She frowned, worried that hearing too much would only make her more afraid, but her curiosity prevented her from decisively refusing. In the end, she nodded, "I want to."
Si Jia then said, "When I left my room this morning, I ran into the innkeeper. He said that Madam Chen's opera troupe had already left the inn and the town earlier today."
"The shopkeeper is lying," she said with absolute certainty.
“Of course it can’t be true.” He said, “I went to Master Chen’s room again and found that the child’s skeleton was gone, but there were fifteen other skeletons in the room.”
She was stunned. "What?"
"Fifteen skeletons, six of which are women and nine of which are men. Like the children's skeletons I saw last night, they are about ten years old."
“Fifteen people, six women and nine men…” Her eyes widened slightly in surprise. “This is…”
“That’s right, the same number of people as the troupe led by Master Chen. Including Master Chen, they have exactly fifteen people.”
"You mean...you mean they were killed?" Feng Guang blurted out subconsciously, then quickly dismissed the idea. To kill fifteen people was no small matter, and it was not something a single perpetrator could do. Of course, the possibility of a martial arts master appearing could not be ruled out, but it didn't seem like there would be any martial arts masters in this small town.
Si Jia clearly thought more than she did. His cold eyes narrowed slightly, and he said in his usual indifferent tone, "I suspect that something major happened in this town ten years ago."
"event?"
"Back then, perhaps Master Chen and her entourage also came to this town. For some reason, she murdered a child. When the townspeople discovered this, they joined forces and killed them all."
Undeniably, his conjecture was quite reasonable, but Feng Guang couldn't understand, "If they harmed a child, the townspeople could have chosen to report it to the authorities, so why would they join forces to kill someone?"
"Along the way, has the princess ever seen a government office in this town?"
Upon hearing this, she suddenly realized that she had indeed not seen any government offices or similar buildings in this town.
Si Jia said, "This town is not wealthy, so it must be in a very remote location. There is no government, and it relies entirely on the self-governance of the townspeople. The death of a child is a big deal for them, so it is not surprising that they would choose extreme means of retaliation."
"If what you said is true... Just ten years ago, You'er was killed by Master Chen and his gang, and Master Chen was then killed by the townspeople. What about these townspeople? What happened to them?" Feng Guang got off the bed, her hair loose, and sat down next to him. She looked obedient and full of curiosity, like a well-behaved student waiting for the teacher to answer her questions.
Si Jia shifted his gaze from her, which had lingered for a second longer than intended, feeling quite uncomfortable. "It's a flood."
"Flood? Which river?"
“Yes, when I went to the river the day before yesterday, I noticed that the river was winding and the current was slow. If there were a prolonged heavy rain, the river would inevitably rise and spread. The town is low-lying with no high places, so there would be no way to avoid the flood.” In fact, he saw several snails buried in the soil, only their shells remaining, on the road some distance from the riverbank that day, which proved his guess. “Perhaps, these townspeople threw the bodies of the opera troupe into the river.”
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