Jiang Si always felt a little guilty about this grandfather.
This is the old man who raised the original owner with great care and hardship. Jiang Si knew she could never be exactly like the original owner.
She and the original owner were completely different except for their faces, and she wasn't confident that she could keep her secret.
But since that's how it is, she has to go back, even if it's probably fake.
My hometown is in the southwest, in an area inhabited by ethnic minorities. It has a beautiful name, Luoxia Village, and is rarely visited by outsiders.
Even if they wanted to go, they couldn't. It's a mountainous area with winding, rugged roads. Currently, there isn't even a road leading into the mountains. It's not that the government doesn't want to, but the terrain there makes it impossible.
Jiang Si was accompanied back by Li Jianshan, Qi Yan, and She Zhang.
Li Jianshan's reason was that he was afraid something might happen to her, and he couldn't bear the burden alone.
There has to be an adult to handle things; Qi Yan and She Zhang are still too young.
Jiang Si: "..."
Not necessarily.
She panicked for a moment, but when she calmed down, she noticed something was wrong. Her voice sounded weak and feeble, but upon closer inspection, there was no trace of illness in it.
She thought that the person probably missed her grandson so much that they made up this excuse on purpose.
They flew back to their hometown that same day.
After they got off the plane, Li Jianshan had arranged for a driver to pick them up, but the driver could only take them to the foot of the mountain.
Uncle Li, who was there to meet them, wiped his sweat. "Mr. Li, we can only walk from here." He couldn't understand why Li Jianshan, a domineering CEO, would accompany someone into such a remote mountain forest.
There was no road ahead for cars to travel on.
If we can call it a road, it's probably a road that an oxcart could travel on.
They certainly wouldn't choose an oxcart; oxen aren't even as fast as them.
Their physical abilities are beyond those of ordinary humans.
"It's alright, Uncle Li, you can go back first. Wait for my instructions later," Li Jianshan said.
They set off up the mountain road with simple bags on their backs.
Qi Yan and She Zhang were very excited, as these places were somewhat similar to their hometown.
Since there was no one around, they all turned back into their original forms and walked on the ground.
Qi Yan was small in stature and slow to catch up, so he climbed onto She Zhang's head and wobbled forward.
A huge golden python had a bright red rat perched on its head; the scene looked bizarre no matter how you looked at it.
As he passed through the low bushes, Qi Yan picked a leaf, coiled it into a ball, and put it on his head. From behind, he looked very much like a rat warrior.
He was so bold that he jumped around on She Zhang's head, stretched out his short claws, and squeaked.
Li Jianshan's brow twitched slightly. He was certain that Qi Yan had probably said something like "Charge!"
Only She Zhang could tolerate him.
The sun was high in the sky, and even after passing through the dense forest, a sliver of sunlight could still feel on one's skin.
Li Jianshan leaned closer to Jiang Si, "Master, would you like some water?"
Li Jianshan acted as a porter, carrying all the luggage.
He was tall and strong, and now he could barely be considered a half-master, so taking this little thing was no problem for him.
"Thank you." Jiang Si took the water and thanked him softly. She looked at the road ahead, and those distant memories were resurfacing in her mind.
She grew up in the mountains and only had the opportunity to study outside when she started primary school. The school took pity on her and waived her tuition fees, allowing her to board at the school and go home once a month.
Strangely enough, she never encountered any danger while walking through this forest.
She even remembered a heinous rape that had occurred in this mountain forest when she was a child. A young man from outside had kidnapped a woman and brought her here to commit atrocities. The woman died a very tragic death.
The manner of their deaths was horrific.
She only discovered it on her way back.
She was young at the time, but that didn't mean she didn't understand. She immediately ran down the mountain to call the police.
The subsequent result was that the police investigated for more than a month but still couldn't find anything.
Almost half a month had passed since the body was discovered. The forest was humid and infested with snakes, insects, and rodents. In addition, it was summer, so the body had already decomposed and been largely eaten away.
The evidence that existed has been mostly destroyed.
In those days, technology was not very advanced, and this was also a backward area, so there weren't many cameras.
Later, when she went to school, she passed by the town's police station and could still see that poor woman's mother lingering at the entrance of the police station, asking if there had been any results.
This town may be small, but it's a necessary stop for travelers, and there are many unfamiliar faces every day, making it incredibly difficult to find someone.
When she got back, she told her grandfather about it, saying that the person was so hateful that he should be torn to pieces.
Grandpa was stunned for a moment, then said, "Does A-Si want that person dead?"
She tilted her head back, her eyes clear, and said something quite harsh: "That person killed someone, shouldn't they pay with their life?"
Grandpa nodded. "A-Si is right."
This was just a minor incident; she was still a primary school student with a heavy workload, and she forgot almost everything the next day.
But when she went to school on Monday, she saw a large crowd gathered in front of the police station.
As a curious elementary school student, she went closer and saw a pool of blood that had not yet dried on the door.
A simple horror story was pieced together from the words of those people.
Before dawn, a young man dressed in a sleazy manner walked to the entrance of the police station. Without saying a word, he took off his shirt, knelt down crying and repenting, saying that he deserved to die and that he should not have killed and raped.
Before anyone could react, he used a knife to cut off a piece of flesh from his own arm.
The crowd was astonished.
When the police officers arrived as quickly as possible, the young man had already sliced off most of the flesh from his arm, almost to the bone.
I don't know what kind of spirit of repentance this is.
Due to the poor medical conditions in the area, the person was already in shock and unconscious when they were taken to the county hospital.
He died from excessive blood loss before he could be transferred to a higher-level hospital.
This kind of decisiveness is something even seasoned criminal investigators have never seen before.
To cut off one's own flesh while fully conscious.
Yes, subsequent forensic tests revealed no trace of drugs in the young man's body.
The case was assigned to a local special task force, but no matter how hard they investigated, they couldn't find anything conclusive.
The locals say that the girl's ghost has come to claim her life.
The outcome is unimportant; the perpetrator has already paid with his life.
The case was quickly forgotten amidst the daily grind.
When Jiang Si returned to the old place, those long-buried memories resurfaced in her mind.
Looking back now, that case was really too strange.
Moreover, and most importantly, Jiang Si discovered that this memory had been deliberately sealed away by the original owner.
This means someone doesn't want her to remember.
The road in front of us seems to have remained unchanged for thousands of years.
Very familiar with it.
It's as if time has never passed through this place.
In my memory, it wasn't that no one came to Luoxia Village. The local government would occasionally send people over to do ideological work, trying to get them to move out. But the older generation said they were used to living here and didn't want to move. They just wanted to grow old and die in this place.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
