy to be taken advantage of.
Liu Cong took the money from Pei Qing, went to the vegetable farmer to buy a bag of cucumbers and tomatoes, and then came back.
Pei Qing took the bag and found a faucet to wash the cucumbers, while Xu An and Liu Cong went to the vendor to ask for information.
Pei Qing had just washed the cucumber when he turned around and was bumped into by someone.
"Why--"
The woman walked forward hurriedly, carrying several bags.
Pei Qing only had time to see her profile.
Her cheeks were sunken, like the face of a widow that Dou Yinhua's neighbors described.
She was startled and quickly shouted to Xu An: "Xu An, brother! She stole my money! It's the woman with the red bag and the plaid shirt! Brother! Catch the thief! Xu An——"
Xu An glanced in the direction of Pei Qing.
Pei Qing didn't have a penny on him.
He glanced around the market and soon noticed a woman who was walking hurriedly, almost as fast as running.
Xu An shuttled between a group of old men and women. He moved quickly and quickly touched the woman's neck and controlled her in an instant.
"Don't move, where's my sister's money!"
The woman turned around and yelled at Xu An, "You are the one who stole the money! Your whole family are thieves! Get out—"
She still wanted to struggle, but Liu Cong, who came from behind, saw her face and blocked her from the left.
"It's you!"
Pei Qing ran over from the faucet and stopped when he saw Xu An catch the man.
She nodded to Xu An: "How is it? Is my drawing realistic?"
Liu Cong praised, "It's 100% alike!"
Xu An: "Okay, stop talking nonsense. What about the other man?"
The woman who was grabbed by Xu An then realized that these three people were either here to catch a thief or to catch her!
Her throat gurgled, and then she wanted to run again.
"Why are you running! Where is Dou Yinhua now!"
When the woman heard Dou Yinhua's name, she was startled, suddenly rolled her eyes and fainted.
"Why--"
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